explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:3129: Archaeology Research

2025-08-15T16:37:11Z

82.132.238.109:

? [[User:CalibansCreations|'''Caliban''']] ([[User talk:CalibansCreations|talk]]) 14:44, 15 August 2025 (UTC)
: Cueball has misunderstood the purpose of archaeology as being to study things in order to devise improved versions of them. As a result, he has ended up 'inventing' Bronze Age technology. [[Special:Contributions/82.13.184.33|82.13.184.33]] 15:13, 15 August 2025 (UTC)
:: And in the title text, he imagines the reason everyone dismisses it is because 'Big Knap' is conspiring to stop him destroying their profits. [[Special:Contributions/82.13.184.33|82.13.184.33]] 15:27, 15 August 2025 (UTC)
: I think the joke is misunderstanding "archaeology research" to mean doing research to extend ancient technology. [[Special:Contributions/2601:18E:C380:4FC0:D4F5:8EE1:51F6:82AF|2601:18E:C380:4FC0:D4F5:8EE1:51F6:82AF]] 15:12, 15 August 2025 (UTC)

It's the kind of research project I can easily imagine my university Classics prof, Trevor Hodge, being on board with. He was very keen on students trying to reproduce ancient tech for themselves, with an eye towards them appreciating the challenges involved and that those people were intelligent and knowledgeable. One of his grad students was an acquaintance of mine, doing a thesis along the lines of "The Two-Bladed Bronze Axe in the Aegean: Tool or Weapon?", and I'd be astonished if the project didn't include constructing one. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 14:47, 15 August 2025 (UTC)

Possibly referencing new copper tools in Minecraft? [[Special:Contributions/104.28.205.246|104.28.205.246]] 15:35, 15 August 2025 (UTC)

My understanding of the joke is that archaeology enthusiasts are obsessed with using traditional tools. Consequently, Cueball revealing there are other methods of manufacturing tools, would disrupt the entire archaeology enthusiasts community and the surrounding industry. In retrospect, I am probably wrong. [[User:Aqua-chestnut|Aqua-chestnut]] ([[User talk:Aqua-chestnut|talk]]) 16:07, 15 August 2025 (UTC)
: Alternatively, the joke might be that the event is taking place in the Paleolithic age, and Cueball's discovery of copper would advance it to the Neolithic, consequently disrupting the Paleolithic economy. In retrospect, this is also wrong because copper first appeared in [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_historic_inventions#Neolithic_and_Late_Mesolithic 5000 BC according to Wikipedia] [[User:Aqua-chestnut|Aqua-chestnut]] ([[User talk:Aqua-chestnut|talk]]) 16:18, 15 August 2025 (UTC)

My own take on this is that, as a Practical Archaeologist, he's actually gone to live the life of a stone-age toolmaker (a [https://www.butserancientfarm.co.uk/ thing that some people do]) to rediscover the and test theories about the culture of that era. But, obviously some of the ''real'' stone-agers may have been transitioning into early metal-working and the were at the cusp of the bronze-age. His back-to-basics attempt at recreating their lives has ''accidentally'' strayed into independently re-inventing the stage ''after'' the era that he had intended (or been asked) to study, thus instead [[2949: Network Configuration|reinventing human history]]. - Of course, this would also be rather interesting to know about (perhaps help understand the rather fuzzy changeover that happened in our own real history), but missed the point of the original target of study which was more the nature of the mature stone-implement industry than its decline and replacement by waves of 'new-tech' metal-working. [[Special:Contributions/82.132.238.109|82.132.238.109]] 16:37, 15 August 2025 (UTC)

Talk:75: Curse Levels

2025-08-15T16:17:05Z

82.132.238.109: (...resisting the temptation to posit another feason for the bawdy shout-out... And "the south west" probably goes in for "moy luvver!" more, as NW might use "duck" (with a D, yes!), etc...)

I'm sorry that I don't know who to attribute this to, but I once heard a comedian refer to someone as a "mother-effin' fucker". - [[Special:Contributions/108.162.242.10|108.162.242.10]] 22:32, 26 July 2014 (UTC)

It should be noted (or I feel compelled to point out) that the word "cunt" is not seen as all that bad in Great Britain. It's something closer to damn or even just a term that's used in the U.S. like "douche" or others. "Stop being such a cunt, Gary." It's not really all that bad.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.108|108.162.246.108]] 00:23, 15 September 2016 (UTC)

: I'm British. The last comment is dead wrong. Far from being “not that bad” it’s basically the polar opposite: pretty much the most shocking and vulgar swear word there is, in a class of its own far beyond other swear words. {{unsigned ip|141.101.98.208|19:35, 15 October 2017

::: I think you're talking about Australians. {{unsigned ip|108.162.250.35|00:16, 9 April 2018}}

:: Not that either perspective is particularly relevant, since Randall is American. However, for what it's worth, every reference I've ever seen to British use of the word says that it's more mild than it is in America. Maybe you just live in a weird region where that's not the case. Or maybe all those other people are wrong and it's become a weird urban myth. I guess I'll never know, unless I do, at which point I will.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.126.28|162.158.126.28]] 02:17, 21 December 2017 (UTC)

::: It may be milder than it is in America, but it's still about as strong as it gets. Maybe Brits are just generally more tolerant of swearing in general. It also depends very much on context and inflection - the offense would usually be much greater if it was said in an aggressive manner, than it would be if used in the way that the first commenter did. It also depends on where in the country - in Northern Ireland, for example (which, granted, isn't actually GB, but still) it doesn't seem to be considered anywhere near as strong as it is in most of England.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.76.16|141.101.76.16]] 15:44, 12 January 2018 (UTC)

:Going to have to disagree here. 'Cunt' is a one of the most offensive swear words, although vulgar language is probably a little less offensive in Britain given the frequency of vulgar language. [[User:Beanie|Beanie]] ([[User talk:Beanie|talk]]) 14:13, 16 March 2021 (UTC)

:It is definitely different in Australia. While it's still the rudest swearword, it is ONLY a swearword, which is why it seems less rude. Australians (and presumably Britons) don't put as much emphasis on swearwords as some sort of terrible thing, compared to Americans. This difference has been expressed quite succinctly (by @thomas_violence on Twitter) thus: "I love little cultural differences, like how Americans are super offended by the word cunt but here in Australia we're super offended by school children being slaughtered with automatic weapons". {{unsigned ip|108.162.250.106|01:51, 8 October 2021}}

Just a few minutes ago I said "fricking retarded" unironically and it reminded me of this. Thank you xkcd. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.134.26|172.70.134.26]] 02:51, 24 April 2024 (UTC)
:I have a question: Does "D'Arvit" count as a swearword outside the Artemis Fowl series? [[User:Z1mp0st0rz|Z1mp0st0rz]] ([[User talk:Z1mp0st0rz|talk]]) 16:55, 24 April 2024 (UTC)
::I want to know what "d'arvit" means in English so I could safely say it as a curse and not be worried I'm saying something horrible. [[User:Psychoticpotato|Psychoticpotato]] ([[User talk:Psychoticpotato|talk]]) 21:33, 25 April 2024 (UTC)
:::as a former artemis fowl reader, d’arvit means a generic gnomish (faerie language) swear word [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 21:36, 25 April 2024 (UTC)

I was born and raised in the U.K. and would say there's quite marked regional variations in how the word 'cunt' is perceived. Where I come from in the south-west it's regarded as pretty offensive and not something you'd say to strangers unless you were deliberately trying to be provocative. In London, it's a different matter and far more acceptable. I remember walking through an east end market as a young man and being greeted with the friendly invitation of a stall holder in the form of "Oi, cunt, come and 'ave a look at this...". {{unsigned ip|5.132.89.181|15:17, 15 August 2025}}

1212: Interstellar Memes

2025-08-15T16:09:33Z

82.132.238.109: /* Explanation */ More accurate. There were plenty of (later-called-)memes earlier on the Internet even in the decades before there was the Web for things to now additionally be on.

{{comic
| number = 1212
| date = May 15, 2013
| title = Interstellar Memes
| image = interstellar memes.png
| titletext = The strongest incentive we have to develop faster-than-light travel is that it would let us apologize in advance.
}}
A [http://xkcd.com/1212/large/ larger version] of this picture can be found by clicking the comic on xkcd.

==Explanation==
{{incomplete| Need to add the missing explanations for memes.}}

[[Randall]] highlights various memes from popular culture. A {{w|meme}} is a phenomenon, often in this scenario in the form of a movie quote, a musical reference, a catchphrase or other notable saying that spreads quickly by word-of-mouth. Memes become popular because people hear about them and repeat them to others. Randall points out that if the assumed intelligent life from other star systems were listening to the things we said, then they would just now be hearing and popularizing memes started years ago on earth. The delay is due to the time that it takes for expressions of the meme to travel (presumably via radio waves) to distant star systems.

Our solar system, from where the electromagnetic waves are emitted, is located just left of the center of the picture. The other star systems are arranged roughly according to their distance from the sun, while their size corresponds to the size of the star compared with that of the Sun. The meme for Sirius is a pun; it refers to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, in which Bellatrix Lestrange kills Sirius Black. Radio waves travel at the {{w|speed of light}}. The title text jokes that these memes are so annoying that it would give us further incentive to develop the technology to travel {{w|faster than light}}, just simply to be able to outrun the radio waves, reach a distant star system, and apologize in advance to the "residents" about the memes, before the memes arrive.

===Table with memes===
The table below lists all the memes described, and the star at which the comics states those memes should be heard by the time when the comic was released in 2013. The year of the meme plus the number of light years to the star should end up close to 2013.

Most end up within the range 2011-2013 which may indicate the meme became popular one or two years later (on Earth or at the distant star system.) Two memes reach the targets in 2014. Some of those errors may be caused by the inaccuracy of the distances.

The ''The Spanish Inquisition'' from Monty Python would have reached its destination in 2006. Because they're still watching ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' in 2013 it must be very popular or maybe it took seven years to decipher that {{w|British humour}}.

