Sue
Explanation
The Joke
The comic shows a Western-style scene. A parent (dressed as a cowboy) is asked by their child, "Papa, why did you name me Sue?" The father explains that he gave the child that name so life would be hard, forcing them to grow up strong and tough. He says, "I gave you that name to make life hard so you'd grow to be strong and wise. I see it worked." The child acknowledges this and asks if the name also helped their brother. The father confirms — and in the final panel we see the brother, who is named "Tinkerbell Von Concrete-Nuggets," an absurdly humiliating name far worse than "Sue."
This is a direct parody of Johnny Cash's famous song "A Boy Named Sue" (1969), written by Shel Silverstein. In the song, a father names his son "Sue" knowing the ridicule will toughen him up. The comic takes this premise and escalates it by revealing that the father went even further with the second child, giving him a name so outlandishly terrible that "Sue" seems mild by comparison.
The Humor
The humor relies on the audience's familiarity with the Johnny Cash song and the escalation principle. The setup faithfully recreates the premise of "A Boy Named Sue" — a tough cowboy father deliberately giving his child a difficult name to build character. The punchline works through absurd escalation: if "Sue" was bad enough to toughen up one son, the father apparently decided the second son needed an even more extreme name. "Tinkerbell Von Concrete-Nuggets" is funny because it combines a delicate fairy name with a crude and nonsensical surname, creating something so ridiculous that it goes beyond character-building humiliation into pure comedic absurdity.
References
The comic directly references "A Boy Named Sue," a novelty country song written by Shel Silverstein and popularized by Johnny Cash's 1969 live performance at San Quentin prison. The song tells the story of a boy who grows up tough because of the constant fights his embarrassing name provokes.