2246: Christmas Presents

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Christmas Presents

Title text: "The parasitism might be mediated by a fungus!" exclaimed the biologist who was trying to ruin Christmas again.

Explanation

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This is the second comic in a row about presents, this one in particular calls them Christmas presents, and it is also the comic released on Christmas Day making it the second Christmas comic in a row after 2245: Edible Arrangements.

A Christmas tree cut down from the wood, will typically be placed in a living room some time after being cut down, and stand in their for some time. On Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, presents will typically be put beneath the tree in the shade of the lower branches. At this time the tree may already have started turning brown loosing its needles.

Based on this observation (on Christmas Day) some biologist (or Randall) concludes that the presents are a type of parasitic plant.

Transcript

[A Christmas tree decorated with 16 balls and a star at the top with a high trunk with space for several presents beneath. About 13 presents with different patterns of paper and some with strings around. Three arrows with text at the blunt end points towards different areas. To the left one points to a present, beneath this one points to the area beneath the tree (the bottom of one present) and to the right one points to the tree.]

Bright white and red colors indicate a lack of Chlorophyll

Flourishing in the shade

Tree health suffering

[Caption beneath the panel:]

The evidence is clear: Christmas presents are parasitic plants.

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Discussion

Just realized that the DgbrtBOT has not worked since December 13th. So great work for those that has created the pages since then. I did this one today. Seems like it takes some time after creation before the next comic button appears on the previous page...? Followed the "When the bot fails" section on the BOT page. --Kynde (talk) 20:43, 26 December 2019 (UTC)

Ah, that explains it. I saw the comic two hours before I finally gave up waiting on DgbrtBOT to do what it does (not thinking I'd have to do it instead). I even had time to jot down a nice explanation written up, including references to Myco-heterotrophy and Mycorrhizal network where it seemed relevent to mention them, but I like the one that's here now so... 162.158.158.179 23:09, 26 December 2019 (UTC)

That one comic used to confuse me greatly when instead of "parasitic", it had "parisitic" on its initial release. I wondered if it was a pun on Paris or something. Apparently just a glitch. https://web.archive.org/web/20191225165144/https://xkcd.com/2246/ Ck (talk) 23:19, 26 December 2019 (UTC)

This comic is a reference to mistletoe (a parasitic plant that is asociated with Christmas). That is where the "biologists ruining Christmas" come in; biologists are likely to point out that mistletoe is a parasite. 172.68.34.34 06:57, 28 December 2019 (UTC)

Upon reading the comic I thought that humans are mediating this particular parasitism (as the species that actually cut down trees and create presents), and biologist tries to insult those humans by suggesting that they are fungus. 162.158.154.229 18:03, 28 December 2019 (UTC)

Whoever put the pun in the explanation deserves a prize V (talk) 04:49, 29 December 2019 (UTC)

Could this be a more complex version of Toxoplasma Gondii that infects humans? https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-parasite-that-makes-a-rat-love-a-cat-86515093/