scythe
Explanation
The Joke
Death (the Grim Reaper) arrives carrying his traditional scythe. A farmer asks, "Why do you use a scythe?" Death responds defensively: "That's old technology, man. Modern farmers use a combine harvester and GPS-guided satellites to harvest thousands of acres per day."
In the next panel, we see Death has apparently modernized, and there's a brief "Heh" reaction. The final panel, labeled "Some Time Later," shows a graph illustrating that the rate of pandemic death continues to skyrocket — implying that Death's adoption of modern agricultural technology (industrial-scale harvesting) led to mass death on an industrial scale.
The Humor
The joke starts with a reasonable question — the Grim Reaper's scythe is an outdated farming tool. But the punchline reveals the horrifying implication of Death "upgrading" his equipment: if Death trades his artisanal, one-soul-at-a-time scythe for modern industrial harvesting technology, the result is exponentially more death. The scythe was actually a merciful bottleneck.
The graph at the end drives the joke home with SMBC's trademark move of making an absurd premise feel rigorous by presenting data. The visual of a pandemic death curve spiking is darkly funny because it applies the logic of agricultural efficiency to mortality.
Broader Context
This comic plays on the classic personification of Death and applies the concept of technological scaling. It's also a subtle commentary on how modern technology, while more efficient, can amplify catastrophic outcomes — a theme Weinersmith explores in many comics about technology and unintended consequences.