explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

1920: Emoji Sports

2017-11-27T22:28:25Z

173.245.50.216: /* 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 if Horse Hole was 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, would 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.{{Citation needed}}
|-
|🤾‍♀️🤺
|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 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 could cause damage to its structure leading 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.
|-
|👉🐍👈
|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]]

Talk:1871: Bun Alert

2017-08-05T02:40:02Z

173.245.50.216:

I think it's about Ponytail realizing she's opened a can of worms in that she was the one who taught these people about the bun, and now everyone's infatuated with them. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.52|108.162.249.52]] 00:53, 3 August 2017 (UTC)

This is basically the title text from 1682. Is it just me, or has Randall been running out of ideas lately? [[User:Jaalenja|Jaalenja]] ([[User talk:Jaalenja|talk]]) 13:31, 2 August 2017 (UTC)
:In all fairness, Randall has been known to play the long game. There might be a thread to pull here. {{unsigned ip|172.68.143.186|13:44, 2 August 2017‎ (UTC)}}
::Yea, Randall has built on earlier ideas before. E.g. 1818 being built on an idea from What-If 141. It's non-indicative of a lack of ideas. But the notion that ideas are a finite resource is silly anyways. Watch the talk he gave at Google in 2007, it's on YouTube, and there's a bit in there where he talks about how he comes up with his comics. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.35|108.162.238.35]] 13:49, 2 August 2017 (UTC)
No idea why he's picked bunnies specifically, maybe that will become apparent in a future strip. Considering just this standalone comic, it seems to be a parody of apps that increasingly swamp the user with notifications about pointless things that one might imagine nobody would ever care about. In this instance, it might be imagined that few people would care about notifications for bunny sightings, but in the last pane it appears that someone truly does. This might compare with notifications for rare pokemon sightings in Pokémon Go (not provided in-app but there are groups on facebook etc. that alert users to rare pokemon / legendary raids) - with the difference that bunnies are extremely common. Also, is it significant that he specifically uses the word "buns" instead of "bunnies"? There may be a connection with the observation that they are just like little hopping loaves of bread.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.208|141.101.98.208]] 14:45, 2 August 2017 (UTC)
:I mean, that's pretty much what twitter is for.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.134.190|162.158.134.190]] 15:11, 2 August 2017 (UTC)
:Cf. memes such as "anatomy of the bun". [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.35|108.162.238.35]] 19:37, 2 August 2017 (UTC)
:Agree with the idea that it may be reference to people overreacting to trivial things and using technology to alert others about it e.g. Starbucks unicorn locations, PokemonGo, etc. No idea about the title text though, he is basically saying people may be alerted at night? Maybe some recent trend that focuses on night gatherings? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.47.72|172.68.47.72]] 20:58, 2 August 2017 (UTC)

I think this may just be an extended example of dadaism. If he carries on with the theme I think it is as likely to make less sense as it is to make more sense. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.58.189|162.158.58.189]] 15:12, 2 August 2017 (UTC)
:+1 Dada hypothesis. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.178.147|162.158.178.147]] 06:33, 3 August 2017 (UTC)

Beret Guy's comment about investors and building the alert system could be a reference to [[1493: Meeting]]. Is the "loaves of bread that hop" line just a pun on the word "bun"? Is "Night Buns" a reference to something? --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.46.41|172.68.46.41]] 20:13, 2 August 2017 (UTC)

WARNING: your captchas aren't working well at all. In firefox your captcha gets crushed somehow underneath the formatting tools bar where you can do text entry when editing. I was only able to pass the captcha and get this comment posted by viewing the html source of the webpage and tracking what link the captcha was supposed to go to. I suggest you try setting up some sort of formatting on the webpage to place the captcha elsewhere on the page one sees after editing a comment-box/wiki-like page. Thanks[[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.91|162.158.154.91]] 23:25, 2 August 2017 (UTC)

