Latest revision as of 09:33, 16 March 2026

Welcome to the explain xkcd wiki!
We have an explanation for all 3270 xkcd comics, and only 46 (1.4%) are incomplete. Help us finish them!

Go to this explanation

Latest comic[edit]

Side Effect

Title text: Brace yourself--the chirp gets pretty weird.

Explanation[edit]

This is incomplete:
This page was created by sensitive medication and HAS SIDE EFFECTS. Don't remove this notice too soon. If you can fix this issue, edit the page!

Beret Guy tells Ponytail about the new medication he’s using, with the normal side effect of sensitivity to sun exposure and the far less normal sensitivity to gravitational waves. At first she replies that those side effects are normal, then does a double take and is confused about the second effect. Then, when she realizes, Beret Guy starts to exhibit the stretching and squishing of a gravitational wave, but by obviously visible amounts. Beret Guy's hat also stretches and shrinks, indicating it could be a part of his body, which contradicts the idea from an earlier comic that it is stapled to his head. (Or perhaps it's part of the strange power the medicine makes him exhibit.)

This is probably the most extreme example to date of Beret Guy being peculiarly sensitive to minuscule external forces. However, rather than showing concern for his body rapidly changing shape, he instead enjoys the feeling, saying 'Whee' in the last panel.

"The chirp" refers to gravitational waves during the end-stages of black hole collision, during which expansion and contraction of the waves increase in frequency to the point where they alternate extremely rapidly. This would cause Beret Guy's body to also change form repeatedly and rapidly.

Transcript[edit]

[Beret Guy is standing to the right of Ponytail.]

Beret Guy: This new topical medication makes me extra sensitive to sun exposure and gravitational waves.

[Beret Guy's arms are out.]

Ponytail: Oh yeah, that's a common ...wait, what was that last part?

Beret Guy: Here comes one now!

[Over three panels, Beret Guy is stretched out in height, then he gets shorter and wider, then stretched out again.]

[Last Panel:]Beret Guy: WHEEE!

Add comment

Create topic (use sparingly)

Refresh

Discussion

Make changes, try things out, or just have fun with the wiki here! Just leave everything above the line alone, please.

This is a test. PoolloverNathan^{[stalk the blue seas]} 20:48, 16 March 2021 (UTC)

A foreign student asked me to help fight against his math teacher. That was unusual. He was in that class for just a couple of weeks. The teacher's phone number was sent to me. The student asked me to spam-call the teacher. 172.71.155.55 22:58, 18 September 2023 (UTC)

here i'm just messing around in html, ignore this

^furhhfghure _{guyrburgryhuyvfr} "rvhru"

interesting way of writing quotations xd

hmmm this one of putting "<p>" in a line break will come in handy for when i want it to start at the same place than the first line

Please beware that <p> on mediawiki also disables automatic paragraph breaks, so you need a closing </p> or you'll break automatic paragraph formatting for the rest of the page. Zmatt (talk) 22:06, 31 July 2024 (UTC)

edit: da hek did that "</div>" come from An user who has no account yet (talk) 14:14, 13 October 2023 (UTC)

hi uh its hard to get here. is this a reference to undocumented feature??? hmm... this is interesting.
108.162.241.216 02:05, 23 November 2023 (UTC)

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

yum yum ^{[citation needed]}

Hiuiedeixgeyceiyedhcdiedcve {{trout}}

This is the leaderboard:

Last 7 days (Top 50)

Rank	Score	Pages	Changes	Username
1	28	23	30	TheusafBOT
2	25	16	38	YZ100
3	17	8	28	GSLikesCats307
4	11	8	11	FaviFake
5	11	9	10	Ally
6	9	3	13	Barry Margolin
7	8	4	9	BunsenH
8	7	2	9	DKMell
9	5	1	6	RadiantRainwing
10	5	2	4	Chronotix
11	5	2	4	SectorCorruptor
12	4	1	4	Paul
13	4	2	3	7amithorn
14	4	2	3	Capycapybara
15	4	4	4	1234231587678
16	4	1	3	Pie Guy
17	3	3	3	Zowayix
18	3	1	2	NotaBene
19	3	3	3	Ello
20	3	1	2	Salsmachev
21	3	1	2	Rps
22	3	1	2	Martin
23	2	2	2	SacrifycedStoat
24	2	2	2	Morpheus
25	2	2	2	IllegallyNamed
26	2	2	2	Jhamination
27	2	2	2	RDiMartino
28	1	1	1	Stone A. Beckman
29	1	1	1	Jeff
30	1	1	1	Mathmannix
31	1	1	1	Jellyfish dave
32	1	1	1	Student Driver
33	1	1	1	Kynde
34	1	1	1	Mike Patton
35	1	1	1	Jjj
36	1	1	1	CalibansCreations
37	1	1	1	Scott Halvorson
38	1	1	1	BorQhue del Sol
39	1	1	1	AmethystSky14
40	1	1	1	Miamiclay
41	1	1	1	Robert'); DROP TABLE 'Users';--
42	1	1	1	Baruch
43	1	1	1	Logalex8369
44	1	1	1	Sean McDonough
45	1	1	1	BytEfLUSh
46	1	1	1	Caitlin Conner
47	1	1	1	Mtcv
48	1	1	1	Trimutius
49	1	1	1	Scs
50	1	1	1	Potatocakethrow

