Explain SMBC — the wiki for Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

This comic is a joke about a specific and absurd intimate etiquette rule. The comic takes place entirely in darkness (black panels with white text). Someone exclaims, "Oh my God, what are you doing?"

This comic plays on the concept of "the Dead Hand of the Past" -- a common metaphor in political and legal philosophy for how decisions made by previous generations continue to constrain the living.

This comic subverts the classic campfire ghost story format. Around a campfire, someone tells a spooky story: "And they say to this very day, her ghost walks these halls, looking for her drowned love

This comic addresses the debate about whether AI can truly replace creative artists. In the first panel, a man tells his computer, "Sorry computer, I'm not gonna believe robots can replace artists un

This comic presents what it calls "the Human Paradox," as described by robots of the future. The joke is structured as a single-panel logical loop. A robot (or text attributed to robots) describes ho

This comic satirizes the human tendency to turn every concept into a concrete noun — to reify abstractions into things that either "exist" or don't. In the first panel, a character asks an alien whet

This comic tackles the tension between two philosophical approaches to life: accepting your place in a web of human relations versus pursuing a "transcendent, authentic selfhood." In the first panel,

This comic jokes about the improving quality of AI-generated images and the existential anxiety this causes for human graphic designers. In the first panel, a bearded character (likely a graphic desi

This comic imagines the Biblical Rapture actually happening — and people's reactions being underwhelming. In the first panel, the sky is splitting open with divine light and a character exclaims: "Oh

This comic places a romantic "waggle dance" in a human context to humorous effect. Honeybees communicate the location of food sources through a "waggle dance" — a figure-eight movement that encodes t

This comic poses a simple question — "If you had to die, how would you like to go?" — and then delivers its punchline through a newspaper headline. A character lying in bed (presumably being asked th

This comic tells the story of an ancient scribe and uses it to comment on how knowledge and reputation are transmitted across history. A narrator explains that there is only one extant manuscript of

This comic imagines a conversation with a superintelligent AI computer about death, evolution, and consciousness — and reaches a deeply pessimistic conclusion. A person asks: "Hey superintelligent co

This comic explores the classic philosophical thought experiment about experience machines (originally proposed by Robert Nozick in 1974). In the first panel, a character proposes: "Suppose you could

This comic is about the absurd grandiosity hiding inside the simple act of eating. In the first panel, a woman says "Yes, yes" while looking at her phone, and a man sitting across from her at dinner

This comic satirizes the idea that all fiction is essentially fan fiction — or more specifically, that all fiction is Harry Potter fan fiction. In the first panel, a man sitting at a computer is aske

This comic uses a philosophical argument structure to arrive at an absurd conclusion about human existence itself being a fetish behavior. Panel one: A bald character asks "Does any other species hav

This comic is a single-panel joke about a person in a polyamorous ("poly") trio who wants to break up with both partners simultaneously — not for emotional reasons, but purely for the wordplay opportu

This comic debunks the popular concept of "alpha males" by referencing the actual science behind wolf pack dynamics. In the first two panels, a large bearded man approaches a woman at what appears to

This comic explores the practical and philosophical problems with building realistic sex robots. The first panel sets up the premise with someone dismissing concerns: "Relax, we're never gonna have l

This comic satirizes overprotective parenting through the lens of computational modeling and probability theory. In the first panels, a child asks "Dad, why does Mom ever let me go and do stuff somet

This comic is about the absurdity of modifying words with adverbs to the point of meaninglessness. A student asks: "Professor, can I put an adverb here?" The professor responds: "Good question. Let's

This comic is a single-panel joke formatted as a financial news headline and stock chart. The headline reads: "ECONOMY SLIGHTLY LESS OF SHAMBLES THAN ANTICIPATED" with the subheadline "STOCKS BOOM" a

This comic explores the idea that mathematical truths are "real" in a way that defies common sense. In the first panel, a character says "God, I love math!" and mentions something like "You know, lik

This comic imagines what "biggest number" contests would have looked like in prehistoric times. Two cavemen are depicted in a primitive landscape. One excitedly declares: "Me can construct number far

