2013-08-04
Explanation
The comic is titled "People Are Weird" and presents two contrasting panels that highlight an ironic inconsistency in how people approach their careers and passions. In the first panel, a woman in casual clothes thinks, "I want to be a painter, but I don't want to practice every day." In the second panel, the same woman, now dressed in business attire, thinks, "I don't want to be a corporate lawyer, but I'm putting in weekends for it."
The joke highlights a common human contradiction: people are often unwilling to put in daily effort for careers or pursuits they are genuinely passionate about, yet they will sacrifice their weekends and free time grinding away at careers they actively dislike. The comic suggests that people frequently invest more energy into things they hate than things they love, which is indeed a deeply weird aspect of human behavior.
This speaks to broader themes about how societal pressures, financial incentives, and inertia can push people into devoting their lives to work they find unfulfilling, while the things that would truly make them happy get neglected because the effort seems too daunting -- even when it is objectively less than what they already put in elsewhere.
The votey shows a man cheerfully asking, "Why isn't everyone a dirty joke writer?" This serves as a self-referential gag from SMBC creator Zach Weinersmith, implying that he has found the perfect career that combines passion with effort, or perhaps poking fun at the idea that writing crude jokes is one of the few pursuits where desire and effort naturally align.