Explain SMBC — the wiki for Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

This comic explores the tension between genuine human connection and smartphone addiction. A person asks their partner, "Well, are you gonna talk to me about your day or just flick your phone all morn

This comic is a parody of Batman. A butler figure (clearly Alfred) tells a Batman-like figure, "Sir, there's a god-like criminal psychopath with an army of henchmen. You'd better go alone, wearing a b

This comic addresses the Fermi Paradox -- the question of why, given the vast number of stars and planets, we have not detected signs of extraterrestrial intelligence. An alien ship arrives at Earth

This comic features a robot or AI entity addressing a group of humans about the future of attention and consciousness. The robot explains that humans spend most of their time watching short videos on

This single-panel comic shows two police officers standing on a beach, looking at something off-panel near the water. One officer says, "Christ. Did any kids see it?" The other says, "Why can't they j

This single-panel comic shows a funeral scene. A speaker at the podium says, "...and although we are sad at his passing, we can take comfort in knowing that Erik's revealed preference is apparently de

This comic features a person asking a robot to "generate a sexy fantasy." The robot asks for specifics. The human suggests, "Imagine the hottest sex you can." The robot begins describing a scenario: "

This comic depicts a parent scolding a child, saying: "When I get done with you, you're gonna scream you'd never been born!" The child asks: "Why wouldn't I just wish I had never been born?" This stum

This comic shows a deathbed scene. A dying woman tells a nurse: "I haven't got long now. When I die, I don't want a lot of ceremony or fancy stuff, no big memorials." She continues: "All I want is for

This comic shows two people, one of whom says: "Jeez, why are you getting so tense? I'm just telling a joke." The other person, looking anxious and hunched over, thinks to himself: "...If I stay quiet

This comic shows aliens arriving on Earth to share their wisdom. An alien announces: "Earth scientists! We wish to share our wisdom with you. Do you have any questions about the nature of reality?" A

This comic is split into two panels. The left panel, labeled "AI Developers a Year Ago," shows a developer saying: "So for optimal computational efficiency at scale we're using a new approach to stoch

This comic explores the question "Where does consciousness come from?" An alien asks this question, and a human explains: "Same in every intelligent species. From the tiny man in your brain." The alie

This comic shows a man telling a robot: "I wrote out this essay but I'm not sure it's good." The robot suggests: "Why don't you die on it, then take a look in the morning?" The man asks: "You mean sle

This comic shows a military veteran telling a story: "We were stationed off the mainland. When the terrorists came down on you, but they were armed to the teeth and we -- I don't know how we survived.

This comic is a multi-panel discussion about whether scientists appreciate beauty more than artists. It begins with someone asking: "Do you think scientists appreciate beauty more than artists?" A cha

This comic opens with a character addressing someone named Steve: "Yo, Steve! We're doing a collection of four-letter words and we could really use your help." The character continues: "Obviously it's

## The Joke This is a long-form comic (written and illustrated by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith) that tells the story of a short science fiction tale called "The Painting." The premise: a man discovers

## The Joke A man prays to God asking the classic theodicy question: "Dear God, why do bad things happen to good people?" God, appearing as a fiery celestial presence, declares "God is dead! The war

## The Joke A child asks his father, "Daddy, do I... how can I be sure I exist?" The father, startled ("Oh my gosh, Billy!"), tells the child "That is way too big of a question for such a little kid!

## The Joke This comic is a promotional piece in which Zach Weinersmith (alongside his wife and co-author Kelly) directly addresses the reader to advertise their book "A City on Mars." The comic is s

## The Joke A character states that "beauty only has certain dimensions" and another character pushes back, noting that "huge books are not just nothing, generally speaking of planar characteristics.

