2013-10-14
Explanation
This single-panel comic depicts a classic sitcom trope turned on its head. A man walks into a bedroom to find his two partners -- another man and a woman -- in bed together. The man in bed throws up his hands and shouts "It's not what it looks like!" The man who walked in sighs and says "It's getting old, Frank." The caption below reads: "If I were in a trio marriage, I would never stop making this joke."
The humor comes from the subversion of the classic infidelity-discovery scene. In a traditional marriage, walking in on your spouse in bed with someone else would be a genuine crisis. But in a three-person marriage (a polyamorous triad), all three people are already in a relationship together, so there is nothing scandalous about two of them being in bed. Frank's exclamation "It's not what it looks like!" is therefore a deliberately absurd running gag -- he keeps pretending there is something illicit happening when there obviously is not. The other husband's weary response tells us Frank has been doing this bit repeatedly and it has long since worn out its welcome.
The votey panel shows "The shape of today's blanket" with an irregularly shaped purple blanket, adding a relatable domestic joke about how blankets never stay properly shaped when shared in bed -- a problem presumably made even worse with three people sharing covers.