I found this cartoon to be very funny and yet ironic. Too often we get caught up in arguing about the appearance of the "appliance" rather than the function of the "appliance". Enjoy!
Form over function, always a big mistake and you see or feel it everywhere you go. The knob in just the wrong place in the car, the too many controls so you can never figure out the one you might actually use, all the pleasant results of designers who know what look sells not how the object is actually used.
ah, your meaning this as a meaning of life type thing in the vein of Indiana Jones having to pick the Holy Grail from the mass assortment. Do we concentrate on the different signs to bring meaning to the cartoon, the difference in the two fountains or is the importance found in the water dripping onto the floor? An interesting complex perspective problem.