explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2403: Wrapping Paper

2020-12-26T16:49:52Z

Patmiller: Could reference a math joke about smallest possible fence.

{{comic
| number = 2403
| date = December 25, 2020
| title = Wrapping Paper
| image = wrapping_paper.png
| titletext = Wow, rude of you to regift literally every gift that you or anyone else has ever received.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by THE ONLY THING NOT IN THE PRESENT. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic was published on Christmas Day, 2020. On this day many people open presents.{{Citation needed}}

In this comic, Megan is unwrapping a present while Cueball looks on (perhaps it's the present he gave her). The premise is that the definition of a present is not what's inside the box, but what's inside the region of space that the blank side of the wrapping paper faces. So if you wrap the box with the printed side towards the box, everything in the universe outside the box is the gift. Apparently the box contains a pair of headphones, which would be a nice present, but not nearly as impressive as nearly ''everything'' in the universe. And since the rest of the universe contains millions of headphones, many of which are probably nicer than the ones in this box, she still gets headphones as well.

The title text extends this to [[wikipedia:Regift|regifting]], which is the practice of using a received present (usually unwanted and hopefully unused) as a present for someone else. This is often considered rude because you don't have to spend much effort or any money on the regift. But if you wrap an ordinary present inside out, all the gifts you've ever received in the past are part of the entire universe except for that present, so you're actually doing an enormous amount of regifting ''including stuff belonging to other people'', which is as rude as regifting can get.

{{w|Douglas Adams}}' novel ''{{w|So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish}}'', the fourth in the {{w|The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy}} series, contains a similar joke. A man living in an inside-out room in a desert treats the rest of Earth as an insane asylum, with himself living outside of it as the only sane man.

This may also refer to a math joke about how to create the smallest fence around a group of animals. Rather than finding the obvious fence, a mathematician would build a small, circular fence around him/herself and declare the region on the other side of the fence, "inside". Thusly enclosing all the animals!

==Transcript==
[Cueball is standing at the left of a decorated Christmas tree, with present boxes underneath it. The presents are wrapped with the undecorated side of the wrapping paper facing out. Megan is kneeling at the right side, unwrapping a gift.]

Megan: Cool! I got the entire universe and every object within it except for a pair of headphones!

Caption: Presents get a lot more impressive if you turn the wrapping paper inside out

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Christmas]]
[[Category: Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category: Comics featuring Megan]]

Talk:2046: Trum-

2018-09-14T20:36:04Z

Patmiller: More names

This is not that weird. If names were random then it would be a 1 in 26^4 = 456976 chance of a particular president matching another for the first 4, but this is a "Birthday Problem" with 44 presidents, so the probability of any two presidents sharing the first 4 characters is 1-(456976!/(456976^44 (456976 - 44)!)), which wolfram alpha is giving as 0.206% {{unsigned ip|141.101.99.185}}
:Yes, but we already "fulfilled our obligation" after the sixth president :) [[User:Zachweix|Zachweix]] ([[User talk:Zachweix|talk]]) 15:59, 14 September 2018 (UTC)
::Q doesn't work because he's related to his father John Adams. The criteria that they be totally unrelated is to restore it to the realm of pure chance. [[User:N0lqu|-boB]] ([[User talk:N0lqu|talk]]) 17:24, 14 September 2018 (UTC)
An approximation to the correct probability would be to do 44^2/(2 x 26^4) which would give about 0.2% chance of this happening. So fairly weird, but as the comic suggests, many things about this presidency are weirder than 0.2%. {{unsigned ip|162.158.155.194}}
:I love that we are now having a mathematical discussion about how weird things are in the presidency. [[User:Zachweix|Zachweix]] ([[User talk:Zachweix|talk]]) 15:58, 14 September 2018 (UTC)

Should we mention Andrew Johnson and LBJ, perhaps in a "Trivia" section? Obviously Johnson is a very common surname, but they're still unrelated presidents that share the first (and only) 7 characters of their last name. (Are there other pairs of presidents that share at least the 3 first letters of their surnames besides AJ/LBJ and HST/DJT?)
[[Special:Contributions/172.69.62.160|172.69.62.160]] 16:25, 14 September 2018 (UTC)
:They ARE related, distantly. https://www.geni.com/path/Lyndon-B-Johnson-36th-President-of-the-United-States+is+related+to+Andrew-Johnson-17th-President-of-the-USA?from=6000000002045454764&to=361204095530004567 [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 19:18, 14 September 2018 (UTC)
::I think 28 degrees of separation is distant enough to consider them unrelated. [[User:N0lqu|-boB]] ([[User talk:N0lqu|talk]]) 20:01, 14 September 2018 (UTC)

...And, upon reflection, I just realized Harding shares the first 3 letters with the Presidents Harrison, so that's one(?) more example. {{unsigned ip|162.158.186.246}}

