platypus
Explanation
The Joke
The comic features two people discussing the platypus, one of nature's most famously bizarre creatures. The first person asks God what the deal is with the platypus. They run through all its contradictions: it is a mammal but lays eggs, it has a bill like a duck and a tail like a beaver, it has fur but lives in water. Then they point out that the platypus has venomous spurs, uses electroreception, and has no stomach -- none of which makes sense for a single animal.
The conversation escalates as they note that humans get their food "from a giant box" and "drive around in metal boxes" and live in "big boxes where the resources came from," behaving nothing like normal animals. God finally responds that the platypus was "part of a long-term plan to turn the oceans into soup" -- an absurd non-answer that suggests the entire trajectory of evolution, including human civilization, was aimed at some incomprehensible cosmic goal.
The Humor
The joke works by starting with the well-worn comedy premise of the platypus being nature's most ridiculous animal, but then pivoting to point out that humans are arguably even more absurd from a zoological perspective. We are apes who live in climate-controlled boxes, communicate through glowing screens, and have reshaped the entire planet to suit our preferences -- which is far stranger than anything the platypus does. God's punchline about turning the oceans into soup is both a darkly funny summation of human environmental impact and a satire of teleological thinking -- the idea that evolution has a "purpose" that, if it existed, would probably be horrifying rather than noble.