Explain SMBC — the wiki for Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

virtual

2023-06-22 View on smbc-comics.com → 1 revision
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virtual
Votey panel for virtual
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Explanation

The comic shows someone wearing a VR headset being confronted by another person: "Ted! Are you in the VR suit again?" Ted responds: "Please don't look at the file, it's embarrassing." The other person retorts: "You think I wanna see the weird shit you get up to?" They then look at the file and discover that Ted's VR world contains: "You have... your adorable family, friends, grandma, your childhood bedroom..." Ted's virtual reality isn't anything salacious -- it's a recreation of warm family moments and meaningful relationships. The person is moved: "Ted, this is beautiful. You love your grandma, your family, and find your experiences meaningful--" Ted interrupts from the headset: "Oh yes, we just didn't want you to see it."

The comic subverts the expected VR joke. The standard setup -- someone caught using VR with embarrassing content -- almost always leads to a punchline about pornography or some other shameful indulgence. Instead, Ted's "embarrassing" secret is that he uses VR to recreate wholesome family memories and spend time with loved ones. The real joke is that in our culture, genuine emotional vulnerability and sentimentality are considered more embarrassing than sexual deviance. Ted would rather people assume he's doing something sexual in VR than discover that he deeply loves his grandmother and treasures his childhood memories. The comic comments on how modern culture -- especially male culture -- treats open displays of emotional attachment and nostalgia as more socially awkward than almost anything else.

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