The usual joke is that the therapist is writing disparaging comments while the client is talking – “What a loser” and such. The client is amazed that the therapist is actually honestly trying to help them.
Brian probably has it @1, but it was the shift to the plural “them” that made this one unintelligible for me. I could understand the pronoun if this was a marriage counselor, but the first panel makes it appear that work is his primary concern, and I wouldn’t think that a personal psychiatrist would be that concerned about the whole office, unless he was doing group therapy.
I sort of thought it was that the comments are one part bland positive statements and one part doodles, suggesting the therapist is not paying much attention, has no insights, and is not doing anything to actually help the client
I’d agree with CoW, except that the guy looks surprised. Isn’t inattention, indifference, and futility, what we expect from therapists?
I think Cream of Wheat has it and the use of “them” is just more proof that the therapist is paying no attention to the patient.
Normally, you assume that a pshrink is taking detailed notes about each patient. This guys notes, in total, is three sentances, plus a LOT of doodles, to cover all his patients. Ruh-roh.
I think it’s the plural “they,” because these are just generic notes for the therapist to remind him/her what to say to any patient; they weren’t written for this specific patient. Whenever a patient comes in and says something like “I’m not as anxious at work. . .,” and the therapist doesn’t listen, but just glances at his/her notes to say “Oh, you’re greatly improved. I’m so impressed and happy for you.”
If the cartoonist was trying to present a positive picture of the therapist, he wouldn’t have put all the doodles on the notes.
Downpuppy, this sort of inattention is what we expect in cartoons, so isn’t much of a surprise. Hopefully in real life, you expect more from a therapist.
I vaguely thought the “them” meant that the shrink’s *real* customers (they’re paying the bills, they’re the ones the shrink is concerned for) are the patient’s co-workers, who are ‘doing their best’ to be up with a jerk, but I couldn’t quite make that interpretation work. (I don’t think the consensus *real* interpretation here works well or is very interesting either, though.)
I think Winter Wallaby has it, this is a pre-printed selection of generic sentences and the therapist was just doodling the whole time.
BTW, I was confused at first, I thought this was a work-evaluation interview at the guy’s job. Only the comments told me it was a therapy session. The seating seems very casual.
I’m pretty sure it’s singular “them”. I’ve noticed that Maximumble seems to have been making its characters gender-neutral for a little while now. This wouldn’t be the first use of singular “they” in the strip.
(And before anyone complains about singular “they”, just remember: it’s older than singular “you”.)
It seems to me that when I, and other English-speakers use singular, gender-neutral “they,” it indicates that the person being talked about is somewhat anonymous, and/or that who the person is isn’t particularly relevant to the conversation. “I know someone who’s an expert on cheese, and they told me that all the cheesmongers are obsessed with the cheddar scandal” sounds right to me, because the listener isn’t supposed to know or care who the expert is. But “I talked with Angela, and they’re pretty happy with their cheese-of-the-month club” sounds wrong (although not as wrong as “deers” [*]), because the speaker has specified a specific 3rd person with a specific gender. I don’t mean “wrong” from a “prescriptivist” point of view, but rather that it doesn’t sound like typical English usage to me.
[*] I guess today is “plurals” usage day at CIDU.
” But ‘I talked with Angela, and they’re pretty happy with their cheese-of-the-month club’ sounds wrong”
What that sounds like to me is that Angela is speaking for some other people as well as herself.
This isn’t a therapist. This is a worker’s evaluation with a supervisor.
The joke is that the worker is being held to an exacting standard (anxiety of giving a presentation, a reasonable shortcoming, is viewed as a problem and a concern) whereas the supervisor is not being held to any standard (he has the vocabulary and attention span of an eight-year old). It’s unfair and exasperating that the worker is evaluated an difficult emotional tasks and standards but the supervisor is under no such standards.
Oh, maybe it is a therapist.
But the joke is the same. He’s paying for advise and therapy from a person who is woefully ill-equipped and not sophisticated to make any but the most childish observations.
The notepad is a PowerPoint slide. The clue is “when I have to make a presentation at a meeting.” The therapist pre-wrote the slide, as one does, so as to remember what to do and say (regardless of what the patient said, probably) and then did what one does while listening to a presentation instead of paying attention to it: he doodled all over the page.
I’m thinking it’s a therapist as he says, “I’m not as anxious at work…”. If it’s his supervisor, he wouldn’t need to specify that as it would be understood.
I thought the ‘they’ was perhaps that the patient has just discovered he has a split personality. The doodles are just, as a lot of people have said, inattention and lack of interest on the therapist’s part. He’s not really interested in taking care of the bigger problem.
Okay, I’m now becoming persuaded it is as Cream of Wheat says. The shrink isn’t paying attention and just has blanket non-specific words of encouragement.
It’s really pretty tepid as a joke. After all who *hasn’t* thought of that. And for a web comic surely all the readers expect much more cynical. Can’t imagine anyone being surprised by this.
