fear-2
Original: fear-2 on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
A bald, shirtless man stands in a bathroom near a shower, looking warily off to the side.
Man (small thought/speech bubble): WAIT... AM I FEELING FEAR?
Man (large speech bubble): YOU DON'T KNOW! THAT COULD BE A MAGICAL DUPLICATE OF YOU OR A BURGLAR PRETENDING TO LOOK LIKE YOU!
Caption below the panel:
The Human Brain:
Can do calculus, but is also reserving judgment about whether the guy in the mirror is a ghost.
Votey:
A simple line-drawing of the same bald man's head and shoulders.
Text (handwritten across the top): DON'T LOOK OR HE'LL THINK IT'S TOO MUCH OR HE'LL THINK IT'S A GHOST MORE!
(The votey lettering is loose/scrawled and partly garbled, reading roughly as the brain frantically warning itself not to look at the mirror image for fear it will conclude the reflection is a ghost.)
A bald, shirtless man stands in a bathroom near a shower, looking warily off to the side.
Man (small thought/speech bubble): WAIT... AM I FEELING FEAR?
Man (large speech bubble): YOU DON'T KNOW! THAT COULD BE A MAGICAL DUPLICATE OF YOU OR A BURGLAR PRETENDING TO LOOK LIKE YOU!
Caption below the panel:
The Human Brain:
Can do calculus, but is also reserving judgment about whether the guy in the mirror is a ghost.
Votey:
A simple line-drawing of the same bald man's head and shoulders.
Text (handwritten across the top): DON'T LOOK OR HE'LL THINK IT'S TOO MUCH OR HE'LL THINK IT'S A GHOST MORE!
(The votey lettering is loose/scrawled and partly garbled, reading roughly as the brain frantically warning itself not to look at the mirror image for fear it will conclude the reflection is a ghost.)
Alt text
An SMBC comic. Main panel: a bald, shirtless man stands in a bathroom beside a shower, eyeing something off-panel with suspicion. A small bubble reads 'Wait... am I feeling fear?' A larger bubble reads 'You don't know! That could be a magical duplicate of you or a burglar pretending to look like you!' Caption: 'The Human Brain: Can do calculus, but is also reserving judgment about whether the guy in the mirror is a ghost.' The joke is that the same brain capable of advanced reasoning still treats one's own mirror reflection as a possible supernatural threat. Votey: a loose line drawing of the same man's head with scrawled handwritten text panicking that if he looks, his brain will decide the reflection is a ghost.
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.