happy
Original: happy on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Credits (top of comic): WRITTEN BY: ZACH WEINERSMITH. ART BY: ABBY HOWARD.
Panel 1: A genie-like woman (purple, flame/smoke-like hair) leans down toward a small blond child.
Genie: "What do you wish?"
Child: "To always be happy!"
Panel 2: Caption: "LATER..." The blond person (now grown, in a yellow bowtie and suspenders) walks along smiling, a butterfly nearby.
Panel 3: A suburban house with a police car and several officers gathered out front behind crime-scene tape; the smiling blond man approaches.
Panel 4: A female police officer questions the smiling man.
Officer: "Who are you?"
Panel 5: The man, still smiling.
Man: "You know the woman who lives here?"
Panel 6:
Man: "I live here."
Panel 7: The officer, alarmed.
Officer: "You mean... my wife?"
Panel 8: Officers physically holding the man back from a doorway.
Officers: "You don't wanna go in there!"
Man: "Let me through!"
Panel 9: The man pulls back a sheet covering a body on a bed/table; a dark-haired woman (officer) watches.
Man: "Who the hell are you?!"
Man (small text, looking at the body): "...Martha!"
Panel 10: A Black male officer confronts the still-smiling blond man.
Officer: "Why are you smiling, you freak?"
Panel 11:
Man: "I can't help it! I promise I'm devastated, to the extent that's an emotion that's separate from happiness!"
Panel 12:
Officer: "...are you DANCING?"
Man: "I... I've got happy feet, I'm sorry, I can'tâ"
Panel 13:
Officer: "Cuff him, boys."
Panel 14:
Man (offscreen / continuing): "control it!!"
The Black officer looks on; another officer (in white shirt and tie) is present.
Panel 15: Caption: "AND SO...." The smiling blond man sits on a bunk inside a jail cell.
Panel 16: Close-up of the blond man behind/inside the cell, grinning, with a thought bubble: "ALL IS ASHES!"
Votey: A close-up cartoon face of a man grinning widely, with handwritten text beside him reading: "Let my death be swift!"
Panel 1: A genie-like woman (purple, flame/smoke-like hair) leans down toward a small blond child.
Genie: "What do you wish?"
Child: "To always be happy!"
Panel 2: Caption: "LATER..." The blond person (now grown, in a yellow bowtie and suspenders) walks along smiling, a butterfly nearby.
Panel 3: A suburban house with a police car and several officers gathered out front behind crime-scene tape; the smiling blond man approaches.
Panel 4: A female police officer questions the smiling man.
Officer: "Who are you?"
Panel 5: The man, still smiling.
Man: "You know the woman who lives here?"
Panel 6:
Man: "I live here."
Panel 7: The officer, alarmed.
Officer: "You mean... my wife?"
Panel 8: Officers physically holding the man back from a doorway.
Officers: "You don't wanna go in there!"
Man: "Let me through!"
Panel 9: The man pulls back a sheet covering a body on a bed/table; a dark-haired woman (officer) watches.
Man: "Who the hell are you?!"
Man (small text, looking at the body): "...Martha!"
Panel 10: A Black male officer confronts the still-smiling blond man.
Officer: "Why are you smiling, you freak?"
Panel 11:
Man: "I can't help it! I promise I'm devastated, to the extent that's an emotion that's separate from happiness!"
Panel 12:
Officer: "...are you DANCING?"
Man: "I... I've got happy feet, I'm sorry, I can'tâ"
Panel 13:
Officer: "Cuff him, boys."
Panel 14:
Man (offscreen / continuing): "control it!!"
The Black officer looks on; another officer (in white shirt and tie) is present.
Panel 15: Caption: "AND SO...." The smiling blond man sits on a bunk inside a jail cell.
Panel 16: Close-up of the blond man behind/inside the cell, grinning, with a thought bubble: "ALL IS ASHES!"
Votey: A close-up cartoon face of a man grinning widely, with handwritten text beside him reading: "Let my death be swift!"
Alt text
A multi-panel SMBC comic (written by Zach Weinersmith, art by Abby Howard). A purple genie grants a small child's wish: "To always be happy!" Years later the child has grown into a perpetually grinning blond man in a bowtie. He arrives home to find police cars and crime-scene tape around his house. An officer asks who he is; he says he lives there, and learns the dead woman inside is the officer's wife. He forces his way in, pulls back the sheet, and cries "Martha!" over the body. Because his wish forces him to stay happy, he keeps smiling and even starts dancing with "happy feet" while insisting "I can't help it! I promise I'm devastated..." The officers, disturbed by his grinning at a murder scene, arrest him: "Cuff him, boys." He ends up sitting in a jail cell, still grinning, thinking "ALL IS ASHES!" Votey: a close-up of the man's wildly grinning face with the caption "Let my death be swift!"
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.