187: The Familiar

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The Familiar

Title text: When I say we should do something sometime, I'm secretly hoping you'll say 'Why not now?'

Explanation

This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: If you can address this issue, please edit the page! Thanks.

In this comic Cueball asks a friend if he wants to go to see the sunrise over the ocean. The friend refuses giving a list of excuses including the statement that "rationalizing the familiar is easy." This statement is amusing because the friend is acknowledging the fact that he is making excuses and seems to refuse going out on the basis that rationalizing going with Cueball to see the sunrise would be require much more effort. This comic criticizes people's tendency to not try new things or go out with friends even though they are likely to get more fulfillment these ways.

The title text indicates Randall's frustration with this mentality and indicates that when he wants to make plans with someone he hopes they are just as eager. An alternate take is that Cueball is telling his friend that he wishes he would be more open to going out and doing things.

Transcript

[Cueball's friend sits at a computer, Cueball is standing behind him.]

Cueball: Let's go see sunrise over the ocean.

Friend: That's a long drive, it's cold, I'm tired, and rationalizing the familiar is easy.

[Cueball leaves. In the next two frames the friend remains at his computer.]

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Discussion

Do you think this has anything to do with the Animorphs book The Familiar? It has the same title, and Randall has shown that he likes Animorphs before.162.158.111.67 15:09, 9 October 2017 (UTC)

Cueball is an invention by this Wiki and other sites discussing about xkcd. But he is always an active person who likes the nature. The both persons should be switched.--Dgbrt (talk) 18:10, 25 June 2013 (UTC)

It is not possible to say what Cueball likes the best, since he is not always the same from comic to comic. See the Cueball page. --Kynde (talk) 14:06, 15 March 2015 (UTC)

There is a community portal discussion of what to call Cueball and what to do in case with more than one Cueball. I have added this comic to the new Category:Multiple Cueballs. In this case there is no reason to call one Cueball and the other friend. It could easily be the other way. So I have changed to remove Cueball.--Kynde (talk) 14:06, 15 March 2015 (UTC)

I interpreted the 3rd panel with the unmotivated conversant alone, as indicating that his friend went without him. The addition of the 4th panel, with him still alone, implies the somewhat deflated feeling of having left behind and miss out on life because of lack of motivation. Mountain Hikes (talk) 01:00, 21 September 2015 (UTC)

The 4th panel actually indicates that the previous statment "im tired" is just a lazy excuse that always works, because in fact it is easy to stay awake for hours after the discussion. 108.162.219.248 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Is anyone else bothered by the lack of the word "the" before "sunrise" in the first panel? 108.162.238.40 17:01, 14 November 2016 (UTC)

I think that "The Familiar" refers to the 4th slide, which is not so easy to rationalize. When you all alone again and trying to figure out how that happened. 162.158.62.195 18:00, 12 June 2018 (UTC)