Explain SMBC — the wiki for Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

This comic depicts a medieval medical scene. A physician (in period-appropriate robes and hat) is treating a patient and prescribing a treatment that includes a bizarre mix of medieval remedies: "By S

In the first panel (labeled "Earlier"), a concertgoer raises their hand and asks an innocent question: "Knowing evil Paul Simon bad music, what do you love?" (or similar provocative musical opinion).

The comic shows a political figure at a podium delivering what appears to be an inauguration speech, but instead of a stately address, he is hurling crude personal insults at someone in the audience:

A parent asks their daughter Sally if she cleaned her room. Sally replies "I idn't idn't," which confuses the parent. Sally (or another character) then explains: "'Idn't' is the imaginary negation. Us

The comic presents a dark fairy-tale scenario. In the first panel, a robed, horned figure (resembling a devil or dark lord) announces: "Behold, Lord Bozmodius, the Vile! I have claimed my firstborn so

The comic shows a person in the woods asking a foraging guide, "If I eat this leaf, will I die?" The guide responds with deadpan philosophical accuracy: "Eventually, yeah, and pointlessly." The captio

The comic is rendered entirely in white-on-black, suggesting a dark or intimate setting. One voice says: "C'mon baby, we each do a quarter rotation and we can hit 180 degrees! It's possible!" The othe

Two characters are at a party. One exclaims: "Oh my God, this is embarrassing! She's wearing the same dress as me!" The other character looks over and says: "She's... not?" The first character insists

The comic shows a fairy-tale setup where a narrator (possibly God or a magical being) addresses someone from above, near what appears to be a tree or enchanted setting. The being explains a scenario:

The comic shows a woman enthusiastically directing someone off-screen: "Yeah right there, you know that's... oh I do like that, right?!" In the next panel or portion, it is revealed that she is actual

The comic shows what appears to be a nature documentary or casual conversation scene. A woman is holding something and says: "Aaah! A second red line's just appeared on my pregnancy test-looking thing

This comic tackles the Fermi Paradox -- the question of why, given the vastness of the universe, we have not detected signs of extraterrestrial intelligence. The two characters lying on a hillside at

This comic riffs on the Euthyphro dilemma, one of the oldest questions in the philosophy of religion: "Are things good because God commands them, or does God command them because they are good?" The q

This comic satirizes the state of conspiratorial thinking in modern politics. Two men are sitting together, and one lays out his beliefs: the Earth is flat, the Moon landing was faked from the Moon (w

This comic comments on the gendered language people use when talking about children's bodies. A character observes that when discussing boys, people use descriptors like "running, drives, and machines

This comic plays on the concept of "picky eating" by escalating the hypothetical food scenarios to absurd extremes. One character says "I don't want to eat some gross condiment" and the other asks if

This comic satirizes the gap between ethical theory and practical moral reasoning. A professor explains that "Ethical theory is pretty funny because it gets you really good at things like 'how many re

This comic comments on the curious disconnect between science fiction's depiction of robots and their real-world development. A character observes that it is strange how in Star Wars, the tone regardi

This comic jokes about religious loopholes and the biblical prohibition against idolatry. The top panel states: "Nice try, God. The Bible only forbids worshipping carved and cast idols. This idol was

This comic is a superhero parody featuring what appears to be Superman (or a Superman-like figure) confronting a villain's doomsday weapon. The villain presents "a weapon that will bring France to its

This comic satirizes the misuse of statistics in education research. A scientist explains that he "took the worst-performing students on the last exam and repeated them a new test the following week."

This is not a traditional comic but rather a personal message from Zach Weinersmith to his readers. In the image, Zach writes a note announcing that his book (likely "A City on Mars" or another Weiner

In this comic, a patient is lying on a psychiatrist's couch. The psychiatrist offers the advice "Don't be sad. DO NOT BE SAD." The patient responds incredulously: "That's your advice? Just don't be sa

This comic features an encounter between a human and an alien. The human exclaims "Oh my God, aliens! Are you going to eat us?" The alien responds "Not yet." When pressed, the alien explains the rule:

This is a longer-form comic about mythology and storytelling. Two characters are discussing myths under a starry sky. One notes that "myths are more than stories -- they tell us how to live, like the

