Explain SMBC — the wiki for Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

snowman

2018-12-17 View on smbc-comics.com → 1 revision
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snowman
Votey panel for snowman
This explanation is incomplete or may contain errors. It was generated by AI and has not yet been reviewed by a human editor.

Explanation

The Joke

A child excitedly tells a parent "We built a snowman!" The parent, in an attempt to be gender-conscious, asks "Don't you know that's a snow MAN and not a snow WOMAN?" The child then fires back that the snowman is getting "cancelled" for being "basically correct" -- implying that gendering a snowman is silly since snowmen are a longstanding tradition. The final panel shows the child expressing that she is "getting myself hyped/regard for never actually understanding anything" while the snowman stands outside in its top hat, completely oblivious to the entire debate.

The Humor

The comic satirizes how contemporary debates about gendered language can spiral into absurdity when applied to inanimate objects. The parent's correction is well-intentioned but comically misplaced -- a snowman is a pile of snow that has no gender identity. The child's retort and the snowman's silent, vacant presence in the final panel serve as a deadpan reminder that the subject of this heated cultural discussion is literally a lump of frozen water wearing a hat. Weinersmith finds humor in how culture war skirmishes can colonize even the most innocent childhood activities.

View History (1) Original Comic