2015-02-07
Explanation
The Joke
The comic shows a graph with "Potential for Love" on the Y-axis. The line starts at a moderate level, rises significantly as a relationship develops, plateaus, and then plummets to zero. At the bottom, a person says: "Of course I believe in science. I'm a total Taurus!"
The Humor
The graph illustrates the trajectory of a date or relationship where things are going well -- the "potential for love" is rising -- until the other person reveals that they believe in astrology by citing their zodiac sign. The potential for love then crashes to zero. The specific phrasing "Of course I believe in science. I'm a total Taurus!" is doubly funny because the speaker thinks they are affirming their belief in science while simultaneously demonstrating a belief in astrology, which is pseudoscience. The statement is self-contradictory, and the graph captures the moment of romantic disillusionment that a scientifically-minded person would feel upon hearing such a declaration.
References
Astrology assigns personality traits based on zodiac signs determined by birth dates. Taurus is the zodiac sign for people born between approximately April 20 and May 20. The scientific community broadly considers astrology a pseudoscience with no empirical support for its claims about personality or destiny.