soul
Explanation
The Joke
An alien informs a group of humans that they are a highly advanced species, billions of years ahead, and have come to observe humanity. A human eagerly asks if human beings have souls. The alien responds with "Of course! Loads of souls." This initially seems reassuring, but the alien then casually asks to confirm: "You're the ones called 'cows,' right?" The final panel shows the alien using a "soul harvester" device to extract what appears to be the souls (or life force) from the horrified humans.
The comic sets up the classic first-contact scenario where humanity hopes to learn profound truths about existence from a superior intelligence. The humans' most pressing existential question — whether they have souls — receives a positive answer, but the aliens have confused humans with cows, implying they consider humans to be livestock. The soul harvester in the final panel confirms that the aliens' interest in souls is not philosophical but agricultural.
The Humor
The humor derives from the systematic deflation of human self-importance. Humans assume they are the interesting species on their planet, the ones an advanced civilization would seek out. Instead, the aliens cannot even tell humans apart from cattle. The final twist — that "soul harvesting" is apparently a resource extraction process rather than a spiritual inquiry — adds a darkly comic layer. The comic plays on humanity's tendency to assume we are cosmically significant, only to discover we might be cosmically indistinguishable from our own livestock.