2011-11-18
Explanation
This single-panel comic plays on the double meaning of the word "Love" as both the abstract concept and a person'''s surname. A red-haired man enthusiastically declares to an unimpressed woman: "Love is MYSTERIOUS! Love is INVINCIBLE! Love is the greatest force in the UNIVERSE!" The caption below reads: "Man, Melvin Love sure is full of himself."
The joke hinges on the reinterpretation of the man'''s grandiose statements. At first, his declarations sound like typical romantic hyperbole about the emotion of love. But the caption reveals that the speaker'''s last name is "Love," which means he is actually talking about himself in the third person. All of his poetic proclamations about love being mysterious, invincible, and the greatest force in the universe are simply egomaniacal self-praise. The woman'''s skeptical expression makes much more sense in this light -- she is not unmoved by a romantic speech, she is annoyed by a narcissist.
This is a classic SMBC misdirection joke, where the entire comic is designed to be read one way until the punchline forces you to reinterpret everything from the beginning. The name "Melvin" adds to the humor by being an amusingly unheroic name for someone making such grandiose claims about themselves.