signal-2
Explanation
The comic tells a story in multiple panels. One day, a radio telescope receives a clear signal from another star. Scientists from around the world confirm the message is genuine and simple: "a schematic for a machine that can turn matter into energy and back again." International conferences are held, and ultimately the technology is banned because the signal's instructions would let humanity create unlimited resources, thereby disrupting economics, governments, and the natural cycle of birth and death. A century later, it turns out the message was actually sent by aliens whose intent was hostile -- to destroy humanity. Finding Earth in flames, an alien says: "I'm not happy, but I gotta say, wow, you totally got us."
The joke operates on multiple levels. It begins as a classic sci-fi scenario -- first contact via radio signal -- and initially seems to be a cautionary tale about humanity rejecting beneficial alien technology out of fear and political self-interest. The twist is that the aliens actually sent the technology to destroy humanity, making it a trap. But the final punchline is that humanity managed to destroy itself anyway, without ever using the alien technology, arriving at the same apocalyptic outcome through its own dysfunction. The alien's grudging admiration -- "you totally got us" -- is the comedic climax: humanity inadvertently foiled the alien plot by being so self-destructive that the trap was unnecessary. The comic satirizes both humanity's tendency to reject transformative technologies for short-sighted political reasons and the ironic possibility that our self-destructiveness might be indistinguishable from an alien attack.