explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

566: Matrix Revisited

2024-11-14T12:50:19Z

172.70.85.127: Undo revision 356714 by CalibansCreations (talk) Revised revert to be more correct. (But also rebump for the need to give just such a citation reference.

{{comic
| number = 566
| date = April 8, 2009
| title = Matrix Revisited
| image = matrix_revisited.png
| titletext = I actually remember being entertained by both the sequels while in the theater. They just don't hold up nearly as well in later comparison.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic was drawn in celebration of the ten-year anniversary of the movie ''{{w|The Matrix}}''. (Despite the claims of the first panel, the movie was actually released on 31 March 1999 in the US, although it was next released in Australia on 8 April 1999.)

[[Megan]] is shocked when she realizes it is already ten years ago that ''The Matrix'' came out. This is an effect Randall has used to [[:Category:Comics_to_make_one_feel_old|make you feel old]] several times (for instance he mentions The Matrix again two years later in [[891: Movie Ages]].)

In ''The Matrix'', almost all of humanity lives in a computer simulation. Many years ago, robots took over the real world (not the simulation), and placed humans into the simulation while their body heat generated power for the robots. A few people have escaped from the Matrix, and they are on a mission with others to free the human race from the robots. The title of the strip is a reference to the documentary on the filming of ''The Matrix'': ''{{w|The Matrix Revisited}}''.

In the first three rows of the comic we see three famous scenes from ''The Matrix'' parodied by Randall. The characters are {{w|Morpheus (The Matrix)|Morpheus}}, with sunglasses; {{w|Neo (The Matrix)|Neo}}, as [[Cueball]] in the first two scenes and with a black coat in the third scene; {{w|Trinity (The Matrix)|Trinity}}, as [[Hairbun]]; and a security guard in the third scene, as another Cueball-like guy.

In the first scene Morpheus tells Neo that one cannot explain what the Matrix is and that he must see it for himself to understand. Morpheus is very mysterious as he tempts Neo to take a look himself, which, in the movie, leads to the next scene. In this comic, however, Trinity makes Morpheus look foolish by clearly explaining the Matrix in a single, simple phrase, and then telling him that he must suck at explaining. (The actual quote from the movie is <q>no one can be told what the Matrix is</q>, which makes more sense: even after being rescued from the Matrix, Neo at first refuses to accept that his entire life has been a simulation, becoming highly distraught when confronted with that truth. Morpheus later mentions that for this reason, it is unusual to rescue people past a certain age.)

In the next scene Morpheus (ignoring Trinity's remark, or in a separate rerun of the interaction) has reached the part of the scene where he shows Neo two pills, one red and one blue, and tells Neo that he can either take the blue pill and return to the simulation (the Matrix), never to hear about the Matrix again, or he can take the red pill and leave the Matrix, and "see how deep the rabbit hole goes" (a reference to ''{{w|Alice in Wonderland}}''). In the movie, Neo takes the red pill. In the comic, however, he mixes the two pills then {{w|Insufflation_(medicine)|snorts}} the purple powder he has created as though it was an illegal drug such as cocaine, and apparently winds up in a bizarre upside down and inverted dimension, presumably caused by his 'Drug Trip'. Even Morpheus now has no idea where they are. Note that the inversion of both color and orientation could be intended to evoke the idea of capturing an image on film (i.e. a film negative), which is ''really'' the only place where Neo and Morpheus exist. It is possible that the combination of pills allowed Neo to break through another layer of the simulation. Alternatively, this could simply be Randall trying to explain that they are in an alternate dimension whilst still remaining within the constraints of stick figures on white and black backgrounds.

What leads up to the third scene is when Neo and Trinity must save Morpheus, who has been captured by {{w|Agent (The Matrix)|agents}} of the simulation. They obtain many guns and load them into trenchcoats. In the shown scene Neo is stopped at a security checkpoint in a building in the Matrix. A security guard tells him to remove any metallic items, since the scanner has shown him to have metal on his person, such as keys, and place them in a bin, then walk through the scanner again. In the movie, he opens his trenchcoat, revealing a myriad of weapons and dispatching all of the guards with the assistance of Trinity. In the comic, however, Neo opens his trenchcoat, but the guard's response of "eww" implies that Neo is otherwise naked and the guard is disgusted by his display of his genitals.

After watching the movie, Cueball turns to his friends (Megan and another Cueball-like guy) and exclaims that he had forgotten how great the movie is. When his friend suggests that they put on the other two sequels, there is a beat panel where Megan and Cueball look at each other, then they beat up the offender off-panel.

The two sequels to ''The Matrix'' are widely regarded as inferior to the original, with some fans {{tvtropes|FanonDiscontinuity|pretending they don't exist}}. This is what happens when Megan and Cueball return, and Cueball repeats his statement about how good it was. Then Megan is saddened by the fact they never made any sequels and Cueball agrees. Thus trying hard (even violently) to forget those sequels. In the title text, however, Randall disagrees with the characters in the comics, remarking that he enjoyed the films when he watched them in the movie theater, but agrees that they are not as good as the original.

