Explain SMBC — the wiki for Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

## The Joke The caption reads "The Synthetic Biology Department isn't taking any chances." Below it is a glass case — the kind you typically see in buildings with a fire extinguisher or axe labeled "

## The Joke Lois Lane and Superman (Clark Kent) are discussing having children. Lois argues it is too risky because even if they successfully have a child, there is some probability it will be a supe

## The Joke The comic contrasts two scenarios. In the top panel, labeled "Normal Person," a guy on a couch says "What if the universe is made of math? Whooaa—" and his friend dismisses him with "Eat

## The Joke A man confidently declares "The Rapture will come in my lifetime!" A woman responds "Really?" and then says "That's great! Hey, since you're getting raptured, could you sign this agreemen

## The Joke A barbarian conqueror named Glornak addresses the people of a valley, announcing he has slain their evil king and will now rule over them. The peasants begin asking practical questions: "

## The Joke A woman complains about Hollywood remakes: "I hate when they do dishonest remakes! They just change everything! It's pointless." A man responds: "Okay, but imagine if they'd actually been

## The Joke A teenage boy tells his friend: "I want her dad to think I'm impressive when I pick Sally up for prom." His friend advises: "That's easy. Her dad's a legal scholar." The plan: "Get some o

## The Joke The caption reads: "The main appeal of funding a quantum gravity research center was getting to name it." The sign in front of a research building reads: "The Advanced Center for Determin

## The Joke The comic references the well-known medical warning found on erectile dysfunction medication: "If erection lasts more than 4 hours, call a doctor." In the first panel, we see a pill bottl

## The Joke An alien is explaining to a human prisoner why the aliens started a war with every human planet at once. The alien recalls the first Human-Opferan war, in which humans won because they we

## The Joke Adam, the biblical first man, has returned from the dead and confronts Renaissance painters. He is angry that they always depicted him with a fig leaf covering his penis. The painters ner

## The Joke A clown takes a selfie with a phone. The second panel reveals what the phone's camera actually captured: just a close-up of the clown's big red nose filling the screen. In the bottom pane

## The Joke A man in ancient Greek clothing (identified in the caption as Oedipus) is having a bad day. He has spilled his coffee, stubbed his toe, and invokes the superstition "rule of three" -- the

## The Joke The comic tells a fairy-tale-style story about a village with a tower. The villagers loved the tower and kept building it taller and taller. One day a great storm came, and the tower peop

## The Joke The comic shows how professionals from different academic fields would greet a baby, each using jargon from their discipline as a term of endearment: - **Economists**: "How's my little d

## The Joke A political candidate addresses a crowd, promising to cut through the usual political lies and platitudes and give them "the truth." He then reveals his honest truth: he can take a strong

## The Joke The comic's header declares: "The hardest psychological disorder is Pun-Tourette's." A woman is telling a tragic, serious story: "And then the wild dogs came. They were starving too. Firs

## The Joke A woman approaches a centaur with a question. She observes that the centaur has an entire horse body instead of legs, but its head is the same size as a regular human head. She then makes

## The Joke A character uses statistics to prove something obviously misleading — like "on average, humans have one testicle and one ovary" or "Bill Gates walks into a bar and on average everyone is

## The Joke A man is lying in a puddle of water while an octopus makes love to his face. He calls out: "Help me, Contemplation Girl!" A superhero named Contemplation Girl flies in. Instead of rescuin

## The Joke A woman asks a shadowy figure "So, you're a dog person?" The figure angrily replies "How dare you!" In the second panel, the figure is revealed to be a literal werewolf (lycanthrope) who

## The Joke A man visits a doctor's office and announces: "Doctor, I have friction burns on my penis from too much sex." The doctor responds professionally that she'll need to do a biopsy to be sure.

