Good News About Work And AI!
June 2nd, 2026 Barry Posted in Economic cartoons | No Comments »
TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON
This cartoon has six panels, each of which shows a different scene. The first five panels all feature cheerful robots in office environments.
PANEL 1
A shiny golden robot talks to the viewer.
GOLDIE: Good news! Here are just some of the ways AI saves you time and makes your job better!
PANEL 2
A robot – which seems to be a suit and tie with a smartphone sticking up out of the collar – talks to us. He’s carrying a huge stack of papers.
PHONE: Good news! Because your new AI agent is expected to save you so much time, the company is providing you with extra work!
PANEL 3
A tiny robot that looks like a ball with hands is bouncing on a desk.
BOUNCY: Good news! The AI agent makes lots of mistakes, so you get to do proofreading and debugging! Yay!
PANEL 4
A robot with a head shaped like a Telsa Cybertruck talks to us. A bunch of other robots are in the background.
TELSA: Good news! The company has determined you’ll get more work done with more AI agents doing more bad work for you to check and correct!
PANEL 5
A coffee machine with a screen with a happy face on it talks to us.
COFFEE: Good news! More of your colleagues are letting AI do their jobs, so now you get to fix that work, too!
PANEL 6
A human with a shellshocked look is walking on a sidewalk, carrying a cardboard box full of desk stuff in classic I’ve-just-been-fired iconography. A caption is shaped like a memo on paper.
CAPTION: Good news! We’ve determined that bad work done by A.I. is more cost-effective than better work done by humans.
CHICKEN FAT WATCH
“Chicken fat” is obsolete jargon for what we now call “Easter eggs.”
PANEL 1: A poster on the wall says LESSER EVIL INCORPORATED. “If it’s not lethal, it’s a lesser evil.” A rat sits reading a book, Charlotte’s Web.
PANEL 2: A gigantic ant is climbing a skyscraper in the background.
PANEL 3: A picture of an adorable toddler is inscribed “I heart you Mommy! Always remember if u quit ur job I’ll starve.” A “to do” list says: “-Work -Work -Work -Labor -Toil -Lunch -Drudge -Slog -die.” A coffee mug, decorated with Charlie Brown’s zig-zag shirt line, has a mouse wearing glasses peering out of it.
PANEL 4: One of the robots is a toaster. The robot puppy has left poo (a steaming pile of nuts and bolts) on the ground. The cybertruck robot’s head is on fire, and if you peer closely at the passenger window you can see a screaming person trapped inside.
PANEL 5: The coffee cup has a picture of Bender from Futurama on it. There’s an electric outlet with two “faces”; one of the faces is the standard, the other one is smiling and winking at us. A poster says “NOTICE: Cups must be cleaned after death.” A cannister is labeled “82% real Sugar,” with an adorable granny mascot saying “What you don’t now won’t kill you, probably.”
PANEL 6: The box of stuff from the fired employee’s desk includes a coffee mug; the mouse from panel 3 is still in the mug. A jar on the sidewalk says “Background Juice” on the label.
And there’s graffiti! “BG” (for background) is written in a few places. Someone has written a list of jobs: “Priest Poet Lawyer Marine Squire Grocer Vicar.” (Let me know in comments if you know where that list comes from.) A game of “hangman” is in progress: “A_S_ER.” (You see the answer, right?) More things written on the wall: “Filler.” “Who reads this?” “PP + Marcie 4EV.” “E=M.C. Hammer.” “Mary + Charlie + Frank.” Finally, a poster on the wall is partly blocked by the caption, but I can tell you it says “Secret Hidden Text! Because you can’t read this text: At last, I’m free to say it: Basketball is BORING! Bite me, b-ball fans!”
