Difference between revisions of "87: Velociraptors"

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
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[[Category:Velociraptors]]
 
[[Category:Velociraptors]]
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[[Category:Jurassic Park]]

Revision as of 08:36, 1 February 2013

Velociraptors
You're probably thinking, 'has it been a decade?'  It's been over thirteen years, buddy.
Title text: You're probably thinking, 'has it been a decade?' It's been over thirteen years, buddy.

Explanation

This comic refers to the film Jurassic Park, a 1993 movie based on the 1990 novel by Micheal Crichton. The film centres around a billionaire who buys an island and opens a zoo/theme park for dinosaurs which he has cloned from DNA recovered from blood found in fossilized mosquitos. Naturally, everything goes haywire, and several of the creatures, among which are the Velociraptors subject of this comic, try to devour every human in the theme park.

Velociraptors (often shortened to "raptors") are a species of relatively small, carnivorous dinosaur which play a central role original film, as well as its sequels. In the film, herds of Velociraptors antagonize the main characters at various points, even entering buildings; they play a large role in the climax of the film. According to Wikipedia, the Velociraptors in the film were erroneously based on the Deinonychus species of dinosaur. Unlike the movie, in which they are depicted as having a reptilian skin, both species of dinosaur in reality are theorized to have been feathered. This makes sense, as the word "raptor" also refers to modern birds of prey.

As we see in this comic, and will see in future comics, even though it had been approximately thirteen years since he presumably first saw the film, Randall, apparently has been perpetually scared and fears a real raptor attack; specifically, in this comic he worries how a building would stand up against the creatures. The drawn house mainly poses a risk by the large window in the living room, through which a Velociraptor could break-and-enter (believing that the bathroom window is too high for them to reach, and the door too secure to break through).

The image text points out what he presumes is the reader's disbelief that Jurassic Park had (as of 2006) been released so long ago (thirteen years prior). This is another classic xkcd premise which will later be the subject of a least one comic outright: #891 five years later, which includes Jurassic Park again.

Trivia

  • This comic marks the first reference in xkcd to Jurassic Park, and specifically to Randall's fear of Velociraptors. The fear will continue to be a subject of future comics and running jokes.

Transcript

[Picture of a suburban house, with lines pointing to various aspects]

High bathroom window: probably secure.

Outer door: secure.

picture window: VELOCIRAPTOR ENTRY POINT!

Narrator: It's been over a decade since Jurassic Park opened, and I still size up buildings for their potential as shelter against velociraptor attacks.


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Discussion

I know the knowledge of dinosaurs is growing and changing daily. Was it widely understood that Velociraptors were feathers back in the early 1990s? Tryc (talk) 17:33, 13 June 2013 (UTC)

Nope. The confirmation came quite later.

Wikipedia: In 2007, paleontologists reported the discovery of quill knobs on a well-preserved Velociraptor mongoliensis forearm from Mongolia, confirming the presence of feathers in this species. SaMa (talk) 13:31, 20 June 2013 (UTC)we

However, the size of the velociraptor was well known when the book and the film were produced. The dinosaurs in the film are similar to Deinonychus in size. Deinonychus was also feathered. HNY 141.101.106.107 00:32, 1 January 2015 (UTC)

Want to feel old? This comic was released closer to the premiere of Jurassic Park than to today.108.162.216.130 07:36, 14 August 2018 (UTC)

My last place was a duplex weirdly a half floor elevated with a wooden stair I could barricade or destroy, perfect for keeping out zombies while still having a big picture window. My current 2,900 square foot house would be great except for one huge set of three picture windows that would be impossible to defend, and that's bothered me since I got it. I don't have his weird velociraptor fetish, though. I think I could handle those. — Kazvorpal (talk) 22:44, 14 August 2019 (UTC)

  • Each place I live, I develop a plan for if there's a Zombie Apocalypse. This does involve figuring out which windows need to be boarded up, among other things. — Kazvorpal (talk) 01:51, 29 January 2024 (UTC)

Found a reference to Randall's fear of Velociraptors over in Dinosaur Comics, specifically in the mouseover text: https://qwantz.com/index.php?comic=903 162.158.255.250 (talk) 04:51, 14 April 2021 (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

In light of a recent edit, I was tempted to add that he does not seem to assess the garage/car-port door at all, nor acknowledge any rearward/out-of-view pogential openings in the house wall. Now, the garage likely has external shutter and internal door leading into the human(/dino)-only interior, so if both are closed then Ok. But, knowing the tropes, some chink will open up and there is a nasty surprise awaiting the human defender(s). The unseen rear/sides can be excused his lack of Sherlock Vision labeling, maybe, until he can actually do a walk round the perimiter to fill in those gaps in his internal picture, but the missed ingress (or emergency egress, perhaps not needing it to be opened first) is blatently missing... 172.70.86.154 09:54, 26 June 2023 (UTC)