2013-09-09
Explanation
This comic shows a father lecturing his son about online trolling. The father says, "I'''m disappointed, son. You know, when I was a lad, I surely never said something offensive just to elicit a reaction." The son protests, "Oh come on! Everyone does." The father then gleefully shouts, "PROVE ME WRONG BOY! PROVE ME WRONG. HAHA HAHAHA!" A caption at the bottom reads: "This is the best thing about having been a teen before social media."
The joke is a delicious bit of irony. The father is scolding his son for being a troll online -- someone who says provocative things just to get a reaction. But the father'''s triumphant "PROVE ME WRONG" challenge reveals that he is doing the exact same thing in the conversation itself. He is trolling his son in real time, making a deliberately unprovable claim just to enjoy his son'''s frustrated reaction. The father'''s advantage is that because he grew up before social media, there is no digital record of the stupid and offensive things he surely said as a teenager, making his claim of innocence unfalsifiable.
The votey panel shows someone asking, "So, no empathy then?" and the father replying "NEVER" with a smug expression. This confirms that the father is fully aware of his hypocrisy and is reveling in it. The comic captures a generational dynamic where older people lecture younger people about online behavior while conveniently enjoying the fact that their own youthful indiscretions were never recorded for posterity.