People who are workaholics can’t take time off from work to go to a meeting about something that isn’t work.
Conference calls actually exist, but someone who is too dedicated to work to show up in person to their Workaholics Anonymous meeting has a problem.
I know it’s absurdist humor…but I get stuck on – who brought in all those laptops and assembled them in a circle and set up the conference call? I can handle the coffee and tissues, but… (OK, I’m a computer tech. It’s my own specialties that drive me nuts with these things).
“Umm… conference calls actually exist”
Umm…. and….?
I don’t think the joke is supposed to be what a funny idea it would be if workaholics used their computers to communicate in some strange distance conference via calling and what a weird concept “conference calling” would be. I think the joke is simply that workaholics would be so busy they’d use conference calling (which the cartoonist is fully aware exists) for their self-help meetings.
I think there’s confusion between conference calling (which is voice-only) and teleconferencing (which is voice and video, and usually also PowerPoint.)
Conference calling has been around for 6 or 7 decades. Teleconferencing is only a couple of decades old. (but neither one is the point of this cartoon).
Though isn’t some portion of the joke in that this is not how you set up teleconferencing?
Reminds me of a comic (or maybe a movie scene) from “the old days” of the professor lecturing, there are no students there, just tape recorders at each seat.
This looks more like Skype than a teleconference.
Meryl A, that joke is in the great movie “Real Genius” where as the movie progresses more and more students leave tape recorders on their seats, until the professor lectures via tape to the tape recorders of the students.
Since there is no one at the table, I’d guess that the faces in the laptops are all bots. I’ve been on many calls where that would be a great time saver.
“O.K., that completes the business portion of this get-together. Now, it’s time for our traditional post-meeting orgy! So, who wants to . . . wait a minute. . . I don’t think this is going to work. . . .”
Thank you Scott – and we just saw RG within the last month.
Comics I Don't Understand 
People who are workaholics can’t take time off from work to go to a meeting about something that isn’t work.
Conference calls actually exist, but someone who is too dedicated to work to show up in person to their Workaholics Anonymous meeting has a problem.
I know it’s absurdist humor…but I get stuck on – who brought in all those laptops and assembled them in a circle and set up the conference call? I can handle the coffee and tissues, but… (OK, I’m a computer tech. It’s my own specialties that drive me nuts with these things).
“Umm… conference calls actually exist”
Umm…. and….?
I don’t think the joke is supposed to be what a funny idea it would be if workaholics used their computers to communicate in some strange distance conference via calling and what a weird concept “conference calling” would be. I think the joke is simply that workaholics would be so busy they’d use conference calling (which the cartoonist is fully aware exists) for their self-help meetings.
I think there’s confusion between conference calling (which is voice-only) and teleconferencing (which is voice and video, and usually also PowerPoint.)
Conference calling has been around for 6 or 7 decades. Teleconferencing is only a couple of decades old. (but neither one is the point of this cartoon).
Though isn’t some portion of the joke in that this is not how you set up teleconferencing?
Reminds me of a comic (or maybe a movie scene) from “the old days” of the professor lecturing, there are no students there, just tape recorders at each seat.
This looks more like Skype than a teleconference.
Meryl A, that joke is in the great movie “Real Genius” where as the movie progresses more and more students leave tape recorders on their seats, until the professor lectures via tape to the tape recorders of the students.
Since there is no one at the table, I’d guess that the faces in the laptops are all bots. I’ve been on many calls where that would be a great time saver.
“O.K., that completes the business portion of this get-together. Now, it’s time for our traditional post-meeting orgy! So, who wants to . . . wait a minute. . . I don’t think this is going to work. . . .”
Thank you Scott – and we just saw RG within the last month.