words
Original: words on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
Mother: WHAT DID YOU SAY, MISS?!
Panel 2:
Daughter: CALM DOWN! I SAID "FECK," AS IN "THAT WHICH ONE WHO IS FECKLESS LACKS."
Panel 3:
Daughter: OH SURE, ONE MUST ADMIT THAT, IN CERTAIN CHIEFLY NORTHERN BRITISH ACCENTS, THE WORD COULD BE MISTAKEN FOR A SWEAR, BUT REALLY MOM, DO YOU WANT YOUR REIGN TO BE REMEMBERED AS AN ERA OF PUNISHMENTS METED OUT FOR ARBITRARILY MALIGNED PHONEMES?
Panel 4:
Daughter: THEY'RE RANDOM BUT NOT ARBITRARY. EVERY CULTURE HAS TABOO WORDS, AND BRAIN SCANS SHOW RECOGNIZABLE EFFECTS WHEN THOSE PARTICULAR TERMS ARE USED.
Panel 5:
Daughter: YOU'RE NOT MORE ENLIGHTENED ABOUT LANGUAGE. YOU'RE MORE IGNORANT ABOUT SOCIAL CUES.
Panel 6:
(The daughter and mother stare at each other in silence.)
Panel 7:
Daughter: WELL THAT'S BULLSHIT!
Mother: YOU ARE GROUNDED.
Votey:
Daughter (small speech bubble): YOU LITTLE S-WORD!
(A large frowning face looms above.)
Mother: WHAT DID YOU SAY, MISS?!
Panel 2:
Daughter: CALM DOWN! I SAID "FECK," AS IN "THAT WHICH ONE WHO IS FECKLESS LACKS."
Panel 3:
Daughter: OH SURE, ONE MUST ADMIT THAT, IN CERTAIN CHIEFLY NORTHERN BRITISH ACCENTS, THE WORD COULD BE MISTAKEN FOR A SWEAR, BUT REALLY MOM, DO YOU WANT YOUR REIGN TO BE REMEMBERED AS AN ERA OF PUNISHMENTS METED OUT FOR ARBITRARILY MALIGNED PHONEMES?
Panel 4:
Daughter: THEY'RE RANDOM BUT NOT ARBITRARY. EVERY CULTURE HAS TABOO WORDS, AND BRAIN SCANS SHOW RECOGNIZABLE EFFECTS WHEN THOSE PARTICULAR TERMS ARE USED.
Panel 5:
Daughter: YOU'RE NOT MORE ENLIGHTENED ABOUT LANGUAGE. YOU'RE MORE IGNORANT ABOUT SOCIAL CUES.
Panel 6:
(The daughter and mother stare at each other in silence.)
Panel 7:
Daughter: WELL THAT'S BULLSHIT!
Mother: YOU ARE GROUNDED.
Votey:
Daughter (small speech bubble): YOU LITTLE S-WORD!
(A large frowning face looms above.)
Alt text
A seven-panel comic. A young girl argues with her mother. Mom shouts, "What did you say, miss?!" The girl replies, "Calm down! I said 'feck,' as in 'that which one who is feckless lacks.'" She continues with an elaborate, condescending defense: she admits the word could be mistaken for a swear in certain northern British accents, then asks whether Mom wants her reign "remembered as an era of punishments meted out for arbitrarily maligned phonemes?" She adds that taboo words are random but not arbitrary, that every culture has them, and that brain scans show recognizable effects. She concludes, "You're not more enlightened about language. You're more ignorant about social cues." The two stare at each other. In the final panel the girl bursts out, "Well that's bullshit!" and Mom flatly responds, "You are grounded." Votey: the girl, in a small bubble, says "You little s-word!" while the mother's large frowning face looms over her.
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.