Tones
I need a lawn, so I can yell at kids to stay off it.
I need a lawn, so I can yell at kids to stay off it.
This comic begins with Cueball staring introspectively out the window, reflecting on his life's choices. He first comments on his regrets and failures, but reassures himself it was all worth it by standing firm to a single moment he stuck to his convictions for a better purpose. This fairly serious scene is broken up by the punchline that his proud moment is completely mundane and not at all remarkable: Cueball doesn't use novelty ringtones for his cellular phone.
Cell phone users can set nearly anything as their ringtone; even the default rings on new phones are a short string of notes put together, and serve a dual purpose as a company's trademark. Phones today can even set multiple ringtones, one as a default and several custom tones for their frequent contacts. During the early 2000's companies and customers were very quick to flaunt these features and it was subject to countless commercials and parodies (including this comic).
The comic also seems to begin very seriously, with Cueball standing at a window looking at the setting sun which also indicates that he's in a late phase or near the end of his life whie pondering about his past life and thus the comic relief is provided by the turn to the inconsequential; this is mirrored in the zooming-in to the cell phone on the table.
To continue the comic's theme of Cueball-as-crochety-old-man, the title text says that he needs a lawn, so he can yell at kids to stay off of it — a stereotypical "old man" behavior.
Randall makes another complaint about ringtones in 2272: Ringtone Timeline.