explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2197: Game Show

2019-09-03T11:47:19Z

Jdevor: repeated word

{{comic
| number = 2197
| date = September 2, 2019
| title = Game Show
| before = [[2198: Throw]] is up --> Delete this line when the buttons work again!
| image = game_show.png
| titletext = Eventually they agreed to "an auto-retracting dog leash with one end clipped to your house, so you can press the button on the handle and water-ski home."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an UNHAPPY STATUE OF LIBERTY. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Many shows have situations where the participants are asked hypothetical questions. A common hypothetical question asked to ascertain what someone considers most important to them is the one item they would take to a deserted island -- to make the best of a boring situation.

[[Black Hat]] is on such a game show, and he does his best to undermine the intent of the question. Instead of answering with a favorite item -- such as his favorite album or book -- he lists various things (see [[#List of Black Hat's items|below]]) that would (arguably) help him escape the island, thereby undermining the point of the question. These items would either bring him back home (e.g. a boat, a plane), might help him be found (e.g., the Crown Jewels, Earth's north magnetic pole), or a wacky combination of both (e.g. the Atlantic Ocean).

The title text reveals that the game show has ultimately acquiesced to one of Black Hat's wishes in a way: the dog leash mentioned would allow him to water-ski home, though such a dog leash is implausible (for example, a dog leash from San Francisco to Hawaii would be over 2000 miles long and therefore difficult to manufacture).

==List of Black Hat's items==
* A '''boat''', so he could sail home.
* A '''plane''', so he could fly home.
* '''{{w|Amelia Earhart|Amelia Earhart's}} plane''', so he could be famous. She was a female U.S. aviator who went missing in the middle of the Pacific Ocean on an attempt to circumnavigate earth. Her crash site has been searched for for years, and there's still keen interest in finding her -- and coming up with interesting new ideas to guess where she crashed. This answer is a funny continuation of Black Hat's 2nd answer, a '''plane'''. Black Hat doesn't just want any plane, he wants a plane that was famous for going down in a unknown spot in the ocean. He's saying he would like his deserted island to be located where her plane went down, implicitly letting him be the first person to find her plane.
* '''{{w|Amelia Earhart|Amelia Earhart's}} skeleton''', so he could be famous for finding it -- or searched for. Since there's such interest in finding her crash site, if he has her skeleton -- which is a little creepy, but sure, why not -- he might benefit from these search parties, and they would find him in the process.
* '''The internal structure of The {{w|Statue of Liberty}}''' was designed by Gustave Eiffel, best known for his work on the Eiffel Tower. This is a continuation of the skeleton answer, as it's also something that the world would search for. Having it would help him be found, since if it went missing from the actual Statue of Liberty -- magically transported to Black Hat's island -- the skin of the statue would collapse (which would be a funny sight to behold) and there would be worldwide interest in finding out where it went, thus aiding in Black Hat getting rescued from the island. Stealing something of this magnitude seems like something Carmen Sandiego might try to do. This might also be a reference to the scene from the 1968 movie Planet of the Apes in which (Spoiler Alert) at the end of the movie the protagonist realizes he's on earth after all when he sees the half-sunk wreckage of the Statue of Liberty on a beach.
* '''The {{w|Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom}}''', so he would be rescued -- or at least rich. The Crown Jewels are ceremonial objects owned by the kings and queens of the UK. The items are kept under heavy guard and are valued at about $4 billion, so if they were magically transported to Black Hat's desert island, the British military would be likely to find them -- and him. And if they didn't, he'd now control the most valuable jewels in the world (though it might be hard to sell them).
* '''The entire television audience for the show''', so it wouldn't be deserted anymore -- and potentially to punish them for being entertained at the mean idea of having contestents be deserted on an island. If this is a popular channel/show, this could potentially be millions of people, all who have at least been exposed to the idea of how best to making the most of a boring situation. Then at least it would no longer be a deserted island, but of course it would be even more difficult to survive. The answer is similar to the action movie cliche, "If I'm going down, I'm taking you with me."
* '''The {{w|Greenland ice sheet}}''' is the body of ice covering the island of {{w|Greenland}}. As the second largest ice sheet on Earth, it would turn the deserted island into, well, Greenland, thus making it much easier to find. Also, it would be pretty funny for Greenland to be instantly relocated. This may also be a reference to the remarks from American President Trump in August 2019 when he suggested he'd like to buy Greenland from Denmark, which were generally received as a bit odd.
* '''Earth's {{w|north magnetic pole}}''', so that all compasses would point to his location. The magnetic pole is the point on earth that all compasses point towards because of the magnetohydrodynamic ([[1851: Magnetohydrodynamics|magic]]) forces in the earth's mantle. If all compasses were to suddenly point to his location, many scientists would investigate, and they would coverge on his deserted island, and Black Hat would be rescued.
* '''The {{w|Atlantic Ocean}}''', so that he could drift back to land. The Atlanta Ocean is the ocean left behind by the split of North America and Afroeurasia. If it could somehow be poured over a deserted island in the pacific, the water would run right back to its original ocean bed, thus bringing Black Hat back toward some kind of landmass -- letting him be rescued -- and probably causing huge flooding on all Pacific coasts and general global havoc on Earth's ecosystem, all for the purposes of Black Hat surfing thousands of miles to shore on the largest wave ever seen.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball, Black Hat, and Megan are game show contestants standing behind lecterns with Hairy standing in front of them as the game show host. Black Hat, standing in the middle of the three is holding a finger up while speaking.]

