654: Nachos

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Nachos

Title text: 'Cheater!' 'Hey, gaming on wifi? You have only yourself to blame.'

Explanation

Megan and Ponytail are playing together on an online multiplayer shooter game. Ponytail calls Cueball, who is living with Megan, and easily persuades him to make nachos. Wi-Fi and microwave ovens both use radio frequencies around 2.4 GHz, so Cueball's cooking disrupts Megan's connection and allows Ponytail to kill Megan's character. Boom! Headshot is a catchphrase made popular through a web mockumentary series called Pure Pwnage, and is also used in the game League of Legends by the character Caitlyn.

The title text points out that Megan has only herself to blame, as gaming on WiFi is susceptible to such issues, while gaming with a wired connection (e.g. Ethernet) is not.

Note: If using the microwave actually does interfere with your WiFi, then get another microwave. Not (strictly) because it would mess with the WiFi, but because your microwave has a hole somewhere and is leaking non-ionizing radiation it shouldn't. It won't kill you, but it's not operating at peak efficiency. See this video on the subject.

Around the time of this comic's release, the xkcd website was temporarily redesigned using Yahoo! GeoCities. Snapshots of the site at the time can be found on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.

This was the fifth time Megan is drawn and given the name Megan in xkcd, the first time being in 159: Boombox. Once in between this and the previous of these comics (478: The Staple Madness), her name was used in 596: Latitude, but she was not drawn there.

Transcript

[Cueball is on the phone with Ponytail, who's on her computer in the other half of a split panel.]

Cueball: Hello? ... Oh, hey. Looking for Megan? She's gaming.

Ponytail: I know. You know what's delicious? Nachos.

[Ponytail clicks on her computer while talking.]

Ponytail: When you layer the cheese so it gets on every chip... then smother them in sour cream and salsa...

Cueball: Mm, that IS delicious. And I've got the ingredients, too!

Ponytail, on phone: You should make some!

Cueball: I will!

Ponytail, on phone: Hurry.

[Cueball is making nachos in the microwave.]

Microwave: beep beep whirrrr

Megan, at her computer: My wifi signal!

[Ponytail who called is at her computer.]

Computer: Boom! Headshot.

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Discussion

[1] WiFi and microwaves use the same frequency band?! a conspiracy! the machines are taking over! Xseo (talk) 09:38, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

If your microwave is interfering with your wifi then it's time to get a new microwave because your old one has a gaping hole. Microwave ovens form Faraday cages to contain EM radiation within them, and if the EM radiation is leaking that means the Faraday cage is violated somewhere. 72.128.82.131 01:00, 13 June 2013 (UTC)

Thank you, this information really improved my understanding of the joke. 108.162.219.223 01:12, 7 January 2014 (UTC)

The problem is the conspiracy theory may be the correct answer. In which case you need a firewall for the microwave or an old one, pre Pentium III at least. I used Google News BEFORE it was clickbait (talk) 05:00, 28 January 2015 (UTC)

This is true. It's why you can stand in front of a microwave without boiling alive. 173.245.54.73 01:11, 17 June 2014 (UTC)

Actually, Sniper doesn't have a "Boom! Headshot." line ingame, it's from the meet the team vids. UT maybe? 108.162.231.121 08:03, 4 March 2014 (UTC)

"Boom Headshot" actually was first brought up here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olm7xC-gBMY -> CS?

The real joke here is two attractive girls playing an fps. 141.101.99.17 16:59, 4 October 2015 (UTC) For some reason Megan's comment and the quote marks were left out of the title text. I added them. It changes the context from Randall speaking to the reader to ponytail chastising Megan. 108.162.236.49 19:02, 8 May 2016 (UTC)