Comic Strips

What a twist. The guy who owns a boat knows how to swim. I do enjoy the abject stupidity of the elf's hatred for humans in this comic.

My preferred version of the "nature of the Scorpion" tale is a little different. It doesn't really fit here, but I like to post it whenever this story comes up, because I'm autistic, and it brings me joy to share the story.

One day, a Monk was walking alongside a stream when he saw a Scorpion struggling in the water. Knowing that scorpions cannot swim, he knelt down to scoop it out of the water.

Just before setting it down, the Scorpion turned and stung his hand. The Monk withdrew his hand in pain and the Scorpion fell back into the stream.

When the Monk realized this, he scooped his hands down again to save the Scorpion. And just as before, the Scorpion stung his hand and fell back into the stream. This scene repeated itself several times.

A little boy who was playing near the stream asked the Monk, “Excuse me. Why do you keep trying to save the Scorpion — Don’t you know it will just sting you every time you try to rescue it?”

The Monk, picking up a leaf and rescuing the scorpion successfully this time, replied, “Dear boy, just as it is a Scorpion’s nature to sting, and Water’s nature to make things wet, so it is my nature — a Monk’s nature — to save.”

That's not the exact version I was told originally, but close enough.

That story is ridiculous.

Scorpions don't have lungs so they can't talk.

How is an elf like a scorpion?

I hate how relevant this appears to be to daily life.

Attempted murder and a suicide.

• Always and inevitably, everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.

• The probability that a certain person (will) be stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person.

• A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person or to a group of persons while himself deriving no gain and even possibly incurring losses.

• Non-stupid people always underestimate the damaging power of stupid individuals. In particular, non-stupid people constantly forget that at all times and places, and under any circumstances, to deal and/or associate with stupid people always turns out to be a costly mistake.

• A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person.

Is there lore that I'm unfamiliar with that elves can't swim?

It is my nature

The elf couldn't swim? Sounds like a skill issue

I heard this parable for the first time in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, believe it or not.

It was during Fast Forward, one of the less popular later seasons of the 2003 show. They get blown a hundred years into the future, and have to fight the evil clones that their nemesis-of-the-season keeps throwing at them (it's superhero sci-fi, just go with it).

Leonardo's clone--who, much like Frankenstein's monster, never got a real canon name--was captured and the guys tried to take the chance to show him more mercy than he'd shown them. Leo believes that since the clone is, essentially, mostly him, he is capable of change. He delivers the parable, and then asks, 'Are you a scorpion? Or a turtle?' Then, like an absolute madlad, deliberately gives him a chance to betray them as a test of his ability to grow. He fails... mostly. There's a bit at the end that gives it some ambiguity, leaves the question open-ended.

Honestly, one of my all-time favorite moments in turtles, bar none. It's rare to see such deep questions about nature and nurture asked and explored in a kid's cartoon.