mirror
Original: mirror on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1 (single panel):
Narration (caption in speech-bubble box at top): "NOTICE THAT ALTHOUGH THE BABOON REALIZES THE MIRROR IS A REFLECTION, IT NEVER MAKES USE OF THAT REFLECTION TO HATE ITSELF."
Scene: A baboon sits on the floor of a dim enclosure, one hand raised to the side of its head, watching a screen/monitor mounted on the wall. On the screen are two scientists in white lab coats, one of them gesturing toward the other.
Caption (below the panel): "We were so busy trying to find human-level intelligence that nobody tried looking for human-style intelligence."
Votey:
Text (handwritten, in a wobbly hand-drawn panel): "GOD I'M WONDERFUL."
A crudely drawn, smug human face fills the panel below the text, looking pleased with itself.
Narration (caption in speech-bubble box at top): "NOTICE THAT ALTHOUGH THE BABOON REALIZES THE MIRROR IS A REFLECTION, IT NEVER MAKES USE OF THAT REFLECTION TO HATE ITSELF."
Scene: A baboon sits on the floor of a dim enclosure, one hand raised to the side of its head, watching a screen/monitor mounted on the wall. On the screen are two scientists in white lab coats, one of them gesturing toward the other.
Caption (below the panel): "We were so busy trying to find human-level intelligence that nobody tried looking for human-style intelligence."
Votey:
Text (handwritten, in a wobbly hand-drawn panel): "GOD I'M WONDERFUL."
A crudely drawn, smug human face fills the panel below the text, looking pleased with itself.
Alt text
An SMBC comic. A single panel shows a baboon sitting in a dim enclosure, one hand raised near its head, watching a wall-mounted screen that displays two lab-coated scientists, one gesturing at the other. A caption in a box at the top reads: 'NOTICE THAT ALTHOUGH THE BABOON REALIZES THE MIRROR IS A REFLECTION, IT NEVER MAKES USE OF THAT REFLECTION TO HATE ITSELF.' A caption below the panel reads: 'We were so busy trying to find human-level intelligence that nobody tried looking for human-style intelligence.' The joke: the marker of human-style intelligence isn't raw smarts but the capacity for self-loathing, which the baboon mercifully lacks. Votey: a crudely hand-drawn, smug human face under wobbly text reading 'GOD I'M WONDERFUL.' — the other distinctly human extreme, baseless self-regard.
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.