Explain SMBC — the wiki for Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

## The Joke A fraternity-style bro enthusiastically invites his friends to go get wasted, but instead of typical frat activities, the outcomes are profound philosophical realizations: conceiving of a

## The Joke The comic is structured in reverse chronological order. In the top panel, a therapist asks a patient "Then what do you see?" and the patient responds: "Bees. Bees arranged in human form,

## The Joke Jesus tries to prove he is the Son of God by performing a miracle — holding a rock that is increasing in temperature despite being hotter than the surrounding air, which he describes as "

## The Joke Two scientists discuss the ethics of human testing. They establish that testing on humans is considered unethical, that moral standing is proportional to other creatures based on similari

## The Joke A mother is giving her daughter "the talk" — the birds and bees conversation about reproduction. She starts by explaining that 630 million years ago, some bacteria decided to exchange the

## The Joke A stage magician (labeled "Dr. Parker, Science Magician") performs a card trick. He asks an audience member to memorize a card and says "Okay?" Then, instead of performing a traditional m

## The Joke The comic is titled "Sex Tip: Framing Is Everything." A man is in an intimate situation and tells his partner: "I should warn you... sometimes I get really bored of sex and decide to just

## The Joke A man passionately argues: "We teach math all wrong! We start kids off with counting numbers! We need to start them off with axioms and sets! With fundamentals!" Another person counters:

## The Joke The comic presents a long series of panels depicting a policy discussion where economists and politicians keep citing GDP (Gross Domestic Product) as the ultimate measure of a country's s

## The Joke A character announces that "one discovery from statistical baseball analysis is that on-base percentage is more important than batting home runs." They then say "the implications are clea

## The Joke A woman looks at her computer screen and says "Huh. That's funny." When asked "What?", she reveals: "The average I.Q. of people killed in driverless car accidents is consistently just a l

## The Joke A man asks his friend "Wanna go to the top of a ten-storey building?" His friend replies: "You're only saying that because a parasitic organism is making you go to altitudes that are opti

## The Joke An evil spirit (depicted as a red, demonic figure) tells a person: "The world is sooooo complex, you'll never understand it, never control it." The person responds with a counterproposal:

## The Joke The comic opens with the statement "History is weird, and it gets weirder." A character then observes that when you read about World War 2 or the Cold War, many incidents contain coincide

## The Joke A man greets an alien: "Hello, woman!" The alien screams "AAAAH! An alien!!" The man says "Have you come to breed with our women?" The alien responds "What? Are you crazy?" The man explai

## The Joke A genie asks a person "What is your wish?" The person gives a deeply philosophical answer: "I would like to be able to see my existence as a small thread in the larger weave of reality. I

## The Joke New parents read all the parenting books and develop elaborate, evidence-based strategies for raising the perfect child. They carefully control diet, screen time, educational activities,

## The Joke The comic shows two graphs. The first shows "Median Age in Average Nation" rising sharply over time. The second shows "Total People of Prime Age for Military Service" declining over time.

## The Joke A child asks their mother "Mommy, is there a robot heaven?" The mother answers "Absolutely!" and then explains it in detail using software engineering concepts: "There is an original vers

## The Joke A bouncer at a club declares "Hey! No nerds allowed in this club!" A man who appears to be James Clerk Maxwell (depicted with his characteristic beard) responds by pointing out that if yo

## The Joke A couple is at a restaurant. The man mentions that a particular wine pairs well with fish or chicken, but the woman corrects him, saying "No it doesn't." She explains that she has read th

## The Joke A priest is quoting scripture: "Man shall not live by bread alone. But have you tried taquitos?" -- attributed to "Matthew 4:4: Universe 98x771812." The caption below reads: "According to

## The Joke A person asks a glowing cosmic entity (representing the universe) what it is made of. The entity says "Oh yeah, this is awkward..." and then proceeds to explain a series of humbling facts

## The Joke A ghostly face appears in a bathroom mirror (the summoned spirit of Bloody Mary), and instead of being terrifying, she is defensively explaining herself: "Listen, it was a different time!

