Explain SMBC — the wiki for Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

partner

2023-05-14 View on smbc-comics.com → 1 revision
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partner
Votey panel for partner
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Explanation

This comic depicts an alien announcing that they have used their advanced browser history analysis technology to create each person's ideal romantic partner. A human responds with alarm ("WHAT?!"). The alien explains that no, their God-like technology isn't anything nefarious -- it's simply that all ages, races, and genders of humans ended up matched with "dudes named Alex and the Slavic woman from that Resident Evil game" (a reference to Lady Dimitrescu from Resident Evil Village, who became a massive internet crush).

The alien notes that anyone who sees the data will find they are "98.5% similar and 1.5% slightly built." When the alien reveals they've already manufactured millions of these ideal partners, someone protests: "No! Don't let me see that -- we need to find other people. Real, imperfect, complicated and slightly built." In the final panel, two naked humans stand together, and one says "I thought we were a good match" while the other replies "I mean, we are -- we each have a lot in common," confirming they are both exactly the type the algorithm predicted.

The joke operates on multiple levels. First, it satirizes how internet browsing habits reveal embarrassingly uniform human desires -- despite our claims of unique tastes, our collective search histories converge on the same handful of archetypes. Second, the human's noble speech about preferring "real, imperfect, complicated" people is immediately undercut by the reveal that they and their existing partner are already exactly the type the algorithm identified. The comic pokes fun at the gap between our professed desire for authentic, complex human connection and the reality that we are, statistically, far more predictable in our attractions than we'd like to admit.

View History (1) Original Comic