run
Original: run on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
Son (a young boy with reddish hair): Dad, I want to ask this girl out but what if she doesn't like me?
Dad (a balding man with glasses): Then run.
Panel 2 (close-up on the dad's wide-eyed, sweating face):
Dad: RUN!
Panel 3:
Dad: My god, that'd be embarrassing. A person who doesn't like YOU in particular, not just your music taste or your hair or whatever. Your whole being is rejected outright.
Panel 4:
Son: This sort of thing is why mom left you, isn't it?
Panel 5:
Dad (staring blankly ahead): Can't leave me if I don't answer my phone.
Votey:
A silhouette of the dad's head in profile against a phone screen. The screen reads: "2 trillion unread voicemail (approximate)".
Son (a young boy with reddish hair): Dad, I want to ask this girl out but what if she doesn't like me?
Dad (a balding man with glasses): Then run.
Panel 2 (close-up on the dad's wide-eyed, sweating face):
Dad: RUN!
Panel 3:
Dad: My god, that'd be embarrassing. A person who doesn't like YOU in particular, not just your music taste or your hair or whatever. Your whole being is rejected outright.
Panel 4:
Son: This sort of thing is why mom left you, isn't it?
Panel 5:
Dad (staring blankly ahead): Can't leave me if I don't answer my phone.
Votey:
A silhouette of the dad's head in profile against a phone screen. The screen reads: "2 trillion unread voicemail (approximate)".
Alt text
A five-panel SMBC comic. A young red-haired boy tells his balding, bespectacled dad, "Dad, I want to ask this girl out but what if she doesn't like me?" The dad answers, "Then run." A close-up shows the dad's wide-eyed, sweating face shouting "RUN!" He explains, "My god, that'd be embarrassing. A person who doesn't like YOU in particular, not just your music taste or your hair or whatever. Your whole being is rejected outright." The boy replies, "This sort of thing is why mom left you, isn't it?" The dad stares blankly ahead and says, "Can't leave me if I don't answer my phone." In the votey aftercomic, a black silhouette of the dad's head in profile faces a phone screen that displays "2 trillion unread voicemail (approximate)," implying he avoids every call to dodge any possible rejection or bad news.
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.