Child
Original: Child on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
Bald monk (in orange robes, walking with a red-haired man): To become enlightened, you must become as a child.
Panel 2:
Monk (recoiling, pulling his arm away from the red-haired man): Ow! Hey! No biting!
Panel 3:
Red-haired man (now looking small and childlike, upset): I didn't know it would ouch you.
Panel 4:
Monk (face crumpling with guilt): Sorry, I didn't mean to yell but you can'tâ oh don't cry! I shouldn't have yelled but... oh, sweetie please don't cry!
Panel 5:
Caption: And...
Scene through a window of an ice cream parlor (sign reads "Ice Cream"): the red-haired man sits happily eating a bowl of ice cream.
Panel 6:
Caption: ...so...
The monk, seen through a window, slumped at a table, thinking.
Monk (thought bubble): Dammit, I was supposed to get some work in this afternoon.
Votey:
The monk's face in close-up, scowling.
Monk (thought bubble): Little shit.
Bald monk (in orange robes, walking with a red-haired man): To become enlightened, you must become as a child.
Panel 2:
Monk (recoiling, pulling his arm away from the red-haired man): Ow! Hey! No biting!
Panel 3:
Red-haired man (now looking small and childlike, upset): I didn't know it would ouch you.
Panel 4:
Monk (face crumpling with guilt): Sorry, I didn't mean to yell but you can'tâ oh don't cry! I shouldn't have yelled but... oh, sweetie please don't cry!
Panel 5:
Caption: And...
Scene through a window of an ice cream parlor (sign reads "Ice Cream"): the red-haired man sits happily eating a bowl of ice cream.
Panel 6:
Caption: ...so...
The monk, seen through a window, slumped at a table, thinking.
Monk (thought bubble): Dammit, I was supposed to get some work in this afternoon.
Votey:
The monk's face in close-up, scowling.
Monk (thought bubble): Little shit.
Alt text
A six-panel SMBC comic. A bald monk in orange robes walks down a forest path with a red-haired man and says, "To become enlightened, you must become as a child." Next panel, the monk yanks his arm back yelling, "Ow! Hey! No biting!" The man has shrunk into a childlike, teary figure who says, "I didn't know it would ouch you." The guilt-stricken monk backpedals: "Sorry, I didn't mean to yell... oh don't cry... sweetie please don't cry!" Then we see through a window of an ice cream parlor: the man contentedly eats ice cream, while the monk slumps at a table thinking, "Dammit, I was supposed to get some work in this afternoon." Votey: a close-up of the monk's scowling face, thinking, "Little shit." The joke: telling someone to become childlike for enlightenment backfires when they act like an actual misbehaving child, trapping the monk in exhausted, resentful parent mode.
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.