the-real-world
Explanation
The Joke
This is a promotional comic for Zach Weinersmith's book "Soonish." The comic shows a parent (likely a mother) talking to a child about not doing homework. The mother warns that things are going to be much harder once the child is out in "the real world." The child asks "So?" and the mother explains that in the real world, it is not like school -- you wonder why you learned things from books, you wonder why you do things you hate, you wonder why you are making yourself do things that are unpleasant. Essentially, the mother describes adult life as being exactly the same misery as school, just without the structure.
The punchline twists expectations: instead of the standard parental lecture about how the real world demands discipline and hard work, the mother accidentally reveals that adult life is just as pointless and soul-crushing as the childhood drudgery she is trying to motivate the kid to endure. The child's reaction captures the dawning horror that it does not get better.
The Humor
The comic subverts the classic "wait until you get to the real world" parental threat by having the parent honestly describe adult life -- and in doing so, inadvertently proving that the child's instinct to avoid homework is actually the rational response. Instead of motivating the child, the mother's honesty reveals that the "real world" is just a continuation of doing things you hate for reasons you do not understand, which is darkly funny in its nihilistic accuracy. The final panel, which promotes the book "Soonish," ties the comic to a broader theme about how technology and the future might (or might not) rescue us from this cycle.