2011-10-04
Original: 2011-10-04 on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1 (caption): Cable does not enter slot.
[A hand holds a cable plug pointed at an unseen slot.]
Panel 2 (caption): Rotate 180°.
[A curved arrow indicates the cable plug being rotated.]
Panel 3 (caption): Cable does not enter slot.
[The hand holds the cable plug again, now flipped.]
Panel 4 (caption): Rotate 180°.
[A curved arrow indicates the cable plug being rotated again.]
Panel 5 (caption): Cable does not enter slot.
[The hand holds the cable plug, oriented differently again.]
Panel 6 (caption): Rotate 180°.
[A curved arrow indicates the cable plug being rotated once more.]
Panel 7 (caption): Cable enters slot.
[The hand holds the cable plug, which now fits.]
Final caption:
PROVED:
Cables exist in 4-dimensional space.
Votey:
A hand-drawn 3D coordinate axis cross with arrows pointing in all directions, labeled x, y, and z. The downward-pointing arrow is labeled: "fits in the goddamn slot"
[A hand holds a cable plug pointed at an unseen slot.]
Panel 2 (caption): Rotate 180°.
[A curved arrow indicates the cable plug being rotated.]
Panel 3 (caption): Cable does not enter slot.
[The hand holds the cable plug again, now flipped.]
Panel 4 (caption): Rotate 180°.
[A curved arrow indicates the cable plug being rotated again.]
Panel 5 (caption): Cable does not enter slot.
[The hand holds the cable plug, oriented differently again.]
Panel 6 (caption): Rotate 180°.
[A curved arrow indicates the cable plug being rotated once more.]
Panel 7 (caption): Cable enters slot.
[The hand holds the cable plug, which now fits.]
Final caption:
PROVED:
Cables exist in 4-dimensional space.
Votey:
A hand-drawn 3D coordinate axis cross with arrows pointing in all directions, labeled x, y, and z. The downward-pointing arrow is labeled: "fits in the goddamn slot"
Alt text
A tall black-and-white SMBC comic drawn like a technical instruction diagram, showing repeated attempts to plug a cable into a slot. It cycles through line-drawn panels of a hand gripping a cable plug, each captioned in sequence: "Cable does not enter slot," then "Rotate 180°" (shown as a curved arrow turning the plug), then "Cable does not enter slot" again, then "Rotate 180°" again, repeating the futile rotations. Finally a panel is captioned "Cable enters slot" with the plug fitting. The bottom caption reads: "PROVED: Cables exist in 4-dimensional space." The joke is the universal frustration of a cable plug that won't fit no matter how many times you flip it. The votey is a hand-drawn 3D coordinate system with arrows for the x, y, and z axes; the fourth, downward-pointing arrow is labeled "fits in the goddamn slot," implying the cable's correct orientation lies along a fourth spatial dimension.
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.