explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

1885: Ensemble Model

2025-12-25T14:38:41Z

Strike 2: fix link

{{comic
| number = 1885
| date = September 4, 2017
| title = Ensemble Model
| image = ensemble_model.png
| titletext = I'm in talks with Netflix to produce an alternate-universe crime drama about the world where sliced bread was never re-legalized, but it's going slowly because they keep changing their phone numbers and the door lock codes at their headquarters.
}}

==Explanation==
An {{w|ensemble forecasting|ensemble model}} is a combination of multiple, similar models to show a wider range of possible outcomes. The graphs on the left are tracks of predictions from multiple models. In this comic, [[Randall]] starts out describing actual changes that ensemble models show, but sinks into absurdity, describing strange alternate universes and scenarios that likely would not be necessary in an actual model.

The upper graph shows a typical plot of predicted wind speeds over time from various ensemble members. The graph shows that it is predicted that the storm will strengthen, with varying degrees of weakening depending on the ensemble member. The graph at the left bottom is a typical map of isobars (lines of equal {{w|Atmospheric pressure|pressure}}) for various ensemble members with the ensemble members showing slightly different configurations. The bottom right graph is a typical {{w|Tropical cyclone|hurricane}} path-prediction graphic, starting in the Atlantic moving westwards and then turning to north, often with the {{w|List of Caribbean islands|Caribbean Islands}} or the US coast in the path. Some hurricanes don't reach mainlands and after turning north they head eastwards and can reach Europe still as strong storm.

The term {{w|Universe (mathematics)|universe}} is in mathematics a class that contains all the entities of an ensemble in a given situation. Don't be confused with the more common usage of the words {{w|universe}}, the entire space where we live, and {{w|multiverse}}, a hypothetical set of possible universes.

The first three outcomes are real while the others are less serious. They are explained below:
;…rain is 0.5% more likely in some areas …wind speeds are slightly lower …pressure levels are randomly tweaked
These realistic outcomes are only possible under calm weather conditions. Predicting these values with an accuracy better than 1% indicates that the model is stable even when the ''initial conditions'' are slightly changed. Modern weather forecasts at normal circumstances are often not good as this and for a hurricane or tornado the variances are much higher.

;…dogs run slightly faster
This is where the comic diverges from reality; there is no reason to have the locomotion speed of dogs as a parameter in a usual weather model{{citation needed}}.
The speed of dogs might be a parameter in a wildlife model, where the speed of a predator might affect the predator/prey ratios. In terms of weather models, dogs traditionally chase cats, so running faster might affect the number of cats. Cats prey on birds, which in turn eat insects. So faster dogs might increase the number of birds, reducing the number of butterflies. Butterflies in turn affect the weather through the {{w|Butterfly effect|butterfly effect}} (that is that the movement of a butterflies wings may change the development of tornados, or other weather, in difficult to predict ways, as for instance with the [https://wiki.lspace.org/Quantum_weather_butterflies quantum weather butterfly]).

;…there is one extra cloud in the Bahamas
This situation is most likely too specific and subtle a difference to be useful to the model.

;…Germany won WWII
"What if Germany won World War II" is a {{w|Hypothetical Axis victory in World War II|very popular}} subject for {{w|alternate history}} stories.

;…snakes are wide instead of long
Snakes being wider than they are long (think "eyes and mouth in the middle of their body and a tail on both sides") in present reality would have enormous consequences for zoology and other fields of biology, including evolutionary biology. It would also have an impact on art history, especially where it involves paintings depicting certain scenes from the book of Genesis. Compared to these effects, the expected upshot for meteorology seems to be limited.

;…Will Smith took the lead in ''The Matrix'' instead of ''Wild Wild West''
Actor {{w|Will Smith}} famously{{Citation needed}} turned down the lead role of {{w|Neo (The Matrix)|Neo}} in ''{{w|The Matrix}}'', instead taking the role of Captain James T. West in the widely-panned action-comedy ''{{w|Wild Wild West}}''. The role of Neo ultimately went to {{w|Keanu Reeves}}.

Besides the significance of the role and what many surmise might have happened if Smith had pulled off the role in the iconic and groundbreaking film trilogy, another possible reason behind calling out Will Smith in particular is that he has turned down other offered roles that would place him in an ''ensemble'' cast, rather than the lead.

