2014-03-05

A tall multi-panel SMBC comic about the Fermi Paradox. Panel 1: a dark-haired woman scientist asks, 'There are aliens out there. How come we haven't heard from them?' Narration: 'We could not solve the Fermi Paradox.' Panel 2: a satellite dish; narration says they set up a listening apparatus. Panel 3: the woman and a bald man examine a signal; she says 'It's... a schematic...' and he adds 'For a giant machine...' Panel 4: the machine is described as 'a labyrinth of complexity'; the woman says '96 percent of the parts seem redundant,' while a man in goggles says 'No time to talk. I'm working on this tunnel to nowhere.' Panel 5: a large funnel-like machine whirrs to life when a button is pressed. Panel 6: a man realizes too late, shouting 'Wait! That's the solution?! Oh mother fu--' Panel 7: the Earth bursts with radiating light/energy; narration: 'Because no one is left to be perplexed.' The joke: the aliens' transmitted blueprint is a doomsday device that wipes out the civilization that builds it, eliminating the paradox by eliminating the puzzled. Votey: a two-panel sketch where one person leans over and tells another, 'Someday you should write a story with survivors.' The other person sits silently, unamused.