I'm a Car

Explanation:
This comic was released eleven days before the United States midterm elections on Tuesday, November 6, 2018 and even the header text at the top of the xkcd page had changed a few days before by showing a link to vote.org to help US citizens to register and finding their polling places. Randall uses a neutral way to encourage people to use the right to rule their governmental representatives. Before the presidential election, 2016 , however, he chose the Democrats as shown in the comic 1756: I'm With Her (see more here ).
This comic shows a car with a bumper sticker , which is generally a thin rectangle piece of plastic with a message on one side and adhesive on the other side in order to stick to a car.  This allows the owner of the car to display a message they want to present to whoever is driving behind them or in their vicinity.  Bumper stickers are usually used to express a viewpoint, whether personal or political, held by the owner or driver of the car.  This comic makes literal the ones that include or allude to the personal pronoun "I" and its variations, i.e. first person singular statements.  Of course the intent is that "I" is referring to the person who put the bumper sticker on the car, but as the sticker is attached to the car the more literal interpretation is that "I" is referring to the car. So the humor is derived by the notion that the car itself is making these statements.  (On an even more meta level, the comic could be interpreted as saying that the person who wrote the words in the comic, i.e. Randall , is saying that he is a car.)
The bumper sticker on the car in the comic is a variation of a sticker used to both encourage people to vote, as well as express their political position: "I'm a ___, and I vote" (where the blank is traditionally filled in with "Union Worker", "Catholic", "Senior Citizen", "Gun Owner" or some other demographic or organizational membership). However here it is attributed to an automobile which is not capable of voting [ citation needed ] .
The comic could be an indirect reference to the growing "intelligence" of self-driving cars , such that one day they might have the intellect to communicate, vote, and engage in other self-motivated activities. See ‘ Sally ’ by Isaac Asimov . It may also relate to security concerns around increasing use of electronic voting mechanisms - the joke being that the car is able to abuse the interfaces to such systems either to vote on behalf of its owner or as its own entity. Though voting might not be one's biggest concern if their "intelligent" car got dragged into a bot net...
The title text seems to be another typical message on a bumper sticker, saying that the driver is a "Proud Parent Of An Honor Student". However, this sticker is a bit longer, since it continues to state that "the person driving me is proud, too". Thus once again it is the car who is the proud parent. And thus maybe it is a car that is the honor student?  Another thought is that this may be a reference to the 1965-66 TV sitcom My Mother The Car .
[The bottom right rear end of a car is shown with a bumper sticker next to the unreadable license plate.] I'm a car and I vote


Who Sends the First Text?

Explanation:
Text messaging is a back-and-forth communication via SMS between two users. In this comic, Randall shows a line graph of "who sends the first text more often?" This is meant to show who Randall initiates conversations with, and who initiates conversations with him.
Maintaining a friendship or relationship (whether intimate, friendship, casual, or business) typically requires communication; often that communication takes place when two individuals are not in the same location by means of an exchange of text messages.  A normal balanced relationship typically involves both parties involved to have an approximately equal interest in making conversations happen, as measured in this case by "who sends the first text".  The person who desires that a particular communication take place typically will send a text message, and once the other person responds the conversation happens, and the relationship progresses.  If neither person initiates, the relationship will likely suffer.
While this graph shows the majority of his relationships involve friends whereby both sides are prone to initiating conversations, the graph also shows some groups that are a little more at the extremes, some where Randall texts a lot but they typically don't initiate text conversations to him, and some where others text him a lot but he rarely initiates text conversations with them.
On the left side of the graph are people with whom Randall initiates conversations with "100% of the time". On the right side of the graph are those who initiate conversations with Randall.
The chart is separated into 5 blocks. The two blocks on the left are those who may be, or definitely are, "just politely putting up with [Randall]". This is implied that they may not be close friends with Randall, but Randall still wants to be friends with them. Their reluctance to initiate conversation with Randall is shown by the fact that Randall usually sends the first text to them.
The largest block, in the middle, is "friends". These friends range from Randall initiating a lot, to them initiating a lot. There is a healthy range of who initiates first.
The next block to the right is for "that really nice friend who keeps inviting me to things even though I flake constantly". This means that Randall promises to go to events that this friend invites him to, but does not always follow through. This friend is still persistent in inviting Randall. Additionally, Randall could be less close to this person, based on him not categorizing this person under "friends".
The final block is "automated alerts and political campaigns". Randall would certainly not be likely to initiate "conversation" with automated systems, and would be very unlikely to initiate conversations with political campaigns. The fact that the bar is not purely 100% suggests that he has on rare occasion sent the first text to such recipients, perhaps for a campaign he believes in, or to request to be added to an automated alert system (i.e. opt-in). The fact that it includes political campaigns is a reference to the incessant texts being sent to Americans about the upcoming midterms.
In the title text, Randall wishes that he would know the percentage of "who sends the first text more often", for each person that he texts. But he is also wary of the potential implications of finding out this information.
(Many old school messenger like pidgin offer such statistics through plugins though)
Who sends the first text more often? [A line graph with a segmented bar underneath shows a 50/50 marker in the middle while the left end is labeled "I text first 100% of the time" whereas the right end is labeled "They text first 100% of the time".]
[The bar below is divided into five sections:]
[A small part at the left, and a next, slightly larger part. The text below points to the second part:] People who I think of as friends but secretly worry that they're just politely putting up with me
[Below this a text is shown for the first part:] ... definitely just politely putting up with me
[In the middle is a big part:] Friends
[To the right the parts are symmetric, the first is larger:] That really nice friend who keeps inviting me to things even though I flake constantly
[The last small bar at the right:] Automated alerts and political campaigns


