Explain SMBC — the wiki for Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

## The Joke A woman, depicted as a dominatrix-like figure, is standing over a man and commanding him: "Pronounce it NOOKULAR!" The man, in distress, protests: "But it is humiliating! It has two sylla

## The Joke An elf tells Santa that he has been thinking about the whole "naughty vs. nice" system. The elf points out that crime and poverty are positively correlated, and that children with stable

## The Joke A man asks his friend how his love life is going. The friend says "Oh, good" and then launches into a description of his girlfriend that sounds exactly like an H.P. Lovecraft horror descr

## The Joke A man accidentally sees a woman's forearm and blurts out, "Oh damn. Sorry... I just eroticized your arm... in my mind." He then explains that forearms have androgen-dependent hair, which

## The Joke A cat has killed a mouse and presents it to its owner, apologizing: "I am sorry I killed it. I did not want to commit murder, but it is feline law that I must give an acceptable kill to t

## The Joke A man approaches a tailor and says, "Hi. You know how when you sit down, sometimes it looks like you have a boner?" The tailor cautiously responds, "...Yeah?" The man then declares, "I wa

## The Joke This is a long-form comic that appears to be a dramatic fairy-tale or adventure story involving various characters including what looks like a shark, a princess/queen figure with a crown,

## The Joke One person holds up an intestine (a goat intestine, specifically) and explains "This is where poop goes through a goat." The other person, looking at the intestine casing, asks, "What if

## The Joke A boss presents an employee with the claim that he has "got your sense of self-worth," pretending to hold it between his fingers (like the classic "got your nose" game played with childre

## The Joke A man discovers what he believes is a genuine "Book of Revelation" -- a book containing horrifying cosmic revelations. He describes its contents: it speaks of "late ordinance" requiring c

## The Joke A woman notices her partner browsing the internet in incognito mode and asks why, pointing out that he is just reading the news right now. The man looks guilty and uncomfortable. The capt

## The Joke A person encounters Death (the Grim Reaper), who appears before them. Instead of the usual fearful reaction, the scene turns into a motivational lecture. Death tells the person that they

## The Joke The comic is titled "The Adventures of Philosophically Inclined Mailman." It follows a mailman who overthinks his job to an absurd degree. He describes the process of mail delivery in inc

## The Joke The comic is titled "'Sexual Maturity' Explained" and presents a graph. The x-axis is labeled "Age" and the y-axis is labeled "Concern that the sexy pizza boy in your fantasy actually did

## The Joke A museum visitor is caught rolling up paintings of unusual objects and smoking them. A museum guard (wearing a bowler hat, resembling a figure from a Rene Magritte painting) tells him to

## The Joke A couple has a romantic exchange where one asks, "Do I really know you, John?" and the other replies, "I don't know." They reflect that "we all wear masks, even to ourselves." This trigge

## The Joke A couple has dinner with friends. One partner is a scientist who can't stop correcting factual errors in casual conversation. They interrupt anecdotes to cite studies, correct folk wisdom

## The Joke The comic presents a limerick written on a yellow background: "This limerick goes in reverse Unless I'm remiss The neat thing is this: If you start from the bottom-most verse This limeri

## The Joke The comic is titled "Funtime Activity: Epic Phrases in Appropriate Context." A fast food worker asks a customer, "Would you like to add funny fries to that meal?" The customer responds wi

## The Joke A doctor (obstetrician) tells a woman: "Yeah, so about ten pounds of stuff just came out of your vagina." The caption below reads: "If I were an obstetrician, I would do this after every

## The Joke A couple lies in bed discussing sex. One partner observes that their sex is "ambiguous," prompting a lengthy academic-style debate about how to categorize and taxonomize the activity. The

## The Joke An older couple excitedly shows their adult child the house they used to live in, which is now for sale. The mother nostalgically points out various rooms: "Here's the kitchen where I pac

## The Joke A boy named Bobby is given a robot that has "no personality, no feelings, no soul." The idea is that by spending time with Bobby, the robot will "learn your ways and become more and more

## The Joke A woman cheerfully asks her dog, "Who's a good doggy? Who's a good doggy?" The dog responds with a deeply philosophical, dark interior monologue. It declares: "I am not a good doggy. For

