2012-08-09
Original: 2012-08-09 on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Title: HOW DISCOVERY HAPPENS
Panel 1:
A person with orange hair and glasses sits at a desk, smiling and holding up a pencil.
Thought/speech (the person): OKAY! NOW TO THINK UP A THEORY OF EVERYTHING.
Panel 2:
Caption banner: 10 YEARS LATER...
The same person, now looking older and frustrated, sits hunched at the desk with a clenched fist.
Thought: DAMMIT! NOTHING! THIS SUCKS!
Panel 3:
A man in a red shirt slouches in a chair drinking from a bottle, with his bare foot propped up in the foreground, toes spread apart.
Thought (the man): HUH... I WONDER WHY MY TOES ARE THAT FAR APART.
Panel 4:
Caption banner: 2 YEARS LATER...
The same man, now wearing a suit and tie, gestures toward a whiteboard/poster while smiling. The board shows a diagram: an oval, a dashed line leading to an 'H', and another oval.
Speech (the man): AND THAT'S HOW YOU REMOTE CONTROL THE HIGGS FIELD.
Votey:
Caption banner: ALSO...
A loosely sketched man with glasses speaks emphatically.
Speech (the man): COCAINE
Panel 1:
A person with orange hair and glasses sits at a desk, smiling and holding up a pencil.
Thought/speech (the person): OKAY! NOW TO THINK UP A THEORY OF EVERYTHING.
Panel 2:
Caption banner: 10 YEARS LATER...
The same person, now looking older and frustrated, sits hunched at the desk with a clenched fist.
Thought: DAMMIT! NOTHING! THIS SUCKS!
Panel 3:
A man in a red shirt slouches in a chair drinking from a bottle, with his bare foot propped up in the foreground, toes spread apart.
Thought (the man): HUH... I WONDER WHY MY TOES ARE THAT FAR APART.
Panel 4:
Caption banner: 2 YEARS LATER...
The same man, now wearing a suit and tie, gestures toward a whiteboard/poster while smiling. The board shows a diagram: an oval, a dashed line leading to an 'H', and another oval.
Speech (the man): AND THAT'S HOW YOU REMOTE CONTROL THE HIGGS FIELD.
Votey:
Caption banner: ALSO...
A loosely sketched man with glasses speaks emphatically.
Speech (the man): COCAINE
Alt text
A four-panel SMBC comic titled 'HOW DISCOVERY HAPPENS.' Panel 1: an orange-haired person in glasses sits at a desk, cheerfully holding up a pencil, thinking 'Okay! Now to think up a theory of everything.' Panel 2, labeled '10 years later...': the same person, older and frustrated with a clenched fist, thinks 'Dammit! Nothing! This sucks!' Panel 3: a man in a red shirt slouches in a chair drinking from a bottle, his bare foot propped up in the foreground with toes spread wide, thinking 'Huh... I wonder why my toes are that far apart.' Panel 4, labeled '2 years later...': the same man, now in a suit and tie, gestures to a diagram (an oval, a dashed line to an 'H', another oval) and says 'And that's how you remote control the Higgs field.' The joke: real scientific discovery comes not from the diligent theorist but from an idle stoner idly noticing his own toes. Votey aftercomic, labeled 'ALSO...': a roughly sketched man in glasses speaks the single emphatic word 'Cocaine,' implying drugs also drive discovery.
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.