Explain SMBC — the wiki for Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

## The Joke A child asks their father, "Hey Daddy! What did one cow say to the other?" -- setting up what seems like a simple children"s joke. Instead of a normal punchline, the father launches into

## The Joke An older couple is asked what they would change about parenting if they could do it over. The grandmother says changing diapers gets the best "chore cross section" score because it has tw

## The Joke A single-panel comic shows a woman presenting a graph at a board. The graph has "Money Received" on the Y-axis and "Affluence of Child" on the X-axis, with a curve showing an exponential

## The Joke A doctor tells a patient, "You will be all right, Mister Piglucci, but I am afraid... your anus will never be the same." When the patient protests that it was just a routine colonoscopy,

## The Joke A man plays the classic children"s game "got your nose" with a child, pretending to steal the child"s nose. However, he then explains that the nose is now "contained within an infinitely

## The Joke A father tells his son, "Son, it's time I gave you 'the geek talk.'" The son says he already knows. The father explains that "the geek talk" is "a maneuver in which you spend the entire s

## The Joke A mother (depicted as a witch or green-skinned creature) presents her child with a nesting doll (matryoshka doll), saying "Child! I have made you this nesting doll!" She explains that ins

## The Joke A "reverse genie" appears and announces that instead of granting three wishes, it is taking three of the person's current blessings. It declares: "Your luck/meaningful employment is gone!

## The Joke Two people are discussing theology. One says, "I don't think God is a divine clockmaker." The other asks why not. The first explains: "A clockmaker is an engineer. A geek. Can you imagine

## The Joke A parent (who appears to be an alien or mad scientist type) is explaining the scientific method to their child. They walk through the steps: making observations ("Mommy and I are both bio

## The Joke A man greets someone with "Hey, Steve!" but the person corrects him: "I'm not Steve. I'm Jon. Remember, we met at—" The first man interrupts, explaining he ran a "compression algorithm" o

## The Joke The comic's title panel reads "This is how I imagine heaven." It shows a man who has died and arrived in heaven as an angel. He says to God, "Sorry I didn't believe in you." God, depicted

## The Joke The comic is structured as a "Good Idea / Bad Idea" comparison. The "Good Idea" is a Star Wars-themed wedding, showing a happy couple dressed as Jedi. The "Bad Idea" is a Star Wars-themed

## The Joke A researcher asks a colleague, "You ever fantasize about locking 100 babies in a plain white room at birth, then returning 10 years later to see what they're like?" The colleague reacts w

## The Joke The comic explores the philosophical question of whether mathematics or the universe is more fundamental. A man lying on the ground argues that math is just a shorthand — you could have a

## The Joke Two pearlfish are talking. One says, "I've been thinking of moving somewhere new." The other asks, "Oh, really? Why?" The first fish pauses, and the second one reminds him: "We're pearlfi

## The Joke A woman scolds a man for watching cartoons, asking "Are you five f***ing-years old?!" The man takes the insult literally and calculates his age in "f***ing-years": he has been sexually ac

## The Joke A man is holding a baby and asks, "What do we have here? Is it a sad baby?" and "You know why you're sad, sad baby?" The baby is crying, and the man offers a bleak existential answer: "If

## The Joke A daughter tells her mother that she feels they are not honest enough with each other and asks what a parent-child relationship would look like without honesty. The mother obliges, reveal

## The Joke A man who looks like Karl Marx is in bed with a woman. He exclaims, "What do you mean it wasn't good?! I spent six hours doing it!" The caption below reads: "Karl Marx explains the Labor

## The Joke A child tells his father that he wants more dessert after dinner and is acting as his own lobbyist to request a rule change. He offers a dollar every time ice cream is served after a meal

## The Joke Two people are chatting about a common observation: "Isn't it funny? You buy a whole cat tower, but the cat only wants the box!" One of them suggests, "They should just sell the box and f

## The Joke Someone asks a man what got him into D&D (Dungeons & Dragons). He replies, "It all started back when I was conceived..." The comic then cuts to a scene labeled "Earlier..." where an angel

## The Joke The comic opens with the warning: "Beware: every quote sounds smart with space behind it..." It then presents a banal, nonsensical statement -- "Ravioli is how the Universe fills a small

## The Joke Evolution is personified and interviewed about its "design philosophy." Evolution explains that it has no philosophy — it just throws random mutations at the wall and sees what survives.

