Explain SMBC — the wiki for Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

This comic features a classic deal-with-the-devil scenario with a twist. The Devil offers a man: "Sell me your soul and I will grant you far better impulse control." The man immediately blurts out "Deal! Deal!" without a moment's hesitation.

In the next panel, the Devil says "Uh oh." The final panel shows the man, now presumably with better impulse control, calmly saying "...actually, no."

The joke is a neat logical paradox. The person who would most want better impulse control is, by definition, someone who acts impulsively -- meaning they'd immediately accept the deal without thinking it through. But the moment the deal takes effect and they actually gain impulse control, the first thing that improved self-control would tell them is to reconsider selling their soul to the Devil. The Devil has essentially created a self-defeating contract: the very thing he's offering guarantees the buyer will want to back out. It's a fun exploration of how the desire for self-improvement and the capacity for it are inherently at odds in this scenario.