On {{w|IMDb}} the original movie was still in the top 20 on their [http://www.imdb.com/chart/top?tt0133093&ref_=tt_awd top 250 chart] in December 2023, with an average of [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133093/ 8.7] vs. only [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0234215 7.2] and [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0242653 6.7] to the sequels (though even those two scores are relatively high compared to other action titles).

==Transcript==
:[Megan stands below two pieces of text, in a panel that is without a frame.]
:Today was the ten-year anniversary of the release of ''The Matrix.''
:I sat down to watch it again.
:Megan: Holy fuck, ten years ago?

:[The next three panels of the first row and the next two rows spoofs three scenes from The Matrix.]

:[In scene 1 Morpheus with sunglasses and Trinity with hair bun are talking to Cueball-Neo. Morpheus has his hands together.]
:Morpheus: Unfortunately, no one can explain what the matrix is. You have to see it for yourself.

:[Trinity lifts her hand.]
:Trinity: Sure you can. It's a computer simulation in which you live, thinking it's reality.
:Neo: Oh.

:[Morpheus takes his hands down and turns around glaring at Trinity who has also taken her hand down.]
:Trinity: ...What?
:Trinity: Look, maybe you just suck at explaining.

:[In scene 2 Morpheus is talking to Neo while holding a red pill and a blue pill. To the far right is a part of a table.]
:Morpheus: ...Or you take the red pill, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.

:[Neo takes both pills from Morpheus.]

:[Neo crushes both the red and blue pills on a table top.]
:''Crush''

:[Neo snorts the resulting purple powder through a pipe he holds up to his face (his nose).]
:''Snort''

:[Morpheus and Neo are shown upside down in a frame with inverted colors, i.e., black background with white lines.]
:Morpheus: Now look what you've done.
:Neo: Where ''are'' we?
:Morpheus: I have no idea.

:[In scene 3 Neo, wearing a long, black trench coat, at a metal detector, is accosted by the Cueball-like security guard.]
:Guard: Please remove any keys, metallic items, weapons—

:[Neo steps close to the guard and opens his trench coat towards the guard, who is facing the reader. The reader can't see what Neo has under his coat.]

:[Same scene as above, but side view: Neo, on the left, is opening his coat toward the guard, who is on the right and seems to be looking down. Nobody speaks.]

:[Same scene as above but the guard now looks up to Neos face and finally speaks:]
:Guard: Eww.

:[In the last row of the comic we see three characters that have obviously just finished watching The Matrix. Cueball is sitting on the floor nearest to the TV, Megan is sitting on the floor, farther from the TV and a Cueball-like friend is sitting on an armchair, farthest from the TV.]
:Cueball: I forgot how good that movie was.
:Friend: Wanna put on the other two?

:[Cueball, still sitting has turned to face Megan. They exchange looks without speaking.]

:[View of room, which is now empty, as is the chair. Sounds comes from off-screen to the right.]
:''Crash''
:''Wham''
:Friend (off-screen): Ow! Ow!

:[Cueball and Megan are back in the room, zoomed in so the TV is no longer visible, but the chair is and it remains empty. The friend is nowhere to be seen.]
:Cueball: I forgot how good that movie was.
:Megan: Too bad they never made any sequels.
:Cueball: True.

==Trivia==
*The 6th, 7th and 8th panels have been turned into an internet meme.{{Actual citation needed}}

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics with inverted brightness]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:The Matrix]]
[[Category:Comics to make one feel old]]

472: House of Pancakes

2024-11-11T11:53:54Z

172.70.85.127: Undo revision 356396 by 172.71.214.225 (talk) Not a well formed addition. Better ways of inviting someone else to do your intended fuller edit 'properly'.

{{DISPLAYTITLE:472: House of Pancakes}}
{{comic
| number = 472
| date = September 5, 2008
| title = House of Pancakes
| image = house_of_pancakes.png
| titletext = Fuck it, I'm just going to Waffle House.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Randall]] is parodying Mark Z. Danielewski's novel ''{{w|House of Leaves}}'' by renaming it ''House of Pancakes'' (after the American fast food franchise {{w|International House of Pancakes}}). ''House of Leaves'' has an unconventional page layout and style, including the colouring of every instance of the word "house" in blue, as is done on the menu. It includes footnotes within footnotes like Randall did here.

In ''House of Leaves'', protagonist Johnny Truant (whose meta-narration is marked by Courier font as mimicked in the comic) discovers a book called ''The Navidson Record'' (represented here by the pancake menu), which in turn details a film of the same name, which in turn details a horror story of a family living in a sentient house. Truant, who is clearly intelligent and cultured, probes deeper into notating ''The Navidson Record''—and into insomnia—until ''The Navidson Record'' consumes his mind horrifically, the same way the film in the novel consumed the author of ''The Navidson Record'', the same way the house in the novel consumed part of the family.

