parenting-game-theory
Original: parenting-game-theory on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
Mother (to two children): Children, someone ate mom's ENTIRE batch of cookies. I don't have time to discern who.
Panel 2:
Father (bald, with glasses): Therefore, I am placing you in a prisoner's dilemma.
Panel 3:
Father: If nobody admits wrongdoing, you each get one day grounded. If exactly one of you rats out the other, you get zero days grounded while your brother gets 20. If you both rat out the other, you both get 10 days.
Panel 4:
First child (pointing): He did it!
Second child (pointing): He did it!
Panel 5:
Father: Just as expected. Shame on you both.
Caption: EARLIER...
Panel 6:
Father (sitting at a kitchen table with an empty plate, calling out): Honey, do you know where my bake sale cookies went?
Votey:
A roughly sketched face (the father) says: I've discovered a new form of super-rationality.
Mother (to two children): Children, someone ate mom's ENTIRE batch of cookies. I don't have time to discern who.
Panel 2:
Father (bald, with glasses): Therefore, I am placing you in a prisoner's dilemma.
Panel 3:
Father: If nobody admits wrongdoing, you each get one day grounded. If exactly one of you rats out the other, you get zero days grounded while your brother gets 20. If you both rat out the other, you both get 10 days.
Panel 4:
First child (pointing): He did it!
Second child (pointing): He did it!
Panel 5:
Father: Just as expected. Shame on you both.
Caption: EARLIER...
Panel 6:
Father (sitting at a kitchen table with an empty plate, calling out): Honey, do you know where my bake sale cookies went?
Votey:
A roughly sketched face (the father) says: I've discovered a new form of super-rationality.
Alt text
A six-panel SMBC comic. Panel 1: A mother addresses two young kids, saying "Children, someone ate mom's ENTIRE batch of cookies. I don't have time to discern who." Panel 2: A bald, bespectacled father declares, "Therefore, I am placing you in a prisoner's dilemma." Panel 3: The father lays out the payoffs: "If nobody admits wrongdoing, you each get one day grounded. If exactly one of you rats out the other, you get zero days grounded while your brother gets 20. If you both rat out the other, you both get 10 days." Panel 4: Both kids immediately point at each other shouting "He did it!" / "He did it!" Panel 5: The father, looking smug, says "Just as expected. Shame on you both." A caption reads "EARLIER..." Panel 6: A flashback shows the same father sitting alone at the kitchen table with an empty plate in front of him, calling out "Honey, do you know where my bake sale cookies went?" — revealing that he himself ate all the cookies and engineered the whole prisoner's dilemma to deflect blame onto the kids. Votey (aftercomic): A crude, scribbly drawing of the father's face says, "I've discovered a new form of super-rationality."
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.