Explain SMBC — the wiki for Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

checkers

2015-11-05 View on smbc-comics.com → 1 revision
checkers
Votey panel for checkers
This explanation is incomplete or may contain errors. It was generated by AI and has not yet been reviewed by a human editor.

Explanation

The Joke

The comic has a caption reading: "Nobody appreciated my invention that transformed all games into checkers." A person is shown excitedly holding up a device and declaring "Guys! This is a gamechanger!" to an unimpressed audience.

The Humor

The entire joke is the pun on "gamechanger." In common usage, a "gamechanger" means something revolutionary and transformative. But in this case, the invention literally changes games -- specifically, it changes all games into checkers. The word is being used in its most literal possible sense, but the result is the opposite of revolutionary: checkers is widely considered one of the simplest and least exciting board games. So the inventor's breathless enthusiasm ("This is a gamechanger!") is simultaneously technically accurate and deeply underwhelming. The audience's lack of appreciation is entirely warranted -- who would want every game turned into checkers?

The votey ("Aren't you ashamed?!" / "Yes.") suggests even the inventor recognizes the pointlessness of the creation but went ahead and made it anyway.

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