Explain SMBC — the wiki for Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

Interesting

2020-11-12 View on smbc-comics.com → 1 revision
Interesting
Votey panel for Interesting
This explanation is incomplete or may contain errors. It was generated by AI and has not yet been reviewed by a human editor.

Explanation

The Joke

The comic depicts a date scene where a woman asks a man about his hobbies. He cheerfully describes running up to strangers, crying, shouting "I forgive you but I can never forget," and then running away. This is a hilariously unhinged and socially inappropriate "hobby" that would be deeply unsettling to anyone on the receiving end.

In the second half, the woman -- visibly disturbed -- notes that his dating profile said he liked "interesting men." He clarifies that "interesting" was code for "educational attainment," meaning she was actually looking for someone well-educated, not someone who is "interesting" in the sense of being bizarre or unpredictable. The man is certainly interesting, but not in the way she intended.

The Humor

The comedy works on two levels. First, there is the absurdity of the man's described hobby, which is funny in its specificity and its complete violation of social norms. Second, there is the wordplay on "interesting" -- a term people commonly use on dating profiles as a vague, positive-sounding quality, when what they often actually mean is something far more conventional like "educated" or "has a good career." The comic exposes the gap between what people say they want (someone interesting) and what they actually want (someone normal with credentials), while simultaneously showing what a genuinely "interesting" person might actually be like -- and why that might not be desirable at all.

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