Explain SMBC — the wiki for Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

## The Joke The comic is a wordless visual joke based on the biblical title "Fisher of Men." In the first panel, a lone figure stands on a beach near the water. In the second and third panels, a red

## The Joke A woman welcomes her friend to visit, saying "Welcome to the Steve." Her friend is impressed: "Wow, I love your place! Everything looks so clean!" Another person chimes in, "Brian, my God

## The Joke The comic depicts Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden after the Fall. In the first panel, a voice (presumably God) curses them: "I curse you, Adam and Eve! Even after you leave the garden,

## The Joke The comic presents a simple two-panel comparison. The top panel, labeled "When I was a kid," shows a young person watching a horror movie and asking the classic question: "Why don't peopl

## The Joke The comic is titled "Know Your Wine-Anxiety Pairings" and presents a fake guide matching types of wine with types of anxiety, mimicking the format of a wine-pairing chart. The pairings in

## The Joke The comic shows a man on a stage, dressed like an auctioneer, calling out bids: "All right, do I have $100,000? Yes, in the back. $100,000. Do we have $200,000? All right, going for $200,

## The Joke The comic opens with a "Philosophy Tip" header stating that about half of Nietzsche's aphorisms read like a technical summary for a standup comedy routine. It then presents three actual N

## The Joke A woman asks a man, "Do you think humans are rational?" He responds confidently, "Well, certainly not all--" but she cuts him off with a massive list of exceptions: "Except when hungry, s

## The Joke A distinguished, bearded man (resembling Alfred Nobel or a Nobel committee member) stands at a podium and announces a new category of Nobel Prize: one for "discoveries about the origins o

## The Joke A woman is praying, asking God (or possibly Satan, as the punchline reveals) to send a vaccine for the pestilence ravaging the land. God responds from above, seemingly annoyed: "There is

## The Joke A man confronts the Grim Reaper, pleading for his life with the classic appeal: "Death?! You can't come for me! I have 4 children and my wife can't take care of them all herself! So many

## The Joke A job interviewer asks a candidate, "Where do you see yourself in five years?" The candidate responds with a bleak, existential description: "In a sort of complex tube that encounters var

## The Joke A couple is lying in bed having a conversation about the state of their relationship. One partner says their lives have become dull, repetitive, and joyless -- that their love has "congea

## The Joke The comic takes place in a dark, spooky forest where a ghostly figure tells a visitor that her "true love" never came for her. She has been waiting in the graveyard, having died long ago,

## The Joke The comic depicts a date scene where a woman asks a man about his hobbies. He cheerfully describes running up to strangers, crying, shouting "I forgive you but I can never forget," and th

## The Joke The comic features two mathematicians discussing the nature of mathematical proof. One observes that "the proof of Fermat's last theorem is trivial" -- but then clarifies this provocative

## The Joke The comic opens with someone asking Death (the Grim Reaper) if he is afraid of death himself. Death responds philosophically that no, death gives life meaning. The person then asks if it

## The Joke A woman is excitedly telling another person (Jenny) about the Easter Bunny, emphasizing the biological absurdity: "It's a mammal that lays eggs!" Jenny responds with a disinterested "So?"

## The Joke A woman declares "I'm a strict Bayesian!" Her companion asks what she means -- does she use Bayesian statistics? She clarifies: "No, I mean sometimes I change my opinion, and sometimes I

## The Joke The comic retells the classic fable of "The Emperor's New Clothes." A courtier informs the emperor that his new clothing is only visible to the wise. The emperor, not wanting to appear fo

## The Joke The comic shows two panels, both depicting a parent telling a child to "Clean your room!" In the left panel, labeled "Normal Kid," the child responds with the typical "I don't wanna!" In

## The Joke A boy is shown pouring salt on a slug, with someone (likely his mother) telling him: "Billy! Don't pour salt on that slug! It'll melt!" The slug then speaks up, explaining: "Actually, sci

## The Joke The comic depicts a scenario where someone has hooked up a neural network (or similar AI system) to an elderly woman's brain. They announce they have "hacked" her neural pathways and can

## The Joke The comic is set in a world where pumpkins are depicted as an invasive, threatening force, like a seasonal plague. A grizzled frontiersman warns children that "they're back again," and we

