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replicant

2024-06-02 View on smbc-comics.com → 1 revision
replicant
Votey panel for replicant
This explanation is incomplete or may contain errors. It was generated by AI and has not yet been reviewed by a human editor.

Explanation

This comic is a riff on the "Blade Runner" replicant detection scenario, but applied to an everyday social situation.

In the opening panels, two people who look similar both claim to be "the real Steve." A third person attempts to resolve the dispute by noting they're both clearly replicants — there's a tiny serial number printed in the corner of each of their eyes. She declares "Dammit, you got me."

Then comes the twist: "Just tell me, are there any real humans anymore?" The response is grim: "I'm sad, wanna go to the zoo? We keep the last few real ones there." The final panel shows humans displayed in a zoo enclosure, with onlookers noting the exhibit just keeps "eating and pooping" and that they "need a bigger enclosure."

The comic plays on the themes from "Blade Runner" and "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" where replicants become so convincing that distinguishing them from humans becomes nearly impossible. But instead of treating this as a dramatic existential crisis, the comic takes it to a mundane and darkly funny conclusion: replicants have simply replaced humans entirely and now keep the remaining few as zoo animals. The reversal — artificial beings observing natural humans as curiosities — is both absurdist and a pointed commentary on how we treat other species we consider less sophisticated. The humor also comes from the banality of the zoo scene: the humans aren't doing anything special, just "eating and pooping," which is exactly what you'd see at any animal exhibit.

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