:Black Hat: A boat. A plane. Amelia Earhart's plane. Amelia Earhart's ''skeleton''. The Statue of Liberty's internal support frame. The Crown Jewels. This show's entire television audience. The Greenland ice sheet. Earth's north magnetic pole.
:Black Hat: Am I in the Pacific Ocean?
:Black Hat: If so, the Atlantic Ocean.

:Hairy: Uhh.
:Hairy: Our producers are going to need some time on this one.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:The game show realized that they should have added some restrictions to their "take any item to a deserted island" challenge, but it was too late.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]

2113: Physics Suppression

2019-02-18T13:52:46Z

Jdevor:

{{comic
| number = 2113
| date = February 18, 2019
| title = Physics Suppression
| image = physics_suppression.png
| titletext = If physics had a mafia, I'm pretty sure the BICEP2 mess would have ended in bloodshed.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by the Physics Mafia. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Dark energy is an unknown form of energy which is hypothesized to permeate all of space, tending to accelerate the expansion of the universe. Even though "dark energy" is a direct consequence of Einstein's "cosmological constant" in the field equations of general relativity, it's actual discovery was still seen as a surprise within the physics community. Even Einstein had great trouble accepting it, calling it his "greatest blunder". In the comic, Megan says that if scientists were able to suppress inconvenient ideas, dark energy would likely have been such an case.

BICEP2 (Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization) was part of a series of instruments used to measure the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). In 17 March 2014, it was announced to much fanfare that BICEP2 had detected B-modes from gravitational waves in the early universe (called primordial gravitational waves). A few years later this announcement had to be backtracked, as it was found that most if not all the reported signal was actually due to interstellar dust within the Milky Way.

==Transcript==
[White Hat, furious with his hands in the air, is talking to Megan]

White Hat: You physicists are suppressing my theory because it's inconvenient for your models!

Megan: Wait we have a mafia that can suppress annoying results?

Megan: Why didn't they do something about the dark energy people?!

Megan: We gave them a Nobel prize but I'm still mad at them!

{{comic discussion}}

2113: Physics Suppression

2019-02-18T13:50:38Z

Jdevor:

{{comic
| number = 2113
| date = February 18, 2019
| title = Physics Suppression
| image = physics_suppression.png
| titletext = If physics had a mafia, I'm pretty sure the BICEP2 mess would have ended in bloodshed.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by the Physics Mafia. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Dark energy is an unknown form of energy which is hypothesized to permeate all of space, tending to accelerate the expansion of the universe. Even though "dark energy" is a direct consequence of Einstein's "cosmological constant" in the field equations of general relativity, it's actual discovery was still seen as a surprise within the physics community. Even Einstein had great trouble accepting it, calling it his "greatest blunder". In the comic, Megan says that if scientists were able to suppress inconvenient ideas, dark energy would likely have been such an case.