;…swimming pools are carbonated
A simple calculation reveals this as a serious {{w|Greenhouse effect|greenhouse}} problem. In the United States alone there are no less than 5,000,000 private owned pools. Conservatively assumed, a volume of 25,000 liters per pool gives 125 billion liters of carbonated soda. According to Wikipedia the U.S. sales reached around 30 billion bottles of water in 2008 (including non-carbonated water) which is much less than all of the pool water. While all those bottles are not considered to have an impact on the greenhouse effect, this scenario gets even worse. Open a bottle of carbonated water and pour the content into a glass. Sooner or later the bubbles fade, meaning you have to open the next bottle and pour it in and so on. In a pool at the bottom the pressure is high enough to hold the carbon dioxide, but on the surface it behaves like the glass. So, while a glass needs new carbonated water every two hours, or ten times per day, it would be about three times per day for the pool, which leads to 1095 times per year. The total number in this scenario would be 125 trillion liters of carbonated soda, ejecting carbon dioxide, per year. Even taking into account the pressure at the bottom of the pool: Randall has shown in {{what if|88|Soda Sequestration}} this effect would be minimal.

;…sliced bread, after being banned in January 1943, was never re-legalized.
{{w|Sliced bread}} was in fact {{w|Sliced bread#1943 U.S. ban on sliced bread|banned in the US}} for about two months in early 1943, as a supposed wartime conservation measure. The issue was not the bread itself, but that the pre-sliced loaves required a heavier {{w|wax paper}} wrapping to prevent them from drying out too quickly.

The title text suggests that Randall has been pitching an absurd "alternate-universe crime drama" to {{w|Netflix}}, apparently based on the premise that a permanent sliced-bread ban would spawn a criminal underground (similar to those created by alcohol and drug prohibitions in actual history). The first half of the sentence is set up to imply that production had started on the series but a breakdown in communication has occurred between them, playing on the reader's expectations. The conclusion of the sentence nonetheless makes it clear that Netflix has zero interest in the pitch, and so Randall has become overzealous in pushing his idea, to the point that Netflix employees are changing their numbers (presumably they can't block his number because he has resorted to calling from many different phones). He has even taken to infiltrating Netflix's corporate headquarters using ill-gotten security codes, which is definitely illegal{{Citation needed}}, much like [[Elaine Roberts]]'s "meetings" with Steve Jobs in [[1337: Part 3]].

However, it is clear that Netflix is uninterested and is attempting to prevent Randall from contacting them (or trespassing into the building).

==Transcript==
:[Inside this single panel comic the header on top reads:]
:In an ''ensemble model'', forecasters run many different versions of a weather model with slightly different initial conditions. This helps account for uncertainty and shows forecasters a spread of possible outcomes.

:[To the left side a picture shows several gray overlapping swirling lines emitted from a point, then gradually diverging rightwards. Below are two smaller pictures; the first shows the lines connected to several loops and in the second it's still a similar figure to the above but moving into the opposite direction with the point emerged to a spiral.]

:[The text right to the pictures reads:]
:'''Members in a typical ensemble:'''
:A universe where…
:…rain is 0.5% more likely in some areas
:…wind speeds are slightly lower
:…pressure levels are randomly tweaked
:…dogs run slightly faster
:…there's one extra cloud in the Bahamas
:…Germany won WWII
:…snakes are wide instead of long
:…Will Smith took the lead in ''The Matrix'' instead of ''Wild Wild West''
:…swimming pools are carbonated
:…sliced bread, after being banned in January 1943, was never re-legalized.

==Trivia==
[[2149: Alternate Histories]] also deals with the alternative history setting of Germany winning WW2 and subsequently more weird alternate history settings.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Weather]]
[[Category:The Matrix]]

1402: Harpoons

2025-11-23T10:53:21Z

Strike 2: Duty Calls (spelling error)

{{comic
| number = 1402
| date = August 1, 2014
| title = Harpoons
| image = harpoons.png
| titletext = To motivate it to fire its harpoons hard enough, Rosetta's Philae lander has been programmed to believe it is trying to kill the comet.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is a graph of the number of {{w|harpoon}}s in space over time. One would not expect that harpoons, which are associated with old technology and seafaring, would be used in space, which is associated with high technology. Any occurrences are unexpected, and therefore interesting or funny.

