''Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal'' (''SMBC'') is a

webcomic Webcomics (also known as online comics or Internet comics) are comics published on a website or mobile app. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers, or comic books. Webcomics can be co ...

by Zach Weinersmith. The

gag-a-day A gag-a-day comic strip is the style of writing comic cartoons such that every installment of a strip delivers a complete joke or some other kind of artistic statement. It is opposed to story or continuity strips, which rely on the development of ...

comic features few recurring characters or storylines, and has no set format; some strips may be a single panel, while others may go on for ten panels or more. Recurring themes in ''SMBC'' include science, research, superheroes, religion, romance, dating, parenting and the meaning of life. ''SMBC'' has run since 2002 and is published daily. Weinersmith's webcomic was recognized in 2006 and 2007 with the

Web Cartoonists' Choice Award The Web Cartoonists' Choice Awards (WCCA) were annual awards in which established webcartoonists nominated and selected outstanding webcomics. The awards were held between 2001 and 2008, were mentioned in a ''The New York Times'' column on webcom ...

for ''Outstanding Single Panel Comic'', and received nominations in 2003 and 2008.

History

Weinersmith's first version of ''SMBC'' was a character-based three-panel strip done while he was in college. This version of the comic focused on the romantic and academic endeavors of several college students. This version (referred to as ''Classic SMBC'' on the site's archives) ran from January 28, 2002 to September 3, 2002. Weinersmith then switched to single-panel and gag comics. The current version of the strip began on September 5, 2002. The first 480 comics were originally removed from the main ''SMBC'' archives but were later returned as a hidden section and then made officially publicly available on September 22, 2008. In 2005, Weinersmith wanted to work on ''SMBC'' full-time, and around this time moved to daily updates. By 2007, he was able to earn a living from the comic. Weinersmith also returned to study around 2006 to provide inspiration for the comic, and studied physics, and considers that the rise in the geekiness of the comic happened at that time. As of 2012, ''SMBC'' received a quarter-million visitors a day and was described as one of the most popular webcomics. Weinersmith has published a number of books collecting ''SMBC'' comics. He has also produced new comics to illustrate ''Soonish'', a book he co-authored.

Themes

In a 2016 interview, Weinersmith described the themes of ''SMBC'' as including science, philosophy, and economics, and has done enough comics on religion to release a book only of those comics. All comics afte
March 22, 2015
have a humorous tooltip that appears when the reader hovers their cursor over the comic. This tooltip is usually an extension of the joke in the comic itself. Older comics fro
September 5, 2002
t
April 4, 2004
also have this humorous tooltip, but these are largely retrospective comments on the comics. In most comics the reader can see a bonus joke called a "votey" by clicking on a red button with the mouse. These bonus panels were a motivation to vote for ''SMBC'' on comic ranking sites, but were kept up after these sites became rarer. The earliest votey released is for the comic dated November 27, 2006; however, he has since started drawing new for his earliest comics, as part of a

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goal.

SMBC Theater

Weinersmith launched a side project linked with ''SMBC'' called ''SMBC Theater'' featuring skits and short videos put up on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

. This was normally updated once a week on Mondays with one or two short sketches and as of February 24, 2018 the channel had about 80,000 subscribers. Certain holiday clips are marked "part one," although very few have a second part. Despite its

one-shot One shot may refer to: Film and television * One-shot film, a feature film shot in one long take with no edits, or manufactured to look like so * ''One Shot'' (2005 film), a Sri Lankan action film directed by Ranjan Ramanayake * ''One Shot'' (2 ...

style there were certain characters who have received multiple storylines, such as James Ashby as president, J.P. Nickel's news stories, Jon Brence's dating shorts, and Weinersmith as Jesus/James Ashby as God. All the videos are

satirical Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or e ...

. In August 2011, a project was successfully

crowdfunded Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...

called "SMBC Theater Goes TO SPACE!". This became Starpocalypse, a

space opera Space opera is a subgenre of science fiction that emphasizes space warfare, with use of melodramatic, risk-taking space adventures, relationships, and chivalric romance. Set mainly or entirely in outer space, it features technological and soci ...

webseries A web series (also known as a web show) is a series of scripted or non-scripted online videos, generally in episodic form, released on the Internet, which first emerged in the late 1990s and became more prominent in the early 2000s. A single i ...

, which was released on 25 December 2013. It was released on their Youtube channel on May 3, 2015. The channel stopped producing content between 2015 and 2020 when James Ashby started making Hand to Mouth skits.

Reception

''Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal'' was recognized in 2006, and 2007 with the

for ''Outstanding Single Panel Comic''. It has been twice nominated for the Award, in 2003, and in 2008. ''Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal'' has been featured on a variety of websites and blogs, including ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Econo ...

'', ''

Glamour Glamour may refer to: Arts Film * ''Glamour'' (1931 film), a British film * ''Glamour'' (1934 film), an American film * ''Glamour'' (2000 film), a Hungarian film Writing * ''Glamour'' (magazine), a magazine for women * ''The Glamour ...

'', ''

Boing Boing ''Boing Boing'' is a website, first established as a zine in 1988, later becoming a group blog. Common topics and themes include technology, futurism, science fiction, gadgets, intellectual property, Disney, and left-wing politics. It twice won ...

'',

Bad Astronomy ''Bad Astronomy: Misconceptions and Misuses Revealed, from Astrology to the Moon Landing "Hoax"'' is a non-fiction book by the American astronomer Phil Plait, also known as "the Bad Astronomer". The book was published in 2002 and deals with vario ...

Blastr Syfy (formerly Sci-Fi Channel, later shortened to Sci Fi; stylized as SYFY) is an American basic cable channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. Launc ...

, ''Blues News'',

Joystiq ''Joystiq'' was a video gaming blog founded in June 2004 as part of the Weblogs, Inc. family of weblogs, now owned by AOL. It was AOL's primary video game blog, with sister blogs dealing with MMORPG gaming in general and the popular MMORPG ''W ...

, and

Freakonomics ''Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything'' is the debut non-fiction book by University of Chicago economist Steven Levitt and ''New York Times'' journalist Stephen J. Dubner. Published on April 12, 2005, by Will ...

. In a

video on the ''SMBC'' website, Zach Weinersmith addressed accusations that the comedian

Sarah Silverman Sarah Kate Silverman (born December 1, 1970) is an American comedian, actress, and writer. Silverman was a writer and performer on ''Saturday Night Live'', and she starred in and produced ''The Sarah Silverman Program'', which ran from 2007 to ...

stole a joke from one of his strips at a

Spike Spike, spikes, or spiking may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Books * ''The Spike'' (novel), a novel by Arnaud de Borchgrave * ''The Spike'' (book), a nonfiction book by Damien Broderick * ''The Spike'', a starship in Peter F. Hamilto ...

video game awards ceremony. In the satirical video, he claimed that the joke must have been stolen because he was "the only humorist ever to write on the topics of Africa, AIDS, or video games", in addition to pleading with Sarah Silverman to go on a date with him. In response to a criticism of his focus on academia, in July 2010 Weinersmith discussed his ideas concerning webcomics in an open forum with critics.

Awards and nominations

Collections

*''Save Yourself, Mammal!'' (2011) *''The Most Dangerous Game'' (2011) *''Science: Ruining Everything Since 1543'' (2013) *''Religion: Ruining Everything Since 4004 B.C.'' (2016)

References

External links

* ,
archive
* * {{Hiveworks 2000s webcomics 2010s webcomics American comedy webcomics Short form webcomics Web Cartoonists' Choice Award winners 2002 webcomic debuts