feral
Original: feral on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
A woman, startled: "AAH! Did you see that!?"
A man with glasses, calmly: "Oh, that's our feral economist. We think he lives on campus somewhere."
Panel 2:
Narration: Long ago, two economists had a child.
One parent (shown as a large face): "We shall name him Marginal Product."
(A red-haired baby is cradled between two adult faces.)
Panel 3:
Narration: But a close examination of their utility maximization curves resulted in his being abandoned in the woods.
A parent: "It's not our fault we feel this way."
The other parent: "Someday he'll understand that preferences are exogenous."
(A red-haired child sits alone in the woods as two adult figures jog away.)
Panel 4:
Narration: As a young boy, he fended for himself by creating a hedge fund for nuts and taking a 14% asset management fee.
The boy, to a squirrel: "Alpha! Alllpha!"
Panel 5:
Narration: Now he stalks the night, destroying free calories he finds on the ground because they are theoretically impossible.
The feral economist (now a bearded man), wild-eyed at an apple: "If you were really an apple, you would've been eaten by now!"
Panel 6:
The woman: "Why don't you trap him and try to introduce him back into society?"
(The feral economist's head peeks out from behind a bush.)
Panel 7:
The feral economist, ranting: "There is no society just an aggregate of individualsarrrrghbarghgh"
The man with glasses, to the woman: "He's happier this way."
Votey:
Text inside a hand-drawn square frame: "Top humorous use of 'exogenous' for December 2021"
A woman, startled: "AAH! Did you see that!?"
A man with glasses, calmly: "Oh, that's our feral economist. We think he lives on campus somewhere."
Panel 2:
Narration: Long ago, two economists had a child.
One parent (shown as a large face): "We shall name him Marginal Product."
(A red-haired baby is cradled between two adult faces.)
Panel 3:
Narration: But a close examination of their utility maximization curves resulted in his being abandoned in the woods.
A parent: "It's not our fault we feel this way."
The other parent: "Someday he'll understand that preferences are exogenous."
(A red-haired child sits alone in the woods as two adult figures jog away.)
Panel 4:
Narration: As a young boy, he fended for himself by creating a hedge fund for nuts and taking a 14% asset management fee.
The boy, to a squirrel: "Alpha! Alllpha!"
Panel 5:
Narration: Now he stalks the night, destroying free calories he finds on the ground because they are theoretically impossible.
The feral economist (now a bearded man), wild-eyed at an apple: "If you were really an apple, you would've been eaten by now!"
Panel 6:
The woman: "Why don't you trap him and try to introduce him back into society?"
(The feral economist's head peeks out from behind a bush.)
Panel 7:
The feral economist, ranting: "There is no society just an aggregate of individualsarrrrghbarghgh"
The man with glasses, to the woman: "He's happier this way."
Votey:
Text inside a hand-drawn square frame: "Top humorous use of 'exogenous' for December 2021"
Alt text
A seven-panel SMBC comic about a "feral economist." Panel 1: a startled woman and a calm bespectacled man on campus; he explains the woman just saw their feral economist, who lives somewhere on campus. Panels 2-3 (origin story): two economists name their red-haired baby "Marginal Product," then abandon him in the woods after examining their utility-maximization curves, claiming "it's not our fault" and that "someday he'll understand that preferences are exogenous." Panel 4: as a boy he runs a nut hedge fund, charging a squirrel a 14% fee while shouting "Alpha!" Panel 5: now a wild bearded man, he screams at an apple on the ground, "If you were really an apple, you would've been eaten by now!" because free calories are theoretically impossible. Panel 6: the woman suggests trapping him to reintroduce him to society as his head peeks from a bush. Panel 7: he rants "There is no society just an aggregate of individuals" devolving into gibberish; the man concludes "He's happier this way." Votey: a hand-drawn square frame containing the text "Top humorous use of 'exogenous' for December 2021."
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.