Explain SMBC — the wiki for Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

This comic is a minimalist, text-only joke about Star Trek and creative marketing. The main panel shows white text on a black background in the style of a dramatic movie trailer: "Two centuries befor

This comic imagines the evolutionary moment when internal fertilization was first "invented" by some ancient creature, depicting the horrified reaction of organisms that only knew external fertilizati

This comic deconstructs the common saying "the best things in life are free." In the first panel, one character says: "Dad, are the best things in life free?" The father responds: "Yes, but only in a

This comic imagines what Heaven's "punching bags" are like, drawing a comparison to video game mechanics. In the first panel, a figure (likely Saint Peter or an angel) welcomes someone to Heaven and

This comic satirizes the gap between the grand promises of the "metaverse" and what people actually want from the internet. In the first panel, a character wearing a VR headset enthusiastically descr

This comic plays on the phrase "the AI revolution" by contrasting two very different meanings of the word "revolution." A scientist is working at a computer, frustrated that her AI system "keeps outp

This comic explores the debate between prescriptive and descriptive linguistics, then takes an unexpected philosophical turn. A character asks a linguist whether she is "prescriptive or descriptive."

This comic is a joke about the familiar experience of starting a gardening project that spirals wildly out of control. The strip is labeled "Day 1: Gardening." A person surveys their yard and notes t

This comic presents a philosophical argument that arrives at the paradoxical conclusion that this is the best of all possible worlds -- a playful engagement with Leibniz's famous (and widely mocked) o

This comic is a concise visual pun built on the cliche "I will die on this hill," meaning to defend a position stubbornly regardless of consequences. In the first panel, a man angrily declares: "Peop

This comic satirizes performative toughness and the inconsistency of masculinity-policing. In the first panel, a man at a coffee shop orders and the barista asks if he wants cream and sugar. His resp

This comic riffs on the idea of finding hidden messages in mathematical constants, specifically pi. A character excitedly explains to a bald, bewildered-looking man that if you convert pi to base-27

This comic captures the wonder of pure mathematics in a single, punchy sales pitch. An older, bearded professor stands at a chalkboard during a "Freshmen Orientation" for a mathematics department. Hi

This comic takes the childhood saying "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me" and reveals it as a mechanism of emotional avoidance. In the first panel, a man recites the

## The Joke A woman poses a theological puzzle to a priest: if God is omniscient and omnipotent, why does the Bible (Matthew 24:36) say that nobody knows the day or hour of the Second Coming — not ev

## The Joke The comic presents three panels illustrating the gap between scientific communication and public understanding. In the first panel, labeled "What Scientists Say," a scientist states: "Nob

## The Joke In the first panel, a woman in a flowing red dress stands in a forest clearing with her arms outstretched, calling "Come to me, forest friends!" in the style of a Disney princess. Birds f

## The Joke The comic depicts a conversation about gardening supplies. One person mentions "sort of stuff, meaning gardening implements," and another explains that gardening implements run between $3

## The Joke A couple is getting ready for bed. One partner says "Come to bed," and the other asks "What's the matter?" The second partner then lays out a probabilistic dilemma: there's some chance th

## The Joke A child is in bed, and tells a parent (presumably the mother) that there's an evolutionist under the bed. The mother reassures the child: "Oh son, that's just a stereotype. All he wants t

## The Joke Death (the Grim Reaper) arrives carrying his traditional scythe. A farmer asks, "Why do you use a scythe?" Death responds defensively: "That's old technology, man. Modern farmers use a co

## The Joke A parent tells their child: "Son, you need to be nineteen to get a sword. When I was your age I had my own claymore." The parent then explains that sword ownership used to be the key to p

## The Joke An elderly man sitting in an armchair rants at a younger woman: "My generation, by GOD, we were able to fake an ENTIRE MOON LANDING! Now that y'all are in charge, we can barely fake a spa

## The Joke A professor (drawn as an economist) announces to his class: "All students who did A+ work will be given a B for not understanding the concept of opportunity cost." The caption below reads

This comic imagines a courtroom-style investigation into whether William Shakespeare was actually a sheep. In the first panel, a lawyer-like figure addresses what appears to be a hearing, stating: "W

