They are poison dart frogs. Barb is wordplay on dart. The frogs are poisonous,but all the other frogs are too, so the zingers, darts, barbed statements, whatever you call them, are not having the desired effect.
These are poison arrow frogs, known for people using their deadly defensive poison for arrows or darts. The play here is on “barbs” used metaphorically for insults and “barbs” used literally for pointed missiles like those which would be dipped in a poison arrow frog’s poison. The frogs’ comment about immunity refers to the general immunity of animals to their own poison, but really just serves to establish that “barbs” is being used literally here, a point that needs be made explicit because the context is a dinner party in which metaphorical “barbs” are much more likely – if the frog is talking about immunity, it must be talking about poison darts or arrows, because while a frog may be immune to its own poison no creature is immune to hurtful jokes.
I expect the explanations are correct. But I was still trying to figure out if those were frogs or reptiles. And aren’t poison arrow frogs brightly colored?
“aren’t poison arrow frogs brightly colored?”
Well, the ones in the background are bright yellow, I guess.
Emerald green is a colour.
Common knowledge and parlance in the Internet Age is strange.
One might think poison darter frogs are too obscure for this sort of far sidish nature joke but, for one reason or another, I think poison darter frogs, like honey badgers and lygers, are a thing now. And ironic self-recognition of sarcastic banter is the way we talk now.
So this joke is acceptable by the standards of the time but really seems like it shouldn’t be.
I had not heard that the toxins were the result of diet. Wikipedia states that as well.
Woozy: Not picking a fight, just curious: “lygers”? The Goog mostly just finds “ligers”, of which I was ware. (Not to be confused with Tigons, which sound like either a laundry soap or a race on Star Trek!)
I don’t know why I chose “lygers”. Maybe I wanted to honor William Blake. “liger” looks too ambiguous and … weird and ugly to me … like spelling the gerund of to die and “dying” rather than “dieing”, “lyger” look good to me…. But it’s obviously more commonly spelled “ligers”. After all, it is a contraction and you can’t have a contraction if you don’t spell the original words correctly.
My bad. I won’t fight with you.
How unPollackian of you.
woozy: Ah, cool. I just wasn’t sure whether that was what you mean! I agree, “lyger” looks better.
‘Lyger, lyger, burning bright’ does have a certain panache to it . . .
@ larK: LOL
Lyger, Lyger, burning bright,
Your other spelling doesn’t look right.
But it doesn’t really matter, you see,
As you also have f**ked up ancestry.
Comics I Don't Understand 
They are poison dart frogs. Barb is wordplay on dart. The frogs are poisonous,but all the other frogs are too, so the zingers, darts, barbed statements, whatever you call them, are not having the desired effect.
These are poison arrow frogs, known for people using their deadly defensive poison for arrows or darts. The play here is on “barbs” used metaphorically for insults and “barbs” used literally for pointed missiles like those which would be dipped in a poison arrow frog’s poison. The frogs’ comment about immunity refers to the general immunity of animals to their own poison, but really just serves to establish that “barbs” is being used literally here, a point that needs be made explicit because the context is a dinner party in which metaphorical “barbs” are much more likely – if the frog is talking about immunity, it must be talking about poison darts or arrows, because while a frog may be immune to its own poison no creature is immune to hurtful jokes.
I expect the explanations are correct. But I was still trying to figure out if those were frogs or reptiles. And aren’t poison arrow frogs brightly colored?
“aren’t poison arrow frogs brightly colored?”
Well, the ones in the background are bright yellow, I guess.
Emerald green is a colour.
Common knowledge and parlance in the Internet Age is strange.
One might think poison darter frogs are too obscure for this sort of far sidish nature joke but, for one reason or another, I think poison darter frogs, like honey badgers and lygers, are a thing now. And ironic self-recognition of sarcastic banter is the way we talk now.
So this joke is acceptable by the standards of the time but really seems like it shouldn’t be.
I had not heard that the toxins were the result of diet. Wikipedia states that as well.
Woozy: Not picking a fight, just curious: “lygers”? The Goog mostly just finds “ligers”, of which I was ware. (Not to be confused with Tigons, which sound like either a laundry soap or a race on Star Trek!)
I don’t know why I chose “lygers”. Maybe I wanted to honor William Blake. “liger” looks too ambiguous and … weird and ugly to me … like spelling the gerund of to die and “dying” rather than “dieing”, “lyger” look good to me…. But it’s obviously more commonly spelled “ligers”. After all, it is a contraction and you can’t have a contraction if you don’t spell the original words correctly.
My bad. I won’t fight with you.
How unPollackian of you.
woozy: Ah, cool. I just wasn’t sure whether that was what you mean! I agree, “lyger” looks better.
‘Lyger, lyger, burning bright’ does have a certain panache to it . . .
@ larK: LOL
Lyger, Lyger, burning bright,
Your other spelling doesn’t look right.
But it doesn’t really matter, you see,
As you also have f**ked up ancestry.