starfish-2
Explanation
This comic depicts a starfish wielding an axe, triumphantly declaring, "I did it, Nancy. By God I did it. I dismembered the children. Limb from limb from limb!" In the second panel, the pieces of the dismembered starfish children begin regenerating into full new starfish, and Nancy exclaims, "Hooray! More babies!" The final panel shows the sea full of starfish, with the original axe-wielding starfish cheerfully shouting "Hooray!"
The joke is built on the real biological fact that many species of starfish (sea stars) can regenerate entire bodies from severed limbs. If you cut a starfish into pieces, rather than killing it, you may end up with multiple new starfish -- each limb can potentially grow into a complete organism.
The comic reframes this biological fact as a darkly comic domestic scenario. What initially appears to be a horrifying act of violence -- a parent dismembering their children -- is revealed to be the starfish equivalent of reproduction or family expansion. The tonal whiplash between the gruesome declaration and the joyful outcome is the central engine of the humor. The phrase "limb from limb from limb" is a play on the idiom "torn limb from limb," made more literal and more extensive because starfish have five limbs rather than the usual four.
The comic also plays with the horror-movie setup of an axe-wielding creature announcing a massacre, only to subvert it with wholesome biological consequences.