Preserve
Explanation
The Joke
A woman is telling her partner about her favorite musician when she stops mid-sentence and asks, "You're imagining how to preserve my corpse, aren't you?" Her partner — a naturalist — confirms this, rattling off a detailed chemical preservation method: "Gassified tricaine methanesulfonate while you sleep, then 56 gallons of 10% formalin ought to do it." She adds, somewhat defensively, "but I am also interested in the music." The caption reads: "Never date a naturalist."
The Humor
The comic plays on the stereotype of naturalists (biologists who study organisms in their natural state) being so obsessed with specimen preservation that they can't turn it off, even in romantic settings. Tricaine methanesulfonate (MS-222) is a real anesthetic used on fish and amphibians, and formalin is a standard fixative for preserving biological specimens. The specificity of the preservation plan — including the dosage, the delivery method ("while you sleep"), and the volume of formalin — makes it funnier because it suggests this isn't a passing thought but a well-developed plan.
The humor also comes from the partner's attempt to seem normal by insisting she's "also interested in the music," as if casually planning to preserve your girlfriend's corpse is fine as long as you're also paying attention to the conversation.
Broader Context
SMBC frequently mines humor from the idea that scientists and academics are so deeply immersed in their fields that they view everything — including personal relationships — through their professional lens. The "never date a [profession]" format is a classic joke structure that Weinersmith uses to highlight how specialized knowledge can make someone hilariously inappropriate in everyday social situations.