Explain SMBC — the wiki for Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

## The Joke A person holds up a voodoo doll and threatens an older woman: "This is a voodoo doll. You will feel whatever I do to it." The woman is unfazed, replying: "I have been working for a temp a

## The Joke The comic is formatted as a reference table titled "Mathematical Sequences to Think About in Order to Delay Orgasm." It lists five mathematical sequences -- Fibonacci, Look-and-Say, Lazy

## The Joke A father catches his son pretending to be sick to skip school. But instead of punishing him, the dad conspires with the son: "Shhh. It's okay. Don't tell mom, but I got tickets to a lucha

## The Joke Two people are pulling a rope to rescue someone who has fallen into a well. The person in the well, rather than being grateful, calls out: "Wait a sec... Do you guys REALLY want to save m

## The Joke Two men in Old West attire -- representatives of feuding families, in the style of the Hatfields and McCoys -- agree that they need to "stop the cycle of violence" because it has "taken t

## The Joke A man tells his girlfriend, "Baby, I think you're Pareto optimal." He then explains what he means: "I wouldn't change anything about you. If I did, it couldn't help but make something els

## The Joke Two cave people -- apparently the very first human parents -- are dealing with a toddler who just said she "hates me forever." The father, named Pag, asks if that is normal for toddlers,

## The Joke In the first panel, a man complains about women, saying "You know what I hate about women? They're always LYING to us through makeup. Trying to get us to believe something that's PATENTLY

## The Joke A girl asks a man how he finds meaning in a cosmos that seems indifferent to human life. He replies that he is a "chauvinistic presentist." He then explains his philosophy: for most of hu

## The Joke A cyborg-like character from a future era is complimenting a medieval or Renaissance-era writer, praising the "detail" in their writing -- specifically that the main character uses a "too

## The Joke A team of scientists announces they have created a machine that can read the human subconscious. However, they immediately caveat this grand achievement: so far, the machine has only been

## The Joke A person asks God why He is always depicted as flawed in stories. God corrects what He calls a "common misconception," explaining that He is not flawed at all but rather "all flaws." He e

## The Joke The comic opens with a character pointing out a perceived hypocrisy: the Catholic Church criticizes science, but then asks why the Church does not use its vast wealth to bankroll its own

## The Joke This is a long-form comic exploring what ancient civilizations would look like if modern hyper-specialization had existed throughout history. The comic's premise is presented as a histori

## The Joke The comic depicts a group of salmon experiencing their spawning run. A fictional nature-show-style caption explains that salmon return to their birthplace to spawn, fighting their way ups

## The Joke The Grim Reaper appears at a woman's office, doing his usual schtick — looming ominously with his scythe. But instead of being terrified, the woman at the desk seems annoyed and unfazed.

## The Joke The comic opens with a cheerful scene: two people greet each other warmly and seem genuinely happy. But the mood shifts as other characters start reacting with suspicion and alarm to the

## The Joke A couple is sitting together, and one asks the other what it would be like to have kids. The conversation starts with the typical considerations — they would need to make sacrifices, it w

## The Joke A man stands on a stage in front of a curtain, addressing an audience shown in silhouette. He gestures dramatically and says: "And these are the people who will never respect you if this

## The Joke A woman begins with the classic "I'm not like other girls" declaration, which typically sets up a claim of being quirky or unique. But instead of listing endearingly eccentric personality

## The Joke The comic opens with a "time machine activated" panel showing someone stepping into a time machine. They announce: "Welcome to the future, time traveler! We live in a post-scarcity societ

## The Joke A villain (Mrs. Anderson or similar) tells a family that one of their children will die and they must choose which one to save. The parents begin deliberating, and their criteria for choo

## The Joke A woman wearing glasses declares that "Learning economics has ruined my ability to have friends." She then demonstrates why by offering to pay her friend twenty dollars to "achieve my pre

## The Joke A man is staring at a hotel faucet and observing that "it appears to change parameters based on the motion of my hands within a toroidal region near its base." He is describing, in overly

## The Joke The comic presents a classic "Knights and Knaves" logic puzzle scenario set on an island with three types of people: Knights (who always tell the truth), Knaves (who always lie), and Norm

