2014-08-02
Explanation
The Joke
A child asks her father whether romantic love is real — specifically, is it a genuine connection between "glowing minds in a dark cosmos," or is it a lie that the body's endocrine system tells the forebrain "to get it to agree to make more babies?" The father, speaking to someone in a committed, loving relationship, says he believes it is real "perhaps" but that one should talk about it with more nuance and realism, tempering expectations with a "more realistic view of human reproduction."
Then the comic cuts to the mother, who is asked: "Mom, is romantic love real?" She simply answers: "Nope."
The Humor
The humor comes from the contrast between the father's carefully considered, diplomatic, nuanced philosophical answer and the mother's blunt, one-word dismissal. The father tries to navigate between idealism and biological reductionism with sensitivity, while the mother — who presumably has more direct experience with the realities of long-term partnership and child-rearing — cuts through all the philosophy with a deadpan "Nope."
The joke also plays on the common SMBC theme of parents giving their children hilariously inappropriate or nihilistic answers to big life questions. The child asked a genuinely deep question about the nature of love, and gets two polar-opposite answers from her parents, neither of which is particularly reassuring.