2013-04-21
Explanation
This comic is titled "Everyone's Brain is a Dorian Grey" (referencing Oscar Wilde's novel "The Picture of Dorian Gray"). In the first panel, a man scolds a woman: "You can't spend your whole life reading fantasy novels! Grow up!" She retorts: "This face gets older. I stay the same age."
The joke plays on the concept from Wilde's novel, in which Dorian Gray remains eternally youthful while his portrait ages and decays in his place. Here, the comic applies that idea to the inner life of anyone who reads fantasy novels -- while their physical body ages normally, their inner self (their brain, imagination, and sense of wonder) stays perpetually young. The woman is essentially saying that even though she looks older on the outside, mentally she remains the same enthusiastic reader she always was, and she sees no reason to stop enjoying fantasy literature.
The votey panel adds another layer: someone tells the woman, "You use that joke a lot," and she replies, "It gets older. I stay the same age" -- recycling the same joke structure and demonstrating that her commitment to the bit is itself ageless. This is also a riff on the famous line from the movie "Dazed and Confused": "I get older, they stay the same age."