2012-09-13
Explanation
This comic plays on the stereotypical guilt trips that parents use to get their children to clean their rooms. In the first panel, a woman screams at a man "AAAH! You'''re not breathing! How are you alive?" The man holds up a sign reading: "You didn'''t keep your room tidy and it KILLED me. Now I walk the earth, eternally trying to put right your mistake. If only you could neaten up before Grandma visits I might return to life." He has become a ghost whose entire afterlife revolves around the parental obsession with tidiness.
The second panel, labeled "Earlier...," reveals the origin story. A woman scientist gleefully announces "We'''ve done it! A way to intravenously inject oxygen!" while her colleague says "I'''ll be right back..." and walks away with his phone, presumably to call someone. The joke is that this incredible medical breakthrough -- a way to keep someone alive without breathing -- was immediately co-opted by a parent who saw its true potential: becoming an undead guilt machine who can haunt their child about cleaning up before Grandma comes over.
The votey panel shows the scientist saying "This'''ll have so many medical applic-- hey, where'''d you go?" confirming that the colleague abandoned the lab the moment he realized the technology could be weaponized for parental guilt. The comic satirizes how parents will go to absolutely any length to get their kids to clean their rooms.