explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

1903: Bun Trend

2017-10-16T19:10:28Z

ChromoTec: Absolutely nothing...

{{comic
| number = 1903
| date = October 16, 2017
| title = Bun Trend
| image = bun_trend.png
| titletext = Our experts have characterized the ecological impact of this trend as "adorable."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by Randall Munroe - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

In this comic, [[Beret Guy]] takes his bun shenanigans to the state government, reporting to the governor that the number of buns around the capitol has shown a rapid increase. The governor is understandably disconcerted then finally comes to grasp that Beret Guy is talking about rabbits, lots of which can be seen if he would just go outside (by the way, there is ''small'' one '''RIGHT NOW'''!).

The governor finally takes appropriate action by calling security and Beret Guy confronts his fate with poise and honor.

"Buns" have been mentioned previously in [[1682: Bun]] and [[1871: Bun Alert]].

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Beret Guy holds a stick and points at a board next to him. The board contains a picture of a rabbit, a data point graph and other notes.]
:Beret Guy: Good morning, Governor. Our tracking systems show a rapid increase in the number of buns around the Capitol.

:[Hairy is sitting at an office desk and facing Beret Guy in a frameless panel.]
:Hairy: Buns?
:Beret Guy: Yes; there's been a long-term upward trend, but it has accelerated recently.
:Hairy: The trend in... rabbits.
:Beret Guy: Yes.

:[Beret Guy takes out his phone.]
:Hairy: So... so what?
:Beret Guy: So if you want to see some buns, there are lots of them outside!
:''beep!''
:Beret Guy: Ooh!
:Beret Guy: There's a small one right now!

:[Zoom-in on Beret Guy.]
:Hairy (offscreen): Do you... actually ''work'' for me?
:Beret Guy: Almost certainly. We had an election, right? I wrote my name in on the thing.
:Hairy (offscreen): Security?
:Beret Guy: It's been an honor to serve.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Animals]]

Talk:1562: I in Team

2017-08-05T15:30:27Z

ChromoTec: Added to the talk page

There is no I in team, but there is an M and an E.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.56.215|162.158.56.215]] 08:26, 10 August 2015 (UTC)
: Ha, yes -- but they are backwards [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 15:37, 10 August 2015 (UTC)

Check it out! there's "l" in "vowels"! --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.89.222|141.101.89.222]] 08:51, 10 August 2015 (UTC)

<sarcasm>There is an (annagram of) Randal in "People who don't understand how a proverb works" </sarcasm> No, seriously this is just cueball being a smart-ass. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.230|162.158.91.230]] 08:53, 10 August 2015 (UTC)

There's no I in team, but there is an I in pie; there's an I in meat pie and meat is an anagram of team, so... {{unsigned ip|141.101.99.82}}

:There's a 999999 in pi. {{unsigned ip|198.41.239.32}}

: BTW, it's called the Feynman Point. It's got a pretty interesting backstory. {{unsigned ip|162.158.72.191}}

:: Doesn't pi contain every possible number sequence though? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.235|162.158.91.235]] 11:17, 10 August 2015 (UTC)

::: No. There is no evidence that pi includes an offset of pi.
:::There is no I in team, but there is meat... blessed meat :::Simpson drool:: {{unsigned|Cwallenpoole}}

:::: ''finite'' sequence. the kate bush conjecture is unproven. {{unsigned ip|141.101.98.34}}

::::: Though pic is an irrational number, meaning that you could theoretically find your birthday, your SSN, even a binary representation of your DNA sequence somewhere in pi's sequence. [[User:ChromoTec|ChromoTec]] ([[User talk:ChromoTec|talk]]) 15:30, 5 August 2017 (UTC)ChromoTec

The arbitrariness of this saying was demonstrated considerably more elegantly in Jeffrey Rowland's Wigu: "There is no I in 'team', but there is in 'family'." [[Special:Contributions/198.41.242.93|198.41.242.93]] 11:56, 10 August 2015 (UTC)

This joke is not self-referential, it's metalingual. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jakobson%27s_functions_of_language [[User:Xhfz|Xhfz]] ([[User talk:Xhfz|talk]]) 13:10, 10 August 2015 (UTC)

