science-prank
Original: science-prank on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1 (caption box, narrator/setup): PRANK IDEA: TELL A POLITICIAN ABOUT A CLASSIC SCIENTIFIC PROJECT AS IF IT'S WASTEFUL SPENDING. THEN, WATCH THEM GO ON TV.
Panel 2: A man (light hair, on a TV screen) addresses a host/interviewer who is holding papers.
Man on TV: AND THEY WANNA TAKE COWPOX AND INJECT IT INTO PEOPLE TO SEE IF IT MAKES THEM HEALTHY!
Host (off to the side): RIDICULOUS. OUTRAGEOUS.
Panel 3: A bald man with a mustache speaks at a panel/table; behind him sit other panelists (a man in sunglasses, a blonde woman in a red jacket, a man in glasses).
Mustached man: THEY THINK WE OUGHTA PAY SOME WOMAN IN PARIS FRANCE TO STIR DIRT TO SEE IF IT STARTS GLOWING!
Woman in red jacket: THIS IS YOUR MONEY, AMERICA?
Panel 4: A grey-haired man in a suit (red tie) speaks at the table.
Grey-haired man: SO, WE'RE GONNA SEND A BRITISH TWENTY-TWO-YEAR-OLD TO LOOK AT FINCH BEAKS AND SEE IF THEY'RE DIFFERENT!
Panel 5: Another man in a suit at the table responds.
Second man: THIS IS WHY NOBODY TRUSTS THE GOVERNMENT ANYMORE.
Votey:
A pensive man (stubble, looking off to the upper right) speaks. His speech bubble fills the top of the panel.
Man: YOU KNOW THE GIANT DISK GOD THAT CIRCLES EARTH AT NIGHT? THEY WANNA SEND A FIRECRACKER TO LAND ON IT!
Panel 2: A man (light hair, on a TV screen) addresses a host/interviewer who is holding papers.
Man on TV: AND THEY WANNA TAKE COWPOX AND INJECT IT INTO PEOPLE TO SEE IF IT MAKES THEM HEALTHY!
Host (off to the side): RIDICULOUS. OUTRAGEOUS.
Panel 3: A bald man with a mustache speaks at a panel/table; behind him sit other panelists (a man in sunglasses, a blonde woman in a red jacket, a man in glasses).
Mustached man: THEY THINK WE OUGHTA PAY SOME WOMAN IN PARIS FRANCE TO STIR DIRT TO SEE IF IT STARTS GLOWING!
Woman in red jacket: THIS IS YOUR MONEY, AMERICA?
Panel 4: A grey-haired man in a suit (red tie) speaks at the table.
Grey-haired man: SO, WE'RE GONNA SEND A BRITISH TWENTY-TWO-YEAR-OLD TO LOOK AT FINCH BEAKS AND SEE IF THEY'RE DIFFERENT!
Panel 5: Another man in a suit at the table responds.
Second man: THIS IS WHY NOBODY TRUSTS THE GOVERNMENT ANYMORE.
Votey:
A pensive man (stubble, looking off to the upper right) speaks. His speech bubble fills the top of the panel.
Man: YOU KNOW THE GIANT DISK GOD THAT CIRCLES EARTH AT NIGHT? THEY WANNA SEND A FIRECRACKER TO LAND ON IT!
Alt text
A five-panel SMBC comic. Top caption: "Prank idea: tell a politician about a classic scientific project as if it's wasteful spending. Then, watch them go on TV." The following panels show outraged pundits and politicians on TV and at a panel table dismissing real, famous science as absurd government waste. One man on a TV screen scoffs that researchers "wanna take cowpox and inject it into people to see if it makes them healthy" (Jenner's smallpox vaccine), while a host calls it "Ridiculous. Outrageous." A bald mustached man rants that they want to "pay some woman in Paris France to stir dirt to see if it starts glowing" (Marie Curie and radioactivity), and a blonde woman in a red jacket says "This is your money, America?" A grey-haired man complains they're going to "send a British twenty-two-year-old to look at finch beaks and see if they're different" (Darwin and evolution). A second man concludes, "This is why nobody trusts the government anymore." The joke: epoch-defining science sounds ridiculous when framed as pork-barrel spending. Votey (aftercomic): a pensive man gazes upward and says, "You know the giant disk god that circles Earth at night? They wanna send a firecracker to land on it!" — mocking the moon landing in the same dismissive register.
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.