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Meme !! Star !! Origin !! Year !! Distance to star !! Sum year !! Explanation
|-
| Yabba dabba doo! || {{w|Castor (star)|Castor}} || ''{{w|The Flintstones}}'' || 1960 || 51 ± 3 ly || 2011 ± 3 ||The catchphrase used by ''{{W|Fred Flintstone}}'' in the series ''{{W|The Flintstones}}'' whenever something good happens (like a work shift ending).
|-
| You've got to ask yourself one question: "Do I feel lucky?" || {{w|Lambda Aurigae}} || ''{{w|Dirty Harry}}'' || 1971 || 41.2 ± 0.1 ly || 2012 || The famous line from the scene in ''Dirty Harry'' where the titular Harry forces a criminal to surrender by threatening him with an empty gun.
|-
| {{w|Where's the beef|Where's the beef?}} || {{w|HR 1614}} || Slogan for {{w|Wendy's}} || 1984 || 28 ly || 2012 || Catchy slogan used in many Wendy's commercials that caught on and became a meme in its own right.
|-
| And now for something completely different. || {{w|Capella (star)|Capella}}|| ''{{w|Monty Python's Flying Circus}}'' || 1969 || 42 ly || 2011 || "And now for something completely different" was previously used in U.K. magazine shows like ''Tonight'', but its use in Monty Python's material means it has come to be associated with them.
|-
| Here's lookin' at you, kid. || {{w|Kappa Reticuli}} || ''{{w|Casablanca (film)|Casablanca}}'' || 1942 || 70 ly || 2012 ||
|-
| My spoon is too big! || {{w|Kapteyn's Star}} || ''{{w|Rejected}}'' || 2000 || 12 ly || 2012 || The first line of Don Hertzfeldt's surreal animation ''Rejected'', released in 2000. In the story of ''Rejected'', this was meant to be an ad bumper for an educational channel.
|-
| May the force be with you. || {{w|Delta Trianguli}} || ''{{w|Star Wars}}''|| 1977 || 35 ly || 2012 || This is a phrase used a lot in the Star Wars franchise. It is a benediction used to bid a hopeful farewell, mostly by/to/between those who are aligned to the {{w|Jedi}} creed.
|-
| Peanut butter jelly time! || {{w|Luyten's Star}} || [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/peanut-butter-jelly-time an Internet meme] || 2002 || 12 ly || 2014 || "Peanut Butter & Jelly" was the only single by the Buckwheat Boyz, which became popular as a meme when paired with an animated dancing banana.
|-
| Rosebud. || {{w|Alpha Hydri}} || ''{{w|Citizen Kane}}'' || 1941 || 71 ly || 2012 || In the opening scene of Citizen Kane, the eponymous Mr. Kane dies, saying "Rosebud" as his last words. The rest of the movie focuses on the people in his life trying to determine what the meaning of this word was.
|-
| Oh my god, {{w|They killed Kenny|they killed Kenny!}} – You bastards! || {{w|AD Leonis}} || ''{{w|South Park}}'' || 1997 || 15.9 ± 0.2 ly || 2013 || This is usually said whenever the character Kenny from South Park is killed. This is a recurring reference, as Kenny dies in every episode of South Park. In its most referenced form, another of the child characters then swears at the antagonists, fate and/or {{tvtropes|BreakingTheFourthWall|the writer's of the show}}, whichever party may be responsible, but this may be toned down in later depictions.
|-
| ...God kills a kitten! – A what? || {{w|Procyon}} || {{w|Every time you masturbate... God kills a kitten|an Internet meme}} || 2002 || 11.5 ly || 2013 || The full catchphrase is "Every time you masturbate, God kills a kitten". The reply for this meme notes that kittens aren't on any other planets{{Citation needed}}, so the other person is confused about what a kitten is.
|-
| I ''still'' can't believe Bellatrix– – Dude, get over it. || {{w|Sirius}} || ''{{w|Harry Potter}}'' ({{w|Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix|book 5}}) || 2003 || 8.6 ly || 2012 || In the Battle of the {{w|Ministry of Magic|Department of Mysteries}}, {{w|Bellatrix Lestrange}} fires a spell at {{w|Sirius Black}}, {{w|Harry Potter (character)|Harry's}} {{w|Godparent|godfather}}. This spell knocks Sirius backward through an archway which is a physical doorway into the {{w|Afterlife|afterlife}} such that, when Sirius fell through it, he left the realm of the living and died. The star Sirius is obviously upset about this, as Sirius Black was named after him.
|-
| Ninjas fight ''all the time!'' || {{w|Epsilon Eridani}} || {{w|The Official Ninja Webpage}} || 2002 || 10 ly || 2012 || {{w|Ninja}} is the Japanese word for {{w|spy}}. In the 16th century, Japanese spycraft was codified into a profession, and spies had a significant influence on feudal intrigue during the {{w|Sengoku period|Japanese warring states period}}. These spies inspired a lot of literature, some fantastical, which over time developed into a popular stock character and a rich array of associated tropes. The Official Ninja Webpage is a satire website written from the perspective of a teenage American boy who is obsessed with the stock character and its associated tropes. One of these tropes, as written on the front page of the website, is that "Ninjas fight ALL the time."
|-
| {{w|D'oh!}} || {{w|HR 753}} || ''{{w|The Simpsons}}'' || 1989 || 23 ly || 2012 || This is what {{w|Homer Simpson| Homer Simpson}}, the father figure of {{w|The Simpsons}}The Simpsons, exclaims whenever he's annoyed.
|-
| {{w|The Spanish Inquisition (Monty Python)|''Nobody'' expects the Spanish Inquisition!}} || {{w|Beta Virginis}} || ''{{w|Monty Python's Flying Circus}}'' || 1970 || 35,6 ly || 2006 || Monty Python was an absurdist sketch show. In a particular episode, a character in a scene (a meeting between a mill-owner and his workers) complained about being asked some questions by saying they "did not expect a {{w|Spanish Inquisition}}", a superlative that was common at the time the sketch aired. At this point, several characters dressed in the uniforms of the Spanish Inquisition burst into the scene declaring that "nobody expects the Spanish inquisition", diverting the original sketch's direction. At the very end of the episode, a different character in a different (courtroom) sketch says that they "didn't expected the Spanish Inquisition" and everyone turns towards the door in expectation. The remainder of the episode follows the Spanish Inquisition rushing to the scene, and barely starting to 'surprise' everyone there before time runs out.
|-
| {{w|All your base are belong to us}}. || {{w|Tau Ceti}} || ''{{w|Zero Wing}}'' || 2001 || 11.9 ly || 2013 || This is a meme resulting from a mistranslated line in the game ''Zero Wing''. The correct translation was "We have taken all of your bases."
|-
| Take me to your leader! – No, Steve. || {{w|Beta Cassiopeiae|Caph}} || {{w|Take me to your leader (phrase)}} || 1957 || 55 ly || 2012 || "Take me to your leader" is a stock phrase attributed to aliens in 1950s science fiction during first contact. The first recorded instance is a New Yorker cartoon where aliens ask this question to a horse, illustrating the weirdness of aliens being able to communicate the phrase but not understanding the structure of society. Later usage was more sincere, with both humans and aliens asking each other to take them to their leaders. Since people near Caph would be aliens, one could ask them to take you to their leader. However, because the aliens on Caph are saying the meme to each other, the second speaker is personally familiar with the one making the request, apparently named Steve, which makes the request pointless. So the second speaker refuses the request because it is not important.
|-
| Chuck Norris doesn't sleep. He ''waits.'' || {{w|Wolf 359}} || {{w|Chuck Norris facts}} || 2005 || 7.8 ly || 2013 || {{w|Chuck Norris}} is an American movie star, typically taking on roles where he would perform implausible feats of physical prowess. People online started making lists of many other implausible or impossible feats that Chuck Norris was supposedly capable of, including this one. Normal humans have a physiological need for {{w|sleep}}, with sleep deprivation having many negative health effects. That Chuck Norris does not sleep but instead waits implies a superhuman resistance to insomnia, while simultaneously explaining his inaction as a form of {{w|theodicy}}.
|-
| ♬ Numa numa ♪ || {{w|Lalande 21185}} || {{w|Dragostea Din Tei|Numa Numa song}} || 2004 || 8.3 ly || 2012 || "Numa numa" is part of the lyrics of the chorus of a Romanian-language europop song {{w|Dragostea Din Tei}}. A webcam recording of {{w|Gary Brolsma}} enthousiastically singing along with the song was uploaded to youtube and widely shared.
|-
| I can haz? || {{w|WISE 1049-5319|Luhman 16}} || {{w|Lolcats}} || 2006 || 6.6 ± 0.5 ly || 2013 || An early image macro meme format was captioning pictures of cats, as alluded to in xkcd [[262]]. One popular image featured an overweight Scottish Fold cat with the caption "I can haz cheezburger?", implying the cat is overweight because it likes eating cheeseburgers.
|-
| ''Internets!'' || {{w|Luyten 726-8|Gliese 65}} || {{w|George W. Bush}} [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/internets Internet meme] || 2004 || 8.7 || 2013|| The word 'Internets' is an incorrect pluralisation of the word, popularised by former US president George Bush, in his response to a question asked by an audience member about the moral state of media in the US, during a debate at Washington University in 2000. His response is as follows: "''[…] We can have filters on Internets where public money is spent […] so if kids get on the Internet, there is not going to be pornography or violence coming in.''" This was majorly overlooked until he made the same mistake during the presidential debate against US Senator John Kerry in 2004. He repeated this as follows: "''I hear there's rumors on the, uh, Internets [pause] that we're going to have a draft. We're not going to have a draft, period.''"
|-
| Look at the tiny dancing Earth mammals! || {{w|Gliese 1}} || {{w|Hampster Dance}} and/or {{w|Dancing Baby}} || 1998 || 14 ly || 2012 || Hampster Dance was a website featuring a set of tiled animated {{w|GIF}}s of cartoon hamsters dancing. The Dancing Baby is an animated GIF of a computer generated human baby dancing in a {{w|cha-cha}} style. Gliese 1 is not familiar with hamsters and human species, but since they are both mammals it refers to one or both as "tiny dancing Earth mammals". It is unclear how Gliese 1 knows that they are mammals, or what mammals are.
|-
| ''Wasssuup!?!'' || {{w|Van Maanen's star}} || {{w|Budweiser (Anheuser-Busch)|Budweiser Beer}} advertising campaign || 1999 || 14 ly || 2013 || A compounded way of saying "What's up", a common greeting, with the compounded version being more common in 1990s' African American Vernacular English. In the commercial, two friends are lounging and watching a sports game, calling each other using an analog wired telephone. Using these telephones, multiple people in the same household could pick up phones connected to the same in-home telephone network and all participate in the conversation. Several other friends use this function to join the call and say "Wassuupp!?!" at each other in an escalatingly large group and then hang up to go back to doing their own thing.
|-
| Yippie-ki-yay, motherfucker. || {{w|Beta Hydri}} || ''{{w|Die Hard}}'' || 1988 || 24 ly || 2012 ||
|-
| I pity the fool! || {{w|Groombridge 1830}} || ''{{w|Rocky III}}'' ({{w|Mr. T}}) || 1982 || 30 ly || 2012 || In Rocky III, the main antagonist Clubber Lang expresses pity towards protagonist Rocky Balboa, who is foolish enough to compete with him in a boxing match. The implication being that Lang is obviously going to win and cause Balboa a lot of unnecessary pain. The actor playing Clubber Lang, Mr. T, adopted this as his catchphrase, using it in different media.
|-
| The cake is a lie! || {{w|Alpha Centauri|Alpha Centauri A/B}} || ''{{w|Portal (video game)|Portal}}'' || 2007 || 4.3 ly || 2011 || This is a phrase that appears scrawled on a wall in the video game Portal foreshadowing the ending where, despite being promised cake, the player character is not given it and is almost killed by the antagonist.
|-
| ♪ Never gonna give you up ♫ || {{w|Alpha Centauri|Alpha Centauri A/B}} || {{w|Rickrolling}} || 2007 || 4.3 ly || 2011 || This is a reference to an act of tricking someone to watch/listen to the song "Never Gonna Give You Up" involuntarily.
|-
| I'm on a boat! || {{w|Proxima Centauri}} || ''{{w|I'm on a Boat}}'' || 2009 || 4.243 ± 0.002 ly || 2013 || The hook of a satirical hip-hop single with the same name, by {{w|The Lonely Island}} and {{w|T-Pain}}. The song is about winning a free boat ride and then being ridiculously proud of being on a boat.
|-
| ♫ Chocolate Raaaiiin ♫ || {{w|Barnard's Star}} || {{w|Tay Zonday}}: {{w|Chocolate Rain}} video || 2007 || 6 ly || 2013 || Chocolate Rain is a song uploaded to youtube by Tay Zonday, with video of him recording the voice track. "Chocolate rain" is the {{w|hook (music)|hook}} of the song that recurs every other line, and in the lyrics chocolate rain serves as an analogy for systemic racism.
|-
| Leave Britney alone! || {{w|Barnard's Star}} || {{w|Cara Cunningham}}: [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/leave-britney-alone LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE!] || 2007 || 6 ly || 2013 || {{w|Britney Spears}} is an American singer and pop star, who was ridiculed by the press and popular discourse for drama in her personal life. A highly watched early youtube video featured Cara filming herself in a highly emotional state, begging people to "leave Britney alone" because she had it hard enough.
|-
| You're the man now, dog! || {{w|Epsilon Indi}} || {{w|YTMND}} || 2001 || 11.8 || 2013 ||
|-
| {{w|More cowbell|More cowbell!}} || {{w|Kruger 60}} || ''{{w|Saturday Night Live}}'' || 2000 || 13 ly || 2013 || Saturday Night Live is a famous show that creates comedy sketchs every Saturday night. One of these sketches was the "More cowbell" sketch. This sketch was about the recording of "{{w|(Don't Fear) The Reaper}}", a song by the {{w|Blue Öyster Cult}}. In this skit, Gene Frenkle (a fictional character, played by {{w|Will Ferrell}}) was playing the {{w| Cowbell (instrument)|cowbell}}. However, because the cowbell was so distracting, the band stops playing and tells him to stop. This upsets Frenkel, who starts playing more and more annoyingly as the sketch goes on. {{w|Bruce Dickinson}}, played by {{w|Christopher Walken}}, encourages Frenkel to play the cowbell louder saying the iconic line, "Guess what! I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell!".
Christopher Walken later said that the sketch "ruined his life", because of how popular it became.
|-
| Hasta la vista, baby. || {{w|Gliese 892}} || ''{{w|Terminator 2}}'' || 1991 || 21 ly || 2012 ||
|-
| Let's get ready to ruuumble! || {{w|Zeta Tucanae}} || {{w|Michael Buffer}} || 1984 || 28 ly || 2012 || This meme originated from the main catchphrase of ring announcer Michael Buffer, which he has used since 1984. The catchphrase has also made an appearance in the 1996 Disney movie ''{{w|Space Jam}}''.
|-
| You talkin' to ''me?'' || {{w|Arcturus}} || ''{{w|Taxi Driver}}'' || 1976 || 36.7 ± 0.3 ly || 2013 ||
|-
| Did ''I'' do that? || {{w|Xi Boötis|Boötis}} || ''{{w|Family Matters}}'' ({{w|Steve Urkel}}) || 1989 || 21.89 ± 0.07 ly || 2011 ||
|-
| Welcome to Good Burger, home of the good burger. – What's a burger? – I don't know. || {{w|70 Ophiuchi}} || {{w|Good Burger}} slogan || 1997 || 16.58 ± 0.07 ly || 2014 ||
|-
| Badger badger badger badger || {{w|Ross 154}} || {{w|Badger Badger Badger}} || 2003 || 9.7 ly || 2013 || One of the most popular videos created by Mr. Weebl, consisting of badgers (and a mushroom and snake) appearing when those words are said.
|-
| {{w|Vulcan salute|Live long and prosper.}} – OK. || {{w|HD 211415}} || ''{{w|Star Trek}}'' || 1967 || 44 ly || 2011 ||
|-
| Name's Bond. James Bond. || {{w|51 Pegasi}} || ''{{w|Dr. No (film)|Dr. No}}'' ({{w|James Bond}}) || 1962 || 50.9 ± 0.3 ly || 2013 || James Bond is the protagonist of a series of spy fiction, who has a habit of introducing himself with this exact phrase.
|-
| Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn. || {{w|Alpha Serpentis}} || ''{{w|Gone with the Wind (film)|Gone with the Wind}}'' || 1939 || 74.0 ± 0.3 ly || 2013 ||
|-
| Mr. T ate my balls! || {{w|Altair}} || [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/ate-my-balls an Internet meme] || 1996 || 16.7 ly || 2013 || One of the oldest memes on the Web, with the original website by student Nehal Patel (which consisted of a bunch of Mr. T comic images recaptioned to have him saying he likes eating balls) first appearing in 1996.
|-
| I want the truth. – ''You can't handle the truth!'' || {{w|Delta Pavonis}} || ''{{w|A Few Good Men}}'' || 1992 || 20 ly || 2012 ||
|-
| I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse. || {{w|Beta Trianguli Australis}} || ''{{w|The Godfather}}'' || 1972 || 40 ly || 2012 ||
|-
| {{w|Resistance is futile|Resistance is futile.}} || {{w|Vega}} || ''{{w|Star Trek}}'' ({{w|Borg (Star Trek)|Borg}}) || 1988 || 25 ly || 2013 || The Borg are a fictional hypercollectivist superpower in the Milky Way galaxy depicted in the Star Trek franchise. The Borg expand by violently conquering the hundreds of species that exist in the galaxy, using cyborg implants to force conquered people to work for their collective in body and mind. When a Borg spaceship encounters resistance, it sends out a standard message explaining its intent to add the to-be-conquered people's biological and cultural distinctiveness to their own, and that resistance is futile.
|-
| Oh... My... Gaawd || {{w|Sigma Draconis}} || ''{{w|Friends}}'' ({{w|Janice Goralnik}}) || 1994 || 18.8 ly || 2013 ||
|-
| Ehh, what's up, Doc? || {{w|Epsilon Cygni|Gienah}} || {{w|Bugs Bunny}} || 1940 || 73 ly || 2013 || This is the main catchphrase of Bugs Bunny, the main character of the loony toons.
|-
| ''EXTERMINATE!'' || {{w|Alpha Cephei|Alderamin}} || ''{{w|Doctor Who}}'' ({{w|Dalek|The Daleks}}) || 1963 || 49 ly || 2012 || The main catchphrase of the Daleks of Doctor Who, used when they fire their gunsticks resulting in the extermination of whatever was hit. It wasn't actually used in this context in the TV series until Power of the Daleks, three years after {{w|The Daleks|their debut}}, though some of the very first scenes had them discussing amongst themselves the "extermination" of their newly rediscovered (and, at that time, mostly oblivious) enemies.
|}

==Transcript==
:[On a black background yellow circles and white bubbles are shown. Caption above the picture:]
:If other star systems are listening in on our pop culture, given the speed-of-light delay, these are the jokes and catchphrases they just learned about and are currently repeating way too much:

:[On a black background a map of star systems in relation to the Sun, which is roughly in the center, sending out radio waves is shown. Each star is a yellow circle of differing sizes, with a speech bubble (or more). The list is ordered from closest to furthest.]
:Proxima Centauri: I'm on a boat!
:Alpha Centauri A B: The cake is a lie! – ♪ Never gonna give you up ♫
:Luhman 16: I can haz?
:Barnard's star: Leave Britney alone! – ♫ Chocolate Raaaiiin ♫
:Wolf 359: Chuck Norris doesn't sleep. He waits.
:Lalande 21185: ♬ Numa numa ♪
:Sirius: I still can't believe Bellatrix– – Dude, get over it.
:Gliese 65: INTERNETS!
:Epsilon Eridani: Ninjas fight all the time!
:Procyon: ...God kills a kitten! – A what?
:Epsilon Indi: You're the man now, dog!
:Tau Ceti: All your base are belong to us.
:Luyten's Star: Peanut Butter Jelly Time!
:Kapteyn's star: My spoon is too big!
:Kruger 60: MORE COWBELL!
:Gliese 1: Look at the tiny dancing Earth mammals!
:Van Maanen's star: WASSSUUP!?!
:Ad Leonis: Oh my God, they killed Kenny! – You bastards!
:70 Ophiuchi: Welcome to Good Burger, home of the Good Burger. – What's a burger? – I don't know.
:Altair: Mr. T ate my balls!
:Sigma Draconis: Oh ... my ... gaawd.
:Delta Pavonis: I want the truth. – You can't handle the truth!
:Gliese 892: Hasta la vista, baby.
:Xi Boötis: Did I do that?
:HR 753: D'oh!
:Beta Hydri: Yippie-ki-yay, motherfucker.
:Vega: Resistance is futile.
:Zeta Tucanae: Let's get ready to ruuumble!
:HR 1614: Where's the beef?
:Groombridge 1830: I pity the fool!
:Delta Trianguli: May the Force be with you.
:Beta Virginis: Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!
:Arcturus: You talkin' to me ?
:Beta Trianguli Australis: I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse.
:Lamda Aurigae: You've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?'
:Capella: And now for something completely different.
:HD 211415: Live long and prosper. – Ok.
:Alderamin: EXTERMINATE!
:51 Pegasi: Name's bond. James Bond.
:Caph: Take me to your leader! – No, Steve.
:Kappa Reticuli: Here's lookin' at you, kid.
:Alpha Hydri: Rosebud.
:Gienah: Ehh, what's up doc?
:Alpha Serpentis: Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Puns]]
[[Category:Songs]]
[[Category:Rickrolling]]
[[Category:Fiction]]
[[Category:Doctor Who]]
[[Category:Star Wars]]
[[Category:Star Trek]]
[[Category:Harry Potter]]
[[Category:Terminator]]
[[Category:Comics with inverted brightness]]

256: Online Communities

2025-08-15T16:00:48Z

82.132.238.109: Undo revision 384231 by 2001:4450:813D:C800:5193:ACFE:71AD:992B (talk)

{{comic
| number = 256
| date = May 2, 2007
| title = Online Communities
| image = online_communities_small.png
| titletext = I'm waiting for the day when, if you tell someone 'I'm from the internet', instead of laughing they just ask 'oh, what part?'
}}
{{TOC}}A larger version of the image is available [https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/online_communities.png here].

==Explanation==
This is Randall's first map of online communities, with a successor at [[802: Online Communities 2]]. As Randall says on the map, the area of each "country" is roughly proportional to its membership, at least in 2007. Geographic location means a bit more, however, as the compass rose-shaped island near the middle of the map points out. North-south corresponds to a spectrum from practical to intellectual, and east-west corresponds to one from web-focused to real-life-focused. The map also bears a slight resemblance to {{w|South East Asia}}. Each "country" is represented by size and related points of interest. We also have a "Sea of Memes" and a small "Straits of web 2.0".

----
=== Compass Rose-shaped Island===
This is a joke located near the middle of the map, that nonetheless serves to organize the illustration. A Compass Rose —the name for the multi-pointed star that shows where North is on the map— appears on most maps; however, here, it's actually land that just coincidentally looks like a compass rose.

