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| Speedrun |
 Title text: Usain Bolt holds the world record in the 100 meter speedrun. |
Explanation
Speedrunning is the sport of completing a video game as fast as possible. This comic shows Cueball sitting at a desk complaining that his speedrun got deleted off of Speedrun.com, which is a popular leaderboard aggregator for speedrunners.
A tool-assisted speedrun (or TAS for short) is a type of speedrun where inputs can be manipulated after the fact to perfect a run. While this tool is mostly for experimenting with new strategies or finding areas where a time can be optimized, it is possible to cheat a run by passing off a tool-assisted run as a normal speedrun. Lateralus and Ænima are albums by the band Tool. This comic makes use of a pun, where rather than using third party tools to assist him in beating a video game as quickly as possible, Cueball is getting "assistance" from the rock band Tool in the form of background music to help him concentrate, which would be considered 'third-party' if Tool was not directly related to the game. In real life, a speedrun would be unlikely to be removed based on the music one is listening to while completing it, though it may be considered similar to using a metronome, a controversial topic due to the fact that a metronome could be very useful if the game one is playing requires some sort of rhythm or precision. The comic could also be referencing Alex Honnold’s ascent of the Taipei 101 tower, during which he listened to Tool. The comic was posted 25 years after the Lateralus album was released.
The title text is a pun on the word "speedrun". Usain Bolt's 100-meter dash record is a world-record "speedrun" in the sense that it is literally a speedy run and also an attempt by someone to complete a task as fast as possible. It is very common for internet personalities to say they are 'speedrunning' when they are doing a task quickly, even when completely unrelated to gaming (e.g. speedrunning petting a cat). The notion of such a record being classified as a legitimate speedrun isn't farfetched as Speedrun.com has some leaderboards for In Real Life records. The use of "speedrun" to refer to an actual fast run may be considered to be a case of 3123: Canon.
It is possible that speedunning was on his mind due to the recent social media trend of Scientology speedrunning, in which someone attempts to get as deep as they can into a building belonging to the Church of Scientology before being kicked out. Because of this trend, the concept of speedrunning has been on many people's minds, regardless of whether or not they participate in the trend.
Randall has referred to bizarre speedruns before in this comic here.
Transcript
- [Cueball is sitting at a desk with a laptop, typing on it. Megan is standing behind him.]
- Cueball: Aw man, Speedrun.com removed my world record just because I listened to Lateralus and Ænima to get in the flow.
- Megan: Oh, a copyright thing?
- Cueball: No, they don't allow Tool-assisted speedruns.
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