580: The Race: Part 4 - Revision history

DollarStoreBa'al: cat

2026-03-31T17:08:35Z

cat

FaviFake at 15:57, 28 August 2023

2023-08-28T15:57:09Z

FaviFake at 14:13, 28 August 2023

2023-08-28T14:13:05Z

FaviFake at 11:24, 27 August 2023

2023-08-27T11:24:29Z

FaviFake at 11:21, 27 August 2023

2023-08-27T11:21:30Z

FaviFake at 11:20, 27 August 2023

2023-08-27T11:20:08Z

FaviFake: Not enough comics to make a category

2023-08-27T11:15:52Z

Not enough comics to make a category

172.70.100.10 at 15:42, 13 May 2022

2022-05-13T15:42:04Z

Jacky720: rv

2022-05-04T23:25:02Z

Show changes

Ex Kay Cee Dee at 23:25, 4 May 2022

2022-05-04T23:25:01Z

Show changes

← Older revision		Revision as of 17:08, 31 March 2026
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	[[Category:Firefly]]		[[Category:Firefly]]
	[[Category:Electric skateboard]]		[[Category:Electric skateboard]]
		+	[[Category:Comics with custom header texts]]

@@ Line 8: / Line 8: @@
 ==Explanation==
-''{{w|Firefly (TV series)|Firefly}}'' was a television series aired by {{w|Fox Broadcasting Company|Fox}} in 2002, but it was canceled after only fourteen episodes had been produced. Over ten years later, it still has a devoted fan base, apparently including [[Randall]]. The main characters were the crew of the spaceship "Serenity", including Captain Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds ({{w|Nathan Fillion}}), mechanical genius Kaywinnet Lee "Kaylee" Frye ([[Jewel Staite]]), the apparently insane psychic River Tam ({{w|Summer Glau}}), and six others not mentioned in this comic. Nathan Fillion appeared naked at the beginning and end of the show's eleventh episode, "Trash", after having been stripped of all his weapons, equipment, and clothes in a desert. [[Cueball]] is mentally overloaded by this image (either aroused or repulsed it is hard to say) to the extent that he misses the start signal.
+''{{w|Firefly (TV series)|Firefly}}'' was a television series aired by {{w|Fox Broadcasting Company|Fox}} in 2002, but it was canceled after only fourteen episodes had been produced. Over ten years later, it still has a devoted fan base, apparently including [[Randall]]. The main characters were the crew of the spaceship "Serenity", including Captain Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds ({{w|Nathan Fillion}}), mechanical genius Kaywinnet Lee "Kaylee" Frye ([[Jewel Staite]]), the apparently insane psychic River Tam ([[Summer Glau]]), and six others not mentioned in this comic. Nathan Fillion appeared naked at the beginning and end of the show's eleventh episode, "Trash", after having been stripped of all his weapons, equipment, and clothes in a desert. [[Cueball]] is mentally overloaded by this image (either aroused or repulsed it is hard to say) to the extent that he misses the start signal.
 Worried about his pursuer, Nathan wants to perform a {{w|Crazy Ivan}}, an emergency maneuver used by the crew of ''Serenity'' in the pilot episode of the series to escape the hot pursuit of a Reaver ship. It involves a 180° spin turn followed by rapid acceleration towards (and hopefully past) the pursuer, which does not have the ability to make such a rapid turn. In a ''Firefly''-class vessel, it is performed by temporarily reversing the direction of thrust of one of the two atmospheric engines, achieved by physically rotating the engine nacelle. The name of the maneuver is taken from the antics of {{w|USSR|Soviet}} submarines in trying to detect (not to evade) enemy submarines hiding in the sonar blind-spot directly behind their vessel. In reality, sharp turns suffice for this purpose; it is not necessary to completely reverse direction. The name entered popular culture after being used in the movie ''{{w|The Hunt for Red October (film)|The Hunt For Red October}}''.
@@ Line 86: / Line 86: @@
 == Trivia ==
 * xkcd's own transcript for this episode is quite wrong, and words like {{Wiktionary|maneuver}} are spelled incorrectly.
-* The premise of 'The Race' is that Fillion is too wrapped up in the character of Reynolds and his own portrayal of him to accept the cancellation of the series, which is why he takes the fan up on the race; to aid this conceit, he insists he be called 'Mal', but while in this episode he refers to Staite as 'Kaylee', he calls Glau 'Summer', not 'River'. Other xkcd episodes about Summer Glau portray her in Randall's imagining as similarly quirky in real life to the way her characters are perceived, so it might be a reference to that.
+* The premise of The Race is that Fillion is too wrapped up in the character of Reynolds and his own portrayal of him to accept the cancellation of the series, which is why he takes the fan up on the race; to aid this conceit, he insists he be called "Mal", but while in this episode he refers to Staite as "Kaylee", he calls Glau "Summer", not "River". Other xkcd episodes about Summer Glau portray her in Randall's imagining as similarly quirky in real life to the way her characters are perceived, so it might be a reference to that.
 {{comic discussion}}

