Explain SMBC — the wiki for Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

The Joke

A mad scientist announces he has spent decades creating a device that can scan all of time and space to find and bring "history's greatest villain" to the present. He activates his "time scanner" and summons the entity, which turns out to be... a microscopic molecule in a petri dish. The scientist is confused: "What's this?" His robotic assistant explains it is "the first self-replicating molecule" -- the very first life form, which existed before the concept of evil even existed. Since evil is nonsensical before life, this molecule is technically "responsible for evil" in the sense that it made all subsequent evil possible by starting life itself.

The scientist protests that "it doesn't look so evil," and the assistant responds: "That's because it's small. If you had an atomic force microscope, you could see it being racist." The final panel shows a DNA-like molecule saying "I'm sure abiotic molecules are lovely but I just don't want them in our community."

The Humor

The comic works on several levels. First, there is the classic anticlimax of the mad scientist's grand scheme producing a microscopic blob instead of a supervillain. Second, there is the philosophical joke: if you define "greatest villain" as "most responsible for evil," then the origin of life itself bears ultimate responsibility for every bad thing that has ever happened. Third, the punchline swerves into absurdist territory by giving the molecule racist opinions about abiotic molecules, personifying a chemical compound with small-minded bigotry. The line about "not wanting them in our community" parodies NIMBYism and prejudice, applied to the boundary between living and non-living matter -- making it both a joke about the origin of life and a satire of how quickly any in-group/out-group boundary produces discrimination.