explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

842: Mark

2014-11-10T05:00:12Z

199.27.128.141: Misspelling: "existence", not "existance"

{{comic
| number = 842
| date = January 3, 2011
| title = Mark
| image = mark.png
| titletext = I'm a solipsistic conspiracy theorist. I'm sure I must be up to something, and I will not stop until I find out what.
}}

==Explanation==
In this comic [[Cueball]] believes he is part of a secret society, so secret that he doesn't know anything about the society. His belief in the existence of the society, and that he is a part of it, stem from one contact with an 'agent'. Most people would immediately dismiss the idea of such a secret society, especially with no evidence of its existence, and no knowledge of the goals or even whether it is inherently good or evil.

Six years after being 'chosen', Cueball finds the scrap of paper with an address on, and the can of Kerosene. Both of these events are not unlikely, and easily explained as simple coincidences, but Cueball somehow sees this as a command that he must burn down the house. Cueball shows that he is willing to put other peoples lives at risk, destroy property and posessions, and face the possibility of prison all because of one event twenty years prior. To the sane person this is absurd.

Cueball's belief in the society, his delusional linking of the address and kerosene, and his actions in burning down the house, show how badly he wants to be part of something bigger, and to find meaning in the "Chaos of Life".

The punchline refers to an old grade school/middle school prank (Urban Dictionary: [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=pen15+club pen 15 club], [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=pen15 Pen 15].) You'd typically walk up to an unsuspecting schoolmate and ask him if he wants to join the Pen Fifteen club. You'd tell him that to join, you merely have to write the club name on him. You'd then write "PEN15" on his hand or arm, and everyone would laugh at him because it looks like "Penis". In this case, [[Cueball]] fell victim to this prank as a child without ever figuring out the joke (maybe because they got him to write it himself on his arm and he literally wrote "Pen Fifteen" instead of "Pen15").

As for the title text, {{w|solipsism}} is the philosophical idea that only your own mind is sure to exist while other minds can't be really known and so those other minds are not proved to be real.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and a child are talking.]
:Child: What's that on your arm?
:Cueball: The mark of a secret society.

:Child: If it's secret, why tell me-
:Cueball: Because I know nothing. I can't betray them because I don't know who they are. I was chosen by an agent 20 years ago. That was my first and last direct contact. It's safer that way.

:Six years later I found a piece of paper in the street with an address on it. The next day I found a can of kerosene in my garage that I'm sure I never bought.
:[The panel represents these actions by highlighting the mentioned objects in a world of gray.]

:I didn't know whose house it was. I just knew that I'd been given my orders. And I carried them out.
:[A dark figure is silhouetted against a flame.]

:Cueball: I don't know who or what we're fighting.
:Cueball: Maybe we're the bad guys.
:Cueball: It doesn't matter to me.

:Cueball: It's enough to know that there are forces working beneath the chaos of life, and I'm a ''part'' of them.

:Cueball: That whatever this "pen fifteen" club is,
:Cueball: I'm ''in'' it.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Penis]]
[[Category:Philosophy]]

Talk:421: Making Hash Browns

2014-11-01T19:42:11Z

199.27.128.141:

He could hit his friend with the potato who could then fall back onto his fork. [[Special:Contributions/98.229.99.185|98.229.99.185]] 20:09, 7 June 2013 (UTC)

He could dice the potato but not propel the freshly-made hash browns forward; they would instead fall on head. [[Special:Contributions/24.145.48.25|24.145.48.25]] 18:31, 4 September 2013 (UTC)

Because a potato getting dirty from the ground is totally one of the worst things that could happen. Newsflash: Potatoes come from the ground, and these ones don't look like they've been washed anyway. [[User:Alcatraz ii|Alcatraz ii]] ([[User talk:Alcatraz ii|talk]]) 00:06, 8 November 2013 (UTC)

That's probably not a glass of orange juice but a cardboard container in which the french fries are delivered at the fast-food restaurant, painted on the outside and white inside, of the characteristic shape with a cut-out on the front side. What can be more appropriate to catch the fries with? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.5|108.162.246.5]] 00:45, 31 January 2014 (UTC)
I think the "orange juice" looks like frying oil. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.45|108.162.221.45]] 08:10, 17 February 2014 (UTC)

I would have thought one of the ways it could go wrong would be if the glass of juice was literally half-empty. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.141|199.27.128.141]] 19:42, 1 November 2014 (UTC)

888: Heaven

2014-01-26T03:11:06Z

199.27.128.141: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 888
| date = April 20, 2011
| title = Heaven
| image = heaven.png
| titletext = If you've never had sex, this is what it feels like. Complete with the brief feeling of satisfaction, followed by ennui, followed by getting bored and trying to make it happen again.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic shows the popular video game {{w|Tetris}}, in which you use different shaped pieces to fill in lines to score points. The more lines you fill at a time it results in more points.

