Explain SMBC — the wiki for Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

This comic tackles the social invisibility of middle-aged women. The opening panel states the problem directly: "Middle-aged women are treated as if they're invisible." Two responses follow -- the pes

This comic features characters discussing their favorite TV shows, with an escalating pattern of absurd program titles. The first character says their favorite show is "War Is Best, Ape," and when tol

This comic is a multi-panel exploration of the contradictions people face when trying to identify with a consistent ethical framework. The character begins by asking what their "point ethics system" i

This single-panel comic shows a robot narrator reading from a book to a group of human listeners. The robot is telling a romance story: "And so, for unlikely reasons, the human genome's mate was one w

This comic presents an argument between a father and son about God and artificial intelligence. The son is excited about building God through "neural networking," and the father objects with escalatin

This comic takes place at a movie theater ticket counter. A clerk offers tickets for "Bloodstorm 2." The customer objects to various aspects of the moviegoing experience in a repeating loop: "Food co

This comic explores the idea of returning to traditional holiday celebrations, progressively peeling back layers of history to reveal increasingly chaotic "traditions." A man announces: "Christmas ha

This comic imagines a scenario in which scientists have obtained Jesus Christ's genome. One scientist excitedly says: "OK, we have Jesus Christ's genome. But must we go further? It would be hubris to

This comic centers on a constructed language ("conlang") club meeting. A member proudly announces: "It's a tonal language! Four tones. The mark of a truly rich vocabulary is a single three-word consis

This is a compact single-panel comic with a caption. A woman with red hair is at what appears to be a social gathering, passionately declaring: "But I remember it NOT being there! I had a specific con

In this comic, an older man (likely a professor or mentor figure) asks another character, "Grandpa, how do you move so good with the ladies?" The grandfather reveals what he claims is "the secret numb

This comic explains the real mathematical concept of "trajectoids" — a class of shapes that, when rolled on a surface, trace out a specific predefined path. The comic notes that some paths are forbidd

This comic features a conversation about an "experience machine" — a famous thought experiment from philosopher Robert Nozick. One character proposes: "Would you get in an experience machine where you

This comic is set in a fantasy scenario where an old wizard or sage presents a young adventurer with the "Sword of Destiny," explaining it was passed down from his father and originally came from God.

This comic depicts a tech company meeting where employees are discussing how to categorize people into finer and more specific demographic groups to improve their targeting algorithms. One character s

This comic is a single-panel strip with a meta-textual caption. A doctor tells a patient: "I'm sorry. You have maybe three months left. The pain will likely get much worse." Below the panel, the capt

This comic features a character being overwhelmed by the English word "of" and its many uses. The character recites a torrent of prepositions and function words: "Of, from, to, containing, by, during,

This single-panel comic shows one person angrily hurling linguistics terminology at another person as insults: "You calque! You dentalized yod-dropping infix! You scalar implicature! You fricative bac

This comic features a conversation between two characters about the state of poetry. One character excitedly reports: "Hey, poet! Did you see the new report? Average humans exposed to randomly generat

This comic plays on the word "duh" and the concept of things being obvious versus counterintuitive. In the first panel, a character notes: "It's amazing how Einstein's work arrived at the general theo

This comic is a parody of the classic fantasy "chosen one" trope, specifically riffing on Lord of the Rings-style scenarios where a wizard tells a young hero they must gather rings of power and bring

This comic satirizes the recurring prediction that technology will free humanity from work and give us abundant leisure time. A woman is relaxing under a tree and says that in the future, we'll have

This comic tackles the existential question "How do I find a life of meaning?" with escalating dark humor. A person asks God how to live a life of meaning. God's answer is blunt and unexpected: "Beco

This is a single-panel gag comic with the header "Savings Tip: Re-use Halloween Games for Christmas." The scene shows a person dressed as Santa Claus hosting what appears to be a children's Christmas

This comic features a person getting into a self-driving car (or using GPS navigation) and asking to be taken to the nearest theater showing "Star Wars vs. Predator: Part 4 Part 2" -- already a joke a

This comic shows two people lying on the grass, looking up at clouds and describing what they see -- a classic romantic/contemplative activity. The first person sees poetic, emotionally resonant imag

This comic satirizes both AI hype and human responses to AI threats. In the first panel, a concerned person asks an AI enthusiast: "How can you want AI to take over the world? And look what they do!"

