Grimm
Original: Grimm on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1: A woman with reddish hair stands beside an older bespectacled man.
Woman: I hate all these Disney-fications of old fairy tales!
Panel 2: The older man, eyes closed, speaking.
Man: The whole point is they're scary and dream-like. Kids are tough. They can handle it, and grow stronger.
Panel 3: A block of text (the man reading/recounting a fairy tale) beside an illustration of the woman.
GRIMM 117: "THE STUBBORN CHILD"
Once upon a time there was a child who was willful and did not do what his mother wanted. For this reason God was displeased with him and caused him to become ill, and no doctor could help him, and in a short time he lay on his deathbed.
He was lowered into a grave and covered with earth, but his little arm suddenly came forth and reached up and it didn't help when they put it back in and put fresh earth over it, for the little arm always came out again. So the mother herself had to go to the grave and beat the little arm with a switch, and as soon as she had done that, it withdrew, and the child finally came to rest beneath the earth.
The end.
Panel 4: Close-up of the older man's face, looking thoughtful.
Man: That one might need a talking cat or something.
Woman (off-panel): There could be a pop song called "Switch It Up"!
Panel 5: Silhouettes of the two figures walking against a black background.
Votey:
A woman strides confidently with a switch (rod) in her hand, singing.
Song lyrics (musical notes around the text): "When the child is willful you gotta be skillful / SWITCH IT UP!"
Woman: I hate all these Disney-fications of old fairy tales!
Panel 2: The older man, eyes closed, speaking.
Man: The whole point is they're scary and dream-like. Kids are tough. They can handle it, and grow stronger.
Panel 3: A block of text (the man reading/recounting a fairy tale) beside an illustration of the woman.
GRIMM 117: "THE STUBBORN CHILD"
Once upon a time there was a child who was willful and did not do what his mother wanted. For this reason God was displeased with him and caused him to become ill, and no doctor could help him, and in a short time he lay on his deathbed.
He was lowered into a grave and covered with earth, but his little arm suddenly came forth and reached up and it didn't help when they put it back in and put fresh earth over it, for the little arm always came out again. So the mother herself had to go to the grave and beat the little arm with a switch, and as soon as she had done that, it withdrew, and the child finally came to rest beneath the earth.
The end.
Panel 4: Close-up of the older man's face, looking thoughtful.
Man: That one might need a talking cat or something.
Woman (off-panel): There could be a pop song called "Switch It Up"!
Panel 5: Silhouettes of the two figures walking against a black background.
Votey:
A woman strides confidently with a switch (rod) in her hand, singing.
Song lyrics (musical notes around the text): "When the child is willful you gotta be skillful / SWITCH IT UP!"
Alt text
A five-panel SMBC comic. Panel 1: a red-haired woman beside an older bespectacled man says, "I hate all these Disney-fications of old fairy tales!" Panel 2: the man replies, "The whole point is they're scary and dream-like. Kids are tough. They can handle it, and grow stronger." Panel 3: a wall of text labeled GRIMM 117: "THE STUBBORN CHILD" recounts the actual grim Grimm tale, in which a willful child sickens, dies, and is buried, but his little arm keeps reaching up out of the grave until his mother beats the arm with a switch, after which the child finally rests beneath the earth. The end. Panel 4: close-up of the man saying, "That one might need a talking cat or something," while the woman replies off-panel, "There could be a pop song called 'Switch It Up'!" Panel 5: the two walk away as black silhouettes. Votey aftercomic: the woman strides triumphantly with a switch in her hand, singing a peppy pop song surrounded by music notes: "When the child is willful you gotta be skillful / SWITCH IT UP!" The joke: their cheerful Disney-fication of the brutal tale fixates on the violent "switch" as a catchy pop hook.
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.