Scheduling Conflict

Explanation:
There are two humorous features in this comic:
a pun formed by syntactic ambiguity ; and the farce of a major national event that is by nature self-defeating.
The comic shows a newspaper with a large headline:
National Scheduling Conflict Championships canceled
Many readers naturally see a phrase break between the two lines, so that it means "there has been a scheduling conflict on a national scale, which has caused championships to be cancelled" (what the conflicts are, and which championships have been cancelled, is not made clear).
However, the correct interpretation is implied by the picture of an empty lectern under a banner with the text NSCC 2015. The headline should be read like this:
National Scheduling Conflict Championships (NSCC) canceled
This comic thus envisions a "National Scheduling Conflict Championship" (NSCC), presumably as the culmination of some larger scheduling-conflict competition. It is unclear if the goal of the event is to have a scheduling conflict and miss it, or if there are actual challenges at the event, but this year's event has been canceled, most likely due to scheduling conflicts. Whether it is the contestants that miss the event, as it's their nature to always have a scheduling conflict, or if it is the organizers that have an issue is untold. The question is whether the event's cancellation is a success in itself or just a predictable failure of such an event.
The comic could also refer to the very common political ploy of using a "scheduling conflict" as an excuse to miss an event where the politician expects to be challenged or questioned on an issue he wishes to avoid. This is so frequent that it has become a cliché in American politics.
The abbreviation NSCC is related to many other national sports organizations like NFL and NBA . (The most common use of it online seems to be for Nova Scotia Community College ).
The title text mentions that is was impossible to reach either a spokesperson for the organization (NSCC) or last year's world-champ (winner of the WSCC) for a comment. Thus continuing the problem with schedules for people involved in this type of championship. The world-champion could be assumed to be able to comment in this national championship (probably the American championship given that Randall is American), since the paper is looking for a comment on the national championship. But this proves that at least a world champion was crowned last year, so this type of competition is not always canceled.
It is not a necessity for a spokesperson for a sports organization to be good at the sport in question. However it will often be former competitors within the sport or at least people with interest in this kind of activity that takes an interest in such an organization, thus making it likely that they would also be good (or like to think they are good) at achieving scheduling conflicts.
A similar type of competition was mentioned earlier in 1466: Phone Checking in which it was difficult to load the web page with the result of the competition because it was overloaded by all those compulsive phone-checkers that have an interest in such a contest. They continually try to reload the home page of the CPCC (i.e. compulsive phone-checking championship) making the web page go down.
[Picture showing a newspaper with a big headline over a picture. In the picture there is a banner over an empty lectern with a microphone. Only the headline and the text on the banner in the picture is readable. All other text in the newspaper is just lines.] National Scheduling Conflict Championships canceled Banner text: NSCC 2015


Team Effort

Explanation:
Megan has won an award at a ceremony (presumably movie-related and possibly an Academy Award , as she mentions her director). When a person receives a major award, they give an acceptance speech which traditionally begins with the recipient thanking people who have helped them achieve the honour. Sometimes when a number of people are mentioned, the recipient will say that it was a team effort - a comment which elevates the "helpers" to virtually the same level as the recipient.
Megan's acceptance speech takes things a step further; she thanks not only her director, family, and friends, but also the bacteria that populate her gastrointestinal tract. She states that the bacterial cells outnumber hers, likely referencing the misconception at the time that bacterial cells outnumber human cells by a factor of 10 to 1. More recent estimates have gotten values around 1:1. While the bacteria in the gut make digestion possible, the ecosystem formed by bacteria in the urogenital tract and on the skin also protect human health. In short, without them Megan would die — and not be able to win the award. To thank her bacteria is comparable to thanking her parents: they did not really contribute to the movie, but without them there would not have been a Megan, and no award.
Recently, it has been shown that the gut bacteria has an effect on emotions, thoughts and mood. link
In the title text, Megan contemplates how to thank her microorganisms and considers to eat the trophy after having it cut in pieces. This is an extremely bad idea, because it might kill both her and the microorganisms.
A pint is a volume of about half a liter (specifically, the U.S. fluid version is 28 and 7/8 cu.in.).
[Megan is on a stage receiving an award from Ponytail, the latter of whom is standing behind a lectern.] Megan: I'd like to thank my director, my friends and family, and–of course–the writhing mass of gut bacteria inside me. Megan: I mean, there's like one or two pints of them in here; their cells outnumber mine! Megan: Anyway, this was a real team effort.


Margaret

Explanation:
This comic uses the starting lines of an innocent children's book and creates irony by delivering a dark message.
In the book Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. by Judy Blume , the opening lines are "Are you still there, God? It's me, Margaret. I know you're there, God. I know you wouldn't have missed this for anything! Thank you, God. Thanks an awful lot..." These lines describe a prayer, in which Margaret privately speaks to God, expressing gratitude and seeking guidance.
In the second and third panels, Margaret asks God "Are you scared, God?", and states "You should be". This is similar to threats delivered in some action movies, such as Taken, in which the protagonist or antagonist speaks directly to their opponent, issuing threats and indicating that they are coming after their opponent. The final panel is a shot of Margaret standing imposingly in a dark landscape, and a caption over the top of the image says "Margaret is coming for you", making this comic reminiscent of an action movie trailer. The irony is that "Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret." is a very innocent book, especially when compared to this type of action movie.
The title text is a mashup of three of Blume's other books: Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great , The Pain and the Great One , and Then Again, Maybe I Won't , and likely the inspiration for the dark lines in the comic.
[Margaret, shown in full body, is alone. She is talking while looking out towards the reader.] Margaret: Are you there, God? It's me, Margaret. Margaret: I know you're listening.
[Zoom in on her face and torso.] Margaret: Are you scared, God? Margaret: Are you?
[Zooming so far in that not even her whole face is visible.] Margaret: You should be.
[Zooming far out showing her in a white silhouette against a black sky, standing on the white earth.] Margaret: Margaret is coming for you .


Strengths and Weaknesses

Explanation:
Cueball is in a job interview and is being asked stereotypical job interview questions by Ponytail , "What is your greatest weakness?", "What is your greatest strength?" and "Where do you see yourself in five years?"
In a roundabout way, Cueball answers that he is a living organism, and as such he has inherent flaws which could cause him to die. This is a reference to the fact that biological systems are "messy" and are not always optimal in design or operation.  For example, cancer is a disease where the cellular machinery that governs cell replications breaks down and prolific cell division happens, endangering the organism through the creation of tumors. While this is a true weakness, it is also a weakness of all biological organisms and is not likely to help the interviewer determine if he is qualified for the job. However, it is likely to help the interviewer determine if he is right for the job — because the interviewer is likely to presume that a person who gives silly and unhelpful answers is not right for most positions.
For the second question Cueball answers that he will one day be the ancestor to all living humans or none of them. As you go farther and farther into the future the ratio of people alive will either go to 0% or 100% of the descendants of the character. The most recent common ancestor (MRCA) for humans is unknown but occurred some time after Mitochondrial Eve , around 140,000 years ago. If the MRCA's ancestors are traced back, the Identical ancestors point can be found, at which point the entire population are either ancestors of all living humans or of no living humans.
In the last frame, for Cueball to be the ancestor to all living humans within 5 years means that all the humans who are not his children or grandchildren (including Cueball himself), must have died in a near total extinction of the human race - his apparent optimism about the possibility of this occurring would therefore be worrisome.
The overarching joke is that, rather than answer Ponytail's questions with answers relevant to the job she's interviewing him for, Cueball is answering her questions from an existential standpoint. He may be assuming that she wishes to assess his fitness as an organism from a genetic perspective (in which his biggest limitation is survival time and mortality), or he may simply be misinterpreting or deliberately avoiding her questions from a professional perspective.
The title text takes this further, equating producing offspring during an interview (which would be awkward for all involved) with something that may actually help assess a candidate's efficacy as an employee, namely writing out a sorting algorithm on the spot, another stereotypical interview question (see also 1185: Ineffective Sorts , especially the bottom left panel).
In 1088: Five Years , Beret Guy is also asked where he will be in five years, and he later interviews Hairy in 1293: Job Interview .  Other job interviews were portrayed in 125: Marketing Interview and 1094: Interview .
[Ponytail is shown sitting on a swivel chair, to the left of a desk.] Ponytail: What would you say is your biggest weakness?
[The view expands to show Cueball sitting on another swivel chair, on the opposite side of the desk.] Cueball: Probably that I'm a giant tangle of parts that don't always work right, so I can die easily.
Ponytail: Biggest strength? Cueball: There will come a day when I'm either an ancestor to all living humans, or to none of them.
Ponytail: Where do you see yourself in five years? Cueball: Probably not the ancestor of all living humans yet. But you never know!


