2012-01-20
Explanation
The comic is a single panel styled as a theatrical playbill. A man lies in bed reading a "Playbill" program, and the text above reads: "Wife was unavailable due to lack of intimacy in recent interactions. Tonight, the role of wife will be played by a squirt of vaseline and a quiet sense of foreboding."
The joke borrows the familiar format of a theater announcement -- the kind you see when an understudy replaces the scheduled performer -- and applies it to a man's lonely evening of masturbation. The formal, detached theatrical language ("the role of wife will be played by...") creates a darkly comedic contrast with the sad reality of a sexless marriage. The inclusion of "a quiet sense of foreboding" as part of the cast suggests that the man knows this situation is a symptom of deeper relationship problems, not just a one-night inconvenience.