Explain SMBC — the wiki for Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

A woman is asked to explain the concept of self-referential phrases. She responds by asking, "Well, do you know the old saying about self-referential phrases?" When the man says no, she simply replies, "That was it." Her explanation of self-referential phrases was itself a self-referential phrase -- the "old saying" about self-referential phrases is the act of referring to itself.

The man, missing the cleverness entirely, grumbles that "linguistics profs are a bunch of condescending pedants." The woman then delivers a second layer of the joke by correcting him: "Close, but that's redundant, not self-referential." This correction is itself a pedantic response, perfectly illustrating his complaint while simultaneously demonstrating that "condescending pedants" is indeed redundant (since pedants are almost by definition condescending). The comic plays with language on multiple recursive levels, embodying the very concept it's trying to explain.