Tamagotchi Hive

Explanation:
A part of the " My Hobby " series, this describes a distributed computing network using an automated system to simultaneously run trillions of Tamagotchis. As with most of the "My Hobby" series, the concept would work, and is closely connected to real world activities, but twisted enough to make it inherently absurd.
A Tamagotchi is a keychain-sized virtual pet simulation game from 1996. Ostensibly for children, they had appeal for people of all ages. The characters are colorful and simplistically designed creatures based on animals, objects, or people. Beginning with the 2004 Tamagotchi Plus/Connection, a second wave of Tamagotchi toys emerged, featuring a different graphic design by JINCO and gameplay which elaborated upon the first generations. However, the story behind the games remained the same: Tamagotchis are a small alien species that deposited an egg on Earth to see what life was like, and it is up to the player to raise the egg into an adult creature. The creature goes through several stages of growth, and will develop differently depending on the care the player provides, with better care resulting in an adult creature that is smarter, happier, and requires less attention. Gameplay can vary widely between models, and some models, such as TamagoChu, require little to no care from the player. Tamagotchi has a shrinking fan base.
Distributed computing is a field of computer science that studies distributed systems. A distributed system is a software system in which components located on networked computers communicate and coordinate their actions by passing messages. The components interact with each other in order to achieve a common goal. Examples of distributed systems vary from service-oriented architecture based systems to multiplayer online games to peer-to-peer applications. Distributed computing is often used for tasks that require resources which would otherwise be impossible or prohibitively expensive to manage with single computers. This may include large Bitcoin network mining operations, the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid or, yes, running trillions of simultaneous Tamagotchis using an AI protocol. That said, using AI to keep trillions of Tamagotchis perfectly taken care of is a complete waste of time; the whole point of Tamagotchi is the challenge of caring for the digital pet yourself.
"The Singularity" in the title text refers to the technological singularity ; a concept prevalent in science fiction and discussions of artificial intelligence (AI). The idea is that AI would become so sophisticated compared to a human brain that no human would be able to predict its behaviour, motivations etc. from that point onward, and potentially human history after that point would therefore become unpredictable, as AIs would play dominant roles in determining its direction. It uses the metaphor of a mathematical "singularity", which is a point where established rules can no longer apply (for example, in a black hole or during the Big Bang, physical conditions are such that the physical laws we use can no longer meaningfully predict what happens). An AI that is more sophisicated than a human brain could presumably then simulate human brains within itself, making it possible to upload human consciousness into a machine-simulated environment (see simulated reality and the simulation hypothesis ). Thus, much science fiction that is based on the idea of The Singularity also focuses on the creation of a virtual world that much of the human race decides to plug itself into, much like the Tamagotchi Hive that Randall has created. Randall's mind, and the processing power in his computer, is far greater than any individual Tamagotchi mind, so simulating Tamagotchis becomes trivial for Randall, and no Tamagotchi could predict or control its own history with Randall around, in a humorous analogy with the Singularity concept.
My Hobby [A tree graph of Tamagotchis.] Running a massive distributed computing project that simulates trillions and trillions of Tamagotchis and keeps them all constantly fed and happy


Solar System Questions

Explanation:
This comic is a list of questions which Randall has about the Solar System, which at first glance may appear to be things that Randall would like to learn about.
In actuality, most of the questions have not been satisfactorily answered or proven by anyone in the scientific community .
The title text refers to the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup which was won by the USA the day before. The nylon wings and flying may be a reference to two passages from 3001: The Final Odyssey, one where Frank Poole tries out various wings while in an extremely low gravity environment, and one where he remarks while watching Swan Lake that Tchaikovsky could never have imagined a performance where the dancers were actually flying (due to aforementioned low gravity). This is also a reference to the last point on the list, because if we had such a stadium on the moon, maybe it would be possible to use such wings to make very long floating leaps.
Questions I have about the solar system (some answered)
Why is the the Moon so blotchy? Lava Why are all the blotches on the near side? Did Mars have seas? Yes (briefly?) Was there life on Mars? What's Titan like? Cold, yellow, lakes + rivers (methane) What was Earth like during the Hadean? Is the Oort Cloud a real thing? Why is the Sun's corona so hot? Something about magnets? What are comets like? Precipitous Where's Philae, exactly? What's Pluto like? [Soon!] What's Charon like? Why don't we have in-between-sized planets? What's Ceres like? [Working on it!] Why is Europa so weird-looking and pretty? Ice over a water ocean Why is Io so weird-looking? Sulfur volcanoes (? in the wrong places?) Why are so many Kuiper Belt objects red? What are those spots on Ceres? What's in the seas under Europa's ice? Which of the other moons have seas? Several What are the big white things in Titan's Lakes? What do Jupiter's clouds look like up close? What's all that red stuff in the Great Red Spot? What's pushing the Pioneer Probes? Heat from the RTG What pushes spacecraft slightly during flybys? Where are all the Sun's Neutrinos? Oscillating Why is there so much air on Titan? Why does the Kuiper Belt Stop? Why is Iapetus weird-colored? Why does Iapetus have a belt? What's the deal with Miranda? Did Uranus and Neptune change places? Did the Late Heavy Bombardment happen? Did life start before it? Is Europa covered in ice spikes? Why haven't we built a big inflatable extreme sports complex on the moon?


90s Kid

Explanation:
This is another example where Randall describes the inexorable passage of time.
The children are complaining about things their parents tell them, as children often do. Their first complaint is something recognizable, the usual "just eat your vegetables, they're good for you." The second is about a comment "LOL, remember Rugrats and Doug? Share if you're a 90's kid" which, however, is a generic social media comment that a "90's kid" would make, not something you would expect a mother to say. At least not in the context of things their children are embarrassed about. But it illustrates that the teens and tweens of yesteryear are now adults, and parents at that.
According to the CIA World Factbook, in the USA the median age of mothers at their first birth is 25.6 (2011 estimate). On the date this comic was published, this would center the mother's own birth date in very late 1989.
Although there are various interpretations of the term "90's kid," most center around the person in question having had most or all of their childhood during the 1990s. The stereotypical '90s kid has a strong attachment to objects, movies, TV shows, phrases etc. from the era of their childhood, which bring back memories of their younger days. In this comic Randall picks up on a number of things which could be used to identify a '90s kid:
Given that the children shown in the comic appear to be somewhat older than newborn babies is not contradictory, since a 90s kid is anyone who was a kid during the '90s. So that would also include kids who turned five in 1990 or even ten; so in 2015 (publishing of this comic) a 90s kid could easily be more than 30 years old and thus have children more than 10 years old.
The title text suggests that viewing a child of one's own peering through such a barrier elicits nostalgia for the Rugrats cartoon. A baby gate is a semi-fixed piece of child-safety equipment to restrict a small child, typically a toddler, from leaving a safe area of a house, and especially to prevent access to stairways (up or down, where falls may happen), without overly inconveniencing an adult who can open the gate. Baby gates, fully enclosed playpens and similar barriers around cots feature as usually insurmountable barriers to the younger characters in Rugrats, who are of crawling and toddling age.
[Two kids, with very different hair style, are in a playground. A fence is visible in the background, and on the ground appear to be various items including a puddle or rug and toy blocks.] Scruffy-haired kid: Ugh don't you hate how parents are all "Eat your carrots" and "LOL, remember Rugrats and Doug? Share if you're a 90's kid!" [Caption below the panel:] The median age at first birth in the US is 25, which means the typical new mother is now a 90's kid.


