Humourous

A five-panel SMBC comic. Panel 1: In a corporate boardroom, a bespectacled man says 'People are scared of chemical names in our foods.' A woman replies, 'What if we remarket all foods using traditional alchemical names?' A bald executive exclaims, 'My god!' The remaining four panels show grocery products with absurd alchemical-sounding marketing: a bag of 'Fortified Flour - Enriched with green vitriol!'; a can of 'Beans - Bursting with spirit of hartshorn!'; a head of 'Broccoli - An excellent source of brimstone!'; and a can of 'Tuna - Loaded with quicksilver!' The joke is that swapping scary-sounding chemical names for archaic alchemical ones makes toxic-sounding ingredients seem like wholesome additives. Votey: A man, drawn in simple line art, thinks worriedly in a thought bubble, 'Have I been getting enough aquafortis in my diet?' - having fallen for the rebranding (aquafortis is nitric acid).