ohyesrobot.ordoliberal.com

2014-01-24

Original: 2014-01-24 on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

Transcript

Panel 1:
First woman (speaking off-panel to Sally): You know, Sally, it takes more muscles to frown than to smile.

Panel 2:
Sally (a woman with glasses): Are you saying I should smile more?

Panel 3:
First woman: I'm saying if you were more depressed, your face wouldn't be so weak and flabby.

Panel 4:
Sally (grinning widely): There we go!

(Final wordless panels show the two women, with Sally smiling broadly.)

Votey:
Text in upper right: SOON.
A large, looming sketch of Sally's grinning face fills the panel, drawn in a rough, manic style.

Alt text

A four-panel comic. An unseen woman tells Sally, a woman with glasses, "You know, Sally, it takes more muscles to frown than to smile." Sally replies, "Are you saying I should smile more?" The woman answers, "I'm saying if you were more depressed, your face wouldn't be so weak and flabby" — reframing the cliche as a backhanded insult. Sally grins anyway and says "There we go!" The joke: the smile-is-easier platitude is twisted into telling someone they should be more depressed for a firmer face. Votey: a large, roughly sketched, manically grinning version of Sally's face looms over the panel with the caption "SOON."

Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.