goodbye-2
Original: goodbye-2 on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
An elderly man lies in a bed, dying. An elderly woman with gray hair, round glasses, and a red vest sits at his bedside.
Man: "I haven't got long now. Ah, wife, you were always there to keep me grounded. Level-headed."
Panel 2:
Close on the dying man's face.
Man: "Always skewering my silly pretentions and vanities. Always making sure I was myself. The true me."
Panel 3:
The woman sits silently beside him, her expression flat and unimpressed.
Man (off-panel): "...damn you for that."
Panel 4:
The man lies back, eyes closed, apparently having died. The woman leans in, frowning.
Woman: "What a mediocre valediction speech."
Votey:
The woman speaks again, deadpan.
Woman: "GOD you die slow, husband."
An elderly man lies in a bed, dying. An elderly woman with gray hair, round glasses, and a red vest sits at his bedside.
Man: "I haven't got long now. Ah, wife, you were always there to keep me grounded. Level-headed."
Panel 2:
Close on the dying man's face.
Man: "Always skewering my silly pretentions and vanities. Always making sure I was myself. The true me."
Panel 3:
The woman sits silently beside him, her expression flat and unimpressed.
Man (off-panel): "...damn you for that."
Panel 4:
The man lies back, eyes closed, apparently having died. The woman leans in, frowning.
Woman: "What a mediocre valediction speech."
Votey:
The woman speaks again, deadpan.
Woman: "GOD you die slow, husband."
Alt text
A four-panel SMBC comic. An elderly man lies dying in bed while his gray-haired wife, in round glasses and a red vest, sits stone-faced at his bedside. He delivers a sentimental deathbed speech thanking her for always keeping him grounded and level-headed, for skewering his pretensions and vanities, for making sure he was his true self -- then adds, "...damn you for that." He dies. The wife, utterly unmoved, leans in and critiques: "What a mediocre valediction speech." In the votey aftercomic, she adds dryly, "GOD you die slow, husband." The joke: the loving, grounding spouse he eulogized turns out to be cuttingly unsentimental even at his death.
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.