wasp
Explanation
This comic reimagines the life cycle of parasitoid wasps as a campfire horror story told by wasps themselves.
The scene shows wasps sitting around a campfire, and one is telling a scary story: "And when they had finished feasting on the living flesh of the caterpillar and were about to burst out of its body... they discovered... they couldn't get out!"
The joke inverts the horror of parasitoid wasps. In real life, parasitoid wasps (such as those in the family Braconidae or Ichneumonidae) lay their eggs inside living caterpillars. The larvae hatch and eat the host from the inside, eventually bursting out -- one of nature's most gruesome processes. For humans and caterpillars, the horrifying part is the eating-alive and bursting-out. But from the wasps' perspective, the process is completely normal and expected. What would be truly terrifying for baby wasps is being trapped inside -- not being able to complete the emergence. The comic cleverly shifts the horror-story perspective to the predator rather than the prey, finding comedy in the idea that wasps have their own campfire tales where the scary part is the exact opposite of what we'd find scary.