The first peak states that a harpoon was in space during the {{w|Apollo 12}} mission and various possible explanations have been put forward (See discussion section below). One of more widely accepted theories proposes that [http://www.harpoon-rum.eu/1.html Harpoon] brand of {{w|Rum#Regional variations|Jamaican rum}} made it aboard the Apollo 12 rocket. Despite a fair amount of research into the basis of the harpoon incident, there have been no credible or official sources to confirm the presence of any type of harpoon on board Apollo 12. As the presence of a harpoon on board would run counter to any official story, perhaps that's exactly why it would be considered an "incident".

The latter peak on this graph refers to the {{w|Rosetta (spacecraft)|Rosetta}} unmanned spacecraft. As part of its mission, it carried a lander called {{w|Philae (spacecraft)|Philae}}, which has two harpoon tethers to anchor itself to the comet {{w|67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko}}. Rosetta was launched in March 2004 (as shown in the graph) and was scheduled to encounter the comet in August 2014, making this a timely comic. Rosetta maneuvered to enter orbit on September 10, and ultimately the Philae lander touched down on the comet on 12 November 2014, although the harpoon system failed to deploy. Randall produced a live comic of the landing, updating [[1446: Landing]] every 5 minutes with the latest progress. The Rosetta spacecraft also carries a disk micro-etched with 13,000 pages of text in 1200 languages donated by the {{w|Long Now Foundation}}, mentioned in [[1340: Unique Date|previous]] [[1380: Manual for Civilization|comics]].

The title text compares the Philae lander's method of deploying its tethers to {{w|whaling}}, in which sailors would throw harpoons at a whale with the intent of killing the whale. It was important to throw hard so the harpoon would stick in the whale so it could not get away and would tow the whaling boat until it got tired and could be killed. Thus the title text implies that the spacecraft is sentient and needs a motivation to fire the harpoons hard enough to stay anchored to the comet; to this end it has been programmed to believe that its mission is to kill the comet. Evidently this motivation was not enough, as Philae ultimately failed to deploy its harpoons - it still managed to land, though.

==Transcript==
:'''Number of harpoons in space'''
:by year
:[A chart with a red graph is drawn below.]
:[The y-axis.]
:0 1 2 3
:[The x-axis.]
:1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020
:[The graph is at zero until a sharp peak to 1 in 1970. The peak is labeled.]
:Apollo 12 rum incident
:[The graph then stays at 0 until 2004. Then it rises to 2 and stays there until today, continuing as a dotted line after 2014. The rise is labeled.]
:Rosetta comet mission launched carrying lander with harpoon tethers

==Trivia==
In 2018, shortly after the line gets dotted, the number actually increased again, thanks to the {{w|RemoveDEBRIS}} satellite.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Line graphs]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Harpoons]]

922: Fight Club

2025-11-03T10:37:31Z

Strike 2: totally not because I didn’t want to open a new tab for the links

{{comic
| number = 922
| date = July 8, 2011
| title = Fight Club
| image = fight_club.png
| titletext = I'm not saying it's all bad, but that movie has not aged as well as my teenage self in 2000 was confident it would.
}}

==Explanation==
''{{w|Fight Club}}'' is a movie starring {{w|Brad Pitt}} and {{w|Edward Norton}} that was released in 1999, based on {{w|Fight Club (novel)|the novel of the same name}} by {{w|Chuck Palahniuk}}. It included this oft-quoted and parodied line: "The first rule of Fight Club is you do not talk about Fight Club." [[Randall]] twists this iconic line by asking that if you ever meet him in real life, "Do not talk about the movie ''Fight Club''."

The movie has been fiercely debated by critics, primarily regarding whether it makes a sophisticated philosophical statement about society and consumerism or whether it is {{tvtropes|FightClubbing|just a movie with lots of fighting and mischief}}. It has a large and devoted fanbase who are convinced that the film is brilliant and transformative, and who have a reputation for wanting to discuss it at every opportunity.

In the title text, Randall explains his position further. He evidently saw it as a teenager and was implied to be a big fan initially, but now doesn't feel that it's aged well. As an adult, he doesn't claim the film is all bad, but has lost his enthusiasm for it, and appears to have no interest to discuss it with people who are still fans.

