status
Explanation
This comic shows a plane flying over a city towing a banner that reads: "Based on your innate abilities and socioeconomic status at birth, you should've done better by now." The caption below states: "I found a way to lower the morale of an entire city for cheap."
The joke plays on the concept of airplane banner advertisements, which are typically used for lighthearted messages like marriage proposals or brand promotions. Here, the banner instead delivers a deeply personalized and demoralizing message -- one that would sting almost anyone, since most people harbor some insecurity about whether they've lived up to their potential. The humor lies in the efficiency of the cruelty: a single cheap banner can make an entire city's population feel bad about themselves simultaneously, because the message is vague enough that virtually everyone will feel it applies to them.
The comic satirizes both the human tendency toward self-doubt and the idea that "innate abilities" and "socioeconomic status at birth" should determine success -- a notion that oversimplifies the complex factors that shape a person's life outcomes.