2013-05-20
Explanation
The comic explores three stages of children's credulity. The first section, captioned "Small children will believe anything you say," shows a parent telling a small child: "The universe started five minutes ago. Everything prior to that is a false history crafted by billions of conspirators who work tirelessly to maintain the illusion." The child cheerfully responds, "Neat!"
The second section, captioned "Once older, they believe nothing you say," shows a parent at a table saying "This toast is good," and a teenager responding with contrarian skepticism: "No. This toast tastes like what the corporate fascists tell you is good."
The third section, captioned "But there's this liminal moment, right in between. That's where the real fun happens," shows two children at the perfect age -- old enough to reason but young enough to be fooled. One says, "Did you know Grampa is so old, he helped design the metric system?" The other replies, "No way. Nobody lives that long. Wait... do they? No..." The first child clinches it: "Then how come they named the gram after him?" The other child is blown away: "Whoaaaaaaa."
The comic humorously captures the developmental sweet spot between blind acceptance and reflexive skepticism, where children can think critically enough to evaluate claims but not well enough to see through clever nonsense. The votey panel shows someone asking, "What do you think the point of having children is?" and getting the answer, "Amusing lies... what?" -- suggesting that the real joy of parenthood is the brief window where you can mess with your kids' heads in entertaining ways.