HUMAN DAD BODY

A children’s comedic monologue
By Tara Meddaugh

 Marco brags about the benefits of his ChatGPT stand-in dad when it comes to go-karting.

DETAILS
Genre: Children’s/Comedy (but also sad). This is a comedic monologue, with underlying sadness. In other words, you might laugh out loud at the last line, but quickly say, “Oh, but that’s so sad.”
Running time: Approximately 1 minute
Cast: Male/Female/any gender
Age range: 4-10
Setting: An entertainment center with a go-karts, an arcade, bowling etc.
Themes/tags: dad, child, growing up without a parent, one-upping someone, trying to keep up appearances, acting like you don’t care but you do, jealousy, humor, sadness, AI, ChatGPT, friendship, feeling alone, finding comfort, benefits of AI, drawbacks of AI

Marco is at an entertainment center with his peers and mom. A boy (kind of a friend) Brody, has finished go-karting with his dad and excitedly told Marco about it. Marco always feels a hint of jealousy and sadness when Brody talks about doing things with his dad. Having no father in the picture himself, Marco has been using ChatGPT, to stand in by asking it questions and having little conversations. Brody has made fun of him for that. In this monologue, Marco tries to get a little power back in the friend dynamic by pointing out the benefits of not having to sit next to a human dad when go-karting.

EXCERPT BELOW

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MARCO

Yeah? Well, who cares your dad took you go-karting? I saw he sat next to you and he’s the one that steered, so you just sat there doing nothing, and I bet you were all squished in ‘cause your dad took up so much space ‘cause he’s got a human dad body. But ‘know what?

I’m gonna go-kart by myself and won’t have to share the space with anyone, ‘cause my mom doesn’t wanna go-kart with me! And you know —END OF EXCERPT

Click below to get the complete 30-second to 1 minute children’s comedic (with a hint of dramatic) monologue, HUMAN DAD BODY.