Boyfriend

A five-panel comic. A daughter introduces her boyfriend (a man with curly orange hair) to her stern, bespectacled father (a man with a gray mustache). The joke is that the father snarls every reply in a hostile, confrontational tone, but each sentence actually concedes everything kindly. When the daughter says 'Dad, I want you to meet my boyfriend,' the father glares and growls that he'll believe the guy is good enough because she has good judgment and her happiness makes him happy. When the boyfriend says 'Your daughter is lovely,' the father snaps that he doesn't care what the boyfriend thinks 'and in fact I do, you seem both kind and thoughtful.' When the boyfriend asks 'May I come in, sir?' the father menacingly says he hopes the boyfriend is fit to enter, because he made a vegetarian dinner as requested. A second woman watching asks, 'Is he going to do this all night?' and the father, overhearing their private aside, aggressively replies that he hears them and 'that's correct, enjoy your private conversation.' Votey aftercomic: an extreme close-up of the father's glasses-wearing, scowling face as he says, 'The psychological game will never end, boy.'