3002: RNAWorld

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RNAWorld

Title text: Disney lore: Canonically, because of how Elsa's abiogenesis powers work, Olaf is an RNA-only organism.

Explanation

This comic conflates biology and Disney World. Disney World is one of a franchise of theme parks with attractions based on various Disney movies, while RNA world hypothesis is a proposed origin of life, in which RNA acts both as the genetic material and the enzymatic machinery needed to copy it.

Ariel is the titular character from The Little Mermaid. In the film she likes to collect human artifacts; the comic replaces this with collecting nucleotides, the basic building blocks of DNA and RNA.

Ratatouille is a film about a French rat named Remy who dreams of becoming a gourmet chef. The comic conflates the soup that a chef might create for patrons to eat with "primordial soup", the environment that's believed to have existed on the early Earth when the processes of life began.

Elsa is one of the lead characters from the Frozen movies. In the film she has the magical ability to control ice and snow, and she used this power to make the snowman Olaf come to life. The comic equates this with the original emergence of life on Earth, or life from non-life, through ribozyme synthesis. Ribozymes are RNA molecules that, similarly to enzymes made of protein, catalyze biochemical reactions, such as the splicing of RNA during gene expression.

The title text continues this by saying that since Elsa's ability is based on ribozymes, Olaf's machinery of life must be based only on RNA, not DNA. This fits in with the theme of RNA World. Olaf generally appears to be (by mass) mostly just snow but, in common with various ideas about the makeup of cometary ice (and the role played by them in 'seeding' the young Earth with organic molecules), might well be thoroughly imbued with carbon-rich compounds other than those inherent in his carrot nose, coal buttons, and basic twig/stick elements. "Canonically" refers to fictional canon (in this case Disney fiction), "the body of works taking place in a particular fictional world that are widely considered to be official or authoritative."

Transcript

[Cueball, Ponytail, Jill, and another child with a dark hair (wearing Mickey/Minnie ears) are walking through an amusement park. Cueball has a water bottle and a backpack, Ponytail is looking at a map or a brochure with a helix structure shown on one page, Jill is pointing forward while holding a small stuffed toy (that looks like Stitch), and the other child has a popsicle. Cueballs, Megans, and Hairys can be seen in the background in gray. There are also a drop tower, a roller coaster, a shop, and a hot air balloon in the background.]

Ponytail: Okay, kids, now that Ariel is done collecting nucleotides for Ratatouille’s primordial soup, let’s go watch Elsa initiate runaway ribozyme synthesis!

[Caption below the panel:]

Disney’s RNAWorld

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Discussion

Is any of this specific to Disneyland or could it be Disney World, which would be more fitting for the title? 172.70.43.93 18:43, 23 October 2024 (UTC)

Yes, Ariel is from The Little Mermaid, which is a Disney film, Ratatouille is another Disney film, and Elsa is from Frozen and Frozen II, both of which are Disney films. I believe that RNAWorld is a play on Disneyworld. 42.book.addict (talk) 19:04, 23 October 2024 (UTC)

I'm sure .43.93, above, understands that they are definitely Disney characters that are equally relevent to either Disney World or Disneyland (or Eurodisney, or...). It's the "World" bit that was important (and now is correctly referenced, so far as I can see). 172.69.194.10 19:48, 23 October 2024 (UTC)

Pfft. "Euro Disney" is 'so' 1994. It reminds me of the arguments I had with people ~20 years ago who honestly thought the currency in much of Europe was officialy the "Eurodollar". Sure, Joachimsthal is in Europe... 172.71.103.172 21:11, 23 October 2024 (UTC)

Depends what they meant by 'officially', and when. 172.68.186.107 22:08, 23 October 2024 (UTC)

the rat's name is Remy Caliban (talk) 20:06, 23 October 2024 (UTC)

What should we call the girl with the Mickey/Minnie ears? Or is a physical description good enough? 42.book.addict (talk) 01:08, 24 October 2024 (UTC)

Is he not a boy? 172.70.90.206 02:59, 24 October 2024 (UTC)

can't tell tbh Caliban (talk) 06:31, 24 October 2024 (UTC)

'He' has short hair and no ponytail, so probability 79% a XY mutant (all men are^[dubious] ;-) )' so for symmetry, how about Jack? RIIW - Ponder it (talk) 07:16, 24 October 2024 (UTC)

https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1662:_Jack_and_Jill --162.158.134.252 09:07, 24 October 2024 (UTC)

Okay so some guy removed literally everything, I undid that. But just for good measure, I also got rid of the guy saying there isn't abiogenesis. I didn't think a comic about RNAWorld would get as much controversy as the COVID comics but I guess I was wrong. Thanks guys for proving my theory that most people are just stupid 172.69.71.84 11:46, 25 October 2024 (UTC)

Recommend locking the page because the same guy keeps doing it. Stupid human being. I hope he steps on some hot Legos. 172.69.71.84 11:58, 25 October 2024 (UTC)

Hi! I would like to inform you that you guys need some better work on citing your sources^{[citation needed]}. 172.70.130.85 13:09, 25 October 2024 (UTC)

Someone keeps wiping my user pages

First it was Victoria, now me too. What is happening? Caliban (talk) 12:14, 25 October 2024 (UTC)

Please post your complaint here. ConscriptGlossary (talk) 12:33, 25 October 2024 (UTC)

Like I said, elsewhere, the idiot will find new places (and, it turns out, new ways) to be idiotic with. But already I said the rest of what I wanted to say. It's a pain, but we'll handle it. 172.68.186.104 14:41, 25 October 2024 (UTC)