Is this some homage to XKCD? Or to some other cultural reference? Why would stick figures be affected by a hot tub? What’s the problem with putting their heads in? Are those towels?
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Like humans, they go wrinkly when wet for too long, but unlike humans they lose structural integrity when that happens.
<nerd mode on> It is a very common misconception (especially among children) that prolonged exposure to bath (or pool) water causes the fingers to “shrink”, or “shrivel up” (like a raisin):
What actually happens is that the skin expands, so that the effective surface area of the fingertips is larger. Since the volume of the interior flesh and bone does not change, there is no longer enough material to fill up the expanded “envelope”, which produces the “raisin” effect. </nerd mode off>
@Kilby It gets even more interesting: the cause of this is not well understood, but it has apparently been established that there’s active brain involvement: people with limb damage that includes loss of feeling don’t “prune”. Very weird stuff.
The head in the water becomes hard-boiled?
Maybe they’re not eggs. They look more like silkworm cocoons to me. Although that would make a better joke if they were unraveling.
Although, since ‘to ravel’ is to unwind, maybe they’re raveling?
Perhaps they are effectively two-dimensional-like, being stick-figure cartoon characters, so the torso and limbs get floppy like spaghetti and the head gets warped like paper would be if dunked in hot water. And I expect those are towels.
I had a Dutch colleague who once referred to his fingers being “shrinkled” after he spent too long in a bath (I have an idea he dozed off).
BTW there’s a pump attached to the side of the hot tub and from the bubbles it seems as though it is working, so I expect the Stickpeeps would all be sucked into various holes long before they could get shrinkled, let alone clamber out.
@ Phil (3) – I’m not sure that it needs to be characterized as an active “brain” effect, but it seems rational that a certain amount of nerve and/or spinal cord activity might be needed to trigger (involuntary) muscle contractions that would lead to the “buckling” of the outer skin membrane. If the nerves are so damaged that they cannot transmit senses to the brain, then they are also disconnected from the involuntary mechanisms in the spinal cord.
Kilby: That makes perfect sense. If the finger somehow shrank, the skin would be too tight, not too loose (lautrec).
phsiiicidu: Now that is very strange.
George Costanza can explain the shrinkage effect on certain body parts.
A hand surgeon once told me that, since babies can’t tell you whether their hands feel right, they soak babies hands in water and watch for lack of wrinkling to indicate impaired nerve function.
Now go tell people you were just on an educational website.
Comics I Don't Understand 
Like humans, they go wrinkly when wet for too long, but unlike humans they lose structural integrity when that happens.
<nerd mode on> It is a very common misconception (especially among children) that prolonged exposure to bath (or pool) water causes the fingers to “shrink”, or “shrivel up” (like a raisin):
What actually happens is that the skin expands, so that the effective surface area of the fingertips is larger. Since the volume of the interior flesh and bone does not change, there is no longer enough material to fill up the expanded “envelope”, which produces the “raisin” effect. </nerd mode off>
@Kilby It gets even more interesting: the cause of this is not well understood, but it has apparently been established that there’s active brain involvement: people with limb damage that includes loss of feeling don’t “prune”. Very weird stuff.
The head in the water becomes hard-boiled?
Maybe they’re not eggs. They look more like silkworm cocoons to me. Although that would make a better joke if they were unraveling.
Although, since ‘to ravel’ is to unwind, maybe they’re raveling?
Perhaps they are effectively two-dimensional-like, being stick-figure cartoon characters, so the torso and limbs get floppy like spaghetti and the head gets warped like paper would be if dunked in hot water. And I expect those are towels.
I had a Dutch colleague who once referred to his fingers being “shrinkled” after he spent too long in a bath (I have an idea he dozed off).
BTW there’s a pump attached to the side of the hot tub and from the bubbles it seems as though it is working, so I expect the Stickpeeps would all be sucked into various holes long before they could get shrinkled, let alone clamber out.
@ Phil (3) – I’m not sure that it needs to be characterized as an active “brain” effect, but it seems rational that a certain amount of nerve and/or spinal cord activity might be needed to trigger (involuntary) muscle contractions that would lead to the “buckling” of the outer skin membrane. If the nerves are so damaged that they cannot transmit senses to the brain, then they are also disconnected from the involuntary mechanisms in the spinal cord.
Kilby: That makes perfect sense. If the finger somehow shrank, the skin would be too tight, not too loose (lautrec).
phsiiicidu: Now that is very strange.
George Costanza can explain the shrinkage effect on certain body parts.
A hand surgeon once told me that, since babies can’t tell you whether their hands feel right, they soak babies hands in water and watch for lack of wrinkling to indicate impaired nerve function.
Now go tell people you were just on an educational website.