serious
Explanation
The Joke
A woman asks her partner, "Why do you look so serious and disturbed when we have sex?" He responds, "It's supposed to be serious?" She explains, "That's my role in the sex — I look like an annoyed person intent on the serious work of sexuality, like I have a bucket of orgasms and I intend to sort each one." He then tries an exaggerated gleeful face and yells excitedly. His partner's reaction: "Guest room."
The final panel shows someone asking, "What would it look like if you weren't being 'serious'?" with an implied absurd response.
The Humor
The comic explores the unspoken social convention that people are supposed to look serious and intense during sex. When the man is told his "serious face" is wrong, and he overcorrects to an absurdly joyful expression, that's equally unacceptable. The humor lies in the no-win situation: there's apparently a very narrow range of acceptable facial expressions during intimacy, but nobody will tell you what they are until you get them wrong.
The "bucket of orgasms" metaphor is deliberately absurd and clinical, reducing sexual pleasure to a sorting task — which perfectly captures how overthinking physical intimacy can drain it of spontaneity. The final "guest room" punchline mirrors real relationship dynamics where attempting to fix a complaint leads to an even worse outcome.
SMBC frequently mines humor from the gap between how humans think they behave in intimate or social situations versus the awkward reality.
Votey
The red-button panel typically adds an additional punchline that extends or undercuts the comic's premise.