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Explanation
The Joke
The comic presents a graph titled "The Cinnamon Roll Delta Function," plotting tastiness against quality of ingredients. The joke is that cinnamon rolls have an extremely narrow spike of perfection: when made with basic, mediocre ingredients (butter, sugar, cinnamon, white flour), they taste absolutely incredible -- the spike shoots up to maximum tastiness. But if you deviate even slightly in either direction, the result is terrible. Use worse ingredients and it "tastes like dry bread with sugar." Use fancier, higher-quality ingredients (fennel, orange blossom) and the result is equally bad, prompting the existential question "Did I strangle my inner child?"
The title references the Dirac delta function from mathematics and physics, which is zero everywhere except at a single point, where it spikes to infinity. The comic argues that cinnamon roll quality behaves the same way -- there is exactly one narrow combination of ingredients that works, and any deviation in either direction produces a flat line of disappointment.
The Humor
The humor works on multiple levels. First, there is the relatable observation that cinnamon rolls are best when made simply and that artisanal or gourmet versions often taste worse despite using "better" ingredients. Second, applying a formal mathematical concept (the delta function) to something as mundane as baked goods is classic SMBC absurdist nerd humor. The phrase "Did I strangle my inner child?" perfectly captures the feeling of eating a pretentious pastry and wondering why you abandoned the simple joys in life.
References
The Dirac delta function is a generalized function in mathematics, widely used in physics and engineering, that is zero everywhere except at a single point where it is infinitely tall and has an integral of one. It was introduced by physicist Paul Dirac.