Explain SMBC — the wiki for Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

This comic plays on the awkwardness of a mother being far too open and clinical about her daughter's reproductive biology. In the panel, a mother addresses what appears to be a room full of people (p

This comic is a conversation between a biologist (the red-haired woman) and a physicist (the bearded man) about the differences between their fields. The physicist opens by saying he doesn't understa

In this comic, a parent (shown in silhouette) tells their child Bobby to stop smacking silverware together at the dinner table. Bobby explains: "I'm trying to see if the collision produces smaller, RA

This single-panel comic shows a person whose body is emitting a message: "BEEP BEEP. MAINTENANCE REQUIRED SOON. SUBSCRIBE FOR DISCOUNT." The caption reads: "The downside to 3D-printed organs was the

This comic shows a flying saucer near Earth, with an alien speaking from the ship. The alien says: "Ugh, these. We bred them to be larger and not have all the fuzz, and now they ship well but taste li

This comic shows a professor at a chalkboard lecturing students. The chalkboard is filled with complex mathematical notation, and the professor says: "Welcome to day one. We start with a frequency-dom

This comic is titled "Funtime Activity: Malicious Agreement." A man declares: "There are only two genders!" A woman with glasses responds: "Exactly!" The man begins: "Male and fe--" but the woman int

This comic shows a physics professor at a chalkboard with a drawing of a sphere with rotation arrows (labeled with angular momentum L and clockwise/counterclockwise notation). The professor says: "Tha

In this comic, a customer at a drive-through window asks: "Hi, could I get a six-piece chicken McNugget?" The drive-through employee responds: "Do you mean chicken AT nugget? What makes it a McNugget?

In this comic, a woman with green-tinted skin says nervously: "I just... it feels like I shouldn't." A silhouetted figure (Superman) responds enthusiastically: "I give you my consent! I'm into it! I'm

This comic shows a man sitting at a computer, clearly frustrated, saying: "No, I don't want to see your boobs. No, you can't have my credit card. Look, let's just focus on how your media, institutions

The comic reimagines the classic Trojan Horse story from Homer's account of the Trojan War. In the original myth, the Greeks built a giant wooden horse, hid soldiers inside it, and left it at the gate

This comic is another entry in SMBC's recurring "ethics" series, which typically features philosophical thought experiments taken to absurd extremes. The comic presents a dialogue about the ethics of

A woman anxiously asks God, "God, what will future people think of our time?" This is a common modern anxiety -- the worry that future generations will judge us harshly for our moral failings, much as

A businessman proudly announces to colleagues: "Thanks to new customization technology, we can offer our customers real variety in every single purchase!" A woman responds: "You're fired. You know tha

The comic shows a playground scene where a girl stands with arms outstretched, triumphantly declaring to a group of other children: "HA! No touch required! Just by looking in your direction I have inf

This comic retells the story of the Garden of Eden from the Book of Genesis, with a cynical twist. A narrator (apparently God or an angel) recounts the biblical story: "Isn't the apple game about how

The comic is rendered as an almost entirely black panel -- suggesting a dark bedroom scene. One voice asks: "Why... why did you freeze up?" The other responds: "Rather than simply acting, I'm investin

This comic is another installment in SMBC's "language" series, exploring quirks of linguistics and language evolution. A character asks: "You ever notice how language is getting more and more impreci

The comic shows a teacher performing a science demonstration for students. He announces: "And when we add vinegar to baking soda -- BOOM! Just like magma pressure inside a volcano!" Then a woman (pre

The comic shows a man sitting on a couch with two women, making what appears to be a deeply emotional confession: "This... can you forgive me. I... I've never gotten over Roger and I never loved you.

