bread-and-circuses
Original: bread-and-circuses on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
Protesting man (holding a sign, shouting): Panem et circenses! Panem et circenses!
Woman: What?
Panel 2:
Bespectacled man (explaining): It's an old Roman adage, referring to how politicians give the public 'bread and circuses' - food and entertainment - so that we feel appeased while the powerful go about their villainy.
Panel 3:
Woman: You feel like that's happening, and that's why you're protesting?
Protesting man: I'm protesting because it's NOT happening!
Panel 4:
Protesting man (raising his sign): There is constant villainy BUT no bread and no circuses!
Panel 5:
Protesting man (sign reads): We want BREAD! We want CIRCUSES!
Panel 6:
Woman: You know history but are still doomed to repeat it.
Protesting man: Oh! Maybe they could let us eat cake!
Votey:
Protesting man: I will vote for whichever candidate stands upside-down on pyramid of monkeys!
(The woman stares at him with a flat, unimpressed expression.)
Protesting man (holding a sign, shouting): Panem et circenses! Panem et circenses!
Woman: What?
Panel 2:
Bespectacled man (explaining): It's an old Roman adage, referring to how politicians give the public 'bread and circuses' - food and entertainment - so that we feel appeased while the powerful go about their villainy.
Panel 3:
Woman: You feel like that's happening, and that's why you're protesting?
Protesting man: I'm protesting because it's NOT happening!
Panel 4:
Protesting man (raising his sign): There is constant villainy BUT no bread and no circuses!
Panel 5:
Protesting man (sign reads): We want BREAD! We want CIRCUSES!
Panel 6:
Woman: You know history but are still doomed to repeat it.
Protesting man: Oh! Maybe they could let us eat cake!
Votey:
Protesting man: I will vote for whichever candidate stands upside-down on pyramid of monkeys!
(The woman stares at him with a flat, unimpressed expression.)
Alt text
A six-panel SMBC comic. A man holds a protest sign and shouts to a woman, 'Panem et circenses! Panem et circenses!' She asks, 'What?' A bespectacled man explains it's an old Roman adage about politicians giving the public 'bread and circuses' - food and entertainment - so people feel appeased while the powerful do villainy. The woman asks the protester if that's why he's protesting; he insists he's protesting because it's NOT happening. He raises his sign declaring there is constant villainy but no bread and no circuses; the sign reads 'We want BREAD! We want CIRCUSES!' The woman says, 'You know history but are still doomed to repeat it.' The protester brightens: 'Oh! Maybe they could let us eat cake!' Votey aftercomic: the same protester, drawn in plain black-and-white line art, declares, 'I will vote for whichever candidate stands upside-down on pyramid of monkeys!' while the woman stares back with a deadpan, unimpressed expression.
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.