This is a promotional image rather than a traditional comic strip. It shows the book "A City on Mars" by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith, with text overlays announcing "OUT TODAY! CLICK TO BUY!" along with

This comic parodies the classic "enhance" scene from crime procedural TV shows and movies. A detective-type character is looking at security footage and says "Dammit, all we have is this grainy securi

In this comic, a child is confronting their father, angrily asking something like "What the hell is this? You think I'm stupid?" and demanding attention -- apparently upset that the father doesn't pay

This is a longer, multi-panel adventure comic that appears to be a parody of fantasy/quest narratives and "lesson-learning" stories. The comic follows what appears to be a group of characters on some

This comic uses the classic "a horse walks into a bar" joke format but subverts it entirely. The setup reads: "A horse walks into a bar. The bartender says: 'Why the long face?'" The horse responds n

This comic is about formal logic, specifically the concept of a "vacuously true disjunction." A man is defending himself to his partner (or friend), insisting: "No, I was NOT wrong when I said we didn

In this comic, a woman is shocked that her companion has an ovipositor (an egg-laying organ found in insects). The companion explains the biological reasoning: there are 35 recognized animal phyla, an

In this comic, an older man (labeled as "Grandpa" in the caption) delivers what sounds like a profound philosophical lament: "It's an unjust world. Kind people endure lives of hardship and deprivation

This comic satirizes debates about literary canons -- the question of which books are considered essential or "great" literature. It presents four ideological positions in a 2x2 grid format: - "Great

This comic features a confrontation between a person and a monster (who appears to be some kind of corporate creature). The person calls the monster out: "Oh my God! A monster! Under the bed! And you

In this comic, a man excitedly greets Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea, saying he is there to give thanks for Poseidon's "propitiatory offerings." Poseidon recalls that in ancient times, the best of

This comic references the famous "paperclip maximizer" thought experiment in AI safety, proposed by philosopher Nick Bostrom. In the thought experiment, a superintelligent AI tasked with making paperc

In this comic, a couple is planning their wedding. One partner says: "Wait, wait, at your own wedding you can put anything for the dress code?" The other responds enthusiastically: "I guess so, honey,

This comic depicts a classic "meet the parents" scenario pushed to its logical extreme. A daughter brings her boyfriend home, and her father begins the stereotypical protective-dad routine: "You want

This comic addresses AI chatbots being used by students to complete assignments. A professor explains a clever strategy: "It's easy to catch them. I just include the sentence 'Write a concluding parag

This comic imagines a scene from the infancy of Jesus Christ. Baby Jesus is crying loudly ("NWAAAAAAAA!") in the middle of the night while Mary (or another parent figure) desperately pleads: "Why?! Wh

This comic satirizes the modern tendency toward infinite summarization and compression of information. In the first panel, a news anchor-like figure presents an article and asks whether the viewer wo

This comic plays on the contrast between human conflict resolution and canine submission behavior. In the top panel, one person confronts another who is rolling on the ground, yelling and flailing. T

This comic takes a common theological question and turns it into an accidental apocalyptic scenario. A person asks Jesus on the cross, "Is there sex in heaven?" Jesus responds with a beatific descrip

This comic reimagines the life cycle of parasitoid wasps as a campfire horror story told by wasps themselves. The scene shows wasps sitting around a campfire, and one is telling a scary story: "And w

This comic pokes fun at the philosophical claim that human consciousness is uniquely special and irreducible by having it immediately co-opted for mundane commercial purposes. In the first panel, a c

This comic subverts the "healing crystals" concept popular in New Age and alternative wellness culture. A vendor at what appears to be a crystal shop tells a customer about their products: "This one

This comic tackles the philosophical tension between the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics and traditional theology. A figure (implied to be recently deceased) stands before a divine ga

This comic explores a darkly comedic scenario in which a computer/AI is brutally honest about humanity and accidentally stumbles into existential wisdom. The comic opens with someone asking why a com

This comic satirizes tech-industry disruption culture and the existential risks of AI, wrapped in a domestic scenario. A person asks a robot, "Robot, are you gonna annihilate us?" The robot enthusias