optimism
Explanation
This comic presents a graph titled "The Single-Factor Case for Optimism." The Y-axis measures "the ratio of spankings that are for corporal punishment to spankings that are a weird sex thing," and the X-axis is simply "time." The line shows a steep decline over time, indicating that as time progresses, the proportion of spankings that are punitive has dropped dramatically relative to those that are consensual adult activities.
The humor comes from presenting a genuinely optimistic trend -- the decline of corporal punishment -- through the most awkward possible framing. The graph is technically correct: as societies have moved away from physically punishing children, the remaining instances of spanking are increasingly between consenting adults. By calling this "the single-factor case for optimism," the comic argues that even if you could only look at one data point to determine whether humanity is progressing, this embarrassingly specific metric would still show clear improvement. It's a characteristic Weinersmith move of finding a real insight buried inside a deliberately uncomfortable joke.