2013-05-07
Explanation
This comic references a real biological phenomenon known as the "winner-loser effect" in animal competition. When animals compete for dominance, winners experience a surge in testosterone while losers see a corresponding drop. The comic illustrates this with an image of two primates in a dominance confrontation, followed by a graph showing testosterone levels declining with lower hierarchy rank. This is well-documented in behavioral endocrinology and has been observed across many species including fish, birds, and mammals.
The punchline takes this scientific concept and applies it absurdly to a domestic setting. A biologist tells his spouse that "according to this blood sample, I won the latest relationship discussion," implying he secretly drew her blood to measure testosterone levels as a way of determining who "won" an argument. His spouse asks if the argument in question was the one about whether he's allowed to harvest blood samples from her, and he threatens to "win again" -- creating a darkly funny circular logic where the act of taking the blood sample to prove dominance is itself the dominance dispute. The humor lies in the absurdity of applying animal behavioral biology metrics to a marriage.