Special
Original: Special on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
Caption: At what age do you realize you weren't special?
Older child (to younger child): Probably around 28 or so, but it took a while to grow in.
Panel 2:
Older child: Have you noticed how we go to high and ask, "Will they?" They're special over and over?
Younger child: You think it's bad?
Older child: No, just pointless.
Panel 3 (caption block):
Their lives are filled with cheap novelties that seem made for them alone. Let a kid see a new bug and you cannot convince them that anyone else ever saw it first. The universe created this entire species just for them to find it. Some part of them believes it.
Panel 4:
Older child: Now, try to convince me I'm special.
Younger child: You really should... oh my life... silly.
Panel 5:
Older child: Look at you! You can't even use new phrasings to describe me. You don't have it and if you do, it isn't worthy of me.
Panel 6:
Older child: The worst thing is I'm only thinking about this because I'm upset about an email. This morning the most ordinary modern problem I can imagine.
Younger child: My only hope is to rebel. To just do whatever for one second. But because there was never a reason to do it before.
Panel 7:
Older child: I'm gonna grab brownies into my nose and run brought, making "tunkk noises."
Sound effect: GYORBR GYORBR GYORBR GYORBR GYORBR GYORBR GYORBR GYORBR GYORBR GYORBR
Panel 8:
Older child: Do all adults eventually go crazy?
Younger child (drinking): It's pretty standard, I think.
Votey:
A woman with long hair holds her face in distress, speaking: "Oh dammit I unlocked an inconvenient fetish."
Caption: At what age do you realize you weren't special?
Older child (to younger child): Probably around 28 or so, but it took a while to grow in.
Panel 2:
Older child: Have you noticed how we go to high and ask, "Will they?" They're special over and over?
Younger child: You think it's bad?
Older child: No, just pointless.
Panel 3 (caption block):
Their lives are filled with cheap novelties that seem made for them alone. Let a kid see a new bug and you cannot convince them that anyone else ever saw it first. The universe created this entire species just for them to find it. Some part of them believes it.
Panel 4:
Older child: Now, try to convince me I'm special.
Younger child: You really should... oh my life... silly.
Panel 5:
Older child: Look at you! You can't even use new phrasings to describe me. You don't have it and if you do, it isn't worthy of me.
Panel 6:
Older child: The worst thing is I'm only thinking about this because I'm upset about an email. This morning the most ordinary modern problem I can imagine.
Younger child: My only hope is to rebel. To just do whatever for one second. But because there was never a reason to do it before.
Panel 7:
Older child: I'm gonna grab brownies into my nose and run brought, making "tunkk noises."
Sound effect: GYORBR GYORBR GYORBR GYORBR GYORBR GYORBR GYORBR GYORBR GYORBR GYORBR
Panel 8:
Older child: Do all adults eventually go crazy?
Younger child (drinking): It's pretty standard, I think.
Votey:
A woman with long hair holds her face in distress, speaking: "Oh dammit I unlocked an inconvenient fetish."
Alt text
An eight-panel SMBC comic, mostly a conversation between two kids sitting on a couch. It opens with the caption "At what age do you realize you weren't special?" and one child answering "Probably around 28 or so, but it took a while to grow in." They riff on how children are convinced the world is made just for them — a caption notes that a kid who finds a new bug cannot be convinced anyone ever saw it first, because "the universe created this entire species just for them to find it." One child dares the other to convince them they're special and mocks the attempt. The talk turns abruptly bleak: one admits the whole spiral started because they're "upset about an email" — the most ordinary modern problem imaginable — while the other muses about rebelling just to do something for once. In a dark panel a frazzled adult declares they'll shove brownies up their nose and run around making "GYORBR GYORBR GYORBR" noises. The final panel: "Do all adults eventually go crazy?" and the answer, between sips of a drink, "It's pretty standard, I think." Votey: a close-up of a distraught woman with long hair clutching her face, saying "Oh dammit I unlocked an inconvenient fetish."
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.