The "points" of the island do, however, roughly organize the map. Left is "Focus on Real Life," labelled "IRL," an abbreviation for "In Real Life." Right is "Focus on Web," labelled ".com." Up is "Practicals," labelled "N," as in "North," but with small letters making it spell "Noob," slang for a "Newbie" or "New user" — a person less experienced with the internet, as many of the sites to the top of the map are ones infamous for having large numbers of largely computer-illiterate people. Down is "Intellectuals," labelled ''"π,"'' an important constant in mathematics approximately equal to 3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937511.

----
=== The Icy North===
These are communities that were once major players, but now in a much reduced role. While some are still fairly large, they're somewhat relics of older times, hence the "Mountains of Web 1.0" that run through them — Web 1.0 is the first major generation of websites.

; [https://yahoo.com Yahoo!]
: Yahoo was the most popular search engine around 1998, but lost out to Google. It remains in business due to diversification (it now owns Tumblr, for instance).

; Windows Live
: ''Windows Live Messenger'' used to be a particularly major way for friends to communicate, now taken over by Skype and the like. Once a more-or-less ubiquitous branding, now used much less. https://home.live.com/ ‎is one remnant.

; [https://aol.com AOL]
: AOL was once a huge player in the internet service provider market, noted for sending out millions of floppy disks and CD-ROMs in the 1980s and '90s offering a month or so free internet service (followed by high fees and difficult cancellation). Notably, AOL was the first company to sign up large numbers of people to internet access throughout the year, whereas before then internet was mainly provided by colleges and universities, fundamentally changing internet culture (see {{w|Eternal September}}). This influx of new users or "Noobs" (short for "newbies") names the ''Noob Sea'' south of AOL. The ''Chat Rooms'' nearby were a selling feature of early ISPs — ways to communicate with other people from that ISP. They are largely dying now, but were a major selling point in the early days.

; [https://classmates.com Classmates.com] and [https://reunion.com Reunion.com]
: These are early sites that offered to help you find your former classmates from school, a role largely taken over by the big, more generalized social media sites. Classmates.com is probably best known by its memetic advertisement that said "She married him??!! And they've got 7 kids??"

; [https://friendster.com Friendster]
: This was the first big social media site. It was later outpaced by ''Myspace'' and ''Facebook'' (see Social Media below). It has survived by rebranding itself as a social gaming site, now used primarily in Southeast Asia.

; Qwghlm
: A reference to ''{{w|The Baroque Cycle}}'', a series of science fiction books by Neal Stephenson. In them, Qwghlm is a group of islands in the icy north. See [https://baroquecycle.wikia.com/wiki/Qwghlm http://baroquecycle.wikia.com/wiki/Qwghlm].

; Chasm
: A barely-readable note just below the "O" of "NORTH." This may simply be a reference to a lot of fantasy series containing a chasm. (For example, the One Ring is destroyed by flinging it into a fiery chasm in The Lord of the Rings.)

----
=== Dating sites (Northwest coastal regions)===

; [https://eharmony.com E-Harmony], [https://okcupid.com OkCupid], and [https://mixerdates.com/ MixerDates]
: These are dating sites; the other, larger sites near them are mostly social media sites.

; The Lonely Island
: This label appears to be a joke: Surrounded by, but separate from dating sites and social media sites, it would be a rather lonely place. Possibly named after "[https://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Tol_Eress%C3%ABa Tol Eressëa]" (Translation: The Lonely Island), a somewhat obscure location in J. R. R. Tolkien's books, but there are {{w|The Lonely Island|other possibilities}}.

----
=== Social Media (West)===
These are sites mainly used to communicate with friends, such as Facebook and Myspace. The first large one was ''Friendster'', but this has largely become a social gaming site primarily used in Southeast Asia, as discussed in The Icy North, above. Other social media sites listed are:

; [https://faceparty.com Faceparty]
: A UK social media site started in 1999.

; [https://myspace.com Myspace]
: A social media site partially owned by {{w|Justin Timberlake}}. Started in 2003, and peaking around the time this comic was made, it nonetheless still remains popular for bands (hence "Myspace Bands" in the southwest). It was never known for having a particularly attractive web design (partly because users could extensively customize the look and feel of their profile pages), hence only a very small part of it labelled "Attractive Myspace Pages."

; Series of Tubes
: A reference to an internet meme. In 2006, U.S. Senator Ted Stevens, while arguing for the end of "{{w|Net neutrality}}", a concept that keeps ISPs from favouring or charging more for high-speed access to sites, claimed that such regulation was needed because the Internet was "not a truck" you could just load up with as much as you want, but a "series of tubes." This was fairly accurate, but his arguments were poor and badly phrased, and his speech subsequently received widespread derision (originally from Jon Stewart's The Daily Show), and it became a running gag on the internet.

; [https://facebook.com Facebook]
: Generally considered (at least in the West) the "modern" social media network, and the most popular. However, this comic is from 2007, and Facebook did not catch up to Myspace until 2008-2009.

; [https://orkut.com Orkut]
: A social media network launched in 2004 by Google, it became hugely popular in Brazil, India, and, to a lesser extent, Japan.

; [https://xanga.com Xanga]
: A blogging and social media site launched in 1998.

; [https://livejournal.com LJ]
: LiveJournal, a blogging site, more or less, but one that allows an internet forum-like structure where anyone, or selected people, can all start new posts on a community. Noted for a large number of teenagers, fanfic authors, and the like in its heyday, hence the "Bay of Angst" to its south.

; [https://www.blurty.com/ Blurty]
: LiveJournal's software is Open Access, meaning anyone can use it to set up a site. {{w|Blurty}} is, according to Wikipedia, an 18+ general community using this software.

; [https://cyworld.com Cyworld]
: A South Korean social media site featuring avatars and "mini-rooms."

----
=== The Blogipelago (Southwest)===
This is a portmanteau of blog and archipelago. Sulawesi is a real island in the Indonesian archipelago, implying that this region's similarity to Indonesia is probably intentional.

; [https://www.huffingtonpost.com Huffington Post]
: ''The Huffington Post'' is a web-only news site, named after its founder, Arianna Huffington. It's noted for attracting notable people to do very good write-ups of politics and news, generally with a liberal slant, but also for having a medicine section that supports every sort of quackery and nonsense, including a regular column by {{w|Dana Ullman}} promoting {{w|homeopathy}} (see [[765: Dilution]]).

; Shipwreck of the SS Howard Dean
: In the 2004 U.S. Presidential election, Howard Dean raised funds mainly over the internet, and was doing very well, until a gaffe caused him to crash and burn just before the primaries began. See {{w|Howard Dean presidential campaign, 2004}}.

; Cory Doctrow's Balloon
: Reference to [[239: Blagofaire]].

; [https://boingboing.net Boing Boing]
: An occasional trend is for a smallish magazine to get a website, have the website become vastly more popular than its print edition, and become a successful website. Examples include [https://cracked.com Cracked.com,] [https://theonion.com The Onion,] and the subject of this label, [https://boingboing.net Boing Boing.] Boing Boing is a group blog covering technology, intellectual property, science fiction, and futurism.

; [https://technorati.com Technorati]
: A site for searching blogs.

; Sulawesi
: As mentioned above, a real island that is part of the Indonesian archipelago.

; {{w|Xu Jinglei}}
: A Chinese actress. According to Wikipedia: "In mid-2006, her Chinese-language blog had the most incoming links of any blog in any language on the Internet, according to Technorati."

; [https://postsecret.com/ PostSecret]
: A website that people send postcards to, describing their secrets. Some are little secrets (like swigging milk directly from the jug or carton), some are old, deep-seated traumas, and some are just things that they could never admit to anyone publicly. Worth a look.

; The Wet Sea
: Perhaps a reference to a West Sea, but not sure what that would be. Maybe just a simple joke, as what else would a sea be but wet?

; TWB
: This is short for "{{w|Translators Without Borders}}," a charitable project that tries to translate necessary texts into the languages of the people who need them for free. This ''might'' be it, if it's meant to relate to Wikipedia, to the east of it. On the other hand,

; [https://TMZ.com TMZ]
: This is a major celebrity gossip blog, rated #15 in the "[https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2008/mar/09/blogs World's 50 most powerful blogs"] by ''The Guardian,'' and, at time of writing, rating #11 in the [https://technorati.com/blogs/top100/ Technorati top 100.]

----
=== Sea of Culture (Central region) ===
Sites for sharing and showing off music and images, most focusing on self-created content.

; Gulf of YouTube
: [https://youtube.com YouTube] is the definitive video website where people can upload videos with the purpose of public viewing, ranging from home movies through official music videos through Let's Plays of people playing video games to questionably-legal uploads of cartoons and films. Google has since purchased YouTube.

; Piczo
: Teen-oriented website that allowed one to make a profile and put up pictures. The site has been dead since late 2012, due to the rise of Facebook. See {{w|Piczo}}.

; Broadcaster
: Another dead site, almost lost to the web. Only a few scraps of information remain on the web. [https://www.seomastering.com/wiki/Broadcaster.com One of the rare scraps of remaining information] indicates that it was a webcam broadcasting service that also allowed YouTube-like sharing of videos.

; The Bit Torrent''' and the '''P2P Shoals
: Reference to file sharing (passing around often copyright-infringing files, such as movies, CDs, and the like), often done with the {{w|BitTorrent}} protocol. A "Torrent" can also be a flood of water, hence it being used to name a river. "P2P" stands for "{{w|Peer-to-peer}}", the basis for the BitTorrent protocol.

; [https://flickr.com Flickr]
: a website where people can upload and share photographs they took.

; [https://lastfm.com LastFM]
: A music website that uses a music recommender system known as "Audioscrobbler". Last.fm creates a detailed profile of each user's musical preferences by recording the details of the tracks they listen to and transfers ("scrobbles") the information to Last.fm's database via the music player. The data is then displayed on the user's profile page and compiled to create reference pages for individual artists.

; [https://deviantart.com DeviantArt]
: The largest art website, where people can upload, sell, and buy not only art itself, but also video, audio, Flash-work, and even skins (the original purpose of deviantArt). While many big-name/professional people and organizations have their works in deviantArt, the site is more infamous for the large amount of people who upload low-quality fan-art and fan-characters, most notably of media from Japan. Another point of infamy is the large amount of drama that can happen in the website.

; Straits of Web 2.0
: A ''strait'' is a narrow passage between two outcroppings. Web 2.0 is a term used to describe new internet architectures, which these programs and Wikipedia (the other side of the strait) are examples of. '''Gays of Web 2.0''' is a pun: The opposite of a gay person (homosexual) is a straight person (heterosexual).

----
=== User-created content and discussions (Southeast)===
Sites such as {{w|Wikipedia}} and chat programs such as IRC.

; Wikipedia
: The world's largest encyclopedia, collaboratively edited by its users. It's labelled as "The Wikipedia Project" (actually called ''{{w|Wikimedia}}''), since Wikipedia has generalised to cover a number of separate web sites, though, at the time of this comic, none near the size of Wikipedia (excepting, possibly, Wikimedia Commons, which is partly an image repository for Wikipedia), perhaps explaining the small size of all the other vertexes of the "web."

; Usenet
: The predecessor of most modern forums. A set of discussion groups that dominated the early internet. It also predates the standard web architecture to some extent — there's no standard weblink for it, for instance. See {{w|Usenet}}.

; IRC isles
: IRC stands for Internet Relay Chat, a simple, low-bandwidth program for chatting. Common uses include Dungeons and Dragons games and other geeky pursuits.

; [https://sourceforge.net SourceForge]
: A code repository. Basically, a place for programmers to meet up and work together on a variety of free and open source projects. See {{w|sourceforge}}. Has become less respectable since this comic was created in 2007, due to [https://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/11/08/gimp_dumps_sourceforge_over_dodgy_ads_and_installer/ allowing misleading advertisements intended to trick people into installing questionable software.]

; [https://mit.edu MIT]
: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, one of the most respected universities for Engineering, Robotics, and other such fields.

; [https://www.engadget.com/‎ Engadget]
: A blog/online magazine, in multiple languages, reviewing tech products and commenting on technology news.

; [https://gizmodo.com/‎ Gizmodo]
: A blog about technology and design.

; [https://makezine.com/blog/ MakeBlog]
: A blog highlighting bizarre and interesting do-it-yourself projects, often with a geeky theme.

; Google's Volcano Fortress
: A volcano fortress is one traditional dwelling place of evil geniuses in fiction, and Google has quietly taken over huge chunks of people's interaction with the web. Perhaps this provides some background for [[254: Comic Fragment]]?

; Stallman's Airship
: A joke, perhaps in line with Cory Doctorow's Balloon ([[239: Blagofaire]], also referenced in this strip). The Super Mario series of games also commonly contains bossfights in airships.

----
=== Ocean of Subculture and Sea of Memes (East)===
Sites related to smaller internet communities, aka "subcultures" and internet memes. The "Viral Straits" references the idea of something "going viral," i.e. spreading quickly to huge numbers of people on the internet. These sites are often responsible for things going viral, and the memes listed are ones that went viral in the past.

----
=== =Sites====

; [https://www.2ch.net/‎ 2Channel]
: A Japanese imageboard that was actually the original inspiration for...

; [https://4chan.org 4Chan]
: An imageboard in which people can upload pictures, while others comment on them. The website is infamous for its loose/often non-existent rules, incredibly vulgar userbase, source of new memes, and spawning of trolls. 4chan's random board, known internally as /b/, is almost constantly flooded with porn and image macros. The fact that 4chan is a very small island on this map (to the far right on the map - left of "dragons" in the sentence ''Here there be anthropomorphic dragons'') made quite a fuss for Randall. And this caused the comic to be mentioned in [https://blog.xkcd.com/2008/02/25/fruit-opinions/ FRUIT OPINIONS!] on the [https://blog.xkcd.com/ Blag]. Although this comic was one of the more controversial, it had nothing on the impact of [[388: Fuck Grapefruit]], which was the cause of the Blag entry as that became the most controversial comic written to that point (i.e. 2008): ''...beating out comics about cunnilingus, the Obama endorsement, and my making 4chan tiny on the map of the internet''. (See the grapefruit comic for more details).

; [https://reddit.com Reddit]
: The once-self-described "front page of the Internet" in which users submit stories, photos, and videos, and the best are "up-voted" to the top of the page.

; [https://digg.com Digg]
: A former competitor to Reddit in the social-news sphere. It has since been sold after this comic was released and restarted as an aggregator of news stories.

; [https://fark.com Fark]
: A website that writes humorous commentary on various news reports, especially the strange, bizarre, or things from the political far-left and far-right.

; [https://somethingawful.com Something Awful]
: A website that is meant to highlight "awful" things. SomethingAwful also has a large troll base, but they tend to be more honorable than the ones from ''Encyclopedia Dramatica'' and 4chan. One example is there being a spotty holding of the no-furries rule in the forums. The forums themselves are famous because of the holding of the "Let's Plays" of ''Dangan Ronpa'' and ''Super Dangan Ronpa 2'', which had cooked up public interest to the point of there being an English-language release of the games.

; [https://slashdot.org Slashdot]
: A news site for technology-related news stories, which are submitted by its users. The "{{w|Slashdot effect}}" is named after this site.

; [https://ytmnd.com YTMND]
: A community in which users can create meme-type nonsense by playing music over an image (either static or animated). Its name is an acronym for "You're The Man Now, Dog!"

; [https://StumbleUpon.com Stumble Upon]
: A website that attempts to develop a profile for users in order to recommend which websites they might enjoy.

; [https://delicious.com/ Del.icio.us]
: Another image and website aggregator, linking to various things of interest. It uses tags to let people find specific types of content. Since this comic was released, this website they renamed as simply "Delicious".

----
=== =Memes and related====

; Isle of Slash
: "{{w|Slash fiction}}" is a type of {{w|fanfiction}} that takes two male characters from another work of fiction and puts them in a plot where they have lots of sex with each other. Named because of a common way of writing pairings in fanfiction, "X/Y", with the / being pronounced "slash." Adding to this, "Isle of" sounds like "I love."

; Numa
: A reference to the viral video "Numa Numa," consisting of a man dancing and lip-syncing to the song "Dragostea din tei" (Romanian for "Love from the lindens").

; Your Base
: A reference to the "{{w|All your base are belong to us}}" meme, a line from the game ''{{w|Zero Wing}}'', a game with a huge amount of hilariously badly translated {{w|Engrish}} dialogue. See [[286: All Your Base]] for more discussion of the meme.

; Bay of Trolls
: {{w|Troll (Internet)|Trolls}} are people who attempt to stir up controversy by intentionally saying statements meant to annoy others into responding. "Bay" can refer to both a sheltered port and to an animal's cry, so "Bay of Trolls" can be read as "Shelter for Trolls" or "Angry Shouting of Trolls." Given the communities surrounding it, both would make sense.