xkcd Phone 3

Explanation:
This is the third entry in the ongoing xkcd Phone series which parodies common smartphone specs by attributing absurd or useless features to a fictional phone that sounds impressive but would actually be very impractical. The previous comic in the series 1465: xkcd Phone 2 was released over half a year before this one and the next 1707: xkcd Phone 4 was released almost a year later.
2 AA batteries (not included)
A phrase usually shown on small, low-powered, electronic devices like remote controllers, and not on cellphones; which use lithium-ion batteries and need to be periodically recharged for continuous use.
The apparently thin phone (according to the scale as judged by the wristband) would also preclude inserting AA batteries, unless a protruding battery compartment is hidden out of view on the back of the phone.
Alternatively could mean two Anti-Aircraft (artillery) "batteries" which would be groups of light or medium artillery pieces or missiles (2 to 9 weapons per battery, depending on country, weapon system and organization). In any case, they would badly hamper the portability of the phone. [ citation needed ]
Boneless
Reference to meat or fish products being boneless, i.e. having all the bones removed, making it convenient to cook or eat. Phones do not typically have bones [ citation needed ] , so this is wholly unremarkable. A possible reference to the iPhone 6's reported problems with its chassis, where it could bend under pressure .
Likely a reference to "Bone Conduction Microphones" implying that needing bones to work is a disadvantage and this phone has the feature of being "Boneless".
xkcd Phone 4 was instead "seedless".
Ear screen
An overcomplicated term for a speaker, connecting a screen which emits light to send visual information and the portion of a speaker which vibrates to send auditory information. Comparing the two makes a speaker a screen for the ear.
Could also be implying that there's a screen protecting the user's ear from the phone's internals, or the reverse.
Heartbeat accelerator
A mashup of heartbeat sensor and accelerometer. May be some sort of external pacemaker. If that's the case, it's worrying that it only accelerates, potentially causing a positive feedback (heart attack). It may also be the result of the phone being so exciting or frustrating that it increases its user's heart rate.
MobilePay money clip
While mobile pay is a form of payment involving electronic transfers via cellphone, this model includes a money clip; a way of holding physical bills together, which defeats the purpose of electronic payment. Because you can take cash wherever, this is a "MobilePay" using physical money.
Siri, or whoever it was we put in here
A joke on intelligent personal assistants. It also hints that Siri and the like are actual people, trapped inside of phones, which is not the case [ citation needed ] .
Instead of being on surface only, screen goes all the way through
A reference to surface screens. Possible reference to smartphones with screen display wrapping one or more edges, like Samsung Galaxy Note Edge or Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge, or dual-screen smartphones with screen on the back (usually e-ink) like YotaPhone 2, or smartphones with minimal bezel like e.g. Sharp AQUOS Crystal.
Screen going all the way through would leave no place for innards of smartphone: processor, battery etc., and unless each layer is designed to be semi-transparent to see the inner voxels the inner displays would be unseeable anyway.
theknot.com partnership - phone licensed to perform wedding ceremonies and does so at random
theknot.com is a website that assists in all stages of wedding planning. Due to this partnering, the phone has apparently obtained legal status as a Justice of the peace capable of performing legally valid marriages. It exerts this capability randomly, however, so the phone's owner (or potentially any other unsuspecting bystander) could suddenly find themselves with a new spouse without their knowledge, generally an undesired effect [ citation needed ] . Whether this would result in unintentional bigamy or if the phone restricts itself to pairing up singles, or even enacts divorce first if necessary, is left unclear. May be a reference to how same-sex marriage was fully legalized in the United States just two weeks prior to the release of this comic.
Fingerprint randomizer
Presumably randomises the user's fingerprint, which may or may not be inconvenient depending on the intent of the user. It is not clear whether the device will change the person's fingerprint into a human-like fingerprint that is randomly selected from all possibilities, or if it completely mangles the fingerprint of the user. Either way, physically altering the user's finger to this degree will likely involve a painful process. Likely a cynical reference to fingerprint scanners, which are touted as password replacements.
USB E (hotswappable)
A USB port that makes fun of the three current systems, A, B, and recently C, by skipping D completely and jumping to E. The port presumably charges the phone and allows to transfer files like normal, but this kind lets you perform Hot swapping (replacing computer system components without turning the system off) with it, which has always been a feature of USB, so mentioning it is redundant at best.
May be a reference to the eSATAp (Power over eSATA) hybrid port that is functioning as a USB and eSATA port at the same time. The Serial ATA bus interface has standardized hot swapping support.
Waterproof, but can drown
Perhaps a reference to Siri or the person trapped in the phone drowning, but the phone itself staying functional. This is another human-like function, which the first 2 XKCD Phone comics had.
Foretold by prophecy
Likely mocking people on the internet who attempt to predict when Apple will release their next device. Might also be a joke on many videogames or fantasy novels, in which the main character is 'the chosen one', because 'the prophecy' foretold it.
Runs Natively
Usually a description given to ported software, as this statement doesn't make any sense when referring to hardware (notable exceptions to the norm are few and far between). When software writers would like to run their apps on multiple platforms, they usually have three choices: re-compile the source code into each platform's codebase (often requiring tweaking to handle practical differences in resources between the systems); use a specially 'pre-portable' code that you can write once, run anywhere , such as Java, but requires a suitable interpreter to be written for each platform (and may still require code tweaks to absorb differences in implementations); create a specific emulator/virtual machine to allow existing code to 'see' the platform it was written for, despite the underlying system.
Only the first option is 'running natively', often the most optimised and thus best-performing option, and is usually qualified such as "Runs <Software Name> natively", for particular packages full compiled upon that platform. It would also make little sense for the OS itself to be non-native, except when intentionally emulating another system (ideally on a more powerful system that can power past the inefficiencies of conversion and translation).
Or, in this case, it may be that the phone has legs and can literally run.
Wristband
Probably mocking trending smart watches, this feature would not be very useful on a full-sized smart phone, as it would be uncomfortable to wear due to its size. Also possibly a follow-up to xkcd Phone 2 being described as a 'phone for your other hand', as the wristband would make it possible to have all three phones accessible at once.
Wireless discharging
Some modern smartphones use a system called "wireless charging," in which power is delivered to the phone without a wire. This phone, however, uses wireless technology to discharge the phone, which would be useless given that the phone needs power and removing power from its battery doesn't seem to help... May also refer to the standard behavior of the phone's antenna, which communicates wirelessly via EM radio waves, but discharges the battery in doing so. It could also be simply and literally describing the nature of all cell phones, and indeed all battery-powered electronic devices, to gradually use the battery (discharging) when there are no wires attached (wireless), since wireless also means no power cord is plugged in (and assuming the absence or non-use of the aforementioned wireless charging function, which this phone may not even have).  Depending on the avenue of discharge, this may also be related to the heartbeat accelerator, accelerating the user's heartbeat by shocking them. Notably, a few recent flagship phones now have a built in Qi wireless charging pad, so other devices can charge from its battery; this is usually marketed as power-sharing but could also be called wireless discharging.
Magnetic stripe
Likely a dig at the NFC (near-field communication) wireless radio modules in many modern phones. NFC allows, among others functions, mobile payment. This magnetic stripe could be a cheap way to imitate payment functionality, but "compatible" with classic credit cards.
Magnetic stripes are a data storage method used by devices such as credit cards and key cards to hold and transfer small amounts of information like key codes. Usually cellphones don't have them as they utilize more robust and protected ways to store and transmit data (such as NFC). The magnetic stripe shown would likely be unusable with current magnetic stripe readers due to the phone's thickness, in contrast to that of regular cards, thus breaking all imagined 'compatibility' arguments.
It would also be very annoying as it seems to block part of the screen, albeit a small portion.
However, some modern phones actually have Magnetic secure transmission which allows them to interface wirelessly with magstrip readers by simulating the magnetic field from a passing magnetic stripe.
The phrase "We made another one®©™" is a reference to how phone companies release new phones very often, and the trademarks that surround the phone itself.
The title text is a joke on guarantees and customer service. Usually the advertisement says that if the customer is not satisfied with the product, they'll refund the money and take the product back at no additional cost. In this case they guarantee the customer they'll send him/her home without charge; implying they won't fix or refund anything. Or that due to anticipated but unspecified faults of some kind, the phone's owner will need help to get back home when things go wrong, and probably be thankful for such assistance, in yet another example of a worryingly non-specific 'reassurance'.
In addition, it says it would do so only AFTER thirty days, as opposed to the usual thirty-day return guarantee, which means you may be stuck with your phone for a month until you can be taken home yourself.
[An image of a smartphone lying down, with many labels pointing to it. There is a black stripe across the top left corner of the phone. At the top right something is protruding from the side, like a volume control. There is a wrist band (only partly shown) attached to the middle of each side of the phone. Above the screen are several small features, below only a central square and on the bottom a socket. Clockwise from the top left the labels read:] 2 AA batteries (not included) Boneless Ear screen Heartbeat accelerator MobilePay money clip Siri, or whoever it was we put in here Instead of being on surface only, screen goes all the way through theknot.com partnership: Phone licensed to perform wedding ceremonies and does so at random Fingerprint randomizer USB E (hotswappable) Waterproof, but can drown Foretold by prophecy Runs natively Wristband Wireless discharging Magnetic stripe
[Below the phone:] Introducing The xkcd Phone 3 We made another one®©™


Episode VII

Explanation:
Sequels are often made to resolve pressing issues that are left unresolved in the original works. This comic was a humorous take on how the then-upcoming sequel in the Star Wars franchise might have resolved issues from a previous film in that series.
In the first-produced movie of the series, Star Wars:Episode IV: A New Hope , Luke Skywalker 's uncle tells him to clean two newly purchased droids ( R2-D2 and C-3PO ). Luke complains that he had plans to pick up some power converters at Tosche Station . Luke is told to clean the droids first; however, while doing so, he discovers a message carried by R2-D2, starting him on a course of events that runs through the original trilogy. As a result, he never ultimately goes to Tosche Station.
The conversation between Luke and his uncle, Owen Lars , is as follows:
Uncle Owen: Luke! Take these two over to the garage will ya? I want ’em cleaned up before dinner. Luke: But I was going into Tosche Station to pick up some power converters! Uncle Owen: You can waste time with your friends when your chores are done. Now, come on. Get to it.
Luke's line is one of many well-known lines from the series and is often-quoted as an example of how Luke is initially portrayed as a whiny teenager. By the end of the Episode VI:Return of the Jedi , Luke has grown into a mature and powerful Jedi, completing his transformation through the original trilogy.
Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens was, at the time of the comic's release, the upcoming seventh feature-length live-action film in the Star Wars series, and was the first since the rights to the franchise were sold by creator George Lucas to the Disney Company. It is a sequel to the original trilogy.
Since creating the original trilogy, many of Lucas's decisions in respect of the franchise have been subject to fan criticism, including criticism of the quality of three prequel films Lucas produced beginning in 1999 (after a more than 15-year hiatus). The new seventh film was entrusted by Disney to producer/director J.J. Abrams, who in 2009 produced and directed the highly acclaimed (although still highly criticized by some fans) Star Trek reboot.
Given all of this context, the new Star Wars film was as highly anticipated, or more highly anticipated than the prequel trilogy, and had a strong buzz around it. Much of the early buzz surrounded the nature of the new film's plot: For example, whether it would be a prequel or a sequel, and whether it would feature any of the original cast/characters.
J. J. Abrams and others involved in the filming Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens had appeared in a panel at San Diego Comic-Con the weekend prior to the comic's release to unveil details about the film. This is likely the impetus for the timing of this comic.
This comic portrays Randall's own conception of what the sequel might have been. In his version of the movie, Luke returns home to Tatooine years later with R2-D2 to finish the errand that was interrupted. Luke goes to Tosche Station and says "I'm here for those power converters", thus completing this unresolved task from the first movie. The action is bookended by the opening and closing credits , suggesting this uneventful scene comprises the entire film.
Therefore, the comic jokingly implies that getting the power converters was the most pressing of all the unresolved issues in the other films, and the most interesting upon which to base the sequel. In reality, this would likely be one of the least entertaining and most disappointing sequels that could possibly be made (perhaps second only to a version that had no reference to the previous films at all).
Randall may have also been commenting that there are few if any unresolved issues in the Star Wars franchise that required revisiting and that the series should be left alone. Or he could have been making a joke about how sequels call back to elements of previous movies without fully considering the context. In this case, the farm he's buying those power converters for was destroyed more than thirty years ago.
The title text alludes to another fantasy franchise, Lord of the Rings , and how Samwise Gamgee was similarly interrupted from a menial task of gardening and listening in on conversations outside Bag End by Gandalf and his quest to save the world at the start of the first film. The title text uses the term “dropping eaves” as Samwise did in his denial of eavesdropping in on the conversation between Frodo and Gandalf. In both cases, the issue of collecting power converters and Sam’s gardening duties were left unresolved in their respective stories and the main plot of the series is thoroughly concluded.
[Black background with white letters in the style of the Star Wars logo with the subtitle in between the two words.] Star The Force Awakens Wars
[Building in the desert, two persons are seen in the background, and Cueball is running in front of the building. Next to the building is a sign.] Sign: Tosche Station
[A hooded man standing next to R2D2 has entered the building, and is seen in front of the opening portal with the desert in the background.] Hooded man: Hello.
[Closeup of hooded man. The man has a mustache and a beard and thick black hair.] Hooded man: I’m here for those power converters.
[Black background with white letters resembling movie credits.] Directed by J.J. Abrams


