Explain SMBC — the wiki for Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

## The Joke Two people are standing together when one says "Oh, dammit, here comes Mandelbrot." The other asks why they don't like him, and the first person explains: "He's always trying to get peopl

## The Joke The comic opens with a romantic scenario: a man tells a woman a poetic-sounding fact -- "Mammals, whether mice or whales, each get about 1.5 billion heartbeats per lifetime, just allocate

## The Joke The comic shows a single panel where a bearded man with glasses is pointing at and insulting a thinner man. The insult is: "Yeah, well you''re so scrawny, you only occupy volume due to a

## The Joke The comic depicts a futuristic augmented reality neighborhood. In the opening panels, a guide explains that "you can see, this home comes with demographic goods and proximity to instituti

## The Joke A man proposes a "thought experiment" about policies that would probably work but are too stupid to actually implement. His example: instead of formal financial regulation, we should "jus

## The Joke Someone is apparently seeking comfort or advice about Impostor Syndrome -- the common psychological phenomenon where people feel like frauds despite evidence of their competence. The pers

## The Joke A ghost has returned to the living world because of "unfinished business," which is a standard trope in ghost stories. When the ghost arrives at what appears to be his old office, his for

## The Joke Two soldiers are in what appears to be a combat situation. One of them, believing he may not survive, asks his companion to deliver a message to his wife. But instead of the expected hear

## The Joke A father presents his son with a fantasy-style sword, telling him it is time to pass on the sword that his grandfather gave to him. The son asks if it is made of bread, and the father con

## The Joke A scientist excitedly announces that dark matter, long theorized to be something that does not interact with normal matter, has been found to have a way to interact with "the fabric of sp

## The Joke A coach is giving a pep talk to his team, but instead of the usual motivational sports rhetoric, he takes a brutally honest statistical approach. He tells the team that according to his c

## The Joke A woman tells her partner that she worries they do not express their feelings clearly, so she has purchased special shirts that detect brain waves and display the wearer's internal emotio

## The Joke A physics professor is lecturing about cylindrical coordinates or electromagnetic theory, asking his students to "imagine an infinitely thin rod" -- a standard setup in physics problems.

## The Joke The comic is framed as a "Funtime Activity: Ruining positive social interactions by the introduction of money." An elderly man, Hank, tenderly tells his wife that he wants to thank her fo

## The Joke This comic retells the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale with a more realistic and uncomfortable lens. A narrator sets the scene: "Here, the princess sleeps. Only true love's kiss can awaken her

## The Joke A child is running a lemonade stand, charging three dollars for a glass. A man (seemingly named Jenkins) approaches and says "Come on, kid." Rather than simply buying the lemonade or walk

## The Joke The comic opens with a "Life Tip" banner: "Humor is a great way to share your world concerns." A woman then tells a classic joke setup: "Where does a 600 pound gorilla sleep?" The man res

## The Joke An uncle is talking to his young nephew, who is about to take his first international flight. The uncle tells him: "Wow! Your first international flight! Well, they're a bit more fancy th

## The Joke A mother asks her child "Who wants ice cream for breakfast?" The child enthusiastically agrees ("Meeeee!"). The mother then says "Oh sure, ice cream -- that's a high fiber food." She proc

## The Joke A teacher or public figure announces that schools are "no longer teaching algebra or calculus because they're not useful in the real world." The audience cheers. The comic then cuts to "L

## The Joke This comic reimagines the Cinderella story at the moment when the prince arrives with the glass slipper to find the woman whose foot fits it. The prince announces "My god, the glass slipp

## The Joke This comic is a meta-announcement for Zach and Kelly Weinersmith's upcoming book tour for "Soonish," presented in comic strip form. The characters (resembling Zach and Kelly) excitedly an

## The Joke The comic depicts the aftermath of a duel at dawn. One man lies dead on the ground while another stands over him, still holding a pistol. An astronomer character explains his defense: "Lo

## The Joke The comic is titled with a header about how kids and adults handle relationship corrections differently. In the top panel (labeled something like "Kids' relationship correction"), a child

## The Joke This is a lengthy comic exploring what would happen if a truly advanced artificial intelligence were created. A character announces that they have built an AI that has "attained a level o

