explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2041: Frontiers

2018-09-05T04:39:17Z

162.158.167.174:

Most likely though of course not guaranteed reference for the title text is the recent stories out (about 2 days ago) saying that William Shatner regrets directing Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.
Quick example of one story here [https://www.cinemablend.com/news/2456761/william-shatner-regrets-directing-star-trek-v]
--[[User:Wjbodin3|WJBodin3]] ([[User talk:Wjbodin3|talk]]) 21:17, 3 September 2018 (UTC)
:I would find the timing very suspicious at the very least. I think it's highly likely the news inspired this comic, especially in light of Star Trek being outright named - and specifically that instalment. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 13:22, 4 September 2018 (UTC)

It is interesting that all the current frontiers seem somewhat equidistant from the "center" of the squarish figure, as if we have achieved the same level of knowledge/exploration in each category... [[User:Daiemos|Daiemos]] ([[User talk:Daiemos|talk]]) 15:18, 4 September 2018 (UTC)
:Each is on its own (unlabeled) axis, scaled to imply parity among the topics. See [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2023:_Y-Axis] [[Special:Contributions/172.68.58.89|172.68.58.89]] 16:53, 4 September 2018 (UTC)

;...finished exploring it by now (Title text)
If Randall means space and not the movie alone this would contradict the comic itself where space is still a big challenge. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 16:24, 4 September 2018 (UTC)

:I was thinking that myself, he could be saying that star trek has been fully explored, which the could be a slight reference to the relatively hot topic about star trek discovery. Some trekkies lamenting the fact that they didn't want another prequel... If on the other hand it is a reference to space itself, randall could have left the contradiction in on purpose, as part of the joke. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.70.143|172.69.70.143]] 18:02, 4 September 2018 (UTC) Sam

: Actually the title text states that the movie is only a small part of the space frontier and also probably fully explored by now. So the diagram is about Space, not the movie.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.167.174|162.158.167.174]] 04:39, 5 September 2018 (UTC)

Talk:1949: Fruit Collider

2018-02-08T05:39:22Z

162.158.167.174:

I propose that - for once - we keep the bot-generated text in this explanation section: "This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect."
[[Special:Contributions/141.101.69.129|141.101.69.129]] 15:41, 31 January 2018 (UTC)
:+1! And Ponytail gets banned from particle physics conferences? Or her biology license is revoked. https://xkcd.com/410/ --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.108|162.158.90.108]] 16:57, 31 January 2018 (UTC)
::We need to compile a blacklist for conferences people are banned from... [[User:Linker|Linker]] ([[User talk:Linker|talk]]) 18:36, 31 January 2018 (UTC)
:::Hey baby, you can still practice biology without a license... [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 21:39, 31 January 2018 (UTC)
::::.*Pepper Spray*[[User:Linker|Linker]] ([[User talk:Linker|talk]]) 17:16, 1 February 2018 (UTC)

I suppose it's not okay to copy and paste random portions of other articles here in hopes of creating a super explanation?[[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.16|162.158.75.16]] 20:41, 31 January 2018 (UTC)

Does this remind anyone of [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbenrpfuxHs|_ Tom Scott's Piña Collider?]
:no but it reminds of the Higgs boson search by looking and bananas and acorn squash http://sci-ence.org/higgs/

There's a new-year's day ''for trees''? This fact alone deserves its own comic! [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 21:44, 31 January 2018 (UTC)
::A holiday =/= new-year's day - [[Special:Contributions/162.158.50.10|162.158.50.10]] 01:25, 1 February 2018 (UTC)
:::: If you google the jewish holiday for the trees, you will see it is actually a “new year’s day” for the trees. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.160|108.162.216.160]] 12:06, 1 February 2018 (UTC)

If only, if only. Orange juice is somewhat sour, and pineapple juice cloyingly sweet, but what would the combination fruit be like?
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.154|108.162.216.154]] 02:54, 1 February 2018 (UTC) Gene Wirchenko genew@telus.net
:I believe that is next on the agenda after the peanut/grape enigma is solved [[User:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For]] ([[User talk:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|talk]]) 01:50, 4 February 2018 (UTC)

