2011-05-04
Explanation
This comic imagines the internal decision-making process of the human mind as a literal parliamentary democracy -- "Brain Parliament." A man discovers he has no dinner ingredients but does have four boxes of Twinkies, so he convenes his Brain Parliament to vote on whether to eat them for dinner. The vote comes back 3-2 in favor: Logic votes nay, Discretion votes nay, but Stomach, Inner Child, and Foresight all vote aye. The man is suspicious because Foresight usually votes with Logic.
His suspicion turns out to be justified. A dissenting voice (presumably Logic or Discretion) demands to know what happened to Foresight and where the rest of Parliament is -- Common Sense and Pride are missing entirely. The man dismisses this, saying "I guess they aren't showing up," and the voice demands he give them back, implying the man's baser impulses have kidnapped or suppressed the more responsible mental faculties. The Ego then tries to assert veto power, but is threatened with the dissolution of Parliament itself.
The final panel shows the aftermath: the man is crying while force-feeding himself Twinkies, and when his partner asks why, he simply says "Politics." It's a wonderfully absurd metaphor for the internal struggle of making bad decisions -- knowing they're wrong but doing them anyway, with your rational mind overruled by appetite and impulse. The votey offers alternate punchlines: "Coup de gut," "Viscerevolution," and "That's what she said," all playing on the political/bodily humor of the strip.