2014-06-23
Explanation
The Joke
The title reads "Divorce Strategy: Make the Most of Your Custody Time." A mother is talking to her child and asks, "So, has Daddy shown you his real face yet?" The child asks, "What face?" The mother replies, "The one he hides under the mask."
The Humor
The comic satirizes the way some divorced parents use their custody time to poison their children against the other parent. The title frames this as a helpful "strategy" guide, as if undermining your ex-spouse is a legitimate parenting tactic. The mother's comment about Daddy's "real face" that he "hides under the mask" is deliberately creepy and designed to terrify the child, implying that the father is secretly some kind of monster. The humor is dark — it takes the real and damaging phenomenon of parental alienation (where one parent systematically turns a child against the other) and exaggerates it to an absurd, horror-movie level. The child's innocent confusion ("What face?") highlights how manipulative and harmful this behavior is, especially to a young child who takes things literally.