; Soviet Russia
: {{w|Russian reversal|"In Soviet Russia" jokes}} are a style of joke commonly associated with -comedian {{w|Yakov Smirnoff}}, which has since become an internet meme. Example: "In America, you always find a party. In Russia, Party will always find ''you''." — playing off of the idea that "Party" can also refer to the Communist Party. The meme version usually isn't as clever as that, though. See "[https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/in-soviet-russia in soviet russia]."

; SPAAARTA
: As in, "THIS! IS! SPAAARTA!!!", a famously over-the-top line from the movie ''{{w|300 (film)|300}}''.

----
=== MMORPGs and related games (Northeast by East)===
An area dedicated to MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games), large-scale games with huge numbers of players put into the same world. The label "Here there be anthromorphic dragons" references a common marking on old maps ("Here there be dragons") but updates it to joke about the more humanoid dragons seen in many games, or again, how dragons, especilally anthropomorphic dragons, are very-very popular in the furry community.

; [https://games.yahoo.com Yahoo Games]
: A branch of Yahoo (see "The Icy North") dedicated to games (mainly boardgames).

; [https://uo.com UO]
: ''Ultima Online'', one of the first MMORPGs, and the first to grow to any size. Based on the long-running ''Ultima'' RPG computer games. Started 1997.

; [https://www.everquest.com/‎ EQ]
: ''EverQuest'', another important early MMORPG, started 1999. UO and EQ have declined significantly since then; for a while, they were each the iconic MMORPG, but that role has been taken over by...

; [https://www.warcraft.com/‎ WoW]
: ''World of Warcraft'', an MMORPG launched in 2004, again based on a previously-existing RPG series, and by far the largest and most iconic at the time of this comic's creation. A few others have attempted to challenge it since.

; [https://www.runescape.com/‎ Runescape]
: Free-to-play fantasy MMORPG; the largest in existence.

; [https://www.finalfantasyxi.com/ FFXI]
: ''Final Fantasy XI'', the eleventh installment in the ''Final Fantasy'' series of video games, and the first to be a MMORPG. It didn't really take off until after this comic was made.

; [https://www.lineage.com/‎ Lineage]
: 1998 MMORPG. Particularly popular in South Korea, a country with somewhat of a cultural obsession with video games.

; [https://secondlife.com Second Life]
: A virtual world, noted for largely working from user-generated content, which can be sold by users for real money. See {{w|Second Life}}. ''Third Life'' is a joke based on Second Life — if it existed, it would presumably be a game people play to escape Second Life, which they play to escape their first, real life.

----
=== Title text===
The title text references [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/dont-worry-im-from-the-internet the 2005 meme] "Don't worry, I'm from the Internet" - a catchphrase that originated from photos of cosplayers which spread on message boards and social media. While that phrase was originally used jokingly, Randall expresses a (genuine?) hope for a future where online communities are taken as legitimately as physical ones. This connects to the comic's detailed geographic mapping of online spaces - suggesting that just as you might ask someone "what part?" when they say they're from America or Europe, someday saying you're "from the Internet" would prompt the same genuine follow-up question about which specific online community you call home.

==Transcript==
:[Hand-drawn fantasy style map with land and sea areas representing populations of online communities mostly using a sepia/old-vellum effect. Each area or item is labeled.]

:[Label in a box with a white-background and slightly irregular border, overlaid and barely fit within a convenient area of apparently featureless sea in a central upper region:]
:Map of Online Communities and related points of interest
:Geographic area represents estimated size of membership

:[Land Area Labels:]
:The Icy North (Yahoo, Windows Live),
:AOL,
::Chat Rooms
:Reunion dot com,
:Classmates dot com,
:E-harmony,
:Friendster,
:Faceparty,
:Chasm,
:Qwghlm,
:Yahoo Games,
:Mountains of Web 1.0,
:The Lonely Island,
:MySpace,
:Attractive MySpace Pages,
:The Series of Tubes,
:Myspace Bands,
:WOW,
:Lineage,
:Second Life,
:Third Life,
:UO,
:EQ,
:FFXI,
:2channel,
:4chan,
:LJ,
:Xanga,
:Orkut,
:Cyworld,
:Blurty,
:OK Cupid,
:Facebook,
:Piczo,
:The Compass-Rose-Shaped Island,
::Practicals (Noob)
::Focus on Real Life (IRL)
::Focus on Web (.com)
::Intellectuals (π)
:Broadcaster,
:The Bit Torrent,
:Flickr,
:Last.fm,
:DeviantArt,
:Isle of Slash,
:Numa,
:Digg,
:Fark,
:Reddit,
:Something Awful,
:Your Base,
:Soviet Russia,
:/. [Slashdot],
:Spaaarta (YTMND),
:StumbleUpon,
:Del.icio.us,
:The Blogipelago,
:Sulawesi,
:Xu Jinglei,
:Post Secret,
:Technocrati,
:[Hard to read label: Probably JWB, TWB, or TMZ]
:BoingBoing,
:Huffington Post,
:Gays of Web 2.0,
:The Wikipedia project,
:MIT,
:Engadget,
:Gizmodo,
:Usenet,
:MAKE Blog,
:IRC Isles,
:Sourceforge.

:[Sea Area Labels:]
:NOOB Sea,
:Gulf of YouTube,
:Bay of Angst,
:Sea of Culture,
:Ocean of Subculture,
:P2P Shoals,
:Straits of Web 2.0,
:Here Be Anthropomorphic Dragons,
:Bay of Trolls,
:Viral Straits,
:Sea of Memes,
:The Wet Sea
:Item Labels: Shipwreck of the SS Howard Dean, Cory Doctrow's Balloon, Stallman's airship, Google's volcano fortress

:[Another label in a white box, set down in a convenient spot in the lower-left of the map:]
:(Not a complete survey. Sizes based on the best figures I could find but involved some guesswork. Do not use for navigation.)
:Spring 2007

==Trivia==
This comic used to be [https://web.archive.org/web/20220125025438/https://store.xkcd.com/products/online-communities-2007-poster available as a poster] in the xkcd store before it was [[Store|shut down]].

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics sharing name|Online Communities]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Large drawings]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Richard Stallman]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Internet]]
[[Category:Comics with xkcd store products]]
[[Category:Volcanoes]]
[[Category:Online Communities]]

2765: Escape Speed

2025-08-15T15:59:32Z

82.132.238.109: Undo revision 384230 by 2001:4450:813D:C800:5193:ACFE:71AD:992B (talk) Too meta, not useful.

{{comic
| number = 2765
| date = April 19, 2023
| title = Escape Speed
| image = escape_speed_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x700px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Gotta go fast.
}}
{{series
| series = April
| number = 14
| date = April 19, 2023
| days_late = 18
| day_category = Wednesday
| prev_title = 2601: Instructions
| prev_date = April 1, 2022
| next_title = 2916: Machine
| next_date = April 5, 2024
| extra_text = [[#Trivia|Learn why this comic was released late]].
}}
{{TOC}}To experience the interactivity of the game, visit the {{xkcd|2765|original comic}}!

== Explanation ==
{{notice|See [[#Spaceships]] to help complete this page.}}
This interactive comic is similar to [[2712: Gravity]], which celebrated the release of ''[[What If? 2]]'', as you can visit different planets. Your fuel runs out and recharges slowly over time or instantly whenever you land. Likewise, there is no "universal" point of view: the bottom of the window, "down", is oriented towards the object exerting the most gravity upon the player.

You begin on the Starting Planet, near Origin. To escape Origin's gravitational force, gain enough momentum by swinging a few times inside the large hidden tunnel that goes from the rollercoaster to the opposing side of the planet. However, note that it is possible to escape Origin’s gravitational pull by maneuvering the spacecraft counterclockwise around the Starting Planet, accelerating tangential to the surface above the figure yelling "WOW!". To help you find other planets there are also many small circles surrounding the spaceship indicating the locations of nearby or distant planets depending on how transparent these points are. Collecting circles with a star outline will improve the performance of the spaceship, such as by making the engine more efficient or increasing the rate at which the fuel recharges, and sometimes make you find a new item. Collecting small grey circles will instead just make you find an item, such as a rock with neat stripes, a cool bug, and a pretty leaf.

Most planets and celestial objects are inside of a large Crystal Sphere in which there is a visible navigable crack. Halfway through the crack, gravity gets increasingly stronger as the spaceship feels the gravitational force of the parts of the Crystal Sphere it is leaving behind. Above the crack in the Crystal Sphere, there is the Star Destroyer from [[1608: Hoverboard]], and on the opposite side of the crack, there is a huge part of the world in [[1110: Click and Drag]] in the form of a round planet.

The title of the comic is likely a reference to the 1996 computer game {{w|Escape Velocity (video game)|Escape Velocity}}, which also featured a 2D map dotted with planets. The title text says, "Gotta go fast.", a reference to {{w|Sonic the Hedgehog (character)|Sonic the Hedgehog}}'s catchphrase, and the point of the game: getting able to go faster to escape larger and larger planets and leave the Crystal Sphere.

===The Hyperdrive===
The Hyperdrive is a powerful upgrade to the spaceship that massively boosts your thrusters. It is found at the center of the Boston Planet and is needed to explore the planets outside the Crystal Sphere and to escape from the black hole inside the Subway Planet. It can only be unlocked after deactivating the MIT Cloaking Device on the Subway Planet and collecting three of the four subway tokens found at different "Bostons". Subway tokens are circles with a T outline, and they have a distinct color: "blue", "red", "green", and "orange", the four colors of {{w|MBTA subway|Boston's subway system}}. The blue token on the Boston Planet is not strictly necessary to get the Hyperdrive, although it is the easiest to obtain. Note that getting it will require several other upgrades first, so it shouldn't be your first objective. See [[#Celestial Bodies and Collectable Items|the table below]] for other ways to progress in the game.

Here's how to obtain the Hyperdrive:
# Get to the Subway Planet by launching from the bush where someone says "Shhh." on Origin. The Subway Planet features all the subways of North America except Boston, which has been ripped out and hidden by the MIT kids, leaving a big empty hole in the crust of the planet.
# Once on the Subway Planet, go to Morgantown, WV via Mexico City and Atlanta, and deactivate the MIT Cloaking Device to make the Boston Planet appear.
# Follow the two intangible grey lines that will first guide you to Origin and then the Roche Lobe Earth (one of the four Bostons) and collect the green subway token on it.
# Go back to Origin and collect the orange token on the Guitar Ship (see [[#Celestial Bodies and Collectable Items|the table below]] for instructions on how to find these planets).
# Get to the East Coast of the US on the Projection of Earth and collect the red token.
# Now that the center of the Boston Planet is accessible, go there and collect the Hyperdrive. The planet also contains the final blue token, but it's not necessary to get to the Hyperdrive.

===Extra Escape Speed pages===
Since this comic is so big and complicated, extra pages have been created to include much more information than is wished for on this main page. These pages are listed here for convenience, but they are also listed in the relevant sections below:

* '''[[2765: Escape Speed/Transcript]]''' - The full transcript of the entire comic, as if you played the game. It is linked from the [[#Transcript|Transcript section]].

* '''[[2765: Escape Speed/Screen-shots]]''' - Full images of all planets and celestial bodies, as well as player screenshots of interesting situations.

* '''[[2765: Escape Speed/Tables]]''' - More detailed tables explaining all the jokes and references in the comic.

===Celestial Bodies and Collectable Items===
This is a table of all celestial bodies and items, in descending order of planet size (the Starting Planet, Origin, and the Hollow Planet are at the top for their relevance). Collectable items and messages are found in the "You found...", "Upgrades", "Messages" and "Subway tokens" columns. For more detailed and in-depth tables and lists, see [[2765: Escape Speed/Tables|here]]. Here are some other useful resources:

* [https://aeromancer.dev/xkcd/escape_speed/ Map of the entire universe created by the community];

* [[2765: Escape Speed/Screen-shots|Screenshots of the entire world, planets, and celestial bodies]] made using the map;

* [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hygJKdwjkufAU3ZYC4NELdCX7XgRdOIW68vPUidR9qA Spreadsheet of all items and messages] from the game's source code;

* [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xhw3oVb4fMktZB_KEIF9fGkYCkfbpRMHKBLI63laTgc Spreadsheet of coordinates for all celestial bodies] from the game's source code.

{| class="wikitable sortable"
! rowspan="2"|Name

<code>codename</code>
! rowspan="2"|Tiles (X, Y)
! rowspan="2"|Explanation
! colspan="4"|Collectable items and messages
|-
! You found...
! Upgrades
! Messages
! Subway tokens
|-
! 
[[2765: Escape Speed/Screen-shots#Starting Planet|Starting Planet]]

<code>tiny-world</code>
| [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xhw3oVb4fMktZB_KEIF9fGkYCkfbpRMHKBLI63laTgc/edit?gid=0#gid=0 (6024, -8976)]
| To get here, click the "Home" button in the lower right corner of the comic.

The planet is tiny, grassy, and has few trees. [[Media:2765 Greetings.png|Beret Guy is saying "WOW!"]], but since he's on the other side of the planet, it looks like he is shouting "iMOM". This is a reference to the title text of [[1117: My Sky]], and it could also be a reference to [[502: Dark Flow]]. Pressing the "Home" button to go back to the starting planet shows the message, "Welcome back, pilot", which may be a reference to the greeting that plays when re-entering a Titan in the ''Titanfall'' video games.
|
* a rock with neat stripes
* a cool bug
* a pretty leaf
|
|
* Wheeee!
|
|-
! 
[[2765: Escape Speed/Screen-shots#Origin|Origin]]

<code>origin</code>
| [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xhw3oVb4fMktZB_KEIF9fGkYCkfbpRMHKBLI63laTgc/edit?gid=0#gid=0 (3096, -5904)]
| To get here, launch from [[Media:2765 Greetings.png|Beret Guy saying "Wow!" on the Starting Planet]].

The planet has a [[Media:Origin Planet11.png|sign saying "Welcome to Origin! You can never leave™"]]. A [[Media:Origin and starting planet.png|large hidden tunnel inside it]] leads from below the rollercoaster to the [[Media:Origin Planet5.png|St. Louis Arch on the opposing side of the planet]], which you can use to gain enough momentum to escape the gravitational force if you don't have many upgrades. There are lots of landmarks and signs that mark the directions to different planets.
|
* a secret glade
* a holographic Charizard business card
* a 5G seagull
* a DVD of The Core (2003)
* a normal-looking leaf
* a marsh wren
* an orb wren
* a single grain of salt
* 11 squares packed into a larger square
* a tumbleweed
|
* Nice flying! (Your tanks recharge faster now.)
|
* You found a tiny meteorite!
* Welcome to liminal space
* The St. Louis arch is also known as the gateway to space.
* Be careful; this roller coaster can be disorienting!
|
|-
! 
[[2765: Escape Speed/Screen-shots#Hollow Planet|Hollow Planet]]

<code>hollow-shell</code>
| [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xhw3oVb4fMktZB_KEIF9fGkYCkfbpRMHKBLI63laTgc/edit?gid=0#gid=0 (-13952, 1848)]
| To get here, launch from the [[Media:Origin Planet5.png|St. Louis Arch on Origin]].

The planet is just a shell with some gaps. On the outside, there are lots of landmarks and signs that mark the directions to different planets.
|
|
* You found a handful of the quantum foam that makes up the fabric of space! (Your tanks recharge much faster now.)
* You found a sixth lagrange point! (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
* You found a glass of heavy water (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
|
|
|-
! 
[[2765: Escape Speed/Screen-shots#Star Destroyer|Star Destroyer]]

''from'' <code>star-destroyer-a</code> ''to'' <code>star-destroyer-i</code>
| [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xhw3oVb4fMktZB_KEIF9fGkYCkfbpRMHKBLI63laTgc/edit?gid=0#gid=0 (18192, -130000)]
| To get here, launch from the [[Media:2765 Crack in the Crystal Sphere.png|crack in the Crystal Sphere]].