This comic satirizes economics culture by transplanting auction theory into a pickup line at a bar. A woman approaches a man and asks: "Hey there — you ever been with a girl who uses a Vickrey-Clarke

This comic presents the inner monologue of a spider reacting to a human who is distressed about walking through a spiderweb. A woman is shown clutching her hair in disgust after apparently walking in

This comic uses a crude pickup line to make a joke about the Coastline Paradox applied to surfaces and human anatomy. A man suggestively opens his shirt and says: "Hey babe, guess who's packing infin

This comic satirizes the futility and toxicity of engaging with internet comments. In the first panel, someone asks a person looking at their phone: "Why are you responding to that internet comment?"

This comic proposes a fictional religious order dedicated to absorbing people's most cringe-inducing memories. The top text reads: "There should be a society of monks dedicated to absorbing people's

This comic depicts a father defending his unusual career (or lack thereof) to his children using increasingly grandiose and defensive reasoning. In the first panel, a child asks: "Dad, how do I find

This comic takes the phenomenon of "buried treasure" and reframes it through the lens of behavioral psychology. In the first panel, a character says: "Did you know that the frequency of so-called 'bu

This comic uses the second law of thermodynamics to answer a common philosophical puzzle about the direction of time, then flips the premise for a joke. Someone asks: "How come teacup pieces always l

This comic depicts two characters made of electromagnetic radiation (photons or EM waves) nostalgically discussing changes in the electromagnetic spectrum. One character says: "Hey em, have you ever

This comic satirizes the tendency of philosophy students (or philosophically-minded people) to derail serious academic discussions with radical skepticism. A presenter is about to give a talk on the n

This comic plays on the common parenting struggle of getting children to brush their teeth. The parent tries multiple escalating persuasion tactics. The child repeatedly refuses ("I don't wanna brush

This comic explores the ethical implications of eating cows through a child's questions. The child asks if it's okay to eat cows, and the mother responds that it is because cows don't have souls -- th

This comic is about the naming convention for antimatter particles. A physics professor explains that antimatter emerges naturally from the equations, and a student asks a question. The student wants

This comic features a recently deceased person arriving at the gates of heaven and speaking with God. The person says "I did it! I was good enough to get into heaven!" but God corrects them: "No, you

This comic features Batman (shown in silhouette with his characteristic cape and cowl) being confronted by a passerby who says "Cool fanny packs!" Batman indignantly responds that they are NOT fanny p

This comic satirizes the tech-industry-driven approach to municipal economics. A mayor announces plans to rename the town "Blockchain City" as part of a strategy to attract engineers and improve the l

This comic is a short two-panel joke about ADHD and procrastination. A boss tells an employee to "circle the task like a hawk circling its prey, waiting for the moment to strike." The employee is show

This comic satirizes personality quantification and data-driven self-assessment. A person is told by what appears to be a hiring manager or evaluator that they "don't have enough personality." When as

This comic jokes about mnemonic devices -- memory tricks used to remember information. A teacher says "There's an easy trick to remember this: Apple." She then explains that the "A" is for "Accretion

This comic imagines "Office-LARP" — live-action role-playing set in a corporate office environment — as a form of stress relief. In the comic, a person dressed as a fantasy character stands behind wh

This comic satirizes the "I would do anything for a better grade" trope by taking the student's offer literally in an unexpected direction. A student tells a professor: "Professor, I would do ANYTHIN

This comic is about the Old English letter thorn (written as a character resembling "p" or "y"), which represented the "th" sound. A character enthusiastically explains: "Did you know there used to b

This comic jokes about the tendency of engineers to build absurdly over-engineered solutions to problems that have already been solved. The comic opens with a statement framed as a law: "Law of the U

This comic explores the unintended consequences of using AI to reconstruct a deceased grandmother's personality from her correspondence. A presenter announces: "The good news is we were able to use m

This comic is a single-panel joke about the fallacy of false balance. A mother sits on a child's bed at bedtime. The child says: "I understand it SEEMS frightening, but don't you think we should hear