Explain SMBC — the wiki for Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

This comic is structured in two panels with a flashback. In the first panel, investigators examine the body of "Professor Carroll," noting that enemy nations wanted him dead, but his death appears nat

This comic features a philosopher giving a speech at what turns out to be an environmentalist conference. He argues that he is not saying we *should* destroy the Earth, but rather that *if* we do, it

This comic is a long-form, essay-style strip exploring the concept of two dimensions of time: "proper time" and "remembered time." Proper time is the linear, measurable kind tracked by clocks and cale

This comic features a journalist interviewing an Einstein-like physicist about how he discovered general relativity. The physicist gives a poetic, reverent answer: "Whenever I try to understand the co

This comic depicts a man's internal monologue when he notices a woman wearing a shirt with writing on it. He wants to read the text but realizes that doing so would require him to stare at her chest,

This comic is titled "How Controversy Works" and lays out a six-step cycle satirizing how political media controversies are manufactured and sustained. Step 1: A fringe person says something outrageou

This comic plays on the concept of anonymous charitable donation. A man wearing a mask (to remain anonymous) approaches a woman while holding a jar labeled "SPERM," saying "Don't think of me as a hero

This comic contrasts the behavior of scientists with that of normal people by flipping common stereotypes. In the top panel, labeled "Scientists," two researchers are shown in a violent, profanity-lad

This comic presents a cynical take on how romantic relationships often begin and evolve. After sleeping together, both partners express dismay: the woman says "Oh my god! I can't believe I slept with

This comic satirizes the misuse of mathematical terminology to make philosophical claims. An older man argues that the existence of "irrational" numbers proves the universe is irrational. A younger ma

This comic follows a Superman-like hero who stops a criminal, only to discover that the root causes of crime are far more tangled than a simple good-versus-evil narrative allows. The mugger explains h

This comic ranks the sciences by their romantic potential. Astronomy is declared "the most romantic science," illustrated by a man telling a woman "I love you in more ways than there are stars in the

This comic depicts a nerdy engineer's revenge fantasy gone wrong. A man returns to confront Sandy, the girl who rejected him for prom, now armed with a giant robot. He gloats about how she must regret

This comic tackles the problem of "premature nihilism" in debates and discussions. It opens by noting that any argument can be destroyed by nihilism, illustrated by an existentialist debate club where

This comic presents the author's fantasy of requiring all political speeches to begin with the same preamble. A politician at a podium is shown clearing his throat and saying: "Based on my poor unders

This comic is titled "Parenting Tip: Preach What You Practice" and shows a father giving his son advice: "Son... when life gives you lemons, use them as an excuse never to put in the work needed to ac

This comic presents a grid of "Yo Mama" jokes cross-referenced by professional field (Scientist, Economist, Doctor) and insult category (So Ugly, So Stupid, So Fat). The humor comes from translating t

This comic depicts an escalating argument between a scientist and a priest. The scientist presents evidence for how something works, and the priest flatly denies it with "No it doesn't!" This back-and

This comic offers a humorous explanation for the Fermi Paradox -- the question of why we have not detected signals from alien civilizations despite the vast number of stars and planets in the universe

This comic is a simple two-panel comparison of what the phrase "She's/He's cute" means when used by women versus men. When a woman says a man is "cute," it is presented as a softened way of saying he

This comic depicts a woman presenting her boyfriend with a graph showing that she has reached "peak giving-a-shit" six months ago. She explains that caring is a finite resource, and he used it all up

In the first panel, a father (shown in silhouette with a unicorn-like horn) tells his son that he and the boy's mother do not believe in premarital sex. The son angrily retorts, "Well, I don't believe

This comic is formatted as an educational segment titled "Know Your Hypothetical Particles!" featuring the tachyon -- a theoretical particle that travels backward in time. After noting its status as "

This comic portrays a man being confronted by an alien race for having killed more of them than any other human in history. The man protests that he did not act alone and that nobody knew they were an

This comic retells the Greek myth of Pandora's Box with a skeptical twist. Zeus gives Pandora a box that he claims contains "all the ills that befall mankind." Pandora, being rational, points out that

