2013-04-10

A three-panel comic about two protons, each drawn as an orange blob with a plus sign. In the first panel they are far apart, joined by a long double-headed arrow, and the left proton shouts "GO AWAY!" In the second panel they are closer together, the arrow now short, and the left proton shouts "GO AWAY!!" in emphatic italics. In the third panel the two protons are pressed together and overlapping, and the left one says "I LOVE YOU." A yellow sticky-note caption reads: "Proton interactions work like physics undergrads imagine love works." The joke: a proton pushing another away harder and harder until they merge mimics a melodramatic notion of love, while physically inverting how like charges actually repel. Votey (aftercomic): black text reading "'Anyone caught making "Strong force" jokes will be set on fire and buried alive.' -Weinersmith" — a mock threat against readers who would point out that the strong nuclear force, not love, is what actually binds protons.