BICEP2 (Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization) was part of a series of instruments used to measure the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). In 17 March 2014, it was announced to much fanfare that BICEP2 had detected B-modes from gravitational waves in the early universe (called primordial gravitational waves). This announcement had to be retracted, as it was later found that most if not all the reported signal was actually due to dust within the Milky Way.

==Transcript==
[White Hat, furious with his hands in the air, is talking to Megan]

White Hat: You physicists are suppressing my theory because it's inconvenient for your models!

Megan: Wait we have a mafia that can suppress annoying results?

Megan: Why didn't they do something about the dark energy people?!

Megan: We gave them a Nobel prize but I'm still mad at them!

{{comic discussion}}

2113: Physics Suppression

2019-02-18T13:42:36Z

Jdevor:

{{comic
| number = 2113
| date = February 18, 2019
| title = Physics Suppression
| image = physics_suppression.png
| titletext = If physics had a mafia, I'm pretty sure the BICEP2 mess would have ended in bloodshed.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by the Physics Mafia. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Dark energy is an unknown form of energy which is hypothesized to permeate all of space, tending to accelerate the expansion of the universe. Even though "dark energy" is a direct consequence of Einstein's "cosmological constant" in the field equations of general relativity, it's actual discovery was still seen as a surprise within the physics community. Even Einstein had great trouble accepting it, calling it his "greatest blunder". In the comic, Megan says that if scientists were able to suppress inconvenient ideas, dark energy would likely have been such an case.

BICEP2 (Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization) was part of a series of instruments used to measure the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB).

==Transcript==
[White Hat, furious with his hands in the air, is talking to Megan]

White Hat: You physicists are suppressing my theory because it's inconvenient for your models!

Megan: Wait we have a mafia that can suppress annoying results?

Megan: Why didn't they do something about the dark energy people?!

Megan: We gave them a Nobel prize but I'm still mad at them!

{{comic discussion}}

2113: Physics Suppression

2019-02-18T13:35:44Z

Jdevor:

{{comic
| number = 2113
| date = February 18, 2019
| title = Physics Suppression
| image = physics_suppression.png
| titletext = If physics had a mafia, I'm pretty sure the BICEP2 mess would have ended in bloodshed.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by the Physics Mafia. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Dark energy is an unknown form of energy which is hypothesized to permeate all of space,tending to accelerate the expansion of the universe. Even though "dark energy" is a direct consequence of Einstein's "cosmological constant" in the field equations of general relativity, it's actual discovery was still a surprise for most of the physics community. Even Einstein had great trouble accepting it, calling it his "greatest blunder". In the comic, Megan says that if scientists were able to suppress inconvenient ideas, dark energy would likely have been such an case.

==Transcript==
[White Hat, furious with his hands in the air, is talking to Megan]

White Hat: You physicists are suppressing my theory because it's inconvenient for your models!

Megan: Wait we have a mafia that can suppress annoying results?

Megan: Why didn't they do something about the dark energy people?!

Megan: We gave them a Nobel prize but I'm still mad at them!

{{comic discussion}}

2113: Physics Suppression

2019-02-18T13:33:06Z

Jdevor:

{{comic
| number = 2113
| date = February 18, 2019
| title = Physics Suppression
| image = physics_suppression.png
| titletext = If physics had a mafia, I'm pretty sure the BICEP2 mess would have ended in bloodshed.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Dark_energy is an unknown form of energy which is hypothesized to permeate all of space,tending to accelerate the expansion of the universe. Even though "dark energy" is a direct consequence of Einstein's "cosmological constant" in the field equations of general relativity, it's actual discovery was still a surprise for most of the physics community. Even Einstein had great trouble accepting it, calling it his "greatest blunder". In the comic, the character says that if scientists were able to suppress incontinent idea, dark energy would probably be exactly such an case.

==Transcript==
[White Hat, furious with his hands in the air, is talking to Megan]

White Hat: You physicists are suppressing my theory because it's inconvenient for your models!

Megan: Wait we have a mafia that can suppress annoying results?

Megan: Why didn't they do something about the dark energy people?!

Megan: We gave them a Nobel prize but I'm still mad at them!

{{comic discussion}}