ball
Original: ball on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
Caption: WHEN YOU'RE PRETTY GOOD AT HITTING A BALL:
Man with mustache (coach): "Great hustle. We might make the championships."
(A blond young man listens.)
Panel 2:
Caption: WHEN YOU'RE VERY GOOD AT HITTING A BALL:
Man with beard and cap: "Kid, you've got a shot at the big leagues."
(The same young man listens.)
Panel 3:
Caption: WHEN YOU'RE EXTRAORDINARY AT HITTING A BALL:
(A blond person holding a microphone interviews the young man.)
Interviewer: "What are your views on nuclear war, race relations, economics, and theology?"
Votey:
Caption: THE MAIN THING IS HUSTLE.
(A close-up sketch of a person's face, eyes closed, speaking.)
Caption: WHEN YOU'RE PRETTY GOOD AT HITTING A BALL:
Man with mustache (coach): "Great hustle. We might make the championships."
(A blond young man listens.)
Panel 2:
Caption: WHEN YOU'RE VERY GOOD AT HITTING A BALL:
Man with beard and cap: "Kid, you've got a shot at the big leagues."
(The same young man listens.)
Panel 3:
Caption: WHEN YOU'RE EXTRAORDINARY AT HITTING A BALL:
(A blond person holding a microphone interviews the young man.)
Interviewer: "What are your views on nuclear war, race relations, economics, and theology?"
Votey:
Caption: THE MAIN THING IS HUSTLE.
(A close-up sketch of a person's face, eyes closed, speaking.)
Alt text
A three-panel SMBC comic about how being good at sports inflates how seriously people take your opinions. Panel 1, captioned "When you're pretty good at hitting a ball," shows a mustached coach telling a blond young athlete, "Great hustle. We might make the championships." Panel 2, captioned "When you're very good at hitting a ball," shows a bearded man in a cap saying, "Kid, you've got a shot at the big leagues." Panel 3, captioned "When you're extraordinary at hitting a ball," shows an interviewer thrusting a microphone at the athlete and asking, "What are your views on nuclear war, race relations, economics, and theology?" The joke: athletic skill earns no special insight, yet the better you hit a ball, the more weight people give your views on unrelated weighty topics. The votey is a minimalist line-sketch of the athlete's face, eyes closed, captioned "The main thing is hustle" - implying his actual depth of thought on those big questions is shallow.
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.