This reminds me of https://what-if.xkcd.com/116/, especially title text of the last picture: "A hole bunch of strange, extremely massive drivers were created by collision, but all were extremely short-lived." [[Special:Contributions/162.158.238.190|162.158.238.190]] 10:19, 1 February 2018 (UTC)

Is [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4qFuIXrfVE|_ Banapple Gas] an early result from the Fruit Collider? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.167.174|162.158.167.174]] 05:39, 8 February 2018 (UTC)

1920: Emoji Sports

2017-11-27T02:29:17Z

162.158.167.174: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1920
| date = November 24, 2017
| title = Emoji Sports
| image = emoji_sports.png
| titletext = No horse has yet managed the elusive Quadruple Crown—winning the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, the Belmont Stakes, and the Missouri Horse Hole.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Still needs more explanation and a less humorous explanation of each sport concept - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic, as the heading indicates, arbitrarily selects emoji and uses them to make up very bizarre sports. Although some of these might be completely normal, most of them take things to a completely absurd level.

The title text is a reference to the triple crown, which is an highly prestigious award given to a three-year-old thoroughbred horse who wins the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes, and the Belmont Stakes, the first three of the four listed events. The joke is that were Horse Hole a real sport, then one who won a major competition for it, the Missouri Horse Hole, in addition to the three main horse racing events, they would then win a “Quadruple Crown".
{| class="wikitable"
!scope="col" style="width: 100px;" |Emoji
!scope="col" style="width: 150px;" |Sport
!scope="col" |Description
|-
|🤽‍♂️🌋
|Lavaball
|Sets the sport of water polo around or inside an active volcano. If the water is simply replaced with lava, the players would asphyxiate from the toxic fumes long before they burned to death in the molten rock. If a typical pool of water is involved, the introduction of lava would cause rapid evaporation and the release of {{w|Chlorine#Use_as_a_weapon|chlorine gas}}, which is destructive to living tissue. In any case, this game is not a good time.
|-
|🤾‍♀️🤺
|Bladeball
|Using a fencing foil to hit a ball would not only be inefficient, but would easily lead to the destruction of the ball instead.
|-
|💃💃⚽
|Fancyball
|High-heeled soccer would be a problem for both kicking and running, and would lead to frequent injury.
|-
|🕳️🏇🏇🏇
|Horse hole
| Jockeys ride their horses into a large pit. Needless to say, such a sport would constitute blatant animal abuse; the ensuing fall would seriously injure competing equines (as well as their jockeys if they don't bail out beforehand). If the horse's self-preservation instinct kicks in before reaching the edge, the jockey will likely be severely injured in the process, an outcome which would likely garner a lot less pity.<br/> Both this segment and the title text may relate to Episode 354 of My Brother My Brother And Me, "Beanfreak", where a potential punishment for losing horses in a race is described as a trapdoor leading to a "pony pile" beneath the track. (Many of the podcast's episodes deal with horse racing and horse behavior, including some impassioned conversations on the performance of specific horses and the unregulated nature of the widely recognized Triple Crown achievement.)
|-
|🔪🏀⛏️
|Basketball shredding
|The apparent point of this sport is to compete to destroy basketballs as quickly and/or as thoroughly as possible. There is some transgressive appeal in mistreating sports equipment, but hardly enough to keep a captive audience.
|-
|🥚🔭🕵️‍♀️
|Eggspotting
|This could be a combination of {{w|Egg_hunt|egg hunting}} and {{w|birdwatching}}. The emojis imply that said eggs would have to be found alone in nature, as if they were wild animals. This is unlikely, to say the least.
|-
|⛷️🐊
|Alligator jumping
|An unusual combination of attributes, and to get the alligators to adapt to a cold environment might be a challenge. The emoji is actually a crocodile.
|-
|👩🎣🧜‍♂️
|Merfishing
|Unless humans volunteer to get in costume, this sport is unlikely to have any successes, due to the rarity or nonexistence of {{w|Mermaid|mermaids}}.
|-
|👨🏸🧚🏸👩
|Tinkerball
|Playing badminton with a fairy, named after [[wikipedia:Tinker Bell|Tinker Bell]]. Likely to injure the fairy.
|-
|🥌🦔🥌
|Hedgehog curling
|Hedgehogs are not ideal projectiles for sports, as ''Alice in Wonderland'' has already demonstrated, and such an idea would likely be considered animal abuse on top of the impracticality.
|-
|🗜️🍔
|Burger clamping
|Perhaps a challenge to fit a tall burger into a bite-sized height, though said clamp is more likely to pierce the burger than to flatten it.
|-
|👩‍🚀🏹🛰️
|Consequence archery
|Archery on a space station would lead to the potentially explosive decompression of the space station, and necessitate the evacuation of the astronauts aboard.
|-
|🦉➡️📬
|Owlstuffing
|This appears to consist of attempting to stuff owls into mailboxes, which would be doubly illegal, because it would be cruel to the owls and interfere with delivery of the mail. The mailbox is shown with the flag up, which normally indicates that there is mail in it, but it appears to be empty, perhaps so that the owl can be stuffed in it. Possibly a reference to owls carrying mail in the Harry Potter series.
|-
|🍴🕯️🍴
|Candle eating
|An even more unhealthy form of {{w|competitive eating}}. Eating large amounts of candle wax can cause {{w|Bowel_obstruction|intestinal obstruction}}.
|-
|⛳💣🏌️‍♀️
|Consequence golf
|Golfing with a bomb would likely significantly reduce the par on each hole, and there would be definite damage to the course and golfers unless the holes extinguished the bombs of skilled golfers. The balance and rolling of the balls would also be impeded by the fuses and caps, and there is a possibility of fires starting from a lit fuse making contact with the green.
|-
|👉🐍👈
|Snake shaming
|Probably a play on snake charming. Also a possible reference to the biblical story where the snake is shamed for deceiving mankind by being doomed to crawl on its belly.
|-
|🔥🧗‍♀️🔥
|Hell escape
|Trying to escape the {{w|lake of fire}} is the pastime of damned souls.
|-
|🎮🥑🎮
|Multiplayer avocado
|Unless a game based on avocados is the subject, there is, to say the least, a hardware compatibility issue here. Very different from the adult version, multiplayer eggplant (🎮🍆🎮; see [[1870: Emoji Movie Reviews]]).
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:<big>New sports</big>
:created from random emoji

