fake-2
Explanation
The Joke
A couple is in bed together after sex. One partner asks, "You're not faking orgasms, are you?" The other responds reassuringly, "No, I never have to, with you." The first partner begins to say "Thanks, that's—" but is cut off by the bombshell: "But I AM remotely activating an orgasm protocol to get through that knuckle thing you learned from the internet."
The caption at the bottom reads: "Cyborg brain implants introduced entirely new genres of sexual embarrassment."
The Humor
The joke is a futuristic twist on the classic "faking it" relationship anxiety. In the traditional version of this insecurity, one partner worries that the other is pretending to enjoy sex. Here, the partner technically is not faking — the orgasms are real, neurologically speaking — but they are being artificially triggered by a brain implant rather than by the partner's actual sexual technique. The distinction between "fake" and "real but artificially induced" creates a new and uniquely humiliating category.
The specific detail of "that knuckle thing you learned from the internet" is a perfect comic touch — it evokes the very relatable scenario of someone attempting an exotic sexual technique they read about online, which their partner endures rather than enjoys. The brain implant just gives the enduring partner a new technological escape hatch.
The caption frames this as a broader social phenomenon: that cybernetic enhancement would not eliminate sexual insecurity but would instead create entirely new varieties of it. This is a classic SMBC move — taking a hypothetical technology and exploring its most human, awkward, and emotionally messy implications rather than its grand philosophical ones.
Broader Context
The comic fits into a long SMBC tradition of exploring how futuristic technologies would interact with very human insecurities and relationship dynamics. It also touches on the philosophical question of what counts as "authentic" experience — if a brain implant triggers a genuine neurological orgasm, is it real or fake? This connects to broader debates in philosophy of mind about the nature of experience and whether the mechanism by which a sensation is produced affects its authenticity.