trough
Original: trough on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
Child: Dad, how come adults are all crazy?
Dad: Because they had parents.
Panel 2:
Dad: This is well-studied. In countries around the world, the lowest levels of happiness occur between the ages of 40 and 60. This is regardless of whether you have kids or not.
Panel 3:
Dad: So at the exact moment you're come to be for guidance, I'm at my lowest level of utility. You are getting all your rage- and role-modeling from people at their lifetime maximum of confusion, sorrow, and anger and everyone else is too.
Panel 4:
Child: I asked mom the same question and she said this was crazy with love for me.
Dad: Damn her.
Votey:
Dad (yelling at the departing child): Why are you always damning mom?!
(The child has walked off; a close-up of the dad's frustrated, sweating face fills the panel.)
Child: Dad, how come adults are all crazy?
Dad: Because they had parents.
Panel 2:
Dad: This is well-studied. In countries around the world, the lowest levels of happiness occur between the ages of 40 and 60. This is regardless of whether you have kids or not.
Panel 3:
Dad: So at the exact moment you're come to be for guidance, I'm at my lowest level of utility. You are getting all your rage- and role-modeling from people at their lifetime maximum of confusion, sorrow, and anger and everyone else is too.
Panel 4:
Child: I asked mom the same question and she said this was crazy with love for me.
Dad: Damn her.
Votey:
Dad (yelling at the departing child): Why are you always damning mom?!
(The child has walked off; a close-up of the dad's frustrated, sweating face fills the panel.)
Alt text
A four-panel SMBC comic. A young child stands talking to their bespectacled dad. The child asks, "Dad, how come adults are all crazy?" The dad replies, "Because they had parents." He then explains at length that studies worldwide show the lowest levels of happiness occur between ages 40 and 60 regardless of whether you have kids, so children come to their parents for guidance at the exact moment those parents are at their lifetime maximum of confusion, sorrow, and anger, and everyone gets their role-modeling from people in that state. In the final panel the child says, "I asked mom the same question and she said this was crazy with love for me," and the dad mutters, "Damn her." In the votey aftercomic, a close-up of the dad's sweating, exasperated face yells after the child, "Why are you always damning mom?!"
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.