road

A single-panel SMBC comic. A woman with red hair sits next to a distressed gray-haired man on a couch. She says, "It's... I'm so sorry, your parents were on the road and a truck just ran them over." He exclaims, "OH MY GOD!" and begins, "Yeah they just-" but she cuts him off, eyes lit up with excitement, asking, "DID YOU PRONOUNCE 'ROAD' AS A DIPHTHONG? SAY IT AGAIN! WHERE ARE YOU FROM?" The caption below reads: "It's very hard to give linguists bad news." The joke is that the woman, a linguist, is so fascinated by the man's accent that she ignores the tragic news she just delivered. Votey (bonus panel): a black-and-white close-up sketch of the same red-haired woman speaking eagerly, saying, "PLEASE FILL YOUR SPEECH BUBBLES WITH INTERNATIONAL PHONETIC ALPHABET SYMBOLS FROM NOW ON!"