Pluto

Explanation:
This comic was posted on Tuesday, July 14, 2015, in honor of the New Horizons deep space probe making its flyby at Pluto , thus breaking the typical Monday/Wednesday/Friday cycle for the xkcd comics. Also on this day he released the first what if? in over three months, and it was called New Horizons . Luckily it did not end up back on Earth, as depicted in 1532: New Horizons , released 1½ month before closest approach.
Randall has taken one of the probe's images of Pluto, and outlined humorous examples of pareidolia on top of it.
It can be compared to preliminary descriptions by geologists, e.g. New Horizons' best look at Pluto before close approach|The Planetary Society .
The comic probably winks at Percival Lowell whose observatory photographed Pluto in 1915 "known" as Planet X. Unfortunately Percival Lowell is most famous for his drawings of the Canals on Mars which are widely misunderstood as channels based on wrong translations from Italian to other languages.
The title text refers to the debate as to whether Pluto should be classified as a full or dwarf planet. This debate was particularly brought into the public eye and came to be seen as a matter of controversy, following the 2006 IAU definition of planet . The text may imagine that this debate winds on, with definitions being created and revised until a ridiculous state is reached whereby Pluto has a special class of celestial body named after it called a 'Pluto' but fails to fulfill the arbitrary criteria set up for it, and hence is called a 'dwarf Pluto'. There actually exist the terms Plutoid and Plutino , that relate directly to groups that Pluto belongs to, but see those pages for details of their use and usage. There has been a real naming conflict whilst generating those two categories, where Plutons was the name chosen initially, whereas Pluton is the usual name of Pluto in some languages.
Candy shell
Suggests Pluto is a confection, like Minmus . May also be a reference to the Mars candy bar.
JPEG plumes
The JPEG image format has the common issue of slightly distorting an image with Compression artifacts . The artifacts shown here do not appear in the official version of this image, but all data sent from New Horizons is compressed and artifacts are common — the full resolution images will be submitted to earth over the next 16 months. There have been tweets about people seeing plumes associated with active volcanoes and the like, which were explained as being artifacts.
Frontal bone
Interpreting Pluto as a head, the frontal bone could be the light-colored region next to the darker top, just above the north pole facing to us.
Grease stains
The area above Pluto's north pole is attributed to grease.
Bugs
Could refer to possible extraterrestrial life on Pluto in the form of insects , or "bugs". In the animated TV series Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles , an adaptation of Robert Heinlein's novel Starship Troopers , the first battles with the alien "Bugs" took place on Pluto. Maybe it also refers to a software bug at the probe.
Bullet holes
A string of small round features which Randall suggests was the result of Pluto getting shot repeatedly, probably by meteorites.
New Netherlands
Reference to the what if?, Drain the Oceans: Part II , about draining the Earth's oceans onto Mars. In the previous what if?, Drain the Oceans , the Netherlands took over the Earth once their problem with the risk of flooding disappeared. And then they continued to issue forth from the portal that drained the oceans on Earth pouring them onto Mars, to claim Mars as New Netherlands. Presumably, something similar happened on Pluto. This was already again references in both an entry in the table and in the title text of 1555: Exoplanet Names 2 .
Disputed territory
Since the base photograph is identified as "today's New Horizons image," this indicates that a section of Pluto has immediately become the subject of some controversy, possibly a territorial claim or one of several references to the fact that Pluto was demoted from full planet status in 2006.
Snake pit
A generic map hazard.
Full text of the Wikipedia article on pareidolia
Pareidolia is the human brain's tendency to see patterns where they don't exist. While probably a reference to Pluto's heart, the joke is also recursive: You'd be seeing the text of a Wikipedia article explaining to you that you couldn't actually be seeing the text of a Wikipedia article.
Tadpole
One of a number of pareidolic features Randall has outlined.
Kuiper Belt loops
The Kuiper belt is a region in our solar system that contains an unknown amount of icy bodies, one known is Pluto. Randall jokingly refers to Kuiper Belt as the same kind of belt that's used to fasten clothing and identifies features on Pluto's surface as loops for the belt.
Serenity
An outline of the Firefly -class spaceship Serenity , which was the titular vessel from the 2002 TV series Firefly . One of a number of pareidolic features Randall has outlined.
Dinosaur
Nobody can see a dinosaur unless Randall did do this painting on Pluto's surface. And a complex comic needs at least one dinosaur.
The good part
A section of Pluto that is objectively better than the rest.
Moon bud
This could be interpreted as a moon growing/emerging out of Pluto, as a bud is "a compact knob-like growth". A round growth is seen at the location marked, resembling a small, emerging moon.
Ghost
A reference to the classic video game Pacman , wherein the primary antagonists are one of four Ghosts. The Ghost on Pluto appears to have a mouth, however, unlike most depictions of the Pacman Ghosts. One of a number of pareidolic features Randall has outlined.
Pluto dinosaur extinction crater
Suggests Pluto had dinosaurs and lost them the same way Earth did.
Heart
One of a number of pareidolic features Randall has outlined, and the only one (currently) also informally named as such by NASA.
Coronary artery disease
Also known as ischemic heart disease , which causes degradation of heart tissue.  The region identified in the comic looks less 'healthy' (is darker and more ragged) compared to the rest of the 'Heart', which Randall suggests is caused by the disease.
Mount Mons
Referring to the general practice of naming extraterrestrial mountains "X Mons" (e.g. Olympus Mons , a mountain on Mars and the largest mountain in the Solar System), as well as naming terrestrial mountains "Mount X". Since "mons" is Latin for "mountain", the feature's suggested name translates as "Mount Mountain".
Charging socket
A terrain feature suitable for connecting an outside source of electricity for the benefit of implied internal batteries. Compare "dock connector," below.
Cracks (beginning to hatch)
Implying that Pluto is some manner of a giant egg. Possibly a reference to the Doctor Who episode Kill the Moon , in which the Moon is revealed to be an egg from which a monster is hatching. A 2014 article from The Onion , "Moon Finally Hatches," makes the same joke. Also possibly a reference to The Light Fantastic , a Discworld novel in which similar objects are revealed to be the eggs of the world turtle. A similar idea appeared in Jack Williamson's 1934 short story "Born of the Sun".
Plug (inflating/deflating)
Inflatable balls often have a "plug" or opening to insert a needle to inflate or deflate them.
Scars from predator attacks
Since it's all-caps, we can't tell if "PREDATOR" is a proper noun, but this is possibly a reference to the movie series Predator , about a race of aliens who hunt other beings for sport. Alternatively, a planetary predator (such as comic book villain Galactus ) may have previously scarred Pluto.
Reset button
The structure indicated is a small black dot (at least at this distance this picture was taken). Reset buttons on home electronics are often small buttons or holes used to reset the software of the electronic device.
Megaman
One of a number of pareidolic features Randall has outlined, this one in the shape of a popular video game protagonist.
Debate Hole - Where we're putting all the people still arguing about Pluto's planet status
Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet rather than a planet following the latter term's controversial redefinition in 2006 by the International Astronomical Union .  Arguments about the classification continue to pop up. The same argument is referenced in the title text. The name implies a proposal to put all the people still arguing about it in this hole on Pluto. This proposal further implies that the continued debate is very annoying by 2015, except perhaps to the debaters themselves.
Area missed during ironing
The area indicated is near the terminator and shows some intriguing topographic relief.
Probably Benign
A neoplasm or tumor is an abnormal growth of tissue. Randall is suggesting that the abnormal region near the heart has been evaluated by a doctor and determined to be benign .
Chocolate frosting
Suggests the discrepancy in color over Pluto's surface may be a function of what cake frosting was used where. This area is the "dark spot" at the head of the "whale" ( http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/07/14/science/space/pluto-flyby.html ).  The so-called "whale's tail" ( http://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/find-heart-whale-new-horizons-picture-pluto-n388816 ), is on the other hemisphere and is not visible in this image, it lies east about 90 degrees from the chocolate frosting/dark spot here.
Vanilla frosting
As above, suggests the discrepancy in color over Pluto's surface may be a function of what cake frosting was used where.
Border of pride lands
A reference to the Disney animated feature The Lion King. In the movie, the Pridelands is the bright and prosperous region ruled by the Lion King while a dark territory beyond its border is controlled by hyenas.
Hyena country
A continuation of the Lion King reference above.
Dock connector
From the point of view of the photograph, this feature of Pluto is at the planet's "bottom," where iPod dock connectors are. Compare "charging socket," above.
PLUTO Some of the features already identified in today's New Horizons image
[Many marks on the image of Pluto follow:]
Candy shell Frontal bone Grease stains Bugs JPEG plumes Full text of the wikipedia article on pareidolia Bullet holes New Netherlands Disputed territory Snake pit Tadpole Pluto dinosaur extinction crater Kuiper beltloops Serenity Ghost Dinosaur The good part Moon bud Scars from predator attacks Reset button Megaman Charging socket Cracks (beginning to hatch) Plug (inflating/deflating) Heart Mount Mons Coronary artery disease Debate hole Where we're putting all the people still arguing about Pluto's planet status Chocolate frosting Probably benign Vanilla frosting Dock connector Border of pride lands Hyena country Area missed during ironing
Image credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI - click for original


Rulebook

Explanation:
This comic is a direct reference to the film Air Bud . In the film, a golden retriever becomes the star player on a basketball team.  The opposing team contests the legality of having a dog as a player, but the referee, having reviewed the rulebook, responds "Ain't no rule says a dog can't play basketball." Here, the opposing team turns the rulebook loophole against the first team . Because rulebooks are considered the final arbiter of decisions in most sports, Ponytail suggests that, since it isn't explicitly prohibited, her team is allowed to kill and eat the dog. Randall is using this logical fallacy to highlight the absurdity of the plot of Air Bud and other similar movies in which ordinary animals take on human roles. At the same time, Randall has created an absurd and anticlimactic premise for such a movie, and he may be making a more general commentary on Hollywood 's habit of making movies by combining basic tropes that, by themselves, tend to do well in the box office.
The title text acknowledges that killing and eating the dog would result in a foul (interfering inappropriately with other players), but the benefit of committing the foul (the star player being dead and out of the game) would be worth the resulting penalty (giving the other team a couple of free throws). This of course ignores any local laws that could cover the proposed killing, such as animal cruelty laws. Randall is poking fun at the common practice of intentional fouls, something that happens particularly often in basketball. Although a foul is by definition against the rules, a team may deliberately break those rules and accept the penalty in order to gain some perceived advantage. For example, in association football (soccer), a player may intentionally foul an opposing player with a strong attack to allow his team to regroup and increase its defensive position, starting with blocking the resulting free kick. In basketball, an intentional foul can stop the clock and turn over the ball, or may simply give the team time to rest and/or discuss strategy that it otherwise may not have had.
The dog in the comic is wearing a jersey with the number 9. In Air Bud , the dog wore a jersey with "K" on one side and "9" on the other, forming "K-9", a popular shortening of the word "canine".
Randall previously parodied the "animal-as-player" loophole in 115: Meerkat . Rule books are also mentioned in 330: Indecision , 393: Ultimate Game , and 1593: Play-By-Play .
[Cueball and Megan are standing with a dog wearing jersey number 9, Ponytail and Hairy are facing them holding a rulebook. The horizon is visible behind them.] Ponytail: There's nothing in the rulebook that says we can't kill and eat your dog.


