983: Privacy

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Privacy

Title text: Eventual headline: 'University Researchers Create Life in Lab! Darkness, Faulty Condoms Blamed.'

Explanation

This comic is about a couple, let us call them "Cueball and Megan" attempting to find some privacy to "hook up", which is slang for engage in sexual activity. The title indicates that reproductive sex occurred during the hook up.

In the second frame, the female roommate of Megan's is currently in a raid, which is a phrase used in World of Warcraft and other Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games or MMORPGs. A Raid is a large gathering of players that work together to defeat a difficult enemy.

The Rare book collection in the library (frame 3) is usually deserted, so it would be perfect for sexual activity, but instead a tour is going through the area instead. It is unclear if the tour is visiting Nelson Mandela in the rare book section or Nelson Mandela is visiting the school and is getting a tour through the rare book section. Is that a stick figure Nelson Mandela with the white hair?

Next they try an accelerator tunnel that is in use, a beaver lodge the word "beaver" may reference the slang term for the vagina). With our current understanding of physics, there is either the possibility of hyperspace existing, or the possibility of getting there quickly.

In the title text, it indicates that the two found privacy for sex in the lab, but inadvertently got Megan pregnant. The title text is a pun on news titles about scientists who have created synthetic life in the lab.

Transcript

Dorm:

[An incredibly libidinous, extremely attractive couple try and enter one person's dorm room.]

Locked.

Other Dorm:

[The same couple in the other person's dorm room, where the roommate is sitting at a computer playing an MMO]

Roommate: I'll be done tuesday.

Roommate in raid

Library Rare Book Collection:

[Libidinous couple staring inside the room from outside. Nelson Mandela and other university workers inside the room, looking at some extremely expensive items]

Occupied by tour for visiting Nelson Mandela

Accelerator Tunnel:

[Couple stares at a heavy, imposing door denying them entry]

Sealed while beam is in operation.

Beaver Lodge (stop snickering!):

[couple attempting to enter an occupied beaver lodge]

Frozen over for winter to keep out predators; only accessible via underwater entrance.

Hyperspace:

[Couple in front of a number of highly advanced physics textbooks]

Person 1: Are you *sure*?

Ruled out by current understanding of physics.

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Discussion

If your roommate's in a raid, he's not gonna turn around and notice you shacking up any time soon. World of Warcraft is serious business. Davidy²²[talk] 06:55, 2 February 2013 (UTC)

Is the transcript the original one? 108.162.216.45 21:51, 29 November 2013 (UTC)

No, the name Cueball is never mentioned by Randall. But in general it is close to the original one at all.--Dgbrt (talk) 22:23, 29 November 2013 (UTC)

I don't see how the tour for visiting Nelson Mandela could be interpreted as suggesting that Nelson Mandela was in the rare book collection and the tour was going to visit him - that just seems ridiculous. It's pretty clear that Nelson Mandela's visiting the library. --199.27.130.143 13:38, 11 August 2014 (UTC)

Agreed. I have fixed the entry to reflect the same. It's worth noting that you could have done it first, and explained your edit here. This is, after all, a wiki editable by anyone. Orazor (talk) 09:56, 12 August 2014 (UTC)

Is the fact that the roommate says Tuesday a joke on how long raids can last? That he can reply with a day of the week rather than a time? I think I have seen jokes about the lengths of raids in other places, but I'm not sure. Athang (talk) 21:43, 20 August 2014 (UTC)

Well if it's WoW then Tuesday is reset and maintenance shutdown day (usually). -Pennpenn 108.162.250.155 05:15, 13 February 2015 (UTC)

This is a larger idea, so I didn't want to add it without running it by people: Might it be that the visiting Nelson Mandela is a joke about the stereotypical priorities of college students? I.E. that Megan and Cueball are so engaged with the idea of hooking up that a visit from a notable figure is ignored. -- Xkcdeal (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

At first, I thought the "other dorm" one was showing the roommate setting up a RAID array... Whoop whoop pull up (talk) 19:01, 28 April 2017 (UTC)

This is just applied Murphy's Law, isn't it? 103.22.200.240 23:31, 13 February 2019 (UTC)

A positive consequence of this law: not desiring hookup provides large (infinite?) amount of private space. 162.158.203.23 04:10, 9 January 2021 (UTC)

World of Warcraft raids take time + people, unless you're at like max level and are doing super low level raids. Yikes on bikes. Z1mp0st0rz (talk) 16:55, 16 April 2024 (UTC)