Talk:2544: Heart-Stopping Texts

I've done a brief explanation of each message -- sorry if I've edit-conflicted anyone! I'm not at all familiar with Joe Rogan, so I might have missed some significance there. Esogalt (talk) 19:47, 19 November 2021 (UTC)

The title text is not about a looping video of the car. The text just contains the "image loading" indicator repeating, but never successfully loads the image. That's what makes it so disturbing -- you never actually see the car. Barmar (talk) 20:36, 19 November 2021 (UTC)

It might also indicate that the server(s) upon which the media is stored is being hammered by everyone else trying to watch 'your car' and whatever is happening to it. 172.70.85.155 22:08, 19 November 2021 (UTC)

I know it has been said of Twitter: "Every day on Twitter, one person is chosen as the 'main character'. Everyone's goal is not to have that happen to them." SpuriousCorrelation (talk) 21:14, 19 November 2021 (UTC)

What this "out of the blue" does mean? (I'm not native speaker of English) 162.158.238.233 21:45, 19 November 2021 (UTC)

'The blue' alludes to the clear daylight sky. Something arriving/appearing/dropping/flying "out of the blue" has appeared not just without warning, but there's no reason for you not to have seen it (e.g. looming out of a foggy night), which sort of implies that it's not just a surprise, but even the fact that you are getting surprised by somethng is surprising.

(Just to reinterject as author of this piece, I wrote the above/following Paras to Talk-level quality, not Explanation-level. Gratified someone copied this verbatim to the main article but I'd have definitely written it 'better' there. Something like "Out Of The Blue means to arrive totally unepectedly, as if somehow arriving entirely without warning from a cloudless sky <...yada yada yada>". But do put your own rhetoric stamp on it, whoever sets about any edit.) 172.70.91.36 10:26, 20 November 2021 (UTC)

I suppose "out of nowhere" or "out of thin air" might be a more understandable phrase, that might have a direct analogue in any other language/Anglophonic-culture-somehow-lacking-this-phrase.

A very similar phrase is "a bolt from the blue" (a lightning strike from clear skies), and maybe even what the above was conceptually shortened/borrowed from. I imagine some etymology site has the actual facts on this, but that'd be cheating. ;) 172.70.85.155 22:08, 19 November 2021 (UTC)

Oh yes, in Finnish is a phrase "Kuin salama kirkkaalta taivaalta' (like a ligtning strike from clear sky). First I assumed that this "out of blue" comes from typical sms/whatsapp/signal's speech bubble, but then I realized that there is no an unified color schemes in such apps. 172.69.194.47 14:37, 20 November 2021 (UTC)

As has been said, "Out of the blue" refers to an adverse event coming from a previously clear sky. My understanding (but feel free to correct me) is that in this precise form it has been coined by aerial combat (aka "dogfight") reports, a context in which getting the jump on an opponent (especially from above) provides a decisive advantage. An opponent appearing "out of the blue" in this context would be a most stressful situation indeed. 141.101.69.10 18:08, 21 November 2021 (UTC)

I think this is meant to show prank messages which one could send to someone to cause anxiety, rather than a selection of real ones. The "image loading animation" from the title text seals that, as it is a common prank message strategy to send a gif of just the loading animation to prey on the recipient's curiosity. At the very least, I think we should note the alternate interpretation. 172.69.142.81 22:50, 19 November 2021 (UTC)

Possible. But a media-playing app/widget/iframe/canvas/whatever tends to render something of its own while buffering, and it's easy to believe that this is that. So the intent of the comic could be various. 141.101.99.32 03:25, 21 November 2021 (UTC)

"Can I call?" is one that I use/recieve semi-regularly, and it's not very stressful. The main use for me is when one party is not too familiar with the other one's schedule. And yes, it'd be used when you're expecting longer conversation, but not necessarily a stressful one - for example, when working on the organisaton of an event and going though some finer details. 141.101.77.12 23:22, 19 November 2021 (UTC)

My mother did this just 9 days before this comic came out. With her, it's always 50:50 between "long" and "serious". That's in a way even more stressful, because I can never know which one it is. Fabian42 (talk) 18:46, 21 November 2021 (UTC)

"Can I call?" could also be a reference to today's communication culture of text messages, asynchronous communication and/or using modern "apps" instead of more traditional telephony service. I regularly observe younger people avoid directly interactive communication like phone or video calls (even via modern apps!), but sending text, voice or video messages instead, even in rapid succession, thus semi-interactive. It seems strange to me and looks like social shyness or what. I understand using text instead of voice as a less intrusive medium if you don't want to disturb someone with less-than-urgent communication, but taking time to record a voice or video message so the other person has to take time to listen or watch and then record and send a response seems like a total waste of time and suboptimal communication efficiency when interactive connection with virtually no lag is readily available. Sometimes I joke to my daughter: "Is your friend on Mars?" -- 162.158.114.139 10:58, 23 November 2021 (UTC)

"There's been an accident, when can you be here to confirm identification?". Also, "Can I call you" (or a variation) is easily my number 1 text message, because if I wanted it to be truly asynchronous I'd send an email and if it was a matter of true urgency I'd call without preamble. 141.101.68.43 17:29, 21 November 2021 (UTC)

I know someone asked in the comments, but do we really need the explanation for "out of the blue" outside the comments? This page is intended to explain xkcd comics, not commonly used idioms of the English language. Bischoff (talk) 10:16, 22 November 2021 (UTC)

• If someone wanted to know, I don't see the problem in including that information. --172.70.130.209 19:29, 22 November 2021 (UTC)

The Joe Rogan avoidance, besides simple unwanted attention, would probably be about it being increasingly a major pseudo-science platform, not just an anti-vax stances (e.g. https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/covid-19-health-and-nutrition-pseudoscience/science-vs-joe-rogan); especially considering the themes and audience of this comic.

About the CNN message, some listicles of "curses in foreign languages" (such as the one on Listverse) say (often with scant support) "may you see your house live on CNN" is a relatively modern curse born out of their obsessive coverage of bombings and missile strikes during the Kosovo conflict. as a result saying this (in the affected countries) was implying you wished someone's house would be struck by an errant air or artillery strike, which would result in it being shown on CNN. it's just obscure enough, and the kind of list that Randall would read, but marginal at best. 172.70.178.47 00:14, 1 December 2021 (UTC)

hey,sorry for cursing and being informal, but what the FUCK is going on. seriously, why is a user doing this, and how is it being approved?

Sad guy with a script apparently: https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/User:X._K._C._D./common.js While False (talk) 21:54, 3 May 2022 (UTC)

Would someone having stolen a car cause the wording in the title text? 172.70.126.215 18:59, 8 May 2022 (UTC)

Someone posted a weird bunch of "song lyrics" in the Explain XKCD sandbox and claimed that the author was one of my friends. After learning that my friends didn't do anything to the lyrics, I cleared the sandbox, but the "lyrics" kept coming back. Then a few days ago someone posted on my friend's talk page and I removed that post just now. ClassicalGames (talk) 03:37, 15 June 2023 (UTC)

"My friend"? And for what reason are you commenting about this in a seemingly random comic discussion? <facepalm> 141.101.99.85 10:12, 15 June 2023 (UTC)

That text on his user page was pretty "heart-stopping". It seems even more offensive than swear words, which appeared a few hours ago on our Neography wiki. ClassicalGames (talk) 03:38, 16 June 2023 (UTC)