Time Traveler
Explanation
The Joke
A time traveler goes back in time to give important advice to their younger self. The younger self ignores the advice completely, makes the same mistakes, and the time traveler realizes that their younger self is exactly as stubborn and foolish as they remember being. The time traveler returns to the present having changed nothing.
The Humor
The comic subverts the time-travel fantasy by confronting a simple truth: if you couldn't convince yourself to make better choices the first time around, why would a future version of yourself be any more persuasive? The obstacle isn't lack of information — it's human nature. We don't make bad decisions because we don't know better; we make them because knowing better doesn't feel as compelling as the bad decision does in the moment.
Context
This is a common SMBC theme: the gap between knowing and doing. The comic implicitly argues that most self-improvement fantasies (if only I could go back knowing what I know now) are flawed because they assume the problem is information when the problem is actually motivation, emotion, and the specific blindnesses of youth.