uh
Explanation
This comic shows a woman at a podium giving a presentation, apparently responding to a question about her statistical methods. Her entire response is a string of filler words: "Uh, um, um, uh, uh, um, um, uh... That's a fine point about my statistical methods. Uh, um, um, um, uh, um, uh, um... Lemme think how to answer that. Uh, um, um, uh, uh, uh, um, um..."
The caption below delivers the punchline: "By assigning 0 and 1 to 'uh' and 'um' I was able to say 'fuck you' without anyone noticing."
The joke is about steganography -- hiding a secret message inside seemingly innocuous communication. If you assign binary values to the two filler words (say, "uh" = 0 and "um" = 1), the sequence of uhs and ums encodes a binary message. The audience hears nothing but a nervous, stammering academic struggling to answer a tough question, but the speaker is actually transmitting a hidden insult in binary. The humor works because the situation is so relatable -- everyone has seen a flustered presenter stall with filler words -- and the idea that someone would weaponize that universal human tic into a covert communication channel is delightfully absurd. It also plays on the stereotype of academics and statisticians being passive-aggressive, finding the nerdiest possible way to tell someone off.