mating
Explanation
The Joke
A professor-like figure is giving a lecture about human mating strategies. He begins by noting that "it's only our first date" and explains that in the modern world, food is cheap and calorie-dense -- so the traditional mating display of providing food (like buying someone dinner) is no longer an impressive demonstration of fitness. He then outlines what the modern mating approach actually requires: demonstrating that you have navigated modern life well enough to have good credit, stable housing, and access to resources. He concludes by describing the ideal modern courtship signal as showing you can provide "rent-controlled housing."
In the final panel, we see the practical result: a man tells a woman "I don't have scarlet fever and I've got a two-bedroom place close to the city," and she responds enthusiastically "Then good enough, let's go!" -- confirming the professor's theory that basic health and affordable urban housing are now the most attractive mating signals.
The Humor
The comedy comes from applying cold evolutionary biology and anthropological analysis to modern dating, reducing romance to a transactional assessment of housing and health. The joke lands because it contains a painful kernel of truth for anyone living in an expensive city: in places where rent is exorbitant, having a decent apartment genuinely is one of the most attractive qualities a person can have. The comic satirizes how modern economic conditions have warped dating priorities -- when basic necessities like housing become scarce and expensive, they replace traditional romantic gestures as the primary currency of attraction. The punchline about not having scarlet fever adds an absurdly low bar for health, further emphasizing how deflated modern expectations have become.