2009-09-21
Explanation
This comic plays on the idiom "the elephant in the room," which refers to an obvious problem that nobody wants to discuss. The caption reads: "When confronting your husband about his body image problem, choose your phrasing carefully." A woman sits on a bed and says to her husband Steve, "Steve... let's talk about the elephant in the room."
The humor comes from the double meaning of the phrase. In normal usage, "the elephant in the room" is a metaphor for any large, uncomfortable topic being ignored. But when directed at someone with a body image problem, the phrase takes on a cruelly literal connotation, implying the husband himself is the "elephant" -- that is, calling him fat. The wife has inadvertently chosen the worst possible phrasing for a sensitive conversation about weight.
The votey panel shows the woman trying to backpedal, saying "No! It's a metaphor for a big problem! A big jiggly tub of problem!" -- which only makes things worse, as her attempted correction keeps producing language that sounds like insults about his weight. Each attempt to clarify digs the hole deeper, reinforcing the comic's theme that some conversations are linguistic minefields.