bedtime-2
Original: bedtime-2 on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
Child (in bed, looking up): Daddy, no bedtime. Stay up with me.
Panel 2:
Father (a balding, bearded man in glasses): It's time for Daddy to take a shower, crawl into bed, and listen to the screaming voice of accusation in his head.
Panel 3:
Child: Cutie, Daddy's spent all day playing with kids and working.
Panel 4:
Child: Screaming?
Panel 5:
Father (lying in bed, eyes open): Mostly about failure, spent potential, deadlines, that sort of thing.
Panel 6:
Child: Wow! Does it ever accuse you of not having enough FUN FUN FUN?
Panel 7:
Father (silhouetted, sitting at a desk in the dark): No, but it will now!
Votey:
A voice (jagged speech bubble, addressed to a curled-up sleeping figure): You should be asleep now, it isn't healthy, but since you're up, let's...
Child (in bed, looking up): Daddy, no bedtime. Stay up with me.
Panel 2:
Father (a balding, bearded man in glasses): It's time for Daddy to take a shower, crawl into bed, and listen to the screaming voice of accusation in his head.
Panel 3:
Child: Cutie, Daddy's spent all day playing with kids and working.
Panel 4:
Child: Screaming?
Panel 5:
Father (lying in bed, eyes open): Mostly about failure, spent potential, deadlines, that sort of thing.
Panel 6:
Child: Wow! Does it ever accuse you of not having enough FUN FUN FUN?
Panel 7:
Father (silhouetted, sitting at a desk in the dark): No, but it will now!
Votey:
A voice (jagged speech bubble, addressed to a curled-up sleeping figure): You should be asleep now, it isn't healthy, but since you're up, let's...
Alt text
A seven-panel SMBC comic. A small child in bed begs their bald, bearded, bespectacled father to stay up. The father deadpans that it's time for him to shower, crawl into bed, and listen to 'the screaming voice of accusation in his head.' The child, confused, says Daddy spent all day playing with kids and working, then asks 'Screaming?' The father, now lying awake in bed, explains the voice is 'mostly about failure, spent potential, deadlines, that sort of thing.' The child cheerfully asks: 'Wow! Does it ever accuse you of not having enough FUN FUN FUN?' In the final panel, the father is shown as a silhouette sitting alone at a desk in the dark, answering: 'No, but it will now!' Votey aftercomic: a curled-up sleeping figure is addressed by a jagged, harsh speech bubble reading 'You should be asleep now, it isn't healthy, but since you're up, let's...' — the inner critical voice picking up where the child's innocent question left off.
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.