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2174: First News Memory

2019-07-10T22:24:16Z

Steelgrip: Gender-neutral teacher reference

{{comic
| number = 2174
| date = July 10, 2019
| title = First News Memory
| image = first_news_memory.png
| titletext = Psychology researchers say our 'flashbulb' memories of big events can be unreliable, but I clearly remember watching live on CNN as Challenger crashed into and destroyed the Berlin Wall.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a FAULTY FIRST NEWS MEMORY. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. (Explain title-text) Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Six xkcd characters are discussing their "first news memory", their first memory of an event that was reported by the news media. A person's "first news memory" can vary based on their age, the region where they grew up, and how in touch with the news they are.

The following is a breakdown of the memories given by the characters, in typical xkcd fashion:
===Frame One===
Cueball recalls the election coverage from the year 1988. As Randall is usually US-centric [citation needed], this is probably the {{w|1988 United States presidential election|1988 US presidential election}} in which George H. W. Bush defeated Michael Dukakis. Megan recalls {{w|Berlin_Wall#Fall_of_the_Berlin_Wall|the removal of the Berlin wall}}, which began in 1989.

===Frame Two===
Hairy recalls the {{w|Space Shuttle Challenger disaster|''Challenger'' explosion}}, which occurred in 1986. However, he remembers watching the footage in 1995, so Hairy's teacher was not showing them the launch live. Presumably, showing a number of young schoolchildren a traumatizing event led to the dismissal.

===Frame Three===
White Hat says that his first news memory was about the 2016 election (presumably the {{w|2016 United States presidential election|2016 US presidential election}}), which is only three years prior to the publication date of this comic. Given that he is in his thirties, this memory implies that he had not been following the news for quite some time. Alternatively, he could have amnesia and be unable to recall earlier memories.

===Frame Four===
Black Hat's first sentence is normal in the context of the question. Given only the sentence 'we landed on the moon,' the 'we' is inferred to be 'the United States of America' or 'the human race.' The first {{w|moon landing}} occurred on July 20, 1969.
However, Black Hat goes on to say that 'my second memory is my mom telling us we were moving to Earth instead, to blend in with the humans.' This gives a completely different meaning to his first memory, as it is now implied that Black Hat is a humanoid alien that moved to the Moon, but whose mother then decided to move to Earth. Whether any news coverage resulted is unclear. Hairbun then remarks that this revelation explains Black Hat's odd (and usually disruptive) behavior. It is unclear whether Black Hat is telling the truth, but knowing Black Hat, he is likely intentionally trying to unnerve others.

The title text gives [http://theconversation.com/flashbulb-memories-of-dramatic-events-arent-as-accurate-as-believed-64838 the claim] that {{w|Flashbulb memory|flashbulb memories}} of big events can be unreliable. Randall refutes this claim, claiming to remember watching on CNN as the ''Challenger'' spacecraft crashed into the Berlin Wall. This is an inaccurate memory of these two events, as the ''Challenger'' explosion occurred in 1986 in Cape Canaveral, Florida, and did not occur near the Berlin Wall (in Berlin, Germany). Also, the fall of the Berlin Wall did not occur until 1989.

==Transcript==
:[Ponytail, Cueball, Megan, Hairy, White Hat, Black Hat and Hairbun are all at a party, discussing their earliest news memories.]

:[Panel with Ponytail, Cueball, Megan, and Hairy]
:Ponytail: What's your first news memory?
:Cueball: I always like this question! Mine was the 1988 election.
:Megan: Berlin wall for me. You?

:[Frame-less panel with Megan, Hairy, White Hat, and Black Hat]
:Hairy: Watching the ''Challenger'' launch in class. We were so excited; everyone was horrified when it blew up.
:Hairy: It was 1995.
:Hairy: Our teacher got fired soon after.

:[Panel with Hairy, White Hat, Black Hat, and Hairbun]
:White Hat: Mine's the 2016 election.
:Hairbun: ...aren't you in your 30's?
:White Hat: Look, we're not all great about keeping up with the news, OK?