Ballot Selfies

Explanation:
This comic was published six days prior to the 2018 United States general elections , also called midterm elections , because they happen halfway between two presidential elections, two years before and after. At the time, the xkcd header still provided a link to vote.org , a website that helps US citizens with essential voting issues, like how to register or how to find their polling locations. It is the first of three consecutive comics that deal with this election.
In the United States, " ballot selfies " refers to the practice of taking a picture of oneself with a completed ballot. These have been illegal in many states, due to laws passed to prevent vote selling.
Without proof of how a vote was cast, if someone bribed (or even violently coerced) a voter to vote for candidate A, the voter could just vote 'B' and the coercer would be unable to tell whether they voted as instructed.  This is at the heart of the concept of "a secret ballot".  But if ballot-selfies or other proof-of-vote mechanisms are permitted then the evil-doer can demand verification that the voter did what they were coerced to do - and this jeopardizes the idea of a truly free and fair election.
However, the "secret ballot" principle is not universally valued nor enforced. Some voting machines produce a paper receipt showing the choices the voter made - and many jurisdictions permit use of a postal ballot - so there are plenty of other ways to circumvent the law in those places.  So the ban on ballot selfies is harder to justify unless those other lines of coercion are also ruled out.
On the other hand, the desire to take and distribute ballot selfies often comes from an excitement in participating in the voting process and the desire to share that excitement in the hopes of encouraging others to vote, and anything that helps get more people to the polls is generally considered to be a good thing. In addition, the law is incredibly difficult to enforce -- there is little way to prevent somebody from photographing their ballot and privately showing this photo to somebody else -- and the practice of enforcing it (i.e. searching for possible photographic devices all together) would make the local government incredibly unpopular.  Lastly, voters storing evidence of their votes could be useful to prevent voting fraud performed by the state.
This dual threat/benefit has led some states to explicitly legalize ballot selfies, other states to specifically disallow them and even levy steep financial penalties, while the rest are still debating or ignoring the issue .
As Ponytail is aware of this law, she believes she has identified a solution wherein she will make an oil painting of her voting rather than taking a photograph .  A painting being more of an artistic endeavor that doesn't have to faithfully record all aspects of the image, it may well be valid both on grounds of freedom of speech as well as not being a verbatim record of her vote - thereby preserving the secrecy of the ballot.  Of course, making a painting of her vote may lead to additional problems. If she intends to paint the portrait herself, of herself (i.e. a self-portrait ) casting her vote, it would be very difficult and time consuming to attempt to do that, especially without a mirror, which she apparently doesn't have with her and which is generally not standard issue in voting booths. [ citation needed ] She could also try to recruit someone else to do the painting, not knowing the level of their artistic talent, however, usually only the person casting the vote is allowed in the booth, and they are expected to close the curtain or otherwise ensure no outside person, like the painter, can view the vote casting act. It would also require her to stay in the booth longer than most voters.
While Hairbun and White Hat are simply standing in line, Megan can be seen using a mobile phone.
The comic might also be a reference to the existing ban of cameras in US courtrooms , which lead US newspapers to widely adopt cartoons as a replacement.
In many US states, changes to state law can be made through the initiative and referendum process, which can be initiated and pursued by any citizen.
The title text refers to the legality of taking a ballot selfie whilst voting against the law against ballot selfies.
[Megan, Ponytail, Cueball, White Hat, and Hairbun are standing in a line with Hairbun in front. All are facing forward to the right except Cueball, who is looking to his left at Ponytail. Megan holds a phone in her hand while Ponytail carries an easel under her left arm and a paintbrush in her right hand.] Ponytail: Ballot selfies are illegal in this state, so to immortalize my vote I'm doing an oil painting in the voting booth.


