The joke is the absurd and funny statement, "ladies, my wife is single (and you should date her (implied))". Basically they are best friends who broke up and now they are supporting the other dating by joking absurdity of the situation.
I guess they are acting right away instead of waiting for the paperwork to get sorted out.
Not really seeing this as a haha funny moment as much as it is two people who realize their marriage isn't going to work out having a calm and rational discussion followed by being supportive of each other. Well, it isn't long enough to show the passenger being supportive, but kind of assume they must be based on context.
The link has extra panels and a comment from the artists that explains it more. This isn’t a joke so much as it is explaining their situation in a joking manner.
Comics don't have to have a joke, they can just tell a story. This is a nice story of two people who care for and support each other in spite of discovering their selves and life goals don't sync with continuing the original relationship. They manage to break up the romance with each feeling freed rather than dumped, so they can continue to be friends. Hopefully their eventual new partners will appreciate this.
Do you still "dial" a phone number? We haven't used actual dials in forever.
Ever clicked a URL? Well, it's actually a URI now.
Ever seen a soap opera? They don't have anything to do with soap anymore.
I think from a technical standpoint, this is a cartoon, but that typically implies animation in the year 2024. Comic strip is acceptable lingo, even if the depiction lacks an overt comedic device.
There is an story that is being told, with events and a plot and characters, regardless of how brief it is. Your opinion on whether it's a good story or not doesn't matter.
Just realizing exactly what I miss most about Reddit.
Low effort or low quality content would get filtered out by getting down voted to hell or by being ground into obscurity by the new content coming in.
On Lemmy it stays on the front page for days, but that's not the worst part. The worst part is that the users are ready to fawn over a low effort, pointless piece of media just because it features gender identity. The user base here is so entrenched in its views and so incredibly, ridiculously biased that anything gets a pass as long as it checks the right box and features a pet issue.
If this comic featured a hetero couple it would rightly die in obscurity. Throw in some representation and Lemmy laps it up like mother's milk. That kind of gullibility keeps the content quality nice and low here. Subpar stories, videos, comics, memes, and any other kind of post fly on Lemmy as long as they feature trans people, support non-capitalist systems, or paint Israel in a bad light.
The problem with Lemmy is the users and their tolerance for low quality content. I'm actively looking for a non-reddit content aggregator, but until I find one I'm not going to put up with low quality content just because it checks the appropriate social issues box and I'm going to call out people who let shit fly just because it agrees with their agenda.
Comics aren't nerd anything, they've been mainstream since the 1930s, honey. And a large number of them haven't been comical, although there are plenty which are. This one may be modern but it's nothing really new. The same story could have played out in a hetero relationship between supportive adults as far back as my mother's era. I wasn't using her as an authority, just a representative of the populace. And to note that only a little child thinks comics have to be funny. This one may be modern but the story here isn't all that new. It's
personal and fresh to the author, and I'm happy for them that their life is working out so well, but the plotline is straight out of a 1950s romance comic.
Hey how about instead of picking fights on the Internet, or even while picking fights on the Internet, why don't you go to your nearest blood bank and donate a pint like I'm doing now?
Pretty sure it's that they were a lesbian couple but one realises they're a guy and the other realises they want kids so they break up but remain besties and try to set the other up
Part of the humor comes from subverting the expectations. You might expect this kind of conflict- that one wants kids the other doesn't, that one wants to change their gender expression into something the other doesn't like- to cause conflict. Fighting. Anger.
Instead they just fully support each other.
Further, it subverts the mainstream possessiveness of partners. It's very typical for people to be like "don't be interested in my partner!" Or to be very uncomfortable with their ex seeing other people. Instead, this person is being very supportive of their person.
A lot of behavior in typical monogamous relationships is really shitty and selfish.
It's not the funniest thing ever, but that's how I see the mechanics of it working. Subverting some relationship expectations.
The driver saying they don't line up with the passenger's preference is the driver thinking things should end for the benefit of the passenger. I'm pretty sure the driver is still into the passenger, so breaking up is for the benefit of the passenger.
The passenger wants kids and the driver doesn't. Breaking up is for the benefit of the passenger, not the driver.
So the driver is supportive of the passenger, but it is not reciprocated within this comic, including the extra panels.
It is still a positive outcome that is most likely a reflection of past support for each other that would add context, but if someone has only seen this one comic then it just looks like an amicable divorce with the driver hyping up their wife because the driver no longer align with their wife's wants and needs.