2009-11-14
Explanation
This comic shows a single panel set in a toy store. A store clerk is showing a product to a mother while her excited child looks on. The clerk says: "No, no, it's a placebo pill. It's totally cool!" The caption below reads: "There was one part of the 'super-realistic spy gear' toy set that was a bit too macabre."
The joke is about a children's spy toy set that takes "realism" too far. Real-world spies and intelligence operatives have historically carried cyanide pills (suicide pills) to use if captured, to avoid being tortured for information. The toy set has replaced this with a "placebo pill" -- a harmless sugar pill standing in for the suicide pill. The clerk's reassurance that "it's a placebo" is meant to be comforting, but the humor lies in the fact that the toy set included this item at all. Even as a placebo, the very concept of including a fake suicide pill in a children's toy is absurdly dark.
The votey panel extends the joke further, showing an advertisement for the toy set that also includes a "Knife! Just like a real assassin!" -- doubling down on the idea that this toy line has gone far past the boundary of age-appropriate spy accessories.