Explain SMBC — the wiki for Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

2014-11-22

2014-11-22 View on smbc-comics.com → 1 revision
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2014-11-22
Votey panel for 2014-11-22
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Explanation

The Joke

The comic imagines what it would be like if Popular Science magazine bought out Cosmopolitan (a women's lifestyle/fashion magazine). The result is a series of tips that blend Cosmo's signature "sexy tips" format with scientific concepts:

  1. "Use the motion of your tongue to sign a sexy sentence in binary. Trinary if you're naughty" -- mixing Cosmo's sex tips with computer science (binary/trinary number systems).
  2. "Cover his body with iron filings, then use static electricity to give him a magnetic evening" -- a "romantic tip" that is actually just a physics experiment involving magnetism and electrostatics.
  3. "Use Gauss's theorem to predict exactly how much he'll ejaculate" -- applying Gauss's flux theorem (a fundamental result in electromagnetism/vector calculus about the flow through a closed surface) to a decidedly non-mathematical bodily function. The equation shown (a surface integral) is the actual mathematical form of Gauss's theorem.

The Humor

The comedy comes from the absurd mashup of two very different magazine genres. Cosmo is famous for its often ridiculous-sounding sex and relationship tips, while Popular Science covers technology and scientific discoveries. By merging them, Weinersmith highlights how both genres rely on a similar formula -- confident, authoritative-sounding advice presented in numbered lists -- but the content is hilariously incompatible. The escalation from binary tongue-signing to literally applying Gauss's theorem to predict ejaculation volume makes each panel progressively more absurd.

References

  • Gauss's Theorem (Divergence Theorem): A fundamental result in vector calculus relating the flux of a vector field through a closed surface to the divergence of the field in the volume enclosed. The equation shown on the chalkboard is a version of this theorem.
  • Binary and Trinary: Base-2 and base-3 number systems used in computing and mathematics.
  • Cosmopolitan: A popular women's magazine known for its sex and relationship advice columns.
  • Popular Science: A magazine covering science and technology for a general audience.
View History (1) Original Comic