The dinner table at Owen and Gail's house is overflowing with food. Elis' older brother, MARK, and his wife, CHLOE, are beaming. Chloe holds up her phone to show something to Elis, who is sitting across the table from her. Layla listens to Mark's comment with skepticism on her face.
CHLOE (brightly): You’ll love this, Elis! Our new start-up, "Gobble," delivers artisanal, free-range turkey by subscription!
GAIL: Isn’t the little logo cute?
MARK (cocky): We're disrupting gratitude.
OWEN: It’s like the Uber of thankfulness!
Elis stares at the phone in front of him, becoming increasingly annoyed.
ELIS: You put a middleware layer on gratitude to take a vig.
ELIS: And let me guess, your Series A is funded by "Pilgrim Hat Capital."
ELIS: It's an AI-generated logo.
ELIS: Do you people know me, like, at all?
Chloe continues to hold up her phone for Elis, unperturbed by Elis' darkening mood. We can now see the mobile app logo on her screen; an AI-generated logo of a turkey wearing a pilgrim hat, smoking a corncob pipe and holding an assault rifle. Mark looks a bit ruffled, not by Elis' mood, but rather by the memory of his investors finding the hat to be controversial.
MARK: ...It's "Pilgrim Venture Partners." Investors found the Hat to be... controversial.
CHLOE (beaming): The AI said our logo needed more "rugged individualism." So we gave the turkey a pipe!
ELIS (sarcastically, from out of panel): Sure. That makes sense.
CHLOE (beaming): Isn't it great?
Elis's face is a mask of existential hopelessness hidden behind a grimace meant to be a smile. Blood pours from his nose and ears and he has clenched his jaw so tightly that he has shattered his teeth. Next to him Layla looks calm and serene. Behind them on the wall is a family photo of Owen, Gail, Mark and Elis in front of the Vegas Sphere. Everyone but Elis looks like they're having a great time. Elis looks miserable.
ELIS: Yes... ha ha! A million-dollar idea, in fact. Barren lies the soil of the spirit. Long is the winter of discontent.
LAYLA: Ok, easy there John White... Pass me the gravy train.
"Thankful On Demand"
Faced with a venture-capital-funded turkey and an AI-generated logo, a cartoonist contemplates the collapse of civilization over cranberry sauce.
#art #artwork #digitalart #cartoon #comicstrip #webcomic #absurdist #capitalism #techbros #disruption #middleware #thanksgiving