:[Man Playing Water Polo + Volcano]
:🤽‍♂️🌋 Lavaball

:[Woman Playing Handball + Person Fencing]
:🤾‍♀️🤺 Bladeball

:[Woman Dancing (2 emojis) + Soccer Ball]
:💃💃⚽ Fancyball

:[Hole + Horse Racing (3 emojis)]
:🕳️🏇🏇🏇 Horse hole

:[Kitchen Knife + Basketball + Pick]
:🔪🏀⛏️ Basketball Shredding

:[Egg + Telescope + Woman Detective]
:🥚🔭🕵️‍♀️ Eggspotting

:[Skier + Crocodile]
:⛷️🐊 Alligator Jumping

:[Woman + Fishing Pole + Merman]
:👩🎣🧜‍♂️ Merfishing

:[Man + Badminton + Fairy + Badminton + Woman]
:👨🏸🧚🏸👩 Tinkerball

:[Curling Stone + Hedgehog + Curling Stone]
:🥌🦔🥌 Hedgehog Curling

:[Clamp + Hamburger]
:🗜️🍔 Burger Clamping

:[Woman Astronaut + Bow and Arrow + Satellite]
:👩‍🚀🏹🛰️ Consequence archery

:[Owl + Right Arrow + Open Mailbox]
:🦉➡️📬 Owlstuffing

:[Fork and Knife + Candle + Fork and Knife]
:🍴🕯️🍴 Candle Eating

:[Flag in Hole + Bomb + Woman Golfing]
:⛳💣🏌️‍♀️ Consequence Golf

:[Pointing Right + Snake + Pointing Left]
:👉🐍👈 Snake Shaming

:[Fire + Woman Climbing + Fire]
:🔥🧗‍♀️🔥 Hell Escape

:[Video Game + Avocado + Video Game]
:🎮🥑🎮 Multiplayer Avocado

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Emoji]]