a-heap-of-trouble
Original: a-heap-of-trouble on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
Woman: Who wants ice cream for breakfast?
Boy (with flame-like hair): Meeee!
Panel 2:
Boy: This isn't ice cream! This is high-fat toast!
Panel 3:
Boy: Suppose you had a full bowl of ice cream and then I replaced 0.0001% of it with high-fat toast. Would you still call it ice cream?
Woman: I guess?
Panel 4:
Boy: And if I then replaced another 0.0001%?
Woman: Okay?
Panel 5:
Boy: So then you can't say with certainty when all of it changes from ice cream to toast.
Woman: So what?
Panel 6:
Boy: Well, young man, until you can find a clear and unambiguous line of delineation, you remain unable to specify ice cream as distinct from high-fiber toast!
Panel 7:
Woman: I'm sure there's a logical fallacy here, but I just don't know what it is.
Panel 8:
Woman (walking away): And when you work it out, you don't get a bite of my sundae.
Votey:
The boy with flame-like hair stares ahead, wide-eyed and shaken, tears welling in his eyes.
Boy: By God... education tastes good.
Woman: Who wants ice cream for breakfast?
Boy (with flame-like hair): Meeee!
Panel 2:
Boy: This isn't ice cream! This is high-fat toast!
Panel 3:
Boy: Suppose you had a full bowl of ice cream and then I replaced 0.0001% of it with high-fat toast. Would you still call it ice cream?
Woman: I guess?
Panel 4:
Boy: And if I then replaced another 0.0001%?
Woman: Okay?
Panel 5:
Boy: So then you can't say with certainty when all of it changes from ice cream to toast.
Woman: So what?
Panel 6:
Boy: Well, young man, until you can find a clear and unambiguous line of delineation, you remain unable to specify ice cream as distinct from high-fiber toast!
Panel 7:
Woman: I'm sure there's a logical fallacy here, but I just don't know what it is.
Panel 8:
Woman (walking away): And when you work it out, you don't get a bite of my sundae.
Votey:
The boy with flame-like hair stares ahead, wide-eyed and shaken, tears welling in his eyes.
Boy: By God... education tastes good.
Alt text
An eight-panel SMBC comic. A woman asks her flame-haired son if he wants ice cream for breakfast; he eagerly says yes, then complains 'This isn't ice cream! This is high-fat toast!' He launches into a sorites-paradox argument: if you replace 0.0001% of a bowl of ice cream with high-fat toast, then another 0.0001%, you can never specify the exact line where it stops being ice cream, so the mother can't distinguish ice cream from high-fiber toast. The mother replies that she's sure there's a logical fallacy here but doesn't know what it is, then walks off saying that when he works it out, he still doesn't get a bite of her sundae. In the votey aftercomic, a close-up shows the boy wide-eyed with tears welling up, murmuring 'By God... education tastes good,' suggesting being out-argued and denied dessert has taught him a lesson.
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.