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the-lord-sayeth

2016-03-03 View on smbc-comics.com → 1 revision
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the-lord-sayeth
Votey panel for the-lord-sayeth
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Explanation

The Joke

Jesus is depicted speaking in grand Biblical language: "And when the man sat down, it was as if the salt sea were upon the land." The caption below reveals that Jesus is "once again" giving his parable about wiping down gym equipment after use.

The Humor

The comic takes the mundane, everyday annoyance of someone leaving a sweaty gym bench without wiping it down and presents it in the grandiose language of Biblical parables. The phrase "as if the salt sea were upon the land" is a florid, poetic way of saying someone left a disgusting puddle of sweat on the equipment. The word "salt" does double duty -- referencing both Biblical imagery (the Dead Sea, pillars of salt) and the literal saltiness of sweat.

The humor also comes from imagining that Jesus would be so bothered by gym etiquette that he would repeatedly ("once again") craft parables about it, as if wiping down equipment were a moral imperative on par with loving thy neighbor. It reduces the profound to the petty while simultaneously elevating a genuine social complaint to divine instruction.

View History (1) Original Comic