It is a somewhat common practice for parents to have “pox parties” wherein a child with chicken pox interacts with other children in order to expose them to the disease so they can contract it in a controlled manner. The thinking behind this practice is that the parents would rather have the children contract the disease “naturally” (as opposed to vaccination or chance encounters with infected persons) at a young age where they will be more resilient to its effects and can be under the watchful eye of prepared parents. It is assumed that the Author’s family forced his participation in a pox party in his youth.
This strip plays off of the phenomenon of people having “parties” for other diseases modeled after those for chicken pox. People have been known to attempt controlled contraction of measles, hepatitis A, mumps, and the flu at these gatherings. In this instance, the idea of a malaria party is yet another example of the Author’s propensity for arriving at a punchline via comic absurdity, homographic pun, and cultural insensitivity.
One aspect of the strips humor is derived from the portrayal of the scene. The characters are all standing around wearing conical party hats, there is a deflated balloon on the ground, and there is (presumably) confetti on the ground. This is a play on the fact that they are called “parties” even though they are not actually gatherings of celebration. However, it is possible that some of these gatherings do put on a traditional celebratory atmosphere in order to disguise the true intent of them from the attending children.
Moreover, malaria’s vector is generally via mosquitos, not proximity to infected persons. So, unless the black dots on the ground in the strip are actually meant to portray dead mosquitos, there is no way for the gathering to work in the same manner as a pox party. Since malaria is generally considered to be a disease of poverty, mostly killing young children in Sub-Saharan Africa, the thought of having a party to purposefully spread this fatal disease among children instead of vaccination is an absurd and macabre premise for a comic strip, hence the punchline of “but it turned out not to be very much fun.”