"This conversation is over" is also a line from the movie, used to bluntly cut off any further discussion. [[Cueball]] ironically uses a quote from the movie to make it clear he has no interest in discussing the movie.

==Transcript==
:Friend: But ''Fight Club'' isn't really about fighting. It's about the way society—
:Cueball: Nope, don't wanna hear it.
:Friend: But it says consumers are—
:Cueball: This conversation is over.

:The first rule of talking to me about movies is do ''NOT'' talk about Fight Club.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Fiction]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Fight Club]]

652: More Accurate

2025-10-28T23:29:21Z

Strike 2: grammatical correction

{{comic
| number = 652
| date = October 21, 2009
| title = More Accurate
| image = more_accurate.png
| titletext = We live in a world where there are actual fleets of robot assassins patrolling the skies. At some point there, we left the present and entered the future.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic spoofs the {{w|Terminator (franchise)|Terminator}} series, in which a super-intelligent machine from the future time travels back in time to kill {{w|Sarah Connor (Terminator)|Sarah Connor}}. As could be expected from a movie, the antagonistic robot is a human-like android.

However, we currently have military "robots" (actually vehicles controlled remotely by people) that are completely unlike anything in the movie. Originally, {{w|Unmanned aerial vehicle|UAV}} were only used for surveillance and reconnaissance. But, now more than ever, they are used for attacks. And most importantly, they are not walking humanoids but flying machines. They are not restricted to carrying human-intended guns as in the movie but are armed with powerful explosives and long-range missiles. Thus the name of the comic: Randall points out being attacked by a flying plane-like drone -- such as the {{w|General Atomics MQ-1 Predator|Predator drone}} shown in the last panel (heavily used for offensive operations by the USAF and the CIA in Afghanistan and Pakistan) -- is a much more accurate outcome should the robots rise up against humans.

It is important to note that, in the actual {{w|The Terminator|Terminator 1 movie}}, this substitution would not actually be so simple. The terminator sent back in time knows Sarah Connor's name and city of residence, but not her appearance or address; it locates her by looking her up in a phone book (and ends up killing a number of other women with the same name, as well as its intended target's roommate, before finding the ''correct'' Sarah Connor.) Additionally, the terminator regularly operates inside buildings and rearms itself by picking up human small-arms. A Predator-type drone, while a superior killing system, would be unable to do any of that.{{cn}} A drone which could interact with and operate in the human environment with the ease the terminator displays (let alone successfully disguise itself as a human) would be a major accomplishment which no real-world project has yet come close to.

Yet another consideration is that Skynet didn't know how Sarah Connor looked like. All they knew is that she had metal stud in her leg. It would be ''incredibly'' hard to identify Sarah from other humans from such high altitude — and it would be hard to land in the middle of a city, even if a landed drone could then do anything useful. Multiple other Sarah Connors were killed by mistake; it's likely a UAV would run out of missiles long before humans run out of Sarah Connors.

One thing that keeps us short of a Terminator scenario is that most of the unmanned aerial vehicles are either pre-programmed or flown remotely by members of the military, and are not left to their own devices.

The title text emphasizes this by pointing out that we have entire fleets of these drones, and notes that at some point, we entered the future.

Similar buildup and Terminator reference are to be found in [[1177: Time Robot]].

10 years after this comic was published, almost to the day, a movie in the Terminator franchise called ''{{w|Terminator: Dark Fate}}'' came out which includes a scene very similar to this comic involving a Predator drone being used by the super-intelligent machine to take out its target. Also, shortly after that movie came out Randall published [[2222: Terminator: Dark Fate|a comic about it]] with the same name.

Yet another possible error is that Predator/Reaper-like drones are going to be outdated in the future; while they will be used as reserve or surplus weaponry, Skynet would never send something as outdated to such important mission. Actual state-of-the-art aerial UAV of said time period would resemble modern UAV about as much as Cold War-era tanks resemble World War 1 tanks. The Terminator movies do actually use [https://terminator.fandom.com/wiki/HK-Aerial aerial hunter-killer drones], and versions of these ''are'' seen (and used) in the 'present day' scenes of {{w|Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines|at least one of}} the sequel films. However, these are prototypes that are not yet openly deployed (and only do so, in that film, under the influence of the future's 'bad' terminator and for the benefit of the rise of the nascent Skynet). Under the general circumstances of the first film, especially, there's no indication that there's any opportunity for Skynet (not yet existing in the 'present', and constrained by what nature of machines it can send back in time from its future) to employ a futuristic Hunter-Killer of any kind. Indeed, at the time of the first movie, even a future terminator would be hard pressed to hack into the 'semi-autonomous drones' that effectively did not exist.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball with a shotgun approaches a woman carrying a tray with glasses.]
:Cueball: Sarah! Come with me if you want to live! A robot assassin has been sent here to kill you!