Comics I Don't Understand 
The usual joke is that the therapist is writing disparaging comments while the client is talking – “What a loser” and such. The client is amazed that the therapist is actually honestly trying to help them.
Brian probably has it @1, but it was the shift to the plural “them” that made this one unintelligible for me. I could understand the pronoun if this was a marriage counselor, but the first panel makes it appear that work is his primary concern, and I wouldn’t think that a personal psychiatrist would be that concerned about the whole office, unless he was doing group therapy.
I sort of thought it was that the comments are one part bland positive statements and one part doodles, suggesting the therapist is not paying much attention, has no insights, and is not doing anything to actually help the client
I’d agree with CoW, except that the guy looks surprised. Isn’t inattention, indifference, and futility, what we expect from therapists?
I think Cream of Wheat has it and the use of “them” is just more proof that the therapist is paying no attention to the patient.
Normally, you assume that a pshrink is taking detailed notes about each patient. This guys notes, in total, is three sentances, plus a LOT of doodles, to cover all his patients. Ruh-roh.
I think it’s the plural “they,” because these are just generic notes for the therapist to remind him/her what to say to any patient; they weren’t written for this specific patient. Whenever a patient comes in and says something like “I’m not as anxious at work. . .,” and the therapist doesn’t listen, but just glances at his/her notes to say “Oh, you’re greatly improved. I’m so impressed and happy for you.”
If the cartoonist was trying to present a positive picture of the therapist, he wouldn’t have put all the doodles on the notes.
Downpuppy, this sort of inattention is what we expect in cartoons, so isn’t much of a surprise. Hopefully in real life, you expect more from a therapist.
I vaguely thought the “them” meant that the shrink’s *real* customers (they’re paying the bills, they’re the ones the shrink is concerned for) are the patient’s co-workers, who are ‘doing their best’ to be up with a jerk, but I couldn’t quite make that interpretation work. (I don’t think the consensus *real* interpretation here works well or is very interesting either, though.)
I think Winter Wallaby has it, this is a pre-printed selection of generic sentences and the therapist was just doodling the whole time.
BTW, I was confused at first, I thought this was a work-evaluation interview at the guy’s job. Only the comments told me it was a therapy session. The seating seems very casual.
I’m pretty sure it’s singular “them”. I’ve noticed that Maximumble seems to have been making its characters gender-neutral for a little while now. This wouldn’t be the first use of singular “they” in the strip.
(And before anyone complains about singular “they”, just remember: it’s older than singular “you”.)
It seems to me that when I, and other English-speakers use singular, gender-neutral “they,” it indicates that the person being talked about is somewhat anonymous, and/or that who the person is isn’t particularly relevant to the conversation. “I know someone who’s an expert on cheese, and they told me that all the cheesmongers are obsessed with the cheddar scandal” sounds right to me, because the listener isn’t supposed to know or care who the expert is. But “I talked with Angela, and they’re pretty happy with their cheese-of-the-month club” sounds wrong (although not as wrong as “deers” [*]), because the speaker has specified a specific 3rd person with a specific gender. I don’t mean “wrong” from a “prescriptivist” point of view, but rather that it doesn’t sound like typical English usage to me.
[*] I guess today is “plurals” usage day at CIDU.
” But ‘I talked with Angela, and they’re pretty happy with their cheese-of-the-month club’ sounds wrong”
What that sounds like to me is that Angela is speaking for some other people as well as herself.
This isn’t a therapist. This is a worker’s evaluation with a supervisor.
The joke is that the worker is being held to an exacting standard (anxiety of giving a presentation, a reasonable shortcoming, is viewed as a problem and a concern) whereas the supervisor is not being held to any standard (he has the vocabulary and attention span of an eight-year old). It’s unfair and exasperating that the worker is evaluated an difficult emotional tasks and standards but the supervisor is under no such standards.
Oh, maybe it is a therapist.
But the joke is the same. He’s paying for advise and therapy from a person who is woefully ill-equipped and not sophisticated to make any but the most childish observations.
The notepad is a PowerPoint slide. The clue is “when I have to make a presentation at a meeting.” The therapist pre-wrote the slide, as one does, so as to remember what to do and say (regardless of what the patient said, probably) and then did what one does while listening to a presentation instead of paying attention to it: he doodled all over the page.
I’m thinking it’s a therapist as he says, “I’m not as anxious at work…”. If it’s his supervisor, he wouldn’t need to specify that as it would be understood.
I thought the ‘they’ was perhaps that the patient has just discovered he has a split personality. The doodles are just, as a lot of people have said, inattention and lack of interest on the therapist’s part. He’s not really interested in taking care of the bigger problem.
Okay, I’m now becoming persuaded it is as Cream of Wheat says. The shrink isn’t paying attention and just has blanket non-specific words of encouragement.
It’s really pretty tepid as a joke. After all who *hasn’t* thought of that. And for a web comic surely all the readers expect much more cynical. Can’t imagine anyone being surprised by this.