Heaven is, when you get the perfect piece in Tetris that fills out all the empty space you have on the board. The next piece here is really odd, but it fits exactly the empty spaces. In addition, the piece coming after that is long and flat, enough to fill an entire line on its own.

The title text compares this experience with an orgasm. After "the brief feeling of satisfaction" you are bored, ennui means a feeling of utter weariness and discontent resulting from satiety or lack of interest, but at the end you want more.

A fan even made a modified version of the classic Tetris game, where at a certain frequency, a 'heaven' perfectly fitting block comes along. The game can be found on. [http://www.gudmagazine.com/games/heaven/ http://www.gudmagazine.com/games/heaven/].

Also see comic [[724: Hell]], which presents an opposing situation in which the game is impossible to play.

==Transcript==
:[The display is a tetris game. A large oddly shaped piece is falling towards the board. The piece fits into the gaps exactly to complete multiple rows at once. The next piece is simply a very long brick.]
:Top 0002187
:Score 0002186
:Level 5
:[The above are within the game; the next line is outside the game.]
:Heaven

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Sex]]
[[Category:Video games]]

Talk:467: X Girls Y Cups

2014-01-11T19:56:48Z

199.27.128.141:

This page is in the category Sex. I don't see anything about that topic here. Can someone explain? [[User:Matchups|Matchups]] ([[User talk:Matchups|talk]]) 14:49, 24 June 2013 (UTC)
:As mentioned here and in the Wikipedia article, 2 Girls 1 Cup is a trailer for a {{w|scat fetish|scat-fetish}} film, and it is at least intended to cause sexual arousal "if you like that sort of thing". Of course, not many people do. [[User:Markhurd|Mark Hurd]] ([[User talk:Markhurd|talk]]) 16:40, 24 June 2013 (UTC)

There are now 38 million google hits for 5 girls 6 cups. Someone should update the graphic.

1290: Syllable Planning

2013-11-23T11:29:57Z

199.27.128.141: /* Explanation */ Nah, it'd clearly be "lous", not "us", after "fucking"

{{comic
| number = 1290
| date = November 13, 2013
| title = Syllable Planning
| image = syllable_planning.png
| titletext = You absolute-fucking-... shit.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] wants to say ''ri-fucking-diculous'', but he inserts the ''fucking'' too late in the word. Now, he has to say ''ridicu-fucking-lous'', which sounds ridiculous.

This is an example of {{w|tmesis}}, the breaking up of a word to include another within it, and more specifically of {{w|expletive infixation}}. Normally, for rhythmic reasons the included word is inserted before the {{w|Stress (linguistics)|stressed}} syllable (''ri'''dic'''ulous'' becoming ''ri-fucking-'''dic'''ulous'') which is what Cueball messed up. (However in some cases it is also possible to break the word after a prefix instead, so for some words there are two ways to do it e.g. {{w|wikt:unbefuckinglievable|''unbe-fucking-lievable''}} or {{w|wikt:unfuckingbelievable|''un-fucking-believable''}}; this is probably because ''unbelievable'' is {{w|commons:File:En-us-unbelievable.ogg|pretty much pronounced flatly}}, even when said in a heated tone, unlike words like ''ridiculous'', where the stressed syllable is quite evident when the word is said angrily.)

The [[title text]] introduces a further example, with speaker inserting the ''fucking'' too late into the word ''absolutely''—which would have resulted in ''absolute-fucking-ly''—but leaving the word unfinished when they realize their mistake. The more usual tmesis here would be {{w|wikt:absofuckinglutely|''abso-fucking-lutely''}}.

==Transcript==
:Cueball: Man, that is '''''RIDICU'''''—fucking—... ...Hang on, I inserted "fucking" too late and now there's just one awkward syllable left. Can I back up?
:[Cueball is standing next to Megan.]

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