73: Zeppelin

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
Jump to: navigation, search
Zeppelin
A tribute to Buttercup Festival
Title text: A tribute to Buttercup Festival

Explanation

A zeppelin is a type of rigid dirigible aircraft, used in the early part of the 20th century for commercial airline traffic. They were well known for being the most luxurious, comfortable air travel of the time. The Hindenburg disaster, as well as World War II, led to the end of their use as commercial airliners. Also associated with the Zeppelin name is a particular design of wristwatches,[1] notable for having the word "ZEPPELIN" (with no exclamation point) at the top of the dial, at or under where the number 12 would be. In this comic, Randall implies that, since the hour hand of the watch is pointing to the word "ZEPPELIN!," it is time for a zeppelin to appear in the sky.

The joke was continued in 288: Elevator, in which replacing a numeral with "ZEPPELIN!" also invoked the appearance of a lighter-than-air airship.

The title text refers to the webcomic Buttercup Festival, which, at the time of this comic, was defunct. It was later revived by the author then defuncted again in 2015 and revived, again, in 2019. As of 18/07/20, the comic is running its third series. It is a tribute to Buttercup festival in the way it interprets things in the world naïvely and literally to achieve humor, in a simple yet effective and uncontrived way.

Transcript

Cueball: What time is it?
[Picture of a Zeppelin style watch, indicating the time about 12:13 o'clock.]
[Cueballs look up at the sky.]
[A huge Zeppelin is visible in the sky.]


comment.png add a comment! ⋅ comment.png add a topic (use sparingly)! ⋅ Icons-mini-action refresh blue.gif refresh comments!

Discussion

Remember, if the watch is made of lead, it's Time to Watch Lead Zeppelin Para (talk)

Have the urge to change the title text to: "Na, Na-na-na, Na-na, Na-na" 14:11, 8 May 2014 (UTC) 173.245.55.75 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

This makes me think its quarter-past zeppelin... i wonder if that's what it was implying 108.162.249.210 23:27, 12 June 2014 (UTC) Apparently Buttercup Festival is running again.162.158.78.202 18:26, 4 September 2019 (UTC)