929: Speculation

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
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Speculation
'I was pretty good at skeet shooting, but was eventually kicked off the range for catching the clay pigeons in a net and dispatching them execution-style.'
Title text: 'I was pretty good at skeet shooting, but was eventually kicked off the range for catching the clay pigeons in a net and dispatching them execution-style.'

Explanation

This comic centers on a conversation (held during a basketball game) regarding the nature of conformity in social networks. The first Cueball like-guy comments on how fast people move from one platform to the next, stating that is was hard enough to get people to use Facebook, so how will it go with switching to Plus (ie. Google+).

The other Cueball like-guy say that this is not so important, and mentions how some people still use obsolete social networks (for instance his mother using AOL), without this is troubling his own use of social network. He then goes on to say that a universal following is not everything and then begins to mention the fact that IRC still have a devoted (but dwindling) following. But he never get to finish this sentence.

Because as he pass the ball towards Black Hat, mid sentence, Black Hat shoots a crossbow bolt through the basketball, with the implication being that he was invited to join the game and that he has declined the invitation. Black hat and his behavior is an allegory intended to showcase a real life case of the argument made at the beginning. For example, he says that he is not the catch type, which symbolically represents the minority of social network users who doesn't care about universal acceptance and will use whichever social network they prefer, regardless of the opinions of the majority. This phrase may also be a pun that he shot (as in hit an object with projectile as opposed to the expected basketball connotation of shot) the ball as opposed to catching it.

In the title text, we hear of another instance of Black Hat playing by his own rules at a skeet shooting range. A clay pigeon is a clay disc that is thrown into the air and serves as a target for a shotgun. For the sole purpose of bending the rules, Black Hat captured the clay pigeons using a net and then shot them from a very close range (execution style) despite seemingly being an excellent shot as indicated by his crossbow skills. This practice eventually got him expelled from the shooting range.

Transcript

[Two Cueball-like guys are playing basketball. The right guy (Cueball) attempts to throw the basketball through the hoop, but it bounces off down to his friend. To the right Black Hat has his back to the other two while he is looking at his phone.]
Friend: Do you seriously think everyone will move to Plus? It was hard enough getting them on Facebook.
[The friend has caught the rebound and now passes the basketball back to Cueball. Black Hat is not shown.]
Cueball: Do they have to?
Cueball: My mom still uses AOL—it doesn't mean my social life has to happen there.
[Only Cueball is shown. He passes the basketball to the right towards the off-pannel Black Hat.]
Cueball: Universal adoption isn't everything. I mean, IRC is still—
[Zoom in on the basketball as an arrow pierces the ball.]
Thunk
[Cueball looks to Black Hat who has a crossbow in one hand, he is still looking at the phone in his other hand. The ball with the arrow lies between them.]
Cueball: You're not really the "catch" type, are you?
Black Hat: I am not.


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Discussion

I love the comics like this that work on multiple levels. They really lend to the legitimacy of xkcd as a thinking man's webcomic, and they're great comics to link to when I'm trying to make a point. Davidy²²[talk] 09:24, 9 March 2013 (UTC)

It's a bolt. Longbows fire arrows, crossbows fire bolts. 'K?

That bolt looks maighte like an arrow to me... but let's not quarrel about this. --Qwach (talk) 23:35, 31 August 2013 (UTC)
Crossbows do fire bolts, so the only reason you wouldn't want to quarrel about it is because you would be wrong.
However, the word "arrow" comes from the official transcript, so YOU don't want to quarrel about it either, 'K? 108.162.219.223 07:19, 21 January 2014 (UTC)
Quarrel? [1]--141.101.99.9 12:57, 18 March 2014 (UTC)
Please check your adds on the preview before committing it here. Everything you do save here is viewable to everyone; that's just annoying. I just want to see your primary intention, because THAT'S IMPORTANT, if that doesn't work fix it at PREVIEW before we get a mess here. I'm just happy if I can understand what you are talking about. --Dgbrt (talk) 00:27, 19 March 2014 (UTC)

The explanation states that it is Black Hat speaking in the title text. It makes much more sense if it is Randall speaking, but just demonstrating a slightly black-hat tendency. In my opinion. 108.162.219.223 17:58, 21 January 2014 (UTC)

Yeah, but in the original comic's title text, it uses the single-quotes--that wasn't just added by explainxkcd as a formatting thing. When Randall is supposed to be the one speaking, there are no quotation marks in the title text... that implies this one is a quote from Black Hat. 108.162.216.171 04:27, 11 October 2014 (UTC)

There's another joke not mentioned in the explanation. Cueball said "You're not really the catch type, are you." since Black Hat shot the basketball instead of catching it. 108.162.219.246 21:32, 3 November 2014 (UTC)

There is a community portal discussion of what to call Cueball and what to do in case with more than one Cueball. I have added this comic to the Category:Multiple Cueballs. I switched which Cueball is called Cueball in the transcript so now the one named Cueball has all the interesting comments of this comic and also he is the one shooting at the hoop and passing to Black-Hat. Also made a note that the other guy also looks like Cueball. --Kynde (talk) 08:23, 27 June 2015 (UTC)

Where'd Black Hat get that crossbow? Benjaminikuta (talk) 08:58, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

From the all-you-can-eat crossbow store. We're regular customers. Danish (talk) 00:06, 16 March 2021 (UTC)
Psst— answering six-year-old comments ain't cool. BlackHat (talk 20:44, 25 April 2021 (UTC
How else could I have answered? (And that was a month-old comment...) Danish (talk)) 15:27, 26 April 2021 (UTC))
Why the fuck not?

But as OF NEARLY 2023, I can say with certainty that Facebook’s “meta” project has failed miserably. SilverTheTerribleMathematician (talk) 11:02, 10 December 2022 (UTC)