hello-miss
Explanation
The Joke
In the first panel, a man in formal attire approaches a woman with what sounds like a scandalous proposition: "Hello, miss. Might I interest you in some... premarital sex?" In the second panel, labeled "Later...," the two are shown in bed together, and the man declares triumphantly: "Ha! I have no intention of marrying you!" The woman replies: "...Great?" The caption reads: "Unsung Victories of Social Progress: Pretty much everyone is a Victorian novel villain now."
The Humor
The comic points out that behaviors considered deeply scandalous and villainous in the Victorian era -- premarital sex with no intention of marriage -- are now completely routine and unremarkable in modern life. The man is acting as though he is committing a terrible act of seduction and betrayal (the classic "cad" of Victorian literature who deflowers a woman and refuses to marry her), but the woman's indifferent "...Great?" shows that his dramatic villainy falls completely flat in a modern context. The humor lies in the gap between his theatrical wickedness and the total normalcy of the situation. The caption drives it home: what was once the plot engine of scandal-driven novels is now just a Tuesday night.
References
Victorian novels frequently featured plots centered on the social ruin of women who engaged in premarital sex, particularly if the man refused to marry them afterward. Characters like Alec d'Urberville in Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles or Wickham in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice embody the "seducer with no intention to marry" archetype.