explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

436: How it Happened

2013-06-12T16:37:43Z

Username: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 436
| date = 2008-06-13
| title = How it Happened
| image = how_it_happened.png
| titletext = I was there, dude.
}}

==Explanation==
(See also [[That's What SHE Said]])

The phrase "{{w|Said the actress to the bishop|That's what ''she'' said!}}" is commonly used after someone has described something that sounds sexual but had no intentional sexual meaning. An example might be:

:"It's huge!" (Describing an overly large object like a large tree or a six-foot midget)
:"That's what she said" (Implying that the previous person had been describing something very different)

However, in this comic the first person is actually describing what the girl he had sex with said. The second person then responds with "that's what she said" but, of course, in this situation it has no meaning as that was literally what <em>she</em> said. The first person continues this in the next panel and the title text by reminding the other person of this and by saying he was also there to hear it.

The joke here could either be in the unusual use of the phrase, or about how some people use the phrase so much that it gets annoying.

==Transcript==
:[Two people standing]
:Person 1: Then she put her hands over mine, grinds against me, leans down and whispers, "After tonight, we go and live our lives, no regrets. But I want this, I want you, :one last time."
:Person 2: (Giving a thumbs up, pointing, surrounded by action lines) That's what SHE said!
:[Both continue to stand]
:Person 1: Yes. Yes, it is.
:[Both continue to stand]

{{comic discussion}}

436: How it Happened

2013-06-12T16:36:48Z

Username: Created page with "{{comic | number = 436 | date = 2008-06-13 | title = How it Happened | image = how_it_happened.png | titletext = I was there, dude. }} ==Explanation== (See a..."

347: Brick Archway

2013-04-29T17:58:41Z

Username: Created page with "{{comic | number = 347 | date = 2007-11-21 | title = Brick Archway | image = brick_archway.png | titletext = The TI-86 was bad enough. I don't know how I'd h..."

{{comic
| number = 347
| date = 2007-11-21
| title = Brick Archway
| image = brick_archway.png
| titletext = The TI-86 was bad enough. I don't know how I'd have gotten through high school if I'd had a laptop+wifi.
}}

==Explanation==
Breakout is a game first created in 1976 and since which has gained much popularity and has been recreated in many different versions. In the game, the player controls a horizontal 'bat' at the bottom of the screen to make it move left or right. Above it are several layers of bricks which are destroyed when hit by the ball. The ball is not affected by gravity and will float around, bouncing off the walls, bricks and bat. The aim of the game is to keep the ball from touching the bottom of the screen (by deflecting it with the bat) long enough for the ball to hit and destroy all of the bricks.

[[Cueball]]'s approach to the game is to actually stand underneath a brick archway and throw a tennis ball at the structure above him in an attempt to destroy the bricks. Naturally, the physics in the game don't work in real life, and the aftermath of Cueball's actions is that one of the bricks in the archway comes loose and falls onto Cueball's head, causing possibly fatal damage.

The sentence at the bottom of the comic points out the illogical nature of the game when compared to real life.

==Transcript==
:[The man lies on the ground, underneath the titular archway, next to two halves of a brick. Dust falls from the place in the archway where the man knocked the brick from with the tennis ball. The ball, meanwhile, has rolled about a meter away.]
:"Breakout" is a stupid game.

{{comic discussion}}

226: Swingset

2013-04-29T17:26:20Z

Username: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 226
| date = 2007-02-21
| title = Swingset
| image = swingset.png
| titletext = Someone bring me a pocket fan so I can drift around the yard.
}}

==Explanation==
When on a swing, there is a moment between swinging forwards/backwards and falling back down again where the the force of gravity stops the acceleration of the swing. In this moment, you remain almost stationary at the peak of your swing and on a perfect swing (ie. one with no friction or air resistance) you would achieve weightlessness.

In the comic, [[Cueball]] is told this fact by an unknown woman and then imagines that at the peak of the swing you become permanently weightless and able to float above the ground without any support.

==Transcript==
:[Woman talking to boy on swing-set]
:Woman: You know, at the peak of a big swing, you become weightless.
:[Thought bubble from boy on swing-set]
:[Boy swings higher and higher. At the peak of a big swing he shoves off the swing. The boy remains hovering in the air.]
:Boy: Hey guys. Come check this out.

{{comic discussion}}

226: Swingset

2013-04-29T17:25:04Z

Username: Created page with "{{comic | number = 226 | date = 2007-02-21 | title = Swingset | image = swingset.png | titletext = Someone bring me a pocket fan so I can drift around the yard..."

{{comic
| number = 226
| date = 2007-02-21
| title = Swingset
| image = swingset.png
| titletext = Someone bring me a pocket fan so I can drift around the yard.
}}

==Explanation==
When on a swing, there is a moment between swinging forwards/backwards and falling back down again where the the force of gravity stops the acceleration of the swing. In this moment, you remain almost stationary at the peak of your swing and on a perfect swing (ie. one with no friction or air resistance) you would achieve weightlessness.

