trolley-3
Explanation
The Joke
The comic presents a variation on the classic trolley problem: "You're in a trolley with no brakes, and it's heading toward five people. You have the option to pull a lever to steer the trolley toward just one person." So far, this is the standard ethical dilemma. But then comes the twist: "Do you choose to kill the one person? No, you don't want to."
The person posing the dilemma responds with shock and indignation: "Oh my god, the one guy. The one baby kangaroo!" It's revealed that the scenario presenter has made the one person an adorable baby kangaroo, clearly trying to emotionally manipulate the respondent into choosing to sacrifice the five people instead. The respondent coolly refuses, and the presenter is outraged that their emotional ploy didn't work, exclaiming "Like a BABY kangaroo!"
The characters appear to be cats in business attire, adding another layer of absurdity.
The Humor
The trolley problem is a staple of moral philosophy classes, usually presented as a cold utilitarian calculation. This comic satirizes how people try to game the thought experiment by making one side more emotionally sympathetic. The joke is that the scenario designer isn't interested in genuine ethical inquiry — they just wanted to create a rigged version of the trolley problem where the "correct" answer is the utilitarian-ly wrong one, because who could possibly choose to kill a baby kangaroo? The respondent's flat refusal to be emotionally manipulated is the punchline, and the designer's sputtering outrage reveals that they never cared about ethics at all — they just wanted to see the baby kangaroo saved.
References
The trolley problem is a thought experiment in ethics first introduced by philosopher Philippa Foot in 1967 and later developed by Judith Jarvis Thomson. It is one of the most frequently discussed and parodied thought experiments in popular culture, and SMBC has returned to it multiple times.