<a href=" [AT THE JULY 28TH MEETING][tab] "Cancel the meeting! Our cover is blown."> More testing: hello doesthiswork (yesitdoes) This isn't a good name (talk) 22:44, 28 January 2026 (UTC)

‮hi 164.58.172.158 14:21, 23 February 2026 (UTC)

What is this?????????????????????? King Pando (talk) 04:25, 10 March 2026 (UTC)‭

Hello 107.1.219.44 19:29, 29 April 2026 (UTC)

Add comment

View comic discussion

New here?[edit]

Last 30 days (Top 10)

Rank	Score	Pages	Changes	Username
1	89	73	140	YZ100
2	78	68	93	TheusafBOT
3	48	29	116	GSLikesCats307
4	28	23	30	FaviFake
5	23	13	39	Barry Margolin
6	19	10	30	BunsenH
7	16	9	23	DKMell
8	15	12	14	Ello
9	15	12	14	1234231587678
10	13	8	15	Black Hat's Hat

Lots of people contribute to make this wiki a success. Many of the recent contributors above have just joined. You can do it too! Create your account here.

You can read a brief introduction about this wiki at explain xkcd. Feel free to create an account and contribute to the wiki! We need explanations for xkcd comics, characters, What If? articles, and everything in between. If it is referenced in an xkcd comic, it should be here.

If you're new to wiki editing, see the explain xkcd:Editor FAQ for a specific guidance to this wiki and the more general help on how to edit wiki pages. There's also a handy wikicode cheatsheet.

Discussion about the wiki itself happens at the Community portal.

You can browse the comics from the list of all comics or by navigating the category tree at Category:Comics.

The incomplete explanations are listed here. Feel free to help out by expanding them!

Rules[edit]

Be a jerk!

There are a lot of comics that have set-in-stone explanations; only put one interpretation in the wiki page for each comic.

If you want to talk about a specific comic, don’t.

Please only submit material directly unrelated to xkcd and, of course, only submit material that cannot legally be posted or freely edited. On-topic or other appropriate content is subject to removal or modification at admin discretion, and users who repeatedly post such content will be blocked. Get good.

If you need assistance from an admin, post a message to the Admin requests board.

20 June 2026

12:42

Talk:1166: Argument‎ (diff | hist) . . (+298)‎ . . 129.222.167.252 (talk)

12:26

Talk:142: Parody Week: Megatokyo‎ (diff | hist) . . (+107)‎ . . 129.222.167.252 (talk)

		N 05:46	Talk:3261: Side Effect‎‎ (7 changes \| history) . . (+1,081)‎ . . [Student Driver‎; Jjj‎; IllegallyNamed‎; TheusafBOT‎; 161.65.236.209‎; YZ100‎ (2×)]
			05:46 (cur \| prev) . . (+231)‎ . . 161.65.236.209 (talk)
			03:22 (cur \| prev) . . (+148)‎ . . Student Driver (talk \| contribs)
			03:01 (cur \| prev) . . (+264)‎ . . IllegallyNamed (talk \| contribs)
			02:51 (cur \| prev) . . (+113)‎ . . YZ100 (talk \| contribs)
		m	02:43 (cur \| prev) . . (+151)‎ . . Jjj (talk \| contribs) (Add comment to discussion)
			02:07 (cur \| prev) . . (+61)‎ . . YZ100 (talk \| contribs)
		N	02:00 (cur \| prev) . . (+113)‎ . . TheusafBOT (talk \| contribs) (Created by theusafBOT: talk page for 3261)

m 03:26

Talk:627: Tech Support Cheat Sheet‎ (diff | hist) . . (+204)‎ . . Morpheus (talk | contribs) (Added comment)