by zbicyclist

What a Setup

I don’t understand the setup here. Some guesses:

  1. This is a couple meeting with a financial advisor, and they’ve just described their expectations for their investments. But why the guy with the laptop on the right?
  2. This is a divorcing couple meeting with a mediator, or the woman in pink is getting divorced, the guy in the suit is her lawyer, the woman in red is the opposing lawyer, and the man with the laptop is taking notes.
  3. Commenters on GoComics seem to think this is an annual performance review. But the only performance reviews I ever gave or had that involved more than just supervisor and employee were when we needed HR in the room and security nearby because we were firing someone and they needed to leave immediately. And that wouldn’t involve expectations.

6 Comments

  2. Unknown's avatar

    I had trouble with a low-level ambiguity (on the word “with”), which goes on to affect the entire apparent backstory.

    So, I wouldn’t want to meet those expectations if they were (personified and) carrying a loaded gun as they approached me in a public park. Or, I wouldn’t want to meet those expectations if they were (personified and) approaching me in a public park, (even if) when I was carrying a loaded gun — they are so much more threatening.

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  3. Unknown's avatar

    I think this is more about the wordplay than the precise scenario. The parties are engaged in a negotiation, and the speaker is disparaging the unreasonable expectations of the other side. It isn’t clear just what kind of negotiation, but I took it to be about arranging some kind of high end services arrangement. It’s also possible, and perhaps more likely, that the speaker is a financial advisor, real estate agent, or similar. It is probably not a divorce, since the speaker is not accompanied by a lawyer (or a client, if she is the lawyer), and it does not look or sound like a performance review.

    I had the same issue as Mitch4 with the wordplay. But for this, I could see some readers stealing the quip for actual negotiations.

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  4. Unknown's avatar

    I think this is more about the wordplay than the precise scenario. The parties are engaged in a negotiation, and the speaker is disparaging the unreasonable expectations of the other side. It isn’t clear just what kind of negotiation, but I took it to be about arranging some kind of high end services arrangement. It’s also possible, and perhaps more likely, that the speaker is a financial advisor, real estate agent, or similar. It is probably not a divorce, since the speaker is not accompanied by a lawyer (or a client, if she is the lawyer), and it does not look or sound like a performance review.

    I had the same issue as Mitch4 with the wordplay. But for this, I could see some readers stealing the quip for actual negotiations.

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  5. Unknown's avatar

    I agree with Usual John that this isn’t about the exact scenario. It is the author coming up with what they felt was a funny quip about about meeting expectations and they setup a generic interaction where “meeting expectations” might have been used, allowing the retort.
    Until I read Mitch4’s comment, it hadn’t occurred to me the one with the gun would be the expectations, but I can see now why it could be interpreted that way.

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  6. Unknown's avatar

    As a first level manager I also used to give performance reviews one on one with the employee.

    However in today’s world I would want someone else present to protect myself.

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