2010-07-24
Explanation
This comic is titled "Fear Itself" and presents a graph plotting two variables over time: the "Dangerousness of Kids' Chemistry Kits" (shown in green) and "Deaths Attributable to Kids' Chemistry Kits" (shown in red). The green line starts very high and plummets dramatically over time, while the red line remains nearly flat at zero throughout. The joke is that while kids' chemistry kits have become absurdly safe over the decades, the cultural fear around them has not subsided -- it has actually intensified to the point of absurdity.
The punchline at the bottom of the graph reads: "You let Bobby play with water? Don't you know it's a chemical?" This satirizes the modern tendency toward chemophobia, where parents panic about anything labeled a "chemical" even though literally everything (including water) is a chemical. The comic points out the irrational disconnect between actual danger (essentially zero) and perceived danger (sky-high paranoia).
The votey panel shows the SMBC red button character (a pie chart figure) saying "I'm back, baby!" with labels reading "Graph" and "Joke," cheerfully acknowledging that Zach Weinersmith has returned to one of his favorite comic formats: the graph joke.