2011-06-05

A single-panel cartoon. On the left, a brown-haired person is shown in profile from behind. On the right, a blond man in a green shirt listens, wide-eyed and amazed. The person on the left says, "Think about it. The fewer of you there are, the stronger your effect gets." The blond man replies, "Whoooaaa..." A caption beneath the panel reads: "So far, I've convinced 197 people to quit homeopathy." The joke parodies homeopathy's claim that more dilution makes a remedy stronger, applied here as a persuasion tactic. Votey (a small bonus panel): a smiling curly-haired woman holds out a handgun and says, "Here's a gun... in case you want to... increase the rate of reaction..." referencing the chemistry concept of reaction rates and darkly suggesting suicide to maximize the dilution effect.