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job-2

2022-01-26 View on smbc-comics.com → 1 revision
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job-2
Votey panel for job-2
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Explanation

This comic parodies the classic job interview question "Where do you see yourself in five years?"

Instead of giving a normal career-oriented answer, the interviewee responds with an alarming clairvoyant vision: "By God. By God I have your job. And you're dead. There's an accident. Two cars in the night, and then you're gone. We were friends and--" before catching themselves mid-prophecy with "Wait? No! Once again my clairvoyance has changed the future and it appears I DON'T get this job!"

The joke operates on two levels. First, it's a literal, darkly comic interpretation of the interview question -- the candidate actually sees the future. Second, there's a self-referential paradox: the act of revealing the prophecy changes the future (a classic time-travel/precognition trope), which conveniently also explains why the candidate won't get the job. The interviewer's horrified expression makes clear that the real reason they won't get the job is that they just described their interviewer's death in graphic detail.

View History (1) Original Comic