Challengers

Explanation:
Regarding the midterm elections held in the United States on November 6, 2018, this comic shows probably all challengers, which are candidates running against the current office-holder, as well as those running in open seats where a change of the major party from the previous election could occur. It is the second of three consecutive comics that deal with this election.
Randall states on top that "The bigger the candidate's name is,"
While an office can be subclassified by order from state down to county, the guesses on better chances to success can be only based on surveys before the elections.
All names provide an indirect link to the first Google Search result on that specific person and position. As common, Democratic candidates are shown in blue text, Republican candidates in red, and independent candidates are in green.
The landmarks shown in gray are essentially links to Wikipedia pages containing coordinates pointing to the US in their body (both visible on the site and hidden in the wiki source) that point to places in the US. If they contain more than one coordinate then the first one is used, for example the List of the major 3000-meter summits of the United States page is shown in Alaska, and the xkcd page is linked near Boston, Massachusetts. This list seems to be auto-generated from a Wikipedia dump made possibly before 2017. There doesn't seem to be any other criteria as the list also contains orphaned wikipedia pages that only contain hidden coordinates in their sources pointing to the US, for example this one .  Wikipedia pages containing these coordinates can be easily enumerated on the site in blocks of 500 at a time.
Since the map is large there's also a loading screen present that can be seen while the map is loading.
There are a total of nine comics embedded into the map at various locations. They are showed when zooming into the map at the appropriate section.
Location: Lubbock, Texas
[Black Hat and Cueball are talking.] Black Hat: Starting on November 7th, we're going to blanket the airwaves with attack ads. Cueball: Isn't the election on November 6th? Black Hat: Yeah, the advertising rates go way down after that.
Attack ads are campaign advertising that usually attack the opponents' campaign instead of promoting one's own. The comic also refers to the fact that media outlets usually spike their advertising prices during the campaign, and it becomes cheaper afterwards. However there's usually no point in advertising afterwards for a campaign as the polling has already taken place. This may also be a callback to 1130: Poll Watching .
Lubbock was the place where some attack ads were shown few months before the election. Texas is also notable as in 2008 during the Democratic Party primary Hillary Clinton started running attack ads aimed at Barack Obama, who later became President, causing controversy.
Location: Weed, California
[Cueball is holding a piece of paper and talking to Megan.] Cueball: Question #1 voids all 2018 ballot measures except itself. Cueball: Question #2 retroactively lowers the threshold for passing ballot measures to 5%. Cueball: Question #3 requires a re-vote on all failed ballot measures a day later. Cueball: Question #4 requires a re-vote on all passed ballot measures a day later. Cueball: Question #5 bans those annoying phone scammers, but also says that if an odd number of ballot measures pass, Christmas is canceled. Cueball: Question #6 makes a "yes" count as a "no" on odd-numbered ballot measures. Cueball: Question #7 does nothing but counts as a ballot measure passing. Cueball: Question #8 says that- Megan: I'm leaving these all blank and voting against whoever approves ballot measures.
Ballot measures are proposed laws that are approved and rejected by voters. In California, apart from the elections to Congressional and state offices, there will be also be 12 extra propositions for the voters in this election. Sometimes propositions also include changing how voting should be done in subsequent elections. There are people who believe proposals on US ballots are asked in a very convoluted way, and could be made simpler.
In this comic a lot of the proposals sound complex and self-referential as well, therefore Megan just says that she doesn't wish to vote to any of them, and would actually like to ban people creating ballot papers like this. Not voting might also refer to the scenario where people believe none of the choices during an election are good, and instead vote to no-one or deface their ballot papers in protest.
The name of the town chosen, Weed, California, may be a pun on how marijuana is legal in California.
Location: Bellingham, Washington
[Cueball holds a presentation to a group of people including White Hat and Hairbun sitting at an office desk. The presentation shows a map of a district.] Cueball: Under my new Carlymandering plan, we'll create five red districts, five blue districts, and one district which contains only Carly Rae Jepsen. Hairbun: That seems fair.
This refers to gerrymandering , a tactic used to re-shape voting district boundaries to make sure one candidate prevails over the other. "Carlymandering" is a malamanteau which combines gerrymandering with Carly Rae Jepsen , a Canadian singer, whose single " Party for One " was released the day before the comic's publication. Although the song is about partying (e.g. going out) alone, [ citation needed ] the joke is that it could also mean a one-person political party, and she would have a full gerrymandered district to herself.
Jepsen lives in Vancouver, which is just on the other side of the US border in Canada. The comic is placed in Whatcom County, which is notable for Point Roberts , a peninsula which, although part of Washington state, is actually an exclave of the US, as it's surrounded by sea on three sides, and has its only land border with Vancouver to the north. The comic might refer to the fact that Jepsen could solely live in this exclave. However, since she is not a US citizen, she can neither vote nor be elected in US elections.