@@ Line 8: / Line 8: @@
 ==Explanation==
-''{{w|Firefly (TV series)|Firefly}}'' was a television series aired by {{w|Fox Broadcasting Company|Fox}} in 2002, but it was canceled after only fourteen episodes had been produced. Over ten years later, it still has a devoted fan base, apparently including [[Randall]]. The main characters were the crew of the spaceship "Serenity", including Captain Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds ({{w|Nathan Fillion}}), mechanical genius Kaywinnet Lee "Kaylee" Frye ({{w|Jewel Staite}}), the apparently insane psychic River Tam ({{w|Summer Glau}}), and six others not mentioned in this comic. Nathan Fillion appeared naked at the beginning and end of the show's eleventh episode, "Trash", after having been stripped of all his weapons, equipment, and clothes in a desert. [[Cueball]] is mentally overloaded by this image (either aroused or repulsed it is hard to say) to the extent that he misses the start signal.
+''{{w|Firefly (TV series)|Firefly}}'' was a television series aired by {{w|Fox Broadcasting Company|Fox}} in 2002, but it was canceled after only fourteen episodes had been produced. Over ten years later, it still has a devoted fan base, apparently including [[Randall]]. The main characters were the crew of the spaceship "Serenity", including Captain Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds ({{w|Nathan Fillion}}), mechanical genius Kaywinnet Lee "Kaylee" Frye ([[Jewel Staite]]), the apparently insane psychic River Tam ({{w|Summer Glau}}), and six others not mentioned in this comic. Nathan Fillion appeared naked at the beginning and end of the show's eleventh episode, "Trash", after having been stripped of all his weapons, equipment, and clothes in a desert. [[Cueball]] is mentally overloaded by this image (either aroused or repulsed it is hard to say) to the extent that he misses the start signal.
 Worried about his pursuer, Nathan wants to perform a {{w|Crazy Ivan}}, an emergency maneuver used by the crew of ''Serenity'' in the pilot episode of the series to escape the hot pursuit of a Reaver ship. It involves a 180° spin turn followed by rapid acceleration towards (and hopefully past) the pursuer, which does not have the ability to make such a rapid turn. In a ''Firefly''-class vessel, it is performed by temporarily reversing the direction of thrust of one of the two atmospheric engines, achieved by physically rotating the engine nacelle. The name of the maneuver is taken from the antics of {{w|USSR|Soviet}} submarines in trying to detect (not to evade) enemy submarines hiding in the sonar blind-spot directly behind their vessel. In reality, sharp turns suffice for this purpose; it is not necessary to completely reverse direction. The name entered popular culture after being used in the movie ''{{w|The Hunt for Red October (film)|The Hunt For Red October}}''.
@@ Line 94: / Line 94: @@
 [[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
 [[Category:Comics featuring Nathan Fillion]]
 [[Category:Comics featuring Summer Glau]]
 [[Category:Firefly]]
 [[Category:Electric skateboard]]