[http://rlv.zcache.com/i_in_team_there_it_is_hidden_in_the_a_hole_tshirt-r0aff1796c915419aaa4c3f9c73794dcf_f0yq2_1024.jpg There is]. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.185|141.101.98.185]] 16:18, 10 August 2015 (UTC)

: That's deep. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.188|108.162.229.188]] 18:05, 10 August 2015 (UTC)

It is interesting that Randall worded Cueball's dialogue as "There is a 'U' in People who apparently don't understand...". There is just that one 'U', in "understand". If he'd said instead something like "There is a 'U' in People who apparently don't get...", the reference to Hairy through 'U'/you would've been entirely allusional!
- Vik [[Special:Contributions/108.162.225.76|108.162.225.76]] 19:30, 10 August 2015 (UTC)

This comment is my way of noting and speculating that it makes sense that the origin of "No I in Team" is from baseball pitchers: They're the only team sport player I know of who is regularly replaced mid-game for reasons besides injury. If a pitcher thinks he's on a hot streak, but the coach replaces him because reasons, a phrase like like "No I in Team" may be needed to smooth over the resulting disagreement, regardless of whether the coach or the pitcher has their respective heads up their asses or not. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.133.53|199.27.133.53]] 20:05, 10 August 2015 (UTC)

But there IS an I in team! http://i.imgur.com/prPC7BX.jpg [[Special:Contributions/141.101.85.151|141.101.85.151]] 02:16, 11 August 2015 (UTC)

I think it's interesting that there is exactly one "u" in "People who apparently don't understand the relationship between orthography and meaning", which has 76 letters. "U" isn't a terribly infrequent letter. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.133|108.162.221.133]] 04:42, 11 August 2015 (UTC)
: The frequency of "u" is about 2.8%. Assuming a binomial distribution, one "u" out of 76 letters is about a 25% probability. Nothing of significance here, even though 2 "u"s would be slightly more likely. --[[Special:Contributions/198.41.235.101|198.41.235.101]] 14:43, 11 August 2015 (UTC)

I think part of the joke that is missed in the current explanation is that cueball is responding with a less vulgar version of the common retort: "But there is a 'U' in c*nt."[[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.188|108.162.250.188]] 09:32, 11 August 2015 (UTC)

:I have to say I've never heard that retort before. I'll have to try and remember to throw it into conversation next time I get the chance! --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 14:02, 11 August 2015 (UTC)

"There is no I in team" is also sometimes used on voice coms for video games or other situations where the listener may not be able to identify the individual by voice, to explain why they should identify themselves in third person. --[[Special:Contributions/199.27.133.83|199.27.133.83]] 02:37, 31 August 2015 (UTC)

Talk:1871: Bun Alert

2017-08-04T15:24:23Z

ChromoTec:

A little grammar Nazi thing I picked up, in the first panel Ponytail says, "to who" instead of "to whom." [[User:ChromoTec|ChromoTec]] ([[User talk:ChromoTec|talk]]) 15:24, 4 August 2017 (UTC)ChromoTec

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1853: Once Per Day

2017-06-21T16:28:44Z

ChromoTec: /* Transcript */

{{comic
| number = 1853
| date = June 21, 2017
| title = Once Per Day
| image = once_per_day.png
| titletext = I'm not totally locked into my routineâtwice a year, I take a break to change the batteries in my smoke detectors.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Stub. Links? Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

[[Cueball]] has made the life choice that his routine consists of only things that the news has told him exactly how often to do. This includes, once per day:
*Eat an apple
*Eat an egg
*Take one aspirin
*Eat a piece of dark chocolate
*Drink six glasses of water
*Drink one glass of red wine
*Drink a cup of coffee
*Drink a cup of tea
*Get 30 minutes of exercise
*Get 8 hours of sleep
And, in the title text:
*Two times a year, change your smoke detector batteries.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

[Megan speaking to Cueball]

Megan: Got any plans for the day?

Cueball: I'm going to eat an apple, an egg, one baby aspirin, and a piece of dark chocolate, drink six glasses of water, one glass of red wine, a cup of coffee, and a cup of tea, then do 30 minutes exercise. Then back to sleep for another 8 hours!

[Below panel]

I only do things that news stories have specifically told me to do once per day.

{{comic discussion}}

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