my-imaginary-friend
Original: my-imaginary-friend on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
Child: Daddy, can my imaginary friend Bobby come over?
Panel 2:
Father: "Bobby"?
Panel 3:
Child: But, Bobby is real.
Father: "Bobby" is just a conceptual model created by my perceiving self.
Panel 4:
Father: What did I tell you about reading the neuropsychology literature?!
Child: I don't know. Memory is an imperfect storage method.
Votey:
Child: And neither do you.
(The father stares back, looking unsettled/disturbed.)
Child: Daddy, can my imaginary friend Bobby come over?
Panel 2:
Father: "Bobby"?
Panel 3:
Child: But, Bobby is real.
Father: "Bobby" is just a conceptual model created by my perceiving self.
Panel 4:
Father: What did I tell you about reading the neuropsychology literature?!
Child: I don't know. Memory is an imperfect storage method.
Votey:
Child: And neither do you.
(The father stares back, looking unsettled/disturbed.)
Alt text
A four-panel comic. Panel 1: a young child speaks to her father, who sits reading in an armchair. Child: "Daddy, can my imaginary friend Bobby come over?" Panel 2: the father, skeptical, replies "Bobby?" Panel 3: the child insists "But, Bobby is real," and the father responds, "Bobby is just a conceptual model created by my perceiving self." Panel 4: the father, exasperated, says "What did I tell you about reading the neuropsychology literature?!" The child, eyes closed, calmly answers, "I don't know. Memory is an imperfect storage method." Votey (aftercomic): a close-up of the father's face looking unsettled and unnerved as the child's voice from off-panel adds, "And neither do you." The joke: the child weaponizes the father's own philosophy-of-mind skepticism back at him, leaving him disturbed.
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.