Genre
Original: Genre on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1: A man in a suit (a news anchor) speaks to another suited man in an office setting.
Anchor: "Jenkins, the news goes live in six minutes! We need a script for the item about that time one family now!"
Jenkins: "On it!"
Panel 2: A handwritten line, with the final word crossed out and corrected. Reads: "And they were comedically" (an earlier word is crossed out, replaced by "comedically").
Panel 3: Another handwritten line with crossed-out corrections. Reads: "And they were [crossed out] melodramatically".
Panel 4: Handwritten line with multiple crossed-out words. Reads: "were [crossed out] satirically".
Panel 5: Handwritten line with several crossed-out words. Reads: "[crossed out words] romantically".
Panel 6: A man with flame-like (wavy red) hair sits, hand near his chin, thinking. No dialogue.
Panel 7: The same red-haired man looks up with a startled, realizing expression.
Red-haired man: "Wait a sec, that's it!"
Panel 8: A banner/title-card style panel of text against a dark background.
Text: "AND THEY WERE TRAGICALLY KILLED BY LIGHTNING."
Panel 9: The news anchor (suited man) reappears, looking pleased/satisfied.
Votey: The red-haired man sits slumped with a defeated, frustrated expression, hand resting on his leg.
Red-haired man (thought/speech): "Dammit. Should've gone with 'fantastically.'"
Anchor: "Jenkins, the news goes live in six minutes! We need a script for the item about that time one family now!"
Jenkins: "On it!"
Panel 2: A handwritten line, with the final word crossed out and corrected. Reads: "And they were comedically" (an earlier word is crossed out, replaced by "comedically").
Panel 3: Another handwritten line with crossed-out corrections. Reads: "And they were [crossed out] melodramatically".
Panel 4: Handwritten line with multiple crossed-out words. Reads: "were [crossed out] satirically".
Panel 5: Handwritten line with several crossed-out words. Reads: "[crossed out words] romantically".
Panel 6: A man with flame-like (wavy red) hair sits, hand near his chin, thinking. No dialogue.
Panel 7: The same red-haired man looks up with a startled, realizing expression.
Red-haired man: "Wait a sec, that's it!"
Panel 8: A banner/title-card style panel of text against a dark background.
Text: "AND THEY WERE TRAGICALLY KILLED BY LIGHTNING."
Panel 9: The news anchor (suited man) reappears, looking pleased/satisfied.
Votey: The red-haired man sits slumped with a defeated, frustrated expression, hand resting on his leg.
Red-haired man (thought/speech): "Dammit. Should've gone with 'fantastically.'"
Alt text
An eight-panel SMBC comic. In the first panel, a news anchor in an office tells a colleague: "Jenkins, the news goes live in six minutes! We need a script for the item about that time one family now!" Jenkins replies "On it!" The next four panels show a red-haired writer's handwritten draft sentence, each version ending in a different adverb with the previous word scratched out: "And they were comedically," then "melodramatically," then "satirically," then "romantically." In the next panel the red-haired writer sits thinking, hand to chin. Then he looks up, startled, and exclaims "Wait a sec, that's it!" A dramatic dark title-card panel reads: "AND THEY WERE TRAGICALLY KILLED BY LIGHTNING." In the final panel the satisfied anchor reappears. The joke is that after agonizing over flashy adverbs, the writer settles on the mundane "tragically." Votey (bonus panel): the red-haired writer slumps in his chair, defeated, saying "Dammit. Should've gone with 'fantastically.'"
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.