1903: Bun Trend
| Bun Trend |
 Title text: Our experts have characterized the ecological impact of this trend as "adorable." |
Explanation[edit]
In this comic, Beret Guy takes his bun shenanigans to the state government, reporting to the governor that the number of buns around the capitol has shown a rapid increase. The governor is confused, then finally comes to grasp that Beret Guy is talking about rabbits, lots of which can be seen if he would just go outside (by the way, there is a small one RIGHT NOW!).
Elections in the United States often have a blank spot on the ballot for the voter to write the name of a write-in candidate. Beret Guy thinks he works for the governor because he wrote his name in on the ballot. This does not mean that he actually works for the governor.[citation needed]
The governor finally takes appropriate action by calling security, and Beret Guy confronts his fate with poise and honor. Indeed, the readiness with which he accepts his removal almost seems to suggest that he doesn't belong, which would be an unusual level of awareness for his character. Alternatively, Beret Guy might have misinterpreted the governor's request for security as a question of whether he works in security, or simply ignorance.
Beret Guy's uncertain position in the government is very similar to the way he treats and operates his business.
"Buns" have been mentioned previously in 1682: Bun and 1871: Bun Alert.
It is likely that Beret Guy is using the aforementioned Bun Alert app to measure the rabbit population. If this is the case, the recent increase in alerts may simply represent an increase in people using the app, rather than an actual increase in the rabbit population - a common fallacy. One simple way of correcting for this is to divide the total alerts by the number of active users during each interval; a change in this value would indicate that the bun population is actually changing.
In countries where rabbits are an invasive species or crop-destroying pests, an increase in rabbit populations may be of concern. In the title text, however, experts characterize the ecological impact of a large number of bunnies as "adorable" instead of giving information on how the rabbits are affecting the environment.
Transcript[edit]
- [Beret Guy holds a stick and points at a board next to him. The board contains a picture of a rabbit, a data point graph, and other notes.]
- Beret Guy: Good morning, Governor. Our tracking systems show a rapid increase in the number of buns around the Capitol.
- [Hairy is sitting at an office desk and facing Beret Guy in a frameless panel.]
- Hairy: Buns?
- Beret Guy: Yes; there's been a long-term upward trend, but it has accelerated recently.
- Hairy: The trend in... rabbits.
- Beret Guy: Yes.
- [Beret Guy takes out his phone.]
- Hairy: So... so what?
- Beret Guy: So if you want to see some buns, there are lots of them outside!
- [Beret Guy's phone vibrates]
- Phone: beep!
- Beret Guy: Ooh!
- Beret Guy: There's a small one right now!
- [Zoom-in on Beret Guy.]
- Hairy (offscreen): Do you... actually work for me?
- Beret Guy: Almost certainly. We had an election, right? I wrote my name in on the thing.
- Hairy (offscreen): Security?
- Beret Guy: It's been an honor to serve.
add a comment! ⋅ add a topic (use sparingly)! ⋅ 
refresh comments!Discussion
Outside of xkcd comics, who has actually heard the term "bun" used to describe rabbits? I have never heard it ouside of this comic and I do not like it. 108.162.237.112 22:09, 17 October 2017 (UTC)
- I take it you've never been on /r/Zootopia then.--108.162.229.148 10:30, 18 October 2017 (UTC)
- "Bun" is a common term in the, uh, the house rabbit community. People who own rabbits that are litter-box trained and therefore pretty free-range. As a house bun owner, the bun comics convey an extremely familiar attitude. I only want to know who in Randall Munroe's social circle adopted a bun.
Bread product ≠ rabbit - Subject says it all. 141.101.107.168 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
- Yes, as to the trivia, I find it ridiculous that they might *not* be rabbits, per the diagram and reference to a small one, etc. I would correct this insanity had I more time.
Other Bun comics include 1682 and 1871 - maybe we should start a category? --AnotherAnonymous (talk) 14:58, 16 October 2017 (UTC)
- We can just link to the other "bun" comics for now—we can create a category when more pop up. RamenChef (talk) 18:21, 16 October 2017 (UTC)
Sure sure, everyone thinks they're harmless, until one picks up a switchblade and an attitude. DevAudio (talk) 15:32, 16 October 2017 (UTC)
Is it true that Bun trends are increasing? 162.158.69.223
The long-awaited game Overgrowth was officially released on Steam today. It has been most succinctly described as a "Bunny Brawler". Coincidence? I think not!
Is the {beep} a reference to the bun alert (which beret guy has installed)? 162.158.63.226 23:35, 16 October 2017 (UTC)
I guess that {beep} is definitely a reference to the bun alert, and that the "recent acceleration in numbers" is only an observed trend due to more users reporting buns over the app, not an actual increase in numbers. 108.162.216.34 00:05, 17 October 2017 (UTC)
Good morning, Governor. Our tracking systems show a rapid increase in the number of buns featured on xkcd.
There's been a long-term upward trend, but it has accelerated recently.
So if you want to see comics about buns, there are lots of them there!
Ooh!
There's a new one right now!
It's been an honor to comment.
PotatoGod (talk) 01:57, 17 October 2017 (UTC)
- Our tracking systems show a
rapidrabbit increase in the number of buns featured on xkcd. - FTFY Ruffy314 (talk) 19:45, 17 October 2017 (UTC)
Current incomplete explanation is "Created by Randall Munroe". Seriously? Is this accurate or is somebody goofing around? If true I'd say that makes the explanation automatically complete, LOL! Except I wouldn't want to be the one to remove this special occurance. From the looks of the comments, looks like in previous versions of the explanation someone AGAIN confused this terminology with a bread roll. If only there were previous comics which referred to rabbits as "buns"... :) Or if there was a rabbit IN the comic. Or if someone, like this governor for example, made the connection between rabbits and the term "buns". LOL! NiceGuy1 (talk) 03:35, 17 October 2017 (UTC)
- Maybe Randall finally found out about the site and somehow contributed... who knows? --JayRulesXKCD what's up? 12:34, 17 October 2017 (UTC)
- As far as I gather, Randall has been aware of this site for ages, but doesn't actually say anything or declare himself anyway. He might enjoy watching people discussing and arguing about what he might mean. :) I've seen people declare with certainty that they know he knows, I give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they've seen evidence of this and aren't merely assuming themselves. Of course, now the explanation says it's by a Velociraptor. I equally believe this means A) Someone IS goofing around, and "Randall Monroe" is one of the goofs, or B) It's actually Randall, and HE'S goofing around (we all know his like for random velociraptors, and I could totally see him amusing himself this way), perhaps he changed it because I called attention to it. :) NiceGuy1 (talk) 18:47, 17 October 2017 (UTC)
Speaking as an Aussie, an increase in rabbits can cause a major environmental disaster. Be careful of a bun-megadon! Remember that they're not a good thing in environments they didn't evolve in. I think over here in Oz, we actually do get rabbit increase reports. 108.162.250.53 12:35, 17 October 2017 (UTC)
Someone say how is this incomplete? The velociraptor thing is NOT amusingCattail is da best (talk) 04:24, 18 November 2017 (UTC)
Sightings observed[edit]
The concept of a service for spotting buns is not that unlikely. When I went to secondary school, a kid from my class was an ornithology buff. He received text messages when certain birds were spotted, including location and information on whether the bird(s) was only passing. This was in the pre-app era. Today a quick google search show that there are a few worldwide spotting apps, where ornithologists can log and share sightings of birds. Eg. BirdsEye
--162.158.134.100 08:52, 18 October 2017 (UTC)