''House of Leaves'' lends itself to many interpretations, but has been called a "satire of academic criticism," which makes this comic essentially a satire of a satire. Since part of the appeal of ''House of Leaves'' is that it takes itself extremely seriously with its intricacy, multitude of both real and made-up references to academic and popular culture, and layered emotional conflict, Randall's reduction of the ''House of Leaves'' to the (International) House of Pancakes cuts a humorous edge to a dark story. The tone of the comic parodies the tone of ''House of Leaves'': lonely, fear-inducing, and increasingly insane, but using pancakes instead of darkness.

Additionally, the mysterious "Mohawk Girl" referred to in the comic may be a nod to the ''House of Leaves'' character Delial, or to [[147: A Way So Familiar]].

The word "house" is in blue in every instance, which is a stylistic attribute of Mark Z. Danielewski's novel. Every Minotaur reference is marked out in red ink, and every use of "house" or a foreign language's equivalent, such as 'Haus' and 'maison' is in blue. This is not a reference to hyperlinks. It is often thought that the house is printed in blue because houses have 'blueprints.'

The censored portion of the Big Steak Omelette is "...fresh green peppers, onions, mushrooms,..." per IHOP's website for the Big Steak Omelette: "Tender and tasty strips of steak, hash browns, fresh green peppers, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes and Cheddar cheese." Also, Omelette is misspelled, but that's probably just a typo.

The title text refers to the {{w|Waffle House}}, another US restaurant chain. The joke is that the protagonist has decided that maybe all this angst isn't worth it, and he'll just go to a different restaurant.

Clicking on the original comic links to the amazon.com page for House of Leaves.

From ''[[xkcd: volume 0]]'':
{{quote|This is a parody of the fascinating book ''House of Leaves''.}}

==Transcript==
:[All instances of the word "House" are in blue. Text is a mix of 'Printed' (hi-res serifed proportional font), 'Typed' (more crude-looking non-proportional serifed font) and 'Written' (freetext, in standard xkcd AllCaps style, having the occasional decoration and emphasis added).]
:[Above the 'frame' is Typed text:] Every day a new city, a new IHOP. And yet every night the dreams get worse. I ply the highways, a nervous eye on the rear-view mirror, the back seat piled with stolen menus. Their doors are opened 24 hours, but forever closed to my soul. This is what my life has become. This is my hell.
:[A bordered frame, in the style of an (illustrated and annotated) menu. We see two columns of product descriptions, three full ones and in each column and a hint of a fourth going beyond the bottom of the frame.]
:[Each clear description generally start with a product name, in bold, and a product description, all in Printed text. To the left of these are an illustrative image which has a barely legible caption seemingly identical to the product namr header, and a stylistic 'angled shadow' set subtly behind it. In each description text there may be at least one footnote-number in superscript and square-brackets. Below each are Typed footnote paragraphs (mostly) relating to the footnote numbers in the above description. Additional scribbles are Written around and alongside the above, as text, doodles and other marks of one type or another.]
:[Menu header:]
::[Sidenote left, Written:] International
::[Printed header:] House of Pancakes
::[Scribbled-out sidenote, Written to the right:] BLOGSPOT

:[Item subheader, top of first column:] Strawberry Banana Pancakes
::[Item description:] Four pancakes filled with sliced fresh banana and crowned with cool strawberry topping, more [17] bananas and [23] whipped topping.
::[Footnote 17, with three smudged fingerprints over parts of this and the top of the next item down (a fourth, perhaps, far to the bottom of the framed area):] Driven by a nameless fear, a whisper in the dark behind me, I flee ahead of I know not what. Whenver I turn, there's nobody behind me. And yet someone is clearly stealing the ketchup. WHY?
::[Footnote 23, sandwiched incongruously and sideways from low to high, mostly between the images of the Stuffed French Toast and Ham and Egg Melt items, to the right:] My life is feeding, fleeing, fighting, and forgetting.

:[Item subheader, second down on left column:] Rooty Jr.
::[Item description, a splash of red (ketchup/blood) within it, further (secondary?) spatters and red marks, possibly including an attempt to create mostly unintelligable letters, spread on or around lower passages:] A kids only [19] version of our house signature Rooty Tooty. One scrambled egg, one strip of bacon, one pork sausage link and one fruit-topped buttermilk pancake.
::[Footnote 19:] The decision not to hyphenate "kids only" is likely connected to the omission of the serial comma. I wonder if the author is British. I wonder if he sleeps at night.

:[Item subheader, third down on left:] Rise 'N Shine
::[Item description:] Two eggs, toast and hash browns served with your choice [21] of two strips of bacon or two pork sausage links.
::[Footnote 21, starting with an small word (possibly (I") made illegible by one of the spatters of red:] rent a storage unit. Sleep there. Fill it with pancakes. Leave.

