Explain SMBC — the wiki for Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

## The Joke A woman explains to a friend that she created a neural network that analyzes images and is "so smart it can look at an image and use AI to find out everything about it, complete with cont

## The Joke A dinosaur, dressed in a robe or toga, dramatically announces to its fellow dinosaurs: "I have to die in just the right way so hairless apes can find my bones and make me a beautiful, bea

## The Joke A woman is distraught, telling her friend that she and her boyfriend have broken up after four years together. She is heartbroken and says she has "already disgraced" herself by going to

## The Joke The comic observes that political analysts often borrow terms from physics: "There's a lot of energy and momentum in the base this year." A nerdy character is outraged by this loose usage

## The Joke A patient tells his therapist, "I just don't think these antidepressants are the right fit for me, doc." The therapist asks if he is worried they have the wrong dosage or that they are in

## The Joke A scene plays out in a fantasy setting. A character who appears to be a queen or elven ruler tells an adventurer, "I'm the queen's ecologist. I'm looking for interesting species to study!

## The Joke A doctor delivers news to a couple: "I'm afraid your son may be quite gifted. Our tests show he'll be utterly unable to cope with the world." The mother is concerned, asking, "Oh no. Oh n

## The Joke Two women are having a conversation. One says something provocative, and the other reacts with offense. The first woman explains, "Say you got a son, right? Don't say 'son of a bitch.'" S

## The Joke A mad scientist announces his plan: "And by drastically increasing the amount of lead in the water supplies of the world, within three generations, we shall have created a human level art

## The Joke This long-form comic is set in a post-apocalyptic world where a robot uprising has been put down and humanity is now hunting the remaining programmers who created the robots. The military

## The Joke A TSA agent tells a traveler that no liquids are allowed on airplanes -- a reference to the real and widely mocked TSA rule limiting liquids in carry-on luggage. The traveler, however, is

## The Joke This comic is a promotional strip for Zach Weinersmith's book "Love: A Discovery in Comics." The comic takes the form of a mock interview or press conference where an interviewer question

## The Joke A group of protesters hold signs saying "Say NO to GMOs!" A scientist approaches them and says, in the classic tone of a reasonable expert, "Before you march, have you actually considered

## The Joke Four characters each apply a different philosophical or intellectual framework to a mundane situation. First, a "man of philosophy" invokes consequentialism, arguing that since the long-r

## The Joke A woman confronts her partner, telling him, "Honey, you're too pedantic. It's driving us apart. Here, I made a graph of how pedantic you've become." She holds up a chart intended to illus

## The Joke A teacher is leading a class through the children's song "If You're Happy and You Know It, Clap Your Hands." In the first panel, a student responds with "I'm pretty sure" when asked if th

## The Joke Two men in Victorian-era clothing are having a conversation. One observes, "My favorite thing about 19th century British novels is how alcohol is considered a cure for everything." The ot

## The Joke The comic depicts Batman deciding it is time to "keep the proletariat down," framing his vigilante crime-fighting as class warfare waged on behalf of the wealthy elite. In the first panel

## The Joke The comic opens with an optimistic technologist wearing round glasses, enthusiastically declaring that if digital translation is perfected, "humanity will become one family." The premise

## The Joke The comic shows a professor (identified in the caption as "Professor Thompson") giving what appears to be an academic lecture about a culture with a "radical view of death." He describes

## The Joke In the first panel, a doctor explains a vasectomy procedure to a couple: they will make a tiny incision, cut a small section of the vas deferens, and the patient will never deliver sperm

## The Joke A person is sitting on a park bench with the Grim Reaper (Death). The person asks Death to try imagining things from their perspective, suggesting that Death should consider what it is li

## The Joke The comic opens with a woman marveling at how lovely trees are, wondering why we cannot be more like them -- they take their nourishment from the environment, support different species, a

## The Joke The comic is set 2.3 billion years ago, during what is known as the Great Oxidation Event. A group of cyanobacteria (depicted as small green rod-shaped organisms) are having a conversatio

## The Joke The comic is an extended meditation on how modern superhero movies compare to classical epic literature. A character in bed observes that it has become a cliche that superhero movies are