Location: Washington, DC
[Cueball is standing in the middle of Washington, DC] Cueball: I can see my House from here!
Comic is probably referencing the White House , the residence of the President, located in Washington, DC. This could also refer to the Capitol Building , the home of the House of Representatives , also located in Washington, DC.
Location: Primm, Nevada
[A group of five people are standing] Blondie: Remember: The only poll that counts is the one on Election Day. And the ones that help campaigns allocate resources. And the ones that drive media coverage and the ones that inform us all about what our fellow members of the public believe. And the ones that...
The word "poll" has two distinct meanings in regards to elections -- the place where you go to cast your official vote is called a poll, as are the unofficial surveys done to try to gauge how people are likely to vote.
During campaign there is usually polling done by survey companies to determine each candidate's chances of winning. This comic refers to the fact that often the candidate that is behind in the unofficial polls tells their electorate that these polls don't matter, as they are just surveys and not the actual final result. This is usually to encourage their voter base that it's still worth voting for them. The joke here is that Blondie doesn't finish here but tells the electorate that other polls are actually also important.
Nevada is one of the states where there is only a slim difference between the candidates based on polls hence the need for each candidate to rally their supporters and make sure everyone is voting.
Location: Chadron, Nebraska
[Megan is standing at a podium with her arm raised] Megan: If elected, I vow to find and punish the voters responsible.
Often candidates make promises of things they will do when they are elected. Vowing to find and punishing people responsible for a certain action, oftentimes criminals, is also common. However, certain performance artists aside, these two things are generally not conflated, as they are here, to ludicrous effect.
Putting this comic into Nebraska might refer to the fact that in 2016 Nebraska voted to repeal the death penalty ban , allowing the reinstatement of the death penalty, also called capital punishment, in the state.
Location: Storm Lake, Iowa
Cueball: The midterms are so stressful. Megan: I just hope J.D. Scholten wins. Cueball: Why? Megan: Google Steve King. [Cueball looking at his phone] Cueball: Yikes.
J.D. Scholten is a Democratic candidate for Iowa's 4th Congressional District. Steve King is a Republican representative who has stirred controversy due his endorsement of candidates, in other countries, who were members of parties with white supremacist ties, and he has explicitly and frequently stated concern with the American society being destroyed by "other people's babies" . King would go on to win re-election by a narrow margin.
Location: Richmond, Virginia
[Cueball is holding a sign that says: Abigail Spanberger for Congress]
Abigail Spanberger was a candidate running for Congress in Virginia's 7th district, which includes Richmond. Based on polls she had a chance to beat her opponent, and she then became the first Democrat in her district after 50 years of Republican control, beating out Republican incumbent David Brat by 2 percentage points. Cueball probably was trying to encourage people to vote for her on election day.
Location: Saint Louis, Missouri
[Two people next to the Gateway Arch are talking] Cueball: Ah, Saint Louis. Home of America's largest... Whatever that thing is.
Saint Louis, Missouri is the location of the Gateway Arch , the largest arch in the United States. (It's also one of the most recognizable arches in Saint Louis, according to 1368: One Of The .) Since in this comic they are next to the side of the arch, it is possible its sheer size stops them from determining what it is, although they should probably know. An alternate interpretation is that they are baffled by the existence of a giant, seemingly-useless steel arch, and do not know what to refer to it as.
The area surrounding the Arch was known as Jefferson National Expansion Memorial until February 2018, when it was renamed to Gateway Arch National Park.
The title text shows the hint that the reader can zoom in and move over all 50 states to reveal details which can't be seen in the overall view. Furthermore Randall calls on Americans to vote: he requests that people take an active part in the elections to change that picture.
[A loading screen appears shortly before the large picture has rendered. We can see an American flag in an oval badge with the text:] I voted [And beneath a text saying:] Loading...
2018 Midterm Challengers The bigger the candidate's name, the higher the office and the better their chances of success.
[In a frame a zoomable map shows all US-States (Alaska and Hawaii are shown in the left lower corner.) The candidates are shown colored mainly in red and blue at different sizes. Each state has many landmarks shown in gray. There are also many comics embedded into the picture.]
By Randall Munroe, Kelsey Harris, and Max Goodman
Landmarks from Wikipedia. Success odds estimated from district voting history, special election results, and seat ratings. Thank you to Dailykos Elections for their spreadsheets, shapefiles, election ratings, and advice, and to @davidshor, @charlotteeffect, and @thedlcc for additional candidate data.
Map of interesting features on the comic ( Red X : comic strip, Green X : independent candidate, Blue X : xkcd landmark)