:[Item subheader, top of right column:] Stuffed French Toast
::[Item description:] Cinnamon raisin French [18] toast stuffed with sweet cream cheese filling, topped with cool strawberry or your choice of fruit compote and whipped topping.
::[Footnote 18:] Nightmares again. I wake up covered in sweat, and what appears to be a thin sheen of maple syrup

:[Inserted text, Written with emphasis and underlined:] WHO IS MOHAWK GIRL?

:[Item header, second down at right, which is sideways (low to high) in the general position that the horizontal text would normally be, next to the normally-set product image:] Ham & Egg Melt
::[Item description, also sideways and consistently 'below' (to the right of) its header:] Grilled sourdough bread stuffed with ham, scrambled eggs, Swiss and American cheeses. [20]
::[Footnote 20, normally orientated and positioned:] Ordered this in at an IHOP in Rochester, New York. There was blood on the floor. Some of it was mine.

:[Small drawn doodle, inserted, of three instances of a Cueball, the middle one holding out an item (gun?) to the right, followed by a ground feature (pool of liquid?)]
::[Written above the second (and third) Cueball:] Enough with your pancakes.
::[Written above the 'pool', two words heavily bolded:] Enough with your GOD DAMN pancakes.

:[Item header, third on the right:] The Big Steak Omlette
::[Item description, a few words of text has been censored by a black strip:] Tender strips of steak, hash browns, [censorship strip, long enough to obscure perhaps 4-6 typical words] tomatoes and Cheddar cheese. Served [22] with house salsa.
::[Footnote 22:] Woke up in Las Vegas. They're closing the Star Trek Experience today. The IHOP up the strip had pancake platters named after various states. None of them sounded like home.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Star Trek]]
[[Category:Fiction]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Comics with blood]]
[[Category:Footnotes]]

2906: Earth

2024-03-16T16:53:08Z

172.70.85.127: /* The "pale blue" dot */ Tyop (nobody read that far, before? ;)

{{comic
| number = 2906
| date = March 13, 2024
| title = Earth
| image = earth_2x.png
| imagesize = 364x472px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Just think of all the countless petty squabbles and misunderstandings, of all the fervent hatreds, over so insignificant a thing as the direction and duration of a rocket engine firing.
}}

==Explanation==
[[File:Pale Blue Dot.png|200px|right|thumb|The ''Pale Blue Dot'' image from Voyager 1. Earth is the "pale blue dot" halfway up the rightmost color band.]]
At first sight, this appears to be the famous {{w|Carl Sagan}} commentary, upon the ''{{w|Pale Blue Dot}}'' image of Earth, a picture taken by the {{w|Voyager 1 probe}} in 1990 (at that time 6 billion kilometers away) but having been transmitted back to Earth to be appreciated as one of the most iconic 'photos of Earth from space', along with ''{{w|Earthrise}}'' and ''{{w|The Blue Marble}}''. Sagan's written, and later spoken, words evoke how the lives of all of us are somehow confined to barely more than a single pixel's-worth of existence upon an already zoomed-in view of space.

From the caption, however, it appears that 'Carl' is not looking at an image. Instead it is a spacecraft window. The minute apparent size of the Earth is as a result of the spacecraft being very far from Earth. This is an unintended consequence of an attempt to deorbit from {{w|low Earth orbit}} (i.e. not more than 2000 kilometers from the Earth's surface, from which the Earth should still mostly fill any view that points towards it). Rather than transitioning from LEO into a re-entry trajectory, somehow the vessel and crew have been sent into a ''much'' higher-reaching orbit, if not into a solar or extra-solar trajectory. And it is apparently Carl's fault. The speech is thus not an inward view of where we all are, but an outward look at somewhere that all the crew (unwillingly, and against all recent expectations) are ''not''.


The title text continues with the traditional tone of the speech, only to become an implicit attempt to claim that it wasn't quite as drastic an error as it actually seems to have been.

The very same words (or as far as they go), but in the more traditional situation of an informative lecture, were previously used in [[1246: Pale Blue Dot]].

=== The scale of the error ===

The comic's distance from Earth is unlikely to be anywhere near that of Voyager 1, and would not be being seen portrayed by the same 1500mm high-resolution narrow-angle camera as took the alluded-to image. The apparent size of Earth, compared with Carl at his window, would depend a lot on the actual 'camera' geometry/position for the scene. For comparison, however, the Earth seen from the Moon is slightly under four times the diameter of the Moon as seen from the Earth, or perhaps nearly the size of a clenched fist, held at arm's length. This implies (unless the scene uses a particularly wide-angled lens, close to Carl and the window) that the vessel's position is now ''significantly'' beyond the orbit of the Moon.

The ''absence'' of a clearly visible Moon, which would have a near-identical phase to the illuminated Earth and could easily be the second brightest object in the scene, is therefore best explained by it being no more than a sub-pixel object, indistinguishable from the surrounding darkness of space, somewhere within thirty Earth diameters (and thus [[2205: Types of Approximation|approximately]], in this image, pixels) of the visible Earth. This could include being sufficiently in conjunction/opposition to Earth to blend in, or be obscured by it.