This comic is a parody of Superman's origin story, specifically the well-known element that Superman (Kal-El) is the last son of Krypton, sent to Earth before his planet exploded. In the first panel,

This comic satirizes Peter Singer's famous "Shallow Pond" argument, a foundational thought experiment in effective altruism and moral philosophy. Singer's original argument goes roughly like this: If

This comic is a clever, self-referential joke about Thomas Malthus and Malthusian thinking. Thomas Malthus (1766-1834) was an English economist who famously argued that human population grows geometr

This comic satirizes the modern "content creation" economy and the ironic contradictions embedded within the self-care and wellness industry. In the comic, one woman says to another: "Hello fellow wo

This comic plays on conspiracy theories about Romance languages and their shared vocabulary, turning a real and well-understood linguistic phenomenon into a fake but more entertaining conspiracy theor

This single-panel comic jokes about the difficulty of setting haunted house or ghost stories in the Middle East. A man is lying in bed reading a book when a ghost appears. Instead of being frightened

This comic is a relatable parenting joke about the gap between parental ideals and the reality of spending time with children. In the first panel, a father proudly declares: "I would do ANYTHING for

This comic is a joke about the economic concept of comparative advantage, attributed to the economist David Ricardo. In the comic, a child is complaining about having to do chores: "But why do I have

This comic subverts the "mad scientist" trope by reframing the typical evil genius as someone who is not actually insane but rather just deeply disappointed with the state of the world. In the comic,

This comic jokes about the evolutionary purpose of children's play and proposes a darkly humorous shortcut. In the first panel, someone asks: "Why do you think kids play all the time?" The response e

This comic depicts two people sitting in a car whose windshield is almost entirely covered in a massive red splatter -- clearly the remains of an enormous bug. One person stammers "What... do... I..."

In the first panel, a child excitedly tells a parent: "Mommy! Mommy! Is all the candy for me?!" In the second panel, we see the answer: a brightly colored, striped animal (resembling a cat or dog) tha

In this comic, a woman (likely named Susan based on context) tells her partner Steve that she wishes he would be "less passive-aggressive." When Steve asks "Passive-aggressive? How so?", the scene cut

This comic is presented in the style of a scientific proposal or academic paper, complete with a table and diagrams. The proposal argues that since "spaghettification" is not a specific outcome but ra

In this comic, a man prays: "Dear God, I know there's life on other planets. Why isn't it everywhere?" He is referencing the Fermi Paradox. God appears and gives a surprisingly candid, cynical answer:

In this comic, one character tells another: "Once you realize too much Tolkien wants every compound word to have three parts, it is all stressed-unstressed-stressed, stressed that end with the -ing so

This comic depicts the fable of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf." A boy is shouting "Wolf! Wooolf!" while an older man scolds him: "You keep yelling like that, and one day nobody will believe you when you hav

This is an extended multi-panel comic whose title "Turkin" is a portmanteau of "Turkey" and "Turing," referencing Alan Turing and the Turing Test. The full title pun visible on the comic's page is "Tu

In this comic, a person (appearing to be a scientist or academic) is giving a presentation. They say: "People think the humanities don't help with science, but while reading poetry I find the perfect

This comic is a retelling of the Pinocchio story reframed through the lens of philosophy of mind and artificial intelligence. In the first panel, the Blue Fairy (or a similar magical figure) tells Pi

In this comic, a woman at a podium announces to the people of Earth that in three days, aliens will arrive to introduce humanity to the Galactic Federation. The crowd is nervous, unsure what to say or

In this comic, a man proposes to a woman named Anna, presenting her with a box. He explains that instead of containing the dollar-equivalent value of an engagement ring, the box contains "almost equiv

This is a single-panel comic showing a person walking along a path through a beautiful natural landscape with mountains and trees in the background. The character says: "I dunno. Some days I wish my l

This comic is structured as a prayer. A character begins: "Dear God, to Dave Allen Andersen of Steinbach, Manitoba: you don't need penis-burger-looking hair. Don't care if it looks funny like that."

The comic is titled "Discovery" and presents the premise: "Book titles are way better if you add 'a hundred' any time the word 'a' appears." It then shows three modified book covers as examples: - "T

In this comic, someone exclaims "My God! Why is Ted running toward the aliens?!" Another person responds dismissively: "Dinko? They captured him? Oh great, then they'll kill us all. Then they'll kill

This comic presents a philosophical debate about simulation theory -- the idea that our universe might be a computer simulation run by a more advanced civilization. In the opening panel, a character

This comic depicts two duck characters -- drawn in a style reminiscent of Disney's Donald Duck and Daisy Duck -- having an emotional conversation. One says "It doesn't matter any more. I can tell you

In this single-panel comic, a young man stands nervously before his parents (shown from behind) and says: "Mom... Dad... I don't know how to say this, and I hope you'll be okay with it, but... I'm...