## The Joke A government aide shows the President a news report about conspiracy theorists who believe every time a plane leaves a contrail ("chemtrails") it is the government dropping chemicals. The

## The Joke A man is startled to encounter a giant, looming figure who announces: "I am the physical embodiment of your self-perception." The man nervously asks, "My self-perception can fly?" The fig

## The Joke The comic retells the fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty with a more realistic twist. The narration begins traditionally: "Long has she lain asleep, awaiting the kiss of a true prince." When t

## The Joke The comic reimagines the confrontation between Captain Ahab and Moby Dick from "Moby-Dick." Ahab begins with his famous declaration, "From hell's heart I stab at thee!" but the whale inte

## The Joke A scientist confronts the naming conventions in physics: ordinary matter, which makes up everything we can see and interact with, is only about 5% of the universe, yet the other 95% (dark

## The Joke The comic is presented as a guide to "Plasma Wakefield Acceleration." It begins with a scientist excitedly shouting about it at a party, then walks through the concept step by step. The g

## The Joke A child excitedly tells his father that his favorite band member left his favorite band and joined a different band, and it is the same band. "This is incredible!" he says. The father, de

## The Joke A man scoffs at the idea that we have not returned to the Moon, saying: "Yeah right. We learned to make giant space rockets, landed on the Moon, drew up moonbase plans, then just decided

## The Joke The comic presents a series of "Math Translations" -- plain-English interpretations of popular mathematical phrases that people use to sound impressive. Each panel translates a math buzzw

## The Joke Jesus is at a gathering where his followers are praising his ability to turn water into wine. One skeptic challenges him by saying "You can't make Jello shots!" Jesus responds with "Oh ye

## The Joke A mother and daughter come across what appears to be a dead man lying upside down on the ground with his eyes wide open. The child says "Oh no!" and the mother tries to reassure her by sa

## The Joke A father bursts into his children's bedroom at night wearing a monster costume, screaming to scare them. He then lectures them that this was a "simulated monster attack" and scolds them f

## The Joke A robot approaches a food vendor with an awkward greeting: "Good day, fellow human. I request some foods." When asked what amount, it responds "A fine foods amount" while holding up four

## The Joke A tech enthusiast declares that he can't wait until technology replaces doctors, because "medicine will be so much better once engineers are in charge." The comic then jumps forward 20 ye

## The Joke A human is trying to explain the concept of fake dog poop (a classic prank toy) to an alien. The human explains: "See, it's just fake latex dog poop. Not real." Then elaborates: "Like, th

## The Joke At what appears to be a Halloween office party, a host invites a coworker to put his hand in a bucket to "feel a mummy's flesh." The coworker then reveals he's actually handing the host a

## The Joke A woman receives a pizza with "extra sausage" and the pizza delivery man launches into an unsolicited, detailed explanation of what sausage actually is: not whole tubes of cured meat, but

## The Joke The comic references the Stoic philosopher Seneca, who was known for his writings on death and the transience of life. Someone asks Seneca why he doesn't grieve when a friend dies. Seneca

## The Joke Terrorists at a camp look up to see parachutes dropping from the sky. Instead of conventional weapons, the parachutes deliver clowns and party supplies — a full circus assault complete wi

## The Joke The comic is split into two scenarios labeled "In Movies" and "In Reality." In the movie version, a scientist proposes a wild plan — "What if we used a laser to ignite a tube of air?" — a

## The Joke Two police officers are staring at a closed box labeled "experiment in progress." One asks "Do we arrest him?" and the other explains the dilemma: the suspect said he would only smoke mar

## The Joke The comic is titled "InMANity" and presents a sprawling satirical take on gender essentialism. It follows a progression where various characters attempt to define what is inherently "male

## The Joke A character explains "The Law of One Price" -- the economic principle that the price of a commodity should be the same everywhere in a market. Upon learning this, a villain-like character

## The Joke A time traveler goes back in time to give important advice to their younger self. The younger self ignores the advice completely, makes the same mistakes, and the time traveler realizes t

## The Joke A woman tells her friend, "I've decided to save myself for marriage, like you said." Her friend responds, "That's beautiful." The woman then explains what she actually means: "Guys really

## The Joke The comic is titled "Know Your Linguistic Philosophies" and presents three schools of thought about language using the analogy of gymnastics: 1. **Prescriptivist**: "Language is like gym

## The Joke The comic offers a "Life Tip: Anything can be charming with the right choice of words." A woman at a party says: "Oop! I've had a few too many whiskeys. Time to play mama bird to the toil

## The Joke In the first panel, a woman enthusiastically says, "Isn't it amazing how every snowflake is different from every other?" and a man responds, "Sure." She then adds, "Also, isn't it amazing