Explain SMBC — the wiki for Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

This comic satirizes the tension between traditional Christian ethics and modern effective altruism / rationalist philosophy. In the first panel, a man prays to Christ: "Dear Christ, should I give al

## The Joke A character shares a "life-changing vocabulary tip": in Scots, "brose" is an old term for porridge. In the next panel, we see them excitedly eating a bowl of "brose," only for another cha

## The Joke The comic is a lengthy philosophical exploration of the expected value of murder, structured as an ethical thought experiment. A character argues that most ethical frameworks agree that s

## The Joke A mathematician comes before an audience to propose "a new branch of mathematics." His goal is to find the "least elegant proof" -- that is, the proof that requires the most effort for th

## The Joke A Buddhist monk or guru tells someone, "To become enlightened, you must become as a child." In the following panels, the guru is seen dealing with an actual child, who is biting, crying,

## The Joke The single-panel comic shows a scene at the gates of heaven. A figure (presumably Saint Peter or a similar gatekeeper) addresses a newly deceased person at a podium, telling them: "Before

## The Joke A father figure confronts what appears to be his daughter's boyfriend or suitor. He begins with the classic protective-dad trope: "You'd better treat my daughter right, because let me tel

## The Joke A father tells his son, "I want you to read about Hitler. If we don't learn about the past, we're doomed to repeat it." The son dutifully reads the book. Shortly afterward, the house is o

## The Joke The comic presents three vignettes about modern life-force depletion. In the first, a vampire bursts into a man's bedroom screaming "KSAAA! I have come in the night to suck out your life

## The Joke A couple is in what appears to be a therapy or relationship counseling session. The therapist says, "Let us talk about your sexual compatibility issues." One partner (a woman) says, "I wi

This comic explores the paradox of rationality and war, particularly as it might apply to artificial intelligence. A robot proudly declares that robots, being rational, will never have war. A human w

A child asks his father, "Dad, what's the hardest thing about being an adult?" The dad responds ominously: "The tentacles." He then elaborates with creepy detail about how they come "in the night" and

A man encounters a magical fish that grants him one wish. He wishes for "a beautiful woman to make love to me all night." The fish, however, insists on consent, saying it will find a woman "from the s

A politician addresses a crowd in an exaggerated folksy accent, railing against "Ivy League economists tellin' us what is and what ain't." But instead of proposing anti-intellectual alternatives, the

A professor tells a PhD student she is confused: the student was on track for a PhD in cosmology but "just stopped working." The professor offers to give a lesser degree for the work completed but wan

A frog offers the classic fairy tale deal: "Kiss me and I'll turn into a prince and marry you!" But when the princess imagines the romantic kiss (shown in silhouette), the frog clarifies: "Just to be

A group of people in black suits and sunglasses stand at what appears to be a funeral. One asks "Will that be enough?" and another responds "No, no. She would've wanted more. So much more." A third sa

An older person complains that kids today are boring: "You're on the phone. Don't want to drive or party. It's so boring!" They reminisce nostalgically about being a teen, "listening to music about Sa

Two people discuss: "How do you think the world's best day will go?" One says "I dunno." The other explains that they are a "best-day-ever futurist" and argues that if you believe there is one specifi

Aliens observe Earth and ask "But then how do they have spacecraft?" The answer reveals that humans are fragmented: different groups do small parts of the design, subcontractors handle components, and

Two people discuss comedy. One says "Every great joke contains a kernel of truth," and the other agrees, giving an example: "Like that joke about the monk with a barrel on his knickers." The first per

This comic plays on the idea of hierarchical social structures and the human need to feel superior. A robot tells a group of forest creatures that they think life is pointless, and the creatures respo

This comic satirizes sensationalist science journalism and how media outlets frame scientific results. The top panel shows a headline proclaiming "Einstein Proven Right Again, Say Researchers," with t

This comic imagines a first-contact scenario where aliens arrive at Earth and explain why they took so long. The aliens say that the moment Earth's signals became detectable, the content was so awful

This comic satirizes the business model of AI services and subscription-tier pricing. A person is interacting with an AI assistant at what appears to be a service desk. When they submit a request, the