Election Night

Explanation:
This is the third comic in a row that deals with elections in the United States; the trio has been published in the week before the US midterm elections held on November 6, 2018 and it compares media coverage on election results in 1896 and 2018. During this time the Header text of xkcd was also changed three times, including on the release days of both this and the previous comic, to help people go and vote. See more in the trivia section .
While elections and voting have been a public staple for generations, election coverage by the media can result in voter fatigue .  While voter fatigue is considered a major criticism of things like first past the post voting systems, media outlets will also contribute.
The time traveler from 1896, wearing a top hat (the typical hat used at that time), presents Megan and Cueball a method how the latest news --over the night-- is published to the public. No broadcasting television or even radio existed then and most newspapers, reaching the readers on the next morning, were printed in the evening before the election results were certain.  For the election referenced in this clipping , Republican candidate William McKinley (assigned the color Blue) won in a close race against Democrat-Populist candidate William J. Bryan (assigned the color Red).
Here, Randall is taking a unique opportunity to point out that unlike our recollection of history (which is usually modified by the misinformation effect , where we perceive the past as being easier and find a source to blame for the election night jitters) that in fact, in the past, a bombardment of fireworks every hour was used to convey the hour-by-hour play of the election night, a significantly more jarring effect that couldn't even be turned off.  We have progressed, in some ways, to a more opt-in system, rather than the opt-out system of the past, where you had to leave Chicago to avoid the news.
The part about the "jiggling needle" may be a reference to the New York Times' 2016 presidential election results webpage, which displayed a "needle" it used to forecast the results of the presidential election between then-candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.  The position of the needle was initially set based on pre-election polls, pointing heavily toward Hillary Clinton, but as election results from around the country -- and from individual counties within states -- started coming in it changed to reflect those results.  Especially near the beginning, before a lot of real election data had come in, results reported from small counties could dramatically swing the needle to one side or the other when coming from heavily Democratic or Republican districts, then swing again when another county reported.  Only when a significant amount of data had come in did the needle settle down and move more incrementally.
The title text explains that in 1896 even blind people were taken care of, as enormous megaphones were installed to convey the news equally unavoidably to those who couldn't (or didn't want to) see the color bombs. This is in fact true but was intended for those in the colosseum, not all of Chicago.
[Megan and Cueball face each other while talking on the left of the panel] Megan: Ugh, I'm just going to hide out for election night. We'll know the results the next day anyway. The drama is so unnecessary. Cueball: Yeah. The internet and the 24-hour news have turned elections into a continuous, inescapable media onslaught. [A man in a top hat appears on the right side of the panel with a "Poof"]
[Panel with just the man in a top hat, holding a newspaper] Man in a top hat: Hi! I'm a time traveler from 1896. Let me tell you about our election night coverage. Man in a top hat: *Ahem* Man in a top hat: From the Chicago Tribune
[Zoom in on the head of the man in a top hat] Man in a top hat: "Once every hour from the roof of the Great Northern Hotel a series of bombs, which will ascend for several thousand feet, will be fired. Two colors will be used, blue and red." Man in a top hat: "Blue to indicate McKinley's election, red to indicate Bryan's election." Man in a top hat: "The bombardment of the skies will commence at 7 o'clock and will be repeated hourly." [Grey citation]: Chicago Tribune, Oct 30th & Nov 1st, 1896
[Megan and Cueball on the left looking at the man in the top hat on the right] Megan: Yeah, well, we have a needle, though. Man in a top hat: A needle. Megan: It jiggles! Man in a top hat: Sounds awful. Cueball: Listen, you had to be there.