So we discount Presidents Adams, Bush, Cleveland, Harrison and Rosevelt as being related, or being the same person.
We have the following common starts: Bu (3 names), Cl, Ha (3 names), Ta, Har, Trum and Johnson. Also A, B, C, F, G, H, J, M, P, R, T and W. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.241|162.158.154.241]] 16:49, 14 September 2018 (UTC)

If you count Buren as opposed to Van Buren then you have 4 starting Bu and 2 starting Bur [[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.146|162.158.155.146]] 16:52, 14 September 2018 (UTC)

Tyler and Taylor is weirdly close, in a "look elsewhere effect" kind of way. Although the fact that you elected a president whose name means "fart" in British English has got to be weirder. {{unsigned ip|162.158.155.158}}

'''Shouting about Trump'''

I'm really with you... But an explanation has to be done politely. This Wiki focuses on explaining the comic, any personal opinions should be considered carefully. And I admit that I also cannot easily withstand. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:25, 14 September 2018 (UTC)

Only 39 unique names for 45 presidencies (44 presidents).
Over a third (14/39) of the names end with the letter N. [[User:Patmiller|Patmiller]] ([[User talk:Patmiller|talk]]) 20:36, 14 September 2018 (UTC)

Talk:2046: Trum-

2018-09-14T20:35:25Z

Patmiller: More name

2046: Trum-

2018-09-14T20:31:40Z

Patmiller:

{{comic
| number = 2046
| date = September 14, 2018
| title = Trum-
| image = trum.png
| titletext = Excited to vote for future presidents Bill Eisenhamper, Amy Forb, Ethan Obample, and Abigail Washingtoast.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Please edit the explanation below and only mention here why it isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

The {{w|President of the United States}}, at the time when this comic was published, is {{w|Donald Trump}} and he shares the first letters of his surname with {{w|Harry S. Truman}}, who was US President between 1945 and 1953. [[Megan]] notes that both of these presidents' last names start with "T-R-U-M", but she also states that they are not much related.

There were several presidents of the US who even have the exact same last name, for example, {{w|John Adams}} and {{w|John Quincy Adams}} (5 letters) and the more recent father and son {{w|George H. W. Bush}} and {{w|George W. Bush}} (4 letters). Similarly {{w|Theodore Roosevelt}} and {{w|Franklin Delano Roosevelt}} are 5th cousins (9 letters). Grandfather and grandson {{w|William Henry Harrison}} and {{w|Benjamin Harrison}} share the same 8 letters. And there are two unrelated presidents having more matching letters, as both {{w|Andrew Johnson}} and {{w|Lyndon B. Johnson}} have the last name of Johnson (7 letters) , disregarding the fact that Johnson is a pretty common last name.

The longest common suffix (not counting identical names) is also 4 for I-S-O-N for {{w|James Madison}} and the two Harrison presidents.

The joke is, that the matching of those few letters is the least weird thing because Trump's presidency has been plagued with many {{w|Presidency of Donald Trump#Ethics|various scandals}}.

The title text lists "absurd" last names that could start with the same letters as other presidents: Bill Eisenhamper, Amy Forb, Ethan Obample, and Abigail Washingtoast. These would refer to {{w|Dwight D. Eisenhower|Dwight D. '''Eisenh'''ower}}, {{w|Gerald Ford|Gerald '''For'''d}}, {{w|Barack Obama|Barack '''Obam'''a}}, and {{w|George Washington|George '''Washingto'''n}}.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Megan walking together while talking.]
:Megan: It's pretty weird that we've had two totally unrelated presidents whose last names start with '''''"T-R-U-M-"'''''.
:Cueball: Oh, sure, that's ''definitely'' the weirdest thing about the presidency right now.
:Megan: It's less weird than '''''every other fact'''''. But still weird.
:Cueball: True.

{{comic discussion}}

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

2046: Trum-

2018-09-14T20:08:37Z

Patmiller: Adding Roosevelt cousins

{{comic
| number = 2046
| date = September 14, 2018
| title = Trum-
| image = trum.png
| titletext = Excited to vote for future presidents Bill Eisenhamper, Amy Forb, Ethan Obample, and Abigail Washingtoast.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Please edit the explanation below and only mention here why it isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

The {{w|President of the United States}}, at the time when this comic was published, is {{w|Donald Trump}} and he shares the first letters of his surname with {{w|Harry S. Truman}}, who was US President between 1945 and 1953. [[Megan]] notes that both of these presidents' last names start with "T-R-U-M", but she also states that they are not much related.

