Explain SMBC — the wiki for Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

The Joke

In this comic, Weinersmith explores the concept of "respect" and how it can be weaponized or used in contradictory ways. The comic likely depicts a scenario where someone demands respect while simultaneously behaving in a way that undermines the very concept — a common social dynamic where the word "respect" means different things to different people. For some, "respect" means treating someone as an authority, while for others it means treating someone as a human being. The comic plays on this duality.

The alt text — "Anyone who takes this the wrong way and chooses to email me will be met with profound respect" — is itself a joke that reinforces the theme. Weinersmith is pre-empting angry responses from readers who might feel called out by the comic, and the promise of "profound respect" in response to hostile emails is dripping with irony. It implies he will respond with exaggerated politeness, which is itself a form of dismissal.

The Humor

The humor works on multiple levels. First, there is the observational comedy of pointing out how "respect" is a word that gets twisted to serve whoever is wielding it. Second, the alt text creates a meta-joke where Weinersmith demonstrates the very dynamic he is satirizing — using "respect" as a rhetorical tool. The comic likely uses SMBC's characteristic technique of setting up a seemingly straightforward social observation and then pushing it to an absurd logical conclusion.

The self-referential nature of the alt text (anticipating the reaction to the comic and folding that reaction into the joke) is a hallmark of Weinersmith's style, where the paratext becomes part of the comedic experience.

References

• The dual meaning of respect: This touches on a widely discussed social concept, often summarized as: "Sometimes people use 'respect' to mean 'treating someone as a person' and sometimes to mean 'treating someone as an authority,' and sometimes people who are used to being treated as an authority say 'if you won't respect me, I won't respect you' and they mean 'if you won't treat me as an authority, I won't treat you as a person.'"