Science
Explanation
This comic questions the popular claim that humans are uniquely or naturally curious, suggesting it might be a self-serving narrative.
In the first panel, a human tells an alien: "I think what makes humans special is our natural curiosity." The alien asks: "What makes humans naturally curious?"
The second panel features the alien challenging this: "Has it occurred to you that humans are not naturally curious? Because you heard it from people, and they heard it from people, going back to books, to novels, to cartoons, and educational TV." The alien argues that what humans call "natural curiosity" might actually be a culturally reinforced narrative rather than an innate trait.
The third panel continues: "You believe humans are naturally curious because you heard it from people and media that told you so. It's the theme of every children's show ever created." This is a pointed observation -- the idea that "humans are naturally curious" is itself something we're taught, which creates a circular logic. Are we curious by nature, or have we simply been told we're curious so often that we believe it?
The final panel delivers the punchline. The human says: "It's like saying humans are curious because they're well-wrapped in cheese and deep-fried." The alien responds: "Please stop describing me." This absurd non sequitur breaks the philosophical tension, but also serves as a meta-joke: the human's response to having their "natural curiosity" questioned is not to engage curiously with the argument, but to say something random and silly -- arguably undermining the very claim of natural curiosity. The comic plays with the philosophical concept of social constructionism versus biological essentialism, asking whether traits we consider innate might actually be culturally produced.