2012-02-13
Explanation
This comic depicts a nerdy scientist telling his date about how he spliced fly DNA into his own genome to gain "their powers," an obvious reference to the classic horror story "The Fly." His date reacts with horror, expecting a grotesque transformation. But the scientist explains that after several days, nothing happened -- his body hadn't mutated at all. The fly DNA simply became inert "junk DNA" in his genome because the human body has no mechanism to activate insect gene sequences, and the human proteome is poorly understood, so he couldn't accomplish "the post-splice activation phase."
The twist comes when his date asks why he runs around the house buzzing and spitting on food. He sheepishly admits, "Oh, I did that before we started dating." She then realizes, "You've never dated any other nerds, have you?" The comic subverts the body-horror premise of "The Fly" with actual genetics -- splicing foreign DNA into a genome wouldn't magically activate those genes -- while revealing that the scientist's gross fly-like behavior is just his own pre-existing weirdness, not a result of any experiment.