licorice
Explanation
The Joke
A Victorian-era man with a mustache exclaims in shock: "You did WHAT?! It''d cost a week''s wages to buy that much licorice! Not to mention the MONTH that''d be lost to knitting it!" The caption below reads: "Edible underwear was much less popular in the 1890s."
The Humor
The comic imagines what edible underwear -- a novelty intimate product -- would have been like in the 1890s. The humor works on multiple levels. First, there is the anachronism of applying a modern novelty product concept to the Victorian era, a period famously associated with sexual repression and propriety. Second, the practical absurdities are highlighted: in the 1890s, wages were far lower, so the amount of licorice needed to construct underwear would represent a significant financial investment ("a week''s wages"). Third, and most amusingly, the underwear would have to be hand-knitted from licorice rather than simply molded, adding an enormous labor cost ("a month"). The Victorian gentleman''s outrage is directed entirely at the impracticality and expense rather than at the sexual nature of the product, which adds another layer of comedy.