In the comic, [[Cueball]] is told this fact by [[Megan]] and then imagines that at the peak of the swing you become permanently weightless and able to float above the ground without any support.

==Transcript==
:[Woman talking to boy on swing-set]
:Woman: You know, at the peak of a big swing, you become weightless.
:[Thought bubble from boy on swing-set]
:[Boy swings higher and higher. At the peak of a big swing he shoves off the swing. The boy remains hovering in the air.]
:Boy: Hey guys. Come check this out.

{{comic discussion}}

389: Keeping Time

2013-04-23T18:33:43Z

Username: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 389
| date = February 27, 2008
| title = Keeping Time
| image = keeping_time.png
| imagesize =
| titletext = You can identify them ahead-of-time -- they lead with their left foot when the music starts.
}}

==Explanation==
[http://imgs.xkcd.com/blag/xkcd_389.mp3 Listen to the music]

A member of a marching band, after spending seasons marching in time to their music for their shows, end up naturally walking with the rhythm of any music they hear around them, like at a shopping mall. Pausing the music for a split second would throw off the rhythm, causing them to fall. The line of music in the comic is a piano reduction of beguining of "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley, a reference to "Rickrolling", which is when a link to video is set up to appear as one thing but in reality, when clicked, plays "Never Gonna Give You Up". The alt text refers to the fact that almost all marching bands start marching with the left foot, so marching band members start to naturally starting with the left foot.

==Transcript==
My Hobby:
:Pausing in-store music for a split second and watching the ex-marching band kids stumble.
:[On a balcony overlooking a supermarket, a man presses a button on a pedestal. The in-store music, the first four bars of "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley, pauses briefly after the third bar, and one of the store's patrons falls on her face.]
<<FWOMP>>

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:My Hobby]]
[[Category:Music]]

608: Form

2013-04-12T22:00:33Z

Username: Created page with "{{comic | number = 608 | date = 2009-07-10 | title = Form | image = form.png | titletext = 'This space intentionally left blank' is less immediately p..."

{{comic
| number = 608
| date = 2009-07-10
| title = Form
| image = form.png
| titletext = 'This space intentionally left blank' is less immediately provocative but more Hofstadterially confusing.
}}

==Explanation==
Application forms, examination papers, etc. sometimes have section with instructions not to write in them. This often causes people to write in the illegal section just to contradict the instructions, as does Cueball in the comic. In real life there are never usually any concequences for breaking this rule. However in the comic, the form that Cueball wrote on was being filmed by armed men who respond to the rule break by preparing their guns, presenting a serious concequence for Cueball.

==Transcript==
[There is a sheet of paper, with a series of check boxes. A white rectangle is the focus.]
Do not write in this space.

[A man is standing with a pencil, looking at the page.]

[The man writes something on the page.]

[A group of people with helmets, black goggles, and rifles look at display screens. There is a radar system on a table between them.]
[The screens show sheets of paper. On one screen, it shows the man writing on one.]
[One of the men arms his weapon.]
<<Cha-click>>

{{comic discussion}}

650: Nowhere

2013-04-12T21:35:41Z

Username: Created page with "{{comic | number = 650 | date = 2009-10-16 | title = Nowhere | image = nowhere.png | titletext = I mean, seriously, NOWHERE? For starters, there are like a th..."

{{comic
| number = 650
| date = 2009-10-16
| title = Nowhere
| image = nowhere.png
| titletext = I mean, seriously, NOWHERE? For starters, there are like a thousand species of dinosaur.
}}

==Explanation==
The phrase used by Cueball in the first panel is the sort of thing that many people say to their significant other, suggesting that they are so happy together that there is nowhere else anywhere that they would rather be in. Megan, however, takes the saying literally and imagines herself riding a dinosaur suggesting that she would rather be doing just that. This, and the title text are saying that the likelihood that out of all the possibilities in the universe, the chances that the one single place you would most want to be is just sitting with your significant other is fairly low.

Seriously though, who wouldn't want to ride a apatosaurus if given the chance?

==Transcript==
:Man: There's nowhere I'd rather be
:Man: than with you
:Man: here
:Man: right now.

[Silence.]

[The woman is imagining herself riding an apatosaurus.]

{{comic discussion}}

612: Estimation

2013-04-12T21:24:41Z

Username: Created page with "{{comic | number = 612 | date = 2009-07-20 | title = Estimation | image = estimation.png | titletext = They could say "the connection is probably lost,&q..."

{{comic
| number = 612
| date = 2009-07-20
| title = Estimation
| image = estimation.png
| titletext = They could say "the connection is probably lost," but it's more fun to do naive time-averaging to give you hope that if you wait around for 1,163 hours, it will finally finish.
}}

==Explanation==
When moving or copying files in Windows, a dialog box opens to inform the user of how many of the files being moved have been moved with an estimate of how long the rest of the files should take. However, this estimate is often subject to seemingly random and extreme changes from an amount of seconds to one of hours.

