2012-05-19
Original: 2012-05-19 on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1: An older gray-haired man writes on a chalkboard.
Man: "Multiplication is repeated addition."
Chalkboard: "2·3 = 2+2+2"
Panel 2: The man continues writing.
Man: "Exponentiation is repeated multiplication."
Chalkboard: "2³ = 2·2·2"
Panel 3: The man keeps writing.
Man: "Tetration is repeated exponentiation"
Chalkboard: "³2 = 2^(2^2)"
Panel 4: A young man with reddish hair stands in shadow near the older man.
Young man: "What's repeated tetration?"
Older man: "Penetration."
Panel 5: The young man reacts.
Young man: "What? How is that possible?"
Older man: "Well, the next hyper-operator up is sexation. So, what is sexation?"
Panel 6: Close-up on the young man's face against a yellow background, looking unsettled.
Older man (off-panel): "Repeated penet—WHOOOAAA."
Votey: A close-up of the older man (the dad) wearing glasses, looking flat.
Young man (off-panel, in speech bubble): "Dad! I learned all about penetration in college!"
Man: "Multiplication is repeated addition."
Chalkboard: "2·3 = 2+2+2"
Panel 2: The man continues writing.
Man: "Exponentiation is repeated multiplication."
Chalkboard: "2³ = 2·2·2"
Panel 3: The man keeps writing.
Man: "Tetration is repeated exponentiation"
Chalkboard: "³2 = 2^(2^2)"
Panel 4: A young man with reddish hair stands in shadow near the older man.
Young man: "What's repeated tetration?"
Older man: "Penetration."
Panel 5: The young man reacts.
Young man: "What? How is that possible?"
Older man: "Well, the next hyper-operator up is sexation. So, what is sexation?"
Panel 6: Close-up on the young man's face against a yellow background, looking unsettled.
Older man (off-panel): "Repeated penet—WHOOOAAA."
Votey: A close-up of the older man (the dad) wearing glasses, looking flat.
Young man (off-panel, in speech bubble): "Dad! I learned all about penetration in college!"
Alt text
A six-panel comic. In the first three panels, a gray-haired man writes math on a chalkboard, explaining a ladder of operations: "Multiplication is repeated addition" (2·3 = 2+2+2), "Exponentiation is repeated multiplication" (2³ = 2·2·2), and "Tetration is repeated exponentiation" (shown with stacked-power notation). A young red-haired man asks, "What's repeated tetration?" The man deadpans, "Penetration." The young man is alarmed: "What? How is that possible?" The man replies that the next hyper-operator up is "sexation," and starts to define it as "Repeated penet—" before cutting himself off with a horrified "WHOOOAAA" as he realizes where the naming pattern leads. The joke is that the real hyper-operation names (after tetration come pentation, then "sexation"—here punned) sound increasingly sexual. The votey shows a close-up of the dad in glasses while the son's voice declares, "Dad! I learned all about penetration in college!"
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.