Main Page
Welcome to the explain xkcd wiki!
We have an explanation for all 3303 xkcd comics, and only 54 (1.6%) are incomplete. Help us finish them!
Thank you for your tireless documentation effort :)
Latest comic
| Slab Graveyard |
 Title text: It's ok if you want to close close your eyes for the slab graveyard, so you can still have fun riding the mantle plume back up afterward! |
Explanation
A popular Halloween activity is visiting cemeteries and telling ghost stories.
However, "graveyard" is also often used figuratively to refer to a place where obsolete or unused objects are kept; for instance, a junkyard might be called an "automobile graveyard" because junked cars end up there. In the comic, Beret Guy refers to one of the terms used for the area where portions of the Earth's crust end up after subduction. Him being Beret Guy, he confuses it for a real graveyard, conflating these two kinds of cemeteries, and says that he and his friends are going to go there on Halloween. But tectonic processes are really slow, so this will take millions of years if they just ride the slab down. However, Beret Guy with his strange powers is fine with this, reasoning it would mean more time to tell ghost stories. It's possible that at least some of Beret Guy's friends have similar powers, or it might be the case that none of his friends are interested and that he hasn't asked all of them (and hasn't realized that they aren't immortal) yet.
There are further difficulties with this, as the bottom of the mantle is far too hot for humans to withstand. Beret Guy being himself, he would likely be fine with this, though Cueball and the friends going with Beret Guy would have more of a problem, unless said friends also have Beret Guy's particular forms of resilience.
The title text has more of Beret Guy trying to persuade Cueball to see the graveyard. Believing Cueball is just scared, he encourages him by saying they will ride a mantle plume back to the surface. This falls in with a typical trait of his, to naively go about not realising that the centre of the earth is far too hot for human survival, similarly with the mantle plumes, which would eventually lead to them being returned to the surface through a volcanic eruption.
Transcript
- [Cueball is talking to Beret Guy.]
- Cueball: Any plans for Halloween?
- Beret Guy: Me and my friends are gonna check out a slab graveyard!
- [The next panel is only in the bottom half, compared with the other panels. In it, there is a diagram showing a portion of the Earths crust. It shows a subduction, where the seafloor, under water, is pushed into the mantle as it moves under the mountains on the continental plate. Portions of the crust is shown falling down into the mantle, and at the bottom it piles up on the top of the core. There are clouds above the surface. Cueball and Beret Guy's voices come from off-panel and is written in a frame-less section above this half height panel. Their voices emanating left and right from two starbursts.]
- Cueball (off-panel): What's that?
- Beret Guy (off-panel): When dense crust subducts, geologists think it might pile up at the bottom of the mantle.
- [Back to Cueball and Beret Guy who has his arms spread wide out.]
- Beret Guy: We're going to hide in the crust and ride it down to see.
- Beret Guy: Wanna come?
- Beret Guy: It's gonna be spooky!
- [Cueball and Beret Guy stands normal as in the first panel.]
- Cueball: Won't that take millions of years?
- Beret Guy: Lots of time for ghost stories!
- Cueball: I think I'm good.
- Beret Guy: Too spooky? I understand.
Trivia
There is a typo in the title text: the word "close" is repeated.
This Week's Explanation for Improvement
As part of the Explanation Improvement Project, each week the community selects one older, stagnant, or otherwise neglected explanation to expand and polish together. This week's pick is comic 172: Skateboarding is Not a Crime, you can help us by editing its explanation!
To get involved with the project, you can also nominate an explanation that you think should be improved, or vote on current nominations!
| Skateboarding is Not a Crime |
 Title text: 'Arrest me, I'm a skateboarder' is an even more obnoxious variant. |
Explanation
|
Welcome to This Week's Explanation for Improvement! Anyone is encouraged to help explain comic 172: Skateboarding is Not a Crime; click here to get started! If you are new to wiki editing, you can read our editing FAQ for guidance. Here are some suggestions for improving this explanation: .svg){kind=icon} Better explain the controversy around skateboarding, the stickers, and similar occurrences. (You can learn more about the protest on Wikipedia's page for Skateboarding is not a crime)
.svg){kind=icon} The last parts of the explanation read more like a transcript, so explain the caption & title text instead of just describing what they say.
|
The skateboarding subculture has taken up the phrase "skateboarding is not a crime" as a protest against many cities banning skateboarding in certain areas, such as parks. Some people dislike skateboarding because they see it as connected with dangerous people or deem it unsafe. Another concern is a belief that many skateboarders drink or do drugs and people don’t want this to rub off on their children. Randall apparently really does not like these stickers and states that when/if he becomes president (a common expression equivalent to "If I were in charge, ..."), any and all displays of stickers bearing the phrase (like the one on the locker in the comic) will be considered a felony, though skateboarding itself will still be legal.
The title text also shows another protest phrase, "arrest me, I'm a skateboarder", that Randall appears to hate even more than "skateboarding is not a crime", potentially for the more stand offish tone of the message. This phrase has basically the same message, so it is unsurprising that he hates both, if he hated either.
Transcript
- [A set of lockers, that are dark pink, blue, yellow, dark pink then blue. The middle one has a white sticker stuck to it proclaiming "Skateboarding is not a crime".]
- [Outside of the Box] When I'm president, skateboarding will still be legal, but display of those stupid stickers will be a felony.
View comic discussionNew here?
You can read a brief introduction about this wiki at explain xkcd. Feel free to create an account and contribute to the wiki! We need explanations for xkcd comics, characters, what if? articles, and everything in between. If it is referenced in an xkcd comic, it should be here.
- See our editing FAQ for specific guidance to this wiki, and the more general help on how to edit wiki pages. There's also a handy wikicode cheatsheet.
- Discussion about the wiki itself happens at the Community portal.
- You can browse the comics from the list of all comics or by navigating the category tree at Category:Comics.
- The incomplete explanations are listed here. Feel free to help out by expanding them!
Rules
Don't be a jerk!
There are a lot of comics that don't have set-in-stone explanations; feel free to put multiple interpretations in the wiki page for each comic.
If you want to talk about a specific comic, use its discussion page.
Please only submit material directly related to xkcd and, of course, only submit material that can legally be posted and freely edited. Off-topic or other inappropriate content is subject to removal or modification at admin discretion, and users who repeatedly post such content will be blocked.
If you need assistance from an administrator, post a message to the Admin requests community portal.
