2009-12-11
Explanation
This comic explores the idea that every generation overcomes one form of bigotry only to harbor a new one that the next generation must then reject. A man and woman discuss this pattern, with the man optimistically suggesting they might be the last generation to have such a problem because they accept gender, race, and sexual orientation. The woman responds, "Wouldn't that be wonderful?"
The comic then fast-forwards through increasingly distant future eras to show that the pattern never actually ends. In each successive period, a father figure (who becomes progressively more alien and abstract) refuses to let his daughter marry some new category of being: first a "Zorblaxian" (an alien), then a robot, then a "sentient plasmoid," and then a "consciousness embedded in the fabric of spacetime." Each era's father uses the same stubborn phrasing -- "My daughter ain't marryin' no..." -- echoing the language of real-world bigotry applied to ever more exotic beings.
The final panel takes the joke to its ultimate cosmic extreme: the father is now a sentient universe telling his daughter-universe that she can't marry her boyfriend because "he's 96% dark matter." The daughter protests, "I'm my own universe, Dad! And I love him!" This is both an echo of real-world interracial or intercultural relationship conflicts and a clever science joke, since our actual universe is indeed made up of roughly 96% dark matter and dark energy.
The votey panel features a note from the author addressed to scientists, acknowledging that the figure "should say 'roughly' 96% dark matter and dark energy" and assuring them they don't need to email him about it. This is a funny meta-acknowledgment that SMBC's scientifically literate readership would immediately spot and want to correct the simplification.