2012-03-26
Explanation
This comic contrasts a "typical coming out" with a "mad scientist coming out." In the top panel, labeled "Typical Coming Out," a young woman stands between her parents and says: "Mom, Dad, I'''m gay." It is a straightforward depiction of the common experience of coming out to one'''s family.
In the bottom panel, labeled "Mad Scientist Coming Out," the same woman -- now wearing a lab coat and mad-scientist goggles -- holds a large ray gun labeled "The Orientator" and declares: "Mom, Dad, everyone'''s gay." Instead of revealing a personal truth, the mad scientist has invented a device that changes everyone'''s sexual orientation, making the entire world gay rather than just coming out about herself.
The joke plays on the double meaning of "coming out" -- in the typical sense it means revealing something about yourself, but for a mad scientist, it means revealing what you'''ve done to the world. The name "The Orientator" is a pun on "sexual orientation" and the suffix "-ator" common to fictional doomsday devices. The comic also gently satirizes the idea that being gay is somehow contagious or could be spread, by taking that absurd premise literally through science fiction.
The votey adds that "People who were hit indirectly only became '''pretty gay'''" -- a joke about the ray gun'''s effectiveness diminishing with indirect exposure, playing on the colloquial use of "pretty gay" as a qualifier.