Talk:1451: Background Screens

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
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"contain irrelevant or irreverent jokes" 108.162.249.231 06:30, 24 November 2014 (UTC)

This sounds like it could be a reference to Independence Day specifically, but I'm not sure if a map is shown with Greenland specifically in that film. Anyone feel like skimming through it? 108.162.215.169 09:10, 24 November 2014 (UTC)

Probably worth pointing out that this relies on being at home where you can pause the film to study the image, which doesn't often happen in a cinema. --141.101.99.50 11:02, 24 November 2014 (UTC)

It sometimes happens in a cinema, though! :p - fixed the "irrelevent or irrelevent" line. This does seem like common practice, though: I too pay attention to what is shown on screens in the background of movies, just to catch odd things. I'm sure plenty of people do this?? Maplestrip (talk) 12:12, 24 November 2014 (UTC)

lol I look at the screens and try to actually read the texts. Mostly won't success but it's really fun to do 173.245.48.134

See also: Source Code in TV and Films. --141.101.104.45 18:06, 24 November 2014 (UTC)

What memes? Smperron (talk) 19:33, 24 November 2014 (UTC)

Sometimes, of course, background screens show something that's a Chekhov's gun. (If you really have nothing to do for a few hours, after reading the Wiki article wander over to TVTropes and also enquire about Chekhov's Gunsmith, etc...) Although as an inveterate "ha! that's just DOS DEBUG scrolling away, feigning being an Enemy Code Transmission'"-person, myself, I think I might visit that Source Code in TV and Films link myself, when I've got more time... ;) 141.101.98.247 21:41, 24 November 2014 (UTC)


You guys sure it isn't a reference to "The edge of tomorrow" scene where the general has a map of europe behind him? That map had some innacuracies (like brazilians instead of portuguese), though i'm not sure if the aliens were shown in greenland... 108.162.254.42 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Star Trek during the Okuda era had all kinds of throwaway jokes and continuity references in its background screens (e.g., the two-plane periodic table that's used to explain dilithium has a bunch of Three Stooges references).

Doctor Who in the past few years has sometimes put carefully tailored continuity nods into its background screens specifically to troll the fans. As soon as someone discovers something, Moffat tweets that it means nothing and was just created by the graphics team at the last second. Since the last part is clearly not being true, everyone assumes the first part isn't true either, so that scene proves that one of the things that a 1991 novel claims was covered up is actually known to mainstream news organizations, and therefore that other novel that implies another layer of disinformation within UNIT has been confirmed on TV. 162.158.255.52 11:54, 25 September 2015 (UTC)

It may be worthy of note that the 2016 film "Arrival" (released 2 years after this comic) does, in fact, feature one of the alien ships landing in Greenland for no apparent reason, and we first find this out by way of a (fairly prominent) background map. I can't find anything suggesting it's a deliberate xkcd reference, but... 162.158.154.157 07:09, 4 September 2017 (UTC)

I think it's at least a partial reference to how many common map projections grossly exaggerate the size of Greenland. 162.158.186.96 03:01, 24 September 2019 (UTC)