Subject
Explanation
This comic satirizes the rigorous demands of experimental design by applying them to parenting.
In the first panel, a mother explains that she needs to have octuplets so she can use four children for experiments and four for a placebo control group. When asked if she's serious, she insists that you also need to randomize for each experiment, treat every non-treatment child as a control, and ensure the study is double-blind -- meaning neither the parent nor the children should know which group they're in.
In the final panel, a child says "I have so much to learn from you, Mom," and the mother replies "Yes, you do, Subject." The punchline is that she has already implemented the protocol: she refers to her child not by name but by experimental designation ("Subject"), confirming she truly has adopted a clinical researcher's mindset toward raising her children.
The humor comes from the absurdity of applying the gold standard of scientific methodology -- randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials -- to something as personal and emotional as raising children. It also plays on the common parental desire to figure out what works in child-rearing, taken to a comically extreme logical conclusion.