pipe
Explanation
This comic satirizes a certain brand of performative masculinity that rejects grooming and hygiene in the name of rugged manliness. A man announces that with his "newfound sense of masculine identity," he no longer needs to shower — he'll "just puff my pipe a few times and make some guttural noises." In the next panels, a woman complains about the terrible smell, and people around him point out that "everything smells bad now."
The man's response to criticism is telling: he grumbles incoherently. The final panel delivers the punchline through a woman who observes: "If you wanted to be attractive by doing less, you could expend literally any amount of effort on your personality or your sense of humor." This skewers the paradox at the heart of this particular masculine fantasy — the idea that rejecting effort (hygiene, grooming) is itself a form of attractiveness. The comic suggests that the "rugged man" aesthetic is really just laziness rebranded as identity, and that if these men truly wanted to attract others with minimal effort, there are far more effective (and less odorous) avenues available. The pipe is a nice touch — it's the one affectation they'll adopt, because it signals a nostalgic masculinity rather than requiring any real self-improvement.