## The Joke A woman asks a man "What are you doing?" He replies: "Scrolling. Scrolling to find the good... the... make the muffin." She points out "But it's been three days." The caption below reads:

## The Joke A man approaches what appears to be a confession booth and says "Father, I have a confession." The person on the other side responds: "As it turns, you're not actually an innocent bystand

## The Joke A robber demands "Gimme all your money and also your shoes!" The victim asks "Why the shoes?" The robber explains: "The shoes are an increase in mugging returns because they're high enoug

## The Joke A man exclaims "Oh my God, I'm being followed by a ghost!" and spots a glowing green figure behind him. He then recognizes it: "It's my doppelganger! A duplicate of me from the spirit rea

## The Joke Someone asks a person "Would you want to be immortal?" They immediately answer "Obviously!" The questioner then raises the classic counterargument: "But wouldn't it be awful? Getting bore

This comic satirizes the concept of exponential growth in investing by taking it to an absurd, literal extreme. In the first panel, a man excitedly tells his wife that he has made an investment. He e

This comic imagines a dystopian future relationship scenario where data collection has become so pervasive that it intersects with romantic partnerships. A man is mid-conversation about mimosas when

This comic plays on the pseudoscience of dowsing rods -- the folk practice of using forked sticks or rods to supposedly locate underground water, minerals, or other hidden substances. In the first pa

This comic satirizes inflammatory and misleading media headlines by showing how loaded vocabulary can distort otherwise mundane information. In the first panel, two people discuss "writing informatio

This comic takes on the philosophical debate about free will through the lens of academic politics. In the first panel, a younger academic rushes up to a professor exclaiming "Professor! Professor! I

This comic plays on the dual meaning of the word "alignment" as it is used in AI ethics versus everyday automotive maintenance. The setup shows someone at what appears to be an auto shop, being asked

This is an extended, multi-panel comic that imagines a future where AI has become capable of producing art, and traces the evolving human reactions to this development. The comic progresses through s

This comic explores the Fermi Paradox -- the question of why we have not detected extraterrestrial intelligence -- through the lens of evolutionary biology and game theory. A human asks an alien visi

This comic is a philosophical meditation on existential dread and the paradox of nihilistic anxiety. In the first panel, a character sitting in darkness expresses a cascade of existential worries: "I

This comic tackles the problem of theodicy -- the philosophical question of why a good God would allow suffering -- with a characteristically Weinersmithian twist. A person asks God: "God, why do bad

This comic plays on the idea of moral offsetting taken to an absurd extreme. A silhouetted figure (implied to be Superman) stands before a crowd, passionately arguing that his countless acts of saving

In this comic, a scientist stands at a podium delivering a dramatic summary of modern cosmology to an enthusiastically applauding audience. His announcement captures the two most existentially deflati

This comic explores the paradox of human creativity through an alien's analysis. An alien asks why humans produce so much art, culture, and science, and is told it comes from "constant sexual availabi

This comic depicts a man arriving in Heaven, where an angel welcomes him and describes it as a paradise where he can have whatever food he wants, never feel guilty, and do anything without consequence

This comic is a linguistics joke built on the concept of Proto-Indo-European (PIE), the reconstructed ancestor language from which most European and many Asian languages descend. Two scholars in histo

This comic depicts a workplace scenario where a person is offered career advice. Someone hands them a document saying "Take it" and advises: "If you want a career in modeling, you gotta take it off."

This comic features a parent-child conversation about time and priorities. The father tells his child that he wants the kid to be "big and bold" and have an "inversion of childhood." When the child as

This is a single-panel comic showing two echidnas (spiny, hedgehog-like mammals) in bed together. One says to the other: "We're monotremes, Tracy. We already do it in the butt." The joke is a biology

This comic depicts a conversation between two people about personality and consumer behavior. One person complains: "Hey, you know that thing you like? Turn it into a personality." The other agrees en

This comic opens with a wordless romantic scene: a couple watches a beautiful sunset over the ocean, holding hands on a beach. The mood is serene, intimate, and cinematic. Then one of them says "27%"

This comic parodies cosmological debates — specifically the Steady State theory versus the Big Bang theory — by mapping them onto a child's question about where babies come from. In the panel, a chil

This is not a traditional SMBC comic strip but rather a promotional image for Zach Weinersmith's graphic novel "Bea Wolf," illustrated by Boulet. The image advertises the book's release with the text

This comic presents a humorous origin story for thermodynamics. Three men — depicted in 19th-century attire to evoke the era when thermodynamics was actually developed — are having a conversation. One