The planet has been copied from [[1608: Hoverboard]], with the only difference being that Darth Vader's dialogue was changed from referencing {{w|Steven Universe}} to {{w|The Murderbot Diaries}}.
|
* an unread email
* a glass slipper with a glass foot in it
* a lymphocyte
* a forged resume
* a serif
* a Bursa of Fabricius
* a cluster of data points
* a premium subscription to food
* two goats and a new car
* an out-of-control trolley
* a helium-238 nucleus
* the Death Star plans
|
* You found a perpetual motion fidget spinner! (Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.)
* You found a vintage Juicero juicer! (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
|
* Hmmm.
|
|-
! 
[[2765: Escape Speed/Screen-shots#Click and Drag Planet|Click and Drag Planet]]

<code>clickdrag-nw</code>'','' <code>clickdrag-ne</code>'','' <code>clickdrag-sw</code>'', and'' <code>clickdrag-se</code>
| [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xhw3oVb4fMktZB_KEIF9fGkYCkfbpRMHKBLI63laTgc/edit?gid=0#gid=0 (-31808, 111808)]
| To get here, launch from the bow or stern of the Star Destroyer tangentially to the Crystal Sphere to orbit it and keep the stars in the background moving horizontally on the screen until you see a dot around the spaceship guiding you.

The planet has mostly been copied from [[1110: Click and Drag]] and modelled to form a round planet, so the drawings are very tiny. The large rocket has been changed from the original look, possibly as a reference to {{w|SpaceX}}. Originally, it had no gravity, and the spaceship was only attracted by the gravity of the Crystal Sphere. This made navigating around the planet difficult, so a later update added gravity to it to make it easier for players to explore it.
|
* an ant the size of Rhode Island
* a pin with 17 angels dancing on it
|
* The vehicle below gives you a boost (Your launch speed has increased.)
* We should turn back (Your engine gets a bit more powerful.)
* You found an expert at underwater ropes. (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
* You found a trisected angle! (Your launch speed has greatly increased.)
|
|
|-
! 
[[2765: Escape Speed/Screen-shots#Subway Planet|Subway Planet]]

<code>subway-planet</code> ''and'' <code>black-hole-3</code>
| [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xhw3oVb4fMktZB_KEIF9fGkYCkfbpRMHKBLI63laTgc/edit?gid=0#gid=0 (22000, 34000)]
| To get here, launch from the [[Media:Origin Planet10.png|bush where someone says "Shhh." on Origin]].

The planet is a reference to [[1196: Subways]] and is riddled with tunnels. Boston has been ripped out and hidden by the MIT kids, leaving a big empty hole in the crust of the planet, and there is a black hole at the center that can only be escaped with the [[#Hyperdrive|Hyperdrive]]. You need to find the switch that turns off the MIT Cloaking Device to help you get the Hyperdrive. Once found, two intangible grey lines will appear (on the Subway Planet and on Origin), guiding you to one of the four Bostons. Learn how to obtain and use the Hyperdrive [[#Hyperdrive|here]].
|
* a relativistic bowling ball
* a Cybiko® wireless handheld computer for teens (2000)
* a handful of quantum foam
* a normal-sized apple
|
* You get the feeling you're not in Kansas anymore (Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.)
* There is no parking in the white zone (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
* The next stop is Interplanetary Terminal G (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
* You feel accomplished (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
* You found a brightly-lit billboard (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
* You found a hot dog (Your launch speed has increased.)
* You found a bottle of Coke Absolute Zero! (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
* You found a beige electron! (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
* You found $30 in Yahoo! cash! (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
* You found a friendly cat! (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
|
* Transfer here for Mornington Crescent
|
* MIT Cloaking Device deactivated! Boston detected. (Blue, red, green, and orange lines activated.)
|-
! 
[[2765: Escape Speed/Screen-shots#Boston Planet|Boston Planet]]

<code>mbta</code>
| [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xhw3oVb4fMktZB_KEIF9fGkYCkfbpRMHKBLI63laTgc/edit?gid=0#gid=0 (-42000, 8000)]
| To get here, launch from the [[Media:Shuttle Skeleton.png|back of the Shuttle Skeleton]].

The planet is the Boston subway system that was ripped out from the Subway Planet by the MIT kids. The Hyperdrive, needed to explore the planets outside the Crystal Sphere, is at the center of the planet, which is only accessible after getting the green, red and orange subway tokens. The blue token is not strictly necessary to get the Hyperdrive, although it is the easiest to obtain. If the player goes to the location of the Boston Planet before turning off the MIT Cloaking Device, they will only find an invisible region out in space that has gravity, at the center of which a "strangely heavy subway token" can be found. The gravitational force around it remains even after the token is collected. As hinted by Blondie on Andal, the MIT Cloaking Device doesn't affect gravity, therefore the cloaked Boston planet is intangible and invisible, but its mass still affects the gravitational field around it.
|
* a strangely heavy subway token
|
|
|
* Blue line deactivated!
* Welcome to MIT! You acquired a hyperdrive!
|-
! 
[[2765: Escape Speed/Screen-shots#Projection of Earth|Projection of Earth]]

<code>earth-map</code>
| [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xhw3oVb4fMktZB_KEIF9fGkYCkfbpRMHKBLI63laTgc/edit?gid=0#gid=0 (-15808, 22192)]
| To get here, launch from the [[Media:Origin Planet13.png|Earth map landmark on Origin]] or the [[Media:Hollow Planet3.png|sign on the Hollow Planet]].

The planet is a huge, distorted map of all land masses on Earth. The spaceship can fly where water would be, but it can't go over land. This planet is a reference to the [[:Category:Bad Map Projections|Bad Map Projections series]] of comics.
|
* the Heart of the Ocean
* a whale shark
* some microbial life
* some tin from the pantai remis mine
* a sparkling gem
* a piece of pumice
|
* You found the Principality of Sealand! (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
* You found a Rhode Island the size of an ant! (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
* You found an icosahedral d10 (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
|
|
* Red line deactivated!
|-
! 
[[2765: Escape Speed/Screen-shots#What If? Planet|What If? Planet]]

<code>gravity-earth</code>
| [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xhw3oVb4fMktZB_KEIF9fGkYCkfbpRMHKBLI63laTgc/edit?gid=0#gid=0 (-46000, -24000)]
| To get here, launch from the [[Media:Origin Planet7.png|two people explaining where Boston is on Origin]], the [[Media:Round Planet5.png|left of Stonehenge on the Round Planet]], or the [[Media:Guitar Ship1.png|left rim of the Guitar Ship]].

The planet contains several scenes from Randall's ''[[What If? 2]]'' book and the comic [[2712: Gravity]]. Megan and Cueball are floating inside a small space in the center of the planet, which can be reached after getting the Hyperdrive. This is arguably the most remote object within the Crystal Sphere, since all the planets around it are very distant from it. On this planet, a person named Ryan is stuck in a small hole with a dog, a reference to [https://www.polygon.com/2015/8/18/9173621/ryan-north-stuck-hole-twitter a real event] that happened to [https://www.qwantz.com/ Dinosaur Comics] author {{w|Ryan North}}. Nearby is featured the T-rex from his iconic comic strip, in the pose of the last panel.
|
* an eye in the sky
* a stick
* an asterisk
* a sterile neutrino
* a secret leaf
* a pair of squirrel goggles
* a large hadron
* a smooth green snake
|
* You found a sunken treasure (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
* The Yellowstone Super What? (Your launch speed has increased.)
* Nutritional Facts - Serving Size: 1 Cloud, Total Calories: 0 (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
* You captured the flag! You decide to leave it there, but it's yours. (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
* You found a steam calliope! (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
* You found a dna base pair! (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
|
|
|-
! 
[[2765: Escape Speed/Screen-shots#Uzumaki|Uzumaki]]

<code>uzumaki</code>
| [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xhw3oVb4fMktZB_KEIF9fGkYCkfbpRMHKBLI63laTgc/edit?gid=0#gid=0 (-3904, -26904)]
| To get here, launch from [[Media:Origin Planet9.png|the spiral landmark on Origin]], the [[Media:Hollow Planet.png|sign on the Hollow Planet]], or below the [[Media:Round Planet2.png|plane-towed banner on the Round Planet]].

The planet is a large spiral of grass inspired by the manga ''{{w|Uzumaki}}'' by {{w|Junji Ito}}. A Roomba is loose, a reference to [[1558: Vet]].
|
* a golden radio tuned to 1.618 MHz
* a scroll lock key
* a primordial black hole
* a cool pair of shoes with flames on the side
* an ink cartridge
* a podcast episode
* a festive but somehow unnerving holiday card from Junji Ito
* a friendly bee
* a spiral-cut diamond
* a burrito
|
* You found a tree-filled grove and a nice spot for quiet contemplation (Your thrusters are significantly more efficient now.)
* You found a single caffeine molecule! (Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.)
|
* Exit Only
* You're going the wrong way!
|
|-
! 
[[2765: Escape Speed/Screen-shots#Round Planet|Round Planet]]

<code>orb</code>
| [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xhw3oVb4fMktZB_KEIF9fGkYCkfbpRMHKBLI63laTgc/edit?gid=0#gid=0 (-19154, -7288)]
| To get here, launch from the [[Media:Origin Planet6.png|tower with an orb on it on Origin]] or the [[Media:Hollow Planet1.png|sign on the Hollow Planet]].

The planet is moderately small with no vegetation and some architecture, such as [[Media:Round Planet5.png|Stonehenge]] and the [[Media:Round Planet8.png|Great Wall of China]].
|
* a swatch pop-out wristwatch
|
* You found a sensible cheese platter (Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.)
* ''[no message]'' (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
|
|
|-
! 
[[2765: Escape Speed/Screen-shots#Jurassic Park Planet|Jurassic Park Planet]]

<code>gravity-qwantz</code>
| [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xhw3oVb4fMktZB_KEIF9fGkYCkfbpRMHKBLI63laTgc/edit?gid=0#gid=0 (20000, 11000)]
| To get here, launch from the [[Media:Origin Planet3.png|small dinosaur on Origin]] or the [[Media:Andal4.png|Andalites on Andal]].

The planet is covered in dinosaurs from [https://www.qwantz.com Dinosaur Comics] and has very weak gravity. It is an exact copy of the Dinosaur Planet from [[2712: Gravity]].
|
* a tiny pteranodon
* a baby hedgehog
* a tattered knapsack containing about $194,00 in $20 bills
|
* Today is a good day I think for space exploration (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
* But what if gravity doesn't actually exist? (Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.)
|
|
|-
! 
[[2765: Escape Speed/Screen-shots#Andal|Andal]]

<code>platform-planet</code>
| [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xhw3oVb4fMktZB_KEIF9fGkYCkfbpRMHKBLI63laTgc/edit?gid=0#gid=0 (12048, 14048)]
| To get here, launch from the [[Media:Origin Planet3.png|Andal landmark to the left of the pyramids on Origin]] or [[Media:Origin Planet4.png|below Saturn's equator on Origin]], when the soccer ball is oriented to the bottom left compared to the spaceship.

The planet is small and has a T-shaped tower, mountains, and grass.
|
|
* You found two Andalites, one canonical! (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
* What a nice place for a ship to sit! (Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.)
* You found a friend (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
* You found baby shoes (and baby)! (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
|
|
|-
! 
[[2765: Escape Speed/Screen-shots#Comet 67P|Comet 67P]]

<code>67p</code>
| [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xhw3oVb4fMktZB_KEIF9fGkYCkfbpRMHKBLI63laTgc/edit?gid=0#gid=0 (18048, -11152)]
| To get here, launch from the [[Media:Origin Planet3.png|duck next to the "Caution: long vertical drop" sign on Origin]].

The planet is a reference to the comet {{w|67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko}} and contains the crashed Rosetta spacecraft, along with the Philae lander that landed on it in 2014. The message "Anyone for Scrabble later?" on the planet is a reference to [[470: The End is Not for a While]].
|
|
* Some people believe that when the Earth appears in the sky, it's a harbinger of doom. (Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.)
* You found a broken smoke machine (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
* Anyone for Scrabble later? (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
* You found The Long Now Foundation's nickel paperweight containing an archive of every published Animorphs book! (Your launch speed has increased.)
|
|
|-
! 
[[2765: Escape Speed/Screen-shots#Guitar Ship|Guitar Ship]]

<code>guitar-ship</code>
| [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xhw3oVb4fMktZB_KEIF9fGkYCkfbpRMHKBLI63laTgc/edit?gid=0#gid=0 (-12000, -30000)]
| To get here, launch from the [[Media:Origin Planet8.png|musicians singing "It's more than a feeling" on Origin]].

The planet is a huge guitar labeled "Boston", with the city skyline under a dome on the back. It is a reference to the cover art of the album {{w|Boston (album)|''Boston''}}.
|
* a guitar pick
|
|
|
* Orange line deactivated!
|-
! 
[[2765: Escape Speed/Screen-shots#Saturn|Saturn]]

<code>saturn</code>
| [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xhw3oVb4fMktZB_KEIF9fGkYCkfbpRMHKBLI63laTgc/edit?gid=0#gid=0 (2600, 14000)]
| To get here, launch from the [[Media:Origin Planet4.png|pyramid with Saturn on it on Origin]]. If you see the Spacetime Soccer Field, you're too far left.

The planet has a soccer ball inside it, a reference to [[2513: Saturn Hexagon]].
|
* a really cool data point
|
* You found a pair of platonic solids, not quite touching! (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
* You found a block of scandium! (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
|
|
|-
! 
[[2765: Escape Speed/Screen-shots#Roche Lobe Earth|Roche Lobe Earth]]

<code>earth-roche</code> ''and'' <code>normal-moon</code>
| [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xhw3oVb4fMktZB_KEIF9fGkYCkfbpRMHKBLI63laTgc/edit?gid=0#gid=0 (-9952, -3952)]
| To get here, launch from the [[Media:Origin Planet6.png|landmark that looks like a very round cannon firing a cannon ball towards the towers on Origin]].

The planet is a distorted Earth being attracted by the gravity of the moon, which makes the Earth look like a giant drop of water. See ''{{w|Roche Lobe}}'' for more information.
|
* a curious humboldt squid
* a bathyscaphe
* a wayward Roomba full of moondust
|
|
|
* Green line deactivated!
|-
! 
[[2765: Escape Speed/Screen-shots#Giant Spider|Giant Spider]]

<code>spider</code>
| [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xhw3oVb4fMktZB_KEIF9fGkYCkfbpRMHKBLI63laTgc/edit?gid=0#gid=0 (26982, -8714)]
| To get here, launch from the [[Media:Origin Planet1.png|spider landmark on Origin]].

The object is a giant spider floating in space with eight people standing on top of his legs.
|
* a spider-silk scarf
|
* You found a friendly jumping spider (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
|
|
|-
! 
[[2765: Escape Speed/Screen-shots#Dark Matter Planet|Dark Matter Planet]]

<code>dark-matter</code>
| [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xhw3oVb4fMktZB_KEIF9fGkYCkfbpRMHKBLI63laTgc/edit?gid=0#gid=0 (-2892, 2640)]
| To get here, launch from the [[Media:Spacetime Soccer Field1.png|goal on the half of the field with just one person on it on Spacetime Soccer Field]].

The planet is small and grey, and it has the words "Dark matter" inside. On its surface, there are two squirrels and Ponytail exclaiming "I found it!", a reference to [[2186: Dark Matter]]).
|
|
* You found a delicate music box. (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
|
|
|-
! 
[[2765: Escape Speed/Screen-shots#Shuttle Skeleton|Shuttle Skeleton]]

<code>space-shuttle</code>
| [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xhw3oVb4fMktZB_KEIF9fGkYCkfbpRMHKBLI63laTgc/edit?gid=0#gid=0 (-30200, 14576)]
| To get here, launch from the [[Media:Origin Planet5.png|Shuttle Skeleton landmark on Origin]] or Northwest from Alaska on the Projection of Earth.

The object is a reference to the Space Shuttle Skeleton from [[2630: Shuttle Skeleton]].
|
* a piece of space shuttle food
|
* A little upgrade works wonders on fuel efficiency (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
|
|
|-
! 
[[2765: Escape Speed/Screen-shots#Diffraction Spikes Star|Diffraction Spikes Star]]

<code>diffraction</code>
| [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xhw3oVb4fMktZB_KEIF9fGkYCkfbpRMHKBLI63laTgc/edit?gid=0#gid=0 (-19944, 11240)]
| To get here, launch from the [[Media:Origin Planet5.png|back of the left "hand" of the Shuttle Skeleton]] or the north of Alaska on the Projection of Earth.

The object is a tangible spiky star, a reference to [[2762: Diffraction Spikes]].
|
* a hydrogen ion

* a piece of coronium (iron)
|
|
|
|-
! 
[[2765: Escape Speed/Screen-shots#SafetySat|SafetySat]]

<code>safetysat</code>
| [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xhw3oVb4fMktZB_KEIF9fGkYCkfbpRMHKBLI63laTgc/edit?gid=0#gid=0 (17024, 1024)]
| To get here, launch from the [[Media:Origin Planet2.png|cell tower on Origin]].

