name
Original: name on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
Speaker (a balding man with glasses, standing at a podium): "In modernity, many scholars have opposed the term 'Homo sapiens' — wise man — as the Linnaean classification of humans."
Panel 2:
Speaker (same man): "This has led to a multiplicity of terms designed to do a better job of compassing the true nature of our species."
Panel 3:
Speaker (at the podium): "Homo ludens, Homo technologicus, Homo religiousus, Homo narrans, Homo faber. But all of these focus narrowly on non-universal behavior."
Panel 4:
Interviewer (a man in a suit with a red tie, facing the speaker): "So you're saying that trying to capture human nature in a Latin species name is a fruitless task?"
Panel 5:
Speaker: "No, I'm saying we need a truly descriptive one."
Panel 6:
Speaker: "Behold!"
The man unveils a placard showing a Vitruvian-style figure of a walking man labeled: "Homo quisibinominastultadat"
Panel 7:
Interviewer: "That sounds... comprehensive?"
Panel 8:
Speaker (standing at a podium before an audience): "'Man who gives himself stupid names.'"
Votey:
The interviewer (a sketchily drawn man) says: "I don't know if the Latin is right because I too am people."
Speaker (a balding man with glasses, standing at a podium): "In modernity, many scholars have opposed the term 'Homo sapiens' — wise man — as the Linnaean classification of humans."
Panel 2:
Speaker (same man): "This has led to a multiplicity of terms designed to do a better job of compassing the true nature of our species."
Panel 3:
Speaker (at the podium): "Homo ludens, Homo technologicus, Homo religiousus, Homo narrans, Homo faber. But all of these focus narrowly on non-universal behavior."
Panel 4:
Interviewer (a man in a suit with a red tie, facing the speaker): "So you're saying that trying to capture human nature in a Latin species name is a fruitless task?"
Panel 5:
Speaker: "No, I'm saying we need a truly descriptive one."
Panel 6:
Speaker: "Behold!"
The man unveils a placard showing a Vitruvian-style figure of a walking man labeled: "Homo quisibinominastultadat"
Panel 7:
Interviewer: "That sounds... comprehensive?"
Panel 8:
Speaker (standing at a podium before an audience): "'Man who gives himself stupid names.'"
Votey:
The interviewer (a sketchily drawn man) says: "I don't know if the Latin is right because I too am people."
Alt text
An eight-panel SMBC comic. A balding, bespectacled man stands at a podium being interviewed. He explains that many scholars oppose the Linnaean term 'Homo sapiens' (wise man), which has led to a multiplicity of alternative terms meant to better capture human nature: Homo ludens, Homo technologicus, Homo religiousus, Homo narrans, Homo faber — but all of these, he says, focus narrowly on non-universal behavior. The interviewer in a suit and red tie asks whether trying to capture human nature in a Latin species name is a fruitless task. The speaker replies, 'No, I'm saying we need a truly descriptive one,' and declares 'Behold!' as he unveils a placard with a Vitruvian-style figure of a walking man labeled 'Homo quisibinominastultadat.' The interviewer says, 'That sounds... comprehensive?' The speaker, now addressing an audience, translates: 'Man who gives himself stupid names.' Votey (a small follow-up panel): a roughly sketched man admits, 'I don't know if the Latin is right because I too am people.'
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.