## The Joke The comic shows a woman sitting in a chair watching a used car commercial on television. The salesman on TV starts with the standard car lot pitch -- "This week only! 50% off of all used

## The Joke The comic shows a person (likely an inventor or scientist) excitedly describing their greatest invention. They explain that by constantly spraying a fine mist of goo onto their body, they

## The Joke The comic depicts the supposed "true story" of the invention of the telegraph. In the first panel, an inventor (resembling a 19th-century figure, possibly meant to evoke Samuel Morse) exp

## The Joke A woman tells her partner she made a "dirty movie" for him, with "things you probably never imagined I'd be open to." The man is excited and sits down to watch, only to exclaim "Mother of

## The Joke A superhero called "Super-Economist" saves a woman from a mugging, but instead of simply accepting her gratitude, she begins applying rigorous economic analysis to the rescue. She offers

## The Joke An alien visits Earth and asks to understand social media. A human explains: billions of people voluntarily report their location, interests, relationships, and opinions to corporations t

## The Joke The comic reimagines the classic children's story "Charlotte's Web" with a dark twist. A pig tells the spider that "they're going to slaughter me in the morning" and begs for help. The sp

## The Joke A street canvasser asks a passerby, "Do you have a moment for the environment?" The passerby's response -- "Anyone? Anyone? Please, at least make eye contact" -- reveals that absolutely n

## The Joke A disheveled, wild-haired man rants about wanting a social network that is "smart enough to put a food item into my mouth just as I realize that I want it" but which "also doesn't collect

## The Joke A man at dinner explains that "a lot of foods and drinks get better with time" -- wine and cheese improve as they age. His companion observes that his glass appears to contain cherry-flav

## The Joke A physicist is presenting the holographic principle -- the real scientific idea that our apparently three-dimensional universe can be described as information encoded on a two-dimensional

## The Joke The comic is set in a fantasy role-playing game world. A cleric casts "Heal Wounds" on an injured person, who immediately feels better. This leads another character to question the theolo

## The Joke A speaker at a podium delivers what sounds like a standard academic disclaimer: "We are not here for wisdom, although we must acquire it. We are not here for logic, although we must perfo

## The Joke A group introduces themselves as the "Stats Gang" -- if you want to commit crimes, "you gotta ask someone." A skeptical person challenges them, and the gang leader responds by calculating

## The Joke The comic shows a workplace scenario. In the first panel, a man approaches a colleague and says: "Hey John, can I talk to you in my office?" John replies: "Uh, sure." The first man then s

## The Joke In the first panel, a man says: "I don't see what the big deal is on using 'they' as a singular pronoun." A woman responds in the second panel: "Language changes. Even pronouns have chang

## The Joke The comic opens with a sign reading "NO-CREDIT LOANS." A person walks up and says: "Hi, I'd like to apply for ten dollars." The loan officer asks: "For what reason?" The applicant replies

## The Joke A man stands in front of his open refrigerator, looking inside. In the first panel he says: "I need something from the fridge." The second panel reveals the fridge contents: "There are go

## The Joke A person is praying and asks: "Dear Lord, why do bad things happen to good people?" God responds with a question of his own: "You ever play a video game in sandbox mode?" The person asks:

## The Joke This comic features a conversation between a woman and a robot or android partner. The woman says: "Gally, we need to break up." The robot asks why, and she explains: "My main power sourc

## The Joke In the first panel, a woman excitedly says: "Can you imagine the future, when we all have augmented reality contact lenses?" She is enthusiastic about the technological possibilities. In

## The Joke The comic shows a fitness instructor named Sheila in the middle of leading an exercise class. She is doing pushups and her speech bubble reads: "Okay! Let's do those fucking hands-in-the-

## The Joke An alien informs a group of humans that they are a highly advanced species, billions of years ahead, and have come to observe humanity. A human eagerly asks if human beings have souls. Th

## The Joke This comic depicts a conversation between two people about a cryogenically frozen person from the past who has been revived in a far-future civilization. The future people are excited to

## The Joke The comic is set in a Western frontier town. A cowboy announces a plan: "This town ain't big enough for the both of us. In order to accommodate us, we can both finance our own development