2011-01-16
Explanation
This comic presents a graph plotting "belief that love is a sublime wonder beyond comprehension" on the Y-axis against "quality as a long-term significant other" on the X-axis. The resulting curve shows a strong inverse relationship: those who most romanticize love tend to be the worst long-term partners, and vice versa.
At the top of the romantic belief scale are high schoolers (who lack relationship experience), virgins over 30 (whose idealization may stem from inexperience), and poets (who professionally romanticize love). As you move down the curve toward better long-term partner quality, you find doctors, lawyers, and professors -- practical, career-oriented people with more realistic views. At the far end of the X-axis, with the highest partner quality but the lowest romantic idealization, sits "porn," suggesting that the most transactional and unromantic view of relationships somehow correlates with pragmatic reliability. The humor lies in the cynical implication that romanticizing love is inversely correlated with actually being good at it.