jump

A four-panel SMBC comic. A bearded father walks down a dirt path with his young orange-haired son, Bobby. Father: "Bobby, you can't just do what your friends are doing! If your friends were all jumping off a cliff, would you?" Bobby cheerfully: "Obviously!" Bobby then launches into a defiant rant, gesturing emphatically: "I'm a non-conformist! The general consensus is that you should not jump off the cliff, but as a rebel against social norms, I would thoughtlessly partake in the behavior of the group!" He continues, scowling and pointing: "Adults always insist that I 'think for myself.' Well, I'm my own man! I will acquiesce immediately to social pressure no matter what anyone says!" In the final panel the father puts a hand to his head, bewildered: "Sorry, one sec, my brain is stuck in some kind of loop that won't close." Bobby throws both arms in the air triumphantly: "Power to the sheeple!" The joke is that Bobby frames mindless conformity as proud rebellion, creating a self-contradiction that crashes his father's logic. Votey (aftercomic): a close-up of a snarling, grimacing cartoon face with the thought "Should I do what other people tell me to? BAH!" — still trapped in the same contradictory loop.