2007-01-05
Original: 2007-01-05 on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
Two children (a boy with red hair and a girl with blonde hair) excitedly address a balding man wearing a green shirt and a headband, seen from behind.
Children: Daddy! Tell us the fairy tale of when you could open your window without having your eyes burned out by ultraviolet radiation!
Man (gesturing): Before people only ate hydrated protein gruel!
Caption below the panel:
This isn't the future.
I'm just a really lousy dad.
Votey:
Caption: LATER...
The same balding man sits in an armchair, seen in profile, watching a television. On the TV screen is a game-show wheel-of-fortune-style display. A speech bubble from the TV reads: I'll buy a vowel.
Two children (a boy with red hair and a girl with blonde hair) excitedly address a balding man wearing a green shirt and a headband, seen from behind.
Children: Daddy! Tell us the fairy tale of when you could open your window without having your eyes burned out by ultraviolet radiation!
Man (gesturing): Before people only ate hydrated protein gruel!
Caption below the panel:
This isn't the future.
I'm just a really lousy dad.
Votey:
Caption: LATER...
The same balding man sits in an armchair, seen in profile, watching a television. On the TV screen is a game-show wheel-of-fortune-style display. A speech bubble from the TV reads: I'll buy a vowel.
Alt text
A four-panel-style SMBC comic. Main panel: two excited children, a red-haired boy and a blonde girl, beg a balding man in a green shirt and headband (shown from behind), 'Daddy! Tell us the fairy tale of when you could open your window without having your eyes burned out by ultraviolet radiation!' The dad gestures and adds, 'Before people only ate hydrated protein gruel!' A caption underneath undercuts the apocalyptic setup: 'This isn't the future. I'm just a really lousy dad.' Votey (aftercomic, black-and-white): captioned 'LATER...', the same dad sits in an armchair watching TV; the game show on screen has a speech bubble saying 'I'll buy a vowel' — he's just watching Wheel of Fortune, reinforcing that his bleak 'fairy tales' are nonsense.
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.