:[Panel with White Hat, Black Hat, and Hairbun]
:Black Hat: My first memory is when we landed on the moon.
:Black Hat: My second memory is my mom telling us we were moving to Earth instead, to blend in with the humans.
:Hairbun: This explains a lot.

{{comic discussion}}

1326: Sharks

2014-09-12T04:16:54Z

Steelgrip: /* Use of sharks in movies */

{{comic
| number = 1326
| date = February 5, 2014
| title = Sharks
| image = sharks.png
| titletext = 'Now, minions, I'm off to inspect our shark cages.' 'Do you really need to inspect them this often?' 'PRISONERS MUST NEVER ESCAPE.'
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is a joke about the use of sharks in action movies. In these movies, sharks are often used to guard locations and dispense capital punishment.[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SharkPool] Since the idea of a guard shark is not practical, this comic suggests that villains raise sharks to help with declining shark populations in the oceans.

In this comic [[Cueball]] is an evil villain who rules over a "Doom Island." In addition to commanding minions and detaining prisoners, he keeps sharks to threaten prisoners. When a prisoner escapes the island, he orders his minions to "release the sharks." However, the sharks do not hunt the prisoner, but merely swim away. The comic jokes that Cueball is using fugitives as a pretense to help with declining shark populations, and that Doom Island is just a front for a marine biology center. Cueball maintains the whole "guard sharks" idea as a cover-up, so that his minions do not catch on to the real mission.

The title text plays on the idea that Cueball can't be openly concerned with his sharks' welfare without his minions catching on, and claims to be inspecting the shark cages under the guise of using them to confine either prisoners or (taking advantage of his minions' apparent ignorance) the sharks themselves, despite the obvious impracticality of using a cage rather than an aquarium to house a marine animal. A {{w|shark proof cage|shark cage}} is not used to imprison sharks or anything else, but to provide protection for divers wishing to observe sharks up-close. Because a real villainous lair would have no use for shark cages, it follows that Cueball owns them solely for the purpose of gratifying his interest in his sharks, thus forcing him to keep up the pretense of the cages being of some help in preventing prisoners from escaping.

The shark issue is also one of the items on the chart of [[1331: Frequency]].

===Use of sharks in movies===
In action movie trope from the '70s and '80s, evil villains use sharks to kill off enemies. Some examples are:
*{{w|Le Magnifique}}, with the opening scene of the French movie a spy is trapped in a phone booth, which is then lifted by an helicopter and lowered into the sea, where a squad of frogmen attach it to a shark's cage before opening the door.
*{{w|The Phantom (1996 film)|The Phantom}}, the Sengh Brotherhood has a [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SharkPool Shark Pool] in their [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ElaborateUndergroundBase Elaborate Underground Base]. This is one of the parts of the film lifted directly from the very first Phantom story, published in 1936, so the trope is at least that old.
*{{w|Despicable Me}}, where the comical villain has a shark in his lair that unrealistically acts as a guard dog.
*{{w|Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery}}, Dr. Evil wanted a pool full of sharks (with laser beams attached to their heads), but had to settle for ill-tempered mutated seabass.
And in the James Bond series:
*{{w|The Spy Who Loved Me (film)|The Spy Who Loved Me}}
*{{w|Thunderball (film)|Thunderball}}
*{{w|Live and Let Die (film)|Live and Let Die}}
*{{w|The Spy Who Loved_Me (film)|The Spy Who Loved Me}}
*{{w|Never Say Never Again}} with electronically controlled sharks in the Caribbean.
*{{w|Licence to Kill}}

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is sitting on a throne, talking to a minion who's not shown in the panel.]
:Minion: The prisoner escaped and is swimming toward the mainland!
:Cueball: ''Release the sharks.''
:Minion: Yes, sir.

:Minion: The sharks are swimming away.
:Cueball: They're escaping, too? Send sharks after them!

:Minion: Now ''those'' sharks are swimming away.
:Cueball: '''''More sharks.'''''
:Minion: ...Sir, what's going on?
:Cueball: Prisoners, of course! Can't let 'em escape!

:Minion: Sir, are you trying to turn Doom Island into a marine biology center?
:Cueball: ''Shark populations are in decline–''
:Cueball: *ahem*
:Cueball: I mean, the world must fear us!
:Minion: Right...

