2012-10-19
Original: 2012-10-19 on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1
Man (green shirt): I'm going to flip the coin. This is a pill for you to take. It will alter your brain chemistry so you'll think you never liked me.
Panel 2
Woman (dark hair): No! If I don't remember you as you were, it's like you never existed!
Panel 3
Man: I'll be dead anyway, so it won't matter.
Panel 4
Woman: I'd be happier with sad good memories than easy bad ones.
Panel 5
Man: For most couples, that'd be true. But our love was so wonderful, you'll never outrun the sense of loss.
Panel 6
Woman: I can't do this to your memory.
Panel 7
Man: If you were dying, I'd take it.
Panel 8
Woman: You're just saying that!
Panel 9
Man: I'm saying it because I love you. Promise me you'll take it.
Panel 10
(Woman looks away silently.)
Panel 11
Woman: All right... if that's what you want.
Panel 12
Man (now smiling, revealed in different light): AHA!
Panel 13
Man (in lab coat, to a couple): And that's when one failed the relationship test.
Panel 14
The man being tested (now in different clothes): You're pretty fucked up, Frank.
Votey:
A man with a distressed expression, sweating: HOW CAN I TRUST YOU NOW?!
Man (green shirt): I'm going to flip the coin. This is a pill for you to take. It will alter your brain chemistry so you'll think you never liked me.
Panel 2
Woman (dark hair): No! If I don't remember you as you were, it's like you never existed!
Panel 3
Man: I'll be dead anyway, so it won't matter.
Panel 4
Woman: I'd be happier with sad good memories than easy bad ones.
Panel 5
Man: For most couples, that'd be true. But our love was so wonderful, you'll never outrun the sense of loss.
Panel 6
Woman: I can't do this to your memory.
Panel 7
Man: If you were dying, I'd take it.
Panel 8
Woman: You're just saying that!
Panel 9
Man: I'm saying it because I love you. Promise me you'll take it.
Panel 10
(Woman looks away silently.)
Panel 11
Woman: All right... if that's what you want.
Panel 12
Man (now smiling, revealed in different light): AHA!
Panel 13
Man (in lab coat, to a couple): And that's when one failed the relationship test.
Panel 14
The man being tested (now in different clothes): You're pretty fucked up, Frank.
Votey:
A man with a distressed expression, sweating: HOW CAN I TRUST YOU NOW?!
Alt text
A tall black-background SMBC comic showing a tense conversation between a man in a green shirt and a woman with long dark hair, panel by panel. The man proposes flipping a coin and offers the woman a pill that will alter her brain chemistry so she'll think she never liked him, since he'll be dead anyway. She protests that if she doesn't remember him as he was, it'll be like he never existed, and says she'd rather keep sad good memories than easy bad ones. He insists their love was so wonderful she'll never outrun the sense of loss, and presses her: if she were dying, he'd take the pill himself; he's saying it because he loves her, and begs her to promise she'll take it. After a silent beat, she relents: 'All right... if that's what you want.' The man immediately grins and shouts 'AHA!' The final panel reveals him in a lab coat telling a seated couple, 'And that's when one failed the relationship test.' The man who'd been tested replies, 'You're pretty fucked up, Frank.' The joke: the whole emotional plea was a manipulative test, and the partner is revolted. The votey is a separate hand-drawn black-and-white panel of a man with a pained, sweating face crying out, 'HOW CAN I TRUST YOU NOW?!'
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.