The general lack of other visible stars, etc, would be explained by the exposure being tuned to not wash out the illuminated internal view, and not being set up for useful astronomical shots, though may then set another range of useful limits on what magnitude of reflected sunlight must still arrive from Earth in order to remain visible.

=== The "pale blue" dot ===
Although it might initially look like a white dot, the comic truly has used a pale blue color for the dot that represents Earth, with the color used in the "2x" version of the image seeming to be 0xBDCFF4.

This can be interpreted as predominently a very light gray, with an extra hint of green and a bigger hint of blue. Or redefined as an {{w|HSL and HSV|HSV}} triplet of of 220.4 (a greenish-blue hue), 22.5% (relatively unsaturated) and 95.7% (very bright), all consistent with how the sunlit side of an Earthlike world would look with large oceans, vast swathes of terrestrial vegetation and atmospheric clouds) if necessarily abstracted down to a very limited number of pixels.

Looking at {{w|File:Pale_Blue_Dot.png|an actual example of the 'original'}}, seems to give a possible RGB of 0x95B39E (which gives: hue of 138, i.e. a 'bluish-green'; saturation level of 16.8%; brightness value of 70.2%), which is of course also consistent with the above assumptions about Earth. But all such images are of course ultimately derived as a composite of the data from [https://pds-rings.seti.org/voyager/iss/inst_cat_na1.html#filters eight separate 'filters'], which don't neatly fit into the {{w|RGB color model}}, and always subject to various kinds of post-processing and image conversion techniques.

==Transcript==
:[Carl Sagan (drawn Cueball like but with flat hair) is standing in front of a black screen with a tiny pale blue dot in the middle. He indicates the screen by holding out his right hand palm up towards the screen. He is speaking to someone off-panel, who replies from a star burst on the right edge of the panel.]
:Carl: Look again at that dot. That's home. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives...
:Carl: On a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
:Off-panel voice: We '''''know,''''' Carl.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Carl Sagan was '''''not''''' making us feel better about how badly he'd messed up the low Earth orbit reentry burn.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Space]]

1036: Reviews

2024-02-26T18:04:37Z

172.70.85.127: /* Explanation */ 'Normal people'(?) do indeed know what a uterus looks like.

{{comic
| number = 1036
| date = March 30, 2012
| title = Reviews
| image = reviews.png
| titletext = I plugged in this lamp and my dog went rigid, spoke a sentence of perfect Akkadian, and then was hurled sideways through the picture window. Even worse, it's one of those lamps where the switch is on the cord.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] and [[Megan]] are shown shopping for lamps. In the first frame of the comic, it is at a time before online reviews could be looked up on a smartphone. They spot a lamp they like, check the price, and agree to buy, end of story.

But the rest of the comic shows how difficult shopping has become after reviews have become easily accessible on smartphones while standing in the store. And now this takes up the final three panels, with the result that no lamps have been acquired and they decide to sit in the dark, using the claim that their living ''room looks fine in the dark'' to avoid buying a very expensive lamp which is the only one with perfect reviews (like 100% with 5 stars out of 5).

When shopping for anything via {{w|reviews}}, whether it be electronics or even something as simple as lamps like the comic demonstrates, one negative review can spoil a lot of positive reviews. That hits home even more if the review is specific because humans attach more weight to anecdotes and specific stories. This comic points out the absurdity of paying attention to those reviews, by making the negative review itself absurd (a lamp making your cats go deaf and interfering with your taste buds would imply, at the very least, anomalous radiation, and would not be on store shelves long before some kind of serious recall).

The second part of the comic starts normally. For the lamp Cueball thinks is pretty Megan finds ''lots'' of negative reviews which implies the product really isn't good after all, and it was even that specific brand of lamps in general that was to be avoided. But then this proceeds to get more and more absurd to the title text. Cueball is for instance looking at a lamp that someone thinks looks like a {{w|uterus}}. If Cueball did not feel the same way, he should ignore one person's comment. On the other hand, reading such a statement will maybe make you think of a uterus every time you see the lamp. So now it may be best not to buy it, but had he not read the comment it might have been a fine lamp for him.

In the final frame, Cueball has found a Swiss lamp maker with perfect reviews, but her lamps are very expensive, the cheapest starting at 1,300 francs. {{w|Swiss franc|Swiss francs}} are the units of currency used in {{w|Switzerland}}. In 2012 when the comic was released a Swiss franc was worth a little more than one dollar ([http://www.exchangerates.org.uk/CHF-USD-30_03_2012-exchange-rate-history.html US$1.10 to a Swiss Franc], at the time of publication) making the cheapest lamp go for not much less than US$1450. For comparison, US$15 can get a decent lamp at IKEA. Furthermore, the lampmaker lives in the {{w|Swiss Alps}} and can only be reached via a {{w|ski lift}}. This either indicates that transportation will be very expensive on top of the high starting price or it may even indicate that they will have to go to the lampmaker personally to either acquire a lamp or maybe just to check out that they do not look like a uterus or [http://gizmodo.com/5360742/penis-chandelieryes-penis-chandelier other parts] of the human reproductive system...

