2011-12-18
Original: 2011-12-18 on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1: A young boy stands looking up at a large empty speech balloon coming from an off-panel adult (a balding man with glasses and a mustache, partly visible at right). Inside the balloon, above the boy's head, floats an image of a smiling baby in a diaper with a question mark beside it. The boy looks puzzled.
Panel 2: The man with glasses and mustache (now in a green shirt) speaks, with a woman partly visible at left. His speech balloon contains a drawing of a white stork carrying a swaddled baby in its beak.
Panel 3 (reaction): A close-up of the boy smiling contentedly.
Panel 4: The boy, now smiling broadly, looks up at the man with glasses (visible at right). The boy's thought/speech balloon shows a flying white stork delivering a swaddled baby in its beak.
Panel 5: A woman with glasses and reddish-brown hair speaks. Her speech balloon shows a man and woman lying naked together embracing with hearts above them, and an arrow pointing to a baby being produced.
Panel 6 (reaction): A close-up of the boy looking unsettled / disturbed, frowning.
Panel 7 (large bottom panel): A nightmarish swirling scene. A crowd of naked adults and babies is mixed together with several large white storks among them, set against a dark blue sky filled with flying birds. A woman in the center looks distressed, surrounded by the tangle of bodies and birds. In the lower-left corner, the small boy stands alone with a worried expression; a thought bubble connects this chaotic scene to his head, showing it is what he is now imagining.
Votey: A man with messy hair, wide eyes, and stubble looks shaken, sweat drops flying off him. His thought bubble reads: "THAT WAS WAY LESS FREAKY IN MY HEAD."
Panel 2: The man with glasses and mustache (now in a green shirt) speaks, with a woman partly visible at left. His speech balloon contains a drawing of a white stork carrying a swaddled baby in its beak.
Panel 3 (reaction): A close-up of the boy smiling contentedly.
Panel 4: The boy, now smiling broadly, looks up at the man with glasses (visible at right). The boy's thought/speech balloon shows a flying white stork delivering a swaddled baby in its beak.
Panel 5: A woman with glasses and reddish-brown hair speaks. Her speech balloon shows a man and woman lying naked together embracing with hearts above them, and an arrow pointing to a baby being produced.
Panel 6 (reaction): A close-up of the boy looking unsettled / disturbed, frowning.
Panel 7 (large bottom panel): A nightmarish swirling scene. A crowd of naked adults and babies is mixed together with several large white storks among them, set against a dark blue sky filled with flying birds. A woman in the center looks distressed, surrounded by the tangle of bodies and birds. In the lower-left corner, the small boy stands alone with a worried expression; a thought bubble connects this chaotic scene to his head, showing it is what he is now imagining.
Votey: A man with messy hair, wide eyes, and stubble looks shaken, sweat drops flying off him. His thought bubble reads: "THAT WAS WAY LESS FREAKY IN MY HEAD."
Alt text
A multi-panel SMBC comic about explaining where babies come from. A puzzled young boy looks up at a balding, bespectacled, mustached man, with a question-marked baby floating in a speech balloon. The man first answers with the stork myth (a balloon showing a stork carrying a swaddled baby), and the boy happily imagines a stork delivering a baby. Then a woman corrects this with the real explanation: her balloon shows a naked couple embracing under hearts with an arrow to a resulting baby. The boy looks disturbed. A large final panel shows the boy's horrified imagination: a swirling nightmare crowd of naked adults, babies, and giant storks all tangled together under a dark sky full of birds, with the small worried boy thinking it all up from the corner. Votey: a sweaty, wide-eyed disheveled man thinks, 'That was way less freaky in my head.'
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.