## The Joke A smug man declares "Nice try, evolutionist! But the Second Law of Thermodynamics disproves evolution!" This is a common creationist talking point. Below the panel, the comic provides a m

## The Joke A woman at a podium explains that oxytocin is called "the love hormone" because it is associated with feelings of attraction. A man in the audience objects, saying oxytocin is also associ

## The Joke A man sees a ghostly figure and asks, "Who are you?" The ghost replies, "Your ghost." The man protests, "I'm not dead yet! How can I have a ghost?" The ghost explains: in the future, time

## The Joke A woman excitedly tells a man, "I built a time machine! And it's ready to go back into the past!" But there is a catch: it can only go back 30 minutes. She tries to explain that this is s

## The Joke The comic is a graph with "Level of Agreement" on the x-axis and "Odds of Fighting Someone Online" on the y-axis. The curve is U-shaped: it is high on the far left (labeled "Disagree on f

## The Joke A man announces that "the evil universe is pushing into this one" and they must stop it. When asked what makes it evil, he explains: it is a universe of "hideous perfection" where everyth

## The Joke The comic is a single panel showing two cavemen-like figures. One asks, "Hey, are you happy today?" The other replies, "Of course. I'm happy all the time. Just like everyone else. Why do

## The Joke A couple is discussing their domestic arrangement. One partner asks the other if it bothers them that they are the primary household breadwinner. The other responds with economic theory:

## The Joke A young girl asks her teacher, "Mrs. Jeffers, what's sex?" The teacher, flustered, stammers and then decides to explain it in terms of biology: "At its most fundamental, sex is an exchang

## The Joke An elderly man stands on his porch shaking his cane and yelling the classic grumpy old man line: "You damn kids! Get off my lawn!" In the next panel, he is seen inside his house watching

## The Joke A man explains to another that since the number of human beings who will ever exist over time is essentially infinite, Satan (who lives until the end of days) has a lifetime supply of sou

## The Joke The comic is titled "The Saddest Part of Adulthood" and shows a graph with "Age" on the x-axis and "Desire to Draw a Really Badass Sword" on the y-axis. The graph shows a curve that peaks

## The Joke The Lorax (from Dr. Seuss) announces "I am the Lorax! I speak for the trees!" A lumberjack-like man responds calmly: "Oh, it is okay, Lorax. We heard wisdom in your call and transitioned

## The Joke A scientist announces that "immortality is possible" -- the universe is big enough, the human body can be maintained, and people could live for 800 years. Another character adds that they

## The Joke A woman looks uncomfortable as a speech bubble (apparently coming from an off-screen baby) screams: "Shitting myself! Shitting myself! Ahh, yeah! Now, you! Put your tits in my face! Now!

## The Joke The comic opens with a narrator announcing "Zornak Returns! Zornak will conquer Zornak's ancient homeland and reestablish all praise to Zornak!" When his companions ask about his latest c

## The Joke A woman in a supermarket exclaims "Oh my God!" about a drink, marveling that it is "chemical free," that the cylinder contains "no ordinary matter," and that whatever is inside "behaves l

## The Joke At what appears to be a "Grad Day Night" event, a woman enthusiastically declares: "Well, I work with tiny little babies and I just love it! And I don't care what anyone says, I don't bel

## The Joke A bald, bespectacled man (resembling a philosophy professor) arrives in Hell, where the Devil greets him: "Oh! Another professor of philosophy. Here is your copy of Atlas Shrugged Part 2.

## The Joke An alien is presenting to "Madame President" about the dangers of a species that "lies, murders, enslaves other species, and is so cheap every human can have one." When the president asks

## The Joke This is an installment of the recurring "Adventures of Nihilist Doctor" series. The doctor tells a patient to open her mouth, then instructs her to "think about how your most cherished fe

## The Joke The comic is drawn in the style of the classic Popeye comic strip. Popeye and Bluto (or Brutus) are in their typical rivalry scenario. Popeye announces he is a 4-star general, and the dia

## The Joke Jesus returns to Earth and addresses a crowd, saying: "I have returned to bring heaven! You have suffered long, but now I'll take you to a better place: a planet overpopulated by a race o

## The Joke A couple is shown with their baby. One parent announces: "Honey! I bought a machine that tells you what your actions do to your baby in the long term." They then proceed to test various p

## The Joke The comic depicts a discussion about a portal or doorway that has appeared. People are debating whether to go through it, what's on the other side, and what the implications might be. Var