2010-09-21
Explanation
This comic is titled "Parenting Tip: Preach What You Practice" and shows a father giving his son advice: "Son... when life gives you lemons, use them as an excuse never to put in the work needed to achieve your dreams."
The humor comes from inverting the familiar saying "when life gives you lemons, make lemonade," which encourages making the best of a bad situation. Instead, the father advises using hardship as a permanent excuse for giving up. The title "Preach What You Practice" is itself a reversal of the common saying "Practice what you preach." Together, these inversions suggest that many parents give their children optimistic platitudes while actually modeling the opposite behavior -- using life's setbacks as justification for complacency. The comic suggests it would be more honest, if bleaker, for parents to simply tell their children what they actually do rather than what they aspire to do.