Addictive
Explanation
This comic highlights the strange double standard in how people talk about addictive products, particularly mobile games.
The top panel, labeled "Weirdly Acceptable," shows a person enthusiastically recommending a puzzle game to a friend: "Hey, try this puzzle game! It's suuuper addictive!" The friend appears receptive. In everyday conversation, describing something as "addictive" is treated as a positive selling point -- it means the game is engaging, compelling, and hard to put down.
The bottom panel, labeled "Weirdly Unacceptable," shows the same person making the exact same recommendation but describing the addiction honestly: "Hey, try this puzzle game! You'll stop brushing your teeth and maintaining friendships!" The friend has the same neutral expression, but the social context has shifted dramatically.
The joke is that both descriptions mean the same thing. If something is truly "addictive," it means it will consume your time and attention at the expense of basic self-care and social relationships -- which is exactly what addiction does. But we've collectively agreed to treat the word "addictive" as a compliment when applied to entertainment, stripping it of its actual clinical meaning.
The comic points out this linguistic sleight of hand: we enthusiastically promote products using a word that literally describes a destructive compulsion, and nobody bats an eye. But if you describe the actual consequences of that addiction in plain language, it sounds horrifying. Weiner is drawing attention to how the tech and gaming industries have successfully rebranded a harmful phenomenon as a feature.