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Explanation
The comic opens with someone calling out to "Steve Jenkins" and telling him to get in a car because "your country needs your skills." Steve is bewildered, saying he never thought his work in "thanks" and "birthday" was valued, and always wondered if he was a special person. The agents tell him there are more of his kind, working toward a "higher cause," and that he's right to see this as his mission. Steve asks them to clarify: "Would you say it's..." -- and then we see the reveal: a massive surprise birthday party, with a crowd shouting "SURPRISE!"
The comic plays on the language of spy thriller recruitment scenes. All the hallmarks are there: the black car, the mysterious agents, the appeal to patriotism and hidden talent, the suggestion of a secret organization. Steve interprets every vague statement through the lens of espionage or national importance, believing his mundane skills are being recognized at last. But the "higher cause" and "mission" were all just elaborate misdirection for a surprise birthday party. The agents' deliberately vague language -- "your country needs your skills," "there are more of your kind" -- works perfectly as both spy recruitment and party-planning committee talk.
The joke also works on a second level: Steve's pathetic eagerness to believe he's special. He immediately starts narrating his own origin story ("I never thought my work in thanks was important"), revealing that he's been quietly hoping for exactly this kind of validation his whole life. The deflation from "secret agent" to "birthday boy" is the punchline, but the real comedy is how willingly Steve bought into the fantasy.