Just checked out that captcha problem since I never noticed it at work where I cant log in and now here at home the captcha is showing fine nothing hidden or combined with the format bar or the comment box this on Firefox 54.0.1 (64-Bit) current window size 1279x929 [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.28|108.162.219.28]] 01:20, 3 August 2017 (UTC)

I believe with each new comic I am getting lazier and lazier with editing (any editing, old or new comics). Thank God for [[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] and the rest of you. --[[User:Lackadaisical|Lackadaisical]] ([[User talk:Lackadaisical|talk]]) 13:12, 3 August 2017 (UTC)
:Thanks for removing this NOT FUNNY ANYMORE ''Citation needed'' templates. And please do not thank God for my few edits, I don't belief in those creatures. My first edit on this comic was more than 24 hours after release and my focus is more about standards. E.g. there is no need to add categories like ''Comics from 2017''... and the trivia is below the transcript.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 18:30, 3 August 2017 (UTC)
:::Maybe the more sporadic customary userbase of this site is a bit less jaded than the top editors. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.25.28|172.68.25.28]] 20:22, 3 August 2017 (UTC)
::::I adore the Citation needed joke, where appropriate, it must refer to a blatantly obvious phenomenon which does not need a citation. Such as, "The sky is blue" or "squirrels way less than a moose," and that statement should flow naturally and not be obviously put in there just to set up the joke. The joke comes from What If? and this seems to be how Randal uses it. --[[User:Lackadaisical|Lackadaisical]] ([[User talk:Lackadaisical|talk]]) 22:08, 3 August 2017 (UTC)
::::: I must concur, I love the silly "Citation needed" jokes, they're one of my favourite parts of reading this site! :) Sorry, it's permanently funny. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 03:37, 4 August 2017 (UTC)
:::::My problem with the "joke" is that it always links to the protest comic. In the What-ifs, Randall links to something that looks or sounds vaguely like "citation". [[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.227|108.162.212.227]] 11:55, 4 August 2017 (UTC)
:::::I just realized i spelt "weigh" as "way"--[[User:Lackadaisical|Lackadaisical]] ([[User talk:Lackadaisical|talk]]) 12:15, 4 August 2017 (UTC)
:It's a common colloquialism where I'm from, said without religious intentions. I was more commenting on your work on the site rather than this particular comic, though I can see why that may have been confusing. Next time I will reserve praise for your talk page. --[[User:Lackadaisical|Lackadaisical]] ([[User talk:Lackadaisical|talk]]) 19:55, 3 August 2017 (UTC)
:: I was raised without religion, only going to churches and whatnot for weddings and such. I firmly consider myself as not having a religion. I feel we'd all be better off without religion (though I recognize people have a right to their religion). But even I have been known to say "thank god". It has become a saying, and it doesn't really have a non-religious equivalent ("thankfully" isn't used the same way, "thankfully for" is grammatically incorrect, "I'm thankful for" feels more wordy and formal). Ignore the religious aspect. :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 03:37, 4 August 2017 (UTC)

Massachusetts has an informal "French Toast Alert" system for grading winter storms. I wonder if the allusion to alerts about "loaves of bread that hop" could be related to that. [[User:Gmcgath|Gmcgath]] ([[User talk:Gmcgath|talk]]) 00:07, 4 August 2017 (UTC)
: Other people know better than I where Randall lives, but I don't think it's Massachusetts, and this French Toast Alert System (why french toast?) sounds like one of those things only locals know. I think it's just conflating their silly use of "bun" with the normal use of the word. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 03:41, 4 August 2017 (UTC)

Is it possible that the line about investors is a dig at startups focused entirely on creating a single app that nobody even needs? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.105.210|141.101.105.210]] 12:57, 4 August 2017 (UTC)

A little grammar Nazi thing I picked up, in the first panel Ponytail says, "to who" instead of "to whom." [[User:ChromoTec|ChromoTec]] ([[User talk:ChromoTec|talk]]) 15:24, 4 August 2017 (UTC)ChromoTec
:Please enter new comments at the bottom. And as a German I don't like the phrase ''grammar Nazi'' because {{w|Nazi}} means fascism, I'm sure that's not your intention. But you're right, and even not a pedant, because "to whom" sounds much better. Maybe the picture will be updated in the future. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:42, 4 August 2017 (UTC)

