Software
Explanation
The Joke
A presenter explains that their software for criminal sentencing is "perfect" — except for a few bugs. The software metes out harsher punishments when a local sports team loses, changes its leniency based on time of day and temperature outside, is kinder to people when they get sentenced on their birthday, and also has a lot of random noise making it so that different computers may give sentences that vary by several orders of magnitude. The presenter adds a final note: "Plus racism."
The punchline at the bottom reads: "If humans were algorithms, they would be banned from use in courtrooms."
The Humor
The comic satirizes the debate around algorithmic sentencing and AI in the justice system by flipping the script. All of the "bugs" described in the software are actually well-documented biases in human judges. Studies have shown that judicial decisions are influenced by factors like sports team outcomes, time of day (judges are harsher before lunch), weather, and of course racial bias. By framing these known human failings as software bugs, Weinersmith highlights the absurdity: we accept these irrational biases when they come from human judges but would find them unacceptable in an algorithm.
The comic makes a pointed argument that the standard we hold algorithms to is far higher than the standard we hold humans to, even though humans exhibit the same (or worse) flaws. The final line — "Plus racism" — delivered as a casual aside, darkly underscores the most consequential and systemic of these biases.