2011-04-24
Explanation
This comic humorously explores the physics and psychology of beard maintenance through pseudo-scientific graphs. The first graph shows "difficulty of beard removal" versus "beard length," depicting an exponential curve where shaving becomes essentially impossible once a beard reaches a certain length. A bearded man in bed tells his partner it "doesn't make sense to shave anymore" and refers her to "Figure 2," treating his laziness as a peer-reviewed conclusion.
The second graph shows "desire to shave" versus "beard length," revealing a sharp peak called the "itchy peak" at a short stubble length, after which the desire to shave rapidly drops to zero. The man explains he "accidentally passed through the itchy peak" while his partner was away, and now it is "too late" -- framing his beard growth as an irreversible event, like crossing an event horizon. His partner threatens to leave him over the beard, and the final panel shows the man alone in the mirror muttering "love is bullshit," having chosen the beard over the relationship. The comic satirizes how men rationalize keeping their beards using elaborate logic while ignoring the simpler social consequences.