2009-12-13
Explanation
This comic presents a "Most Horrific Image" contest in which someone in a crowd describes their entry: "Pinocchio with his nose attached to the trigger of a rifle, which points at his face as he says 'I want to live!'" The crowd around the speaker looks disturbed and uncomfortable, and the caption reads: "The 'Most Horrific Image' contest came to an early conclusion."
The horror of the scenario lies in its cruel logical paradox. Pinocchio's nose grows when he lies. If he says "I want to live" and it's true, his nose stays the same and the trigger isn't pulled -- he survives. But if he's lying (meaning he doesn't actually want to live), his nose grows, pulling the trigger and killing him. The truly dark twist is that if he genuinely wants to live, he's safe, but the moment he feels any ambivalence or despair about his existence, he dies. It transforms Pinocchio's whimsical lie-detection feature into an existential death trap that punishes any flicker of doubt about the value of one's own life.
The votey panel shows Pinocchio in this exact predicament, thinking "This sucks" -- which, being a thought rather than a spoken statement, doesn't trigger the nose mechanism. It adds a darkly comic coda suggesting Pinocchio is stuck in this miserable situation, able to think negative thoughts but unable to voice them without risking death.