Explain SMBC — the wiki for Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

This comic satirizes the dismissive attitude some scientists have toward philosophy. In the opening panel, a scientist declares: "Look, scientists don't need philosophers. We just need methodology!" A

This comic presents a philosophical thought experiment about happiness machines. Two characters are hiking in a snowy mountain setting, and one asks: "Do you think if a machine could make your life pe

This comic depicts two aliens sitting in a living room, looking at what appears to be a fireplace or chimney with a boxy object near it. One alien says: "You just pour some molten aluminum down the ch

This comic shows a ghost haunting scenario. A translucent, skeletal ghost appears before a startled person, declaring: "I was murdered in this house! You must find my bones!" The living person respond

This comic features a conversation about health and nutrition. In the first panel, a character is shocked at someone's eating habits: "Oh my God, your health bar is full of chemicals! You can't even p

This comic features characters watching a movie and complaining about its inaccuracies. The first panel opens with someone exclaiming: "Oh my God, this movie is so inaccurate! These swords didn't even

This comic shows two people walking past a shop, with one character -- a bearded man wearing a hoodie -- explaining his fashion choices. He says: "I don't know how you go out in public every day in th

This comic is a math-themed strip about the surprising properties of odd numbers. A character demonstrates: "Hey, watch me talk. If you take the differences between consecutive square numbers, you gen

This comic shows a parent (or grandparent) figure at a dinner table with children, declaring: "Eat your dinner now, or I'll spray you with a de-novo entirely new body fluid that is genetically recogni

This comic shows a mime in classic costume -- beret, striped shirt, white face paint -- making theatrical gestures with their hands while facing another person. The caption reads: "And yet, part of me

This comic contrasts how a "Normal Person" and an "Economist" interpret the same phrase. Both say "I could never put a price on the love of my child," but they mean completely different things. The no

This comic satirizes the phenomenon of political supporters who continue to back a public figure despite that figure doing objectionable things. A supporter (blue-haired character) goes through an ela

This comic features a person using a soulmate-finding service (or algorithm) that has located their perfect match. The service explains that according to its analysis of all humans, it has found the i

This comic deconstructs the classic "trolley problem" and similar moral dilemmas by presenting three scenarios of escalating simplicity. In Scenario 1, a runaway trolley can be diverted to save five p

This comic shows a father discovering a baggie of marijuana under his son Bobby's bed. The setup suggests a standard anti-drug "talk" scene, but the father's lecture quickly veers in an unexpected dir

This comic explains the Latin abbreviation "i.e." A character states "Oh that, it's an abbreviation for 'id est,' which means 'now that I've made my argument in a confusing way, here's the same idea b

This comic depicts a scene where one character offers another a chance to "score some novelty pens." The second character, dressed like a rugged smuggler or adventurer, reveals he smuggled the pens th

This comic imagines economics presented with the theatrical grandeur of a fantasy or religious narrative. A wizard-like or priestly figure in a pointed hat and robe dramatically announces a vision: th

This comic plays on the idea of organ donation and the wish for one's body to be useful after death. A person says they hope that when they die, every part of their body is donated, to which another c

This comic takes place at a physics department where theoreticians rally against letting an advanced AI solve all of physics. A speaker argues they must "stand together" to prevent AI from completing

This comic depicts the afterlife processing system. A person dies (shown with a "pop" as they arrive) and an angel or afterlife bureaucrat is frustrated: "Dammit! Another human neither destined for he

This comic satirizes the tension between physics and everyday human experience. A character complains that physics (with its strange theories about particles, interference patterns, and the universe b

This single-panel comic depicts an angry snowman wearing a top hat (evoking Frosty the Snowman from the classic children's song) ranting aggressively at some children. He says "Spring is in two months

This comic riffs on the classic "monkey's paw" trope from W.W. Jacobs' famous short story, in which a magical monkey's paw grants wishes but with horrible unintended consequences. A character makes a

This single-panel comic shows a person at what appears to be a holiday party, proudly wearing a sweater with a Nazi swastika on it. They explain: "The best part is that if they say I don't win the ugl

