2014-03-12
Explanation
The Joke
A couple finishes a dinner date and a waiter presents them with a choice: they can either pay for dinner normally, or have dinner for free but listen to a commercial for products the waiter thinks they will like, based on the last three hours of conversation he has been listening to. The caption reads: "The future is terrible."
The Humor
The comic takes the modern internet business model -- where services are "free" in exchange for harvesting user data and serving targeted advertisements -- and transplants it into an in-person dining experience. The absurdity of a waiter openly admitting he has been eavesdropping on your personal conversation for three hours in order to serve you targeted ads highlights how invasive this practice is, even though most people accept it without question when it happens online. The caption "The future is terrible" underscores the dystopian nature of this arrangement. The joke works because the waiter is essentially doing exactly what apps and websites do, but making it viscerally uncomfortable by doing it face-to-face.
References
- The comic satirizes the "freemium" ad-supported business model popularized by companies like Google and Facebook, where users receive free services in exchange for their personal data being used for targeted advertising.