Explain SMBC — the wiki for Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

## The Joke A job interviewer asks a candidate, "So why do you want to work at our company?" The candidate gives a refreshingly honest answer: "The same reason you do" -- implying that neither of the

## The Joke A person delivers a series of profound-sounding statements about mortality and the good life. They begin by noting that "philosophers have often dealt with understanding mortality" and cl

## The Joke A woman tells her partner about her political philosophy regarding "Westphalian sovereignty" -- the principle that each nation-state has exclusive sovereignty over its territory and domes

## The Joke The comic shows a man posing for what appears to be an author photo in front of a bookshelf -- the kind of dignified, intellectual portrait you see on the back cover of books or on univer

## The Joke The comic depicts two cavemen walking together in a prehistoric landscape. One of them declares: "Me only work in numbers above six. Is no applications." This is a joke about pure mathema

## The Joke This multi-panel comic depicts a couple in bed after sex, and the man is deeply insecure about his performance. In the first panel, the woman says "That was lovely," but the man escalates

## The Joke The comic is structured in two panels with a classic setup-and-reveal format. In the top panel, a man is angrily confronting his date, saying: "Oh, what, you enjoy my company all day long

## The Joke The comic presents four scenarios in which a person nearly says something inappropriate or embarrassing, but catches themselves just in time and substitutes something safe and boring. In

## The Joke The comic features a conversation between two parents about a website that collects funny things kids say. One parent excitedly shows the site to the other, who pushes back: "Kids don't s

## The Joke A red-haired man visits a therapist and announces: "Doc, I need your help. I've got impostor syndrome." He then describes his situation: "All the people around me are morons and losers! I

## The Joke The comic shows a man visiting his dying father in what appears to be a hospital bed. He says: "I know this might be your last birthday we have together, Papa. And it's hard to shop for s

## The Joke A woman is breaking up with a bald, bearded man named Ted, telling him: "I'm sorry Ted, we can't be together. I can't stand your slightly sexist mathematical function jokes." Ted's respon

## The Joke The comic presents three panels, each depicting a different scientific discipline's relationship with "laws." In the first panel, labeled "Physics," a distinguished-looking older scientis

## The Joke A man is enthusiastically explaining bar notation to someone. He says that a bar (the line over a digit) is basically the digit divided by 2, and that you can put a line through any const

## The Joke An office worker is sitting at their computer when they notice the boss approaching, shown as a dark silhouette looming behind the cubicle wall. The worker thinks: "Oh jeez, the boss is c

## The Joke The comic depicts a job interview scenario. The interviewer asks the classic question: "What is your greatest weakness?" The interviewee responds with: "I perceive all declarative stateme

## The Joke A person is praying and asks God: "Am I ugly?" God appears on a screen and goes through a systematic anatomical breakdown. God says "Beauty is only skin deep." Then: "Under that, it is bl

## The Joke The Grim Reaper stands proudly, scythe in hand, declaring: "I am good at what I do, and what I do is important." Below him, a small terrified person cowers. The caption reads: "People say

## The Joke A group of hooded cultists are performing a ritual sacrifice. The leader announces: "And now the born sacrifice!" Another cultist says "Oh boy." The leader then declares: "Our extraordina

## The Joke Two people are having a conversation. One asks: "God, if you did something evil, wouldn't it be ethical to arrest you?" The response is: "Absolutely." The first person follows up: "Would

## The Joke A person is presenting a paper to another person who appears to be a reviewer or colleague. The reviewer says: "This paper is ridiculous. Where are your error bars?" The presenter starts

## The Joke A couple is deciding where to eat. One person asks: "Wanna go out to eat?" and then launches into a convoluted explanation: "What I actually want is for you to generate a bucket of possib

## The Joke The first panel shows a person from behind, looking at a scene of apocalyptic devastation -- massive pillars of fire or nuclear explosions rising from a burning landscape. This appears to

## The Joke A man stands at what appears to be a podium or behind a screen, passionately declaring: "For too long only world leaders have been able to cast their bastardry around the globe! I say eve

## The Joke A courtroom scene unfolds in which a lawyer addresses the judge: "Your honor, is it true that in this country you can swear an oath on any book?" The judge confirms: "That's right. It doe

