Tom and Jerry Get Existential

What's the point of pushing boulders up a hill and then pushing them down again? It all seems pointless.

Written by: Celeste Kallio using SudoWrite

Illustrations by: Andrey Kurenkov & Sharon Zhou using DALLE-2

Narration by: Andrey Kurenkov using BeyondWords

Tom and Jerry discussing the Myth of Sisyphus, detailed pencil sketch, dark → DALLE-2

Text Formatting: Human-written text is italic, AI-generated text is normal

Description: This is a story about Tom and Jerry, the cat and mouse from the cartoons. Tom has just read The Myth of Sisyphus, and talks to Jerry about the futility of their existence, and what they could do instead of their endless squabbling.

Story:

"Hey Tom" said Jerry.

"What's on your mind Jerry" said Tom.

"It's like this" said Jerry. "We've been in these cartoons since the early 1940s, and frankly I'm sick of it."

"That's nothing new" said Tom. "After all we've been torturing each other for over 80 years, and it seems like it never ends."

"Well, I've got an idea" said Jerry. "I've been reading this book called Myth of Sisyphus, and I think we should roll a giant boulder up the hill and keep pushing it back down again."

"I've got a better idea" said Tom. "What if we pushed it up the hill and I sat on it, then you roll it back down and I'll sit on it again, that way we could sit on it forever."

Tom from Tom and Jerry sitting atop the boulder from The Myth of Sisyphus, detailed shaded pencil sketch → DALLE-2

"It's a thought," said Jerry. "But after a while it would be boring just sitting on it and not really getting anywhere.”

"What else could we do then?" said Tom.

"We could start pushing it up the hill" said Jerry, "and when it falls back down again we could push it further up the hill, then we could get another boulder, and another and another, and pretty soon we'll have a whole heap of boulders at the top of the hill."

"What about the bottom of the hill?" said Tom. "We'll never get enough boulders to fill the bottom of the hill."

"That's the advantage of my idea" said Jerry. "As long as we keep pushing boulders up the hill, there'll always be a bottom of the hill."

"Then we agree" said Tom. "We'll roll some boulders up the hill and push them down again and again until we get sick of it."

"OK" said Jerry. "But before we start, can I ask you a question?"

"Fire away" Tom said.

"Well, what's the point?" said Jerry. "What's the point of pushing boulders up a hill and then pushing them down again? It all seems pointless."

"What's the point of anything?" said Tom. "Isn't that what The Myth of Sisyphus is all about?"

"I've often wondered" said Jerry. "I do remember when I first got into this, I was convinced that I was going to be part of a world-wide hit cartoon, that I would be a star, and that I would live forever. But now I'm not so sure, the kids are watching SpongeBob and the teletubbies, and the grownups have got the Simpsons, and I sometimes think that I might be better off dead, but if I was dead, who would keep pushing the boulder up hill?"

Images of tom and jerry in the trash, high resolution photography, moody, black and white → DALLE-2

"Not me" said Tom.

"You're right there" said Jerry. "It would never work”

"Maybe we should just give up now" said Tom.

"No way" said Jerry. "Let's just keep going."

"Whatever you say" said Tom.

"So, shall we do it then?" said Jerry.

"Sure" said Tom. "We've got nothing better to do."

"OK, I'll get the boulder." said Jerry.

Jerry rolled the boulder to the top of the hill, and then Tom pushed it down the hill. As the boulder rolled down the hill Jerry pushed it further up the hill, and then pushed it down again, and then again. At the bottom of the hill Jerry, with some help from Tom, pushed the boulder back up the hill and once again they pushed it down the hill, and this went on and on.