2010-11-02
Explanation
This comic uses math as a weapon in a relationship argument. A woman accuses a man of treating her like she does not exist. The man responds with an elaborate mathematical chain of reasoning: "Well, you're a negative one! And your root is your parents. So they're the root of negative one. So they're imaginary. Therefore, you don't exist." The caption below reads: "I no longer date mathematicians."
The joke hinges on a pun involving imaginary numbers from mathematics. The square root of negative one is defined as "i," the imaginary unit. The man takes the woman's accusation -- "you treat me like I don't exist" -- and constructs a logical proof that she literally does not exist, by calling her a "negative one," identifying her parents as her "root" (square root), and concluding that since the square root of negative one is imaginary, her parents are imaginary, and therefore she does not exist. It is a deliberately tortured chain of logic that weaponizes mathematical definitions to win an argument.
The votey panel shows the woman responding simply with "Bitch" -- a blunt, non-mathematical retort that perfectly punctures the man's elaborate intellectual smugness. The contrast between his overwrought proof and her one-word response captures the comic's point: using academic knowledge to be cruel in relationships is both impressive and deeply obnoxious, which is why the narrator no longer dates mathematicians.