Editing 2332: Cursed Chair

This comic is another in a [[:Category:COVID-19|series of comics]] related to the {{w|COVID-19 pandemic}}.

[[Beret Guy]] informs [[Cueball]] that he purchased a cursed office chair from a mysterious shop. Cueball isn't sure if he remembers this happening, which is possibly because Beret Guy has [[1772: Startup Opportunity|previously stated]] that he makes a habit of purchasing daily necessities from such stores. Beret Guy then exclaims that the store he bought the chair from was gone when he went to return it, though given his buying preferences, he should perhaps not be so surprised. Cueball suggests that maybe the shop was simply closed due to the {{w|COVID-19 pandemic}}, as is the case for wide variety of non-cursed businesses.{{Citation needed}} Beret Guy takes this as proof that the chair somehow caused the pandemic, a claim Cueball meets incredulously. In the final panel, Beret Guy is doing battle with the chair, which taunts him and claims to be immortal (“''I can not die''”). In fact, most chairs cannot die, because they are not alive.{{Citation needed}} Cueball remarks that it would be simpler to shop at {{w|IKEA}}, a store famous for its minimalist flat-pack furniture, and which usually does not sell cursed items{{Citation needed}} (although they ''do'' sell “[[2024: Light Hacks|miniature Dyson spheres]]”).

The cursed chair and the boarded-up store are references to the stores that sell cursed items mentioned in [[1772: Startup Opportunity]]. In that comic, the stores vanished without a trace. But the fact the door was boarded is much more likely due to the pandemic or other causes than the store mysteriously disappearing.

Buying an item from a shop you never noticed before, bringing it home, discovering it is cursed, and trying to return it only to discover the shop isn’t there anymore is a popular trope. See {{tvtropes|TheLittleShopThatWasntThereYesterday|The Little Shop That Wasn't There Yesterday}}.

In the title text, the {{w|Siege Perilous}} is the empty seat at the Round Table in Arthurian legend, reserved by Merlin for the knight who would find the {{w|Holy Grail}} (who turns out to be Sir {{w|Galahad}}) and fatal to anyone else who sits in it. {{w|Herman Miller (manufacturer)|Herman Miller}} is an American office furniture company that produced the {{w|Aeron chair}}, which is the basis for [https://www.instagram.com/blantonmuseum/p/BCYaKA4GLrg/ an artwork] by {{w|Glenn Kaino}} called ''The Siege Perilous''. {{w|Wirecutter (website)|''Wirecutter''}} is a website that evaluates and recommends consumer products.  From the title text, it sounds like (in the xkcd universe) Wirecutter is used to encountering cursed products,{{Citation needed}} so they didn’t even bother trying to sit in it to test the Siege Perilous’s perilousness (er, ''peril'') before they started fighting it—and emerged victorious, if it’s only ''nearly'' as immortal as it boasts.

:[Beret Guy and Cueball are talking.]

:Beret Guy: ''The curse must have caused the pandemic!''

:Desk chair: <span style="color:white; background:black">Hee hee I can not die</span>