2009-09-17
Explanation
The comic opens with a "Life Tip" banner that reads: "With a little thought, any personal failing can be disguised as a success." Below, a disheveled, wild-eyed man proudly announces: "Guess who quit cocaine THREE TIMES today!"
The humor lies in the reframing of a serious addiction problem as an achievement. Quitting cocaine three times in a single day means the person also relapsed at least twice that same day, which is clearly a failure. But by focusing on the number of times he "quit," he spins it as an impressive feat of willpower. The comic satirizes the self-help tendency to put a positive spin on everything, taken to an absurd extreme where even active drug addiction can be reframed as a success story.
The votey shows the same man looking exhausted, saying "Ugh. I'm tired. I'm gonna go quit again," which confirms that "quitting" for him simply means taking a brief break before using again. The cycle of quitting and relapsing has become so rapid that quitting is essentially just a pause between hits, further driving home the dark absurdity of the joke.