atrophy
Original: atrophy on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1: A boy with orange/red hair stands with his mouth wide open, shouting. Narration: "Once upon a time there was a boy who cried wolf."
Boy: "WOLF! WOOOOOO!!!!"
Panel 2: A man sits at a computer/laptop. Narration: "Turning to technology, there was no reason to determine whether he was crying or not." / "The listeners couldn't have figured it out either."
Screen text: "No wolves in area. Please return to gifs of people eating food or having boobs."
Panel 3: Narration continues: "It was then up to technology, because the emotional and cognitive status of other humans had atrophied from disuse."
Panel 4: A green field/landscape. Narration: "...a single incident, in a broader social calamity, that took place in slow motion."
Bottom caption: "Is this joke funny?"
"I can't tell. Ask social media."
Votey: A moose stands beneath a speech-bubble-style caption box.
Caption: "This seemed way less strident in the script phase, so here's a moose."
Boy: "WOLF! WOOOOOO!!!!"
Panel 2: A man sits at a computer/laptop. Narration: "Turning to technology, there was no reason to determine whether he was crying or not." / "The listeners couldn't have figured it out either."
Screen text: "No wolves in area. Please return to gifs of people eating food or having boobs."
Panel 3: Narration continues: "It was then up to technology, because the emotional and cognitive status of other humans had atrophied from disuse."
Panel 4: A green field/landscape. Narration: "...a single incident, in a broader social calamity, that took place in slow motion."
Bottom caption: "Is this joke funny?"
"I can't tell. Ask social media."
Votey: A moose stands beneath a speech-bubble-style caption box.
Caption: "This seemed way less strident in the script phase, so here's a moose."
Alt text
A multi-panel SMBC comic riffing on "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" updated for the social-media age. Panel one: a boy with flame-like orange hair shouts "WOLF! WOOOOO!!!!" Panel two: a man hunches over a laptop while narration explains people now turn to technology instead of judging for themselves; the screen reads "No wolves in area. Please return to gifs of people eating food or having boobs." Following panels narrate that humans' emotional and cognitive faculties have atrophied from disuse, framing it as a slow-motion social calamity. The closing exchange: "Is this joke funny?" / "I can't tell. Ask social media." Votey (aftercomic): a hand-drawn moose stands below a caption box reading "This seemed way less strident in the script phase, so here's a moose."
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.