Trad
Original: Trad on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
First man: Hello there, friend. I want to take our relationship to somewhere... different.
Second man: What are we becoming? Tird-friended?
Panel 2:
First man (off-panel): Oh?
Caption/label: Trid-friended?
Panel 3:
First man: Traditional friends - modern friendship is stressful, complex, demanding. Let's go back to a better time.
Second man: Where we can walk arm in arm.
(Two men walk arm in arm wearing top hats and old-fashioned clothing.)
Panel 4:
(The two men are in a rowboat together, playing ukuleles and singing a duet.)
One man: It's a lovely day, baby.
Other man: And shall we give it a damn.
Panel 5:
(One man serenades the other in the boat.)
Man: I'd be so happy to be doin' it... with youuuuuu.
Panel 6:
First man: Since it's not a modern relationship, there's no suspicion that its gay. We can be amorous, be vague.
Second man: You've such full, coral lips. Wouldn't it be capital if one of us were a woman?
First man: Don't talk rot. Old-borrid ways it twas were a boarding school. I'd give your bottom such a spanking.
Panel 7:
First man: It sounds nice, but I dunno about replacing my entire personality with this. Based on nostalgia for a time that never existed.
Second man: I think you'll be in a kinder, gentler world. Because nobody changed so that contemporaries (twelve who) knew from media about it. Three generations later... it's obsolete.
Panel 8:
(The two men in the rowboat, one singing to the other.)
Man: ...so happy to be doin' it... with yooouuuuu!
Votey:
A man in a hat (one of the two friends): It's not gay if we both plan to later commit to loveless marriages to debutants in order to secure political and financial connections.
First man: Hello there, friend. I want to take our relationship to somewhere... different.
Second man: What are we becoming? Tird-friended?
Panel 2:
First man (off-panel): Oh?
Caption/label: Trid-friended?
Panel 3:
First man: Traditional friends - modern friendship is stressful, complex, demanding. Let's go back to a better time.
Second man: Where we can walk arm in arm.
(Two men walk arm in arm wearing top hats and old-fashioned clothing.)
Panel 4:
(The two men are in a rowboat together, playing ukuleles and singing a duet.)
One man: It's a lovely day, baby.
Other man: And shall we give it a damn.
Panel 5:
(One man serenades the other in the boat.)
Man: I'd be so happy to be doin' it... with youuuuuu.
Panel 6:
First man: Since it's not a modern relationship, there's no suspicion that its gay. We can be amorous, be vague.
Second man: You've such full, coral lips. Wouldn't it be capital if one of us were a woman?
First man: Don't talk rot. Old-borrid ways it twas were a boarding school. I'd give your bottom such a spanking.
Panel 7:
First man: It sounds nice, but I dunno about replacing my entire personality with this. Based on nostalgia for a time that never existed.
Second man: I think you'll be in a kinder, gentler world. Because nobody changed so that contemporaries (twelve who) knew from media about it. Three generations later... it's obsolete.
Panel 8:
(The two men in the rowboat, one singing to the other.)
Man: ...so happy to be doin' it... with yooouuuuu!
Votey:
A man in a hat (one of the two friends): It's not gay if we both plan to later commit to loveless marriages to debutants in order to secure political and financial connections.
Alt text
An eight-panel SMBC comic in muted color. Two men decide to revive an old-fashioned style of male friendship. In the opening panels they discuss becoming 'traditional friends' to escape stressful modern friendship, then appear in top hats and period clothing walking arm in arm. They share a rowboat, playing ukuleles and singing a sappy love-style duet ('I'd be so happy to be doin' it... with youuuu'). One notes that because it's not a modern relationship, there's no suspicion that it's gay - they can be openly affectionate and 'vague,' joking about coral lips, boarding schools, and spankings. The other man hesitates about replacing his whole personality with nostalgia for a time that never existed. The comic closes on them still serenading each other in the boat. Votey: a close-up of one of the men in a hat declaring, 'It's not gay if we both plan to later commit to loveless marriages to debutants in order to secure political and financial connections.' The joke skewers nostalgic, plausibly-deniable intimacy between men by tying it to cynical arranged-marriage social climbing.
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.