2009-11-08
Explanation
This comic depicts a first-contact scenario where advanced aliens have arrived on Earth. A glowing, energy-based alien entity addresses a group of humans: "Do not be alarmed, humans! We once had bodies like you, but as our technology advanced, we transferred our consciousnesses to pure energy." Three humans -- appearing to be diplomats or officials -- stare at the energy being. The caption reads: "In retrospect, it was bad diplomacy to use one of the Centaurians to charge my phone."
The joke takes a classic science fiction premise -- aliens so advanced they have transcended physical form and become beings of pure energy -- and immediately undercuts it with the most mundane possible human response. Rather than being awed by this incredible achievement of alien civilization, a human diplomat saw "pure energy" and thought "free phone charger." The humor lies in the collision between the cosmic significance of the moment and the petty practicality of human nature.
The votey panel shows a man at a podium announcing, "Ladies and gentlemen, we have solved the energy crisis." This extends the joke by suggesting that humanity's takeaway from first contact with transcendent energy beings was not philosophical enlightenment or advanced knowledge, but simply a new power source. It satirizes how humans tend to reduce even the most profound discoveries to their most immediately useful (and often trivially selfish) applications.