Explain SMBC — the wiki for Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

## The Joke Two men stand in the rain, and one says: "All I know is that before they changed the pension system, it wasn't raining. Now, here we are." Below the panel, the caption reads: "Time it tak

## The Joke A man and a woman are walking outdoors, and the man cheerfully remarks: "Isn't it amazing how similar dogs are to humans?" The caption below the panel then reads: "Shortly before Dave rol

## The Joke The comic is split into two panels. The top panel shows two silhouetted figures in darkness, and one says: "My God. A superintelligence. Soon it will use its brain power to conquer, ensla

## The Joke The comic is a conversation about spicy food culture. In the first panel, someone says "I love that restaurant, they make the salsa amazing." Another person asks "What do they do, genius?

## The Joke A speaker is presenting about a Mars mission to an audience, explaining that the journey requires a 9-month trip followed by a 24-month surface stay, meaning they need to find people who

## The Joke The comic shows a man who looks like a computer scientist or physicist speaking into a microphone, saying: "Look, the PC police won't tell you this, but 'classicals' are INFERIOR at facto

## The Joke A woman is breaking up with a man, telling him: "I'm breaking up with you because you're too coldly rational." The man responds: "From a physics perspective, you breaking up with me is th

## The Joke A woman who appears to be a political candidate is giving a speech: "Things are bad in this country, and the first derivative of badness with respect to time is also positive. But, there

## The Joke A magician in a top hat asks an audience member to "pick a card, any card." The person picks one and announces: "2 of clubs." In the next panel, the magician thanks the person for their p

## The Joke Two people are having a conversation about elections and media. The first person complains that whenever a big election is coming, they get sucked into following it, even when there is no

## The Joke The comic depicts the Grinch from Dr. Seuss's "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" standing on a mountaintop, reciting his famous epiphany: "Maybe Christmas doesn't come from a store. Maybe C

## The Joke Two aliens are talking to a human. The first alien says: "Humans are unique." The second alien elaborates: "You guys are the only species that weaponized your own intelligence, then hated

## The Joke A woman announces: "I'm tired of saying sweet, cute things, Gaela." She explains that she is outsourcing the task to "a more responsive service provider in an economic backwater." A man t

## The Joke The comic is structured as a series of escalating "facts" presented in a pseudo-scientific format. The first panel states: "Fact: It is now possible to 3D print structures directly into s

## The Joke The comic contrasts "How People Think Evolution Works" with "How Evolution Actually Works." In the top half, a butterfly is being eaten by a bird and dramatically declares "Karate!" as if

## The Joke A parent catches their child apparently trying to go outside in winter without wearing layers. The child stammers "I... nowhere! Nowhere!" when asked where they're going. The parent scold

## The Joke The comic presents a short prose passage written in the sparse, minimalist style of Ernest Hemingway. A woman delivers pizza to a man's door. She says "You know, I can deliver more than j

## The Joke A woman is breaking up with a man at a coffee shop. She says she knows they will never be together again, but she just wants "closure." The man, visibly hurt, tries various ways to expres

## The Joke Someone asks an economist "Can you put a price on a sunset?" and follows up with "How much would you have to be paid to never see a sunset again?" The economist takes this question seriou

## The Joke The comic shows a man kneeling in prayer, hands clasped together, trying to begin his prayer with "Dear..." but he keeps stammering: "Dear... Dear... Dammit I just can't do it without fee

## The Joke A person asks The Flash, the famous DC Comics superhero, whether he has super speed or super "everything fast." The Flash replies that it is just super speed. The questioner then asks, "T

## The Joke The comic shows a scrawny, unremarkable man at the beach with his shirt off. He appears to have a large, detailed tattoo on his torso depicting an extremely muscular, intimidating man. A

## The Joke Two characters are lying on the grass looking up at the sky. One asks the other what they see when they look up at the clouds. The second character launches into an increasingly elaborate

## The Joke An angry member of the public confronts a group of scientists, saying "You scientists were so concerned with whether you could, you didn't stop to ask whether you should!" -- a famous par

## The Joke A parent takes their child to the doctor and begins the visit by saying, "Now, before I start, I just want you to know that I'm paying a lot for this, and your kid better do better than I

