Explain SMBC — the wiki for Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

## The Joke A woman asks a man whether he would use a teleporter that destroys your body at point A and recreates it at point B across the solar system. He immediately says "Nope." She tries to argue

## The Joke A character explains a thought experiment: imagine you have a giant spotlight aimed at a screen 50 trillion miles wide. You flick your hand in front of the spotlight, and in one second yo

## The Joke Two men discuss how data security has become increasingly difficult: you need physical keys, random code authentication, and so on. One person says "Pfft, that's not necessary." He explai

## The Joke A woman at a podium announces a corollary: all NP-hard problems are the same. If you have a solution to one NP-hard problem, it stupidly solves them all. She calls this the "Collapsion."

## The Joke The comic is titled "Why Has No One Made This?" and presents a five-step instruction guide for a bizarre invention. Step 1: 3D scan your face while yelling. Step 2: 3D print a tiny versio

## The Joke A woman asks why we need quantum mechanics interpretations — why can't we just accept the observed phenomena as the nature of the universe? Her companion says it is because of justice. He

## The Joke A woman dramatically announces to her partner: "Bob! My biological clock is ticking!" He interprets this as her changing her mind about wanting children and excitedly asks if she wants to

## The Joke Two characters in a detective/mystery setting examine a clue. One says "Frank, look!" and points out that there is a false bottom in Old Man Dixon's drawer. They exclaim: "Finally we've f

## The Joke A man asks a woman to show him her boobs. When she asks why, he explains an elaborate chain of logic: exercising with a chart of boobs will give him a brief testosterone boost. This hormo

## The Joke A man reminisces about how his dad always took him out on clear nights to look at the sky. He can still hear his father saying: "Don't look at the spot on Jupiter. It looks like a nipple.

## The Joke The comic presents a six-step process titled "How Math Works," depicting the lifecycle of a mathematical discovery from initial insight to its eventual transmission to students: 1. **Ins

## The Joke An older man is lecturing a child about the saying "money can't buy you happiness." He declares this is "just a category error" and compares it to saying "gasoline won't build you a car"

## The Joke A shady character in an alley offers a man "some childhood nostalgia," framed like a drug deal ("First one's free"). After trying it, the man has a rapturous experience: "Wow! That was ma

## The Joke A preacher-like figure addresses his congregation, announcing that since people say there is not enough Christ in Christmas, he is introducing a new holiday: "Christmachrist!" -- essentia

## The Joke A caption reads: "I wish political talkshows were more honest about their guests." A TV host then introduces the opposition guest with: "And now, speaking for the opposition, we have the

## The Joke A girl tells her aunt that after winning a race, she realized the locket her aunt gave her "isn't magical." The aunt replies with the classic trope: "The magic was in you all along!" But

## The Joke A scene at a coffee shop: a barista is about to ask a question ("But how did you know it was a--") when a man behind the counter, who is being held at gunpoint by a large bald man, blurts

## The Joke A man identified as Wittgenstein passionately declares: "Language cannot contain reality. There is a deeper understanding: a 'picture language.'" A woman responds, "That's a beautiful ide

## The Joke Titled "Never Date a Physicist," the comic shows a romantic close-up of a couple about to kiss. One person says "I will love you forever." The physicist partner immediately responds: "Uns

## The Joke The comic presents a science-educational sequence: flowers evolved to attract pollinators, and bee vision is not the same as human vision -- bees see less infrared but more ultraviolet. I

## The Joke An employer asks an employee to pee in a cup. The employee assumes it is a drug test, but the employer reveals there is no test — he simply enjoys "the sense of power I get from knowing t

## The Joke The comic proposes a "new rule for sports-writing": the phrase "physics defying" may only be used when it is actually applicable. We then see a news anchor putting this rule into practice

## The Joke A researcher explains that she is conducting an experiment to determine whether "joy comes from receiving a present, or it's the thought that counts." The experimental design involves giv

## The Joke A woman tells a man she has designed a condom with a computer embedded in it. When the man asks "Why?", she mysteriously says "Shhhh... just put it on." In the next panel, labeled "Later.

## The Joke A child asks her dad, "What's a prime factor?" The dad explains that a factor of a number is a number that divides into it, and gives the example that 12 has factors 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 12

## The Joke A professor stands before a class and delivers a brutally honest monologue: "Just to be clear: nobody wants to be in this class. You're all taking it to complete your degree requirements.

