explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

1086: Eyelash Wish Log

2012-08-06T14:42:35Z

Anotherazn: Templating --~~~~

{{comic
| number = 1086
| date = July 25, 2012
| title = Eyelash Wish Log
| image = Eyelash_wish_log.png
| imagesize =
| alttext = Ooh, another one. Uh ... the ability to alter any coefficients of friction at will during sporting events.
}}

== Description ==
This comic is based on the situation that when someone's eyelash falls out, that person can make a wish on it. This comic appears to be a page from the fictitious Wish Bureau in charge of granting said wishes. And of course the Wisher is [[Black Hat]] and he has quite a few wishes, most of them based on the previous wish.

February 12th's wish seems to be a reference to the unlimited {{w|breadsticks}} offered at {{w|Olive Garden}}.

March 7th's wish is a reference to {{w|Nate Silver}}, who is a former writer for {{w|Baseball Prospectus}} working on predicting baseball players' stats and now writes for {{w|Five Thirty Eight}} in which he predicts the outcome of elections based on polling data.

And April 22nd's wish is a reference to the cartoon and video game, {{w|Pokemon}}.

[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]

1087: Cirith Ungol

2012-08-06T14:37:43Z

Anotherazn: Templating --~~~~

{{comic
| number = 1087
| date = July 27, 2012
| title = Cirith Ungol
| image = Cirith_ungol.png
| imagesize =
| alttext = My all-time favorite example of syntactic ambiguity comes from Wikipedia: 'Charlotte's Web is a children's novel by American author E. B. White, about a pig named Wilbur who is saved from being slaughtered by an intelligent spider named Charlotte.'
}}

== Description ==
The comic here is a mash up between the ''Lord of the Rings'' trilogy of books and movies and the novel and movie ''Charlotte's Web''.

The title Cirith Ungol is a reference to ''Lord of the Rings'' where Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee were led to Cirith Ungol by Gollum to the lair of the ancient spider Shelob.

And therefore in this comic, Frodo (by himself) is being led into the lair of the spider, Charlotte. We can tell by the "Some Pig" writing in the spider web on the lower right hand corner which is a direct reference to the story of ''Charlotte's Web'', in which a spider named Charlotte writes the very same text in her web.

In the image text, syntactic ambiguity is a property of sentences which may be reasonably interpreted in more than one way, or reasonably interpreted to mean more than one thing.

The ambiguity of the sentence quoted is that the pig named Wilbur could have been saved by Charlotte from being slaughtered by someone or could have been saved by someone from being slaughtered by Charlotte.

[[Category:Comics|1087]]

== Impact ==
This comic caused a minor edit war at [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Charlotte%27s_Web&diff=504553453&oldid=504551496 that other wiki] as a result.

1088: Five Years

2012-08-06T14:32:45Z

Anotherazn: Templating --~~~~

{{comic
| number = 1088
| date = July 30, 2012
| title = Five Years
| image = Five_years.png
| imagesize =
| alttext = Well, no further questions. You're hired!' 'Oh, sorry! I'm no longer interested. There's a bunch of future I gotta go check out!
}}

== Description ==
This comic is a take on the common and cliched job interview question "Where do you see yourself in 5 years". The interviewer is attempting to see where the job seeker would like to take their career and also what their hopes and dreams are etc.

In the comic, instead of explaining where he would like to be in 5 years, [[Beret Guy]] appears to advance time 5 years while they are both still sitting in the same spot and exactly still.

The image text is a continuation of their conversation in which Beret Guy turns down the job because he wants to find out what happened the last 5 years while they were both sitting in that room.

[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]

1089: Internal Monologue

2012-08-06T14:29:11Z

Anotherazn: Templating

{{comic
| number = 1089
| date = August 1, 2012
| title = Internal Monologue
| image = Internal_monologue.png
| imagesize =
| alttext = Oh right, eye contact. Ok, good, holding the eye contact ... holding ... still holding ... ok, too long! Getting weird! Quick, look thoughtfully into space and nod. Oh, dammit, said 'yeah' again!
}}

== Description ==
[[Cueball]] attempts social interaction at what looks like a party owing to the fact that several people have drinks in their hands. His internal monologue is just Cueball trying to make sure he is doing the right things in the conversation, reacting appropriately, and not saying "yeah" too much.

The image text is a continuation of the internal monologue.

This is common case of anxiety for most people who are usually not very skilled in navigating social situations like parties. It can become a vicious cycle in which the fear of handling the encounter badly makes one even more uncomfortable, which in turn results in behaviour as awkward as first feared.
Also, for some people it's common to want to map out a pre-planned course of action that should produce desired results, a strategy that is usually doomed to failure when dealing with sufficiently complex and unpredictable scenarios like conversations with other people.
This painful, and all too common, situation has been mined for comedic effect since the beginning of human civilization.

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

1090: Formal Languages

2012-08-06T14:24:06Z

Anotherazn: Templating --~~~~

{{comic
| number = 1090
| date = August 2, 2012
| title = Formal Languages
| image = Formal_languages.png
| imagesize =
| alttext = [audience looks around] 'What just happened?' 'There must be some context we're missing.'
}}

== Description ==
[[Megan]] is standing at the podium of the 10th Annual Symposium on Formal Languages (as per the banner behind her). [[Cueball]] crashes in through a glass pane and shouts "GRAMMAR!" and dashes off. Megan remains at the podium looking perplexed.

This is a reference to the phrase [[wikipedia:Context-free grammar|context-free grammar]], which is a technical term used in [[wikipedia:formal languages|formal language]] theory. The play on words is that Cueball does not provide any context for his statement.

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]

1090: Formal Languages

2012-08-06T14:21:38Z

Anotherazn: Templating

{{comic
| number = 1090
| date = August 2, 2012
| title = Formal Languages
| image = Formal_languages.png
| imagesize =
| alttext = [audience looks around] 'What just happened?' 'There must be some context we're missing.'
}}

{{ComicHeader|1090|August 2, 2012}}

[[File:Formal_languages.png|[audience looks around] 'What just happened?' 'There must be some context we're missing.']]

== Image Text ==
[audience looks around] 'What just happened?' 'There must be some context we're missing.'

== Description ==
[[Megan]] is standing at the podium of the 10th Annual Symposium on Formal Languages (as per the banner behind her). [[Cueball]] crashes in through a glass pane and shouts "GRAMMAR!" and dashes off. Megan remains at the podium looking perplexed.

This is a reference to the phrase [[wikipedia:Context-free grammar|context-free grammar]], which is a technical term used in [[wikipedia:formal languages|formal language]] theory. The play on words is that Cueball does not provide any context for his statement.

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]