hungers
Original: hungers on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
First person (walking, in green): Do you think there are fundamental emotional states, like sad, happy, disgusted? And then all the more complex states are just combinations?
Second person (walking, in pink): Yes, but those aren't the fundamentals.
Panel 2:
A woman with curly hair and glasses (off-panel speaker, pink figure): Emotion is like color. There are three primary states: angry, horny, hungry.
Panel 3:
Same woman: You can build up states like hangry, harngry, horngry, and so on. Higher level emotions are just more complex arrangements.
[A four-circle Venn diagram labeled with the overlapping circles: Hungry, Angry, Horny. Overlap regions are labeled Hangry, Horngry, Hangry, with Normal in the center.]
Panel 4:
A person with short dark hair (listener): What about awe? Joy? Fear?
Panel 5:
The woman with glasses: Before modern neuroscience it was possible to believe those were atomic feelings. Turns out that sorrow for example is just 17A6HU1HO. Love is 1A3HU4HO. Neutral affect is a stable 3A3HU3HO.
Panel 6:
The woman with glasses: Whoever said simplicity is beauty was dead wrong.
Panel 7:
The listener (dark hair): Well, they were probably horngry at the time.
Votey:
Off-panel voice (in a speech bubble): Life is hungry, angry, horny, and short.
[A close-up of the curly-haired woman with glasses staring blankly.]
First person (walking, in green): Do you think there are fundamental emotional states, like sad, happy, disgusted? And then all the more complex states are just combinations?
Second person (walking, in pink): Yes, but those aren't the fundamentals.
Panel 2:
A woman with curly hair and glasses (off-panel speaker, pink figure): Emotion is like color. There are three primary states: angry, horny, hungry.
Panel 3:
Same woman: You can build up states like hangry, harngry, horngry, and so on. Higher level emotions are just more complex arrangements.
[A four-circle Venn diagram labeled with the overlapping circles: Hungry, Angry, Horny. Overlap regions are labeled Hangry, Horngry, Hangry, with Normal in the center.]
Panel 4:
A person with short dark hair (listener): What about awe? Joy? Fear?
Panel 5:
The woman with glasses: Before modern neuroscience it was possible to believe those were atomic feelings. Turns out that sorrow for example is just 17A6HU1HO. Love is 1A3HU4HO. Neutral affect is a stable 3A3HU3HO.
Panel 6:
The woman with glasses: Whoever said simplicity is beauty was dead wrong.
Panel 7:
The listener (dark hair): Well, they were probably horngry at the time.
Votey:
Off-panel voice (in a speech bubble): Life is hungry, angry, horny, and short.
[A close-up of the curly-haired woman with glasses staring blankly.]
Alt text
A seven-panel SMBC comic. Two people walk and chat: one asks whether complex emotions are just combinations of fundamental states like sad, happy, and disgusted. A curly-haired woman in glasses replies that those aren't the fundamentals: emotion is like color, with three primary states — angry, horny, and hungry. She presents a Venn diagram of three overlapping circles (Hungry, Angry, Horny) whose overlaps are labeled with portmanteaus like Hangry, Horngry, and Normal in the center, saying higher emotions are just more complex arrangements. Asked about awe, joy, and fear, she says those only seemed atomic before modern neuroscience: sorrow is really the chemical-like formula 17A6HU1HO, love is 1A3HU4HO, and neutral affect is a stable 3A3HU3HO (built from Angry, Hungry, Horny). She declares that whoever said simplicity is beauty was dead wrong. The listener deadpans that they were probably 'horngry at the time.' Votey: a blank-faced close-up of the glasses woman as a voice says, 'Life is hungry, angry, horny, and short.'
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.