2009-10-27
Explanation
This comic shows two men sitting together, one wearing sunglasses and ragged clothing who appears to be a war veteran, the other an elderly man. The old man asks "How'd you lose your eyes?" The veteran replies "In the war, old timer. In that absurd war." The old man responds sympathetically: "Of course... what a senseless, senseless war." The caption below delivers the punchline: "War Against Eyes: 2031-2036 A.D."
The joke is built on a misdirection. The conversation initially reads as a poignant exchange about the horrors of war and its senseless destruction, with the veteran having lost his eyes in combat. The reader assumes this refers to a conventional war. But the caption reveals that the war was literally a "War Against Eyes" -- a conflict whose entire purpose was apparently to destroy eyes. This recontextualizes the word "senseless" as an unintentional pun (relating to the sense of sight), and makes the old man's sympathy absurd: of course a war specifically targeting eyes would result in eye loss, so there is nothing surprising or tragic about the outcome in context.
The votey panel shows the origin story: "How the war began..." with a person saying "I'm gonna go outside." This implies the absurd war began over something as trivial as someone deciding to leave the house, adding another layer of comedy about the meaninglessness of the conflict.