The object is a reference to [[1992: SafetySat]].
|
* a first of its kind
|
* ''[no message]'' (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
* The more refined oil had a dinner engagement (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
|
|
|-
! 
[[2765: Escape Speed/Screen-shots#Spacetime Soccer Field|Spacetime Soccer Field]]

<code>soccerfield</code>
| [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xhw3oVb4fMktZB_KEIF9fGkYCkfbpRMHKBLI63laTgc/edit?gid=0#gid=0 (6048, 4048)]
| To get here, launch from the [[Media:Origin Planet4.png|pyramid with a soccer ball on it on Origin]].

The planet is reference to [[2705: Spacetime Soccer]] and consists of a central white body, goals on the poles, and intangible lines farther away.
|
|
* GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLL!!! (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
* GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLL!!! (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
* You found the 3 million point line (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
* You found a sunspot! (Your launch speed has increased.)
|
|
|-
! 
[[2765: Escape Speed/Screen-shots#Voyager 1|Voyager 1]]

<code>voyager-1</code>
| [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xhw3oVb4fMktZB_KEIF9fGkYCkfbpRMHKBLI63laTgc/edit?gid=0#gid=0 (1606, -14282)]
| To get here, launch from the [[Media:Origin Planet9.png|communication device saying "Receiving transmission" near the spiral landmark on Origin]].

The object is a satellite flying in space around Origin. It's a recreation of the {{w|Voyager 1}} space probe.
|
|
* You found Voyager 1! Some of its great speed rubs off on you. (Your engine thrust has increased significantly.)
|
|
|-
! 
[[2765: Escape Speed/Screen-shots#Voyager 2|Voyager 2]]

<code>voyager-2</code>
| [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xhw3oVb4fMktZB_KEIF9fGkYCkfbpRMHKBLI63laTgc/edit?gid=0#gid=0 (10682, -5172)]
| To get here, launch from the [[Media:Origin Planet1.png|communication device saying "Receiving transmission" near the spider landmark on Origin]].

The object is a satellite flying in space around Origin. It's a recreation of the {{w|Voyager 2}} space probe.
|
|
* You found Voyager 2! Some of its great speed rubs off on you. (Your engine thrust has increased significantly.)
|
|
|-
! 
[[2765: Escape Speed/Screen-shots#Crystal Sphere|Crystal Sphere]]

''from'' <code>ring-1</code> ''to'' <code>ring-36</code>
|
| To get here, launch from anywhere and keep avoiding planets until you hit it.

Most planets and celestial objects are inside of a large Crystal Sphere, in which there is a visible navigable crack. Halfway through the crack, gravity gets increasingly stronger as the spaceship feels the gravitational force of the entire Crystal Sphere. Despite a person on Origin saying that "there's no way you'd be able to escape [the Crystal Sphere's] gravitation pull. You'd need some kind of a Hyperdrive for that", it's actually possible to get out of the Crystal Sphere without the Hyperdrive (but the spaceship won't be able to stay in the air for more than a second without being pulled back). You can also escape by going fast enough and ramming through. Above the crack, there is an arch made up of the repeating words "The End", which is reminiscent of the "Don't leave the play area" message in [[1608: Hoverboard]] that appeared when the player tried to get out of it. A crystal sphere was previously mentioned in [[1189: Voyager 1]] and [[2121: Light Pollution]].

|
* a necklace of element samples whose symbols spell out your name
* the platinum cylinder formerly used to define the kilogram
|
* A significant boost to the engines for a curious pilot (Your engine thrust has increased significantly.)
* You found the gold crown Archimedes stole! (Your engine thrust has increased significantly.)
|
|
|-
! 
[[2765: Escape Speed/Screen-shots#Crack in the Crystal Sphere|Crack in the Crystal Sphere]]
|
| To get here, launch from the [[Media:Origin Planet9.png|two characters talking about "shooting for the Moon" on Origin]] or the [[Media:Hollow Planet.png|"Exit" sign on the Hollow Planet]].

This section of the Crystal Sphere was violently removed, similarly to how Boston was ripped out from the Subway Planet, leaving jagged edges and construction materials visible. Judging by the shape of the edges of the crack, it doesn't look like the Crystal Sphere is made of crystal. As noticed by Ponytail in the Hollow Planet, when the player is inside the Crystal Sphere, they don't feel a gravitational pull from the huge structure, but when they're outside, the spaceship feels the gravitational force of all the celestial bodies it is leaving behind, resulting in an very strong pull towards the interior of the Crystal Sphere. Above the crack, there is an arch made up of the repeating words "The End", which is reminiscent of the "Don't leave the play area" message in [[1608: Hoverboard]] that appeared when the player tried to get out of it. The Crystal Sphere may be a reference to {{w|The Crystal Spheres}}, a short story by science fiction author David Brin which suggests that each star with habitable planets in the universe is surrounded by a crystal sphere that can be broken only from the inside and is otherwise completely impenetrable.
|
|
* There is a way out (Your launch speed has increased.)
|
* Right lane must turn right
* Left lane must turn left
|
|-
! 
[[2765: Escape Speed/Screen-shots#Open Space Outside the Crystal Sphere|Open Space Outside the Crystal Sphere]]
|
|To get here, go through the Crack in the Crystal Sphere or try to no-clip the sphere by .
|
|
* It is very lonely out here (Your tanks recharge much faster now.)
* You found a needle in a haystack (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
* From here you can view the source of it all. (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
|
|}

===Spaceships===
{{incomplete|Need to:
*Upload the files of the spaceships, in the best resolution available (Click on the '''<code>filename</code>''', download it, and then click the red link.)

*Describe them better and explain how to obtain them.

*Reorder them in a way that makes sense, and add an introduction to the table explaining how spaceships work in the comic (How do you get them? Can you pick and choose them?, etc.) }}
These are the available (???) spaceships. To change them manually, right click outside the comic image and then select "Inspect". Then, go to the "Console" tab at the top and copy and paste this into the console: (Put the ship name in between the quote marks.)
Comic.ship = ""

{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Name !! Image !! '''<code>codename</code>''' !! Explanation
|-
! Paper Plane
| [[File:Paper Plane.png]]
| <code>[https://xkcd.com/2765/assets/0/ships/paperplane/landed.png paperplane]</code>
| changes the spaceship into a paper plane.
|-
! Default Ship
| [[File:Default Ship.png]]
| <code>[https://xkcd.com/2765/assets/0/ships/bubble/landed.png bubble]</code>
| The default spaceship.
|-
! Default Ship 2
| [[File:Default Ship 2.png]]
| <code>[https://xkcd.com/2765/assets/0/ships/ship1/landed.png ship1]</code>
| The default spaceship from "Gravity", available only if you inspect the website as described above.
|-
! Small Bubble
| [[File:Small Bubble.png]]
| <code>[https://xkcd.com/2765/assets/0/ships/small-bubble/landed.png small-bubble]</code>
| A smaller version of the default spaceship.
|-
! USS Enterprise
| [[File:USS Enterprise.png]]
| <code>[https://xkcd.com/2765/assets/0/ships/carriagereturn/landed.png carriagereturn]</code>
| The USS Enterprise from [[:Category:Star Trek]], presumably a pun on "Enter".
|-
! Flyable Lamp
| [[File:Flyable Lamp.png]]
| <code>[https://xkcd.com/2765/assets/0/ships/lamp/landed.png lamp]</code>
| A lamp that shoots light down/up/left/right.
|-
! Flyable Lamp 2
| [[File:Flyable Lamp 2.png]]
| <code>[https://xkcd.com/2765/assets/0/ships/lamp/landed.png lampacity]</code>
| Also a lamp?
|}

==Hacks==
Some of the modes and hacks from [[2712: Gravity]] also work in this comic and can be activated by opening the browser console (F12, Ctr+Shift+I or Cmd+Option+I to open your browser's developer tools, then choose the "Console" tab) and typing a command.
{{cot|Hacks}}
* <code>python("import antigravity")</code> flips the gravitational pull. It's a reference to comic [[353: Python]].
* <code>noclip = true</code> disables collision detection.
* <code>Comic.gravityConstant = 0</code> turns gravity off (default is 100).
* <code>Comic.voyager.opts.speed = 0.1</code> increases engine power (default is 0.04).
* <code>Comic.voyager.opts.thrustDuration = 1000</code> provides extra fuel (default is 3.5).
* <code>Comic.voyager.opts.turnSpeed = 0.008</code> increases your turning speed (default is 0.002).
* <code>[Comic.voyager.pos.x, Comic.voyager.pos.y] = [1177, 6755]</code> teleports the spaceship to Saturn ([https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xhw3oVb4fMktZB_KEIF9fGkYCkfbpRMHKBLI63laTgc Coordinates list].)
* <code>Comic.map.items</code> is an array of the findable items, and <code>Comic.map.locations</code> is an array of places.
* <code>ship.engines = "infinite improbability drive"</code> moves the spaceship to random locations, in a reference to the Heart of Gold from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
* <code>ze.goggles()</code> once again prints "they do nothing!"
* <code>ship.shields = false</code> turns the entire screen black when you collide with something.

[[User:CruseCtrl|CruseCtrl]]'s wayfinder adds a blue dot to show where the nearest collectable is.
Paste this into the JavaScript console:

const waypointDiv = document.createElement("div");
waypointDiv.style = "position: absolute; left: 50%; top: 50%; width: 6px; height: 6px; background: blue; border-radius: 99px;";
document.getElementById("comic").appendChild(waypointDiv);
const findClosestObject = (voyager, xPos, yPos) => {
let bestDist = Infinity;
let bestObject = null;
for (const object of voyager.objects.filter((o) => !voyager.gotObjects.has(o.id) && o.visible?.())) {
const dist = Math.sqrt((xPos - (object.x1 + object.x2) / 2) ** 2 + (yPos - (object.y1 + object.y2) / 2) ** 2);
if (dist < bestDist) {
bestDist = dist;
bestObject = object;
}
}
return { object: bestObject, dist: bestDist };
};
const everyFrame = function (state) {
const { object, dist } = findClosestObject(Comic.voyager, state.x, state.y);
if (!object) {
waypointDiv.style.display = "none";
return;
}
const objectX = (object.x1 + object.x2) / 2;
const objectY = (object.y1 + object.y2) / 2;
const angleToObject = Math.atan2(objectY - state.y, objectX - state.x);
const waypointAngle = angleToObject + Comic.voyager.cameraAngle;
const waypointDistance = 10 + 2 * dist ** (1 / 3);
const waypointX = Math.cos(waypointAngle) * waypointDistance;
const waypointY = Math.sin(waypointAngle) * waypointDistance;
waypointDiv.style.transform = `translate(${waypointX}px, ${waypointY}px)`;
};
const oldOnFrame = Comic.onFrame.bind(Comic);
Comic.onFrame = function (...args) { everyFrame(...args); oldOnFrame(...args); };

The following script stops the momentum of the spaceship, which can be useful after seeing a planet without being able to slow down in time:
window.onkeydown = function(e){if(e.key == 'p'){Comic.gameHandle.playerConfig.maxSpeed = 0; setTimeout(() => {Comic.gameHandle.playerConfig.maxSpeed = 100;},10)}}
{{cob}}

== Transcript ==
:'''[This transcript only covers the starting page as shown on {{xkcd|2765|xkcd.com}}. A full transcript of the entire comic can be found [[2765: Escape Speed/Transcript|here]].]'''

:[What is shown on xkcd it what is known as the Starting planet. It is a small planet. On top of it is a small spaceship standing on two legs. It has a circular shape on top of the legs with a round window. Next to it is a small tree which is higher than the spaceship. This is the spaceship to be controlled by the user. The planet has grass all around, and the entire planet is visible. But the ship is in the center, so most of the planet is in the lover part of the panel. The background around the planet is a star-studded black backdrop. Going around the planet to clockwise from the small tree, there are two more trees with some small bushes between the first small tree and the two next trees. A larger tree is on the opposite part of the planet. Between the two trees and this there is a small bush and the Beret Guy who looks and point up from his point of view (down as seen in the image as he is on the opposite side). He is exclaiming a word. After the largest tree next to him, come a small tree. Before that Cueball and Megan stand together. On the last part back to the spaceship there is another small bush. There are also four gray dots. One above the spaceship. One between the first three and the two. One above the largest of the two trees together. And the final near the bush to the left of the spaceship. Those four dots are part of the game and can be removed if the ship touches them. In the bottom right corner of the panel there is a small white square with a black house drawn upon it. There are two small black dots beneath it. A curved arrow goes below the house from the right to the left dot. This is the home button that will always take the player back to this starting window. To the very right of the panel on height with the spaceship there is a white bar about three times the height of the spaceship. This bar indicates how much energy the spaceship has. It always refuels immediately after landing anywhere.]
:Beret Guy: Wow!
:[As Beret Guy is upside down, so is his words. They can thus easily be read as MOM as they are written, as always, in all caps.]

:[As part of the game there are messages appearing the first time you enter the comic, and every time you return to home of to the comic from another comic. Although they are not part of the image, they do appear on the home image. These messages appear as black text in a rectangular white panel with a black border. The messages are only on screen for a short time. On a mobile phone browser "Use the arrow keys" is "Tap the sides of your screen". The three situations follow here:]

:[First time opening the game in a new browser there are two messages one appearing after the other:]
:Greetings!
:Use the arrow keys, pilot.

:[When pressing the home button only one message appears:]
:Welcome back, pilot.

:[When reloading or going to the page after having been in another page or having shut down the program and opening again, there will be two messages:]
:Welcome back! We saved your progress.
:Use the arrow keys, pilot.

:[When moving past the grey dots text is revealed in a similar manner to the greetings text. If it is items, then they are collected and listed beneath the panel under the heading "You've found:" A bulleted list will then start to grow beneath this as you play the game and collect items.]

:'''[For more transcripts from the rest of the game go to the [[2765: Escape Speed/Transcript|full transcript page]].]'''

== Trivia ==
This was the most delayed [[April Fools' Day comics|April Fools' Day comic]] so far, as it was 18 days overdue. When it was released, unlike [[1663: Garden]], there was no mention of April fools' Day. The comic [[2757: Towed Message]] was released closest to April 1st on Friday March 31st, and the following comic, [[2758: My Favorite Things]], was released on schedule on Monday April 3rd. This comic was so delayed that it was not released until Wednesday April 19th, which led to some debate in whether this was meant to be an April Fools' Day comic. On May 15th, 2023, [https://chromakode.com/ Max Goodhart], aka Chromakode, published an article titled "[https://chromakode.com/post/xkcd-gravity-escape-speed/ Development notes from xkcd's "Gravity" and "Escape Speed"]". Max was one of the developers for this comic and the earlier [[2712: Gravity]], and was credited in the [[Header text#Escape Speed|header text of this comic]]. At the top of the article, he writes "On April 20th, xkcd published Escape Speed, the 14th annual April Fools comic we've made together". This settled the debate, as it was now clear that this was meant to be the April Fools' Day comic of the year.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with animation]]
[[Category:Dynamic comics]]
[[Category:Interactive comics]]
[[Category:Comics with inverted brightness]]
[[Category:Space]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Blondie]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Knit Cap]]
[[Category:Characters with hats]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]] 
[[Category:Video games]]
[[Category:Star Wars]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Spiders]]
[[Category:Squirrels]]
[[Category:Dinosaurs]]
[[Category:Songs]]
[[Category:Soccer]]
[[Category:Robots]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Volcanoes]]
[[Category:Space probes]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Maps]]
[[Category:Aviation]]
[[Category:Airplane banner]]
[[Category:Book promotion]]
[[Category:The Core]]
[[Category:Animorphs]]
[[Category:Stilts]]
[[Category:What If?]]

7: Girl sleeping (Sketch -- 11th grade Spanish class)

2025-08-15T15:16:22Z

82.132.238.109: Undo revision 384229 by 2001:4450:813D:C800:5193:ACFE:71AD:992B (talk) Read the first paragraph of the explanation...

{{notice|Despite being categorised as comic #7, this was actually the first xkcd comic released by Randall. To learn more, read the [[LiveJournal|history of xkcd]].}}
{{comic
| number = 7
| date = September 30, 2005
| title = Girl sleeping (Sketch -- 11th grade Spanish class)
| ognumber = 1
| ogtitle = Girl sleeping
| oglink = https://web.archive.org/web/20070927001941/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=40#:~:text=8%3A34%20pm-,Girl%20sleeping,-I%20drew%20this
| ognext = 4
| ogprev = 7
| image = girl_sleeping_noline_(1).jpg
| titletext = I don't remember her name at all, but she fell asleep on the floor in front of me. ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20070927001941/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=40#:~:text=8%3A34%20pm-,Girl%20sleeping,-I%20drew%20this Original caption]:'' I drew this in 11th-grade Spanish class. We were watching a movie and she was asleep on the floor in front of me.
}}

This was the first comic [[LiveJournal|originally posted to LiveJournal]]. The next one was [[4: Landscape (sketch)]]. It was among the [[:Category:First day on LiveJournal|first thirteen comics]] posted to LiveJournal within 12 minutes on September 30, 2005, on the first day of the xkcd LiveJournal account.