Wishlist

Explanation:
Super Smash Brothers (also titled as Super Smash Bros. and usually shortened to Smash ) is a crossover fighting game series published by Nintendo , with the core roster of playable characters originating from Nintendo's own intellectual properties such as Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda . At the time this comic was published, there were 77 playable characters in total across the 5 games in the series. Starting with the third game, Super Smash Bros. Brawl , characters from third-party franchises (non-Nintendo) have been made available, though most of them had at least made major appearances on a Nintendo system at some point. This comic is a parody of various fans' wishes for the roster of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate , which was announced in 2018 along with multiple trailers revealing new characters to appear in the roster. In the November 1st trailer it was stated every new character in the launch version of the game had been announced, though with five more characters coming in 2019 as downloadable content .
Throughout the series fans have suggested new characters to add; however, developer acquiescence to these requests is rare, with only six characters out of 77 ( King Dedede , Steve, Sonic the Hedgehog , Ryu , Bayonetta , and Ridley ) having been added this way. On November 3rd, 2018, the developer studio Sora Ltd. made a statement on Twitter telling fans that the as-yet unrevealed DLC characters for Ultimate were already chosen and that they were not accepting further requests; all remaining characters would then be gradually released over the next three years, culminating in Sora 's reveal in October 2021.
This comic lists 16 "characters" that Randall supposedly wishes were made available in Super Smash Bros. , ranging from plausible playable characters, to the absurd.
Mario / Luigi hybrid Mario and Luigi are characters in the Super Mario series, one of Nintendo's flagship franchises. They are both playable characters in the Super Smash Bros. series. A hybrid of these two characters would be quite interesting, even though such a concept does not exist within the Super Mario series. When considering how Mario and Luigi have evolved throughout the Smash series, one could argue that Dr. Mario is a hybrid of these two in terms of moveset.
The SkiFree monster SkiFree is a computer game for Windows released in 1991. The player controls a skier trying to avoid obstacles. After the end of a full run, a white furry monster appears, and tries to catch the player. The SkiFree monster was a subject of the 667: SkiFree comic. Unlike most of the characters on this list, the SkiFree monster at least has had an appearance on a Nintendo system, as the game had a Game Boy Color port as part of the "The Best of Entertainment Pack" in 2001.
Siri Siri is the name given to Apple's personal virtual assistant for iOS, macOS, and its other operating systems. Siri is generally a voice without a visual representation, so it is unclear how Siri would be a playable character in Super Smash Bros.
Ellie from Up Ellie is one of the characters in Up , a 2009 Pixar film. In the beginning of the film, Ellie passes away, leaving her husband Carl alone, and leading him to start his adventure in Paradise Falls. While there was a tie-in video game based on the movie released in the same year for multiple systems (including the Wii and Nintendo DS), Ellie was not playable in it.
Zordon Zordon is a fictional character from the Power Rangers franchise who serves as the mentor for the earlier Ranger teams. While he is technically trapped in another dimension, he is usually depicted as a blurry head in a tube. He occasionally has lightning powers, and had a robot sidekick (Alpha 5) who might be able to move him around. Alas, he is currently dead, having used his life energy to remove all evil from the galaxy at that time. While there have been many Power Rangers video games over the years, including on Nintendo platforms, Zordon would be an unlikely character not only due to his lack of extremities, but also due to the fact that the Power Rangers franchise is primarily built on stock footage of the Japanese Super Sentai series.
Clippy Clippit, commonly nicknamed Clippy , was one of the Office Assistants for Microsoft Office (versions 1997 to 2003). It was an user interface with the purpose to assist users. Clippy (and the other Office Assistants) was negatively received by users, and was eventually removed in Office 2007.
The Sarlaac [sic] The Sarlacc is an alien monster that lived in Tatooine in the Star Wars universe. It is most prominently shown in the film Return of the Jedi , when the main heroes are sentenced to death by being dropped into the Sarlacc's mouth.  Notably, the Sarlacc is a large, stationary creature embedded in the ground (essentially, a pit). This could be a reference to the Piranha Plant being confirmed as a DLC character, as Piranha Plants are typically stationary and embedded in the ground, and also have their big, toothy mouth as a primary feature. While the Sarlacc was featured in 1994's Super Star Wars: Return of the Jedi for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System , its lack of mobility would make it a poor choice for a character.
