excuse-me-sir
Original: excuse-me-sir on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1: A bearded blond man (a salesman) approaches a customer (a man with dark hair in a green jacket and red tie) on a city street.
Salesman: Excuse me, sir. Would you be interested in having your moderate social views repackaged as radical statements, then sold to you as designer merchandise?
Customer: Would I ever!
Panel 2: The salesman leads the customer down a walkway.
Salesman: Right this way, sir.
Panel 3: They stand at a shelf of folded shirts.
Salesman: We have this shirt which promotes the idea that real experience is preferable to acquisitiveness.
Panel 4: Close on the salesman speaking.
Salesman: That notion, obvious to all people, is expressed via the word "unplug."
Panel 5: The salesman continues.
Salesman: Somehow, in the transition from an agreeable notion to a slogan, it acquires the modal sense of challenging some person or perspective, even though the general idea is uncontroversial.
Panel 6: The salesman hands the customer the folded blue shirt.
Customer: I want to buy it, but could you please be less forthright about your business model?
Panel 7: The customer holds the shirt.
Salesman: That'll cost 25% extra.
Votey:
A close-up of the bearded salesman's face. A speech bubble points off-panel.
Salesman: $400 Please
Salesman: Excuse me, sir. Would you be interested in having your moderate social views repackaged as radical statements, then sold to you as designer merchandise?
Customer: Would I ever!
Panel 2: The salesman leads the customer down a walkway.
Salesman: Right this way, sir.
Panel 3: They stand at a shelf of folded shirts.
Salesman: We have this shirt which promotes the idea that real experience is preferable to acquisitiveness.
Panel 4: Close on the salesman speaking.
Salesman: That notion, obvious to all people, is expressed via the word "unplug."
Panel 5: The salesman continues.
Salesman: Somehow, in the transition from an agreeable notion to a slogan, it acquires the modal sense of challenging some person or perspective, even though the general idea is uncontroversial.
Panel 6: The salesman hands the customer the folded blue shirt.
Customer: I want to buy it, but could you please be less forthright about your business model?
Panel 7: The customer holds the shirt.
Salesman: That'll cost 25% extra.
Votey:
A close-up of the bearded salesman's face. A speech bubble points off-panel.
Salesman: $400 Please
Alt text
A seven-panel SMBC comic. A bearded blond salesman stops a dark-haired customer on a city street and asks: "Excuse me, sir. Would you be interested in having your moderate social views repackaged as radical statements, then sold to you as designer merchandise?" The customer eagerly replies, "Would I ever!" The salesman leads him to a shelf of folded shirts and presents a blue shirt that "promotes the idea that real experience is preferable to acquisitiveness" — a notion obvious to everyone, expressed by the word "unplug." He explains that in becoming a slogan the obvious idea "acquires the modal sense of challenging some person or perspective, even though the general idea is uncontroversial." The customer says he wants to buy it but asks the salesman to "please be less forthright about your business model." The salesman answers, "That'll cost 25% extra." Votey (aftercomic): a close-up of the bearded salesman's face with a speech bubble reading "$400 Please."
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.