542: Cover-Up

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
Revision as of 19:19, 9 March 2015 by Djbrasier (talk | contribs) (Explanation: Changed to "Randall" to match general style on wiki)
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Cover-Up
Man, this trick has saved me so many times.
Title text: Man, this trick has saved me so many times.

Explanation

Gullible means easily deceived or naïve. This is a game many people play with each other "Whoa, someone wrote 'gullible' in the sky!" "Did you know when you look at the Microsoft logo upside-down it looks like the word 'gullible'?" Those that are gullible check. Those that aren't, don't. In fact they will pointedly not do the thing that the first person has suggested as a show of how non-gullible they are. Black Hat uses this to his advantage to cover up copious bloodstains on a ceiling.

The story in this comic may be a continuation of 515: No One Must Know.

The title text is hinting that Randall has had to cover up killing people several times, which is (hopefully) a joke.

Transcript

[Black Hat is holding blood stained rags while Danish is holding an equally bloody mop.]
Black Hat: Okay, got the blood off the walls.
Danish: I finished the floor.
Black Hat: Good; he'll be home any-
Black Hat: Oh crap! We forgot to clean the ceiling!
Danish: There's no time!
Black Hat: Wait, I'll handle it.
[Cueball with briefcase enters the house.]
Black Hat: Hi. Did you know "gullible" is written on your ceiling?
Cueball: Hah. Yeah, right.


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Discussion

It could be a reference to the ASDF Videos... 108.162.250.237 12:31, 13 April 2014 (UTC)

Eeeeeeeeeexcept that asdfmovie 2 (the one which includes the "it says gullible on the ceiling" sketch) was first uploaded in January 2010 ... a good 11 months after this comic was published. Given the style and timeline of the asdfmovie shorts, it's rather more likely that they were (as a whole!) inspired by xkcd, not the other way around... 141.101.70.163 15:45, 17 June 2014 (UTC)


Actually it's a really, really old practical joke. Note how cueball is clearly familiar with the gag and doesn't 'fall for it'. 108.162.246.215 15:30, 21 August 2014 (UTC)

Actually, Blackhat actually says its an old joke.

I used Google News BEFORE it was clickbait (talk) 18:48, 30 January 2015 (UTC)

We learn later, in 1102: Fastest-Growing that Rob is Black Hat's roommate. So I propose changing this to "Rob" instead of "Cueball". See here. Djbrasier (talk) 13:31, 13 March 2015 (UTC)

In Fastest-Growing we do not even see "Rob" so we do not even know if this is the Cueball Rob... Also just because Black-Hat nows a Rob in one comic this doesn't mean he is his room-mate. --Kynde (talk) 13:18, 15 March 2015 (UTC)

Changed "gaze" in the explanation to "glance", which makes more sense. -Pennpenn 162.158.2.221 04:21, 15 June 2015 (UTC)

Black Hat's words to Cueball give me the impression that Black Hat broke in (perhaps to murder Cueball's roommate?) and Cueball doesn't care. 162.158.178.237 09:16, 22 August 2017 (UTC)