## The Joke The comic features a conversation about hunting, specifically the concept of hunting humans ("The Most Dangerous Game"). One character says he wants to hunt the deadliest prey. Another po

## The Joke A mathematician tries to explain different sizes of infinity (Cantor's theorem that some infinities are larger than others) to a non-mathematician. The non-mathematician's brain rebels at

## The Joke The comic presents two side-by-side panels comparing robot apocalypse scenarios. On the left: "Less Likely Robot Apocalypse" -- a menacing Terminator-style robot declares "KILL ALL HUMANS

## The Joke The comic depicts a conversation between two people about a news article. One person says they could not believe something when they saw it in the news. The other responds that the articl

## The Joke This is a promotional comic for Zach Weinersmith's book "Soonish." The comic shows a parent (likely a mother) talking to a child about not doing homework. The mother warns that things are

## The Joke A man visits what appears to be a life insurance office after a loss. The agent says, "Welcome, Mr. Davidson. I'm sorry to hear of your loss, but do you believe there is life beyond this

## The Joke A man walks into a bank and declares that he wants to put all his money in long-term certificates of deposit because he wants the money to accrue interest for the next 5,000 years. The ba

## The Joke A boss asks an employee to pick up bagels for the office. The employee protests: "But you said my job is 'I'm an engineer.'" The boss then describes what he actually does at work -- playi

## The Joke The comic is set in a medieval or fantasy-style throne room. A guard or advisor addresses a ruler, saying something like "Sire! You walk among us as a commoner! I can see at once that you

## The Joke A father figure is talking to what appears to be his young son, explaining that he should just pay full allowance when a Russian boy is willing to be his son for one-fourth the price, wit

## The Joke The comic opens with people being asked why they are interested in art. They give the typical, noble-sounding answers: "Beauty!" and "Self-expression!" Then the comic cuts to a history le

## The Joke Two scientists are observing a chimpanzee through a window. The chimp is holding a phone and sitting in front of what appears to be a grid of pictographic symbols (the kind used in primat

## The Joke This comic is a promotional tie-in for the Weinersmiths' book "Soonish." It presents a poetic/literary commentary on the nature of feelings and opinions. The top panels set up a serious,

## The Joke A teacher stands before a class giving what is billed as "honest" sex education. The first panel begins normally enough: "Welcome to sex ed, kids." But the honesty quickly goes off the ra

## The Joke A bespectacled man is giving a speech or lecture about human uniqueness: "We are very different from other animals. We have poetry, art, mathematics, complex engineering, knowledge of our

## The Joke A prehistoric caveman announces "I'm sick of hunting and gathering" and proposes an alternative: "What if instead we could have a grand, high-protein grain... planted it over and over on

## The Joke The comic shows Batman lying in bed (or on a medical table), clearly in pain, shouting: "OW! AH! OKAY! NOT EVERYTHING NEEDS TO BE BAT SHAPED!" The caption below reads: "Late in life, Batm

## The Joke Two men are discussing NASA and its legacy. One points out that "NASA is totally worth the money. They've created tons of spinoffs." He lists examples: "Like Velcro?" "Velcro, invented by

## The Joke A woman is having a theological debate with God (depicted as a green figure in a dark void). She poses the classic Problem of Evil: "Dear God, if you are all-knowing, all-powerful, and al

## The Joke The comic reimagines the classic Snow White fairy tale scene where the Evil Queen offers Snow White a poisoned apple. However, instead of naively accepting it, this version of Snow White

## The Joke A stage magician performs the classic "Is this your card?" trick, holding up a card (the 3 of clubs) to an audience volunteer. Instead of the expected response -- either a delighted "Yes!

## The Joke A younger man tells a bearded, older mathematician that he is having trouble coming up with an opening theme for his math lecture. The older mathematician suggests: "I start with an unsol

## The Joke Jesus has returned for the Second Coming. He stands on a hillside and announces "I have returned!" A follower excitedly proclaims: "All followers of the true path shall enter!" But then s

## The Joke A woman tells a man that they "need to talk," and the man nervously asks if she is in love with someone else. Instead, she reveals that the water he just drank was filled with self-replic

## The Joke A philosophy professor stands at a chalkboard and poses what sounds like a classic ethical thought experiment: "Suppose you want to kill a baker. But, if you kill him, a bunch of starving