The title text is presumably the review of another lamp. When this reviewer plugged in this lamp, supposedly his dog went rigid, delivered a line of perfect Akkadian, and then was hurled sideways out the picture window. {{w|Akkadian_language|Akkadian}} is an extinct {{w|Semitic language}} that was spoken in {{w|ancient Mesopotamia}}. Even if the dog did speak a sentence of perfect Akkadian, the chance that the owner would be able to recognize it as such is negligible. The final joke is that the worst part of this lamp, was not the above-mentioned crazy effects on the dog, but that the lamp had, completely normally, the switch on the cord, as opposed to having it on the body of the lamp. A production argument about where to place such a switch, leading to someone getting fired, was part of the joke in [[1741: Work]].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Megan stand in a store looking at a lamp that Cueball points at on a table in front of them. There is another table behind them with another lamp and next to it stands a box with a picture of yet a different type of lamp in the bottom right corner. Both lamps have a price tag dangling from their shade. Above them (and their spoken text) is a frame with a caption:]
:Shopping before online reviews:
:Cueball: This lamp is pretty.
:Megan: And affordable.
:Cueball: Let's get it.
:Megan OK!

:[Exactly the same setting as above except now Megan holds up her smartphone in one hand looking down at it while typing on it with the other hand. Above them (and their spoken text) is a frame with a caption:]
:Shopping now:
:Cueball: This lamp is pretty.
:Megan: It's got 1½ stars on Amazon. Reviews all say to avoid that brand.

:[To the left of Cueball there is another lamp on a table. But he is now looking at his smartphone instead. Megan has turned away from him but is also looking at her smartphones. There are no lamps next to her.]
:Cueball: This one has good reviews.
:Megan: Wait, one guy says when he plugged it in, he got a metallic taste in his mouth and his cats went deaf.
:Cueball: Eek.
:Cueball: What about- ...no, review points out it resembles a uterus.

:[Cueball is holding his smartphone up in front of his face, Megan, looking at him, is holding her smartphone but has her arms down. There are no lamps shown.]
:Cueball: OK, I found a Swiss lampmaker with perfect reviews. Her lamps start at 1,300 Francs and she's only reachable by ski lift.
:Megan: You know, our room looks fine in the dark.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Smartphones]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Online reviews]]

Talk:2895: Treasure Chests

2024-02-22T21:31:02Z

172.70.85.127: Comment regarding face value vs resale value of pre-1965 dimes (containing silver)

Why would Black Hat want to wait a year to post the videos? --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.131.24|172.70.131.24]] 06:05, 17 February 2024 (UTC)
:To let the grass grow and hide the disturbed soil. No idea what the explanation is talking about. [[Special:Contributions/172.64.236.12|172.64.236.12]] 06:20, 17 February 2024 (UTC)

Also, I don't know what this means: "This is a particularly interesting caveat given the fact that this comic was only posted on February 16, 2024, which is quite early into 2024. The most likely explanation is that this comic takes place at a much different time than the date of publishing, hence making the time Black Hat would need to wait to post the videos much earlier/later (although later would create more questions than answers) than the date of the comic would suggest." Since the caption says that Black Hat's plan was "extremely effective", presumably Black Hat announced his plan to his co-workers some time ago, then arranged to plant the treasure chests, then posted the videos, and after that the lawn care company started getting lots of customers. This plan could have taken place at any time since online videos became common; YouTube started in 2005, for example. Nothing here implies that Black Hat is only announcing his plan now; the opposite is true, since the caption indicates that his plan was indeed very successful. --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.7.177|172.69.7.177]] 06:23, 17 February 2024 (UTC)

It reminds me of the fuss created by {{w|On the Trail of the Golden Owl}}, and other puzzles of its ilk. Though spread across much more time and space than "a town, for as long as it takes for everyone in the town to get fed up with the whole thing (and discourage outsiders from coming along with their own spades)". Personally, I'd like to see what the next business is that Black Hat talks to (after the Chest company, then the Lawn company) to further monetise the resulting chaos. It could be a property security company, who would benefit from increased demands for patrolling guards alongside [https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/ayrshire/strange-dalek-style-security-cameras-30076293 open-air security camera systems] and other related equipment... [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.77|172.71.178.77]] 15:53, 17 February 2024 (UTC)

so many business opportunities: sell them shovels, "100% treasure chest-free lawn" certifications, lawn security cameras, security camera disabling equipment, useless dowsing rods, cheap metal detectors, barbed wire, stepladders... [[Special:Contributions/172.69.91.125|172.69.91.125]] 19:05, 17 February 2024 (UTC)

