https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&feedformat=atom&user=Gernswickexplain xkcd - User contributions [en]2026-05-20T09:55:18ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2772:_Commemorative_Plaque&diff=4131612772: Commemorative Plaque2026-05-20T03:59:16Z<p>Gernswick: /* Explanation */</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2772<br />
| date = May 5, 2023<br />
| title = Commemorative Plaque<br />
| image = commemorative_plaque_2x.png<br />
| imagesize = 422x282px<br />
| noexpand = true<br />
| titletext = [Below] On this site on May 12th, 2023, I finally learned how to use the masonry bit for my drill.<br />
}}<br />
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==Explanation==<br />
The narrator discovered that it is simple and inexpensive to have a {{w|commemorative plaque}} made, and so had a commemorative plaque made to record that event. The comic both indicates the lack of knowledge many people have about how simple or difficult it is to do a certain thing, and the over-the-top response a person might have to a relatively mundane discovery.<br />
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The comic was published on May 5, the holiday of {{w|Cinco de Mayo}}, {{w|Europe Day}} and {{w|Liberation day (Netherlands)|Dutch Liberation Day}}, and the day before the {{w|Coronation of Charles III and Camilla}}. The comic subverts an expectation that a plaque about May 5 would be to commemorate either one of the {{w|May 5|many world events that previously took place on a May 5}} in various years, or more specifically the 1862 {{w|Battle of Puebla}} or the 1964 founding of the Council of Europe or the 1945 Liberation of the Netherlands, which all took place on May 5 and inspired the respective holidays.<br />
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The title text describes a second plaque mounted below the first one, boasting that a week later they learned out how to use a {{w|Drill_bit#Masonry_drill_bit|masonry bit}}, presumably to mount the first plaque onto a stone wall.<br />
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The earlier comic [[699: Trimester]] also features a similar situation in which a seemingly official and authoritative item can in fact simply be purchased by a layperson, both comics feature a joke of creating an authoritative figure without a reason.<br />
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<!-- Not sure what to do with the following text...<br />
<br />
there being some small but useful points of technique to be learnt when drilling into one or other of stone, brick, concrete or cement. It equates it being almost exactly as much deserving of a plaque as the very act of obtaining a plaque, and now a second one, to also have finally been able to properly attach it (them) to the chosen wall.<br />
--><br />
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==Transcript==<br />
:[A light gray brick wall with a plaque on it. The plaque has a white background and its frame is gray. It has been attached to the wall with four pins, one at each corner. The plaque reads, across several lines:]<br />
:On this site on <br />
:[Most prominent line of text:] <big><big>'''May 5<sup>th</sup>, 2023'''</big></big><br />
:I realized that you could order custom commemorative plaques online that say <br />
:[Somewhat prominent line of text:] <big>'''whatever you want''' </big><br />
:and it's not that expensive<br />
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{{comic discussion}}</div>Gernswick