2009-10-03
Explanation
This multi-panel comic satirizes how military operations receive grandiose code names that bear no relation to the actual mission. In the first panel, military officers are gathered around a table brainstorming names. One suggests "Operation Clean Up Pigsh-t So the Officers Can Build a Golf Course" -- an honest but embarrassingly mundane and unflattering description of the actual mission. Another officer responds "No... no, that won't do..."
In the next panels, captioned "SOON...", a soldier arrives at an Army tent excitedly declaring "Oh my God! You guys ready to be jealous?!" He then shows off the mission orders, which read "OPERATION RAPTOR-LASER" with the subtext "Your mission should you choose to accept: sanitizing doom!" The mundane cleanup mission has been rebranded with an absurdly cool-sounding name that makes it seem exciting and dangerous.
The joke highlights the real-world practice of military operations receiving dramatic code names (like Operation Desert Storm or Operation Enduring Freedom) that are carefully chosen to sound impressive and heroic, even when the underlying mission might be utterly banal. The contrast between "clean up so officers can golf" and "RAPTOR-LASER" is the core of the humor.
The votey panel shows a bald officer in sunglasses correcting someone, saying "No, it's ULTRA-NINJA SHIT-SHOVELIN'!" This suggests an even more ridiculous escalation of the naming convention, where the cool-sounding prefix is bolted onto an honest description of the dirty work, creating an absurd hybrid.