254: Comic Fragment

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
Revision as of 04:06, 22 October 2013 by 50.151.2.168 (talk) (Transcript)
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Comic Fragment
No one wants an explanation more than us. Except Ms. Garofalo.
Title text: No one wants an explanation more than us. Except Ms. Garofalo.

Explanation

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In this comic Randall has gone missing from the office, and his 'editors' have found only this panel from an unfinished project (of which Mr Munroe seems rather proud). The panel depicts an amalgam of science fiction disasters.

  • A crippled space station falling from orbit.
  • An exploding volcano.
  • Rampaging dinosaurs.
  • A lone hero in what appears to be a hopeless situation.

Janeane Garofalo is an actress and comedian associated with strong feminist roles and opinions. She is an unlikely choice for an action hero but has fringe appeal.

The strip itself is rather intriguing; how did Ms. Garofalo get on on the space station? How did she get the motorbike there? How is she on it, outside the space station? Why is she planning on fighting Tyrannosaurs (dinosaurs are a favorite topic of Munroe's) with only a dart gun? Why is the satellite crashing into a volcano in the first place?

The title text is written from the 'editors' perspective, expressing their extreme puzzlement - outshone only by Ms. Garofalo's confusion.

Later on, in December 2007, Randall Munroe suggested in a speech at Google that a motivation to draw this comic was to put an end to reenactments of his comics (such as the Richard Stallman and Cory Doctorow comics which inspired real-life happenings)... or challenge anyone to reenact such a complex one:

I've been doing these comics and people have a habit of acting out the comics. I first — I did a comic about Cory Doctorow; you know, he wears red cape and goggles when he blogs and a week or so later, he was given an award. And he went up on the stage; they presented him with a red cape and goggles. I have done a comic little before that about Richard Stallman suggesting that he sleeps with the katana, you know, just in case. And, sure enough, they sent him, some fans pitched in together and sent him a katana. He had never heard of the comic. He was very confused. And I decided, okay, this is going to get out of hand. So, shortly after all that, I did a comic about Janeane Garofalo jumping a motorcycle off of the International Space Station as it crashes over an island with a volcanic eruption and Tyrannosaurus. And I said, okay, if someone can make that happen, but until they do that...

Transcript

Editor's note: Mr. Munroe has been missing for several days. We have recieved no submissions from him for some time, but we found this single panel on his desk in a folder labeled 'MY BEST IDEA EVER'. It is clearly part of a work in progress, but we have decided to post it in lieu of a complete comic.
[Single panel illustration in color with one small panel embedded within, showing a zoomed-in version of Janeane Garafolo on a motorcycle. The background is a gray landscape beneath a falling space station, a large volcano with smoke rising the only discernible feature of the landscape below.]
As the damaged space station fell deeper into the atmosphere and started to break up around her, Janeane Garofalo tightened her grip on the motorcycle.
The volcano was looming ahead, and her tranquilizer pistol only had six darts left - barely enough to bring down even ONE Tyrannosaur.


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Discussion

Who is Janeane Garofalo? -- ‎130.194.73.251 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

A New York comedian. I've wikilinked her name. Mark Hurd (talk) 18:19, 10 April 2013 (UTC)

I think it should also be noted that this may be a parody of the Lemony Snickett's Series of Unfortunate Events books, where each book ends with some 'discovered' documents/evidence from the 'author' Snickett regarding the next title in the series. 75.101.102.252 06:04, 25 May 2013 (UTC)

I really wish this comic would be re-enacted... Greyson (talk) 06:45, 14 August 2013 (UTC)

Seems to me that making Richard Stallman very confused would be in keeping with the spirit of the comic. At least he didn't get a bobcat. 184.21.189.153 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Ha +1 Spongebog (talk)

I wonder if the title should be read as 'fragMENT' as in 'to break up'... this is what Ms. Garofalo (herself a 'Comic') will soon be doing upon re-entry in such a scenario. Squirreltape (talk) 19:15, 24 February 2014 (UTC)

The explanation seems to miss something about this comic. It is a close call which is most ingruiging: how Ms Garafalo will manage to survive the re-entry of the space station, on her motorbike, with the very imminent danger of the volcano and the presumably lurking danger of multiple T-Rexes with barely enough ability to deal with one; or... how she got into the position of being on the outside of the space station, on a motorbike, the whole lot hurtling out of orbit towards a volcano and a foreseeable (re)encountering of T-Rexes for which she has equipped herself with a now dwindled supply of countermeasure ammunition... This could be the mere inconclusive fade-out at the end to the actual Best Ever story, perhaps providing a useful hook for a potential sequal (which will never be quite as good, statistically, even if it avoids being a Highlander II). 141.101.99.90 23:44, 12 August 2015 (UTC)

"How is Ms. Garofalo supposed to survive the impact?" - If it's got the suspension (and you've got the skill) you can ride off the top of a spacestation-sized cylinder and land safely on the ground, a few metres below. So clearly she does that just before impact with the ground destroys the spacestation. 141.101.98.225 22:13, 13 January 2022 (UTC)