2009-11-13
Explanation
This comic, titled "Never Marry a Chemist," shows a romantic scene between a couple. In the first panel, a woman is mixing two liquids in a flask and tells her partner: "So by combining these two fluids, which when separated are devoid of color, we get red, the color... of love." Her partner responds warmly, "Aww, Sandy..." It seems like a sweet, nerdy romantic gesture -- a chemist using her expertise to create a symbolic demonstration of love.
However, in the next panel, the mood shifts dramatically. A close-up shows someone (perhaps Sandy's inner scientist or another character) shouting: "We also get sulfur pentafluoride! RUN! Run for your life!" The final panel shows a bespectacled man looking stunned and concerned.
The joke is that while the chemist was focused on the romantic symbolism of the color-changing reaction, she overlooked (or perhaps was fully aware of) the fact that the chemical reaction also produces a toxic byproduct -- sulfur pentafluoride, which is a dangerous gas. The title "Never Marry a Chemist" warns that a chemist's romantic gestures might come with hazardous side effects. It plays on the trope of scientists being so absorbed in the elegance of their work that they ignore practical dangers.
The votey panel shows the aftermath: an explosion with a "BOOM" sound effect, with the characters being flung around -- confirming that the chemical reaction did indeed go horribly wrong.