What
The joke is just all the crazy shenanigans kids get up to in the back seat
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Larson’s drawing skills are not the greatest, and this forced perspective is difficult to achieve in the single panel, I think. The kids are in the back, either on the back seat or maybe in the cargo area with the seats down. Yeah, the proportions are off. It’s about the absurd situation more than the artwork.
I still don’t get the joke
Families would take a car trip. Once upon a time, there were no electronics available to keep kids occupied. We literally had nothing to do in the car except sit still for hours. Kids being kids would get antsy, and frequently would start teasing, fighting, roughhousing, pinching, poking, etc. The driver, usually Dad, would yell at the kids to stop. “Don’t make me stop this car,” and other similar warnings. This panel uses that common (at the time) setting but with the absurd twist of an actual torture device.
