Literal interpretation Memes

Newton's famous quote "If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants" gets a hilariously literal interpretation here. The comic explores all possible permutations of this metaphor - from a giant standing on Newton's shoulders (crushing him), to Newton giving a giant a shoulder to cry on (awkward), to Newton being a giant himself (nope), until finally landing on the correct interpretation: Newton intellectually standing on the achievements of his predecessors. Scientific progress in stick figure form - the peer review would be merciless.

Finally, a student who takes physics literally. When your teacher says you have "great potential," they're referring to your academic capabilities. But in physics, potential energy is what you have when elevated above ground level. Standing on a rooftop maximizes gravitational potential energy (mgh, where m is mass, g is gravitational acceleration, and h is height). Converting this to kinetic energy would be... inadvisable. The face says it all—physics humor at its darkest.