2010-07-17
Explanation
This single-panel comic shows an angry elderly man in a nursing home ranting to two younger women visitors. He aggressively boasts about his inappropriate exploits at the nursing home, using crude and offensive language, apparently provoked by being called "adorable." The caption reads: "I no longer call old men 'adorable.'"
The joke is about how younger people sometimes condescendingly infantilize elderly people by calling them "adorable" or "cute," stripping them of their dignity and agency. The old man's over-the-top, vulgar response is his way of asserting that he is still a full, autonomous person -- not a harmless little creature to be cooed over. While his reaction is deliberately extreme and crude for comedic effect, the underlying point is about the patronizing way society often treats the elderly.
The votey panel shows the comic's author (Zach Weinersmith) at his drawing desk saying "I can't WAIT to be old!" -- suggesting he looks forward to the day when he can similarly abandon social niceties and say whatever he wants under the protective umbrella of old age.