explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

1593: Play-By-Play

2015-10-21T05:43:40Z

199.27.133.96:

{{comic
| number = 1593
| date = October 21, 2015
| title = Play-By-Play
| image = play_by_play.png
| titletext = The thrower started hitting the bats too much, so the king of the game told him to leave and brought out another thrower from thrower jail.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|I don't have time to add much, someone fix.}}

This comic is a parody of baseball. The thrower represents the pitcher, and the king is the Umpire (sounds like Emperor, which is a type of king). White Hat is the commentator, and describes the game in his usual surreal style.

"Running to second when know one's looking" is stealing a base.

==Transcript==
Beret Guy: For those just joining us, hi! We're on part 5 of a hitting game.
The next guy has a big bat, so he'll probably hit the ball real far.
Wait - he missed!
Oh good, they're letting him try again.
The people sitting on the chair shelves are yelling at this guy but he's ignoring them. Wow.
Rude.
This thrower is good! He keeps making people leave by throwing balls at them.
It's just him, though. None of his teammates are joining in.
That guy just ran to the second pillow when no one was looking!!
Everyone's real mad but I guess they checked the rules and there's nothing that says he can't do that.
Yikes. Hopefully they can fix that once this game is over.

Title text: The thrower started hitting the bats too much, so the king of the game told him to leave and brought out another thrower from thrower jail.
{{comic discussion}}

1443: Language Nerd

2015-01-16T07:56:49Z

199.27.133.96: /* Explanation */ - she comments on verbing adverb.

{{comic
| number = 1443
| date = November 5, 2014
| title = Language Nerd
| image = language_nerd.png
| titletext = Not to go all sentence fragment on you.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Part of speech|Parts of speech}} can be treated fluidly, in English and other languages. For example, "medalled" has been coined as a word meaning "gained a medal" in a sporting competition, implying the existence of the verb "to medal" meaning "to win a medal". [[Megan]], in conversation with [[Cueball]], similarly creates new meanings from existing words: firstly, she uses the {{w|adjective}} "legit" (a slang abbreviation of "legitimate") as an {{w|adverb}} to mean "legitimately"; secondly, she uses the {{w|noun}} "adverb" as a verb meaning "to turn a non-adverb into an adverb"; and thirdly, she uses the {{w|noun phrase}} "language nerd" as an adjective. All three are used in the past tense.

Megan uses the words "verbed" and "adjectived" without any comment, implying that the acts of "verbing" the nouns "verb" and "adjective" are so natural and long-established that they are unremarkable, even if grammatical purists might decry such usage. An example of a change of parts of speech that is widely accepted is the {{w|gerund}}, which is nothing more than the use of a verb or verb-phrase as a noun; for instance, "I enjoy '''reading'''," and "the best thing for your health is '''not smoking'''".

Added humor is gained by the self-referential nature of Megan's sentence. She uses fluid parts of speech, and also refers to that very same use, in one sentence.

The title text, "Not to go all sentence fragment on you," is an implicitly self-referential sentence fragment, containing neither an explicit subject nor a predicate. It can be converted into a full sentence by rephrasing it something like, "I do not mean to go all sentence fragment on you, but..." It is also funnier because, as well as being ''self''-referential, it also refers to the main comic by adjectiving the noun-phrase "sentence fragment".

==Transcript==
:Megan: I don't mean to go all language nerd on you, but I just legit adverbed "legit", verbed "adverb", and adjectived "language nerd".

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

Talk:1417: Seven

2014-09-05T05:17:33Z

199.27.133.96:

Guacamole = 7-layer dip ingredient
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.81|108.162.215.81]] 05:08, 5 September 2014 (UTC)Anonymous XKCD reader

Seventh Seal more likely to be a reference to Book of Revelation (I think he's brought it up before?) or the film? [[Special:Contributions/199.27.133.96|199.27.133.96]] 05:17, 5 September 2014 (UTC)

1417: Seven

2014-09-05T05:15:14Z

199.27.133.96:

{{comic
| number = 1417
| date = September 5, 2014
| title = Seven
| image = seven.png
| titletext = The days of the week are Monday, Arctic, Wellsley, Green, Electra, Synergize, and the Seventh Seal.
}}

==Explanation==

Megan is asking Cueball to name the seven dwarfs. He responds with a list of seven unrelated items, where each item traditionally belongs to a different set of seven things:

* Sneezy: seven dwarfs
* Phylum: taxonomic ranks
* Europe: continents (treating North & South America as separate continents, and counting Antarctica as a continent)
* Sloth: seven deadly sins
* Guacamole: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven-layer_dip Seven-layer dip]
* Data Link: Layer 2 of the seven layers of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OSI_model OSI model]
* Colossus of Rhodes: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Wonders_of_the_Ancient_World Seven Wonders of the Ancient World]

The title text has a similar joke, about days of the week:

* Monday: days of the week
* Arctic: Seven oceans
* Wellsley: Seven Sisters (colleges)
* Green: Colours of the rainbow
* Electra: The seven [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleiades_(Greek_mythology) Pleiades].
* Synergize: Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
* Seventh Seal: Reference to a phrase in the Book of Revelation in the Bible that refers to seven symbolic seals that secure a book or scroll. May also be a (strange) reference to the film The Seventh Seal.

{{incomplete|Created by a BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page.}}

Each item in the list is part of a group of seven: Dwarves, levels of biological taxonomy, continents, deadly sins, layers of dip, seven-layer OSI model, and wonders of the ancient world.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}

{{comic discussion}}

1417: Seven

2014-09-05T05:14:05Z

199.27.133.96: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1417
| date = September 5, 2014
| title = Seven
| image = seven.png
| titletext = The days of the week are Monday, Arctic, Wellsley, Green, Electra, Synergize, and the Seventh Seal.
}}

==Explanation==

Megan is asking Cueball to name the seven dwarfs. He responds with a list of seven unrelated items, where each item traditionally belongs to a different set of seven things:

* Sneezy: seven dwarfs
* Phylum: taxonomic ranks
* Europe: continents (treating North & South America as separate continents, and counting Antarctica as a continent)
* Sloth: seven deadly sins
* Guacamole: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven-layer_dip Seven-layer dip]
* Data Link: Layer 2 of the seven layers of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OSI_model OSI model]
* Colossus of Rhodes: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Wonders_of_the_Ancient_World Seven Wonders of the Ancient World]

The title text has a similar joke, about days of the week:

* Monday: days of the week
* Arctic: Seven oceans
* Wellsley: Seven Sisters (colleges)
* Green: Colours of the rainbow
* Electra: One of the seven [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleiades_(Greek_mythology) Pleiades].
* Synergize: Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
* Seventh Seal: Reference to a phrase in the Book of Revelation in the Bible that refers to seven symbolic seals that secure a book or scroll

{{incomplete|Created by a BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page.}}

Each item in the list is part of a group of seven: Dwarves, levels of biological taxonomy, continents, deadly sins, layers of dip, seven-layer OSI model, and wonders of the ancient world.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}

{{comic discussion}}