2011-12-01
Explanation
This comic plays on the concept of soulmates with a clever structural twist. In the top panels, a woman exclaims: "My God! I thought I was the only one!" and a man responds: "Me too! We're made for each other!" They appear to be having an intense moment of romantic connection, as if they have discovered they are soulmates.
The bottom panel is labeled "Earlier..." and reveals what they were actually bonding over. In this flashback, we see the same woman and man, and one of them says: "I think the idea of 'soulmates' is bullshit." The joke is that these two people have found a deep romantic connection based on their shared belief that deep romantic connections (soulmates) do not exist. Their reaction -- declaring they are "made for each other" -- is exactly the kind of soulmate-style language they both claim to reject.
The comic highlights a delicious irony: the very act of finding someone who shares your cynical view about soulmates creates exactly the kind of magical, destined-feeling connection that the concept of soulmates describes. They have essentially disproved their own thesis by proving it. This is a common SMBC theme of ideas that undermine themselves through their own logic.
The votey shows the woman saying: "I love you in an entirely non-mystical way," which continues the joke by showing how the couple tries to maintain their rationalist framework even while expressing deep romantic love. They are clearly soulmates who refuse to use the word, instead insisting on couching their affection in deliberately unromantic, demystified language.