2009-12-01
Explanation
This comic is a bar chart measuring "Awkwardness" on the Y-axis against "Phrases followed by 'just like in movies'" on the X-axis. Three bars of increasing height are shown with corresponding phrases: "Wow, you're an astronaut!" (low awkwardness), "Wow, you're homeless!" (medium awkwardness), and "Wow, you're a lesbian!" (high awkwardness).
The joke plays on the social faux pas of treating someone's real life as a form of entertainment. While saying "just like in movies" after learning someone is an astronaut is a fairly innocuous and even flattering comparison, applying the same phrase to someone who is homeless or a lesbian becomes increasingly inappropriate and offensive, as it reduces serious real-life experiences and identities to mere pop culture spectacle. The humor comes from the absurdity of imagining someone actually saying these things, and the graph format gives it a pseudo-scientific presentation that makes the social observation even funnier.
The votey panel lists "Useful Emotional Units" including "Anger: milliHulks (formerly milliHydes)," "Fear: deciPantscraps," and "Awkwardness: microWeiners," continuing the comic's theme of applying scientific-style measurement to inherently unmeasurable social and emotional phenomena.