Public Key

Explanation:
In public-key cryptography , two keys are generated for a user. The public key can be used to encrypt messages, but not decrypt them. The private key is necessary for decryption, and as its name implies, is meant to be used solely by the user.
Since the public key is initially designated to be shared, anyone who has that key can send the user an encrypted message that only the user can decrypt. Cueball has been following this rule, but he notices that it appears nobody has ever used his public key for anything. He contemplates sharing his private key, which he believes would generate more interest in him personally. However, he appears to overlook the fact that doing so would allow anyone to decrypt messages sent to him, thus defeating the entire purpose of encryption. (Although some systems can confirm the message sender by having a secret encryption key and a public decryption one, though this is negated again if both keys are released.)
The title text refers to another feature of Public-key cryptography: In addition to assuring that certain messages can only be read by a specific key owner, it can also assure that certain messages could only have been written by a specific key owner, by "signing" it using the private key. Anyone can read a signed message, but readers with the public key can then verify that the owner of the private key wrote (or at least signed) the message, rather than someone pretending to be the owner. If Cueball published his private key, then anybody could sign any message as him, effectively impersonating him and also defeating the purpose of encryption.
Crowdsourcing is the term used for delegating work or tasks to a largely volunteered and uncontrolled set of people on the Internet.  It is similar in concept to outsourcing , in which work is delegated to an external source of labor, typically a company in a foreign country. Famous instances of crowdsourcing include reCAPTCHA (in which users both verify they are human and help digitize words and phrases in books that digitization software cannot understand) and a farm in the UK in which ordinary Internet users make decisions about how the farm is run.
When Cueball first created the key pair, he imagined it would be something he used from time to time, for reading messages only intended for him or for sending "signed" messages.  Since nothing of the sort happened, he imagines releasing both keys might cause some activity, and at this point he is happier with a "bad" outcome than with a boring one.
Randall previously ironically mentioned a public key in 370: Redwall .
[In the first panel, Cueball is sitting in a chair and is using a laptop.] Cueball (thinking): I've been posting my public key for 15 years now, but no one has ever asked me for it or used it for anything as far as I can tell.
[This is followed by two beat panels where Cueball just sits there. doing nothing, not even thinking.]
[In the final panel he again uses his laptop and thinks.] Cueball (thinking): Maybe I should try posting my private key instead.


Spice Girls

Explanation:
Cueball and Megan are apparently playing a game in which they name all of the elements in some category. Cueball asks Megan to name all of the Spice Girls , a pop group whose nicknames were
Instead, Megan winds up making up names by tacking "Spice" onto words from other, completely unrelated categories:
This seems to be a continuation of 1417: Seven , where Megan asks Cueball to name the seven dwarfs. Apparently Megan confuses different sets of five (or four when she is not trying) which may be compared to the way Cueball mixes items from different sets of seven, thus not mentioning a full set, but just seven items from seven different sets of seven.
The title text has the correct "first" names of the Spice Girls, but replaces the "Spice" part of their names with "Extinction" to associate them with Earth's five mass extinctions . The five actual worst mass extinctions are:
Randall previously referenced the Spice Girls in 1511: Spice Girl (more specifically, using "Which Spice Girl Are You?" as an example of online personality quizzes).
And already in the next comic 1555: Exoplanet Names 2 he suggest to give five exoplanets around the same star the five nicknames.
Cueball: Your turn: Can you name all of the Spice Girls?
Megan: Hmm… Hearing Spice, Vision Spice, Smell Spice, Touch Spice, Taste Spice? Cueball: That’s senses.
Megan: Denial Spice, Anger Spice, Bargaining Spice, Depression Spice, Acceptance Spice. Cueball: Stages of grief.
Megan: War Spice, Famine Spice, Plague Spice, Death Spice? Cueball: You're not even trying.
Megan: No, wait, I can get this for real. Uhh… Megan: Pog Spice, Story Spice, Sarah Spice, Gender Spice, Baleen Spice? Cueball: …Close enough.


Exoplanet Names 2

Explanation:
This comic is a continuation of 1253: Exoplanet Names , and was published the day after NASA announced the discovery of a number of planets, including a planet called a cousin to Earth, Kepler-452b . Black Hat proposes naming it Pluto , to commemorate the flyby of the dwarf planet of that name by NASA's New Horizons earlier the same month. He admits this alternative to end the discussion about the status of Pluto, which is subject to debate among both scientists and laypeople over whether-or-not it should be considered a planet. Pluto was considered a planet for a long period of time until, in 2005, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) created a new definition for the word 'planet' designed to exclude Pluto and similar objects, resulting in much debate (The IAU is the organization that takes responsibility for naming celestial bodies like planets, stars, and much more).
It may appear that, with Black Hat's suggestion, the answer to the question "is Pluto a planet?" will therefore always be "yes", regardless of the status of the Pluto in our Solar System according to the IAU. However the same IAU official definition that excludes Pluto also states that a 'planet' has to orbit our sun, so according to the IAU, nothing in this comic is a planet (the IAU definition only allows them to be exoplanets , which, like dwarf planets, are not planets). Hence, the debate indeed becomes 'a little more confusing'. This is in line with Black Hat's characterisation as a mischief-maker.
The title text is referring to the planet name entry Netherlands VI for the star EPIC 201912552 . Randall thus continues his references to the Dutch people taking over the world and then the universe after the earth's oceans has been drained and transported to Mars. This happens in two consecutive What if? 's, Drain the Oceans and Drain the Oceans: Part II , was referenced in Dropping a Mountain , and was referenced again the week before this comic in 1551: Pluto . Due to a drain in the Earth's ocean the Netherlands does not have to worry about getting flooded anymore and since it now does not have to use all its resources preventing floods, it can use these to conquer the world (including Antarctica becoming South Netherlands). Then it takes on Mars (which becomes New Netherlands), and then a section of Pluto (again calling it New Netherlands). There is also a possible reference to 1519: Venus , but that comic has no direct relation to the conquests of the Dutch people like in the other three references. It should be mentioned, that New Netherland was actually a Dutch colony with New York City , formerly known as New Amsterdam , as its capital. So the name "New Netherlands" is "historically correct", while "Netherlands VI" isn't.
In the title text Randall mentioned that he will continue with this Netherlands joke driving it so far into the ground, (i.e. way beyond the point where it stops being funny), that they (the Dutch people) will have to build levees (or dykes) around it to keep the sea out - thus making it funny again... By forcing the Dutchmen to build new levees for this reason, the whole issue with their conquest of the world will be over before it happens.
This table explains each entry in the comic table.
The "Status" column refers to the comic 1253: Exoplanet Names , and indicates if the entry was already in that version (Old), if it is an addition since then (New) or if the entry has been updated (Update).
[Black Hat points with a stick at a slide showing an image of a planet with unknown features marked by questions marks.] Kepler-452b
Black Hat: NASA has announced the discovery of a (super-)Earth-sized planet in the habitable zone of a sun-like star. Black Hat: I suggest we name this planet "Pluto", both to celebrate the great work by the New Horizons team, and to make the stupid "Is Pluto a planet" debate a little more confusing
While we wait to hear from the IAU, here's a revised and updated list of planet name suggestions (see xkcd.com/1253) New or updated entries in red
[The table is in three separate columns. There is a small arrow pointing at the second column, named "Planet", indicating the planet's name corresponding to the star at the first row. The third column shows the planet name suggestions.]
Star Planet Suggested Name Gliese 667 b Space Planet c PILF d A Star e e'); DROP TABLE PLANETS;-- f Blogosphere g Blogodrome h Earth Tau Ceti b Sid Meier's Tau Ceti B c Giant Dog Planet d Tiny Dog Planet e Phil Plainet f Unicode Snowman Gliese 832 b Asshole Jupiter c Waterworld starring Kevin Costner Gliese 581 b Waist-deep Cats c Planet #14 d Ballderaan e Eternia Prime f Taupe Mars g Jelly-Filled Planet Epsilon Eridani b Skydot c Laser Noises Gliese 176 b Pandora c Pantera Kepler-61 b GoldenPalace.com Groombridge 34A b Hot Mess Kepler-442 b Seas of Toothpaste Gliese-442 b This one weird planet EPIC-201367065 b Sulawesi c Huge Soccer Ball d Geodude Kepler-296 b Kerbal Space Planet c A$aplanet d Jurassic World e This Land f Springfield HR 7722 b Betelgeuse c Beetlejuice EPIC 201912552 b Netherlands VI Gliese 3293 b Antispit c Google Earth d Planet of the Apes (disambiguation) Kepler-283 b ˈjʊərənəs c jʊˈreɪnəs Upsilon Andromedae b Fourthmeal c Stampy d Moonchild e Ham Sphere HD 20794 b Cosmic Sands c Legoland d Planet with Arms HD 85512 b Lax Morality HD 40307 b Good Planet c Problemland d Slickle e Spare Parts f New Jersey VI g How Do I Join the IAU Gliese 163 b Neil Tyson's Mustache c [email protected] d Hair-Covered Planet Pi Mensae b Moon Holder HD 189733 b Permadeath Kepler-22 b Blue Ivy KOI-2474 b Store-Brand Earth Kepler-437 b Unicorn Thresher KOI-2418 b Spherical Discworld Kepler-438 b Emergency Backup Earth KOI-3010 b Feeeoooooooop Kepler-442 b Liz 82 Eridani b Horsemeat Surface c The Moon d Constant Saxophones HD 102365 b Little Big Planet Gliese 180 b Dune c Arrakis Fomalhaut b Swarm of Bees Kepler-62 b Sporty c Baby d Scary e Ginger f Posh HD 69830 b Planet.xxx c Novella d Sexoplanet Gliese 682 b Verdant Hellscape c Unsubscribe Kepler-452 b Pluto
A Unicode snowman is also referenced in Randall's book What If , where it is keymapped to a laptop.
Randall has also poked fun at the Netherlands in Drain the Oceans, where the Netherlands, no longer worrying about a cataclysmic flood, take over the world, and in Drain the Oceans: Part II, where the Netherlands use the portal to colonize Mars. See the https://what-if.xkcd.com/archive/ for more details.


