2014-04-20
Explanation
The Joke
A couple is discussing their domestic arrangement. One partner asks the other if it bothers them that they are the primary household breadwinner. The other responds with economic theory: when you choose one activity over another, you pay an opportunity cost. Since the higher-earning partner makes 00 per hour and the lower-earning one makes 0 per hour, when they have sex, the higher earner is "willing to pay 00 for an hour of sex" while the lower earner is only "willing to pay 0 for an hour of sex." The lower earner concludes: "You are willing to pay 00 for an hour of sex with me? I am willing to pay 0 for an hour of sex with you."
The first partner says, "This wasn't the conversation I was hoping for." The other replies, "Really? Because you're paying a lot for it."
The Humor
The comic satirizes the tendency to reduce human relationships to cold economic calculations. Opportunity cost is a real economic concept -- the value of the next best alternative you forgo -- but applying it to intimate relationships creates absurd and uncomfortable conclusions. The lower-earning partner essentially frames their sex life as a transaction where the higher earner is getting ripped off (paying 00 in foregone wages vs. the other's 0).
The final punchline adds another layer: even the conversation itself has an opportunity cost, and the higher earner is "paying a lot" just to have this unpleasant discussion. The humor comes from the relentless, tone-deaf application of economics to a situation where it clearly does not belong.
References
The comic references the economic concept of opportunity cost -- the loss of potential gain from other alternatives when one alternative is chosen. It is a fundamental principle in microeconomics.