2012-02-27
Original: 2012-02-27 on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
Man with glasses: YES. CONSERVATION OF ENERGY.
(He stands facing two bald monks in orange robes.)
Panel 2:
Man with glasses: THAT'S NOT THE POINT! IS THIS SERIOUS TO YOU PEOPLE? WHERE'S ALL THAT POTENTIAL ENERGY GONNA GO? HUH?
(One monk looks at him; the man gestures intensely.)
Panel 3:
(No dialogue. The monks have thrown the man out the door of the temple; he tumbles onto the ground outside as a monk shoves him out and another watches.)
Panel 4 (caption bar): EARLIER...
Man with glasses: IF A TREE FALLS IN THE WOODS AND NO ONE'S AROUND TO HEAR, DOES IT MAKE A SOUND?
(He poses the question to the two monks, who look skeptical.)
Votey:
A simply-drawn man: SPECIFICALLY, THE SOUND WOULD BE "WHUMP".
Man with glasses: YES. CONSERVATION OF ENERGY.
(He stands facing two bald monks in orange robes.)
Panel 2:
Man with glasses: THAT'S NOT THE POINT! IS THIS SERIOUS TO YOU PEOPLE? WHERE'S ALL THAT POTENTIAL ENERGY GONNA GO? HUH?
(One monk looks at him; the man gestures intensely.)
Panel 3:
(No dialogue. The monks have thrown the man out the door of the temple; he tumbles onto the ground outside as a monk shoves him out and another watches.)
Panel 4 (caption bar): EARLIER...
Man with glasses: IF A TREE FALLS IN THE WOODS AND NO ONE'S AROUND TO HEAR, DOES IT MAKE A SOUND?
(He poses the question to the two monks, who look skeptical.)
Votey:
A simply-drawn man: SPECIFICALLY, THE SOUND WOULD BE "WHUMP".
Alt text
A four-panel SMBC comic told in reverse chronological order (read bottom panel first). Bottom panel, labeled "EARLIER...": a bespectacled man asks two bald monks in orange robes the classic riddle, "If a tree falls in the woods and no one's around to hear, does it make a sound?" The monks look unimpressed. Moving up, the man insists pedantically: "Yes. Conservation of energy." Then he escalates, ranting: "That's not the point! Is this serious to you people? Where's all that potential energy gonna go? Huh?" In the top panel the monks physically throw him out of the temple, tumbling him onto the ground outside. The joke: the man treats a meditative koan as a literal physics problem and gets ejected for it. Votey (aftercomic): a roughly sketched man, deadpan, adds, "Specifically, the sound would be 'WHUMP'."
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.