watchmen
Explanation
This comic riffs on the famous question from the graphic novel "Watchmen" by Alan Moore: "Who watches the Watchmen?" (originally from the Latin phrase "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?"). The phrase addresses the problem of accountability -- who holds the powerful accountable?
The comic extends this into increasingly absurd levels of "second level accountability, ordered by creepiness." Each panel shows a progressively creepier scenario of someone watching or monitoring someone else:
- "Watching the Watchmen" shows a figure observing guards
- "Minding the Minderson" shows someone eavesdropping, saying "I said shut up so I can listen"
- "Guarding the Guardsman" depicts someone surveilling through a window saying "I hate this job"
- "Tending the Todsmith" features a medieval knight figure
- "Keeping the Keeperson" shows someone confronting another with "Oh, so you don't believe in oversight?!"
The humor lies in the escalating absurdity: each level of oversight becomes creepier and more intrusive, satirizing how the logical chain of "who watches the watchers" leads to an infinite regress of surveillance that becomes increasingly uncomfortable and silly. The made-up job titles ("Minderson," "Todsmith," "Keeperson") add to the comedic effect.