==Explanation==
This comic depicts a girl sleeping on the floor of [[Randall]]'s 11th-grade Spanish class, presumably during a movie as shown in the [https://web.archive.org/web/20070927001941/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=40#:~:text=8%3A34%20pm-,Girl%20sleeping,-I%20drew%20this original caption]. The title text on [https://xkcd.com xkcd.com] explains that Randall didn't know her name, but she was sleeping on the floor, and so he decided to draw her.

==Transcript==
:[Girl sleeping on her side, head to the left, facing away from view.]

==Trivia==
*This is the first comic drawn on [[:Category:Checkered paper|checkered paper]].
*This drawing would be used again in [[1506: xkcloud]] as one of the "[[1506: xkcloud/Pictures of other pages#Help! We lost the text|Help! We lost the text]]" images given by Randall.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Posted on LiveJournal| 01]]
[[Category:First day on LiveJournal| 01]]
[[Category:First day on xkcd.com]]
[[Category:Checkered paper]]
[[Category:Sketches]]

1525: Emojic 8 Ball

2025-08-15T15:14:16Z

82.132.238.109: Undo revision 384228 by 2001:4450:813D:C800:5193:ACFE:71AD:992B (talk) Not helpful.

{{comic
| number = 1525
| date = May 15, 2015
| title = Emojic 8 Ball
| image = emojic 8 ball.png
}}
{{TOC}}To experience the interactivity of the game, visit the {{xkcd|1525|original comic}}.

==Explanation==
Emojic 8 Ball is a parody of the {{w|Magic 8-Ball}} using {{w|emoji}} instead of words. "Emojic" is a portmanteau of "emoji" and "magic".

A real Magic 8 Ball is a toy designed to visually resemble a real {{w|billiard_ball#International_pool|pool ball}}, which responds to questions (posed as yes-or-no questions) asked of it, ostensibly by magic. The responses are provided through a window on one face that displays text phrases printed on a triangular shape as depicted in this comic. Vintage balls contained a die with multiple triangular facets suspended in a dark fluid, while modern balls feature an electronic screen.

The ball in this comic provides responses in the form of graphical {{w|Unicode}} "text" (which this comic is suggesting are {{w|emoji}}).

It is possible that this may be commentary on the inclusion of such "meaningless" symbols into Unicode. Ask a question and get a meaningless reply, even more meaningless than the answers given by a Magic 8 Ball.

It could also be commentary about the ambiguous nature of advice from fortune tellers, horoscopes, etc. Each emoji has an ambiguous meaning (for example, depending on context, the cow symbol 🐄 could refer to beef or farming). The interpretation has more to do with the person receiving the fortune than anything given by the so-called fortune reader.

With the default question being "How will I die?", this may also be partially a reference to "{{w|Machine of Death}}". This book from 2010 is a collection of short stories edited by amongst other {{w|Ryan North}} (of {{w|Dinosaur Comics}}) mentioned here since the idea was based on one of [http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=675 his comics]. Since [[Randall Munroe]] wrote one of the stories the reference is very likely. All the stories are based around a device, the "Machine of Death", that can predict, with 100% accuracy though generally with extreme ambiguity, how people die from a drop of their blood. In many of the stories very unusual deaths are predicted, often in a very literal way, but not so you know when or where you will die. From the [http://machineofdeath.net/ official home page] the entire book can be downloaded for free as a [https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4648190/MachineofDeath_FINAL_SPREADS.pdf PDF file](broken) [https://web.archive.org/web/20170423012915/https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4648190/MachineofDeath_FINAL_SPREADS.pdf 2020/06 archive.org copy]. (Randall's story begins on page 421 - or page 218 of the two sided PDF file. It is simply called "?"). The "Machine of Death" is also referenced in the title text of [[1341: Types of Editors]].

Emoji were previously referenced in [[1513: Code Quality]]. Emoji has since then become a [[:Category:Emoji|recurrent theme]] on xkcd. But this is the first one with Emoji in the title.

===Permalink===
*After the first time you ask a question a permalink will appear below the panel in light blue letters, the same colour as links on the rest of xkcd.
*The "permalink" is an actual link of the type that is called a "'''{{w|permalink}}'''", a portmanteau of "permanent-link".
*If you wish to "save" any given question and combination of emojis for future reference (for instance one where you think the combo makes sense to your question) you can do so by copying down this link.
*The last two [[April Fools' Day comics]], [[1350: Lorenz]] and [[1506: xkcloud]], also used the [[1350: Lorenz#Permalink|concept of a permalink]].
*The permalink option did not appear in the comic when it was first posted. This has been seen before.
*Here a three examples with one, two and three emojis in the reply
**[http://xkcd.com/1525/#eyJxIjoiV2h5IGFtIEkgc28gc2FkPyIsImEiOlsiJiN4MjY3RjsiXX0= permalink with 1 emoji].
***Question: ''Why am I so sad?''.
***The answer is one emoji [♿ (Wheelchair symbol)] (A reply that actually makes sense as to why you might feel sad)
**[https://xkcd.com/1525/#eyJxIjoiV2hhdCBzaG91bGQgSSB3ZWFyIHRvbW9ycm93PyIsImEiOlsiJiN4MUYzRTY7IiwiJiN4MUYzNTY7Il19 permalink with 2 emojis].
***Question: ''What should I wear tomorrow?''. (Version 1)
***The answer is two emoji [🏦 (bank) and 🍖 (meat on bone)]
**[https://xkcd.com/1525/#eyJxIjoiV2hhdCBzaG91bGQgSSB3ZWFyIHRvbW9ycm93PyIsImEiOlsiJiN4MUYzNDY7IiwiJiN4MUY0QTY7Il19 permalink with 2 emojis].
***Question: ''What should I wear tomorrow?''. (Version 2)
***The answer is two emoji [🍆 (eggplant) and 💦 (water splash)]
**[https://xkcd.com/1525/#eyJxIjoiV2hhdCBzaG91bGQgSSB3ZWFyIHRvbW9ycm93PyIsImEiOlsiJiN4MUY0NUE7IiwiJiN4MUY0NTY7Il19 permalink with 2 emojis].
***Question: ''What should I wear tomorrow?''. (Version 3)
***The answer is two emoji [👚 (woman's clothes) and 👖 (jeans)]
**[https://xkcd.com/1525/#eyJxIjoiV2hlcmUgd2lsbCBJIGJlIGFmdGVyIHRvbW9ycm93PyIsImEiOlsiJiN4MUYzRUY7IiwiJiN4MUYzQTk7IiwiJiN4MUY0MjE7Il19 permalink with 3 emojis].
***Question: ''Where will I be after tomorrow?''.
***The answer is three emoji [🏯 (Japanese castle), 🎩 ‎(top hat) and 🐡 ‎(blowfish)].
***This is also available as a [[media:emojic 8 ball with answer.png|picture]] - it is the picture linked to above the explanation.

===Bugs===
Note: if you see mostly squares (possibly with six numbers/letters inside) in the 8 Ball instead of actual symbols or pictures, it means your system doesn't have fonts that support the Emoji unicode characters. Scroll down to [[#Discussion|the discussion section]] below for suggestions on how to get and install the right font for your system, as well as to see a list of emoji characters so you can easily see if they're working or not.

==Transcript==
:[An image of a shiny black ball with a white circle forming a black window at its center. Above the image is a title where the number 8 is written in a black circle, making it look like an 8-ball.]
:'''Emojic 8 Ball'''

:[Below the title is an input field with a placeholder text in grayed out text:]
:How will I die?

:[Below is a gray submit button.]
:Ask

:[The Emojic 8 Ball is below the ask button. The text in the input field can be changed by the user before pressing the ask button. After the submit button is pressed, 1 to 3 emoji symbols appear in the black window, framed inside a light blue equilateral triangle with one end pointing straight up. Once this has been done once, then a link appears below the panel with this text: Permalink].

==Trivia==
*The 8-ball randomly returns between one and three emoji characters. The source code reveals there is 42.1% chance of getting one character, 52.6% chance of getting two characters, and 5.3% chance of getting three.
*The source code contains 507 different emoji characters. For a full list of the supported characters, see [[1525: Emojic 8 Ball/List of emoji|List of emoji]].
*This is the second official comic with [[:Category:No title text|no title text]]. The first was [[1506: xkcloud]].
*The [http://xkcd.com/1525/info.0.json official transcript] of the comic [http://web.archive.org/web/20150515133138/http://xkcd.com/1525/ originally] said:
**"Sorry blind people. There is no title text, even. Just a text box, an \"ask\" button, and a graphic that changes to a random emojii.\n\nThis one doesn't seem to be for you."

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Interactive comics]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:No title text]]
[[Category:Emoji]]
[[Category:Comics with lowercase text]]
[[Category:Dynamic comics]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Turtles]]

1079: United Shapes

2025-08-15T15:12:45Z

82.132.238.109: Undo revision 384227 by 2001:4450:813D:C800:5193:ACFE:71AD:992B (talk) Badly said, and why add "The first comic to..." everywhere?

{{comic
| number = 1079
| date = July 9, 2012
| title = United Shapes
| image = united_shapes.png
| imagesize = 800px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = That eggplant is in something of a flaccid state.
}}
A larger version of this comic is available [http://xkcd.com/1079/large/ here].

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|
*Need to finish explaining all the states in [[#Objects]]. Some are missing an explanation.}}
In this comic, each state of the United States of America has been filled-in with an object of similar shape. Several years later Randall made a new map of the US mainland [[1653: United States Map]], where he shuffled the positions of the states but filled out the outline. Also in this map Michigan has been split into two separate parts. (Here it is the mitten and the eagle). This comic could also be a reference to {{w|Giuseppe Arcimboldo}}'s portraits, which were composed of objects such as fruits, vegetables, flowers, books, and fish.

Very few, if any, of the shapes used are stereotypes of the state; they are merely objects that look like the state. Some of the objects are those which the states are widely known to resemble. For example, Michigan is represented by a mitten and an eagle, and a pot with handle takes the place of Oklahoma (with the panhandle region of the state filled with a literal handle). Others, however, are more creative. Few would have likely pictured Texas as a dog or Alaska as a bear with a jet pack and laser gun. There are several incredibly simple objects filling some states. Kentucky is filled by a cloud, which conceivably could have been used for any state, and Wyoming, one of the nearly rectangular states, is simply an envelope. There are three pairs of states that are related. Georgia and Missouri each contain an image of the other, drawing attention to their similar shapes, North and South Dakota are the top and bottom halves of a {{w|guitar amplifier}} {{w|speaker cabinet}}, and Alabama and Mississippi are {{w|moai}} facing in opposite directions.

Colorado contains what looks like a Wikipedia article. [http://xkcd.com/1079/colorado/ A close-up of the fake article is provided.] The following references are made in the Colorado article:

*The pronunciation is not that for Colorado, but for {{w|Eyjafjallajökull}}, a volcano in Iceland that erupted in April 2010. There is a missing [[859#Trivia|close parenthesis]].
*The way it has a demilitarized zone towards Wyoming resembles {{W|North Korea}} and {{W|South Korea}}.
*Eleven dimensions refers to {{w|string theory}}.
*A {{w|wormhole}} is a theoretical relative of the {{w|black hole}}. This is a reference to the television series {{w|Stargate SG-1}} where a device capable of creating wormholes is located in the {{w|Cheyenne Mountain nuclear bunker}} in Colorado.
*A {{w|Horcrux}} is a type of magical object in the world of {{W|Harry Potter}} that prevents the creator of it from passing on. They may die, but their soul remains to be resurrected by another wizard
*The radiation zones around Longmont are caused by {{w|Radioactive contamination from the Rocky Flats Plant|radioactive contamination from the Rocky Flats Plant}}.
*The fake motto ''Si parare possis, vivere septem'' can be roughly translated as "With preparation, survival is possible for over a week."

New Mexico, according to [https://xkcd.com/1079/info.0.json official transcript], is "A liquid container labeled for something of unusual and silly danger". The labeling is upside down and it refers to the nuclear testing facility White Sands Missile Range located in New Mexico for the nuclear bomb. The joke is that it presents the white sand itself as extremely hazardous. The phrase "contains chemicals known only to the state of Nevada" may be a reference to the nuclear weapons testing that occurred in Nevada (although in that case, it's not really the ''state'' of Nevada that knows those chemicals, but rather the {{w|Nevada Test Site}}, home of Area 51 ''et al''), and is also a reference to California's {{w|1986 California Proposition 65|Proposition 65}} warning label, "WARNING: This product contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm."

The title text makes fun of Florida which is sometimes called "The penis of America". Obviously, this penis is somewhat flaccid (not erect). The use of the word "state" is a pun, as it means some particular condition (flaccid state) as well as a political entity (The State of Florida).

