nimby
Explanation
The Joke
The comic presents a pseudo-scientific theory about NIMBYism (Not In My Back Yard) as a fundamental trait of human evolution. A lecturer explains that "NIMBYism" -- humanity's general desire to keep change away from their neighborhood -- has been a defining characteristic since prehistoric times. The comic imagines early humans objecting to developments in their cave area: "Your proto-speech cave area is not zoned for industrial or commercial activity!"
Because early humans were NIMBYs who refused to build anything near where they lived, they were forced to expand outward at a rapid rate, explaining humanity's rapid dispersal across the planet. The final panels bring it to the present day, where someone notes that now that humans have settled the whole Earth, NIMBYism is becoming a problem rather than a driver of expansion. The last panel suggests the solution: space exploration -- with NIMBY complaints driving humanity to spread to other planets. The woman at the end exclaims that this would make Earth "the most NIMBYistic place" ever, calling it "Mother of God."
The Humor
The comic takes a modern political annoyance -- NIMBYism, the tendency of communities to oppose new development in their area -- and reframes it as a deep evolutionary force that actually drove human civilization's greatest achievements. It is a classic SMBC move to take a mundane, irritating social phenomenon and construct an elaborate, internally consistent but absurd scientific theory around it. The punchline that NIMBYism might also drive space colonization is both funny and oddly plausible, given that "I don't want that in my backyard" could logically lead to "let's put it on another planet."
References
- NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) is a term used to describe opposition by residents to proposed developments in their local area, particularly common in debates about housing, infrastructure, and energy projects.
- The "Out of Africa" hypothesis holds that modern humans originated in Africa and gradually dispersed across the globe, which the comic humorously reattributes to zoning complaints.