2009-10-13
Explanation
This comic shows a group of scientists sitting around a table discussing the need to make scientific terminology more accessible. One says, "We need to make terminology more accessible." Another asks, "What for?" The first responds with an example: "Well, for example, you never see a kid reading an ecology text with a smile on her face." A third scientist agrees: "Yeah, that's a fair point."
The caption below delivers the punchline: "Laugh if you must, but biology is a lot more fun since we changed 'mate' to 'bonerize.'" The joke is that the scientists' noble goal of making science accessible to children has been executed in the most juvenile way possible -- replacing a perfectly clinical term ("mate") with a crude, immature one ("bonerize"). It satirizes the tension between making science appealing and maintaining scientific dignity.
The votey panel shows someone watching a nature documentary and remarking, "And yet, somehow, David Attenborough is less hypnotic now." This extends the joke by imagining the beloved nature documentarian being forced to use the new terminology in his famously soothing narration, which would obviously undermine the gravitas he is known for.