Votey

Explanation

In many comic books, swear words are censored by being rendered as grawlixes, symbols and punctuation marks used to replace each letter. (This is the namesake of this comic, Grawl.) Sometimes the original oath can be guessed from the length of the symbols, the context, or the specific symbols chosen (e.g. @$$ for ass), but other times it's more obscure what word was actually being used. Here, Batman tries to swear, but Robin breaks the fourth wall to inform him that grawlixes will censor whatever he says. He gets around this restriction by using the spacing of his grawlixes to form ASCII art of the word "FUCK!".

In the DC Comics franchise, Batman is a vigilante superhero, Robin his sidekick, the Joker his arch-nemesis, and Commissioner Gordon his close ally as the city's police commissioner. Gordon has been repeatedly kidnapped by villains in the franchise.

The votey tells us that underneath the grawlixes, Batman was actually shouting "I object to being censored in this manner".

The title text references pareidolia, or the tendency for human pattern recognition to find patterns that aren't there, such as a rock that looks like a face. Zach is claiming that it's not the comic spelling out "FUCK!", but simply the pattern recognition of our brains finding profanity in a sea of grawlixes. I.e. he's saying there are no swear words, we just have dirty minds.

Transcript

[Batman clenches his fists in anger, with Robin behind him.]

Batman: &@%#! The Joker kidnapped Commissioner Gordon!

[Batman looks slightly bashful.]

Batman: Sorry to swear, Robin.

Robin: It's okay. This is comics. Swear words are rendered in punctuation marks.

[Batman looks up at his speech bubble.]

Batman: Holy #&$@!

Robin: Yeah. There's no way around it.

[Batman raises his hand to his face contemplatively.]

[Batman raises his fists and swears passionately, his punctuation spaced perfectly to form the word FUCK!. Robin looks surprised.]

Batman:

$&%*# @   $ @#$%* @   %  $
#     %   # &     #  @   &
@     &   @ !     $ &    @
%!&$# #   ! #     &#     %
!     $   & %     # $    !
$     !   * *     @  *
%     @#%&! #@$&! %   #  @

Votey Transcript

(The weird part is he actually shouted "I object to being censored in this manner")

add a comment! ⋅ add a topic (use sparingly)! ⋅ refresh comments!

Discussion

Grawl?

I'm confused. What does this have to do with salmon? https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/grawl 181.214.218.53 19:03, 17 November 2024 (EST)

Thanks to @carlfinx, I learned Zach is referencing the grawlix: the use of typographical symbols to replace profanity. TinyPonies (talk) 15:30, 18 November 2024 (EST)

Piece of $+#% server!

I wasted about 15 minutes writing an explanation and transcribing, only for there to be an error message (HTTP 403). At least I saved the massive speech bubble at the end. If you're seeing this edit on the talk page, it's proof that the server is taunting me. —Potentially Wilson (talk) 07:37, 18 November 2024 (EST)

Good luck. My brain interpreted the final panel as ASCII art, and then I realized how frustrating it was that it is not a monospace font (check out the asterisks), which of course it wouldn't have to be in a comic book. I wonder how a monospaced speech bubble would resolve on this platform. 143.244.41.181 09:56, 18 November 2024 (EST)

Grawl