282: Organic Fuel

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Organic Fuel

Title text: I have nothing to apologize for.

Explanation

This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: If you can address this issue, please edit the page! Thanks.

At first this is all about renewable energies, organic matter does burn (if it's dry) very well. But Cueball is curious, also spices?

Then this comic gets a major change because that friend did mention Mussolini. His reference to Thyme is in fact meaning "time" and is referring to this: [1].

And at the title text Cueball just do state he is not responsible for this excess.

Transcript

[Cueball at computer and a friend standing nearby.]

Cueball: Wow – Engines can burn vegetable oil.

Friend: Well, sure. You can burn most any organic matter. Corn, leaves, spices...

Cueball: Spices? Really?

Friend: Sure – Mussolini made the trains run on thyme.

Cueball: ...

Cueball: We are no longer friends.

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Discussion

Hilarious joke but Thyme isn't actually a spice, it's a herb.70.161.237.63 18:51, 17 July 2013 (UTC)

And Mussolini didn't make the trains run on time either (There were improvements in the railway system, but most were before he came to power). 108.162.221.223 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

It's a propaganda campaign, they aren't exactly the most truthful things ever... --Legoman5746 (talk) 18:07, 3 February 2017 (UTC)

How do we know that the guy at the PC is Cueball - it could just as well be Cueball that makes the terrible pun? He is just as often the one delivering terrible Your Mom joke, as the one telling people off for such behavior (since he is not the same character in Randall's XKCD but many different). Kynde (talk) 11:28, 7 March 2014 (UTC)

Yeah, the official transcript only defines them as 'Standing man' and 'Man at computer'. --Alex (talk) 16:28, 3 May 2014 (UTC)

I have never understood the hate for puns. I like puns, they are great. 108.162.215.129 21:51, 17 July 2014 (UTC)

--I agree with you, but to others, they grate. 108.162.221.64 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

In what way are time and thyme near homophones? In what dialect are they not complete homophones? RyanofTinellb (talk) 23:50, 4 January 2015 (UTC)

I am sure there are at least some people who pronounce "th" in thyme the same way as "th" in "thing" making the two words sound slightly distinct... 198.41.243.241 00:15, 18 September 2015 (UTC)

I would wager that the apology could also be Randall breaking the 4th wall, as he is the one to actually use the pun. Flewk (talk) 10:57, 26 December 2015 (UTC)

—Kazvorpal (talk) 16:06, 1 November 2019 (UTC)

My father, who grew up in England before and during WWII told a different version - that Mussolini made the trains run on time because if they were late, his blackshirts would haul the engineer and conductor off the train and shoot them against a wall. A more cynical take on fascist efficiency...

______________

"engines that can burn organic matter" The early internal combustion engines burned moss-spore powder. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyr%C3%A9olophore https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lycopodium_powder -PRR 172.68.206.118 02:44, 4 May 2021 (UTC)

xkcd Volume 0 (book)

On the page for this strip, (100000), the top reads

HALF OF WHAT YOU SEEK IS HERE/AND HALF YOU'VE SEEN BEFORE

The bottom reads

SO WHY DON'T YOU WISE UP A BIT/AND DIGG A LITTLE MORE.

On the side (rotated 89 degrees clockwise) reads

429C6822BE41C334BE616EFFF8B5A320 172.69.58.153 (talk) 23:40, 11 January 2024 (please sign your comments with ~~~~)