2014-08-21
Explanation
The Joke
A woman is feeling down, saying "Ugh, I feel like I don't matter. Better fire up Emotr." She opens an app on her phone that says "There are EMOTORS in the area within 0.7 miles." A transaction is made with an ETA of 37 seconds. She complains about waiting. Then a man arrives at her door and says: "Girl, you're great. You're good and you're good at what you do." She responds "Thanks" and tries to rate him, saying "Three stars." He protests: "No! Please! I'll be fired!" She settles on "Two stars." The final panel shows her saying contentedly, "Maybe I DO matter."
The Humor
The comic satirizes the gig economy and on-demand service apps (like Uber, DoorDash, etc.) by imagining an app called "Emotr" that dispatches people to give you emotional validation. The humor works on several levels: first, the absurdity of commodifying emotional support into an on-demand service. Second, the woman's entitled behavior -- she complains about a 37-second wait for someone to come validate her existence, and then gives a poor rating to the person who was genuinely kind to her. Third, the cruel irony that using the app makes her feel like she matters, but only because she now has power over someone else (the gig worker desperate not to lose his job over a low rating). The comic captures the dehumanizing dynamics of gig economy platforms where workers are at the mercy of arbitrary customer ratings.