@@ Line 10: / Line 10: @@
 ''{{w|Firefly (TV series)|Firefly}}'' was a television series aired by {{w|Fox Broadcasting Company|Fox}} in 2002, but it was canceled after only fourteen episodes had been produced. Over ten years later, it still has a devoted fan base, apparently including [[Randall]]. The main characters were the crew of the spaceship "Serenity", including Captain Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds ({{w|Nathan Fillion}}), mechanical genius Kaywinnet Lee "Kaylee" Frye ({{w|Jewel Staite}}), the apparently insane psychic River Tam ({{w|Summer Glau}}), and six others not mentioned in this comic. Nathan Fillion appeared naked at the beginning and end of the show's eleventh episode, "Trash", after having been stripped of all his weapons, equipment, and clothes in a desert. [[Cueball]] is mentally overloaded by this image (either aroused or repulsed it is hard to say) to the extent that he misses the start signal.
-Worried about his pursuer, Nathan wants to perform a {{w|Crazy Ivan}}, an emergency maneuver used by the crew of ''Serenity'' in the pilot episode of the series to escape the hot pursuit of a Reaver ship. It involves a 180° spin turn followed by rapid acceleration towards (and hopefully past) the pursuer, which does not have the ability to make such a rapid turn. In a ''Firefly''-class vessel, it is performed by temporarily reversing the direction of thrust of one of the two atmospheric engines, achieved by physically rotating the engine nacelle.
+Worried about his pursuer, Nathan wants to perform a {{w|Crazy Ivan}}, an emergency maneuver used by the crew of ''Serenity'' in the pilot episode of the series to escape the hot pursuit of a Reaver ship. It involves a 180° spin turn followed by rapid acceleration towards (and hopefully past) the pursuer, which does not have the ability to make such a rapid turn. In a ''Firefly''-class vessel, it is performed by temporarily reversing the direction of thrust of one of the two atmospheric engines, achieved by physically rotating the engine nacelle. The name of the maneuver is taken from the antics of {{w|USSR|Soviet}} submarines in trying to detect (not to evade) enemy submarines hiding in the sonar blind-spot directly behind their vessel. In reality, sharp turns suffice for this purpose; it is not necessary to completely reverse direction. The name entered popular culture after being used in the movie ''{{w|The Hunt for Red October (film)|The Hunt For Red October}}''.
 Nathan appears to understand exactly what will happen. He asks Jewel to "override the remote {{w|differential (mechanical device)|differential}}", implying that the two driven wheels could then be powered in opposite directions, causing a spin-turn. As Jewel points out, this will be unlikely to have the intended effect. Nathan is much heavier than his vehicle, and he is not securely attached to it. Momentum is his enemy. Even if it were successful, it would be utterly pointless, because he would find himself heading away from the finish line. Cueball is only pursuing him with the intent to overtake him, and the Crazy Ivan guarantees that this will happen.
-Summer Glau is often a target of sexual attraction for her appearance and her well-known, eccentric characters. River Tam, in the movie ''{{w|Serenity (2005 film)|Serenity}}'', had subconscious programming that caused her to be able to take on dozens of foes in hand-to-hand combat, and her Terminator character in ''The Sarah Connor Chronicles'' also regularly beat on men far larger than her, which, for many, just adds to the attraction. Thus, even as Summer fells him with a devastating kick to the face, Cueball is incredibly aroused.
+Summer Glau is often a target of sexual attraction for her appearance and her well-known, eccentric characters. River Tam, in the movie ''{{w|Serenity (2005 film)|Serenity}}'', had subconscious programming that caused her to be able to take on dozens of foes in hand-to-hand combat, and her Terminator character in ''The Sarah Connor Chronicles'' also regularly beat on men far larger than her, which, for many, just adds to the attraction. Thus, even as Summer fells him with a devastating kick to the face, Cueball is incredibly aroused. Electric skateboards have been the subject of several other comics like [[139: I Have Owned Two Electric Skateboards]], [[409: Electric Skateboard (Double Comic)]] and a panel in [[442: xkcd Loves the Discovery Channel]].
-The title text refers to a common ability in fiction for characters to produce an idea that is 'just crazy enough to work'. In real-life situations (such as an electric skateboard race), people are rarely able to come up with an idea that is just out-of-the-ordinary enough to work perfectly, and in their attempts to do so, will come up with an idea that will instead absolutely fail to work (and make them look like fools to boot). Electric skateboards have been the subject of several other comics like [[139: I Have Owned Two Electric Skateboards]], [[409: Electric Skateboard (Double Comic)]] and a panel in [[442: xkcd Loves the Discovery Channel]].
+The title text refers to a common ability in fiction for characters to produce an idea that is 'just crazy enough to work'. In real-life situations (such as an electric skateboard race), people are rarely able to come up with an idea that is just out-of-the-ordinary enough to work perfectly, and in their attempts to do so, will come up with an idea that will instead absolutely fail to work (and make them look like fools to boot).
 This series was released on five consecutive days (Monday to Friday) and not over the usual schedule of three comics a week. These are all the comics in [[:Category:The Race|The Race series]]:

@@ Line 21: / Line 21: @@
 This series was released on five consecutive days (Monday to Friday) and not over the usual schedule of three comics a week. These are all the comics in [[:Category:The Race|The Race series]]:
-*[[577: The Race: Part 1]]
+* [[577: The Race: Part 1]]
-*[[578: The Race: Part 2]]
+* [[578: The Race: Part 2]]
-*[[579: The Race: Part 3]]
+* [[579: The Race: Part 3]]
-*[[580: The Race: Part 4]]
+* [[580: The Race: Part 4]]
-*[[581: The Race: Part 5]]
+* [[581: The Race: Part 5]]
 ==Transcript==

@@ Line 20: / Line 20: @@
 Summer Glau is often a target of sexual attraction for her appearance and her well-known, eccentric characters. River Tam, in the movie ''{{w|Serenity (2005 film)|Serenity}}'', had subconscious programming that caused her to be able to take on dozens of foes in hand-to-hand combat, and her Terminator character in ''The Sarah Connor Chronicles'' also regularly beat on men far larger than her, which, for many, just adds to the attraction. Thus, even as Summer fells him with a devastating kick to the face, Cueball is incredibly aroused.
-The title text refers to a common ability in fiction for characters to come up with an idea that is 'just crazy enough to work'. In real-life situations (such as an electric skateboard race), people are rarely able to come up with an idea that is just out-of-the-ordinary to work perfectly, and in their attempts to do so, will come up with an idea that will instead absolutely fail to work (and make them look like fools to boot).
+The title text refers to a common ability in fiction for characters to come up with an idea that is 'just crazy enough to work'. In real-life situations (such as an electric skateboard race), people are rarely able to come up with an idea that is just out-of-the-ordinary enough to work perfectly, and in their attempts to do so, will come up with an idea that will instead absolutely fail to work (and make them look like fools to boot).
 All comics in "[[The Race]]" series: