Why does he seem unhappy? This is awesome.
We didn’t have this precise experience, but I do remember before some family event telling my son it was time I taught him how to tie his own tie and he said “That’s okay, I learned how on YouTube yesterday.”
Comics I Don't Understand 
I don’t see unhappy. I see mild curiosity.
I agree with 1958fury @1: nobody looks unhappy at all. To me, the mother looks “stunned”, and the father appears bemused. I think the kid has already quit reading the tutorial, and has gone back to playing Angry Birds.
P.S. I wouldn’t want the kid using the device while he’s sitting there, given the danger of it getting dunked.
“Why does he seem unhappy? This is awesome.”
It’s only awesome if he’s learned correctly (as defined by the parents). If the video he learned from is some conspiracy channel that teaches you to be afraid of “big plumbing” and avoid using their products by saving your output in jars in the back of the closet…
Using the Internet as a surrogate parent is a very sketch proposition.
YouTube videos aren’t without danger. I had a client who took his computer under the sink to watch a video on how to fix his sink. He then took off the u-bend and dumped a sink full of water into the computer. Fortunately, his policy covered stupidity, so he got a settlement (minus deductible).
The facial expressions are ambiguous, but the phrase “we’re too late” does express unhappiness. Which, as Bill said, is ridiculous. “No need! He’s already watching…” might have been a better wording.
When I got my first “real” job at MegaCorp (actually my only one as I worked there until retirement) I bought work-appropriate clothes including ties. As I got dressed on the first day, I realized that I didn’t know how to do a knot. This being before the web, and too little time to try to contact anyone, I had to wing it. After a few attempts, I came up with something like a 4-in-hand. Close enough.
https://www.realmenrealstyle.com/how-to-tie-a-tie/#four
Later I learned the half-Windsor, which I used from then on.
Since YouTube wasn’t around in the 1970s…
At age 17, I’d never needed to tie my own tie.
I was out of town overnight on my own for the first time in my life, for a college interview. Come morning, I was getting dressed for the interview, then suddenly realized I HAD NO IDEA HOW TO TIE MY TIE. It just hadn’t occurred to any of us.
(And this is why I wanted to make sure my kids knew how)
Not being a parent myself, I can only surmise that potty training a kid is a rite of passage of sorts. The parents feel left out now that the kid had learned it on YouTube.
@ Brian & Bill – If you are worried about whether you are doing it “correctly”, there is always this invaluable reference.
P.S. I’ve read it and it is mildly amusing, but my copy is in German.
It’s been a while since I had one on. MegaCorp went to casual attire in 1997 and now I’m no longer working anywhere. I think the last time I had a tie on was at a 50th anniversary celebration for my aunt and uncle in 2008 or so. If I need one again, I’ll go with what I know.
Back around 1970 I was a grad student at the U of Arizona and worked part-time at the campus library. Tucson is hot and I’ve never been a formal dress kind of guy, but one day in a weak moment I decided to “dress up” to the extent of a turtleneck and sport jacket. (O.K., folks, YES I wore trousers too, happy now?) Anyway, bad move; my super suddenly felt she couldn’t ‘ignore’ the problem any more and told me that state law mandated that male government employees (apparently I counted even though I don’t think teachers or T.A.s did) were required to wear ties.
Fortunately, this being Arizona, string ties were officially acceptable. So I bought one; wore it with short and trou (no more sport jackets) for the rest of the term; took it with me when I moved back to Minnesota and still have it and have never since worn any other sort of tie (not that I often did before). I think the last time I wore even the string tie was to a funeral six or seven years ago.
It’s well known that ties (of any sort) are dangerous, since an enemy can grab it and choke you while thrusting a knife into you. So caution is advised.
I actually know how to tie a bow tie.
It’s really the same as a tie-your-shoes knot. The secret, though, and nobody tells you this, is that on one side the loop ends up in front of the loose end and on the other side the loose end ends up in front of the loop. It is impossible for it to be otherwise. Clip-on bow ties have both loops in front of the loose ends.
Never wore a tie. I’ve worn a (real: asked my mother how my grandfather tied it) bow tie for a few job interviews, usually the unsuccessful ones (I had to prove once it was real and I could tie it myself). Last time I wore it was at an (American) cousin’s wedding 10 years ago: it was not a formal wedding but I cleverly asked the meaning of that and the answer was “no tux”, so, yes, a tie (and a suit: yikes!) was required.
I wore a tie on the handful of occasions I wore an Air National Guard dress uniform, a handful of job interviews, and, the only one in the last two decades, at my daughter’s wedding. Fortunately, there was a stylist to make sure I was doing it right. (I never did learn to tie one myself, and I don’t consider the inability to be significant.)
I vowed never again to wear a mandatory tie outside theater productions after a slimy knife selling job “interview” my mother made me go to that advertised tie required for the “interview” — I felt like such crap after having been conned into wasting my time for a high pressure sales pitch to become a slimy knife salesman, I vowed to stay true to my principles from then on, and if anyone didn’t like that I wasn’t wearing a tie, then that should be a sure sign that they are not worth working for to begin with. I was pulled into being best man at a wedding once where I had some serious self-debate about how much a wedding is basically a theatrical production; in the end, I rented a nice suit with one of those jeweled studs on the collar button (so no tie), and was better dressed than the groom…
It’s not that I won’t wear a tie, it’s just that I want that fashion choice to be fully my own.
It’s like a friend of mine, who didn’t want to go to his law school graduation formal because he wouldn’t wear a mandatory tux: when all his friends got the mandatory tux requirement removed for him, then he considered actually wearing a tux….
Was the KNIFE slimy, or the job selling it?
I can relate, James: at my cousin’s son’s bar mitzvah a few years ago, I made such a mess of mine that mg cousin re-did it for me right in the lobby of the temple. As if he didn’t have anything else to do at the time.
Well, at least he is reading in the bathroom.