This comic explores the question of why people eat dessert after a meal, playing on the tension between rational explanation and the simple truth. In the first panel, a child asks: "Mom, why do peopl

This comic is about the concept of imaginary numbers in mathematics, specifically the imaginary unit "i" (the square root of negative one). In the first panel, a student complains to a professor: "Pr

This is a single-panel comic showing a couple sitting together under a ginkgo tree on a pleasant day. One person says: "It's so lovely sitting here under the ginkgo tree." The other responds with an

This comic is about how the casual greeting "How's it going?" has become meaningless in a world of constant crises. The first section, labeled "In the past," shows two stick figures exchanging the st

This comic tackles the philosophical puzzle of why mathematics is so effective at describing the physical world -- a question famously posed by physicist Eugene Wigner in his 1960 essay "The Unreasona

This is a single-panel comic set in a prehistoric cave. A caveman stands in front of a cave painting of a mammoth, addressing a group of young cave-children who are seated before him as students. The

This comic reimagines the myth of Sisyphus for the modern era of compulsive news consumption. In the panel, Sisyphus -- the figure from Greek mythology condemned by the gods to eternally roll a bould

This comic satirizes the psychological coping mechanism of rationalizing unfair treatment. In the first panel, a boss tells his employee Jason: "Jason, I'll need you to be here at 6AM on Saturday and

This comic plays on the contrast between a physicist's calibrated sense of what is "surprising" versus a normal person's. In the first panel, a physicist (the red-haired woman, a recurring SMBC chara

This comic satirizes abstinence-only education by taking its logic to an absurd extreme. In the first panel, a teacher (or authority figure) states: "Of course the very best way to avoid axes is tota

This comic is an extended riff on the perpetual anxiety of humanities scholars about the perceived cultural dominance of genre fiction and popular entertainment over literary fiction and the humanitie

This comic plays on the trope of the well-meaning but ultimately spineless approach to environmental or political problems. In the first panel, a character (possibly a linguist or scientist) announce

This comic presents a role reversal where monks or medieval-looking humans describe forests the way horror movie characters describe a haunted house -- except everything they say is factually true. I

This comic satirizes conspiracy theorists and "do your own research" culture by applying it to dinosaurs. In the first panel, a dinosaur (possibly a scientist or authority figure) presents to an audi

This comic subverts the classic fantasy/RPG trope of the hero revealing their "greatest weakness." In the first two panels, a warrior-type character is asked about his strengths: "Lovely biceps and c

This comic explores panpsychism -- the philosophical position that consciousness is a fundamental feature of all matter -- by showing how it sounds in casual conversation. In the first panel, a chara

## The Joke Satan is greeting a new arrival in Hell, asking "What do you mean, 'Don't get too excited'?" The newcomer then presents his credentials: he shares a name with Satan (Mark, or some variant

## The Joke A palm reader examines a client's hand and declares, "And this line across your palm tells me you're an idiot." The panel labeled "Earlier..." then reveals why: the client is shown in a k

## The Joke Someone asks, "How do you stop being jealous of other people?" A second person offers seemingly wise advice: "The key is to always do what you love — to find your biggest ideal and pursue

## The Joke A student asks a professor why mathematical proofs end with "those little dots" (referring to the QED symbol or the three-dot "therefore" symbol). The professor explains that it dates bac

## The Joke Someone asks, "Why do economists see the world so mechanically?" An economist responds, "Due to adverse selection." He then explains the logic: economics is the least useful subject for m

## The Joke A fantasy creature (possibly a lizard-person or dragon) called Lord Zardax complains that nobody cares about him and his kind. His advisor explains that humans have their own problems: "T

## The Joke Two scientists excitedly announce they have created a "stable interdimensional portal" by folding our reality into itself. One asks, "We will become nothing short of interdimensional gods

## The Joke Someone enthusiastically describes a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle: "And the amazing thing is that no pollutants come out of the tailpipe! Just pure water!" When asked how it works, they exp

## The Joke The comic is titled "A Brief History of Art on the Internet." A figure enthusiastically proposes: "What if we replaced all intermediaries? All editors, all gatekeepers—" Another figure be