2011-02-05
Explanation
This comic contrasts a "Normal Wife" with a "Geek Wife" in a scenario where both are pregnant and have the same nightmare about their baby bursting out of their stomach like the alien creature from the 1979 film Alien (specifically the iconic "chestburster" scene). In the first scenario, the husband comforts his normal wife by saying "It's okay, baby. It was just a dream, baby."
In the second scenario with the "Geek Wife," the setup is identical -- she recounts the same terrifying dream about the baby bursting out of her stomach like an alien. The husband begins to comfort her the same way, but the geek wife interrupts, not with relief, but with disappointed longing: "But I know that'll never happen... It'd be so AWESOME!" The joke plays on the stereotype of geek or nerd culture, where someone is so passionate about science fiction that they would actually be thrilled rather than horrified by a real-life chestburster scenario, completely inverting the expected emotional response to a nightmare.