2009-12-21
Explanation
This comic depicts two bearded men stranded on a desert island. One man holds up a piece of paper to the other that reads "Mmm, that feels nice, young lady." The caption below explains: "One of the hardest things to recreate on the desert island was cybersex."
The humor comes from the absurd attempt to simulate online sexual chat (cybersex) using the only available technology on a desert island -- handwritten notes passed between two men. The joke plays on the contrast between the digital anonymity that makes cybersex possible (where participants can pretend to be anyone) and the decidedly un-anonymous, in-person reality of two castaways awkwardly passing notes to each other while pretending to be someone they are not.
The votey panel shows one of the bearded men sitting at what appears to be a makeshift computer, with a note reading "18/f/Japan" -- the classic internet chatroom shorthand for "18 years old / female / Japan." This is a continuation of the joke, showing that the men have gone so far in recreating the cybersex experience that they are even replicating the well-known phenomenon of people lying about their age, sex, and location in chat rooms. The old bearded castaway claiming to be an 18-year-old Japanese woman is the final absurd touch.