positive
Explanation
The Joke
A young man tells his mother that he is having trouble in the real world and feels like nothing comes easily. His mother bursts into laughter, then launches into a series of flashbacks revealing that she encouraged him at everything throughout his childhood -- especially the things he was terrible at. She praised his awful drawings, told him he looked like Superman in a bad haircut, said girls would not be able to resist him, and called it a privilege to watch him grow into manhood.
In the final panels, the son has an epiphany: "Lies! All of it! Lies built atop a foundation of lies, resting on the bedrock of untruth!" He asks, devastated, "So... your relentless positivity... was for revenge?" His mother calmly replies: "It's surprisingly common among moms."
The Humor
The comic takes the common parental behavior of unconditional encouragement and reframes it as an elaborate, long-term prank. Every parent tells their child they are special, talented, and handsome, even when the evidence suggests otherwise. The humor comes from the son's sudden realization that all that positivity was not based in reality -- and his mother's cheerful, unapologetic admission that this is simply what mothers do. The joke works because it is simultaneously cynical and affectionate: the mom's encouragement was genuine love expressed through what amounts to a decades-long campaign of strategic dishonesty. The son's melodramatic reaction ("lies built atop a foundation of lies") plays against the mom's matter-of-fact acknowledgment that this is universal parenting behavior.
References
The comic touches on themes explored in psychology regarding the effects of unconditional positive regard versus realistic feedback on child development. It also plays on the cultural trope of the overly supportive mother and the millennial experience of feeling unprepared for adult life despite a childhood full of participation trophies and encouragement.