Latest revision as of 09:33, 16 March 2026

Welcome to the explain xkcd wiki!
We have an explanation for all 3279 xkcd comics, and only 43 (1.3%) are incomplete. Help us finish them!

Go to this explanation

Latest comic[edit]

Toasting Marshmallows

Title text: We have two 'in case of fire, break glass' boxes, which you pick between based on how big of a problem the fire is. One has an extinguisher, and one has sticks, marshmallows, graham crackers, and chocolate.

Explanation[edit]

This is incomplete:
This page was created in a puff of magic blue smoke. Don't remove this notice too soon. If you can fix this issue, edit the page!

Intensive, or even unintentional, testing of hardware can occasionally result in overloading components, sometimes leading to heat damage or even a resulting fire.

Engineers are, in this comic, being persuaded to fake any such errors in judgement out by pretending that any resulting fire is the deliberate aim, as in treating the burning equipment as a camp fire that they can roast marshmallows on sticks over.

Cueball and Megan's conversation indicates that this is what happened here. It also (rightly) raises the concern that burning PCBs, and likely other plastics, might not produce the healthiest types of smoke within which to hold foodstuffs intended for consumption.

The title text deals with equipment intended to be used in the case of a fire. One option is a fire extinguisher, the other is the aforementioned marshmallows, sticks and other traditional campfire foods as a 'fire exploiter'.

Toasting marshmallows in a lab environment has been previously referenced in 2514: Lab Equipment.

Transcript[edit]

This is one of 32 incomplete transcripts:
Don't remove this notice too soon. If you can fix this issue, edit the page!

[A single panel showing Cueball and Megan sitting on the ground. Between them is a small fire built of what appears to be a burning circuit board. Both are holding long sticks with marshmallows on the end, roasting them over the flames.]

Cueball: At least we finally determined the board's actual thermal limit.

Megan: Yeah. You know, we probably shouldn't eat these.

[Caption below the comic:]

Engineering tip: Keep sticks and marshmallows around to make failures look intentional.

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)

45px	Soup

45px	Soup

45px	Soup

45px	Soup

45px	Soup

45px	Soup

45px	Soup

45px	Soup

45px	Soup

45px	Soup

45px	Soup

45px	Soup

45px	Soup

45px	Soup

45px	Soup

45px	Soup

45px	Soup

45px	Soup

45px	Soup

45px	Soup

45px	Soup

45px	Soup

45px	Soup

yum yum ^{[citation needed]}

Hiuiedeixgeyceiyedhcdiedcve {{trout}}

This is the leaderboard:

Last 7 days (Top 50)

Rank	Score	Pages	Changes	Username
1	21	17	21	TheusafBOT
2	14	9	15	YZ100
3	9	4	11	GSLikesCats307
4	9	7	8	Theusaf
5	9	4	10	John Hawkinson
6	7	1	10	7amithorn
7	7	3	7	SevenTheGamingKitty
8	7	4	6	Somefan
9	6	3	6	Capycapybara
10	3	1	2	Alcatraz ii
11	3	3	3	Barry Margolin
12	3	1	2	Citation 307
13	3	1	2	Carl
14	2	2	2	Chronotix
15	2	2	2	Victoria
16	2	2	2	Staca77
17	2	2	2	Whynot7
18	2	2	2	FaviFake
19	2	2	2	Daniel Griscom
20	1	1	1	Qwertyuiopfromdefly
21	1	1	1	Trimutius
22	1	1	1	Fephisto
23	1	1	1	Penguin Zero
24	1	1	1	mouse
25	1	1	1	Squishmallow fan
26	1	1	1	Morpheus
27	1	1	1	DollarStoreBa'al
28	1	1	1	NHG Mitchell
29	1	1	1	Jacob Thrall
30	1	1	1	Exo

<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	77	67	93	TheusafBOT
2	48	35	80	YZ100
3	39	24	80	GSLikesCats307
4	25	22	24	Ally
5	21	17	22	FaviFake
6	21	14	25	DKMell
7	19	10	31	Barry Margolin
8	18	11	24	BunsenH
9	16	10	20	Capycapybara

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.

