What can be seen in the picture
The image is hand-drawn and consists of two panels separated by a vertical line. In the left panel stands a green tree with a brown trunk and a small smiling face. Nearby are a wooden stool and a round table, and around them rise orange and yellow tongues of flame. A gray cloud of smoke hangs over the scene.
In the right panel the tree is shown larger. Above it is a white speech bubble reading “economically unfeasible.” The flames are still all around, but the tree smiles as if nothing is happening. In its composition the picture resembles the well-known meme “This is fine,” where a character sits calmly in a burning room. The artist and the first platform where the image appeared are not established.
The phrase and the fires of summer 2019
In the summer of 2019, wildfires swept several Siberian regions; according to media reports, the burned area reached millions of hectares. Smoke covered cities, and residents of Krasnoyarsk Krai complained about the air.
On July 29, 2019, reports appeared that the governor of Krasnoyarsk Krai, Alexander Uss, at a meeting with students, answering a question about whether it was justified to fight fires in remote areas, called them a normal natural phenomenon, a struggle with which is “pointless, and perhaps even somewhat harmful in places.” The point was that extinguishing distant blazes was not always cost-effective.
At the same time, a departmental order of the Ministry of Natural Resources was being discussed, under which a fire could be left unextinguished if doing so was economically inexpedient. State Duma deputies declared their intention to discuss with the ministry the repeal of this rule. Society reacted sharply, and the wording “economically unfeasible” became a symbol of how budget calculation collides with people suffering from the smoke. Who first captioned the drawing with this phrase is unknown.
Why the joke works
The mechanics are simple. The expression “economically unfeasible” sounds like a final explanation, the kind used to close a conversation. It is delivered in an even tone and concerns things that are hard to put a price on: forests, health, people's time.
The second part works as a shift in expectations. The viewer expects the tree in the fire to start calling for help, but it smiles and utters a brief brush-off. The pause between the panels gives time to grasp the gap, which is why the picture needs no caption below.
Over time the phrase went beyond fires. It is used when someone wants to refuse something useful and does not want to admit it directly.
Examples of captions and how they work
1. “Why is there still no decent tea at work again? Economically unfeasible.” A trivial matter gets the tone of a serious decision. The contrast between the trifle and the cold wording is as funny as the tree's calm in the fire.
2. “Why did you only reply in the work chat three days later? Economically unfeasible.” The calculation of time is presented as an objective argument, and the brush-off sounds more insulting than an open admission would.
3. “Why is there still no mirror in the elevator? Economically unfeasible.” The scale of the question is small, and the tone is serious.
General rule: the caption rests on an incomplete explanation. The more important the subject, the stronger the contrast with the even tone.
How to use this template
The picture reads well in two panels: first the problem, then the brush-off. If one panel is wanted, you can keep the speech bubble and dim the fire. The caption should be short.
The topic of forest fires remains painful for those who lived in the smoke zone, so it is more appropriate to mock the wording and the logic of the refusal, not the people or regions who suffered. The template works best when the explanation is clearly incomplete and the subject is something that cannot be weighed in rubles.
