Stage
Original: Stage on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
Child (pointing): Mommy, he's trapped in that invisible box!
Mother: No, sweetie. He built the box and soon he'll emerge with a colorful coat and a honking nose to indicate readiness to mate.
(In the background, a mime stands performing the classic "trapped in an invisible box" routine.)
Caption (bottom): Mimes are the larval stage of clowns.
Votey:
Mother (off-panel, speech from top): In France, they're kept artificially juvenile.
(The child looks up thoughtfully, with a small "?" / pondering expression near her head.)
Child (pointing): Mommy, he's trapped in that invisible box!
Mother: No, sweetie. He built the box and soon he'll emerge with a colorful coat and a honking nose to indicate readiness to mate.
(In the background, a mime stands performing the classic "trapped in an invisible box" routine.)
Caption (bottom): Mimes are the larval stage of clowns.
Votey:
Mother (off-panel, speech from top): In France, they're kept artificially juvenile.
(The child looks up thoughtfully, with a small "?" / pondering expression near her head.)
Alt text
A two-panel SMBC comic plus a votey. Main comic: A mother and her young daughter stand in the foreground while, in the background, a mime performs the classic 'trapped in an invisible box' routine, hands pressed flat against unseen walls. The daughter points and says, 'Mommy, he's trapped in that invisible box!' The mother replies, 'No, sweetie. He built the box and soon he'll emerge with a colorful coat and a honking nose to indicate readiness to mate' — describing the mime in the language of an insect metamorphosing. A caption at the bottom reads: 'Mimes are the larval stage of clowns.' Votey (aftercomic): A close-up of the daughter looking up thoughtfully with a puzzled expression as the mother adds, 'In France, they're kept artificially juvenile' — extending the insect-life-cycle joke to suggest French mimes never 'mature' into clowns.
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.