A man proudly announces he has created an algorithm that converts images to only two colors. His friend eagerly demands it, explaining that his parents are colorblind and this would help them. The cre

This comic puts an environmentalist spin on the classic "yo mama so fat" joke format. A man introduces someone to a large woman (implied to be someone's mother) and exclaims, "There's enough energy st

This comic presents three parallel scenarios that expose a double standard in how society views claims of inability. In the first two panels, labeled "Considered Sensible," a person says "I can't pain

This comic satirizes radical philosophical skepticism about causation. A man with glasses confidently declares that events cannot be causally connected and that all we have are subjective correlations

This comic features a couple standing at the Great Wall of China. The woman claims, "Did you know that when you conceive a baby in China, it comes out Chinese?" Her partner responds, "What? That's dum

This comic is a bar chart joke about the awkwardness of rhyming advice given by a father to his college-bound daughter. The x-axis shows two pieces of rhyming advice, and the y-axis measures awkwardne

This comic imagines a world where animal brains have been uploaded into computers. A frustrated man tells his wife, "Goddammit, honey. Philbert killed Photoshop and put its remains in the middle of th

This comic satirizes the phenomenon of religious pareidolia -- seeing sacred images in random objects -- and takes it to an absurd extreme. A man examines a piece of wood and progressively discovers n

This comic follows a woman who realizes she is the only woman in her computer science department and dreads the inevitable romantic attention from her male peers. When someone immediately asks, "Wanna

This comic depicts Superman lying on a therapist's couch. The therapist says, "You're here to talk about trust issues? Ha! Okay. I thought for sure it was fear of heights. I mean... imagine you're fly

This comic follows a man's internal monologue as he stands at a bathroom sink after using the restroom. He pauses and thinks: "Wait... If I touch the sink handle, I get whatever germs the last guy had

This comic imagines what would happen if Sherlock Holmes tried to apply physics instead of detective work to solve a crime. Holmes stands over a dead body with a knife in it and announces to Watson: "

This comic makes a joke connecting creationism with pornography. A man is caught by a woman (presumably his wife or partner) looking at something on his computer that appears to involve nudity. He fra

This single-panel comic with a caption explores the tension between theoretical and experimental physics. A theoretical physicist tells an experimental physicist, "You just need to get the protons rea

This comic plays on the idea of a "Pap Smear Ninja." A woman with red hair and glasses is shown sitting on an examination table in what appears to be a doctor's office. She waits, looking bored or anx

This comic presents a satirical flowchart titled "How to React to a Controversial Judicial Ruling." The flowchart begins with the question "Do you agree with the judgment?" If yes, the path leads to "

This comic mocks the common English grammar rule against ending sentences with prepositions. The comic is structured with the punchline-first and the setup revealed at the end via a flashback. In the

This comic satirizes the absurdity of arguments couples have about whose name goes on mail. The opening panel shows a letter addressed to "Mr. & Mrs. Stu Jennings." A woman (presumably the wife) is up

This comic tells the story of a supervillain named Destructicus and the relationship problems that come with being an evil overlord. In the opening panels, Destructicus -- a menacing red-cloaked figur

This comic satirizes the hypocrisy of parents who complain about the state of public education online while simultaneously neglecting their own children's educational needs. In the first panel, a bald

This single-panel comic shows a man in bed, covered in what appears to be blood or some kind of red substance, looking horrified. The walls and surroundings are also splattered. The caption reads, "It

This comic presents Superman standing at a podium, declaring "I stopped Superman from killing all of you once again." The joke is that Superman is framing his heroism not as protecting people from ext

Titled "Why We Don't Want Intelligent Machines," this comic reimagines the familiar Windows "program not responding" dialog box in a world where computers have feelings. In the first panel, the dialog

In this comic, a child prays at her bedside, asking different domains for help with her sick father. First she prays to God, who responds that he can't cure her daddy but would like credit if things w

This comic is structured with the labels "Bad Outcome" and "Good Intention." In the "Bad Outcome" panel, a man appears at someone's door identifying himself as a sex offender, noting that he looks lik