the-autening
Explanation
This comic depicts two men outdoors in autumn. One exclaims about a falling leaf, saying "Look! A leaf fell! It's wonderful!" The other responds that he's "fully committing to fall culture" and that "it tastes like medieval plague medicine, but I swear it's good" — apparently drinking a seasonal beverage like a pumpkin spice latte or similar autumnal concoction.
The first man declares: "Behold, I'm pretending this squash-flavored sludge is good! I will sacrifice two hundred farm animals, bleeding upon them! Pray, grant me good crops!" The other responds: "I am the orange god-king of autumn, bow to my suffering!"
The comic satirizes the intense, almost religious fervor that surrounds "fall culture" — the seasonal enthusiasm for pumpkin spice everything, apple picking, leaf-peeping, flannel wearing, and other autumnal rituals. The title "The Autening" frames it as a dramatic event, like "The Happening" or "The Reckoning." The joke escalates the characters' autumn enthusiasm from drinking seasonal beverages to performing pagan harvest sacrifices, suggesting that the modern cult of fall is essentially a thinly secularized version of ancient agricultural worship. The humor comes from how quickly "I love fall!" escalates into animal sacrifice and declaring oneself an orange god-king.