The Sky

Explanation:
In this comic Cueball and Megan admire a majestic sky on a beautiful day.
This is one of the few comics where the scenery is drawn entirely in color, adding to the feeling of awe and natural wonder. The lighting on the clouds and the night sky in the upper corner suggest that this is either at sunset or sunrise, with the sun at the horizon outside the left part of the image. The picture is drawn to show the ever changing beauty of the many different stages of the sky rather than to be 100% realistic, as it would not be possible to see stars as clearly as shown, if the sun is still illuminating the clouds in front of them. When the sun sets or rises the light produces many different colors which can often be breathtaking to witness.  The pouch shaped cloud formations are called mammatus clouds and are usually associated with nearing of bad weather.
The comic, however, already start in a small panel, with uniform sky colored light blue background, above the large drawing described above. In this image Cueball says to Megan that he likes the sky and Megan agrees. Megan first elaborates on her feelings in the large image where the zoom out is so large that they have both become small and insignificant characters in the bottom left corner, dwarfed by the sky and cloudscape, with the ground a broad dark band beneath them.
Megan makes a statement about the sky: It's one of my favorite halves . She thus indicates that she has more than one favorite halves. As there are only two halves this thus implies that Megan likes both halves, i.e. she likes everything. Her statement is thus a tautology because it implies that the other half is also a favorite and there are no other segments that would not be among her favorites. There are several xkcd comics about tautology, e.g. 703: Honor Societies , 870: Advertising and 1310: Goldbach Conjectures .
In 1368: One Of The one of is also used in a similar way as there is really no other that that one in that comic, whereas here there are no other that has not be included. A very similar sentence is also used in the title text of 1524: Dimensions where the sentence, I would say time is definitely one of my top three favorite dimensions . This also makes very little sense as there are four dimensions with time, and the other three are indistinguishable as they are just three randomly chosen but orthogonal directions in space.
Taken at face value, given that the image depicts half open sky and half clouds, the other half could be taken to mean the clouds covering half of the sky. Or it could be the sky and the dark Earth, the other half beneath their feet. That it is the latter becomes evident in the title text.
In the title text Megan continues her comment as she states that her other favorite half has some cool objects in it.
She then lists three types of objects:
From this it is thus clear that it is not the clouds vs. the sky she's referring to but rather the sky vs. something down on Earth. Weather the clouds are considered part of the sky or just blocking the sky could be something Megan and Cueball would disagree about. See below.
Based on these three items the other half could either be the entire Earth , just the solid ground or only the oceans . All three mentioned objects can be found both on land and in the oceans. Shipwrecks may be associate with oceans, but they are also often stranded on the shore. Snakes are mainly associated with land, but there are several snakes that live in the ocean. But the last part of the title text takes both the ground and the sea out of the equation, as it states that if those three objects where moved out of the way the other half would also have more sky. As Earth is round (and made from rock, most of them melted in the outer core ) then if you "moved all those rocks out of the way" you would see the sky below on the other side.
This leads to the realization that the two halves are indeed the Sky and the Earth (or Heaven and Earth). The title text is thus a subversion as it may be switching the readers focus of what the other half may be, as seen from only the large image (clouds, stars or the ground).
Beyond the blue sky above there is just the dark night sky of outer space . If it where not for the Earth the blue sky would not exists as it is formed by the air following the gravity and curvature of the earth. So if you would moved the entire Earth out of the way you would also move the blue sky with it and you would only see a similar dark night sky, with lots of stars like those in the top left corner. Of course if it was not the entire Earth, but just those rocks directly beneath Megan that was moved, then in principle she would be able to see the blue sky on the other side of Earth, But as she is saying moved all those away , it indicates that Megan really means the entire Earth.
This last part of the title text thus shows that Megan may be thinking rather of the night sky, and given that there are also stars visible in the top right corner, she could have assumed Cueball also referred to the sky like this rather than the majestic display of clouds and colors. Of course that would be weird, but that's where the comedy occurs because that was unexpected, and it would be typical Megan and/or Randall .
If Megan is also interested in astronomy then she would prefer a dark cloudless sky with stars. And by focusing on the fact that if the Earth was removed there would only be dark sky (empty space) around her on all sides, this may be one of her other often seen strange preferences. (Those are often used by one of the characters in Randall's comics). It is well know from xkcd that Randall really loves astronomy and looking at the night sky. So seen from this perspective, there would still be plenty of sky even if the Earth where removed completely. However, there would not be any clouds or nice colors or any humans or other lifeforms around to admire those astronomical objects.
The title text also indicates that although the other half also is one of Megan's favorites, it is mainly the shipwrecks (the oceans) and the snakes (life forms) that she considers when thinking of this half. The rest is just rocks (the Earth). Taking into account how many different things that are on "that other half", why did Randall then choose to mention those two? Only he will know, but maybe indeed to focus on the oceans and their life forms or any life.
[Cueball and Megan are standing looking upward with in a small frame a light blue background.] Cueball: I like the sky. Megan: Yeah.
[Zooms out to show a blue evening sky, the sun must be setting to the left and a streak of yellow and orange clouds goes from top left to bottom right. The sky/clouds get darker further to the right and several stars are visible behind the clouds on the indigo blue sky in the top right corner. There are also some gray clouds low over the horizon. Cueball and Megan standing to the far left Below them and the sky from the horizon and down there is a thick a black slab taking up about a sixth of the frame height.] Megan: It's one of my favorite halves.


Ozymandias

Explanation:
Ponytail is reciting the opening of " Ozymandias " by Percy Bysshe Shelley (see text below). However, instead of continuing on with the poem, Ponytail is going through a recursion where the information is always being quoted from "a traveler from an antique land" who recounts what they were told by a similar traveler from another antique land. The title text once again plays with recursion, but instead of it being a string of travelers talking about travelers, it is a string of pedestals that are quoting pedestals. In the original poem, the text on the pedestal is itself recounted as part of the traveler's story, so there are already two levels of quotation, and the pedestal's inscription describes Ozymandias as the "king of kings", which, being itself a recursion, gives rise to the comic's joke.
The poem Ozymandias is about the last vestiges of a once-great civilization that has since been lost to history. However, the poem itself, like the statue it describes,can be thought of as a pinnacle of achievement for its civilization- in this case, English civilization. So it is entirely possible that one day, after the fall of this civilization, the poem will fill the same role for it that the statue filled for Ozymandias' civilization, and would therefore be referenced by a traveler from an antique land who stumbled across it.
The fact that Ponytail is now telling Cueball the story of this recursion implies that she is yet another layer of this recursion and is herself "a traveler from an antique land."
The quotes are not nested properly, as they never end. So there is only the starting quotation mark (") for each quote. If she ever finishes there would be one closing quotation mark for each quote in the recursion at the end of her sentence. See 859: ( .
The poem is a sonnet written in iambic pentameter , 10 syllables to a line (note that traveler should be read as trav'ler with only two syllables. Also note that it was originally written in British English where it was spelled with two l's as traveller ). The fragment quoted in the comic consist of the first line and two syllables of the second line of the original poem. The way Ponytail recites her version of the poem in the comic, each line continues to be iambic pentameters (which is the reason for the hyphenation of an-tique between 2nd and 3rd line). However the fourth and last line stops two syllables short, but would have continued as indicated by... Perhaps Randall did this to avoid finishing in mid word ("a trav-").
The title text quotes exactly one line, the 9th line or the first line of the second part of the poem, also stopping during the fourth repetition, although after just one word the fourth time, also with... to indicate that this goes on and on and...
The poem "Ozymandias" is mentioned on pages 169 and 170 of the book Recursive Desire: Rereading Epic Tradition by Jeremy M. Downes.
A similar joke was used in 785: Open Mic Night
I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed: And on the pedestal these words appear: 'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!' Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away." [1]
[Ponytail, with her arms stretched out, is addressing Cueball.] Ponytail: I met a traveler from an antique land who said: "I met a traveler from an an- tique land, who said "I met a traveler from an antique land, who said "I met...


