Explain SMBC — the wiki for Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

This comic satirizes airport security by imagining a future where TSA screening procedures have escalated to absurd, invasive extremes. An elderly man tells his grandchildren that things used to be different -- when he was young, you did not have to endure extreme invasive procedures before boarding a plane. The children are incredulous, and the grandfather explains that the old system merely involved groping and looking at naked pictures (a reference to the real-world TSA pat-downs and full-body scanners that were controversial at the time).

When the child asks how the current extreme system catches terrorists, the grandfather insists that the logic is straightforward: terrorists would hate the procedure, so subjecting everyone to it ensures safety. The comic takes the real criticism of TSA security theater -- that increasingly invasive procedures do not actually improve safety -- and extrapolates it to a ludicrous extreme. The final panel punchline, where the grandfather asks to borrow lubricant and the father reminds him liquids are not allowed, adds another layer by referencing the real TSA liquid restrictions while also tying back to the absurd screening procedure.