## The Joke A person presents the simulation argument: "I think we must be in a simulated reality. If you can simulate reality, then there'll be more simulated realities than real ones." Their compan

## The Joke Someone invokes "quantum mechanics" to justify something mystical or pseudoscientific — like quantum consciousness, quantum healing, or the idea that observation creates reality. An actua

## The Joke A newscaster reports that "according to recent scientific analysis, eating bacon causes cancer." He then admits that, tragically, as a newscaster he is unable to understand the difference

## The Joke A man stands in front of what appears to be a classroom or kindergarten setting and exclaims: "Sharing? You mean MUTUAL THEFT?" The caption below reads: "I'm no longer allowed to teach Ki

## The Joke A person explains his depressing life philosophy using a series of graphs plotting power and responsibility against time. He starts by noting that "power divided by responsibility" define

## The Joke Abraham stands in the streets of Sodom shouting to the people: "People of Sodom! It is Abraham! God has come to destroy you, and there's no time for escape! I strongly encourage everyone

## The Joke A scientist excitedly announces she has figured out how to use radioactive decay to convert noodles into dairy products. Her colleague responds with a bemused "I mean, that's amazing, but

## The Joke A man presents a graduation gift to a woman, saying "Congrats on your graduation! Here's a bottle of champagne." He then gleefully reveals "HAHAHAHAHA! There is no champagne! It's filled

## The Joke A woman watches television and declares "Okay, I take it back. Kids' shows shouldn't try to teach statistics." The TV screen shows a children's show featuring a cartoon hippo character ("

## The Joke A woman asks a man if he ever wonders whether the whole world is a simulation. He dismissively replies "No. Never. Why?" She explains the philosophical argument: if simulations are possib

## The Joke A man says to a woman named Diana: "Diana, I think we should see otter people." Diana responds: "Don't you mean 'other people'?" The final panel cuts to a scene of an otter in bed cuddlin

## The Joke At a wedding, the officiant says the traditional line: "If anyone objects to this marriage, let them speak now." A statistician in the audience immediately interjects: "That's not a stati

## The Joke The comic presents a fake mathematical "proof" that P = NP. It proceeds as follows: 1. Start with Euler's identity: e^(i*Pi) = -1 2. Note that Pi = P * i 3. Substitute: e^(i*Pi) = e^(P*i

## The Joke The comic begins with the classic time-travel trope: "If I could go back in time, I'd kill baby Hitler." Someone objects that the consequences would be unpredictable, but the results turn

## The Joke The comic has a caption reading: "Nobody appreciated my invention that transformed all games into checkers." A person is shown excitedly holding up a device and declaring "Guys! This is a

## The Joke A woman arrives at the gates of heaven, greeted by a bearded figure (presumably Saint Peter or God) who says "Welcome to heaven!" She immediately questions it: "How do I know it's really

## The Joke The comic traces the escalating replacement of human jobs by machines through several stages: 1. **Jobs machines could do easily**: A robotic top-hatted figure tells a worker his "analyz

## The Joke A man at a bar describes his drinking experience using flawed mathematical induction. He says: "I had one beer and I felt good." Then: "I had two beers and I felt twice as good." He then

## The Joke A woman with red hair enthuses about mathematics to her companion, saying "What I love about math is that if you prove something true, it's true everywhere." She gives the example that th

## The Joke A person approaches the ancient Stoic philosopher Epictetus (shown behind bars, a reference to his historical status as a slave) and asks what to do when something sad happens. Epictetus

## The Joke A philosophy professor presents an ethical thought experiment to her class that starts simply enough: "Suppose you have a starving family. You pass a bakery." But then it rapidly escalate

## The Joke A couple is dealing with their young daughter ahead of Halloween. The father says "Hey honey, we need to get candy for Halloween!" and the daughter immediately starts chanting "Candy! Can

## The Joke A woman asks her partner, "Would you miss me if I were gone?" He asks for clarification: "Like, you died?" She asks "Does it matter?" and he says "Yeah, bigtime." He then explains with a

## The Joke A child in a lab coat and safety goggles reads instructions from a chemistry set: "By adding water to an equal mass of aqueous solution of H2O, you cause the water to double in volume." T