Bad
Original: Bad on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
A man with curly brown hair, wearing an orange/red shirt, gestures sternly with a pointed finger toward a dark cat (shown in black silhouette) at the lower left.
Man: BAD KITTY! BAD! I KNOW YOU THINK IT'S A GIFT, BUT IN OUR SOCIETY WE BREAK THE CYCLE OF VIOLENCE BY VESTING PENAL AUTHORITY IN THE STATE!
Caption (below panel): Secretly, I was pleased when Kitty brought in my high school bully's corpse.
Votey:
The man (sketchy line-art version) makes an awkward, sheepish expression and reaches out a hand.
Man: HERE'S A TREAT, BUT DON'T YOU GO MAKING ANY PAVLOVIAN CONNECTIONS.
A man with curly brown hair, wearing an orange/red shirt, gestures sternly with a pointed finger toward a dark cat (shown in black silhouette) at the lower left.
Man: BAD KITTY! BAD! I KNOW YOU THINK IT'S A GIFT, BUT IN OUR SOCIETY WE BREAK THE CYCLE OF VIOLENCE BY VESTING PENAL AUTHORITY IN THE STATE!
Caption (below panel): Secretly, I was pleased when Kitty brought in my high school bully's corpse.
Votey:
The man (sketchy line-art version) makes an awkward, sheepish expression and reaches out a hand.
Man: HERE'S A TREAT, BUT DON'T YOU GO MAKING ANY PAVLOVIAN CONNECTIONS.
Alt text
A man with curly brown hair in an orange shirt sternly points a finger and scolds a cat, shown as a black silhouette at the lower left. He says: "Bad kitty! Bad! I know you think it's a gift, but in our society we break the cycle of violence by vesting penal authority in the state!" A caption beneath admits: "Secretly, I was pleased when Kitty brought in my high school bully's corpse." The joke: he publicly disciplines the cat for committing murder while privately enjoying that the victim was his old bully. Votey: a rough sketch of the same man, looking sheepish and reaching out his hand, says "Here's a treat, but don't you go making any Pavlovian connections" -- rewarding the cat for the killing while pretending not to reinforce the behavior.
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.