2010-08-09
Explanation
This comic uses a mathematical diagram to humorously model the social anxiety of approaching women at a bar. The top half shows increasingly complex geometric shapes representing groups of women (n), with a corresponding "difficulty" value (d) that grows according to the formula d = n(n-1)/2 -- which is actually the formula for the number of edges in a complete graph (i.e., the number of pairwise connections among the women).
In the bottom panel, a nervous man at a bar tries to explain to his exasperated friend why he can't approach a woman, using mathematical jargon: "She's in a triskaidecagon!" (a 13-sided polygon). His friend just yells "Just talk to her!" The comic satirizes the tendency to overthink social situations by applying rigorous mathematical analysis where none is needed. The humor lies in the absurd contrast between the simple act of talking to someone and the elaborate combinatorial framework the man has constructed to justify his inaction.