Added my interpretation that this is never going to be "OLCCo presents: the Treasure Hunt!". If everyone realises that the prankster(s) who set all this up had caused their troubles (forcing them to get lawn-care, or do more of it than they already would have done), then OLCCo itself would have problems. Actual customers would leave, potential customers would seek other contractors, many of these would consider going to the courts to claw back costs, other current lawn-carers would absorb all the created work, and further potential lawn-carers might even start offering their services, all off the back of the back-firing campaign. ... But if it's a guerilla 'campaign', dressed up as some random "troublesome and obscure philanthropist" then it drives demand for LC-services (for wwhich OLCCo may be 'coincidentally' well positioned to service, perhaps, happening to corner the market in some vital element or other insofar as manpower, tools or supplies). Handled well (and not being revealed), it'd be well worth 'treasure price'.
 ...which is not to say that Black Hat doesn't have any intention of spoiling all that, and profitting (financially or just 'for the lulz') from letting the cat out of the bag at some point. Or threatening to. But then there's possible layers and other possible layers to this scheme. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.182|172.69.79.182]] 21:57, 17 February 2024 (UTC)

What makes anyone think that the chests stayed in the ground after the camera was turned off? I would immediately dig my treasure back up. [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 01:09, 18 February 2024 (UTC)
:That'd be 'acceptable' BH behaviour, certainly. Prolong the hunt (for the ultimately unfindable). And not risk a trio of households saying "Hey, I was doing a little bit of digging work on my garden, thinking of putting in a rosebush, and... <clunk>" to the news cameras, ruining the whole scheme six months before the scheduled posting of the videos. But, mostly, the first. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.184|172.71.178.184]] 16:26, 18 February 2024 (UTC)

My interpretation of the title text was rather different. Black Hat doesn't work for the lawn-care company. He's bringing this or a similar proposal to many different companies in order to sell lots of chests.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.133|162.158.159.133]] 01:47, 18 February 2024 (UTC)
:Same here. Black Hat seems to be selling a plan to the lawn-care company, but it turns out his plot to boost lawn care business is just part of a larger plot to boost vintage-style chest sales. And who knows what plot is behind the plot behind the plot? Black Hat certainly wouldn't care about chest producers' grievances if it weren't for some ulterior motive. [[User:Transgalactic|Transgalactic]] ([[User talk:Transgalactic|talk]]) 15:06, 18 February 2024 (UTC)
:Seems very obvious to me that if BH is actually saying "our" (as opposed to the narrator, describing the effect of BH's plan), it's only under a contractually-tied relationship. He's a marketeering/advertising consultant (or pertains to be!) who has approached at least two separate business concerns with an 'idea'. And I'm not sure the Explanation is saying otherwise (or wasn't, last time I checked). [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.184|172.71.178.184]] 16:26, 18 February 2024 (UTC)

Black Hat thinks too small, tut tut Randall... Needs the Pigs In A Supermarket approach: videos of FOUR chests being buried, but dig up one right away off-camera. That way if the three chests are found too quickly (not damaging enough lawns), people will keep looking (probably more fervently) because they KNOW one chest is still out there. :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 06:42, 18 February 2024 (UTC)
:Golden Tickety, indeed. It's as the existence is proven (at least one is revealed to be the real thing) but before the hope is over (the last example is known to be found) that the hype will be greatest, and thus the effectiveness of the more covert ploy to send people the way of the business that can paper over the resulting mess. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.184|172.71.178.184]] 16:26, 18 February 2024 (UTC)

I think the issue with the quantity of coins can be explained by considering the face value. 10000 pre-1965 dimes would take up a substantial amount of space.

Regarding the use of pre-1965 dimes - these may have a £1000 total face value, but the silver content means they actually are worth about $1.70 each , so 10,000 of them would be a tasty $17,000.

1098: Star Ratings

2024-02-21T14:09:38Z

172.70.85.127: /* Explanation */ Better wikilink, and additional clarification of the differences.

{{comic
| number = 1098
| date = August 22, 2012
| title = Star Ratings
| image = star ratings.png
| titletext = I got lost and wandered into the world's creepiest cemetery, where the headstones just had names and star ratings. Freaked me out. When I got home I tried to leave the cemetery a bad review on Yelp, but as my hand hovered over the 'one star' button I felt this distant chill...
}}

==Explanation==
This comic deals with the idea that users when viewing online star ratings are usually heavily biased towards the best possible rating (five stars). As there are nine possible scores in the rating system in the comic (1 star, 1.5 stars, 2 stars...4.5 stars, and finally 5 stars), a rating of 3 out of 5 stars is supposed to represent "average" or "mediocre". Thus, anything above 3-and-a-half stars is supposed to be "good" and anything below 3-and-a-half stars is "bad". However, most people consider a four star rating to be "OK", and everything below as "crap".

On one hand there is some justification for this, as ratings are more likely to be given by people who fall onto one of the extremes (either loved or hated the product) and thus there is a tendency for ratings to be skewed either high or low. Fake reviews are also a factor that often push an aggregate score higher, although this is not addressed in the comic. For this reason, no product is so perfect that every user will give it five stars - as soon as one person gives it less than five, the overall review score would drop. So the only explanation for a five star rating is that only a few users have voted, maybe only one.

