The Business Genius
March 16th, 2026 Barry Posted in Economic cartoons | No Comments »
TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON
This cartoon has four panels, plus a tiny “kicker” panel.
PANEL 1
Two workers in reflective vests and hard hats are on a factory floor when a man wearing a blazer over a t-shirt walks in, arms spread wide.
BLAZER: Greetings, workers! I just bought this weezotski factory.
WORKER: Oh, uh… Welcome! So you must have lots of experience with weezotskis?
PANEL 2
Grinning, Blazer keeps talking, looking very smug.
BLAZER: None! But success in an unrelated industry has made me freakishly wealthy! And that makes me a business genius who can run anything!
PANEL 3
Blazer puts his arm around the worker and makes a grand “envision the future!” gesture.
BLAZER: I’m gonna disrupt this company so hard! It’ll be amazing! You’ll see! (Not you personally. I’m firing you.)
PANEL 4
CAPTION: SIX MONTHS LATER
Blazer, still grinning, flees from a burning factory building.
BLAZER: Another business brilliantly saved!
KICKER PANEL
Blazer, looking smug, is talking to Barry the cartoonist.
BLAZER: Maybe I should run the government!
CHICKEN FAT WATCH
“Chicken fat” is long-obscure cartoonist talk for fun but unimportant details in the art.
Panel 1: A limp hand is sticking out a hole in the huge factory machine. A panel of the floor is missing, and a corpse in a funeral suit lies within. The box the worker is carrying is labeled “Caution: Irrelevant Prop.”
Panel 2: In the background, in supervisors windows, are Homer Simpson and Dr. Bunsen Honeydew.
Panel 3: An opening in the side of a big factory machine contains Brain, of “Pinky and the Brain.” A vent hose has a distressed face on it. In a window in a machine in the background, a grinning stoned person hands upside-down.
A sign says “URGENT: Always complete your shift and clean your area before fighting demonic forces.” Another says “WARNING: Studies show that most people’s largest deathbed regret is time not spent working.” A sign on a large red button says “NO. Do not press button. Nope.”
Panel 4: The dark cloud in the sky, if you rotate it 90 degrees to the right, is an enormous face in profile.
The tattoo storyline: In panel one, the worker has a tattoo of a snake on his right arm, and a tattoo of an apple on his left arm. In panel two, the snake tattoo has crossed to his left arm and is examining the apple. In panel 3, the apple has been eaten, and the snake – no longer merely a tattoo – is crawling out of a hole in a big factory machine.
