121: Balloon

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
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Balloon
So I'm a bad person.
Title text: So I'm a bad person.

Explanation

An unidentified narrator, probably Randall, says how he saw a kid with a balloon stand next to a ceiling fan in a restaurant. He explains how for fifteen minutes, he watched the kid's balloon, hoping the balloon would get caught in the ceiling fan and make the kid fly up towards it. This looks like it could cause serious injury to the child, hence the title text of how you're a bad person if this is what you sit in restaurants and imagine. This might be a poke to people who think waiting for a disaster to happen makes you a bad person like in 611: Disaster Voyeurism.

Transcript

I watched the scene in the restaurant for a full fifteen minutes, hoping this would happen:
[A kid is holding balloon; balloon gets caught in ceiling fan; kid holds on and is pulled up.]


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Discussion

From the wording of the comic, I think this is a reference to a film or a TV show. 120.148.234.14 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

72.193.171.120 00:40, 23 September 2013 (UTC) I thought it was a reference to a scene from the French Film, The Red Balloon, but I couldn't find a full movie where I could watch it for free without signing up for something. If there's a restaurant scene in that movie, that might be my guess.72.193.171.120 00:40, 23 September 2013 (UTC)

The title text could be a reference to the pilot episode of Firefly where Mal says, "I am a bad man" after tormented Simon for fun. --160.5.148.8 07:25, 24 October 2013 (UTC)

The balloon never goes inside in the movie The Red Balloon.-adamaustin (talk) 16:39, 13 November 2013 (UTC)

I think the first comment here was wondering if "The Restaurant" is the name of any piece of work. Mainly because that's whati was wondering, though. :) 108.162.208.23 18:31, 25 January 2016 (UTC)

I could be wrong, but I don’t think most ceiling fans or balloon strings are strong enough to lift any child that size. I’m not sure what would happen, though, and it almost certainly depends on how securely the child is holding the balloon. 162.158.62.249 06:16, 20 December 2016 (UTC)

This is a kid, thus not Cueball. I have removed that category. Should there be a category with comics featuring kids? --Kynde (talk) 20:31, 10 October 2019 (UTC)

Yes, I think it would be an interesting compilation. Category:Comics featuring Science Girl should be a subcategory. From the top of my head, I would name in addition to this one and the science girl ones: 2208: Drone Fishing, 1753: Thumb War, 856: Trochee Fixation, 1548: 90s Kid, 1139: Rubber and Glue, and most of the 1337-series, making it more than 5, enough for a category :) But I am sure there are more.
I'll create it, I guess. 23:46, 8 December 2022 (UTC)
Edit: Added! PoolloverNathan[stalk the blue seas]UTSc 23:50, 8 December 2022 (UTC)

From looking this up, I have determined that this is probably from La La Land. I will need to watch it to find out though. Beanie (talk) 10:22, 10 December 2020 (UTC)

Any progress on that? :P Szeth Pancakes (talk) 00:37, 24 November 2021 (UTC) (disregard -> ) 162.158.106.105 00:36, 24 November 2021 (UTC)