platonic-2
Original: platonic-2 on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
Man with reddish hair: "Platonism in mathematics is stupid. Numbers don't 'exist.' Look, here are two fingers."
Panel 2:
Woman with dark curly hair and glasses: "Now I hold up three and suddenly the 'two-ness' is gone. If it had real existence, where did it go?"
Panel 3:
Man: "That's easy if you accept my theory of phobic Platonism."
Woman: "What?"
Man: "The belief that little numbers are scared of big numbers."
Panel 4:
Man: "Watch, here's two fingers." (holding up two fingers)
Panel 5:
Man: "Oh no! Three showed up and two got scared!" (holding up three fingers)
Panel 6:
Man: "Now I'll lower a finger and okay, three is gone! You're free to come back, two! Good boy!"
Panel 7:
Woman: "Why... but... why would it be like that?"
Man: "Big numbers are out for revenge."
Panel 8:
Woman: "Revenge? For what?"
Man (now wide-eyed and alarmed): "Oh no no no— don't say it—"
Woman: "For when seven eight nine."
Votey:
Title text: "Platonism Jokes"
A pie chart is shown. Almost the entire circle is labeled "SMBC." A tiny sliver is pointed to with an arrow labeled "← nobody else."
Man with reddish hair: "Platonism in mathematics is stupid. Numbers don't 'exist.' Look, here are two fingers."
Panel 2:
Woman with dark curly hair and glasses: "Now I hold up three and suddenly the 'two-ness' is gone. If it had real existence, where did it go?"
Panel 3:
Man: "That's easy if you accept my theory of phobic Platonism."
Woman: "What?"
Man: "The belief that little numbers are scared of big numbers."
Panel 4:
Man: "Watch, here's two fingers." (holding up two fingers)
Panel 5:
Man: "Oh no! Three showed up and two got scared!" (holding up three fingers)
Panel 6:
Man: "Now I'll lower a finger and okay, three is gone! You're free to come back, two! Good boy!"
Panel 7:
Woman: "Why... but... why would it be like that?"
Man: "Big numbers are out for revenge."
Panel 8:
Woman: "Revenge? For what?"
Man (now wide-eyed and alarmed): "Oh no no no— don't say it—"
Woman: "For when seven eight nine."
Votey:
Title text: "Platonism Jokes"
A pie chart is shown. Almost the entire circle is labeled "SMBC." A tiny sliver is pointed to with an arrow labeled "← nobody else."
Alt text
An eight-panel black-bordered SMBC comic. A man with reddish hair argues with a woman who has dark curly hair and round glasses. He says Platonism in math is stupid because numbers don't exist, holding up two fingers; she counters that when he holds up three, the 'two-ness' vanishes, so where did it go if it was real. He claims his theory of 'phobic Platonism': little numbers are scared of big numbers. He demonstrates: holds up two fingers, then three ('two got scared!'), then lowers a finger so two can 'come back.' She asks why; he says big numbers are out for revenge. When she asks revenge for what, his eyes go wide with dread and he begs her not to say it, but she delivers the pun: 'For when seven eight nine.' Votey: a hand-drawn pie chart titled 'Platonism Jokes' in which nearly the whole circle is labeled 'SMBC' and a tiny sliver is labeled with an arrow reading 'nobody else.'
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.