2012-01-03
Original: 2012-01-03 on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Title: A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE PURPOSE OF MAN
Panel 1 (labeled SOCRATES): An old man with a long gray beard and curly hair, eyes closed.
Socrates: "Justice and right thinking."
Panel 2 (labeled AQUINAS): A balding man in a dark monk's robe.
Aquinas: "Contemplate the divine."
Panel 3 (labeled BENTHAM): A man with long gray hair in a dark coat.
Bentham: "Maximize happiness."
Panel 4 (labeled DARWIN): An old bald man with a long white beard.
Darwin: "Make more mans."
Votey:
A close-up of the bald, white-bearded Darwin, now scowling/intense.
Darwin: "MORE MANS!"
Panel 1 (labeled SOCRATES): An old man with a long gray beard and curly hair, eyes closed.
Socrates: "Justice and right thinking."
Panel 2 (labeled AQUINAS): A balding man in a dark monk's robe.
Aquinas: "Contemplate the divine."
Panel 3 (labeled BENTHAM): A man with long gray hair in a dark coat.
Bentham: "Maximize happiness."
Panel 4 (labeled DARWIN): An old bald man with a long white beard.
Darwin: "Make more mans."
Votey:
A close-up of the bald, white-bearded Darwin, now scowling/intense.
Darwin: "MORE MANS!"
Alt text
A four-panel SMBC comic titled "A Brief History of the Purpose of Man." Each panel is labeled with a philosopher's name and shows him stating what he thinks man's purpose is. Panel 1, SOCRATES (an old man with a long gray beard, eyes closed): "Justice and right thinking." Panel 2, AQUINAS (a balding monk in dark robes): "Contemplate the divine." Panel 3, BENTHAM (a man with long gray hair): "Maximize happiness." Panel 4, DARWIN (a bald, white-bearded old man): "Make more mans." The joke is that the lofty philosophical answers culminate in Darwin's blunt evolutionary one, with deliberately broken grammar ("mans"). Votey (bonus panel): a close-up of Darwin, now scowling intensely, shouting "MORE MANS!"
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.