Explanation [ edit ]

This comic plays off the American colloquialism "bring home the bacon", which generally means to work hard and bring money home to your family to put food on the table. If a man is out of work he may be stressed out about how to "bring home the bacon."

Some men would not be assuaged if their wife took over, but at first it seems that White Hat is happy that his wife, who works as a pharmacist, does bring home the bacon, and he tells this to Cueball.

Later, however, Cueball finds out, that what White Hat actually was saying was "Thebacon", which is a common name for dihydrocodeinone enol acetate an opioid commonly marketed under names like Acedicon and Diacodin. As a pharmacist White Hat's wife has easy access to such drugs, and this may be the reason that he is so calm, because his wife supplies him with painkiller drugs.

Thebacon is compared to the better known drug Vicodin, another opioid sold as a painkiller, which can (and often has) become a drug of abuse.

The title text lists what Randall assumes to be the normal pronunciation for Thebacon.

According to Wikipedia, Randall seems to be mistaken in no fewer than three places (which seems to indicate that Randall has only passing knowledge of the drug and did not do extensive research beforehand):

The proper name is Dihydrocodein on e enol acetate, not Dihydrocodeine enol acetate.

It is a semi synthetic opioid not a synthetic opioid.

opioid not a synthetic opioid. The pronunciation is /ˈθiːbəkɒn/ THEE -buh-kon, not THEH-buh-kon. By saying I assume , Randall indicates that he didn't research the pronunciation. As an alternative explanation, there may be a joke/pun in the mistake.



Transcript [ edit ]

[White Hat is holding out a hand towards Cueball while telling him about his job situation. The space between the and bacon is very small.] White Hat: I'm out of work, but I'm not stressed about it because my wife is a pharmacist and she brings home the bacon.

[Caption below the panel:] Only later did I learn that "Thebacon" is the common name for dihydrocodeine enol acetate, a synthetic opioid similar to Vicodin.





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