wishes
Explanation
The Joke
A genie (depicted as a ghostly floating figure) tells a man to place a candle on his head to receive wishes. The man is immediately suspicious, citing the classic genie tropes: "There is just no freakin way it is not gonna be one of those deals where I wish for money and it comes from my parents' insurance, or I wish for a dead friend to live again but he turns out to be a zombie." The genie protests that it just wants to grant wishes. The man cautiously wishes for pancakes, and the genie produces them -- but the man refuses to eat them, suspecting they are "probably made of locusts or snake goo or something."
The genie reveals the pancakes are simply made of flour. The man asks where the flour comes from, and when the genie says "wheat, obviously," the man reacts with disgust ("Boo! Gluten!"). The genie becomes exasperated: "It is free wishes! How come nobody wants my wishes?" The man storms off, calling the genie offering food a "form of bigotry." In the final panel, someone suggests the genie try changing its voice so it doesn't sound like a "guardian infinity" (i.e., something supernatural and suspicious), and the genie responds, "Why should I have to change?"
The Humor
The comic satirizes modern culture's tendency toward extreme skepticism, dietary restrictions, and outrage. Even when presented with genuinely free, no-strings-attached wishes, the man cannot accept them because he has been culturally conditioned to expect hidden catches, and once that fear is dispelled, he simply moves on to being offended about gluten content or calling generosity "bigotry."
The genie becomes a sympathetic figure who can't win no matter what -- a commentary on how impossible it can be to please people who are determined to find fault with everything. The final panel adds another layer, as the genie is essentially told to change its identity to be more palatable, and its defiant response mirrors real-world discussions about assimilation and identity.
References
The comic references several cultural phenomena: the well-known "monkey's paw" trope where wishes come with terrible consequences (from W.W. Jacobs' 1902 short story), the modern gluten-free diet movement, and contemporary discourse around cultural sensitivity and identity politics.