2009-09-18
Explanation
The comic is a two-panel strip featuring what appears to be a superhero or villain in a purple costume with goggles. In the first panel, a woman screams "AAAH! GO AWAY!" at the costumed figure, who responds: "What? You can see me?! Well that was a waste of five hundred million dollars." The second panel reveals the punchline: outside the house sits a full-sized stealth bomber (labeled "STEALTH-1"), which is apparently what he spent $500 million on in an attempt to be invisible.
The joke plays on the double meaning of "stealth." A stealth bomber is designed to be invisible to radar, not to the naked eye. The character apparently thought that if he arrived in a stealth aircraft, he would be personally invisible -- a fundamental misunderstanding of stealth technology. The absurdity is compounded by the enormous price tag for such a basic misconception.
The votey shows the stealth bomber dropping a bomb on the house, suggesting the character's response to being seen is simply to destroy the witness -- an escalation that turns a comedy of errors into something much darker, and a commentary on military overreaction.