nimby
Original: nimby on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
Man with flame-like orange hair: Do you know about "NIMBYism"?
Woman with brown hair: Yeah. I don't like it. People need to embrace change.
Man: As in "not-in-my-backyardism"? Humanity's general desire for nothing to change in their neighborhoods?
Woman: Wrong. NIMBYism is humankind's greatest asset.
Panel 2 (narration over a prehistoric coastal scene):
Man: 200,000 years ago, there were only a handful of humans. What separated them from other apes? Language? Bipedalism? No. NIMBYism.
Man: You no build speartips near cave/ cave area not zoned for industrial or commercial activity!
Panel 3:
Man: As a result, humans were forced to expand at a more rapid rate than other animals.
Panel 4 (two tiny figures on a beach):
Figure 1: Me build hut here.
Figure 2: And RUIN view?
Panel 5 (a figure standing on snow/ice):
Man: This not only explains our rapid dispersal, but also why we were able to adapt so well to different conditions around the planet.
Figure (Thag): Thag, me not want live on glacier.
Other figure: But land use restrictions minimal!
Panel 6:
Man: It's only now that the world is settled that NIMByism appears to be a problem.
Man: We're no longer adapted. The environment has changed.
Panel 7:
Man: No, no, no. Quite the contrary. What's the most NIMBYistic place on Earth?
Woman: Bay Area.
Panel 8:
Man: And who's spending billions on private spacefaring ventures?
Woman: Mother...
Panel 9:
Woman: Bay Area.
Panel 10:
Man (alarmed): Mother of God.
Votey:
Handwritten as a vertical acronym (YIMBY) spelling out a sentence:
I'm a
Yes
In
Mars's
Back
Yard
Beside the text is a small hand-drawn sketch of two rounded figures.
Man with flame-like orange hair: Do you know about "NIMBYism"?
Woman with brown hair: Yeah. I don't like it. People need to embrace change.
Man: As in "not-in-my-backyardism"? Humanity's general desire for nothing to change in their neighborhoods?
Woman: Wrong. NIMBYism is humankind's greatest asset.
Panel 2 (narration over a prehistoric coastal scene):
Man: 200,000 years ago, there were only a handful of humans. What separated them from other apes? Language? Bipedalism? No. NIMBYism.
Man: You no build speartips near cave/ cave area not zoned for industrial or commercial activity!
Panel 3:
Man: As a result, humans were forced to expand at a more rapid rate than other animals.
Panel 4 (two tiny figures on a beach):
Figure 1: Me build hut here.
Figure 2: And RUIN view?
Panel 5 (a figure standing on snow/ice):
Man: This not only explains our rapid dispersal, but also why we were able to adapt so well to different conditions around the planet.
Figure (Thag): Thag, me not want live on glacier.
Other figure: But land use restrictions minimal!
Panel 6:
Man: It's only now that the world is settled that NIMByism appears to be a problem.
Man: We're no longer adapted. The environment has changed.
Panel 7:
Man: No, no, no. Quite the contrary. What's the most NIMBYistic place on Earth?
Woman: Bay Area.
Panel 8:
Man: And who's spending billions on private spacefaring ventures?
Woman: Mother...
Panel 9:
Woman: Bay Area.
Panel 10:
Man (alarmed): Mother of God.
Votey:
Handwritten as a vertical acronym (YIMBY) spelling out a sentence:
I'm a
Yes
In
Mars's
Back
Yard
Beside the text is a small hand-drawn sketch of two rounded figures.
Alt text
A ten-panel SMBC comic. A man with spiky orange flame-like hair lectures a brown-haired woman about "NIMBYism" (Not-In-My-Backyard-ism), the human desire for nothing to change in one's neighborhood. He argues it is humankind's greatest asset: 200,000 years ago NIMBYism (cavemen objecting that an area is "not zoned" for industrial activity, or that a beach hut would "ruin the view," or refusing to live on a glacier despite minimal land-use restrictions) forced early humans to keep expanding faster than other animals, spreading and adapting across the planet. The woman worries that now the world is settled, NIMBYism has become a problem since the environment has changed. The man says quite the contrary: he asks what the most NIMBYistic place on Earth is. She answers "Bay Area." He asks who is spending billions on private spacefaring ventures; she begins "Mother..." then answers "Bay Area" again, and in the final close-up both react in alarm: "Mother of God." The joke: NIMBY resistance to local development is what will drive humans to colonize space. The votey (aftercomic) is a hand-drawn panel with text written vertically so the first letters spell YIMBY: "I'm a / Yes / In / Mars's / Back / Yard," alongside a small doodle of two figures.
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.