## The Joke A man tells a woman about how, as a boy, he would throw pennies in the wishing well and his wish would always come true. Now he has come back to the well to wish again. The woman then wal

## The Joke An airline representative explains to a customer that at their current price level, they start in "spike-seats, which are covered with spikes." For an additional four dollar fee, the airl

## The Joke A guide is showing a newcomer around Heaven and explaining how its population is organized. He notes that Heaven is divided into three types of people: Rogues, Knights, and Normals. The K

## The Joke The comic sets up what appears to be a classic "caught cheating" scenario. A man walks in on a woman with another man, and the woman immediately blurts out the cliched line "Wait! It's no

## The Joke A person climbs a mountain to ask a wise master for the "best life advice." The wise master gives two pieces of seemingly contradictory advice. First, he offers the standard motivational

## The Joke A woman in lingerie stands in a bedroom doorway and announces to her partner: "Good evening. I have covered the safest portions of my endowment with thousands, upon thousands, of individu

## The Joke A man gives a woman a gift: "Sweetie, I got you this book of Shakespearean love sonnets!" She responds enthusiastically: "Awww!" But then a third person interjects with an uncomfortable o

## The Joke A parent confronts their child, asking: "Mom and Dad, why do you have a giant inflatable Klein bottle hidden in the closet?" The parent, embarrassed, deflects: "Compromise. I'll say nothi

## The Joke Two alien dinosaur-like creatures are eating a human. One exclaims "Oh my God, this part of humans is DELICIOUS!" The other agrees: "Yes, it's wonderful. Though it seems to be shrinking i

## The Joke A tour guide or tech presenter shows off new augmented reality goggles to a group of people wearing the devices. She explains: "Thanks to our augmented reality technology, instead of havi

## The Joke A father is presented with a series of sensory challenges by his family. First, a child asks "Dad? Is this yogurt spoiled?" and the dad says "Let me smell it." Then: "Dad? I think I have

## The Joke The comic opens with a futurist on stage declaring that people who worry the technological singularity will mean humans get "replaced by the machines" are wrong. Instead, he enthusiastica

## The Joke A man prays to God, confessing that ever since he was a child, instead of collecting Batman or communion wafers, he would "stash them in my pocket." He then reveals that he has amassed 80

## The Joke This is not a traditional comic but rather an open letter from Zach Weinersmith to his readers, published on the launch day of his and Kelly Weinersmith''s book "Soonish." Zach acknowledg

## The Joke The comic promotes (or riffs on) the book *Soonish: Ten Emerging Technologies That'll Improve and/or Ruin Everything*, written by Zach and Kelly Weinersmith. It takes a technology that's

## The Joke A woman tells her conversation partner that she doesn't mind that they've "started disagreeing" with her political views, but she does object to his characterizing her views as "pathologi

## The Joke A bald man is asked why he thinks he played so well in today's football game. Instead of giving a typical athlete's answer about training or teamwork, he says he likes to imagine himself

## The Joke A child walks in on two adults in a compromising position in bed. The classic sitcom trope plays out: the child asks "What is Mommy doing to Daddy?" and the flustered parent blurts out th

## The Joke A mother is trying to teach her child that smoking is bad by explaining that "smoking isn't cool" and "smoking kills." The child, however, applies an unexpected logical framework: they po

## The Joke A man approaches a woman at what appears to be a social gathering with the opening line "Hey there, sexy, lookin' for a self-respectin' time?" The woman is taken aback and responds "Huh?"

## The Joke The comic depicts a formal waiter approaching a woman at a restaurant with an elaborately polite but deeply backhanded message: "Good evening, Madame. A gentleman who wishes to remain ano

## The Joke The comic references a famous real-world incident in neuroscience. A scientist explains that in 2009, researchers ran a study that used standard fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imagin

## The Joke A person confronts a robot, asking "Meatgrinder, are you guys gonna kill all humans?" The robot responds by questioning the utility of such an action: "What's the utility there? Will it b

## The Joke The comic depicts Socrates (or a Socrates-like philosopher in ancient Greek garb) using the Socratic method at a fast-food drive-through. He leads the drive-through worker through a serie

## The Joke The comic shows a stand-up comedian on stage performing a routine that follows the classic "fun parenting advice" structure. The comedian says: "Fun parenting form: raise your child in a