2012-03-17
Explanation
This comic plays on the classic relationship advice trope of "pick two out of three." An elderly father with a cane asks his son, "How'''s the ol''' marriage treatin''' ya?" The son responds by referencing advice his father once gave him: "Remember when you said '''great friend, great lover, great mother: pick two'''? I went and got the first and last... but... I'''m... I'''m happy." The father awkwardly responds, "Oh... uh... uh... good..."
The joke works because the son has chosen "great friend" and "great mother" but not "great lover," meaning his marriage apparently lacks romantic or sexual passion. His insistence that he'''s happy despite this -- delivered with hesitant ellipses that suggest he'''s trying to convince himself -- creates an uncomfortable moment for his father, who clearly didn'''t expect his son to voluntarily sacrifice that particular quality and then announce it so candidly.
The caption below the panel reads: "By '''pick two''' I had meant '''pick the second one.'''" This reveals the father'''s original intention was not actually to present a genuine trilemma but to steer his son toward choosing a "great lover" -- making the advice even funnier in retrospect, as the son managed to pick the exact combination his father least wanted. The votey shows a woman gleefully exclaiming "Boom! Everyone likes puns!" which seems to be an unrelated non-sequitur joke, possibly commenting on the father'''s "pick two" wordplay.