2009-12-26
Explanation
This comic features two cavemen in the first panel. One challenges the other: "Hey, I bet I can draw 1,000 dicks before you can draw 1,000 boobs." The other replies, "A game of dick-boob, is it?" The second panel jumps forward 10,000 years to show a modern archaeologist at a podium announcing, "We believe we've discovered a Neolithic fertility cult."
The joke is a commentary on how modern academics interpret prehistoric cave art. When archaeologists discover ancient drawings of genitalia or sexual imagery, they typically attribute them to fertility cults or religious rituals. The comic suggests a much more mundane explanation: the drawings were simply the result of two bored cavemen having a juvenile drawing contest. It pokes fun at the tendency of scholars to over-interpret or assign deep cultural significance to artifacts that may have had trivially simple origins.
The votey panel shows a list titled "Games Older Than Chess" listing Senet, Go, Mehen, and Dick-Boob. This extends the joke by placing the fictional caveman drawing contest alongside real ancient board games (Senet, Go, and Mehen are all genuine ancient games), suggesting that juvenile competitions involving crude drawings are among humanity's oldest pastimes.