2009-11-30
Explanation
This comic puts a darkly humorous spin on the classic fairy tale trope of a knight rescuing a princess from a dragon. A knight reports to the king that they "managed to defeat the dragon," but there was some "significant... collateral damage." The caption below reads: "Carpet bombing is not an efficient technique for rescuing princesses." The joke is that the knight used absurdly excessive military force -- carpet bombing -- to deal with the dragon, which would obviously cause massive destruction and defeat the purpose of the rescue mission entirely.
The humor lies in applying modern military terminology and tactics to a medieval fantasy setting, and in the understatement of calling what was presumably the destruction of the princess (and likely a good portion of the kingdom) merely "collateral damage." The knight's sheepish delivery to the annoyed-looking king drives home the absurdity. The votey panel extends the joke, with the king resignedly saying "Welp... I guess it's another night with three whores," suggesting this kind of catastrophic failure is a recurring event and the king has developed a routine coping mechanism.