## The Joke The comic is structured as a knock-knock joke. Someone begins: "The NSA." The other person responds "What?" in confusion. The first person explains, "Oh sorry, that's the punchline to a k

This comic is titled "How Introductory Physics Problems Are Written" and satirizes the notoriously convoluted and tedious nature of physics textbook problems. It shows an original problem about a stee

This comic shows a "Science Toys" store where a child receives a "Stem Cell Creation Kit." The child excitedly opens the kit and throws something at another child while yelling "Stem cell!" -- apparen

## The Joke A woman is about to be intimate with Aquaman and asks, "Wait, Aquaman. Do you have a condom?" Aquaman cheerfully replies, "Oh that's not necessary. I'm coated in a protective layer of muc

This comic applies philosophical analysis to the game of Rock Paper Scissors. A girl declares "I threw paper. Paper beats rock!" but her opponent counters with a logical argument: rock beats scissors,

This comic features a superhero parody where a character announces they have spliced their DNA with that of a "superbug" (likely referencing antibiotic-resistant bacteria), thereby gaining all its pow

## The Joke A woman tells a man, "Dad, I'm tired of your dumb jokes. Why don't you mix it up for once?" The father obliges by telling a series of twisted, dark versions of classic joke formats. First

## The Joke A man says to his wife, "I feel like we're neglecting little Billy." The woman replies, "It's okay. He's small." In the background, a sad-looking small child (Billy) peers around a corner

## The Joke Three different academics are shown reading The Iliad, each responding according to their discipline. The Classicist says, "Yes, one really must read in the original Greek." The Literary

## The Joke A man introduces himself at what appears to be a social gathering. When asked his name, he explains: "Gally Smith. 'Smith' is a very old name. A long time ago people used to name themselv

## The Joke The comic's caption reads: "At some point in the past a marine biologist was very proud of herself." A female scientist is shown excitedly telling a colleague, "This will be called the ci

## The Joke This comic is a science fiction parable about the end of humanity. It follows a progression: as society became more automated, it took less and less real-world labor to earn each hour of

## The Joke The caption reads "Life tip: Once you're old enough, you can make any joke in any setting." An elderly man in suspenders and thick glasses is standing in an elementary school classroom (a

This comic is a long-form joke about the Salem witch trials and puritanical hypocrisy. A Puritan-era character accuses someone of being a witch, then launches into an elaborate prosecution. However, a

This comic imagines Hitler attempting a career in stand-up comedy. The shadowy figure on stage tells a joke: "What's the difference between eugenics and a charity marathon? Well, the second one's a ra

This comic introduces "Neuro the Clown," a clown who uses neuroscience terminology instead of traditional clown tricks. When someone points out he doesn't look like a clown, Neuro explains that the co

This comic features a child asking their dad what a "deus ex machina" is. The father gives a playful (and incorrect) etymology, breaking it down as "deus" meaning "God" and "machina" meaning "machine,

## The Joke A group of girls are playing the party game "Never Have I Ever." The rules are explained: you say something you have never done, and everyone who has done it raises their hand. One red-ha

## The Joke A professor gets tenure — the ultimate goal of the academic career, permanent job security — and immediately starts doing whatever they want. But instead of using their freedom for bold,

This comic depicts an anthropomorphized sea cucumber on a date with a human woman. The sea cucumber nervously exclaims "Oh God I'm so nervous I'm firing Cuvierian tubules out of my anus!" The woman lo

## The Joke A man asks a woman, "You ever wonder what it'd be like if more people thought like economists?" The comic then shows a grocery store scenario: a customer asks "How much for this can of be

This comic explores the concept of hedonic adaptation -- the psychological phenomenon where people return to a baseline level of happiness regardless of positive life changes. A character explains tha

This comic tells a story about a child who says there's a monster under their bed. The father gets excited, saying a real "monster" (actually megafauna -- large prehistoric animals) is right there in

This comic explores the difference between how humans and other mammals interpret the baring of teeth. In humans, showing teeth is a smile -- a sign of happiness and friendliness. In most other mammal

This comic features a child asking their father to buy a book of optical illusions, only for the father to reveal he already has one. He holds up a plain text document and explains that "the text is a

## The Joke A police officer and a woman are looking at what appears to be a strip club stage. On the stage, instead of a performer, there is an enormous pile of paper money reaching to the ceiling.