2014-05-12
Explanation
The Joke
A parent (who appears to be an alien or mad scientist type) is explaining the scientific method to their child. They walk through the steps: making observations ("Mommy and I are both biologically female"), forming hypotheses, testing them by ruling out factors, and isolating variables. At each step, the child enthusiastically agrees. Finally, the parent says "Let's test life-ruining decisions!" and the child excitedly agrees. The last panel reveals a dark twist — a banner reading something about rare weird offspring, suggesting the parent has been using the scientific method to justify increasingly extreme and questionable experiments on their own family.
The Humor
The comic satirizes the way the scientific method, while perfectly logical in abstract, can lead to horrifying conclusions when applied without ethical constraints. The parent methodically walks their child through proper scientific reasoning — observation, hypothesis, controlled variables, testing — which sounds admirable until you realize the "experiment" involves making deliberately destructive life choices. The child's enthusiastic compliance at every step parodies how easily people can be led down a terrible path when each individual logical step seems reasonable. It is also a commentary on a certain type of overly rationalist parent who treats family life as a series of experiments.