The title text may refer to the folkloric practice of attributing a feeling of a chill to someone walking on your future grave. When Randall is back home he would like to give a bad rating on {{w|Yelp}} — a corporation that operates an "online urban guide" — and hovering his hand over the 'one star' button, he was just 'walking' over the rating on his own future grave.

Another possible explanation for the title text is that the headstones are from people that gave the cemetery star ratings and were then murdered, having their given ratings displayed in the headstones. This in turn would explain the chill Randall feels before clicking the one-star button.

Finally, the "world's creepiest cemetery, where the headstones just had names and star ratings" could simply be Randall not understanding he was in a Jewish cemetery where headstones have {{w|Star of David}}s on them. Noting that these would exclusively be {{w|hexagram}}s, rather than the more usual five-pointed/ten-edged variety of concave {{w|star polygon}} used in actual rating systems.

See also: [[937: TornadoGuard]], another comic about star ratings.

==Transcript==
:Understanding online star ratings:

:5 stars: [Has only one review]
:4.5 stars: Excellent
:4 stars: OK
:3.5-1 star: Crap

==Trivia==
*The image at the end of [http://what-if.xkcd.com/69/ What-If 69] references this comic in the title text.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Online reviews]]

1674: Adult

2022-10-23T10:12:13Z

172.70.85.127: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1674
| date = April 29, 2016
| title = Adult
| image = adult.png
| titletext = (1) That shopping cart is full of AirHeads, and (2) I died at 41 from what the AirHeads company spokesperson called 'probably natural causes.'
}}

==Explanation==
In this comic, [[Cueball]] performs several mundane '''adult''' tasks, namely shopping for groceries, buying furniture, and applying for a mortgage. In each instance thought bubbles show his apparent surprise or amusement at the fact that he is behaving like an adult.

In the last panel [[Megan]] is reading Cueball's will. Instead of containing standard language, it expresses Cueball's feelings at the fact that he was actually creating a will. This is such an adult thing to do, that Cueball's mind boggles and he cannot believe he is doing so. As is revealed in the title text, Megan reads this to his family because Cueball died early, but when he wrote it, he probably did not envision that it was needed any time soon, and thus also explains why he cannot believe he is writing a will already.

[[Randall]] frequently addresses the issue of growing up and being expected to be an adult, despite still seeing oneself as a child in many ways. In this strip, Cueball finds himself performing tasks that he's used to thinking of as things that grown-ups have to worry about, from shopping for food to preparing for one's own death. In each case, he treats the situation as if he were a child suddenly finding himself taking on adult responsibility, which seems to be how he sees himself.

Randall also frequently addresses the issue of finding oneself in adulthood, despite feeling unprepared and immature. In some, he points out that this can be freeing, because it allows us the power to redefine adulthood on our own terms (see [[150: Grownups]] and [[219: Blanket Fort]]). In others (as in this case), he addresses the surprise that comes with realizing that adult responsibilities belong to you, and fear about his ability to handle them (see [[441: Babies]], [[905: Homeownership]], and [[616: Lease]]).

In the title text we learn that the shopping cart is filled with {{w|AirHeads(candy)}}, a tangy, taffy-like, chewy candy, predominantly known for its sweet taste and texture. The title text thus suggests that Cueball still retains some more childish instincts, namely using the freedom of adulthood to indulge in AirHead candies, to fatal consequences, explaining why they already read out his will in front of his family in the last panel. It also suggests that the candy company would be quick to portray that death as "natural causes", to downplay the involvement of their product in someone's death.

Randall has previously made a comic displaying what happened to him when he suddenly was able to freely make or buy the kind of food his parents would have limited his access to in [[418: Stove Ownership]], where it was bacon in the comic and Frosting (or icing) in the title text.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is holding onto a shopping cart more than half filled with items looking quite similar. Above his head is a large thought bubble.]
:Cueball (thinking): Haha, look at me grocery shopping! I'm such an adult.

:[Cueball is standing, arms in his sides, in front of a sofa with a price tag. He is thinking again, this time the frame of the panel is the lower part of the thought bubble, as there is no frame around the text in the "bubble".]
:Cueball (thinking): Buying a sofa! Ooh, look how domestic I am!

:[Cueball is sitting in an office chair. at a desk, leaning in over it while writing something. The desk is filled with office items, and on the opposite side of the desk sits a man with a wisp of hair in another office chair. Cueball is thinking again with the text in a large thought bubble above their heads.]
:Cueball (thinking): Applying for a mortgage! As if I'm a real grown-up.

:[Megan is reading out loud from a piece of paper, while standing in front of a long table, where Hairbun, Hairy, and White Hat are sitting. White hat sits at the end of the table in an office chair.]
:Megan: ...And I, being of sound mind and body, am totally writing a will right now!
:Megan: Can you believe this?

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Food]]