remember-2
Explanation
This comic shows a team of surgeons standing over an anesthetized patient on an operating table. One surgeon says to the others: "Remember, it's not about succeeding or even doing your best -- the important thing is we have fun working together."
The caption below reads: "This is my favorite thing to say right before the anesthesia kicks in."
The humor works on multiple levels. The surgeon's statement is a classic feel-good team-building platitude -- the kind of thing you might hear from a coach, a manager, or a kindergarten teacher. It is reassuring in low-stakes contexts where the outcome genuinely matters less than the experience. However, in the context of surgery, where the outcome is literally life or death, this attitude is terrifyingly inappropriate. You absolutely want your surgeons to care about succeeding and doing their best.
The caption adds an extra layer by revealing that the narrator enjoys saying this specifically right before the anesthesia takes effect -- meaning the patient hears this horrifying deprioritization of competence as the very last thing before losing consciousness. The joke plays on the universal anxiety people feel about going under anesthesia and placing total trust in their surgical team.