This comic satirizes corporate culture's use of the word "family" to describe workplace relationships. A company leader declares "We don't think of ourselves as an office. We're more like a family." T

This comic imagines what it would look like if archaeological articles took a different approach than usual. The setup asks: "How come articles about archaeology never do this, just for balance?" It t

This comic is a riff on the Trojan Horse from Greek mythology. Soldiers outside a castle wall discuss strategy, with one saying they should "try nobody just once knocks away a horse's obvious goal." T

This comic addresses the classic philosophical "Teleporter Problem" -- the question of whether a teleporter that destroys your body and reconstructs it elsewhere is actually killing you and creating a

This comic tackles the question of why people are judgmental about other people's tastes, particularly what entertainment or media they enjoy. In the first panel, someone asks why people are so judg

This comic shows a father and son fishing together. The father describes a life transition: "Well, at a certain point in your life you change. You become softer, happier, and nicer smelling, and at th

This comic explores the concept of "generivory" -- a made-up word that appears to combine "generic" and a suffix suggesting consumption or ideology. A character at what seems to be a social gathering

This comic shows a team of surgeons standing over an anesthetized patient on an operating table. One surgeon says to the others: "Remember, it's not about succeeding or even doing your best -- the imp

This comic is a multi-panel Batman parody. In the opening panels, Batman swoops in with a "BOOF!" sound effect to stop a crime in progress. A person thanks Batman, saying "Thank you Batman! That crook

This comic is a theological and philosophical discussion about entropy and ethics. In the opening panel, a character addresses God, asking why there is an "arrow of time" -- why can't we "unbreak an e

This comic features a character looking up at the night sky and asking God about the meaning of the vast heavens. God's response is essentially that people should judge historical figures by the moral

This comic satirizes gold as an investment vehicle, specifically the "gold bug" mentality common among certain economic doomsayers. In the first panel, a TV commentator warns that "civilization may

This comic is a mathematics joke centered on the concept of the "Erdos number." In the panel, an older woman (likely a mathematician) says "I once wrote a paper with Paul Erdos." A younger man respo

This comic explores the evolutionary psychology of loneliness. A character asks "Why does being alone make me sad?" and is told that evolution made it so that isolated primates who felt bad about bein

This comic features a time-travel scenario where someone from the future approaches a person and urgently tells them to stop doing something -- apparently harassing or being rude to people. The presen

This is not a traditional SMBC comic strip but rather a promotional image for BAH!Fest London 2023, held at Imperial College. The image advertises the event taking place on November 18 at 17:00 GMT (n

This comic returns to the teleporter problem -- a recurring SMBC theme. A person asks a scientist whether the teleporter kills them. The scientist confirms: "Wait, when you activate the teleporter, do

This comic shows three people stranded on a life raft in the ocean, facing the classic survival dilemma of who gets sacrificed so the others can survive. One person -- apparently a mathematician -- ob

This single-panel comic shows two men in conversation. One says: "Yes, I too have noticed that things have been going downhill ever since [FIRST YEAR I WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR MY OWN WELFARE]." The capti

This comic explains the concept of a genetic bottleneck through a conversation between what appears to be a teacher/scientist and a student. The teacher begins: "Dear lord, why are human beings such

This comic shows a Sunday school or Bible study scene where an enthusiastic teacher is reading to young children from what she calls "The Unabridged Children's Bible." She excitedly describes the Four

This comic shows a couple in an intimate moment. The man says "I love you Sally" and "And I love you Theodore." But then the woman adds: "I just wish there were some way, some device to make sure I re

In this comic, a character dramatically announces "Ha! I got you!" and reveals they have scammed another person's art for their entire collection. The twist is that the victim already knew about the s

In this comic, a scientist passionately describes the wonder of science, initially asking "You genuinely just want to perceive mysteries but learning can't live without wonder?" The person responds "A

This comic addresses the impact of generative AI on creative fields. A character states that "Generative AI is going to destroy the arts" and that this represents "a direct route to fascism." When ask