food-choice
Original: food-choice on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
Man: Wanna wanna eat?
Woman: I dunno.
Panel 2:
Man: Wait. Actually, that's not quite right. What I want is for me to meander your way through the thicket of possibilities until you arrive, at some point, at exactly what I had in mind. I expect a slightly less negative reaction if I'm later able to suggest, without seeming to, that you'd arrived there yourself, in any way that's deniable for future plausible reciprocity.
Panel 3:
Man: Chinese food then?
Panel 4:
Woman: Sure, yeah, if that's what you want.
Votey:
(It's always Chinese food.)
Man: Wanna wanna eat?
Woman: I dunno.
Panel 2:
Man: Wait. Actually, that's not quite right. What I want is for me to meander your way through the thicket of possibilities until you arrive, at some point, at exactly what I had in mind. I expect a slightly less negative reaction if I'm later able to suggest, without seeming to, that you'd arrived there yourself, in any way that's deniable for future plausible reciprocity.
Panel 3:
Man: Chinese food then?
Panel 4:
Woman: Sure, yeah, if that's what you want.
Votey:
(It's always Chinese food.)
Alt text
A four-panel SMBC comic. A man and a woman stand talking. Panel 1: the man asks where she wants to eat; she replies "I dunno." Panel 2: the man delivers a long, hyper-analytical monologue admitting he actually wants to subtly steer her toward the exact choice he already has in mind, so that she'll feel like she arrived at it herself, preserving deniability for future negotiations. Panel 3: he simply says "Chinese food then?" Panel 4: she shrugs and says "Sure, yeah, if that's what you want." The aftercomic (votey) is a hand-drawn note reading "(It's always Chinese food.)", the punchline that his elaborate scheming always lands on the same predictable answer.
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.