Explain SMBC — the wiki for Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

peak

2019-07-11 View on smbc-comics.com → 1 revision
peak
Votey panel for peak
This explanation is incomplete or may contain errors. It was generated by AI and has not yet been reviewed by a human editor.

Explanation

This comic is titled "The Argument Against Anthropocentrism Accomplished in a Single Haiku." The haiku reads: "Humans are the peak? / The elephant: more neurons, / Prehensile penis." It follows the traditional 5-7-5 syllable structure of haiku poetry.

The joke challenges anthropocentrism -- the belief that humans are the pinnacle of evolution or the most important species. It does so by pointing out that elephants have more neurons in their brains than humans (which is factually true -- elephant brains contain roughly 257 billion neurons compared to humans' roughly 86 billion, though the distribution differs significantly). The haiku then adds the observation about the elephant's prehensile penis as a second point of biological superiority, using the jarring juxtaposition of a serious scientific fact with a crude anatomical one to comedic effect. The format of the haiku -- a refined, minimalist art form -- contrasts perfectly with the blunt vulgarity of the closing line.

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