auto-2
Original: auto-2 on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
Boss (older man in suit, glasses): Jensen, you've been automated.
Boss: We replaced you with a robot. You have the perception that you are a person, but you are in fact a machine.
Jensen (younger man, dark hair, glasses): What?
Panel 2:
Robot/Jensen: So that's why I keep beeping.
Panel 3:
Jensen: I... too long automated several... years ago.
Boss: We just put the pattern recognition because it was vague and some purpose we cannot discern.
Panel 4:
Jensen: So, Jensen, what are you doing and why?
Jensen: I'm pretending to work while a robot does my job. The reason I do that is so I can read robot health.
Panel 5 (Jensen at a computer):
Jensen: What were the humans doing if we just get to the bottom of it?
Votey:
Text at top: I HAVE WORK-RELATED ENNUI, BEEP-BEEP? ENNUI, BEEP-BEEP?
(Drawing of a man's face below the text.)
Boss (older man in suit, glasses): Jensen, you've been automated.
Boss: We replaced you with a robot. You have the perception that you are a person, but you are in fact a machine.
Jensen (younger man, dark hair, glasses): What?
Panel 2:
Robot/Jensen: So that's why I keep beeping.
Panel 3:
Jensen: I... too long automated several... years ago.
Boss: We just put the pattern recognition because it was vague and some purpose we cannot discern.
Panel 4:
Jensen: So, Jensen, what are you doing and why?
Jensen: I'm pretending to work while a robot does my job. The reason I do that is so I can read robot health.
Panel 5 (Jensen at a computer):
Jensen: What were the humans doing if we just get to the bottom of it?
Votey:
Text at top: I HAVE WORK-RELATED ENNUI, BEEP-BEEP? ENNUI, BEEP-BEEP?
(Drawing of a man's face below the text.)
Alt text
A black-and-white SMBC webcomic. In a corporate office, an older boss in a suit and glasses tells a younger dark-haired man, Jensen, that he has been automated and replaced with a robot, and that although he perceives himself as a person he is actually a machine. Jensen, confused, says 'What?' then realizes 'So that's why I keep beeping.' The boss explains they kept a vague pattern-recognition routine for some purpose they can't discern. Jensen, now sitting at a computer, muses about pretending to work while a robot does his job and wonders what the humans were even doing. The votey shows a close-up of a man's face above the caption 'I have work-related ennui, beep-beep? Ennui, beep-beep?' — leaning into the absurdist gag that the automated worker now experiences existential office boredom expressed in robotic beeps.
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.