2009-12-09
Explanation
This comic shows a couple in bed, with the man blurting out increasingly backhanded compliments during an intimate moment: "Oh! Oh, yeah! That's fairly good!" followed by "That's not so bad," and then "You're the third best sex partner I've ever had!" The caption below reads: "Wonder Woman no longer uses The Lasso of Truth for bondage play."
The joke operates on two levels. First, it plays on the concept of Wonder Woman's Lasso of Truth -- a magical rope that compels anyone bound by it to speak only the truth. When used in a bedroom context, the lasso forces the man to give brutally honest (and deeply unflattering) assessments rather than the enthusiastic affirmations one might normally offer. Second, the humor comes from the specific truths being revealed: lukewarm praise like "fairly good" and "not so bad" and the devastating ranking of "third best" are exactly the kind of honest thoughts that are meant to remain unspoken during intimacy.
The votey panel shows the comic's author thinking: "How can I get more readers? Philosophical observations? Mathematics? Naked female superhero? One of those..." This is a self-aware meta-joke about Weinersmith's creative process, suggesting he chose to go with the crowd-pleasing superhero route over his more typical intellectual fare, while acknowledging the somewhat lowbrow appeal of the comic.