## The Joke A woman presents what she calls "the ideal lingerie" -- but instead of something conventionally sexy, she has constructed an elaborate outfit made from burning magnesium, an opaque fog of

## The Joke The comic shows God and a biblically-accurate angel (depicted as a golden wheel covered in eyes, referencing the "ophanim" or "thrones" from the Book of Ezekiel) standing in Heaven. God s

## The Joke A person argues that humans should be more like "other animals" because "other animals never make war." Their companion corrects them: ants do, in fact, wage war. The first person tries t

## The Joke A scientist in a laboratory announces a breakthrough: they now have complete knowledge of a person's genetics, epigenetics, metabolic profile, social interactions, and how all of these pr

## The Joke A man asks a woman how she stays so centered and grounded. She explains that she has found a lot of peace in removing the concept of a "center" from her life. The man asks how that works

## The Joke A man announces he is "achieving perpetual cleanliness." His plan: he has attached an elastic band to everything in his home so that when he is done using an item, it will snap back to it

## The Joke The comic is divided into two panels: "Before Internet" and "After." In the "Before" panel, a child tells an adult "When I grow up, I wanna be a cow!" The adult laughs uproariously -- "HA

## The Joke A person arrives at a doctor's office with a complaint: they do not know what is wrong, but they have been having headaches, their brain feels like a pile of oatmeal, and they cannot thin

## The Joke The comic is set in a Wild West saloon scene. A narrator introduces a gunslinger, saying "Sure, Tex, they say he's the fastest gun in the west." But Tex's boast is not about quick-draw sp

## The Joke A teacher is explaining raisins to a class, describing how making a raisin involves taking a big cake, noting that there are raisins inside, and that every raisin has a beginning part and

## The Joke A professor-like figure is giving a lecture about the history of human civilization. He explains that during the last several centuries, humans have made remarkable progress in various me

## The Joke A couple is shown having a conversation. The woman says "But I hate you," to which the man responds that he not only hates her but hates the children too. He acknowledges that "nobody sai

## The Joke The comic presents a series of definitions that play on the prefix "dox" (from "doxxing," the act of releasing someone's private information online). The first panel defines "doxxing" str

## The Joke A conspiratorial-looking character asks someone, "What if I told you the entire world is run by a tiny financial and technological elite?" The other person responds enthusiastically, "Oh

## The Joke The comic shows a Western-style scene. A parent (dressed as a cowboy) is asked by their child, "Papa, why did you name me Sue?" The father explains that he gave the child that name so lif

## The Joke A motivational speaker begins with the classic rhetorical question: "If we can put a man on the Moon, why can't we do [thing]?" But instead of completing the inspirational rallying cry, h

## The Joke The comic features two alien creatures (who appear to be reptilian or dinosaur-like) discussing recent events. One reports good news: an asteroid missed their planet by over 200,000 miles

## The Joke In the first panel, a man announces to his family at bedtime that before they go to sleep, he is going to "crush down some good data." He explains that he has "plentiful data from Austral

## The Joke A postal worker explains to a customer that "they call them the post office because post means 'after' — we deliver people's letters after they're sent." The customer, intrigued, asks abo

## The Joke The comic depicts a conversation between God and a red-haired man (likely a stand-in for a biblical figure or everyman). God announces: "Dear God, did the flood kill every sinner?" and th

## The Joke The comic reimagines the biblical story of Lot's wife from the Book of Genesis. In the original story, as God destroys the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot and his family are told to fle

## The Joke The comic opens with a character marveling at the wonders of nature, observing how many life forms live on a single old tree and how they all work together to form an ecosystem. They decl

## The Joke A man is sitting on his couch and announces, "I've done it. I've reached total Pareto optimality in my life, and no change can conceivably be made that wouldn't make things no worse." In

## The Joke A man tells his partner, "One day next week I am going to surprise you with sex. It's gonna be amaaaaazing." She responds that it can't be Saturday next week because of midnight, and it c

## The Joke The comic shows a single panel of a woman at a podium giving a keynote speech. She declares: "If I have found more bullshit, it is because I have swum in the sewers of giants." The captio

## The Joke A small child excitedly tells her mother, "Mommy, I'm gonna marry Billy!" The mother responds with a curious "Oh?" The child then proudly announces: "He has FOUR HUNDRED AND SEVEN Pokemon