Moral
Original: Moral on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
First man: I believe good art is not merely beautiful, it is moral.
Panel 2:
First man: When the Titanic was sinking, a band played knowing it would provide a bit of pleasure to the doomed people of the ship.
Panel 3:
First man: But we are all on a Titanic, just a little slower, and every artist who makes a great work is providing a tuneful backdrop to a cold journey that must inevitably turn downward.
Panel 4:
First man: From which we should also include that bad art brought with it the world's not merely ugly, but immoral.
Panel 5:
Second man (angry, leaning in): So you're saying all my 'fart' jokes are bad? They aren't! They're an affront to GOD!
Votey:
Text at top of panel: So's yer mom!
The scene below shows an abstract scribbled face/figure.
First man: I believe good art is not merely beautiful, it is moral.
Panel 2:
First man: When the Titanic was sinking, a band played knowing it would provide a bit of pleasure to the doomed people of the ship.
Panel 3:
First man: But we are all on a Titanic, just a little slower, and every artist who makes a great work is providing a tuneful backdrop to a cold journey that must inevitably turn downward.
Panel 4:
First man: From which we should also include that bad art brought with it the world's not merely ugly, but immoral.
Panel 5:
Second man (angry, leaning in): So you're saying all my 'fart' jokes are bad? They aren't! They're an affront to GOD!
Votey:
Text at top of panel: So's yer mom!
The scene below shows an abstract scribbled face/figure.
Alt text
A five-panel SMBC comic. In the first four panels, a bald man in a suit delivers a grandiose monologue arguing that good art is not just beautiful but moral. He says that when the Titanic was sinking, a band played to give the doomed passengers a bit of pleasure, and that we are all on a slower Titanic, so every artist who makes a great work provides a tuneful backdrop to an inevitably downward journey. He concludes that bad art is therefore not merely ugly but immoral. In the final panel, an angry second man leans in and shouts back, taking it as a personal insult about his 'fart' jokes, declaring they aren't bad, they're an affront to GOD. Votey (aftercomic): a small panel with a scribbly abstract face and the text 'So's yer mom!', a juvenile comeback that undercuts the whole high-minded debate.
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.