2011-06-07
Explanation
This comic contrasts "what is said" versus "what is meant" when someone criticizes a musician's career choice. In the top panel, labeled "What is said," an older man in a suit tells a young saxophone player, "Grow up and get a real job!" In the bottom panel, labeled "What is meant," the same scene plays out but the older man's speech bubble now reads, "You should be as unhappy as I am!"
The joke highlights a common social dynamic where people who have followed conventional career paths and ended up miserable project their dissatisfaction onto those who pursue creative or unconventional work. Rather than genuinely caring about the musician's financial well-being, the suited man is really expressing resentment that someone else dares to find joy in their work while he remains trapped in a "real job" that brings him no happiness.
The votey panel extends the joke: the saxophone player asks, "Can I have a dollar?" The man says "No," and the musician declares "Mission accomplished" -- implying the musician has successfully proven the man's unhappiness by getting him to refuse a trivial act of generosity. It also pokes fun at the stereotype that musicians are broke, while simultaneously showing the suited man's pettiness.