There were several presidents of the US who even have the exact same last name, for example, {{w|John Adams}} and {{w|John Quincy Adams}} (5 letters) and the more recent father and son {{w|George H. W. Bush}} and {{w|George W. Bush}} (4 letters). Similarly {{w|Theodore Roosevelt}} and {{w|Franklin Delano Roosevelt}} are 5th cousins (9 letters). And there are two unrelated presidents having more matching letters, as both {{w|Andrew Johnson}} and {{w|Lyndon B. Johnson}} have the last name of Johnson (7 letters) , disregarding the fact that Johnson is a pretty common last name.

The joke is, that the matching of those few letters is the least weird thing because Trump's presidency has been plagued with much [https://www.ranker.com/list/every-wtf-week-of-the-trump-administration/jacob-shelton weirdness] and many [https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/trump-scandals-unprecedented-president-180908070216183.html scandals].

The title text lists "absurd" last names that could start with the same letters as other presidents: Bill Eisenhamper, Amy Forb, Ethan Obample, and Abigail Washingtoast. These would refer to {{w|Dwight D. Eisenhower|Dwight D. '''Eisenh'''ower}}, {{w|Gerald Ford|Gerald '''For'''d}}, {{w|Barack Obama|Barack '''Obam'''a}}, and {{w|George Washington|George '''Washingto'''n}}.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Megan walking together while talking.]
:Megan: It's pretty weird that we've had two totally unrelated presidents whose last names start with '''''"T-R-U-M-"'''''.
:Cueball: Oh, sure, that's ''definitely'' the weirdest thing about the presidency right now.
:Megan: It's less weird than '''''every other fact'''''. But still weird.
:Cueball: True.

{{comic discussion}}

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

Talk:1173: Steroids

2013-02-13T14:58:51Z

Patmiller:

Does anyone know what that 'something' is? That's what I came here to find out... :/ --[[User:NeatNit|NeatNit]] ([[User talk:NeatNit|talk]]) 11:57, 13 February 2013 (UTC)

:I had a lot of ideas, but I don't know. It might be a molecule, some sort of portal transmitting sound, a star, a future life form.
:--[[User:Jaap-Jan|Jaap-Jan]] ([[User talk:Jaap-Jan|talk]]) 12:13, 13 February 2013 (UTC)

I think the "artificial boundary" isn't so artificial. There is a clear difference between food chemicals, which are healthy for us, vs steroid chemicals, which cause all sorts of health problems. Of course, then Megan would have to explain that we have limited lifespans and we greatly value our quality of life, and these steroids would decrease our quality of life. [[Special:Contributions/70.31.159.230|70.31.159.230]] 13:41, 13 February 2013 (UTC)

== Douglas Adams ==

Does anyone else feel that the title text has a strong Douglas Adams flavour?
And if so, can we make that hard with a quote from one of his books?

:It's a biblical reference, Genesis 3:19, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return", King James version.[[User:Jasqm|Jasqm]] ([[User talk:Jasqm|talk]]) 14:03, 13 February 2013 (UTC)

Ive said that Douglas Adams write for XKCD for years now...Notice if you change all the letters to their corresponding number (A=1, B=2, etc) and add them, you get 42 ;) [[Special:Contributions/90.205.199.80|90.205.199.80]] 12:49, 13 February 2013 (UTC)

Not just a Biblical reference, the comic is published on (western christian) Ash Wednesday... [[User:Patmiller|Patmiller]] ([[User talk:Patmiller|talk]]) 14:58, 13 February 2013 (UTC)

1173: Steroids

2013-02-13T14:49:30Z

Patmiller: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1173
| date = February 13, 2013
| title = Steroids
| image = steroids.png
| titletext = A human is a system for converting dust billions of years ago into dust billions of years from now via a roundabout process which involves checking email a lot.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is about doping usage to enhance one's performance. Possibly relating to {{w|Lance Armstrong}}, which has recently confessed his doping usage on television to {{w|Oprah Winfrey}}. The comic states that humans are essentially chemicals, which need other chemicals to survive. Humans also have a need for competition to find out which person is the fastest and strongest. But there also is an artificial boundary about which chemicals humans may or may not take in to be the strongest or fastest. The comic is also about how silly the arguments on steroid use would appear if we were trying to explain it to a non-organic entity. The title text changes the perspective again suggesting that it's all ultimately transitory as from dust to dust can be taken quite literally.

The comic was also published on Ash Wednesday (Western liturgical start of Lent). The dust to dust reference calls to mind the "remember man that thou art dust and unto dust you shall return."

==Transcript==
[Megan is talking to something which has a black spot in the center and six rays in a star- shaped form.]
:Something: Explain to me this "steroid scandal."
:Megan: Well, uh... We humans are sacks of chemicals which stay alive by finding other chemicals and putting them inside us.
:Megan: We hold contests to see which humans are fastest and strongest.
:Megan: But some humans eat chemicals that make them ''too'' fast and strong.
:Megan: And they '''win contests'''!
:Something: That does sound bad.
:Megan: It's awful!
{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]