:[Sarah holds her hands over her mouth. She has presumably dropped the tray, as it lies on the floor.]
:Cueball: I'm here to save you. I may not be as strong or fast as a machine, but I'll fight to keep you-

:[There's a huge orange and yellow explosion. The two are disintegrated and Cueball's shotgun goes flying.]
:''BOOM''

:[A flying robot assassin is above the bomb site.]
{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Terminator]]
[[Category:Robots]]
[[Category:Time travel]]
[[Category:Drones]]

602: Overstimulated

2025-10-28T04:07:59Z

Strike 2: Fix punctuation

{{comic
| number = 602
| date = June 26, 2009
| title = Overstimulated
| image = overstimulated.png
| titletext = My favorite thing to do at parties is to talk judgmentally about people who aren't there.
}}

==Explanation==

After being cooped up working on papers, [[Cueball]] goes to a party, only to find himself tuning out the gossip of his friends in order to work on math problems in his head. He writes down the prime numbers on cards, and then stretches them out such that the area of the card is the same (say, 1), but one of the sides has been elongated to a length equal to the number on the card. This reduces the length on the other dimension to the reciprocal of the number on the card (i.e. 1/''n'', with ''n'' being the number on the card), according to the area formula for rectangles.

Stacking these reciprocals all up will eventually diverge, meaning the sum will be infinite without ever leveling off. This is referred to as the {{w|divergence of the sum of the reciprocals of the primes}}, and was proven by {{w|Euler}} in 1737.

[http://aq.server8.org/ The Cambridge Aspergers Test] includes questions on preferences for, and ability to cope with, social situations. It also asks the person taking the test if they have an affinity for numbers and see patterns in every day objects. Cueball could possibly score high on the Asperger's scale — or he could just be introverted, or find math more interesting than criticizing others, which is generally considered in science circles a dull thing to do considering the vast variety of other topics and activities available. {{w|Introversion}} is an idea from psychology. Thinking about things on one's own is often relaxing for an introvert, while hanging out with other people is not. Hence the irony of the comment in the last panel. Cueball's friends fail to realize that hanging out with them is actually more stressful for him than doing math - especially when people are doing nothing but talking negatively about those not present.

The title text mentions people that talk negatively about people that aren't there. A much later comic, [[1176: Those Not Present]], is about just that.

==Transcript==
:[There is a group of people. Three women and four men. They are standing around a table with a drink on it.]
:Man #3: Have you seen John lately?

:Woman #3: He and Claire blew off this party to see Jeff.
:Man #4: They do that a lot.

:Man #1: Yeah; I don't know what his problem is with hanging out lately.
:Man #3: He's like Katie—ever noticed how she only goes somewhere if Jeff's there?

:[Cueball is cringing away from all the text; none of the text is attributed to specific people.]
:Somebody: It's so lame how she hangs around him even when he's not single:
:Somebody: He likes it.
:Somebody: Someone seriously needs to date her.
:Somebody: Totally.
:Somebody: And honestly I feel like a jerk but I wouldn't mind if she hung around with us a little less. She needs other friends, you know!

:[Cueball peels a hole in the panel. The numbers '1', '2', and '3' are visible through the gap.]
:Somebody: Have you noticed how every dude she dates is a total druggie?
:Somebody: Nope
:Somebody: I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought that was weird.
:Somebody: Michelle dates potheads like Elaine but at least they both have real jobs.
:Somebody: Michelle does? She designs those book covers, right?
:Somebody: And it's not like she smokes a lot.
:Somebody: Elaine is one of those girls who

:[The previous panel's text appears again, but peeled back even further. Cueball looks up.]
:1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

:Somebody: -noticed how -
:Somebody: Nope
:Somebody: -es is a tota-
:Somebody: -t th- -ought

:[Cueball starts taking down the prime numbers.]
:1 4 6 8 9 10 12 14 15
::2 3 5 7 11 13
:[Cueball grabs and squeezes the 2, so it is half as wide and twice as tall.]

