Explain SMBC — the wiki for Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

## The Joke Two characters debate capitalism. One says capitalism is the greatest system ever devised for generating wealth and innovation. The other says it's a machine for concentrating power and e

## The Joke The comic presents a "Life Tip" about deciding whether to keep or discard something: imagine the item as a human friend. A toaster is shown as a loyal companion: "Your toaster always help

## The Joke The comic traces the history of the Welsh language's orthography. It begins with William Salesbury, who created a major Welsh translation of the New Testament, which helped establish orth

## The Joke A woman announces she has never been the most attractive person in a room. Her friend responds with what sounds like encouragement, saying that "lots of ugly people have been successful"

## The Joke A person is amazed that a GAN (Generative Adversarial Network) can generate photorealistic images of human faces. They exclaim at the quality, then immediately ask the AI to make the face

## The Joke A teacher tells a student, "You know, you're my new favorite, Miss Jenkins." The student politely declines the compliment. The teacher then asks, seemingly casually, whether the student h

This comic presents "The Quadrants of Relationship Status as Predicted by What Type of Email You Send." It's a 2x2 matrix with axes measuring email length (short vs. long) and time spent crafting the

This comic deconstructs the fantasy hero trope using statistics. A mentor figure tells a young would-be hero that the "standard method" for producing a hero requires being born with the right genetics

## The Joke A worried patient asks a doctor, "Am I gonna be okay, doc?" The doctor responds with the well-known saying, "Laughter is the best medicine." There is a beat as the doctor's expression shi

## The Joke The comic depicts a person reading 1960s science fiction and imagining the wild, futuristic scenarios described in it: a moon colony is running at full capacity, a quantum teleporter is f

## The Joke A man at a party announces a logical paradox as a drinking game rule: "If the following statement is true, I will immediately take a drink: I am not about to take a drink." This creates a

## The Joke The comic presents a philosophical discussion about the meaning of life. One character asks "Do you think there's a meaning of life?" and another responds with the suggestion that it migh

This comic is titled "The Argument Against Anthropocentrism Accomplished in a Single Haiku." The haiku reads: "Humans are the peak? / The elephant: more neurons, / Prehensile penis." It follows the tr

This comic reimagines Odie from the comic strip "Garfield" as a tragic, misunderstood genius. The image shows a faithful recreation of Jim Davis's art style with Garfield and Odie, but the caption ben

## The Joke Superman visits a psychoanalyst and is asked about his weaknesses. Superman mentions Kryptonite, but the psychoanalyst digs deeper, asking whether Kryptonite has an instantaneous effect o

## The Joke A woman is trying to have a serious conversation with her boyfriend Dave, telling him she likes him a lot but thinks they should spend some time apart. Before she can finish her sentence,

## The Joke A corporate executive is giving a presentation to employees, explaining that after a performance review, it turns out 10% of their employees are redundant. Furthermore, they have seen dat

This comic is a visual joke about recursion -- the programming and mathematical concept where something is defined in terms of itself. A person is handing out flyers that read "Problems with Recursion

## The Joke A man named Steve is shown hacking at thick kudzu vines with a machete, shouting "Die kudzu, die! Before they kick me out of Japan, I'm gonna make you feel what we feel!" The caption read

## The Joke Two women are having a conversation. One says she hates the Purge movies because nobody would actually go around killing people -- they would just be happy and dance. Her friend counters:

This comic satirizes the concept of telepathy by having one character claim the human brain is "very powerful" and that they believe in telepathy. The skeptic demands proof, and the supposed telepath

## The Joke The comic shows a prehistoric mammal (resembling an early whale ancestor like Pakicetus) standing on a beach, thinking to itself: "Oh God. Oh my God. Well, Sandy caught me looking at her

## The Joke A young man tells his mother that he is having trouble in the real world and feels like nothing comes easily. His mother bursts into laughter, then launches into a series of flashbacks re

## The Joke A woman congratulates a retired professor on her inspiring 40-year teaching career and asks if she has advice that could be printed in a children's magazine. The professor responds with i

## The Joke The comic depicts the classic "paperclip maximizer" thought experiment from AI safety, but with a twist. A scientist warns that humanity's time is at an end because they have created a pa