InstallShield Wizard A wizard is a type of UI that simplifies configuration of an app or process by guiding the user through a number of screens in sequence. A user makes one decision on each screen, and the overall process puts less cognitive load on the user. InstallShield is a proprietary software tool for creating installer applications (or software packages) for Microsoft Windows. When the created package is being installed, the installer application can be shown in form of a 'standard Windows Wizard' dialog. Depending on the creativity of the user creating the package, the Wizard can display images while different stages of the installer are being executed. There are known instances of The InstallShield Wizard showing a wizard-like character images. Also, the standard wording of the installer text shown to the user ('software-to-be-installed is preparing the InstallShield Wizard, which will guide you through the program setup process') suggests that the Wizard is a 'real character'.
Mr. Clean Mr. Clean is a brand and mascot for Procter & Gamble used for all-purpose cleaners and melamine foam cleaners.
Comet Cursor Comet Cursor was Windows software that allowed users or websites to customise the mouse cursor. It was often installed with minimal user interaction and was accused of tracking users and being "spyware".
Beto O'Rourke Beto O'Rourke is an American politician and businessman serving as the U.S. Representative for Texas's 16th congressional district since 2013. He was the nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2018 Texas U.S. Senate election (which was held the day before this comic appeared), running against Republican incumbent Ted Cruz. O'Rourke received much media attention leading up to the election, with many considering the election abnormally competitive.  He ultimately did lose against Ted Cruz. While not a video game character, it is more than possible to create a Mii Fighter based on Beto O'Rourke in the game. However, the game does not come with a Beto O'Rourke Mii, and Nintendo has not created an official Mii of Beto O'Rourke. [ citation needed ]
The Monopoly boot The "boot" is one of the classic pewter tokens from the board game Monopoly . Despite the absurdity of the request, the boot appeared in the 1999 Monopoly video game adaptation for the Nintendo 64. In 2017, the boot token was retired from the standard version of Monopoly .
Lot's wife Lot and his wife are characters from the book of Genesis in the Bible. According to the book of Genesis, Lot and his family had to flee the city of Sodom , which was being judged by God for its wickedness. They were commanded to flee and not look back at the city. However, Lot's wife looked back at the city and was turned into a pillar of salt. It is unclear which version of Lot's wife Randall wishes to be playable in the game.
D.B. Cooper D.B. Cooper is the name popularly used to refer to an unidentified man who hijacked a Boeing 727 aircraft on November 24, 1971. He extorted $200,000 in ransom and parachuted out of the plane. His identity and whereabouts have never been discovered. D.B. Cooper was a subject of the 1400: D.B. Cooper comic. As mentioned above, an enterprising player could easily make a Mii Fighter based on D.B. Cooper, though no such Mii has been provided by Nintendo.
The Blair Witch The Blair Witch is the titular character of the The Blair Witch Project , a 1999 "found footage" supernatural horror film. The film became one of the most successful independent films of all time. The witch is never actually shown in the film, making it difficult to turn into a character in the game.
Mavis Beacon Mavis Beacon is a fictional character and the mascot of the Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing software series.
The title text refers to two US Supreme Court Associate Justices who were considered as additions to Smash . Ruth Bader Ginsburg was appointed by Bill Clinton; Elena Kagan was appointed by Barack Obama.  Both are considered to be on the "liberal" wing of the court, but Ginsburg’s forceful dissenting opinions may explain why she would have been a more popular character for Super Smash Bros. Additionally, Ginsburg has been parodied on Saturday Night Live , adding to her popularity: [1]
[In a frame a bullet-list is shown:] Mario/Luigi hybrid The SkiFree monster Siri Ellie from Up Zordon Clippy The Sarlaac The InstallShield Wizard Mr. Clean Comet Cursor Beto O'Rourke The Monopoly boot Lot's wife D.B. Cooper The Blair Witch Mavis Beacon
[Caption below the frame:] Super Smash Brothers never did end up adding anyone from my wishlist.


