864: Flying Cars

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Flying Cars

Title text: It's hard to fit in the backseat of my flying car with my android Realdoll when we're both wearing jetpacks.

Explanation

Cueball is complaining to Megan, on a phone call on his smartphone, about the lack of flying cars even though it is the year 2011. This is a reference to the joke "where's my flying car?" This was explored further in 1623: 2016 Conversation Guide where Randall proposes that flying cars would in fact just be helicopters.

Megan counters that phone technology has taken off. For example in many science fiction movies it was predicted that by now we would have flying cars, but in the same movies the computer technology was pretty much similar to what they had achieved at the time of the movies release (see for instance Blade Runner set in 2019; even back in 2011 very few believed that flying cars would roam the streets by then.) The flying car is still not perfected (although there are some prototypes flying today). But almost any computer technology shown in old movies pales in comparison to the current state of smartphones and other computers.

Cueball chooses to be resentful about the lack of flying cars while calling her from a phone on which he can buy and read books. He should instead be amazed at the current state of computers and communication technology. She continues to say that she even interrupted him in playing a 3D shooter game on his phone, when she called him. And the call could have been a video call, had it not been because Megan chose not to do so, since she is currently shirtless.

Typically, Cueball keeps fixating on the flying car. Megan assumes that if he ever had a flying car he would crash it while using his smartphone to text or play Angry Birds (a game released in 2009, two years before this comic). Given that many car accidents happens because people use their phones while driving, this seems a realistic assumption.

The title text references RealDoll, known as "the world's finest lovedoll", but specifically an android version, which the world has yet to see. This is a direct callback to the android series. It also refers to jet packs, another invention that many people were expecting to have by this point in time. Cueball complain on in the title text that there is not enough space on the backseat of his flying car to have sex with his android girlfriend when they are both wearing their jet packs. (Maybe they would wear those for safety purposes when flying in a car while having sex... Even if it is a self-driving flying car...)

This strip is quoted at the top of the TV Tropes article I Want My Jet Pack, having a similar theme to the strip.

Transcript

[Cueball, looking right, is talking on his phone held up to his left cheek. The reply from Megan is shown to come from the phone with a zigzag line.]

Cueball: It's 2011. I want my flying car.

Megan (over the phone): Dude.

[In a frame-less panel Megan, looking left, is talking with Cueball over her phone, which she holds up to her left cheek.]

Megan: You're complaining to me using a phone on which you buy and read books,

[Zoom in on Megan as she moves the phone down in front of her while looking at and talking to it.]

Megan: And which you were using to play a 3D shooter until I interrupted you with what would be a video call if I were wearing a shirt.

[Cueball is now also looking down at his phone held in front of him, talking to it. Again the reply from Megan is shown to come from the phone with a zigzag line.]

Cueball: Can't I have a flying car, too?

Megan (over the phone): You'd crash it while texting and playing Angry Birds.

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Discussion

Self driving flying car. Happy now? Davidy²²[talk] 10:01, 9 March 2013 (UTC)

I think the title text is more of a reference to other things we expected to have by the 21st century: androids and jetpacks. 75.101.102.252 02:47, 6 May 2013 (UTC)

I think we're missing an important feature of this comic. And that is that Megan is not wearing a shirt. Discuss. 108.162.250.219 14:10, 8 June 2014 (UTC)

So would this particular strip be considered nsfw? :P Kirdneh (talk) 04:39, 25 January 2015 (UTC)

I agree that this is important for the comic, and should be included in the explanation. Will fix this. --Kynde (talk) 16:13, 30 July 2016 (UTC)

I think you people have a problem, and that problem is that you are too focused on sexuality. The fact that Megan is topless is not that important.172.68.79.73 15:19, 17 October 2016 (UTC)

Since mobile/cell phones use part of the radio spectrum, they are patently two-way in that they send and receive data, and since smart-watches exist (the long-awaited Apple Watch made its debut in March 2015), I'd say that prophecy came true, and we just never properly realised it until now. 108.162.250.223 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

But that was after this comic was released so not relevant for the comic. But could be mentioned of course.--Kynde (talk) 16:13, 30 July 2016 (UTC)

It's sort of like how 3D printers are just very primitive version of replicators from Star Trek... -Pennpenn 108.162.250.162 03:20, 26 June 2015 (UTC)

Back to the Future II DID predict video calls, though... Greyson (talk) 05:09, 22 October 2015 (UTC)

And BttF is also referenced later when he asks where is my hoverboard... --Kynde (talk) 16:13, 30 July 2016 (UTC)