downhill
Explanation
This single-panel comic shows two men in conversation. One says: "Yes, I too have noticed that things have been going downhill ever since [FIRST YEAR I WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR MY OWN WELFARE]."
The caption below reads: "Android attempts to relate to us proved surprisingly insulting."
The joke operates on two levels. On the surface, it imagines a future where AI androids try to make small talk and empathize with humans by mimicking a common conversational complaint -- the "things have been going downhill" lament that people often make about society, culture, or the world in general. The android has identified the statistical pattern behind this complaint but expresses it too literally, exposing the uncomfortable truth: when people say "things have been going downhill," they usually mean "things have been going downhill since roughly the time I became an adult and started paying attention to problems."
The bracketed, italicized text "[FIRST YEAR I WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR MY OWN WELFARE]" represents the android's template variable -- it has correctly identified that this is a fill-in-the-blank sentiment where each person inserts their own date. The humor is in the android's failure to realize that stating the pattern explicitly is insulting, because it implies that the person's perception of decline is not objective but is merely a reflection of when adulthood's burdens began. It is a sharp observation about nostalgia bias and declinism wrapped in a sci-fi comedy premise.