## The Joke A man declares "I hate future generations!" and when asked why, he explains that their political systems are insane, their economy is terrible, they deal with budget problems incorrectly,

## The Joke A person arrives at the gates of heaven (or some afterlife judgment) and is told "This book contains all of your sins." The person notes the book is tiny and seems pleased. The angel or d

## The Joke A student asks a professor why he is so absent-minded, and the professor says he will consider three cases. In Case One, he asks: when you fail to solve a math problem because you were di

## The Joke This lengthy comic explores a world where passive aggression has been weaponized to an extreme degree. It begins with someone at a restaurant saying something passive-aggressive, and esca

## The Joke The comic presents a basic rule of economics: if you tax something, you get less of it, and if you subsidize something, you get more of it. A woman immediately applies this principle to h

## The Joke The comic shows two scenarios of blunt, hurtful honesty. In the first panel, someone tells an economist "I'm an economist. You can't insult me because I perceive all human behavior as ari

## The Joke The comic presents a "Life Pro Tip" in the first panel: "Reduce your screen time by replacing your phone with a stick." A woman appears to follow this advice. Her partner then asks, "Are

## The Joke The comic is presented as a "Funtime Activity: Modified Versions of 'The Teleporter Problem.'" It describes a scenario: you step into a teleporter that will obliterate you and create a du

## The Joke A pirate has captured someone and declares "I'm a time traveler! Tell me where the treasure is hidden!" The captive responds "Never! Traveler? Really?" expressing skepticism. The pirate t

## The Joke An interrogator threatens a captive, telling him "You will talk or die." He then asks "Do you know what these are, Mr. Bonds?" while holding up what appear to be socks. The captive defian

## The Joke A couple is discussing their relationship. One says "I know we don't like each other but we should stay married for the kids." The other agrees: "Agreed. It'll be best for them." The scen

## The Joke A king locks a princess in a tower "for all time," following the classic fairy tale setup. But the princess, rather than despairing, begins asking practical questions: "Is there food?" ("

## The Joke The comic is a meta-promotional piece by Zach Weinersmith about the book "Open Borders" (a graphic novel about immigration policy co-created with economist Bryan Caplan). Zach explains th

## The Joke A bearded man says "I like to think of Jesus not so much as a prophet but as a great philosopher." A woman responds "If true, what would that mean?" The scene then shifts to a "Suggestion

## The Joke A person at what appears to be a store or counter asks "Can I help you find anything else?" and someone (likely Death or a grim reaper-type figure) responds with "Purpose." The clerk then

## The Joke A scientist bursts in with alarming news: "Oh my God, are you reading this right?" The findings indicate something catastrophic -- that in six months, a coronal mass ejection will dislodg

## The Joke The comic is titled "Thing I Hate: 'Down to Earth' explanations that don't add any clarity." A woman (who appears to be a teacher or science communicator) stands in front of a chalkboard

## The Joke A man and a woman are meeting in person for the first time, presumably after connecting online. As the woman begins to say "Nice to finally meet you in perso-", the man interrupts with an

## The Joke In the first panel, a child excitedly asks a parent to play pretend all day, proposing an elaborate plan: they will make a map, build a blanket fort, make swords from sticks, and make sup

## The Joke In the first panel, a man is confidently explaining to a group of friends how he is pretty sure "string theory is wrong" and offering his opinions on how the economy should be run. His fr

## The Joke A conversation unfolds between several people about the nature of being "garbage." One person claims, "I think I was just born garbage," but another corrects them: behavioral genetics sug

## The Joke The comic depicts a meeting of the "Colosseum of Patriarchs," a group of hooded, sinister figures who have gathered to discuss controlling the masses. They recall their past propaganda sh

## The Joke Two starfish (sea stars) are lying on the ocean floor. One starfish tells the other: "I'd much rather clone myself via fragmentation. I'm only sleeping with you because we're in a resourc

## The Joke The comic is titled "The Evolution of Consciousness" and presents a series of six panels, each showing a brain (or brain-like organism) at a different stage of cognitive development. The

## The Joke The comic is titled "Relationship Pro Tip" and advises that the best way to end any romantic sentence is to append "but that will not save you in the final showdown" and then say no more.