2012-12-11
Explanation
This comic imagines a couple treating sex with the rigor of academic mathematics. A man excitedly announces he has "discovered a new form of sex" and they rush to the "laboratory" to test it. Afterward, the woman notes that "with some rotation, it's isomorphic to several sexes we've had in the past," using the mathematical concept of isomorphism (a structure-preserving mapping between two objects). She then suggests that "perhaps all of sex has been discovered," but adds that "the set of all sex we'll have is finite in cardinality, so even homomorphisms should be cherished" -- using the mathematical term for a weaker kind of structural similarity. In the final panel, the man tries to initiate another round by sharing a basic math fact ("Did you know that 2+1=3?"), and the woman shuts him down: "It's not happening, Frank."
The humor comes from applying the formal language of abstract algebra and set theory to the most intimate of human activities. Terms like "isomorphic," "finite in cardinality," and "homomorphisms" are used with perfect mathematical accuracy while being completely absurd in a bedroom context. The woman's philosophical point -- that since they will only have sex a finite number of times, even imperfect versions deserve appreciation -- is actually quite poignant, buried under layers of nerd humor. The final panel punctures the intellectual atmosphere by showing that Frank has learned the wrong lesson: he thinks any math talk is foreplay, when in fact his partner was being genuinely reflective, not flirtatious.