This comic takes the common political talking point "It's time we run this country more like a business!" and follows it to its logical (and absurd) conclusion. A politician makes this declaration fro

This is a single-panel comic (with a caption) that features a scientist-type character at a podium cheerfully announcing: "Great news, everyone! Thanks to technology, we have eliminated poverty, disea

This comic is addressed to "Dear Evolution" and questions why humans are so drawn to fantasy stories about elves, goblins, and trolls. The first speaker notes that humans didn't invent goblins -- thes

This comic plays on the biblical and archaeological significance of Megiddo. The first panel establishes that "Armageddon" etymologically comes from "Har Megiddo," meaning "Mount Megiddo," referring t

This comic reimagines the myth of Sisyphus. In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was condemned by the gods to roll a boulder up a hill for eternity, only to have it roll back down each time. In this version,

This single-panel comic (with caption) depicts a biblical scene where a figure with outstretched arms addresses a crowd, proclaiming: "Everyone listen! The angry deity that rules the world is bent on

In this comic, a fairy rewards a man for saving her by giving him a magic bag that "gives you what you need most." The man excitedly reaches in and exclaims about all the people he owes money to and h

This comic tackles the philosophical debate about whether true altruism exists. A character argues that real altruism is "just doing stuff to improve your social standing or spread your genes" -- that

This is not a traditional comic but rather a long-form text announcement from Zach Weinersmith to his readers. In it, he explains that the SMBC website has changed significantly: the ads are gone, and

In this comic, two characters are watching the news. One is stunned by how terrible the news is, remarking "Wow, more news. Jeezus." The other character asks, "Does it ever bother you that the stuff o

This comic is set as a classic murder mystery scene, with a detective-like figure presenting findings to a gathered group of suspects. The detective announces that "after reviewing all the clues and t

This comic presents a "reverse murder mystery" concept. A group of characters are gathered around what appears to be a crime scene, but instead of trying to figure out who committed the murder, the de

This comic features two characters discussing food. In the first panel, one character accuses the other: "You think food is only good if it is got a couple hundred Scoville units of bland." The other

This is a long-format comic about a man at a bar trying to impress a woman. He launches into an elaborate, intellectualized monologue about how "the longstanding social arrangement in which heterosexu

This comic takes place in a post-human future populated by robots. One robot tells a joke, and another robot declares: "That joke is not funny!" When asked if it is because the joke is offensive, the

This comic addresses cosmological "doomsday scenarios" about the ultimate fate of the universe. The first panels describe how the universe will likely end in heat death, where matter is evenly distrib

This is a single-panel comic showing a person peering into a fishbowl containing two fish. One fish says "The giant worried thing in the sky is back!" while the other exclaims "Oh boy, food-rain time!

In this comic, one woman asks another how she manages to spend so little time on her phone. The second woman tells her to imagine she is at a crossroads. The woman explains the two paths: one path is

This comic contrasts nostalgia for past social norms with the reality of present-day social interactions. In the opening panels, an older man complains to a younger person: "Do you ever miss the old

This comic is about chaos theory and the sensitivity of complex systems to initial conditions. A professor or lecturer enthusiastically tells his audience: "Come with me if you want to see... absolut

This single-panel comic shows a teacher at a chalkboard where "1 + 1 = 2" is written. Rather than proving this arithmetically or axiomatically, the teacher has drawn two squares of equal area on the c

This is a long-form comic that repeatedly uses the same punchline structure: "OH SHIT, EXOGENOUS FACTORS!" The comic follows a pattern where a character makes a confident declaration about understand

In this comic, two people are having a conversation about "real" numbers in mathematics. One person asks why they are called "the real numbers" when they seem like an arbitrary set. The other explain

This comic tackles the well-known dysfunction of performance reviews in the workplace. A manager or executive stands at a podium and declares: "There's nothing wrong with productivity-measuring algor

This comic is a dark, multi-panel exploration of equality, wealth, and civilizational collapse. In the opening panels, one character asks another why goods have gotten less equal over time. The respo