This comic takes place at what appears to be a natural history museum, where a parent and child are looking at a display of prehistoric sea creatures, likely ancient squid or cephalopods. The parent

This comic is a Batman and Robin parody that plays with the comic book convention of representing swear words with random symbols (like #@$%!). Robin rushes in to tell Batman that "The Joker kidnappe

This is a concise single-panel joke set in what appears to be ancient Bethlehem or a similar biblical-era Middle Eastern setting. Two figures -- who appear to be Joseph and Mary (or perhaps just gene

This comic places a biblical event into a modern financial context for humorous effect. A man behind what appears to be a bank or lending window tells a woman he is sorry, but they are having to reass

This comic satirizes the interaction between humans and a hyper-advanced alien intelligence. A group of humans has received a transmission from the "Galactic Ultra-Consciousness" and eagerly asks it a

In this comic, two characters debate whether it is possible to have artificially intelligent creatures that possess the full complexity of human thought, feeling, and experience. One character argues

This comic offers a "Philosophy Pro Tip" that reads: "All moral dilemmas are easy to solve in reverse." It then demonstrates with an example: "If you could set elderly men on fire and new Van Goghs wo

A politician stands at a podium and declares: "If elected president, I promise you I will do whatever my opponent promises to do, plus 1." The caption below reads: "There is an optimal election strate

This comic depicts a conversation between a man and God, framed as a failing relationship. The man asks God why there is suffering, natural disasters, and pain. God defensively asks when the last time

The comic shows the Eye of Sauron from The Lord of the Rings atop Barad-dur, shouting "Ow! Dammit! Stupid monocular vision!" The caption explains: "Due to its lack of depth perception, the Eye of Saur

The comic is split into two panels. In the top panel, a suited TV commentator declares that climate "scientists" (in scare quotes) are not after the truth -- they want power, power to control your liv

Two men are sitting on a bus. One says: "It was rotten fish, man. My guts turned inside out." A woman sitting nearby interjects: "Sparrows in moonlight." The caption reads: "Any time you hear a 12-syl

A knight approaches a tower where a princess is imprisoned and calls out: "Princess! I see you are locked in the tower! Yet you have managed to look hygienic and hot somehow!" The princess responds: "

This comic imagines a scenario where archaeologists or time travelers need to identify a specific time period from a distinctive cultural marker. Someone proposes that "tiny white Trump" (a reference

In this comic, an alien is performing the classic "abduction spotlight" routine on a human, but the human keeps catching the alien in social faux pas. The human points out that shining a light in some

This single-panel comic shows a group of aliens standing on what appears to be their home planet (or a moon), looking at Earth in the distance. A large sign or display reads "CAT MAXIMIZATION." One of

This comic depicts a couple in what appears to be a therapy or relationship conversation. The woman asks the man what he wants to talk about, and he brings up "Steve." He clarifies it's not that Steve

This comic features two characters at what appears to be a grave or archaeological dig site. One character is digging up a grave, and the other objects: "Oh my God, are you digging up a grave?!" The d

This comic explores the philosophical concept of antinatalism -- the view that it is morally wrong to bring new people into existence. A character announces they have "decided to become a pro-natalist

This comic is a brief four-panel visual gag set in what appears to be a historical (Victorian or Edwardian) era. In the first panel, a man in a hat and suit looks pleased or excited. The second panel

This comic personifies a Red Delicious apple, depicted standing dramatically between what appear to be classical columns or curtains, delivering a theatrical monologue about its downfall. The apple de

This comic is simply a large banner reading "THANK YOU!" with smaller text underneath saying "CLICK TO SEE REASON FOR THE THANKYOU." This is a meta-comic, likely a placeholder or interstitial strip th

This comic features a conversation between two characters about drug use and life trajectory. The first character warns: "Honey, no! Drugs may seem cool now, but your life will get worse and worse." T