Elephant
Original: Elephant on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1 (graph):
A line graph with two axes. The horizontal axis is labeled "TIME". The vertical axis is unlabeled.
A descending green curve is labeled: "E = # OF LIVING ELEPHANTS".
An ascending pink/magenta curve is labeled: "U = NUMBER OF ELEPHANT-SHAPED NOVELTY UNDERWEAR".
A blue annotation reads: "U/E = coefficient of shame".
Panel 2:
A partially undressed man (shown from behind/side, in his underwear) gestures toward a woman.
Man: "YOU OKAY? YOU WENT ALL QUIET FOR A SECOND."
Woman (in a yellow bra, looking away awkwardly): "NOTHING, NOTHING."
Votey:
Panel 1 - A speech bubble (from the man): "IT'S GETTING HUGE."
Panel 2 - The man's face, smiling/raising eyebrows. A speech bubble (from the woman, off-panel): "THANKS!"
A line graph with two axes. The horizontal axis is labeled "TIME". The vertical axis is unlabeled.
A descending green curve is labeled: "E = # OF LIVING ELEPHANTS".
An ascending pink/magenta curve is labeled: "U = NUMBER OF ELEPHANT-SHAPED NOVELTY UNDERWEAR".
A blue annotation reads: "U/E = coefficient of shame".
Panel 2:
A partially undressed man (shown from behind/side, in his underwear) gestures toward a woman.
Man: "YOU OKAY? YOU WENT ALL QUIET FOR A SECOND."
Woman (in a yellow bra, looking away awkwardly): "NOTHING, NOTHING."
Votey:
Panel 1 - A speech bubble (from the man): "IT'S GETTING HUGE."
Panel 2 - The man's face, smiling/raising eyebrows. A speech bubble (from the woman, off-panel): "THANKS!"
Alt text
A two-part SMBC comic. In the first panel, a line graph plots two curves against a horizontal axis labeled TIME. A green curve sloping downward is labeled 'E = # of living elephants'. A pink curve sloping upward is labeled 'U = number of elephant-shaped novelty underwear'. A blue note reads 'U/E = coefficient of shame', implying that as real elephants go extinct while elephant-themed underwear proliferates, collective shame grows. In the second panel, a couple are partly undressed in an intimate moment; the man (in underwear) asks, 'You okay? You went all quiet for a second,' and the woman (in a yellow bra, looking away awkwardly) says, 'Nothing, nothing.' The joke: she was silently distracted by the absurd elephant-underwear math. Votey aftercomic: the man says 'It's getting huge,' and the woman replies 'Thanks!' as he smiles with raised eyebrows, turning the moment into innuendo.
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.