The “willpower” line doesn’t really make sense to me. The fact that the legless mannequin is saying it, even less so.
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I think it’s just a play on “Power Suits.” A case of the cartoonist free-associating, “Power suit, electric suit, Will power suit!”
I’ll let someone else explain the legless mannequin (since I cannot), but the dialog and the “Willpower” sign boil down to “Pick a suit in the size you want to achieve. Once you’ve wasted all that money, your guilt will force you to diet until the suit fits.” This sort of “willpower” can also be described as “involuntary”.
Willpower suit – choose the size you want to be and your willpower suit will diet you to that size (or help you to eat you to that size, if you want to be bigger)
Kilby and Andrea explained the willpower joke, but the legless mannequin? No clue.
Not uncommon at all; used to save space in department stores.
“Not uncommon at all; used to save space in department stores.”
Sure, but not usually realistic animatronic figures, gesturing and speaking.
So my alternate theory was that this is a living person, an amputee who instead of a wheelchair or prosthetic legs, has been given an implanted pedestal base, and a job at the store.
Mitch4 – I like that theory. I’ll add that I bet those two white “flicks” at the bottom of the suit rack are actually jets, keeping him afloat.
“Kilby and Andrea explained the willpower joke, but the legless mannequin? No clue.”
Why does that need explaining?
A mannequin is used to show the buy what the suit looks like in use. In this case it will be a mannequin expressing statements of will power.
I didn’t think of the diet interpretation, just personal assertiveness pop psychology taken to a surrealistic extent by some marketing department — “If you *think* firmly enough that you are svelte and fit, you *will* be!” (If you still don’t fit into the suit, it’s because your willpower wasn’t strong enough to overcome boring old reality. Sucks to be you.)
Of course, that brings up the question of why the legless man doesn’t use comparable willpower to regrow legs (or, if it is an automation, to become human — although if it is an automation, maybe it wouldn’t want to be — “Ive got a good job, with all the electricity and lubrication oil and paint touchups I want; if I were a human I wouldn’t have it so good.”)
Mitch4, he chose the weight he wanted to be, and found the quickest way to that goal.
Annnd — I have a comment in moderation, probably because of an arguably naugty word. I should have just wrote “[Must be an unpleasent experience] to be you” instead of using a single common short word in its place.
Didn’t realize it was the mannequin talking; I thought it was the woman/wife behind him. Geez . . . that puts a whole different slant on this comic.
a play on “dress for the job you want, not the job you have”
Comics I Don't Understand 
I think it’s just a play on “Power Suits.” A case of the cartoonist free-associating, “Power suit, electric suit, Will power suit!”
I’ll let someone else explain the legless mannequin (since I cannot), but the dialog and the “Willpower” sign boil down to “Pick a suit in the size you want to achieve. Once you’ve wasted all that money, your guilt will force you to diet until the suit fits.” This sort of “willpower” can also be described as “involuntary”.
Willpower suit – choose the size you want to be and your willpower suit will diet you to that size (or help you to eat you to that size, if you want to be bigger)
Kilby and Andrea explained the willpower joke, but the legless mannequin? No clue.
Not uncommon at all; used to save space in department stores.
“Not uncommon at all; used to save space in department stores.”
Sure, but not usually realistic animatronic figures, gesturing and speaking.
So my alternate theory was that this is a living person, an amputee who instead of a wheelchair or prosthetic legs, has been given an implanted pedestal base, and a job at the store.
Mitch4 – I like that theory. I’ll add that I bet those two white “flicks” at the bottom of the suit rack are actually jets, keeping him afloat.
“Kilby and Andrea explained the willpower joke, but the legless mannequin? No clue.”
Why does that need explaining?
A mannequin is used to show the buy what the suit looks like in use. In this case it will be a mannequin expressing statements of will power.
I didn’t think of the diet interpretation, just personal assertiveness pop psychology taken to a surrealistic extent by some marketing department — “If you *think* firmly enough that you are svelte and fit, you *will* be!” (If you still don’t fit into the suit, it’s because your willpower wasn’t strong enough to overcome boring old reality. Sucks to be you.)
Of course, that brings up the question of why the legless man doesn’t use comparable willpower to regrow legs (or, if it is an automation, to become human — although if it is an automation, maybe it wouldn’t want to be — “Ive got a good job, with all the electricity and lubrication oil and paint touchups I want; if I were a human I wouldn’t have it so good.”)
Mitch4, he chose the weight he wanted to be, and found the quickest way to that goal.
Annnd — I have a comment in moderation, probably because of an arguably naugty word. I should have just wrote “[Must be an unpleasent experience] to be you” instead of using a single common short word in its place.
Didn’t realize it was the mannequin talking; I thought it was the woman/wife behind him. Geez . . . that puts a whole different slant on this comic.
a play on “dress for the job you want, not the job you have”
Methinks it is a play on the term “power suits”.