1146: Honest

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
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Honest
I didn't understand what you meant. I still don't. But I'll figure it out soon!
Title text: I didn't understand what you meant. I still don't. But I'll figure it out soon!

Explanation[edit]

The phrase "let's be honest here—" is often used to soften a statement that might otherwise seem crass. Before Cueball can finish his sentence, he is interrupted by his friend, who takes the opportunity to honestly state his deepest feelings.

The human condition is essentially terrifying. Try to keep up appearances.

It is possible that Cueball's friend's last response, "Sorry," (which is on response to Cueball saying, "Too honest. Scale it back.") is insincere as a way of scaling his honesty back by not being honest in his next statement.

The title text could be a reference to angst, a word used in English to describe an intense feeling of panic — but the friend of Cueball proposes to work on a better understanding on his own fears.

Randall has mentioned having ADD, such as in 1106: ADD. People with neurological or psychological problems such as ADD often express having trouble with things in everyday life that other people seem to find easy.

Transcript[edit]

[Two Cueballs are walking.]
Cueball: I mean, let's be honest here-
Friend: Ok.
[The friend is talking with his palm out.]
Friend: I don't understand why anything happens and I'm confused and scared and trying really hard all the time.
[The two Cueballs look at each other.]
Cueball: ...Too honest.
Cueball: Scale it back.
Friend: Sorry.


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Discussion

Ya can't explain this one!176.61.46.230 11:06, 12 December 2012 (UTC)

No, other work is getting in the way. Someone else'll do it. Davidy22[talk] 11:15, 12 December 2012 (UTC)
The honesty of this comic makes it pretty self-explanatory. I like it. 76.122.5.96 12:21, 12 December 2012 (UTC)

That 1-line explanation by anon 69.143.0.147 is brilliant.

Most people, despite looking generally competent, are just barely making it through the day.

Let's be honest, how can one tell which character is Cueball? Personally, I think this character is far too generic to bother anyways. 46.142.60.241 20:28, 12 December 2012 (UTC) madd

Cueball is the first "Cueball" to speak in a comic, everyone else is called something else.Pennpenn (talk) 03:30, 26 February 2014 (UTC)
In my mind, Cueball has a quirky or strange personality. In this comic, the second Cueball is the quirky and weird one, so for me, he is the True Cueball. It isn't just me: there's a category for comics which have multiple Cueballs which at the time of writing says, "In most of these, one of the Cueballs is clearly the protagonist of the comic, and he will thus be called Cueball in the explanation out of convenience." To me this confirms that the second Cueball is the true Cueball. IAmADroid (talk) 19:32, 14 June 2022 (UTC)

can't be reference to #overlyhonestmethods since comic came out a month before.

I made an edit to add a reference to the ADD strip earlier. It is not very good. If someone would clean it up, that would probably be a good thing. This one really does seem to be a reference to those kinds of difficulties. In my defense, I don't understand why anything happens and I'm confused and scared and trying really hard all the time. Also I've been reading xkcd for two days straight. Singlelinelabyrinth (talk) 04:40, 26 July 2020 (UTC)