Vet

Explanation:
Roomba is a brand of domestic cleaning robots manufactured by the company iRobot . The robots are designed to automatically vacuum floors. Although these robots are controlled by a quite simple software without any artificial intelligence, some owners tend to humanize them in the same way that others humanize their pets. There are several other comics related to a Roomba.
Megan presents a pet carrier to Cueball the veterinarian assistant. She says that her "dog" is “crawling around eating dirt”, which sounds like certain types of behavioral problems one encounters in dogs, but is precisely what Roombas are made for. (However, the vacuum bag may need to be cleaned.) The vet then comments that it is a Roomba, to which Megan responds that the device (which has nothing to do with an animal) is a cross-breed, and agrees that there probably is “some Roomba” in it. She thus acknowledges the existence of Roombas, but still treats them as if it were an animal. It's common to talk about domestic dogs this way, but cross-breeding dogs with machines is impossible. [ citation needed ] The vet then goes on to say, with endless patience, that a Roomba is not a pet. This is taken by Megan as if the doctor said that her Roomba-like device is a non-domesticated animal (like a monkey, a fox, or the birds referred to in the title text) that can but should not be kept in captivity. In the last panel she consequently releases the vacuum cleaner and it whirs to its 'freedom'.
The second customer, Hairy , has his dog on a leash, but is also carrying a pet transporter for the dog. Most likely he has arrived with the dog in the transporter (perhaps using public transportation) but has now taken it out so it can walk for itself, making the carrier much lighter.
The Migratory Bird Treaty act from the title text contains a list of over 800 bird species that are not allowed to be captured or killed. If the Roomba were to be classified as a native American bird and were added to the list, keeping them as pets would constitute capturing and would be considered illegal. This, of course, shows how confused Megan is. She previously stated the Roomba to be a dog and now apparently believes it is a bird, even though dogs are not birds [ citation needed ] and neither is the Roomba. [ citation needed ]
[Megan arrives with a pet carrier, Cueball stands at a desk as a veterinarian, and Hairy is waiting behind a rope, standing next in line with a dog on a leash and a pet carrier.] Megan: There's something wrong with my dog. He keeps crawling around eating dirt.
[Cueball holds the content of Megan's pet carrier, a flat disk. She is standing behind the desk with the carrier on the desk.] Cueball: This is a Roomba. Megan: Well, he's a mix. Megan: Probably some Roomba in there.
[The Roomba now lies on the table next to the carrier between the two.] Cueball: A Roomba is not a pet. Megan: You're right. It's wrong to keep a beautiful creature like this in a house.
[Megan is outside left to a tree, arms up in the air, encouraging the Roomba to drive away.] Megan: Go! Megan: Be free! Roomba: Whirrr


Driving

Explanation:
A self-driving car is a car that requires no human interaction to navigate streets to a destination. Thus, when Black Hat places a rock that weighs "as much as a small adult" into the car's seat, he begins the process of fooling the car into thinking it has an occupant when it does not. His purpose in doing so appears to be to send the car to Anchorage , Alaska , which is presumably quite far from where Black Hat and Cueball are standing, thus taking the car far away from its owner with relatively little effort on the part of Black Hat. This is yet another evil prank from xkcd's resident classhole .
The title text references the fact that driving to Alaska from the contiguous lower 48 states requires two border crossings, once into Canada from the mainland, and once from Canada into Alaska. The car apparently begins some distance from the Canadian border, since it will likely run out of gas before reaching Canada. Title text expresses regret about this probable failure; perhaps Randall was looking forward to the encounter between the border guards and the vehicle's "occupant."  However, even if the car does not get to Anchorage, Black Hat will have created a serious problem for its owner who will have to report the car as stolen.
Shortly after this comic appeared, Tesla released footage of a robotic charger that can connect itself to a Tesla automatically. If this kind of technology becomes common then a self-driving electric car might be able to make a transcontinental journey without human intervention.
At the time of the release of this comic there were no places where self-driving cars were for sale to individuals. However, several corporate-owned test cars are frequently seen on public roads (such as those operated by Google among others). Nevada, Florida, California and Michigan were the first states to allow the testing of self-driving cars on public roads, and this legality is quickly spreading to many other states, as well as several countries in Europe. Alternatively, Randall might be setting this comic in an idyllic near future, wherein you could drive all over the country (and Canada) with these cars!
It could have been Beret Guy's car - see 1493: Meeting . Self-driving cars are a recurring topic on xkcd.
[Black Hat, carrying a rock, is walking toward Cueball, leaving a trail of sand.] Black Hat: Would you guess this weighs as much as a small adult? Cueball: What? Cueball: Uh, probably.
[Black Hat walks past Cueball who turns to look after him.] Black Hat: Great!
[Black Hat has walked out of the frame. Cueball is looking in the direction he left in. Several noises and voices are coming from off-panel.] Off-panel: *Thump* Car voice (off-panel): Please fasten your seatbelt. Off-panel: *click* Black Hat (off-panel): Take me to Anchorage, Alaska. Car voice (off-panel): Navigating Off-panel: *slam*
[Black Hat walks back in the panel towards Cueball.] Car driving off: Vrrrrrrrrrrrr rrrr rrrrr rr Black Hat: I love self-driving cars. Cueball: ...Whose car was that? Black Hat: Dunno, but they shouldn't have left it running.


Bubblegum

Explanation:
This comic spoofs the iconic quote from the 1988 action movie They Live , where the armed protagonist, upon entering a bank, states that "I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass, and I'm all out of bubblegum." This implies that the protagonist will soon fight the people in the bank, as he cannot do the other objective he came there for (chewing bubble gum). This phrase was also used by the title character of the video game Duke Nukem 3D and is often mistakenly believed to have originated in it. Furthermore, the phrase has itself been parodied by British comedy IT Crowd , and by Mystery Science Theater 3000 in the episode 521 "Santa Claus" ("Ho-ho-ho! I'm here to kick butt and lick candy canes, and I'm all out of candy canes!"), and a version appeared in the 1993 movie Dazed and Confused , where Clint says, "I only came here to do two things, kick some ass and drink some beer. ... Looks like we're almost outta beer." (Note that this movie was filmed in 1993 but set in 1976, and so the character in the movie wouldn't have known about the movie They Live .)
Former wrestler Rowdy Roddy Piper , who played the protagonist in They Live , died five days prior to the publication of this comic so this comic is most likely a tribute to him. The iconic quote was an ad-lib Piper himself came up with.
In the comic, Beret Guy stands in an open doorway with a strong light behind him, a typical pose in action movies when someone is dramatically entering a room. However, in this instance, Beret Guy claims that he is here to "chew bubble gum and make friends". He then offers a stick of gum to both Megan and Cueball , making it clear he intends to do both of his stated objectives. This is expected from Beret Guy, who is usually both naïve about the world and beings that surround him, and also friendly to them.
The title text seems to be a slight dig at the trope of a laconic hero who utters only a few gnomic words, as in the They Live scene. It is another variation of the line, with meta-humor. The speaker states that he is here to say 18 words and chew bubble gum, but reaches 18 words before he is able to finish his sentence. Thus, readers are left in ambiguity as to whether or not he is also out of bubble gum, as the line could end "and I'm all out of words", "and I'm all out of gum", or "and I'm all out of both." Of course if it is a tribute to Rowdy it could have been "and I'm all out of time!" And his time was up just then before that last word.
Strangely, though, Randall has not preserved the number of words in the original film quote: there are 16. There would be 18 if 'bubble gum' (which occurs twice) were taken as two words, but in the comic, it is clear that Randall takes it as one.
Beret Guy has previously indicated he has a finite number of words he can say in 1493: Meeting .
In 1110: Click and Drag Megan, walking out on to a platform on the left side of the tower Burj Khalifa, says "I came here to chew bubblegum... And I'm all out of bubblegum" to which Cueball walking with her replies "That's a shame" (see picture here .)
[Beret Guy stands dramatically silhouetted in a doorway.] Beret Guy: I came here to chew bubblegum and make friends!
[Beret Guy, in normal lighting, looks at Megan and Cueball who stare back. A silent beat panel.]
[Beret Guy put his hand out offering a stick of gum to Megan and Cueball.] Beret Guy: Want some gum?


Water Phase Diagram

Explanation:
This is a modified version of the phase diagram for water . A "phase diagram" is a chart that shows the states, or "phases", that a substance will be in under various temperatures and pressures. Water's phases are particularly well-studied; on the real phase diagram for water , there are a great many phases listed.
Most people are familiar with three phases of water — solid ( ice ), liquid (water), and gas ( vapour ) — and with the fact that an increase in temperature will cause water to change from one state to another. The gas and liquid phases are quite straightforward; however, there is in fact not one single solid phase of water, but a variety of numbered phases ("ice I" through "ice XVI" are currently recognized), several of which are divided into sub-categories. Ordinary, everyday ice is known as " ice I h " ("ice one-h"). Most of the more unusual forms of ice only form under very high pressure .
Randall's phase diagram starts out realistically, though slightly simplified in several ways. For one, it simply uses the name "ice" for the usual form(s). It is focused in on a narrower area than the more complete diagram linked earlier; on that version, the "ice V" region is quite small, and "ice III" is barely visible, whereas both are quite plain to see on Randall's diagram. Lastly, where most phase diagrams have pressure increase upwards, Randall has the pressure scale increase downwards, this has been chosen to make it possible for the jokes to appear at the bottom of the chart. Else the comic would not be funny for the average reader.
Because, as the diagram continues downwards and the pressure increases, the jokes begin. Beyond the moderately high-pressure forms of ice (ice II, III and V), a real phase diagram has ice VI; Randall has "Vanilla Ice (ice VI)". Vanilla Ice is the stage name of a white rap/hip-hop artist from the 1990s; the initials of Vanilla Ice, and the Roman numeral six, are both VI.
Vanilla Ice's biggest hit, " Ice Ice Baby ", used samples from the earlier song " Under Pressure ", by David Bowie and Queen ; accordingly, on Randall's diagram, the "Vanilla Ice" region transitions to "David Bowie & Queen" when it is under (even higher) pressure.
Further references to "Ice Ice Baby" are found in the title text. Near the beginning of the song, Vanilla Ice raps the line, "All right stop, collaborate and listen". The unusual choice of "collaborate" in this line has made it memorable, and the word is used in the title text (in a more typical context). The phrase "survive at room temperature for several months" is likely a reference to "Ice Ice Baby" being Vanilla Ice's only major hit, humorously suggesting he faded out of the public view after a few months of fame. Finally, even the word "sample" may be deliberately chosen as a reference to the sampling of "Under Pressure". "Ice Ice Baby" was written in 1983, but in 1990 Vanilla Ice finally admitted that he used unmodified samples from "Under Pressure" and paid royalties to Queen and Bowie.
When originally published, another image was faintly visible just below and to the right of the "Water vapor" label. It appeared to be a copy of an actual phase diagram for water from Wikipedia . The image has since been removed, lending support to speculation that it was an error (perhaps an image Randall referred to in drawing the comic, but accidentally left in the final result). Alternatively, it may have been deliberate—suggestions include its presence being a water mark, or a reference to the "Full text of the Wikipedia article on pareidolia" joke in the 1551: Pluto comic.
Randall has referenced "Ice Ice Baby" and "Under Pressure", separately and together, on many previous occasions, notably in 159: Boombox and 210: 90's Flowchart . The gag of having the performers of "Under Pressure" also being literally under pressure was also used in 1040: Lakes and Oceans .
The what if? that was current at the time of this comic's publication was 138: Jupiter Submarine , which began with an even more fanciful phase diagram: that of a submarine. It also contains a reference to the songs "Under Pressure" and "Ice Ice Baby" in one figure, and "Can't Touch This" by M.C. Hammer in the title text of that figure (which generated similar controversy for sampling "Superfreak" by Rick James).
The title text of 1434: Where Do Birds Go whimsically suggests another possible phase of water/ice.
As mentioned above, the small image on the original version could be a reference to the "Full text of the Wikipedia article on pareidolia" joke in the 1551: Pluto comic.
[A phase diagram is shown with eight labeled regions.]
[The horizontal axis, increasing in value to the right is labeled:] Temperature
[The vertical axis, increasing in value downwards is labeled:] Pressure
[Region alongside the "Pressure" axis covering about half of its length is labeled:] Ice
[Region spanning top-right corner of graph, i.e. higher temperatures and lower pressures. The region is labeled:] Water vapor
[Region below "Water vapor" and to the right of "Ice" is labeled:] Liquid water
[Three small regions below "Ice" are going from left to right on the same pressure region, the last ending just under "Liquid water". They are each labeled:] Ice II Ice III Ice V
[Region below "Ice II", "Ice III", "Ice V" and "Liquid water" is labeled:] Vanilla Ice (Ice VI)
[Below "Vanilla Ice" there is a dashed line with two arrows pointing downwards. The region below the dashed line is labeled:] David Bowie & Queen


