2012-04-20
Explanation
This comic presents a "Fun Fact" in the header banner: "You can always creep people out by introducing a safe word in a nonsexual context." The single panel shows a woman at a podium delivering what appears to be a perfectly normal academic presentation. She says: "Welcome to this year'''s symposium on phenotypic integration. I'''ll be talking about recent experimentation on Fundulus parvipinnis. Please hold questions for the end. Oh, and the safe word is banana."
The humor relies on the jarring collision of two very different social contexts. A "safe word" is a term used in BDSM (bondage, discipline, dominance, submission) practices, where participants agree on a word that, when spoken, immediately stops the activity. Mentioning a safe word in the middle of an otherwise dry, professional scientific lecture about fish biology (Fundulus parvipinnis is the California killifish) creates an immediate and deeply uncomfortable implication about what might happen during this symposium. The audience is left wondering why on earth a safe word would be needed at an academic conference.
The votey panel simply reads "Ten points to anyone who actually does this," with the comic'''s author encouraging readers to try this unsettling social experiment in real life, treating it as a dare rather than just a hypothetical joke.