Explain SMBC — the wiki for Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

This comic plays on the concept of supervillain naming conventions and causes of death. The main panel is designed as a news website called "NEWSnet" with a headline reading "MYSTERIOUS VILLAIN STRIKES AGAIN! DEATH TOLL IN BILLIONS." The villain is shown in a classic superhero/villain costume, and sidebar headlines read "Masked man says I will strike where you most suspect!" and "Opinion: Doctors call media idiots."

The caption below delivers the punchline: "If I ever become a supervillain, my name will be '''natural causes.'''" The joke works on multiple levels. First, if a villain named "Natural Causes" were responsible for billions of deaths, every death certificate would technically read "death by natural causes," making the deaths appear non-criminal. The fact that doctors call the media "idiots" in the sidebar suggests the medical community can see through this, understanding that actual natural causes are being confused with the villain'''s attacks. The headline "I will strike where you most suspect" also plays on this -- natural causes do tend to strike where you most expect (old age, illness, etc.).

The votey panel adds another layer of dark humor. A different character says, "Also... they call me autoerotic asphyxiation," suggesting there is another villain whose name is an embarrassing cause of death -- meaning that anyone killed by this villain would have their death attributed to a very awkward and embarrassing cause instead.