===Objects===
{| class="wikitable sortable"
!State!!Image!!Description!!Explanation
|-
! {{w|Alabama}}
|[[File:Alabama.png|200x200px]]
|A moai head facing east.
|{{w|Moai}} are Easter Island stone statues.
|-
! {{w|Alaska}}
|[[File:Alaska1079.png|200x200px]]
|A bear with a jet pack and a ray gun.
|The ray gun and {{w|jet pack}} are fixtures of science fiction during the Cold War era, and the Russian Bear is an often-used personification of the country Russia in political cartoonage; the "teddy bear" image may be related to Alaska's former Russian heritage. The USA acquired Alaska from Russia in the Alaska Purchase of 1867 and it became a state in 1959, during the Cold War. The Cold War often featured baseless worries of a potential Russian invasion of Alaska due to their geographical proximity across the Bering Sea and Bering Strait, which persisted through the 1980s; Alaska was the location of a large number of interceptor missiles as part of Ronald Reagan's "Star Wars Defense Initiative" intended to shoot down missiles that might be launched from the USSR. The ray gun is pointed across the Bering Strait at Russia, consistent with Alaska's often being described as the "first line of defense" against Russian aggression. The teddy bear is similar in appearance to {{w|Winnie the Pooh}}.
|-
! {{w|Arizona}}
|[[File:Arizona.png|200x200px]]
|A refrigerated shelf containing milk, bread, and pastries.
|
|-
! {{w|Arkansas}}
|[[File:Arkansas1079.png|200x200px]]
|A measuring cup.
|As the text is illegible, it is unclear if the cup is graduated for imperial units (fractions of a cup) and metric units (milliliters) or both.
|-
! {{w|California}}
|[[File:California1079.png|200x200px]]
|A vacuum.
|An old-fashioned upright vacuum cleaner (lying down to the right), green with a yellow bag.
|-
! {{w|Colorado}}
|[[File:Colorado1079.png|200x200px]]
|The Wikipedia article on Colorado.
|See the [[#Transcript|Transcript section]] to read the text in the fake article. The pronunciation of "Colorado" given by Randall [ˈeːijaˌfjatlaˌjœːkʏtl̥] is the phonetic writing of {{w|Eyjafjallaj%C3%B6kull|Eyjafjallajökull}}, and Icelandic volcano that {{w|Air_travel_disruption_after_the_2010_Eyjafjallaj%C3%B6kull_eruption|caused disruptions to air travel in Western Europe}} between March and June of 2010. An analogy pronunciation guide, it would be something as "a [as in the letter]-ya-fiat-la-JOE-cutl. The Demilitarized Zone is the official name of the border between North Korea and South Korea. It is impossible for the state to have always existed, as that would require the existence of the United States, which was only founded in 1776. The Motto may be a reference to the very harsh conditions located on especially tall mountains, as the Rocky Mountains run directly through the state. Alternatively, danger may have been introduced via the 'erratic' wildlife and the presence of a wormhole within the state, which would make Colorado nearly uninhabitable.
|-
! {{w|Connecticut}}
|[[File:Connecticut1079.png|200x200px]]
|A train conductor's hat.
|
|-
! {{w|Delaware}}
|[[File:Delaware1079.png|200x200px]]
|A meerkat.
|
|-
! {{w|Florida}}
|[[File:Florida1079.png|200x200px]]
|An eggplant.
|The title text mentions the eggplant being in a flaccid state, which might be a reference to the sexual use of the eggplant emoji. The eggplant may reference the {{w|Florida Man}} meme, which commonly involves undressed males doing unusual things.
|-
! {{w|Georgia}}
|[[File:Georgia1079.png|200x200px]]
|Missouri.
|The outline of the state of Missouri, with the {{w|Gateway Arch}} in St. Louis. This is paired with Missouri, which contains an outline of the state of Georgia.
|-
! {{w|Hawaii}}
|[[File:Hawaii1079.png|200x200px]]
|The island of Hawaii is a snowball. The smaller islands are small bits of snow.
| This may be an ironic reference to the fact that Hawaii is located near the equator and generally receives temperatures far too high to create snow.
|-
! {{w|Idaho}}
|[[File:Idaho1079.png|200x200px]]
|A garden gnome, sitting down.
|
|-
! {{w|Illinois}}
|[[File:Illinois1079.png|200x200px]]
|A gangster with a guitar case, upside down.
|In fiction it's common to depict Prohibition-era gangsters and mobsters smuggling a Thompson submachine gun (also called a "Tommy gun" or "Chicago typewriter") in musical instrument cases.
|-
! {{w|Indiana}}
|[[File:Indiana1079.png|200x200px]]
|The brush of a paintbrush.
|
|-
! {{w|Iowa}}
|[[File:Iowa1079.png|200x200px]]
|A tomato, lettuce, cold cut and cheese sandwich.
|
|-
! {{w|Kansas}}
|[[File:Kansas1079.png|200x200px]]
|A {{w|spinet}} piano.
|
|-
! {{w|Kentucky}}
|[[File:Kentucky1079.png|200x200px]]
|A cloud.
|
|-
! {{w|Louisiana}}
|[[File:Louisiana1079.png|200x200px]]
|A boot with some gum stuck to the bottom of it.
| In grade schools, Louisiana is often remembered via it's shape, being very similar to a boot.
|-
! {{w|Maine}}
|[[File:Maine1079.png|200x200px]]
|A Vulcan salute.
|Maine's camp sunshine has had Star Trek related events in the past, including the opportunity to appear in a film.
|-
! {{w|Maryland}}
|[[File:Maryland1079.png|200x200px]]
|A wolf howling to the moon, upside down.
|
|-
! {{w|Massachusetts}}
|[[File:Massachusetts1079.png|200x200px]]
|An elephant, being ridden by a man, carrying tea.
|Might be a reference to the Boston Tea Party, which occurred in Massachusetts, and the Republican political party. The man seems to be wearing a tricorn hat.
|-
! {{w|Michigan}}
|[[File:Michigan1079.png|200x200px]]
|A mitten for the lower portion, an eagle for the {{w|Upper Peninsula of Michigan}}.
| In grade schools, Michigan is often remembered via it's shape, being very similar to a glove.
|-
! {{w|Minnesota}}
|[[File:Minnesota1079.png|200x200px]]
|$160 in $20 USD bills, tied together.
|
|-
! {{w|Mississippi}}
|[[File:Mississippi1079.png|200x200px]]
|A moai head facing west.
| This is a mirrored image of Alabama, referencing the fact that the two states appear symmetrical at a glance.
|-
! {{w|Missouri}}
|[[File:Missouri1079.png|200x200px]]
|Georgia.
|The outline of the state of Georgia, with a pair of {{w|Georgia Peach|Georgia peaches}}. This is paired with Missouri, which contains an outline of the state of Georgia.
|-
! {{w|Montana}}
|[[File:Montana1079.png|200x200px]]
|One half of a muffin, sideways.
|
|-
! {{w|Nebraska}}
|[[File:Nebraska1079.png|200x200px]]
|A blue VW type 2 with mattresses sticking out the back.
|
|-
! {{w|Nevada}}
|[[File:Nevada1079.png|200x200px]]
|A clothes iron.
|
|-
! {{w|New Hampshire}}
|[[File:NewHampshire1079.png|200x200px]]
|A tall brick factory building.
| There are many brick mill buildings in Manchester, the largest city in the state.
|-
! {{w|New Jersey}}
|[[File:NewJersey1079.png|200x200px]]
|A bent-over old person. He is carrying a cane.
|
|-
! {{w|New Mexico}}
|[[File:NewMexico1079.png|200x200px]]
|A liquid container labeled for something of unusual and silly danger.
|This may be a reference to the many nuclear tests conducted In New Mexico during the {{w|Cold War}}. See the [[#Transcript|Transcript section]] to read the labels on the container.
|-
! {{w|New York}}
|[[File:NewYork1079.png|200x200px]]
|A hybrid transmission with standard manual-style gears and a torque converter sliced in half.
|
|-
! {{w|North Carolina}}
|[[File:NorthCarolina1079.png|200x200px]]
|A bouquet of flowers. They appear similar to {{w|Galium Palustre|marsh bedstraws}}.
|
|-
! {{w|North Dakota}}
|[[File:NorthDakota1079.png|200x200px]]
|The top half of a guitar amplifier speaker cabinet.
| Possibly a {{w|Randall Amplifiers|Randall}} [https://cdn11.bigcommerce.com/s-49c12/images/stencil/1280x1280/products/12694/26126/apihqruad__00850.1479879391.jpg RD412A] angled 4x12" cabinet, which is similar in appearance and bears [[Randall]]'s name.
|-
! {{w|Ohio}}
|[[File:Ohio1079.png|200x200px]]
|Underwear (Briefs).
|Possibly a reference to ''{{w|Captain Underpants}}'', which takes place in Ohio.
|-
! {{w|Oklahoma}}
|[[File:Oklahoma1079.png|200x200px]]
|A covered pot, dripping with boil-over.
|Western Oklahoma is often called "{{w|Oklahoma Panhandle|the panhandle}}"; sure enough, this is where the boiling pot's handle fits.
|-
! {{w|Oregon}}
|[[File:Oregon1079.png|200x200px]]
|A locomotive.
|
|-
! {{w|Pennsylvania}}
|[[File:Pennsylvania1079.png|200x200px]]
|A very thick book with a bookmark.
|
|-
! {{w|Rhode Island}}
|[[File:RhodeIsland1079.png|200x200px]]
|The bow half of a boat's hull.
| This is relevant as the state of Rhode Island is known for it's boating industry. An anchor is also located on the {{w|Flag of Rhode Island|state flag of Rhode Island}}.
|-
! {{w|South Carolina}}
|[[File:SouthCarolina1079.png|200x200px]]
|A slice of pizza.
|
|-
! {{w|South Dakota}}
|[[File:SouthDakota1079.png|200x200px]]
|The bottom half of guitar amplifier speaker cabinet.
| Possibly a {{w|Randall Amplifiers|Randall}} [https://cdn11.bigcommerce.com/s-49c12/images/stencil/1280x1280/products/12694/26126/apihqruad__00850.1479879391.jpg RD412A] angled 4x12" cabinet, which is similar in appearance and bears [[Randall]]'s name.
|-
! {{w|Tennessee}}
|[[File:Tennessee1079.png|200x200px]]
|A number of children's books, placed in a slightly askew pile.
| Possibly a reference to Dolly Parton's Imagination Library. The books are {{w|Where's Waldo?}}, {{w|The Wreck of the Zephyr}}, {{w|The Way Things Work}}, Free Fall, {{w|Paddle-to-the-Sea}}, What It Feels Like to Be a Building, and {{w|The Crab with the Golden Claws}}.
|-
! {{w|Texas}}
|[[File:Texas1079.png|200x200px]]
|A dog sitting in a bowl.
|
|-
! {{w|Utah}}
|[[File:Utah1079.png|200x200px]]
|An oven.
|
|-
! {{w|Vermont}}
|[[File:Vermont1079.png|200x200px]]
|A microscope, upside down.
|
|-
! {{w|Virginia}}
|[[File:Virginia1079.png|200x200px]]
|A {{w|stegosaurus}}.
|
|-
! {{w|Washington}}
|[[File:Washington1079.png|200x200px]]
|A whale.
| The Puget Sound is well known for whale watching
|-
! {{w|Washington DC}}
|[[File:WashingtonDC1079.png|200x200px]]
|A star.
|On most maps, capitals are shown as stars. Washington DC is the capital of the United States.
|-
! {{w|West Virginia}}
|[[File:WestVirginia1079.png|200x200px]]
|A {{w|frog}}.
|
|-
! {{w|Wisconsin}}
|[[File:Wisconsin1079.png|200x200px]]
|A skull.
|
|-
! {{w|Wyoming}}
|[[File:Wyoming1079.png|200x200px]]
|The back side of a white envelope, sealed with red wax, with a black heart next to a signature (lower left corner).
|
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|This transcript isn't detailed enough for our standards. Weirdly enough, the third column of the table above is more descriptive, so you could start by transferring the descriptions from the table over to this section.}}
:The '''United Shapes'''
:A map of things states are shaped like

:[Each state has some item wedged to stay inside its borders]]
:[Washington contains a whale.]
:[Idaho contains a garden gnome sitting down.]
:[Montana contains one half of a muffin, sideways.]
:[North Dakota and South Dakota contain the top and bottom halves of a guitar amplifier speaker cabinet, respectively.]
:[Minnesota contains $160 in $20 bills.]
:[Upper peninsula and lower peninsula of Michigan contain an eagle and a mitten, respectively.]
:[Ohio contains a single piece of underwear.]
:[Pennsylvania contains a very thick book with a bookmark.]
:[New York contains a hybrid transmission with standard manual-style gears and a torque converter sliced in half.]
:[Vermont contains an upside-down microscope.]
:[New Hampshire contains a tall brick factory building.]
:[Maine contains a hand doing a Vulcan salute.]
:[Massachusetts contains an elephant, being ridden by a man who is carrying tea.]
:[Rhode Island contains the bow half of a boat's hull.]
:[Connecticut contains a train conductors hat.]
:[New Jersey contains a bent-over old person carrying a cane.]
:[Delaware contains a meerkat.]
:[Maryland contains a wolf, howling at the moon while upside-down.]
:[Washington D.C. is represented by a star.]
:[Virginia is represented by a stegosaurus.]
:[North Carolina contains a bouquet of flowers which appear similar to Marsh Bedstraws.]
:[South Carolina contains a slice of pizza.]
:[Georgia contains Missouri.]
:[Florida contains an eggplant.]
:[Alabama contains a Moai head facing east.]
:[Mississippi contains a Moai head facing west.]
:[Louisiana contains a boot with gum stuck to the bottom.]
:[Texas contains a dog sitting in a bowl.]

:[New Mexico contains a yellow liquid container with upside-down labeling.]
::This end up!!
::Property of White Sands Missile Range
::Contains White Sand
::[Written inside a hazardous-materials {{w|NFPA 704|NFPA diamond}} with the ? very large, and the three '4' in the three top part of a diamond shape divided in four these three sections being blue(health), red(flammability), and yellow(instability). The lower part has a radioactive sign on the same grey background as the large rectangle.]
::??? 4 4 4
::Flammable
::Warning
::This product contains chemicals known
::Only to the State of Nevada.
::Contents under pressure from parents
::If swallowed, induce labor
::56 fluid ounces
::and 14 other ounces
::NB - There are several chemicals such as {{w|Pentaborane(9)}}(reacts with water) and {{w|tert-Butyl hydroperoxide|''tert''-Butyl hydroperoxide}}(explosive) which have a 4-4-4 rating, however, a substance that is both 4-4-4 and radioactive is unlikely to be handled in bulk.

:Arizona contains a refrigerated shelf containing milk, bread, and pastries.]
:[California contains a vacuum cleaner.]
:[Oregon contains a locomotive.]
:[Wyoming contains the back side of a white envelope, sealed with red wax, with a black heart next to a signature in the lower left corner. ]
:[Nebraska contains a blue VW type 2 with mattresses sticking out the back. ]
:[Iowa contains a tomato, lettuce, cold cut and cheese sandwich.]
:[Illinois contains a gangster with a guitar case, upside down.]
:[Indiana contains the brush end of a paintbrush.]
:[Kentucky contains a cloud.]
:[West Virginia contains a frog.]
:[Tennessee contains a number of children's books, placed in a slightly askew pile.]
:[Arkansas contains a measuring cup.]
:[Oklahoma contains a covered pot, dripping with boil-over.]
:[Nevada contains an iron for clothing.]
:[Utah contains an oven with a towel on a towel bar on the side.]
:[Colorado contains a fake Wikipedia article on Colorado. Below the text as seen in the provided close up:]
:[web address:]
::en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado
:[Headers]
::Wikipedia
::Article Talk
::Colorado
:[Main article]
::Colorado (Pronounced [ˈeːijaˌfjatlaˌjœːkʏtl̥] is a US State encompassing portions of the Rocky Mountains and the Great Plains. The region has been inhabited since at least 11,000 BCE, and some archaeological evidence suggest the state – with roughly its current borders – has literally always existed. Colorado is separated from Wyoming by a 28-mile demilitarized zone, and has at times exercised substantial regional power via the installation of puppet governments in neighboring states. Geographically, Colorado is eleven-dimensional, though seven of those dimensions are tightly compacted and difficult to detect in most areas of the state. Colorado is home to the nation's oldest continually-operated wormhole and two of President Lincoln's horcruxes. The wildlife in Colorado is commonly characterized as "erratic", particularly in the radiation zones around Longmont. The State's timber wolf population is largely bipedal; the Park Service has expressed "concern" at their attempts to enroll in
:[Fact box with correct (though black instead of blue) state flag and emblem and fake motto:]
::State of Colorado
::Motto:
::"Si parare possis, vivere septem."
::(With preparation, survival is possible for over a week.)

:[Kansas contains a spinet piano.]
:[Missouri contains Georgia.]
:[Alaska contains a bear with a jet pack and a ray gun.]
:[Hawaii contains a snowball on the island of Hawaii. The smaller islands are small bits of snow.

==Trivia==
This comic used to be [https://web.archive.org/web/20220125014714/https://store.xkcd.com/products/united-shapes-poster available as a poster] in the xkcd store before it was [[Store|shut down]].

In the [[:Media:Colorado1079.png|fake Wikipedia article about Colorado]], Randall [[859|forgot the closing parentheses]] ')' after the pronunciation.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Large drawings]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:US maps]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Dogs]]
[[Category:Dinosaurs]]
[[Category:Wikipedia]]
[[Category:Star Trek]]
[[Category:Harry Potter]] 
[[Category:Volcanoes]] 
[[Category:Comics with xkcd store products]]
[[Category:Music]]

380: Emoticon

2025-08-15T15:03:23Z

82.132.238.109: The what was what, now? I'd correct the grammer, if I knew the intended meaning.

{{comic
| number =380
| date =February 6, 2008
| title =Emoticon
| image =emoticon.png
| titletext =U+FDD0 is actually Unicode for the eye of the basilisk, though for safety reasons no font actually renders it.
}}

==Explanation==
A {{w|basilisk}} is a legendary creature reputed to have the power to turn a living creature into stone, killing it with a single glance.

In this comic, Cueball is chatting with a user named 'BSLSK05' ('basilisk05' with the vowels removed) and learns much to his dismay that he is chatting with an actual basilisk, who kills him. It appears that the basilisk's power is fully compatible with the 21st century, and can kill you just with a smiley emoticon over instant messaging.

Cueball's request for A/S/L was a standard question when first meeting someone online; it asks for {{w|Age/sex/location|age, sex (gender), and location}}.

The title text mentions U+FDD0, claimed to be the character for "eye of the basilisk". In reality this is a code for a {{w|Unicode#Character General Category|"non-character"}} in Unicode.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball sits at computer, typing.]
:~!~ Opening Chat with BSLSK05
:<NICKM> Hi!
:<NICKM> A/S/L?
:[Next unframed panel]
:<BSLSK05> :)
:[Two smaller panels where the smiley appears bigger]
:[Cueball looks stunned, flies backward.]
:[Two smaller frames focus in on BSLSK05's emoticon, implying rotation to show a smile and two open eyes.]
:[Cueball at computer slouches in chair, dead, crossbones above his head.]
:[At the remote computer, a basilisk is looking at its screen.]

== Trivia ==
U+FDD0 did in fact kill at least one chat client at the time. Konversation in particular. (and presumably any other Qt-based chat clients using QTextDocument)

"basically u+fdd0 (eye of basilisk, the snake) is in a char range that's marked for interchange and illegal in utf-8"

"but qt's utf-8 encoder let it through anyway"

"but it just so happens that qt's qtextdocument uses u+fdd0 as text frame delimiter"

"so when you append it to a qtd, counters run wrong and eventually you crash"

"d-bus closes the connection and crashes the client when it encounters illegal utf-8, and kde's notification system works through d-bus"

The problem was fixed after the xkcd "report" and Konversation now handles unicode normally.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Internet]]
[[Category:Unicode]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Emoji]]