2010-01-20
Explanation
This comic imagines a future technology: a monitor that displays a dying person'''s thoughts in real time. An elderly man lies on his deathbed with his wife sitting beside him, and the thought-display screen above his head reads, "I wish I had boned my secretary." The caption below states: "Turns out last words are preferable to last thoughts."
The humor comes from the gap between what people say and what they actually think, especially in emotionally charged moments. Traditionally, a person'''s last words are considered profound and meaningful -- declarations of love, wisdom, or peace. But the comic suggests that if we could actually read people'''s dying thoughts, we might discover they are far less noble and far more selfish or inappropriate than the carefully chosen words they speak aloud.
The votey panel reinforces this by showing a flashback labeled "Earlier..." in which the same man says to his wife, "I love you, Cheryl. I love you so much." This confirms the contrast: his spoken last words were a beautiful, loving farewell, while his actual last thoughts were about a missed affair. The comic is a darkly funny commentary on the merciful gap between human speech and human thought, suggesting that some inner truths are better left unread.