I in Team

Explanation:
"There's no I in team" is a well-known saying that tries to encourage teamwork by reducing each member's individual self-importance. The intention of the phrase is to remind team members that, just as the letter "i" is not present in the word "team", focus on the metaphorical "I" (i.e. individual self-interest) is not constructive in teamwork. It can be used as a light reprimand to a team member who isn't cooperating, with the reminder that when working as a team one cannot think only for oneself, and must work in partnership with the rest of the team towards a common goal.
The phrase "no I in team" dates from the 1960s in the USA with printed references [1] showing it is familiar to baseball pitchers such as Vern Law . As an aside, it's interesting that it seems to come from baseball, a sport where players have significantly more independence compared to, say, rugby .
Interestingly, the letters M and E can both be found in "team." This suggests that the phrase "There's no I in team" was a slight victim of cherry picking . This comic makes fun of this, and uses an extreme example, by Cueball taking the sentence literally, as a metalingual comment (see Jakobson's functions of language ), and he points out to Hairy that the spelling (or orthography ) of a word doesn't relate to its meaning (an instance of the use–mention distinction ).
Cueball is using the same joke against Hairy by saying there is a "u" in "People who apparently don't understand the relationship between orthography and meaning". There is a "u" (pronounced as "you") in what Cueball said, implying that Hairy is included in the set of people who mistakenly link orthography and meaning.
Of course, it's very likely that Hairy knows that orthography doesn't determine meaning, and could easily reply "There's also a 'u' in 'People who take aphorisms too literally' ". On the other hand, there is in fact no 'u' in that sentence, which would make it the one actually false statement mentioned.
The title text "There's no 'I' in 'VOWELS'." provides another illustration of the distinction between orthography and meaning. "A", "I" and "U" are vowels, notwithstanding the irrelevant fact that they are not included in the spelling of "VOWELS".
Orthography was the subject of 1069: Alphabet .
[Hairy and Cueball stand opposite each other.] Hairy: Remember, there's no "I" in "team". Cueball: No, but there's a "U" in "People who apparently don't understand the relationship between orthography and meaning".


Synonym Movies

Explanation:
This comic shows several "Synonym Movies". It takes several well known movies, but changes each word of their names into a synonym. So Star Wars has turned into Space Fights , The Lord of the Rings into The Jewelry God and Star Trek into Space Trip . All these movies series have the same heading, and then a subtitle. There are ten of them in the comic, and two more in the title text. This comic became a series when more movies were spoofed  in 1568: Synonym Movies 2 .
The use of synonyms makes all these movies look ridiculous, for example, "The Sword Wizard Is Back" is a laughable sounding movie [ citation needed ] , whereas " Return of the Jedi " sound perfectly reasonable to us. Randall may be poking fun at movies that have ridiculous titles already, for instance some people think this applies to a title like " Terminator: Genisys ".
The title text refers to the latest Star Wars movie (2015-12-18), after Disney acquired the movie rights. The movie is called Star Wars: The Force Awakens and has now turned into Power Gets Up . As usual, with any Star Wars related material, there is a huge fan base that eagerly awaits the new movie. But then again many people fear that it will not live up to their expectations, as was the case with the fourth movie, first of the three movies in the second installment of Star Wars, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace , dubbed here as The Scary Ghost . As mentioned in the title text, that movie did not live up to the hype.
A similarly humorous effect is achieved in 1133: Up Goer Five which explains the Saturn V rocket, but words and phrases are replaced with synonyms which are chosen from the most common English words. This renders ordinary words like "rocket" into "flying space car", or "helium" into "funny voice air" for example.
SPOILER ALERT! Many of these explanations contain information revealed during the movie.
[Ten DVDs on a shelf. The first three stand together to the left, the two to the right leaning on the first. The next three are standing straight in the middle and then the next four are standing straight to the right. The movie titles are written on the back of the DVD cases, in white on the gray DVD cases. The text is written, so it is supposed to be read when the DVD is lying down.] Space Fights: Sudden Optimism Space Fights: The Government Wins This One Space Fights: The Sword Wizard Is Back
The Jewelry God: The Jewelry Team The Jewelry God: Double Houses The Jewelry God: We Have a Czar Again
Space Trip: The Movie Space Trip: That Guy is Angry Space Trip: Where is the Vulcan Space Trip: Let's Go Back
[Caption below the frame:] Synonym Movies


Every Seven Seconds

Explanation:
There is an oft-stated urban myth that men think about sex every seven seconds. See for example this BBC article , where they say that a more realistic number is 19 times in a waking day, i.e. once every 50 minutes.
In this comic Cueball is a sociologist , and the thought bubbles show his train of thoughts regarding this myth. First of all, he flatly denies that it could be true, and progressively his thoughts move to the effects if it were true, and then Cueball considers how it would even be studied. The title of the comic (Every seven seconds) hints strongly that this is the subject he is thinking about, and this is subsequently confirmed both in the caption and in the title text.
The setup is that thinking about sex every seven seconds would be dysfunctional and unproductive in addition to making working, social interactions and etcetera nearly impossible as explained by the sociologist's thoughts. The punch line is that thinking every seven seconds about how ridiculous it is to think about sex every seven seconds is just as dysfunctional and unproductive even if the thought time is spent refuting the original notion as understood in third person.
The irony of the comic is that in thinking every seven seconds about how impossible it would be for men to think about sex every seven seconds, the sociologist is, in fact, thinking about sex every seven seconds, albeit in a roundabout way.
In the title text, the narrator ( Randall or Cueball the sociologist?) says he thinks about how implausible it would be to have sex every seven seconds, several times a year. See alternate interpretations below:
In the title text, the narrator's statement leaves some meaning up to interpretation:
[Cueball is walking with four thought bubbles above him.]
Cueball (thinking): There’s no way that’s true. It would interfere with basic cognition. Such a ridiculous view of masculinity. How would you even study that?
[Caption below the panel:] Every seven seconds, sociologists think about that made-up statistic about how often men think about sex.


Back Seat

Explanation:
This comic makes fun of the common situation of a messy car, using a hyperbolic scenario of that car containing decaying animals, in this case a raccoon . The joke being that such a car is so disgusting that a dead raccoon is not the worst thing that one might encounter. The humor comes from the car owner seeming to be used to a dead raccoon and the implications of what might be worse than a dead raccoon.
This is the polar opposite of 1267: Mess , where the person apologizes for a nearly non-existent mess. Here, the person minimizes a completely atrocious mess into a quick fix situation. The form of the comic is that of a pro-tip, which tells the reader what the phrase "I just have to clear a few things out of the back" really means.
' Protips ' are used to give snarky, obvious or inadequate advice, in order to either humor a well-learnt audience or to prank a naïve audience. This phenomenon originated in a gaming magazine column offering advice on Doom : "To defeat the Cyberdemon, shoot at it until it dies. [ citation needed ] ", or "fire is hot [ citation needed ] " Randall has given us several Protips in the past as well.
The title text further exposes the reality of the person's knowledge of how bad the situation really is when he acknowledges the existence of the dead raccoon while trying to usher the live one to the same side. Protip: Sitting next to a dead and a live raccoon is not an improved scenario, as the dead raccoon would probably be decaying, leaking bodily fluids into the back seat, staining the seat and making it wet, while the live raccoon may be aggravated, and possibly attacking the occupants of the vehicle.
[Caption above the panel.] Protip:
[Cueball is holding the back door of his car open. Wiggly lines emanate from the back seat area. Megan and another Cueball-like guy are stand next to the car, looking at each other.] Cueball: Hang on, I just have to clear a few things out of the back.:
[Caption below the panel.] When you hear "I just have to clear a few things out of the back," you are about to see, at minimum, a decaying raccoon.