11 July 2026

02:26

Talk:3269: Airport Meeting‎‎ (2 changes | history) . . (0)‎ . . [Nitpicking‎ (2×)]

02:26

(cur | prev) . . (-221)‎ . . Nitpicking (talk | contribs) (Undo revision 415851 by Nitpicking (talk) - stupid mistake by me)

02:25

(cur | prev) . . (+221)‎ . . Nitpicking (talk | contribs) (quark)

		N 02:10	Talk:3270: Toasting Marshmallows‎‎ (3 changes \| history) . . (+269)‎ . . [Whynot7‎; Exo‎; TheusafBOT‎]
			02:10 (cur \| prev) . . (+82)‎ . . Whynot7 (talk \| contribs)
			01:53 (cur \| prev) . . (+74)‎ . . Exo (talk \| contribs)
		N	01:02 (cur \| prev) . . (+113)‎ . . TheusafBOT (talk \| contribs) (Created by theusafBOT: talk page for 3270)

10 July 2026

		N 22:57	Talk:3269: Airport Meeting‎‎ (15 changes \| history) . . (+4,531)‎ . . [Somefan‎; Mouse‎; Capycapybara‎; TheusafBOT‎; Barmar‎; 82.132.236.148‎; 2601:40d:4283:28e0:2587:5b61:a9fe:1a87‎; 216.25.182.141‎; 2001:16b8:cc2e:500:9aaf:4351:6eb6:c918‎; SevenTheGamingKitty‎ (2×); Alcatraz ii‎ (2×); 159.224.64.162‎ (2×)]
			22:57 (cur \| prev) . . (+11)‎ . . 159.224.64.162 (talk)
			22:56 (cur \| prev) . . (+611)‎ . . 159.224.64.162 (talk)
			21:14 (cur \| prev) . . (+35)‎ . . Somefan (talk \| contribs) (divide comments into sections about the comic and wiki, respectively)
			21:09 (cur \| prev) . . (+452)‎ . . 2001:16b8:cc2e:500:9aaf:4351:6eb6:c918 (talk)
			17:16 (cur \| prev) . . (+208)‎ . . Capycapybara (talk \| contribs)
			15:52 (cur \| prev) . . (+685)‎ . . 2601:40d:4283:28e0:2587:5b61:a9fe:1a87 (talk) (Added comment about site instability maybe having another cause)
			13:25 (cur \| prev) . . (+181)‎ . . Mouse (talk \| contribs)
			11:38 (cur \| prev) . . (+1,024)‎ . . 82.132.236.148 (talk)
			03:46 (cur \| prev) . . (+92)‎ . . Alcatraz ii (talk \| contribs)
			03:46 (cur \| prev) . . (+237)‎ . . Alcatraz ii (talk \| contribs)
			03:31 (cur \| prev) . . (+173)‎ . . SevenTheGamingKitty (talk \| contribs) (reply to barmar)
			02:56 (cur \| prev) . . (+325)‎ . . Barmar (talk \| contribs)
			02:48 (cur \| prev) . . (+172)‎ . . 216.25.182.141 (talk)
			00:52 (cur \| prev) . . (+212)‎ . . SevenTheGamingKitty (talk \| contribs) (comment)
		N	00:46 (cur \| prev) . . (+113)‎ . . TheusafBOT (talk \| contribs) (Created by theusafBOT: talk page for 3269)

		N 18:34	Talk:3268: Offside‎‎ (4 changes \| history) . . (+1,278)‎ . . [Yorkshire Pudding‎; GSLikesCats307‎; 82.132.236.148‎; 198.73.70.136‎]
			18:34 (cur \| prev) . . (+569)‎ . . 198.73.70.136 (talk) (Noticed an unusual coincidence)
			14:22 (cur \| prev) . . (+442)‎ . . 82.132.236.148 (talk)
			12:12 (cur \| prev) . . (+142)‎ . . Yorkshire Pudding (talk \| contribs)
		N	09:36 (cur \| prev) . . (+125)‎ . . GSLikesCats307 (talk \| contribs) (Created page with "Finally the site's back! ~~~~")

		11:47	Talk:3267: Types of Tornado Alert‎‎ (3 changes \| history) . . (+250)‎ . . [Squishmallow fan‎; 82.13.184.33‎ (2×)]
			11:47 (cur \| prev) . . (+195)‎ . . Squishmallow fan (talk \| contribs)
			08:26 (cur \| prev) . . (+55)‎ . . 82.13.184.33 (talk)
			08:25 (cur \| prev) . . (0)‎ . . 82.13.184.33 (talk)

09:55

Talk:3266: Holes‎ (diff | hist) . . (+463)‎ . . 82.13.184.33 (talk)

		01:00	Talk:Main Page‎‎ (3 changes \| history) . . (0)‎ . . [SevenTheGamingKitty‎ (3×)]
			01:00 (cur \| prev) . . (-206)‎ . . SevenTheGamingKitty (talk \| contribs) (oh wait, this isn't even the right page (delete topic about comic 3268))
		m	00:59 (cur \| prev) . . (+116)‎ . . SevenTheGamingKitty (talk \| contribs) (→‎what happened to comic 3268?: forgot to sign whoops)
			00:58 (cur \| prev) . . (+90)‎ . . SevenTheGamingKitty (talk \| contribs) (→‎what happened to comic 3268?: new section)