2010-10-16
Explanation
This comic takes the common childhood scenario of a kid telling their parent there's a monster under the bed and gives it a darkly comedic twist. A child calls out "Daddy! There's a monster under my bed!" and the father launches into an angry, condescending lecture: "How dare you! Fantasy monsters don't exist! The real monsters are human beings like you and me, who pollute the earth, suppress human rights, and commit genocide! Your juvenile fantasy mocks a thousand centuries of human suffering!" He then tersely says "Good. Night." and storms off, leaving the child looking upset.
The punchline comes in a panel labeled "Later" where we see that there actually was a literal monster under the bed -- a green tentacled creature with one big eye. The monster and the father are sitting together, and the monster says "Close call that time," to which the father replies "Just move out as soon as you get a job, okay, Hank?" This reveals that the father knew the monster was real all along and was deliberately gaslighting his child to protect the monster, who is apparently some kind of freeloader roommate living under the kid's bed.
The humor works on multiple levels: it parodies the kind of parent who turns every moment into a heavy-handed lecture about real-world problems, and then completely subverts expectations by revealing the father's rant wasn't philosophical conviction but a deliberate cover-up. The votey panel shows the monster saying "I love you" and the father replying "Not now," suggesting an even more complicated relationship between the two.