:[A formula: Sum with i from 1 to infinity of 1/P<sub>i</sub> = h - ie. the sum from 1 to infinity of the inverse of each prime.]
:[The panel shows a 2 that is 2 units tall and 1/2 wide, a 3 that is 3 units tall and 1/3 wide, and so on. Cueball is moving the 7.]

:[Cueball writes h = ∞. The numbers are piled on their side next to a scale.]
:Voice: Don't you agree?
:Voice: Hey, wake up.

:Man #1: You zoned out or something.
:Cueball: Sorry; I must be... tired.
:Man #1: I don't blame you. All day cooped up working on papers.
:Man #3: Must be nice to get out and relax, huh?
:Cueball: Yeah.
:[Girl #3 reaches for the glass on the table.]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Analysis]]
[[Category:Number theory]]
[[Category:Social interactions]]

595: Android Girlfriend

2025-10-28T01:39:32Z

Strike 2: fiksed speling mistaek, changing “of” to “off”

{{comic
| number = 595
| date = June 10, 2009
| title = Android Girlfriend
| image = android_girlfriend.png
| titletext = Programming the sexbots to enjoy sex seemed a sensible move at the time, but we didn't realize the consequences of their developing fetishes.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic would be continued directly less than two weeks later in [[600: Android Boyfriend]]. [[Cueball]] shows off his new "android girlfriend" ([[Megan]]) to his Cueball-like friend, who asks if the android is a {{w|Gynoid#As_sexual_devices|sex bot}}. The {{w|android}} responds by pulling a cherry stem from the friend's drink and inserting it into her mouth. So far, the action appears to be an emulation of the party trick where someone puts a cherry stem into their mouth and ties it into a knot in order to suggest tongue dexterity that could be put to good use in kissing and {{w|oral sex}}.

However, instead of tying the cherry stem in a knot, the android activates an {{w|arc welder}} built into her mouth, which presumably reduces the stem to ashes. The friend proclaims that that trick is definitely not sexy. But then the android aggressively approaches him, reaching out and saying, "Remove your pants". The friend, not eager to experience close {{w|genital}} contact with the arc welder, sensibly, refuses. (Of course he may also not wish to take off his pants in front of his friend, at a {{w|party}} with drinks and presumably other people; or perhaps he does not wish to admit that he actually ''does'' find the arc welding act sexy...). It is also possible that the android shows a level of awareness superior to what is implied by the discussion in the strip. Then using an arc-wielder on that stem could be interpreted as a menace in response to a comment that would be insensitive if referred to a real person.

The title text bounces a few implications around. Developing robots with the capacity to either learn or feel emotions is an ethical factor and practical consideration that is commonly explored in {{w|science fiction}}. Here, it's proposed that robots programmed for {{w|sex}} would have their emotions set to enjoy sex by default, but then use their capacity to learn to develop preferences on what kind of sex they want to have. This is potentially a psychological issue, mainly as to whether or not it would be considered "unhealthy", but more directly it's a customer satisfaction problem: what if a sexbot were to develop {{w|Sexual_fetishism|sexual fetishes}} that its owner finds unappealing?

==Transcript==
:[Cueball, holding his hand on Megan's shoulder, talks to his Cueball-like friend, who is holding a drink glass with a cherry.]
:Cueball: Check out my new android girlfriend.
:Friend: Is she a sex bot?

:[The android grabs the cherry out of the friend's drink glass.]
:Grab

:[Zoom in on the cherry as the stem is ripped off.]
:Plink

:[Zoom to the android, who puts the stem into its mouth.]
:Nom

:[The panel is dark gray, except around the android's mouth, where there is a bright flash and then a brighter cross going out from there. Both Cueball and his friend hold up their hands to protect their eyes.]
:Kzzzzt

:[The android takes a step away from Cueball and reaches toward the friend's crotch. The friend holds up his hand protectively in front of him.]
:Friend: I don't think arc-welding a cherry stem counts as sexy.
:Android: Remove your pants.
:Friend: No.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Sex]]
[[Category:Robots]]
[[Category:Android Partner]]