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Sharks]]

1326: Sharks

2014-09-12T04:15:35Z

Steelgrip: /* Added examples in film*/

{{comic
| number = 1326
| date = February 5, 2014
| title = Sharks
| image = sharks.png
| titletext = 'Now, minions, I'm off to inspect our shark cages.' 'Do you really need to inspect them this often?' 'PRISONERS MUST NEVER ESCAPE.'
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is a joke about the use of sharks in action movies. In these movies, sharks are often used to guard locations and dispense capital punishment.[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SharkPool] Since the idea of a guard shark is not practical, this comic suggests that villains raise sharks to help with declining shark populations in the oceans.

In this comic [[Cueball]] is an evil villain who rules over a "Doom Island." In addition to commanding minions and detaining prisoners, he keeps sharks to threaten prisoners. When a prisoner escapes the island, he orders his minions to "release the sharks." However, the sharks do not hunt the prisoner, but merely swim away. The comic jokes that Cueball is using fugitives as a pretense to help with declining shark populations, and that Doom Island is just a front for a marine biology center. Cueball maintains the whole "guard sharks" idea as a cover-up, so that his minions do not catch on to the real mission.

The title text plays on the idea that Cueball can't be openly concerned with his sharks' welfare without his minions catching on, and claims to be inspecting the shark cages under the guise of using them to confine either prisoners or (taking advantage of his minions' apparent ignorance) the sharks themselves, despite the obvious impracticality of using a cage rather than an aquarium to house a marine animal. A {{w|shark proof cage|shark cage}} is not used to imprison sharks or anything else, but to provide protection for divers wishing to observe sharks up-close. Because a real villainous lair would have no use for shark cages, it follows that Cueball owns them solely for the purpose of gratifying his interest in his sharks, thus forcing him to keep up the pretense of the cages being of some help in preventing prisoners from escaping.

The shark issue is also one of the items on the chart of [[1331: Frequency]].

===Use of sharks in movies===
In action movie trope from the '70s and '80s, evil villains use sharks to kill off enemies. Some examples are:
*{{w|Le Magnifique}}, with the opening scene of the French movie a spy is trapped in a phone booth, which is then lifted by an helicopter and lowered into the sea, where a squad of frogmen attach it to a shark's cage before opening the door.
*{{w|The Phantom (1996 film)|The Phantom }}, the Sengh Brotherhood has a [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SharkPool Shark Pool] in their [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ElaborateUndergroundBase Elaborate Underground Base]. This is one of the parts of the film lifted directly from the very first Phantom story, published in 1936, so the trope is at least that old.
*{{w|Despicable Me}}, where the comical villain has a shark in his lair that unrealistically acts as a guard dog.
*{{w|Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery}} Dr. Evil wanted a pool full of sharks (with laser beams attached to their heads), but had to settle for ill-tempered mutated seabass.
And in the James Bond series:
*{{w|The Spy Who Loved Me (film)|The Spy Who Loved Me}}
*{{w|Thunderball (film)|Thunderball}}
*{{w|Live and Let Die (film)|Live and Let Die}}
*{{w|The Spy Who Loved_Me (film)|The Spy Who Loved Me}}
*{{w|Never Say Never Again}} with electronically controlled sharks in the Caribbean.
*{{w|Licence to Kill}}

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is sitting on a throne, talking to a minion who's not shown in the panel.]
:Minion: The prisoner escaped and is swimming toward the mainland!
:Cueball: ''Release the sharks.''
:Minion: Yes, sir.

:Minion: The sharks are swimming away.
:Cueball: They're escaping, too? Send sharks after them!

:Minion: Now ''those'' sharks are swimming away.
:Cueball: '''''More sharks.'''''
:Minion: ...Sir, what's going on?
:Cueball: Prisoners, of course! Can't let 'em escape!

:Minion: Sir, are you trying to turn Doom Island into a marine biology center?
:Cueball: ''Shark populations are in decline–''
:Cueball: *ahem*
:Cueball: I mean, the world must fear us!
:Minion: Right...

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Sharks]]