Fun fact: "thong" can also mean "sandal." Not sure from the image what Robin's holding though. It was probably considered okay iif it's the boy and his father (if adoptive in this case).
I find all three of the comic panels/series of panels pretty funny when taken out of context. Does anyone here know the story behind the teeth marks in the thong? Because no matter how that word was used, that seems a little odd. And the two guys/one bed thing, because no matter how you look at it that one is a little odd too.
Don't know the story behind either panel, I could probably research it and find scans or summaries of the comics but I can't see the "thong" one making much sense. (It seems like a one-off line and not part of the story.) Even if the "thing" in the comic was supposed to be a (leather?!) shoe it still doesn't make sense. It's less gay/sexual perhaps but still sort of odd. Them sleeping in the bed together? I don't think there's any explanation to that that could make sense. Unless it stormed last night and the teenaged Dick Grayson is afraid of lightning and wanted to sleep in "safe bed" I don't think it'd ever make sense Dick Grayson didn't have his own bedroom or, hell, his own wing of the mansion. But, nope, the mostly-grown Dick Grayson sleeps in the same bed as a 30-year-old man. In what universe does that even make sense? Or is legal? Or wouldn't result in backlash of Micheal Jackson-ian proportions.
Read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay and you might better understand and appreciate the intend behind these images.
It can also mean a leather tie, or binding. It would make sense if Bats had used his teeth to get them out of a situation where they were tied up by a villain.
A leather thong is a sort of leather lace or rope used for tying stuff... Also, I don't think Bruce and Dick are actually meant to be in the same bed in that pic - it's just bad colouring that makes it look that way. The fact that there are two headboards, and a straight line in the middle that's meant to be the edge of a mattress shows that it's meant to be twin beds next to each other. But because the colourist has put both mattresses as one block of white...
Just what I was getting ready to say. It's shoddy art as the headboard and such of Dick's bed doesn't quite line-up with his mattress (but I guess it could be like one of those hotel headboards that aren't part of the bed but part of the wall) but either way Dick's bed is clearly butt-up against Bruce's bed so they're effectively "one bed." And even if they were two separate beds not right next to one another it still doesn't make sense because that's how married couples in old sitcoms sleep together. It's a mansion why doesn't Dick have his own room?!
I don't think they're meant to be pushed together either - it's either just bad art or the artists seeing what they can get away with past their bosses' notice...
Or, as Jules Feiffer wrote in The Great Comic Book Heroes: A thong can also be a strip of leather used as a whip. (Of course, that raises even more possibilities for anyone with a dirty mind.)