## The Joke A lion sits majestically on a rock overlooking the savanna with his cub, declaring: "Some day my boy, this will all be yours." The cub responds hopefully: "Or maybe we'll have a parliamen

## The Joke A speaker (possibly a professor or tour guide) stands before a group explaining: "See, the microbes are just carefully-evolved nanobots, but generally, gene-edited our venus fly-trap roll

## The Joke A man at what appears to be a bar or cocktail party is trying to use a pickup line on a woman. He says: "Hey girl, is it illegal for nations to appropriate you under Article II of the 196

## The Joke A woman excitedly announces to a bespectacled man: "Hey, check it out! I got France to run on this old calculator!" When the man responds with a confused "What?", she launches into a phil

## The Joke An older scientist or professor with white hair and glasses examines a document and exclaims: "What's this?" A younger man in a red shirt explains: "A negative-time sorting algorithm. Whe

## The Joke The comic is a four-panel strip set at a beach. In the first panel, people are enjoying a normal day at the beach. In the second panel, the sky begins to glow intensely as a brilliant sta

## The Joke A man is in the middle of anxiously describing a distressing cognitive experience: "I keep trying to tell myself of things but I forget and then I must write it down but I don't remember

## The Joke The comic depicts the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. In the first panel, Jesus emerges from a cave (evoking his resurrection) and announces: "It's the Second Coming! At last!" But then ad

## The Joke The comic is titled "New Genre Concept: Conspiracy Theory Erotica" and is styled as a noir detective story. A man in a fedora and suit narrates in hardboiled prose, but every line weaves

## The Joke A woman stands in front of a closet holding a coffee mug, speaking in the style of a home organization guru: "You really only want to keep items that make you feel a spark of happiness. B

## The Joke This is a longer philosophical comic featuring two characters — one with dark skin and curly hair, and one with lighter skin and glasses — having a deep conversation about whether compute

## The Joke A man is praying and asks: "Dear God, why did language evolve?" God (depicted as a glowing figure) responds: "Language was designed by evolution to allow every person to independently pro

## The Joke "Science Fictions" is an extended, multi-panel comic presented in the style of a magazine article or long-form essay. It explores various ways that science has been fictionalized, distort

## The Joke The comic begins with a character making the common argument that humanity needs to become a multi-planetary species in order to preserve itself against existential risks -- a sentiment f

## The Joke The comic shows two people looking at a computer screen. One person says "I don't get it. This is just a list of random numbers." The other person, sitting at the computer, responds with

## The Joke The comic explores the philosophical concept of the "examined life" through a conversation between two characters. It begins with a reference to Socrates' famous dictum that "the unexamin

## The Joke The comic shows a woman speaking to a blue-skinned humanoid figure (possibly a robot or alien). She says: "I'm sorry, I don't see ever wanting to date a machine, no matter how superficial

## The Joke The comic shows one person confronting another in what appears to be a library, asking: "Why are you vandalizing all these philosophy texts?" The vandal, who is shown writing in a book, c

## The Joke The comic depicts a Jesus-like figure performing miracles before a crowd. In the first panel, he dramatically announces: "BEHOLD! I have sorted this large, unordered list of numbers in li

## The Joke The comic shows a young person with blue hair speaking to their parents (shown from behind, wearing glasses). The character nervously says: "Uh, I meant... 'bi' as in, the plural of bus.

## The Joke The comic shows an academic setting where a woman asks an older, bald man with glasses for advice on how to make her seminar popular, noting that her predecessors had trouble filling seat

## The Joke The comic opens with a character announcing they have figured out how to make a tasty fruitcake. What follows is a series of panels, each offering a "helpful" suggestion that systematical

## The Joke A politician stands at a podium passionately declaring: "Women should be able to occupy the same space as men! Literally the same space! Fermionic bigotry must end!" The caption reads: "C

## The Joke A man angrily calls someone "You son of a bitch!" The other person corrects him: "That's incorrect. My mom died years ago. There are several of us." The first man adjusts: "Better, but we

## The Joke The comic presents two contrasting scenarios. The top panel is labeled "When people you dislike do a bad thing" and shows a man watching TV, calmly stating: "They did a bad thing!" The bo