Explain SMBC — the wiki for Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

2013-08-10

2013-08-10 View on smbc-comics.com → 1 revision
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2013-08-10
Votey panel for 2013-08-10
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Explanation

This comic is a companion piece to the previous day'''s comic about the "Nay-Dolf" pub game. In this single panel, a mother asks her son "Where are you going, son?" and he replies with determination: "I'''m gonna kill some potential Hitlers." Below the panel, text provides two interpretations: "Best possible scenario: Time machine construction" and "Most likely scenario: Jerking off in the shower."

The joke plays on the idea that every unborn person is technically a "potential Hitler" -- and the crudest way to prevent potential people from being born is to, well, waste the genetic material. So the son'''s dramatic declaration about killing potential Hitlers is almost certainly not about heroic time travel, but rather about a much more mundane teenage activity. The humor comes from the enormous gap between the grandiose framing (preventing the next Hitler) and the banal reality.

The votey panel continues the joke with the son thinking "Time to jerk off in the time machine," combining both scenarios into one absurd image. This comic, along with the previous day'''s "Nay-Dolf" strip, forms a mini-series of Hitler counterfactual jokes, as acknowledged by the previous comic'''s votey panel where the cartoonist noted his comic needed more Hitler jokes.

View History (1) Original Comic