2014-08-18
Explanation
The Joke
The comic presents a "linguistic idea": using the word "internship" as slang for any unpaid activity that benefits others. The example given is: "I have a three week internship with my in-laws this month."
The Humor
The joke works by drawing a parallel between the exploitative nature of unpaid internships and other unpaid obligations in life. An internship is typically an arrangement where a person does work that benefits an organization without receiving compensation, theoretically in exchange for "experience." Visiting in-laws is similarly an unpaid activity that benefits others (the in-laws) while being obligatory and often unpleasant for the person doing it. By extending the term "internship" to cover all such situations, the comic simultaneously highlights how absurd unpaid internships are (by comparing them to dreaded family obligations) and how dreaded family obligations are (by comparing them to unpaid labor). The bald man's resigned expression perfectly captures the weary acceptance common to both situations.