The image is a black-and-white cartoon featuring a humorous take on plant smut diseases, playing on the double meaning of the word “smut.” The humour comes from the risqué implication of the word “smut,” combined with the fact that most of these smut diseases are destructive plant infections, except for corn smut, which is actually considered delicious. My cartoon plays with this contrast, making delicious (corn) smut the unexpected punchline.

The individual cartoons were drawn in black pen on A5 (148 x 210 mm) sheets of white watercolour paper, and combined digitally, with text added above and below the drawings.

I think this is likely the funniest I will ever be.

1. Loose Smut: (Wheat & Barley – Ustilago tritici / Ustilago nuda). The developing grains have been replaced with a mass of loose, powdery black spores.

2. Head Smut: (Maize – Sporisorium reilianum). The entire cob has been transformed into a spore-filled fungal mass instead of normal kernels.

3. Stinking Smut: (Wheat – Tilletia caries / Tilletia foetida). The grains are replaced by hard, dark spore balls (teliospores) that crush easily, releasing a foul-smelling, fishy odor.

4. Flag Smut: (Wheat – Urocystis agropyri). Infection of the leaves and stems causes long, dark streaks that rupture and release spores. Infected leaves sometimes curl and twist, resembling tattered flags.

5. Covered Smut: (Barley – Ustilago hordei). Similar to loose smut, the developing grains have been replaced with a mass of loose, powdery black spores. Instead of freely dispersing spores, the infected grains remain covered by a membrane until they break open later, often during threshing, contaminating seeds.

6. Whip Smut: (Sugarcane – Sporisorium scitamineum). Infected plants produce long, black, whip-like fungal growths (sori) that emerge from the shoot tips.

7. Delicious Smut (Corn): (Maize – Ustilago maydis). The corn kernels have been transformed into swollen, grayish-blue fungal galls, which are soft and edible. Unlike the other smuts, this one is a culinary delicacy (huitlacoche), making it the odd one out.