## The Joke A fairy or magical being presents a person with a magic horn, saying: "I give you this magic horn. Whatever you have need, reach in and the horn will give you exactly what you need." In

## The Joke A woman excitedly exclaims "Oh my God! A philosophical zombie!" Her companion asks "What?" and the woman explains: "They behave like they are conscious beings, but inside they don't reall

## The Joke A child calls out: "Mom! There's a monster under my bed!" The mother comes in and calmly responds: "No no, he's dead." The child asks "Maybe it's a trick?" and the mom replies: "I don't

## The Joke A man holds up a shirt in a store and asks the clerk: "If I buy this shirt, does it make me gay?" The clerk responds: "Yes." The clerk then explains with deadpan seriousness: "The shirt

## The Joke A child prays: "Dear Lord, my teacher, Ms. Stratton, is very ill. Could you cancel whatever plan you have personally selected, violate all known laws of physics, and pre-empt the fundamen

## The Joke This lengthy comic is a satirical take on moral panics about children and technology. It begins with a news anchor announcing that "MILLIONS OF CHILDREN ARE UNDERCLOCKED!" -- a term borro

## The Joke The comic begins with a seemingly inspirational message: "Whenever you feel silly or stupid... whenever you feel like a lot of people are smarter than you..." This sets up the expectation

## The Joke The comic depicts economists presenting the results of a randomized controlled trial on economic interventions in developing countries. They divided subjects into two groups: one received

## The Joke The comic presents a fictional "NEW LAW: ALL NEWS MUST COME WITH AN UPLIFTING SPIN." A news anchor then reports: "A rogue black hole has entered the solar system, consuming all celestial

## The Joke A character begins by observing that "talking is weird" and proceeds to deconstruct speech from a physicalist perspective: she is "just wobbling some mucus membranes" (vocal cords) which

## The Joke The comic's header reads: "If your product is already based on false claims, why not just say whatever you want?" It then shows three products with increasingly absurd and honest labeling

## The Joke The comic shows a handwritten notebook page with a list of story ideas, all following the same pattern: - "Old man wants to take oversized piece of luggage on plane, but airline says no"

## The Joke In the first panel, someone says "Engineers are philosophers of the hand." An engineer responds with an over-the-top philosophical monologue: "Oh sure, we make things for their utility, b

## The Joke A group of tech company employees sit around a conference table. One says: "I just... I just don't feel like our users love us enough." Another adds: "I need reassurance that they don't j

## The Joke A woman presents the classic liar''s paradox: "This statement is false." Her companion replies that if it''s false, it''s true, and if it''s true, it''s false -- the standard logical cont

## The Joke A woman excitedly presents a poem to a man (depicted as an older, bald, bespectacled figure). The poem reads: "Roses are red / Violets are blue / But qualia don''t exist / And neither do

## The Joke A woman tells a man she has created a device that records every word he says and connects each sentence to concepts organized by relations such as "gay," "cute," or "game" and "friends +

## The Joke The comic is titled "How to Install a Car Seat" and presents a series of wordless panels showing a parent''s increasingly desperate and contorted attempts to install a child''s car seat i

## The Joke A traveler approaches the Sphinx, who declares, "Before you may pass, you must answer the riddle of the Sphinx." The traveler agrees enthusiastically. But instead of the classic riddle, t

## The Joke A young boy runs to his parents in distress, crying out "Mom! Dad! It was horrible! People kept using the Lord's name in vain!" The caption below reveals this is "Dad Prank #24334: Convin

## The Joke A couple is sitting on a couch when the man says he knows she is planning a first date and wants to e-stalk her date, but first he needs to tell her something. He reveals that he has crea

## The Joke The comic presents "A Guide to Writing a Thank You Card for Sex," structured as a formal seven-part template. It begins with a stiff introduction ("Dear Spouse / Dearest Significant Other

## The Joke A person asks God, "Why did you make quantum mechanics so weird?" God bursts into laughter and says, "Sorry, hold on a sec. I gotta tell this to Jesus." The person then tries to point out

## The Joke A Victorian-era man with a mustache exclaims in shock: "You did WHAT?! It''d cost a week''s wages to buy that much licorice! Not to mention the MONTH that''d be lost to knitting it!" The

## The Joke A man tells a joke: "So I said, two wrongs don''t make a right." His family bursts into hysterical laughter. When he tells them to stop and asks why they are laughing, they respond that h

## The Joke A professor stands at a chalkboard delivering "Day One of Science Journalism" to teach students "how to communicate physics." He then proceeds to give hilariously mangled explanations of