forever-4
Original: forever-4 on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
A girl with dark curly hair asks an off-panel person:
Girl: What if you could live forever?
Reply (off-panel, in a separate box): I dunno. The math doesn't work.
Panel 2:
Girl: If I live forever, there will always remain the perfect sunset, the perfect thing happening to me. The perfect sunrise, the perfect snowfall, perfect kiss. Maybe I'll be the first person to explore some place or to understand something deep enough. Just imagine, I'll get to write something so huge, something so great, or think something so true, useful, or I'll lead a movement that makes history.
Panel 3:
Girl: But also if I live forever the potency of those things is diluted by an infinite portion of imperfection. Any improvement, any source of resignation to the nature of things would be measured...
Panel 4:
The off-panel speaker now interjects (text on the left):
Other: What's infinity divided by infinity? The number is infinite. Maybe and put them in infinite spots. Do I feel like I'm floating or drowning?
Panel 5:
The girl, eyes closed and waving a hand, keeps talking; the other person (now visible, a wide-eyed person) reacts:
Girl: You don't let me finish. I was gonna say what if you could live forever but you had to go to the bathroom OUT OF YOUR NOSE.
Other: See. Now that tips the scales in INCREASED.
A girl with dark curly hair asks an off-panel person:
Girl: What if you could live forever?
Reply (off-panel, in a separate box): I dunno. The math doesn't work.
Panel 2:
Girl: If I live forever, there will always remain the perfect sunset, the perfect thing happening to me. The perfect sunrise, the perfect snowfall, perfect kiss. Maybe I'll be the first person to explore some place or to understand something deep enough. Just imagine, I'll get to write something so huge, something so great, or think something so true, useful, or I'll lead a movement that makes history.
Panel 3:
Girl: But also if I live forever the potency of those things is diluted by an infinite portion of imperfection. Any improvement, any source of resignation to the nature of things would be measured...
Panel 4:
The off-panel speaker now interjects (text on the left):
Other: What's infinity divided by infinity? The number is infinite. Maybe and put them in infinite spots. Do I feel like I'm floating or drowning?
Panel 5:
The girl, eyes closed and waving a hand, keeps talking; the other person (now visible, a wide-eyed person) reacts:
Girl: You don't let me finish. I was gonna say what if you could live forever but you had to go to the bathroom OUT OF YOUR NOSE.
Other: See. Now that tips the scales in INCREASED.
Alt text
A five-panel SMBC comic. A girl with dark curly hair launches into a long philosophical monologue about immortality. She first asks an off-panel friend, 'What if you could live forever?' The friend dryly replies, 'I dunno. The math doesn't work.' Across the next panels the girl rhapsodizes that living forever means there will always be the perfect sunset, sunrise, snowfall, and kiss, and the chance to be first to explore or understand something, to write or think something great, or lead a history-making movement. She then counters herself that the potency of those things would be diluted by an infinite portion of imperfection, and the friend muses about infinity divided by infinity and feeling like floating or drowning. In the final panel the girl, eyes shut and waving her hand, snaps that she wasn't finished: 'I was gonna say what if you could live forever but you had to go to the bathroom OUT OF YOUR NOSE.' The wide-eyed friend replies, 'See. Now that tips the scales in INCREASED.' The joke: the grand existential debate about immortality is instantly resolved by an absurd gross-out caveat. There is no votey (aftercomic) image available for this comic.
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.