2014-12-31
Explanation
The Joke
A child asks her father why people in old paintings have one hand tucked inside their shirts. The father explains that photos were more expensive back then, so if you needed a picture of yourself pointing a gun at people, you would go to a painter and have them paint your portrait. But nobody wants a portrait of himself pointing a gun, so people would hide the gun in their coats while being painted. In the final panel, the child asks her mother, "How does daddy know so much about history?" and the mother replies, "Daddy'''s mouth is a cesspool of lies."
The Humor
The comedy comes from the father giving a completely fabricated and absurd historical explanation with total confidence. The real reason many historical figures (most famously Napoleon) posed with a hand inside their coat was simply a fashionable pose convention of the era. The father'''s explanation -- that everyone was secretly holding guns -- is hilariously wrong and paints a picture of a much more violent past. The mother'''s blunt response ("Daddy'''s mouth is a cesspool of lies") serves as a deadpan correction and suggests this is a recurring pattern of the father making up ridiculous explanations for his curious child. This is a recurring SMBC format where a parent gives absurd answers to children'''s questions.
References
The comic references the common pose in 18th and 19th century portraiture where subjects placed one hand inside their waistcoat, known as the "hand-in-waistcoat" pose. It is most famously associated with Napoleon Bonaparte, though the convention predates him and was considered a sign of good breeding and composure.