Am I the only dirty old man that thinks that this has to to do with taking pictures of people's behinds - as in "buns of steel" kind of buns? and on alerting friends on social media regarding some particularly picturesque, ahem, tight, small, buns?[[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.216|173.245.50.216]] 02:40, 5 August 2017 (UTC)

768: 1996

2013-12-07T05:42:35Z

173.245.50.216: /* Explanation */ less irrelevancy

{{comic
| number = 768
| date = July 19, 2010
| title = 1996
| image = 1996.png
| titletext = College Board issues aside, I have fond memories of TI-BASIC, writing in it a 3D graphing engine and a stock market analyzer. With enough patience, I could make anything... but friends. (Although with my chatterbot experiments, I certainly tried.)
}}

==Explanation==
There has been a stunning amount of progress in pretty much any measurable dimension of technology since 1996. We laugh at our prior naivete, pointing out that what would be a non-functionally awful computer now was considered state of the art at that time. Likewise with a {{w|PalmPilot|Palm Pilot}}, arguably a precursor to today's omnipresent smartphones. {{w|Texas Instruments|Texas Instrument (TI)}} calculators, however, appear to have been left behind, not having made any significant advances since the newly discovered issues of of the US computer magazine {{w|Computer Shopper (US magazine)|Computer Shopper}} were published. Thus, while we groan at how awful our state of the art technologies truly were in 1996, we are reminded that some technologies have remained in relative stasis over the years.

The title text, after alluding to the fact that academia's practice of only allowing (or requiring) specific models is at the root of how TI can charge high prices for stagnant technology, reminds us that when they were new, TI calculators were relatively powerful tools if you knew how to use them. TI-Basic was a fairly versatile programming language that could be used to make anything from games to reference files to computational programs.

The second half of the title text is a reminder to those of us who felt like gods for knowing how to program that power comes at a price—in this case, the power to program a calculator costs friends. Since no program yet devised can truly pass a Turing test, even the most sophisticated {{w|Chatterbot}} (programs designed to mimic conversation) can't quite qualify as a friend.

While many people aren't aware of them, TI ''does'' make more modern calculators in their {{w|TI-Nspire series}}, although they were introduced after this comic was published. The newest versions have color screens and (''finally!'') non-BASIC programming support through {{w|Lua (programming language)|Lua}}.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is going through a cardboard box marked "MISC", and finds a catalog. Megan looks on.]
:Cueball: Check it out - old Computer Shoppers! Wow - in 1996, $3,000 would get you a 100 MHz Pentium system with a parallel port, two serial ports, a 2MB video card, and "MS-Windows"
:Megan: Nice!

:[The two are face-to-face, and they each have a separate copy of Computer Shopper.]
:Megan: And $299 would get you a Palm Pilot 100- - 16MHz, 128Kb storage, and a memo pad, calendar, and state-of-the-art address book that can store over 100 names!
:Cueball: Oooh!

:[Cueball continues to read from his.]
:Cueball: And $110 would get you a bulky TI graphing calculator with around 10MHz CPU, 24Kb RAM, and a 96x64-pixel B/W display!
:Megan: Times sure have... ...have... uh.

:[They both put down their catalogs.]
:Cueball: Okay, what the hell, T.I.?
:Megan: Maybe they cost so much now because there's only one engineer left who remembers how to make displays that crappy.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]

1158: Rubber Sheet

2013-12-04T19:21:02Z

173.245.50.216: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1158
| date = January 9, 2013
| title = Rubber Sheet
| image = rubber sheet.png
| titletext = It IS about physics. It ALL is.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic refers to a [http://en.allexperts.com/q/Astronomy-1360/question-black-holes-1.htm common analogy] used to explain how mass distorts space-time - a bowling ball resting on a sheet of rubber distorts the sheet due to its weight. The system has some qualitative features in common with gravity; it's often [[895|misused]] to show that "mass warps spacetime".