## The Joke A person confronts a robotic superintelligence, warning it not to make a smarter version of itself, or a smarter version of that version, and so on -- because eventually it will be ready

## The Joke The comic presents a "Conversation Pro-Tip" claiming that similes sound classier than metaphors. It then demonstrates this through a series of escalating comparisons. "Not classy" example

## The Joke A man notices his partner has been looking pensive all day and asks what is wrong. She initially deflects with "Oh, it's nothing," but he presses her to share. She then reveals her deep t

## The Joke A woman is amazed by a man's cooking and asks how he got so good at it. He reveals his entirely un-mysterious secret: "I find a highly-rated recipe online, follow the instructions, and ma

## The Joke The comic contrasts being sick "Before Having Kids" versus "After Kids." In the top panel (before kids), a man lounges comfortably on the couch and says "I sneezed today. I think I'm sick

## The Joke This is a longer-format comic that parodies the tropes of science fiction space operas. The comic follows what appears to be a dramatic space adventure narrative -- "The Space Holders" --

## The Joke A man tells his girlfriend Sally that he wants to break up because he "just can't take any more of your nerd jokes." Sally responds defensively: "There were some that you liked." He chall

## The Joke A man enters a building with a basilisk -- the mythological serpent whose gaze can kill -- and is stopped by someone who says "You can't have that basilisk in this store." The man claims

## The Joke A child asks their father "Daddy, why do you love coffee?" The father begins a poetic, philosophical response: "When I pour in the cream, it makes the smooth, oaky taste with the sharp fl

## The Joke A man is telling a woman that he believes alien beings abducted him and had sex with him. The woman challenges this claim by pointing out the absurdity of the premise: aliens who traveled

## The Joke A man speaks to his phone or smart device, saying "Computer! I want fried cheese sticks!" The device responds with a suspiciously convenient mishearing: "Sorry, I'm not sure I caught that

## The Joke The comic is titled "Funtime Activity: Gatekeeping About Gatekeeping." An older man with glasses lectures a group of younger people, saying: "Pfft. You kids are telling people they're not

## The Joke A man in a car thinks, "Oh my gosh, I just dinged their car. I'd better leave a note." This sets up the expectation of a responsible, apologetic gesture -- the socially expected thing to

## The Joke An elderly woman sits on a park bench, feeding pigeons. She says, "Go, my pretties. Kill! Destroy!" as the pigeons waddle around her feet. The caption below reads: "Finding out that pigeo

## The Joke A mother tells her daughter, "Honey, it's time we had the talk." When the daughter asks if she means "the sex talk," the mother says no. She explains: "When I was a girl, my mother didn't

## The Joke A man in what appears to be a therapy or office setting is told: "Henderson, we have some concerns about your flow-charting." When asked if any of his information is incorrect, the respon

## The Joke The comic features Satan (a red devil character) and a skeleton playing with fossils. Satan excitedly says, "Hey Satan! Playing some fossils again!" and the skeleton responds enthusiastic

## The Joke The comic reimagines the fairy tale of the Frog Prince. A princess sits by a campfire as a frog tells her: "Kiss me and I will become a prince, and we shall be married." The princess, rat

## The Joke The comic shows a classic fairy tale scene: a figure (resembling a prince or rescuer) is climbing a tower using long hair let down from a window, in the style of the Rapunzel story. As th

## The Joke A man confronts his wife about cheating on him. She asks what the odds are that she'd be caught, and he says "100%, exactly, soon." She then asks what the odds are of her cheating on him

## The Joke A bald man finds himself in Hell and is greeted by a devil who asks, "So, you didn't like the packaging, eh?" The caption below explains: "The lowest level of perdition is reserved for pe

## The Joke A person complains that texting is bad because it doesn't capture body language. In response, another person (a red-haired tech enthusiast) announces that he's made an app that captures t

## The Joke The comic depicts a science consultant being brought into a writers' room for a TV show or movie. The showrunner welcomes her, saying she will be the science consultant for "every last de

## The Joke This comic is a meta-comic in which SMBC creator Zach Weinersmith directly addresses his readers about his graphic novel on immigration policy, "Open Borders: The Science and Ethics of Im

## The Joke A woman accuses her husband of "cheating on her" -- meaning he has been seeing other people. When he protests "What?", she elaborates: "Look at this co-dependency! Four-dimensional state: