2012-02-22
Original: 2012-02-22 on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1: A king and a robed advisor in an ornate setting.
Narration: A king said that happy ends would come if happiness were within the sight of a happy man.
Panel 2: The robed man travels past a row of figures.
Narration: He searched around the world but could not find a happy man.
Panel 3: The man walks along a path through hills, smiling.
Narration: Until he saw a man walking along, smiling as he went.
Panel 4: The traveler greets the smiling man.
Narration: And when Al-Rashid said, "Man, bring me your shirt that I may wear it!"
Panel 5: The smiling man, shown without a shirt.
Narration: The man smiled saying, "But I haven't got one."
Panel 6 (scene shift): A woman and a person reading a book together on a couch.
Narration: I suppose we died soon after. People didn't live very long back then.
Panel 7: The reader continues.
Reader: And how do you know of this story? In Harun Al-Rashid gave up worldly things after, he met the happy man?
Panel 8:
Reader: I suppose he went back and told a scribe or courtesan about it.
Woman: Unbelievable!!
Panel 9:
Reader: This story is just reinforcing the status quo. After about a century, every economics study found a correlation between income and happiness, all the way to upper-middle class. I.e., it's your local environment.
Panel 10:
Woman: You are not the German Harun! You are not the German! And my mother will go bigger by your multiverse!
Panel 11:
Woman: How'd storytime go?
Reader: She missed her reading list.
Votey:
Woman: What's with you and philosophical children?
Reader: Preparing. My midlife crisis will involve kids' books.
Narration: A king said that happy ends would come if happiness were within the sight of a happy man.
Panel 2: The robed man travels past a row of figures.
Narration: He searched around the world but could not find a happy man.
Panel 3: The man walks along a path through hills, smiling.
Narration: Until he saw a man walking along, smiling as he went.
Panel 4: The traveler greets the smiling man.
Narration: And when Al-Rashid said, "Man, bring me your shirt that I may wear it!"
Panel 5: The smiling man, shown without a shirt.
Narration: The man smiled saying, "But I haven't got one."
Panel 6 (scene shift): A woman and a person reading a book together on a couch.
Narration: I suppose we died soon after. People didn't live very long back then.
Panel 7: The reader continues.
Reader: And how do you know of this story? In Harun Al-Rashid gave up worldly things after, he met the happy man?
Panel 8:
Reader: I suppose he went back and told a scribe or courtesan about it.
Woman: Unbelievable!!
Panel 9:
Reader: This story is just reinforcing the status quo. After about a century, every economics study found a correlation between income and happiness, all the way to upper-middle class. I.e., it's your local environment.
Panel 10:
Woman: You are not the German Harun! You are not the German! And my mother will go bigger by your multiverse!
Panel 11:
Woman: How'd storytime go?
Reader: She missed her reading list.
Votey:
Woman: What's with you and philosophical children?
Reader: Preparing. My midlife crisis will involve kids' books.
Alt text
A tall SMBC comic. The top portion is a fable rendered in painterly panels: a king proclaims that happiness will come if it can be found within a happy man's sight. A robed traveler searches the world but cannot find a happy man, until he meets a man walking along, smiling. The traveler (called Al-Rashid) asks the smiling man for his shirt to wear, but the man, shown shirtless, replies that he hasn't got one. The scene then shifts to a modern couch where a woman listens as another person reads the story from a book to a child. The reader and woman debate the tale: the reader argues the story just reinforces the status quo, citing that economics studies later found income correlates with happiness up to the upper-middle class, i.e. it's about your local environment. The woman responds with a garbled, exasperated outburst. Afterward she asks how storytime went and the reader says the child missed her reading list. Votey (bonus panel): in stark black-and-white, the woman asks, "What's with you and philosophical children?" The bearded reader answers, "Preparing. My midlife crisis will involve kids' books."
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.