Sticks and Stones
Sticks and Stones
[A child, who looks like a miniature Cueball, is running with arms outstretched toward Cueball.] Child: Did you hear what he said about me!? Cueball: Well, remember: sticks and stones may break my bones, but words—
Child: —can make someone else feel happy or sad, which is literally the only thing that matters in this stupid world?
[Brief pause.]
Child: Right? Cueball: The world isn't that bad. Child: Explain the line about sticks and stones? Cueball: ...OK, maybe it's kind of horrific.

Sticks and Stones is a nursery rhyme, which goes as follows:
The nursery rhyme often by parents and with some variation, to persuade an individual, usually a child, to ignore any name calling or mean taunts that were said by others in an attempt to hurt the individual's feelings.
The comic challenges this sentiment when the child responds that, although words can't harm you physically, they can change how you feel, and isn't that the most important thing of all? Cueball obviously sees the simple truth in this, but tries to deflect by claiming that the world really isn't that bad. The child refers again to the rhyme, observing that the physical world can be harsh enough, because there are things like sticks and stones that break your bones and presumably people who use them as weapons to do so. Or yet worse, that someone would think up such a gruesome saying in the first place. Upon reflection, Cueball agrees that this image is actually horrific.
The title text is rather dark, and is probably a reference to the currently active bullying and shaming culture. None of us deserves to be beaten or stoned, but words are powerful enough to make us think that we do.
In the long tradition of the science of the obvious, recent studies (for example: Social rejection shares somatosensory representations with physical pain ) have shown that, in fact, the brain's reactions to physical pain and emotional rejection are somewhat similar and even feed into each other.
[A child, who looks like a miniature Cueball, is running with arms outstretched toward Cueball.] Child: Did you hear what he said about me!? Cueball: Well, remember: sticks and stones may break my bones, but words—
Child: —can make someone else feel happy or sad, which is literally the only thing that matters in this stupid world?
[Brief pause.]
Child: Right? Cueball: The world isn't that bad. Child: Explain the line about sticks and stones? Cueball: ...OK, maybe it's kind of horrific.
