999: Cougars

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
Revision as of 21:12, 25 August 2013 by Quicksilver (talk | contribs) (Explanation: In this comic.)
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Cougars
If you're lying in bed tonight and you see yellow eyes glinting in your window, are you being stalked by a puma, a mountain lion, a panther, a catamount, or a cougar? Trick question--in North America, they're all names for the same species, Puma concolor! Isn't learning fun? Anyway, sleep tight!
Title text: If you're lying in bed tonight and you see yellow eyes glinting in your window, are you being stalked by a puma, a mountain lion, a panther, a catamount, or a cougar? Trick question--in North America, they're all names for the same species, Puma concolor! Isn't learning fun? Anyway, sleep tight!

Explanation

Randall is giving reason number 58 why he should not have children. We see fictitious "father Cueball" talking about the Wikipedia entry for the list of fatal cougar attacks in North America. Here's the link so you can look for yourself.

And the reason he should not have children is the fact that he can't resist himself when learning and sharing knowledge about the world (from Wikipedia).

When you have kids and you learn scary things, you should not share it with them.

Transcript

[Parent is sitting at a computer; child is standing behind.]

Parent: Whoa, ever seen Wikipedia's list of people who were attacked and killed by cougars?

Parent: Crazy how many of them were kids who were just playing outside their houses.

Reason #58 I should never have children: My love of learning and sharing knowledge about the world.


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Discussion

Lesson on sometimes flawed logic: It may seem obvious to you, but if XKCD thought about this a little more I hope he would recognize that we would make the greatest father any child could hope for. XKCD could teach his child something that no school or university ever could: to simply be inquisitive and curious about the world around him just as much as XKCD is himself, that and make sure that there are no cougars and raptors in 100 mile radius of his child. - e-inspired 98.211.199.84 15:26, 27 February 2013 (UTC)

That said, he probably doesn't have a filter. Which would be disastrous in other ways besides horror. Anonymous 16:08, 5 December 2013 (UTC)

In the UK '999' is the emergency services number, i.e. our version of 911. Could that be deliberate/relevant? 172.71.242.207 02:54, 1 December 2023 (UTC)