842: Mark

2022-11-27T07:26:22Z

ExcarnateSojourner: /* Explanation */ typo

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

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

Six years after being 'chosen', Cueball finds a scrap of paper with an address on it, and a can of {{w|kerosene}}. Both of these events are not unlikely, and easily explained as simple coincidences, but Cueball somehow sees this as a command that he must burn down the house (maybe an example of {{w|ideas and delusions of reference}}). Cueball shows that he is willing to put other people's lives at risk, destroy property and possessions, and face the possibility of prison, all because of one event six years prior.

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

The punchline refers to an old grade school/middle school prank (Urban Dictionary: [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=pen15+club pen 15 club], [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=pen15 Pen 15].) You'd typically walk up to an unsuspecting schoolmate and ask them if he wants to join the Pen Fifteen Club. You'd tell them that to join, you merely have to write the club name on them. You'd then write "PEN15" on their hand or arm, and everyone would laugh at them because it looks like "PENIS". (In a common variant, it is simply called the Pen Club, 15 is the victim's "member number", and the pranksters write "PEN13" and "PEN14" on themselves.) In this case, [[Cueball]] fell victim to this prank as a child without ever figuring out the joke, and the ink somehow never got washed off by showers or baths or removed by shedding skin. In reality, it would be unlikely for such a mark to last for so long. While methods of marking someone's skin more permanently do exist, it is hard to imagine someone tattooing or branding "PEN15" on their friend's arm as a prank.

As for the title text, {{w|solipsism}} is the philosophical idea that only your own mind is sure to exist while other minds can't be really known and so those other minds are not proved to be real. In this context it might mean that the only one who can conspire would be you, hiding the truth from yourself.

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

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

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

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

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

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

:Cueball: That whatever this "Pen Fifteen" club is,
:Cueball: I'm ''in'' it.

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

Talk:76: Familiar

2020-07-04T02:47:53Z

ExcarnateSojourner: /* Comic rotation */ Adding my observation.

What do you reckon is missing from the explanation? ––[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 14:26, 2 July 2013 (UTC)
:I'm running through the first comics and when I feel that something is missing it just gets the incomplete tag. Everyone is welcome to fix and remove this tag. The most worse error here was :) instead of :(.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 15:22, 2 July 2013 (UTC)
::The happy smiley was ''after'' the sentence dryly ''explaining'' the fairly obvious thing that a sad smiley means sadness. It was totally intentional, meant as a joke, funny or not! It could have been ;) though. –[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 07:55, 3 July 2013 (UTC)
:::The title text shows :( not more or less. If you have ideas beyond of this explain it, but do not change the original text.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:14, 7 July 2013 (UTC)
::::This is confused. How do you mean, I changed the original text? –[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 09:36, 10 July 2013 (UTC)
:::::Go here: [[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=76:_Familiar&diff=prev&oldid=43148]], you did change the ":(" to ";)" and a few edits before you did ":)". I just did edit this to the correct sadness symbol. When Randall talks about apples you can't explain bananas.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 10:44, 10 July 2013 (UTC)
::::::I'm removing the sentence. It was just a joke, but it wasn't appreciated. :( ––[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 19:19, 21 July 2013 (UTC)
:::::::What the hell you are doing? We need an explain for the title text, even when it's simple.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:32, 21 July 2013 (UTC)
::::::::No. You don't need to explain what a smiley is. Everybody knows. Especially on the internet. There's got to be a limit; we don't, for example, explain the meaning of common english words. –[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 08:18, 22 July 2013 (UTC)
Is this the shortest title text? [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 10:56, 11 June 2018 (UTC)
:If you don't count comics without any title text at all, then yeah, I'm pretty sure it is. [[User:SuperSupermario24|<span style="color: #b000ff;">SuperSupermario24</span>]] 06:32, 1 June 2019 (UTC)

== Comic rotation ==

Anyone else notice the comic is rotated 90 degrees clockwise for them on the xkcd website? I’m using Safari on an iPhone. {{unsigned|172.68.142.209}}
:It's fine in Chrome on Android and Debian. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 01:13, 12 May 2019 (UTC)
::Exif.Image.Orientation is set to rotate the image. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.238|108.162.219.238]] 21:10, 13 February 2020 (UTC)
::Also rotated in Chrome on Mac as of May 2020
:::As well as for Chrome on PC as of July 2020.[[User:Blueshoes317|Blueshoes317]] ([[User talk:Blueshoes317|talk]]) 16:26, 3 July 2020 (UTC)
:Currently not rotated in Firefox on Debian. [[User:ExcarnateSojourner|ExcarnateSojourner]] ([[User talk:ExcarnateSojourner|talk]]) 02:47, 4 July 2020 (UTC)

explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

842: Mark

Talk:76: Familiar