The next part of the original analogy explains a black hole: the slope of the sheet becomes so deep that you can't climb out from the bottom anymore, similar to a black hole, which even light can't escape from. However, the comic subverts the analogy, and the sheet becomes a trampoline instead.

The line "Imagining is ''fun!''" is also an hommage to Richard P. Feynman's "Fun to Imagine" Series of Interviews. 

Imagining is fun, but there's [[895|always]] got to be a spoil sport.

==Transcript==
:[Beret guy is standing on a giant bowling ball on a rubber sheet. Megan is watching.]
:Beret Guy: Imagine a giant bowling ball on a rubber sheet.
:Beret Guy: The ball's weight makes a dent in the sheet.

:[A rope is pulling the ball down into the sheet.]
:Beret Guy: Now imagine a rope that pulls the ball down even further.
:Beret Guy: ...Annnnd...

:[Rope lets go. Ball is catapulted with Beret Guy on it.]
:'''BOOOIING'''
:Beret Guy: Wheee

:[Beret guy and ball are falling back down.]
:Megan: ...Oh. I thought this was about physics.
:Beret Guy: Imagining is ''fun!''

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Physics]]

1294: Telescope Names

2013-11-22T07:09:25Z

173.245.50.216:

{{comic
| number = 1294
| date = November 22, 2013
| title = Telescope Names
| image = telescope_names.png
| titletext = The Thirty Meter Telescope will be renamed The Flesh-Searing Eye on the Volcano.
}}

==Explanation==
The [[wikipedia:Very Large Telescope|Very Large Telescope]] and the [[wikipedia:Extremely large telescope|Extremely Large Telescope]] are two existing telescopes in observatories. The comic pokes fun at the generic nature of the names of the telescopes by proposing more generic but increasingly ridiculous names for future telescopes.
The title text talks about the [[wikipedia:Thirty Meter Telescope|Thirty Meter Telescope]], which is under construction in Mauna Kea, Hawai'i. It is expected to be the most advanced and powerful optical telescope on Earth when completed.

==Transcript==
(A list of checkboxes are given. First three in the list are checked)
* The Very Large Telescope
* The Extremely Large Telescope
* The Overwhelmingly Large Telescope (Cancelled)
* The Oppressively Colossal Telescope
* The Mind-numbingly Vast Telescope
* The Despair Telescope
* The Cataclysmic Telescope
* The Telescope of Devastation
* The Nightmare Scope
* The Inifinite Telescope
* The Final Telescope

{{comic discussion}}

1294: Telescope Names

2013-11-22T07:01:37Z

173.245.50.216:

{{comic
| number = 1294
| date = November 22, 2013
| title = Telescope Names
| image = telescope_names.png
| titletext = The Thirty Meter Telescope will be renamed The Flesh-Searing Eye on the Volcano.
}}

==Explanation==
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very_Large_Telescope Very Large Telescope] and the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extremely_large_telescope Extremely Large Telescope] are two existing telescopes in observatories. The comic pokes fun at the generic nature of the names of the telescopes by proposing more generic, but increasingly ridiculous, names for future telescopes.
The title text talks about the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty_Meter_Telescope Thirty Meter Telescope], which is under construction in Mauna Kea, Hawai'i. It is expected to be the most advanced and powerful optical telescope on Earth when completed.

==Transcript==
(A list of checkboxes are given. First three in the list are checked)
* The Very Large Telescope
* The Extremely Large Telescope
* The Overwhelmingly Large Telescope (Cancelled)
* The Oppressively Colossal Telescope
* The Mind-numbingly Vast Telescope
* The Despair Telescope
* The Cataclysmic Telescope
* The Telescope of Devastation
* The Nightmare Scope
* The Inifinite Telescope
* The Final Telescope

{{comic discussion}}