2012-01-05
Original: 2012-01-05 on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
Daughter: Dad, why is it called a "period"?
Panel 2:
Dad: The entire nomenclature of menstruation centers around punctuation.
Panel 3:
Dad: So, a very strong period is an exclamation point!
Panel 4:
Dad: When there's some uncertainty about whether it's beginning, that's a "question mark."
Daughter: What's a comma?
Panel 5:
Dad: When you think it's ended, but it keeps going.
Panel 6:
Daughter: What's a semicolon?
Dad: That's just a very convincing comma.
Panel 7:
Daughter: What if you miss a period?
Dad: Then you've got a sentence without end.
Panel 8:
Dad: Also known as a baby.
Panel 9 (LATER):
Daughter: Ugh, I think I'm in my semicolon. What did your father teach you?
Votey:
Daughter: What's an interrobang?
Dad: I'll tell you when you're older.
Daughter: Dad, why is it called a "period"?
Panel 2:
Dad: The entire nomenclature of menstruation centers around punctuation.
Panel 3:
Dad: So, a very strong period is an exclamation point!
Panel 4:
Dad: When there's some uncertainty about whether it's beginning, that's a "question mark."
Daughter: What's a comma?
Panel 5:
Dad: When you think it's ended, but it keeps going.
Panel 6:
Daughter: What's a semicolon?
Dad: That's just a very convincing comma.
Panel 7:
Daughter: What if you miss a period?
Dad: Then you've got a sentence without end.
Panel 8:
Dad: Also known as a baby.
Panel 9 (LATER):
Daughter: Ugh, I think I'm in my semicolon. What did your father teach you?
Votey:
Daughter: What's an interrobang?
Dad: I'll tell you when you're older.
Alt text
A nine-panel comic. A young woman asks her bespectacled, balding father why a menstrual period is called a "period." He explains the whole nomenclature of menstruation centers on punctuation: a very strong period is an exclamation point; uncertainty about whether it's starting is a question mark; one that seems to end but keeps going is a comma; a semicolon is "just a very convincing comma"; and a missed period is "a sentence without end" — also known as a baby. In the final panel, labeled LATER, the woman tells another woman, "Ugh, I think I'm in my semicolon," and asks what her father taught her. Votey: In black-and-white, the woman asks "What's an interrobang?" and the father, smiling slyly, says "I'll tell you when you're older."
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.