“Knapsack?” That is a bindle, you Philistine!
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Unified
Submitted 3 weeks ago by otters_raft@lemmy.ca [bot] to science_memes@mander.xyz
https://www.smbc-comics.com/comics/1758852911-20250930.png
Comments
samus12345@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Adalast@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Thank you kind lexical hero.
Damaskox@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Is it just me or is the whole comic image too blurry to ready any of the text?
vateso5074@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I almost kinda dislike the messaging on this one because it implies authoritarianism is the key to discovery. Scientists are implied to be passive and unindustrious when left alone, so the government (FBI-type characters) declare a truth they want proven, force development of it through the threat of violence, and it eventually yields an answer they’re happy with.
SmoothOperator@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I guess that’s the joke - this is so stupid and obviously won’t work, but that perspective is subverted when it turns out to actually work, causing humour.
I quite like it.
vateso5074@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Fair, I guess I’m just letting the world get to me!
Skullgrid@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I interpreted the opposite; once they were freed from day to day bullshit, they were able to reach new discoveries the way 20th century hiking scientists
vateso5074@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
That’s how I read the intent of the author, at least. Getting scientists out of their isolated bubbles and allowing them to actually experience the world drives innovation.
That, or the one physicist who figured it out was so traumatized by merely being outside that she figured it out as quickly as possible to make it all stop, haha.
JohnAnthony@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
My interpretation was that pink lady shouted out some crap formula FBI guy does not understand anyway so they would be left alone again.
Last panel half contradicts it, half just leans harder into the absurdity of it all. I wouldn’t expect physicists to care much about Rubik’s Cubes, I think even the cliché fits mathematicians much better.
Basically, my spontaneous takeaway was “government and media are so science-illiterate that nobody understands anyone anymore”.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
that’s a great film. it’s on my annual watch list, will update the date i watch it on when appropriate.
Nomorereddit@lemmy.today 3 weeks ago
Your argument collapses once you consider spaghetti.
Left alone, spaghetti just lies there, limp and purposeless. Only through firm, boiling authority does it reach al dente perfection. Scientists, like noodles, sometimes need that structured heat to avoid sticking together in chaos. Maybe the government isn’t crushing freedom but just straining out the excess sauce of indecision.
After all, nobody eats raw noodles in a democracy of boiling water.