1 Nigerian Finance Bureaucrat: We've sold naming rights to all the Nigerian government departments. What else can we do to raise revenue?
2 Nigerian Finance Minister: Hmmm... let's think.
3 Nigerian Finance Minister: Sponsorship deals! We have an advertising medium with huge global exposure.
3 Nigerian Finance Bureaucrat: Of course! Brilliant idea, Finance Minister!
4 {scene change: The office where Shakespeare, Ophelia, and Mercutio work.}
4 Mercutio: {reading e-mail} "DEAR FRIEND, THIS 100% LEGAL REQUEST FOR YOUR ASSISTANCE IS SPONSORED BY PHILIP MORRIS TOBACCO..."

Again, I'm surprised that no spammers have yet thought of selling advertising space on their messages.

"We reach tens of millions of verified e-mail addresses, every day!! Take advantage of our huge market penetration and high consumer awareness! Place your message on our spam!"

And I have no doubt whatsoever that Philip Morris is the sort of company that would go for it.

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2013-12-03 Rerun commentary: I try not to get political or opinionated in these comics and my annotations. But yeah, I have a pretty low opinion of tobacco companies. For reasons that should be fairly obvious to most readers, I suspect.

Over the years I've deliberately tried to avoid making any overt or even covert political statements in these comics. For one thing, most of you probably don't really care what I think, and for another, works of fiction that get preachy get tiresome very quickly.

But of course it's inevitable that some of my thoughts leak into my work, more or less subtly depending on how sensitive you are to that sort of thing. I hope it's never offended anyone.

Except tobacco companies.