2010-10-02
Explanation
This comic depicts a man's internal monologue when he notices a woman wearing a shirt with writing on it. He wants to read the text but realizes that doing so would require him to stare at her chest, which she might interpret as him ogling her. He then tries to rationalize: "It's not a sex thing. She put words on her shirt! People read words!"
In the third panel, he psychs himself up with escalating self-reassurance -- "I'm an adult! She's an adult! It's just a body part! Big deal!" -- clearly overcomplicating a simple social interaction. The punchline shows him having worked himself into such an agitated state that he is now intensely staring at the woman's chest while sweating profusely, and when she asks "Uh... can I help you?" he snaps "Oh, grow up!" -- projecting his own anxiety onto her. The comic captures a universally relatable social dilemma and shows how overthinking a minor awkward situation can make it exponentially worse.