retirement
Explanation
The Joke
The comic is titled "Overlooked Opportunities: Retirement Planning for People Who Believe Worldwide Collapse Is Imminent." It shows a financial advisor-type figure sitting across a desk from a couple, giving them investment advice. However, instead of recommending stocks, bonds, or mutual funds, the advisor suggests investing in a "well-rounded portfolio of water, dry goods, and cigarettes" -- essentially post-apocalyptic survival supplies. The advisor promises these will "triple in value after the bloody chaos crumbles around us."
The Humor
The joke highlights an ironic gap in the thinking of people who believe civilization is about to collapse. If you truly believed the world was ending, traditional retirement planning would be pointless -- but you would still want to prepare for your future, just in a very different way. The comic imagines what a financial planning industry built around doomsday preppers would look like, and the result is hilariously mundane: the same suit-wearing, office-sitting financial advisor, just recommending canned goods and cigarettes instead of index funds. The humor comes from the collision of the buttoned-up professional financial planning world with survivalist paranoia, treating apocalypse preparation with the same boring corporate professionalism as a 401(k) consultation. Cigarettes, notably, are included because they are a classic post-apocalyptic barter currency in fiction and survivalist lore.