2013-12-15

A black-and-white SMBC comic, drawn as a tall vertical strip, with the human figures in line art and a hallucinated blue-skinned ape rendered in color. Panel 1: A glum man named Frank sits with a small storm cloud and lightning bolt over his head. Panel 2: A blue ape appears and says "HEY!"; Frank says "...Darwin?" Panel 3: The ape asks what he's so sad about; Frank lists that he's broke, his girlfriend wants to "have a talk," and his boss sucks. Panels 4-7: The ape delivers a long pep talk, calling Frank a monkey barely out of the trees who had to be trained for years not to shit himself, now living far from the savannah wrapped in plant fiber and animal skin, grumbling that other monkeys don't like what kind of monkey he is. The ape urges him to climb a tree, jump in a lake, howl at the moon, or pick a wildflower for a monkey he likes. Panel 8: The ape warns him not to waste his short monkey life being sad, comparing it to getting only one piece of fruit and choosing the moldy apple on the ground. Panel 9: Frank says "Yeah..." Panel 10: The ape adds that the moldy apple is really easy to get and probably contains alcohol. Panel 11: Frank says "Maybe you should drink less, Frank." Panel 12: The ape, revealing it's a drunken hallucination, says "If I drink less I'll stop having vivid hallucinations, Chuck," and Frank pleads "I'll be good! I'll be good!" — establishing that Frank is hallucinating the talking ape and arguing with himself. Votey: Frank's speech balloon corrects, "Apes, not monkeys," and the ape retorts, "Ook ook ook yourself."