lies
Explanation
The Joke
In the first panel, a man complains about women, saying "You know what I hate about women? They're always LYING to us through makeup. Trying to get us to believe something that's PATENTLY false." His friend asks, "What are you talking about?"
The comic then flashes back to "Earlier..." where a woman shows this same man something and he says, "You must've spent a long time on that." The reveal is that the woman has "9/11 was an inside job" written on her forehead in makeup. The man's complaint about women "lying through makeup" is not about beauty standards at all -- it is literally about a woman using her face as a billboard for a conspiracy theory.
The Humor
The comic performs a classic bait-and-switch. The opening panel sets up what sounds like a tired, sexist complaint about women wearing makeup to "deceive" men about their appearance -- a real talking point in certain online circles. The reader expects the comic to either endorse or satirize this position. Instead, the flashback reveals an entirely different and absurd scenario: the "lie" communicated through makeup is a 9/11 conspiracy theory written on someone's forehead. This completely recontextualizes the man's complaint from misogynistic grievance into a reasonable objection to face-based conspiracy propaganda, deflating the tension with surreal comedy.
The joke also works as a commentary on how loaded phrases like "lying through makeup" can sound reasonable in the abstract but become ridiculous when you examine the actual specifics.