The joke in the comic is the idea that this feature was actually purposefully implemented and that the person who did so actually talks like that. In the comic, he tells some friends over the phone how long it will take for him to arrive at their meeting point. However, like with Window's estimation feature, he quickly changes his estimate multiple times from the extremes of days to seconds.

==Transcript==
:Man: I'm just outside town, so I should be there in fifteen minutes.
:Man: Actually, it's looking more like six days.
:Man: No, wait, thirty seconds.

The author of the Windows file copy dialog visits some friends

{{comic discussion}}

381: Mobius Battle

2013-04-12T20:55:19Z

Username: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 381
| date = February 8, 2008
| title = Mobius Battle
| image = mobius battle.png
| titletext = Films need to do this more, if only to piss off the people who have to feed it into the projector.
}}

==Explanation==
[[File:mobius battle.gif|right|frame|The comic strip as an animated GIF]]
A Mobius strip is a two dimensional object with only one surface and one edge. It can be created by taking a strip of paper and twisting it 180 degrees before attaching both ends together.

In the comic, the idea of the Mobius strip has been used to create a comic strip that could potentially loop forever. In it, a man is standing in front of a ball. Then another man runs in and kicks the first man out of the panel. The second man then turns away, retaining the first man's original position, only flipped horizontally. Because of the nature of the Mobius strip, if the comic strip were to be printed out in such a way that the comic could be seen on both sides of the paper, the comic would repeat, so that the second man would become the first man, and someone else, potentially the original first person, would push them out of the comic becoming himself the first man.

==Transcript==
:[A man is standing next to a ball, a flash appears on the left side of the panel]
:[Another man comes in from the left, preparing to kick the ball]
:[The other man kicks the ball into the first man's head]
:[The first man is lying outside of the frame, second man points and laughs.]
:Second man: HAHAHAH
:First man: !#^*!*
:[Second man is now standing next to the ball.]
Right side:
:The strip above is looped around like a film strip, but a one-half-turn is put into the loop to make it a Mobius strip.

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

381: Mobius Battle

2013-04-12T12:41:20Z

Username: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 381
| date = February 8, 2008
| title = Mobius Battle
| image = mobius battle.png
| titletext = Films need to do this more, if only to piss off the people who have to feed it into the projector.
}}

==Explanation==
A Mobius strip is a two dimensional object with only one surface and one edge. It can be created by taking a strip of paper and twisting it 180 degrees before attaching both ends together.

In the comic, the idea of the Mobius strip has been used to create a comic strip that could potentially loop forever. In it, a man is standing in front of a ball. Then another man runs in and kicks the first man out of the panel. The second man then turns away, retaining the first man's original position, only flipped horizontally. Because of the nature of the Mobius strip, if the comic strip were to be printed out in such a way that the comic could be seen on both sides of the paper, the comic would repeat, so that the second man would become the first man, and someone else would push them out of the comic becoming himself the first man.

==Transcript==
:[A man is standing next to a ball, a flash appears on the left side of the panel]
:[Another man comes in from the left, preparing to kick the ball]
:[The other man kicks the ball into the first man's head]
:[The first man is lying outside of the frame, second man points and laughs.]
:Second man: HAHAHAH
:First man: !#^*!*
:[Second man is now standing next to the ball.]
Right side:
:The strip above is looped around like a film strip, but a one-half-turn is put into the loop to make it a Mobius strip.

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

381: Mobius Battle

2013-04-12T09:55:30Z

Username: Created page with "{{comic | number = 381 | date = 2008-02-08 | title = Mobius Battle | image = mobius battle.png | titletext = Films need to do this more, if only to piss off t..."

{{comic
| number = 381
| date = 2008-02-08
| title = Mobius Battle
| image = mobius battle.png
| titletext = Films need to do this more, if only to piss off the people who have to feed it into the projector.
}}

==Explanation==
A Mobius strip is a two dimensional object with only one surface and one edge. It can be created by taking a strip of paper and twisting it one 180 degrees before attaching both ends together.

In the comic, the idea of the Mobius strip has been used to create a comic strip that could potentially loop forever. In it, a man is standing in front of a ball. Then another man runs in and kicks the first man out of the panel. The second man then turns away, retaining the first man's original position, only flipped horizontally. Because of the nature of the Mobius strip, if the comic strip were to be printed out in such a way that the comic could be seen on both sides of the paper, the comic would repeat, so that the second man would become the first man, and someone else would push them out of the comic becoming himself the first man.

==Transcript==
:[A man is standing next to a ball, a flash appears on the left side of the panel]
:[Another man comes in from the left, preparing to kick the ball]
:[The other man kicks the ball into the first man's head]
:[The first man is lying outside of the frame, second man points and laughs.]
:Second man: HAHAHAH
:First man: !#^*!*
:[Second man is now standing next to the ball.]
Right side:
:The strip above is looped around like a film strip, but a one-half-turn is put into the loop to make it a Mobius strip.

{{comic discussion}}