hope
Original: hope on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1: A masked surgeon in a teal cap addresses an off-panel woman.
Surgeon: "Ma'am, I've just come from the OR and... I'm afraid there's no hope for your husband's survival."
Panel 2: A woman with curly blonde hair, looking stricken.
Woman: "But you said it was a simple procedure."
Panel 3: The masked surgeon again, calm.
Surgeon: "Yes, I'm just saying none of us are hoping for him."
Panel 4: The surgeon continues, while two silhouetted figures appear at the bottom.
Surgeon: "Like, we're doing our job but we are 100% rooting for death here."
Silhouette: "Is this consultation billable?"
Surgeon: "Highly."
Votey:
Handwritten cursive scribbles meant to look like a doctor's illegible note: "C'monnnn / you can get hangnail, hangnail / monnnn you can get gangrene" (deliberately unreadable doctor handwriting). Below, a crude line drawing of a skull (with hollow eye sockets) being examined or palpated by a hand, with motion/sketch lines around it.
Surgeon: "Ma'am, I've just come from the OR and... I'm afraid there's no hope for your husband's survival."
Panel 2: A woman with curly blonde hair, looking stricken.
Woman: "But you said it was a simple procedure."
Panel 3: The masked surgeon again, calm.
Surgeon: "Yes, I'm just saying none of us are hoping for him."
Panel 4: The surgeon continues, while two silhouetted figures appear at the bottom.
Surgeon: "Like, we're doing our job but we are 100% rooting for death here."
Silhouette: "Is this consultation billable?"
Surgeon: "Highly."
Votey:
Handwritten cursive scribbles meant to look like a doctor's illegible note: "C'monnnn / you can get hangnail, hangnail / monnnn you can get gangrene" (deliberately unreadable doctor handwriting). Below, a crude line drawing of a skull (with hollow eye sockets) being examined or palpated by a hand, with motion/sketch lines around it.
Alt text
A four-panel SMBC comic. Panel 1: a masked surgeon in a teal surgical cap tells an off-panel patient's wife, "Ma'am, I've just come from the OR and... I'm afraid there's no hope for your husband's survival." Panel 2: a stricken woman with curly blonde hair replies, "But you said it was a simple procedure." Panel 3: the surgeon clarifies, "Yes, I'm just saying none of us are hoping for him" — reframing "no hope" from a prognosis into the staff personally not rooting for the patient. Panel 4: he adds, "Like, we're doing our job but we are 100% rooting for death here," while two black silhouettes appear; one asks "Is this consultation billable?" and he answers "Highly." Votey aftercomic: lines of deliberately illegible doctor's cursive handwriting above a crude sketch of a skull being poked at by a hand, mocking unreadable medical notes.
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.