283: Projection

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
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Projection
Out in a field, not another car for miles, silence but for the rain drumming on the sunroof, warm thick folds of the blanket hiding wordless fingertip games...
Title text: Out in a field, not another car for miles, silence but for the rain drumming on the sunroof, warm thick folds of the blanket hiding wordless fingertip games...

Explanation

Cueball and Megan are watching a movie on a couch. During the movie, a scene features a character's face with legible text projected by the monitor. Though commonly depicted for dramatic effect, this phenomenon does not actually occur with conventional monitor technology. Megan is annoyed and agitated by the inaccuracy of the effect. Cueball agrees and delves more into the optical underpinnings of projected images, but in the process segues into a romantic memory of the two of them in a parked car in the rain.

At that point, the two lose interest in the movie and begin making preparations to drive to the nearest rainstorm for another romantic evening experience.

This was the second time in four months that Randall mentions Pet Peeves. The first was 238: Pet Peeve 114. The next, 1138: Heatmap, did not appear until more than five years later.

Transcript

[Cueball and Megan are seated on a couch, watching TV.]
Megan: Argh, movie pet peeve- Someone sitting at a computer in the dark with the screen projected on their face. Monitors don't work like that!
[Cueball and Megan face each other on the couch.]
Cueball: Right - that only happens if you're in the way of a projected image. Like when we're sitting together in a parked car in the rain and the mottled light through the raindrops on the windshield makes shifting shadows on your skin...
[Beat panel.]
[Megan stands up, Cueball uses a laptop on table behind the couch.]
Megan: ...I wasn't really into the movie anyway.
Cueball: The nearest rainstorm's about 60 miles away.
Megan: We'll drive fast.
Cueball: I'll grab some snacks.


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Discussion

Possible Reference to 289
Alone in Alt Text

The alt text for this comic reads "Out in a field, not another car for miles, silence but for the rain drumming on the sunroof, warm thick folds of the blanket hiding wordless fingertip games...", and I can't help but suspect that the "wordless fingertip games" are referencing the Fibonacci sequence fingertip thing in 289: Alone. Anyone else catch that? --Misson20000 (talk) 04:14, 7 August 2016 (UTC)


Alien by Ridley Scott

Might it be that this is the film they aren't really into? In this film I cannot really read the letters and later you'll find out if they really reflect on person's heads, but... Gunterkoenigsmann (talk) 05:52, 22 May 2018 (UTC)