Trig Identities

Explanation:
This comic shows several real trigonometric identities at the first two lines and further below some identities "derived" by applying algebraic methods to the letters in the trigonometric function names, which is obviously nonsense.
The first line are the known trigonometric functions: sine, cosine and tangent, and the second line contains the reciprocals of the trigonometric functions from the first line: cosecant, secant, and cotangent.
The following identities are made up and are increasing in absurdity. The comic reflects on the confusion one gets when working more intensely with these identities, since there are a lot of hidden dependencies between them. You can also check how they are related through the various Trigonometry Formulas .
The third and fourth line is made by treating the trigonometric function as a product of variables rather than a function and then using the above identities to create words. e.g. sin = b/c -> cin = b/s (this could also be a reference to the C++ cin).
The second to last line performs some algebra on the individual letters of (tan θ)² = b²/a² as a setup to the last line.  The last line takes the formula distance = 1/2 at² "from physics" and plugs it into the equation of the previous line, doing some algebra to replace at² with distance2 and expanding (na)² into nana to get the final equation, distance2banana = b³/θ².  This is valid algebra only if the trigonometric operators are taken as variable products rather than operators, but this is a common misconception encountered when people first learn trigonometry.  The distance equation is the distance a constantly accelerating object initially at rest moves in a given length of time t, most often used to find how far an object dropped from rest will fall under the influence of gravity in a given amount of time (or how long it will take to fall a given distance).
There are a few formulas that have mistakes if you simply make algebraic manipulations to the six standard trigonometric functions.
The title text is an anagram . Due to the commutative property of multiplication (which states that order does not affect the product), these equations are equivalent if treated as individual variables as earlier. Another layer of absurdity is added in that the variable Theta is spelled out and broken into its letters, which are then treated as individual variables. (The arctangent referred to here is the inverse tangent, a one-sided inverse to the tangent function.  You would not normally write , since the theta in the comic refers to an angle, and the arctangent has an angle as its value rather than as its argument ; however, using theta here is merely unconventional, not forbidden.) The arctangent generally produces theta, the meaning of it being taken on theta being poorly understood. Randall here elucidates, via tongue-in-cheek algebraic proof, that taking a second arctangent of theta produces magical effects.
The formula s=1/2 at² gives the distance a uniform accelerating object reaches over time. The second formula belongs to astronomy and the third law of Kepler in which the square of the orbital period of a planet is directly proportional to the cube of the semi-major axis of its orbit , meaning the fraction of b 3 and t 2 is a constant (banana).
But using the angle θ as an argument leads to Richard Feynman , who did many famous Lectures on Physics and his lost lecture about the Motion of Planets Around the Sun from 1964 in which he only used geometry, based on the orbital ellipse, a circle around, and matching right-angled triangles to illustrate this law from Kepler. For deeper understanding why it really does work there is a nice presentation at the "Journal of Symbolic Geometry": Feynman Says: “Newton implies Kepler, No Calculus Needed! (Brian Beckman, 2006)”
Some have tried to argue there are mathematical justifications for the errors in some of the formulas, by stating (without proof) that you could prove that valid solutions to the original six trig identities (where letters are taken to be variables multiplied together) can be manipulated to show that solutions must have
a=o and s=t.
These proofs are incorrect and can be shown easily with a counterexample. If you make the following assignments of variables like
o=s=1/2 and set c=e=2 while leaving the other variables set to 1 (a=b=i=n=t=θ=1). This variable assignment will simultaneously satisfy all six original trig identities: ; ; ; ; ; .
However in this valid assignment, we have
since and we have as .
This demonstrates that you can not make a valid algebraic derivation of
or
without additional assumptions beyond the six given trigonometric identities.
[Inside a single frame comic a right-angled triangle is shown. The shorter sides are labeled "a" and "b" and the hypotenuse has a "c". All angles are marked: the right angle by a square and the two others by arcs. One arc (enclosed by "a" and "c") is labeled by the Greek symbol theta (θ).]
[Supposed trigonometric functions of the marked angle θ are shown:]
sin θ = b/c cos θ = a/c tan θ = b/a
cot θ = a/b sec θ = c/a csc θ = c/b
cin θ = b/s cas θ = o/c tab θ = b²/na
bot θ = a/c → boat θ = a²/c → stoat θ = a²/c · st/b
tan θ ( = b/a = b/a · c/c = b/c · c/a = sin θ sec θ ) = insect θ²
(tan θ)² = b²/a² ( → t²n²a⁴ = b²/θ² → at²ba(na)² = b³/θ² from physics: distance = 1/2 at² → ) distance2banana = b³/θ²
[Caption below the frame:] Key trigonometric identities


Indirect Detection

Explanation:
This comic shows an angry social media post by one of Randall's spiky-haired friends, objecting to the views of unknown third parties, which appear to be a cartoonishly and unrealistically evil take on the proper treatment of abandoned animals. This could perhaps be in part a callback to 2051: Bad Opinions , in which Cueball is looking to post a response to an absurd or inflammatory opinion that currently may or may not actually exist anywhere on the internet. Sometimes when posting something on social media, such as Facebook, that post can be seen by all the people you have designated as your "friends." In this case the original comment was intended to be read by the people holding these views, people who are not direct friends of Randall's and whose posts he therefore could not see, but because it was posted by his direct friend he could read that response and was able to imagine what it was those other people were saying. Knowing a little about what these other mystery people are saying, through direct quotes from within his friend's comment, and having to fill in the rest by his imagination, he reflects on how weird it is to learn that people who hold such views exist in such an indirect manner.
The title text is a pun comparing the shadows of Plato's cave to the practice of " throwing shade " (slang for throwing insults, usually subtly), and "the wall" could have a double meaning of both the wall of the cave and the term for someone's social media page.
Plato's Cave is an allegorical tale taking place in a hypothetical cave. The cave contains lifelong prisoners who are chained such that they may only look at one wall.  A fire burns, and the goings-on are cast as shadows upon this wall.  Lacking a more complete or direct source of information, the cave occupants can only guess about the world by interpreting these shadows as a view of the world itself, and therefore base their other beliefs about the world upon the transitory appearances of these shadows. In this way, Plato's Cave serves as an allegory for our limited understanding of phenomena that occur primarily or entirely outside direct perception by our natural senses.  It also offers imagery of how our perceptions and beliefs can be so restricted by what our information channels provide to us, which are now controlled by hidden computer algorithms and marketing teams.
In the same way one might make incorrect assumptions about the makeup and chemical properties of air if one's information on the subject were gathered entirely from watching wind blow through leaves, the hypothetical occupants of Plato's Cave may reasonably be expected to produce wildly inaccurate theories about the outside world, a world they experience only as a kind of shadowplay. To be more specific, if one sees only a reaction (shadow) to an unseen post, one might become polarized against an imagined horrible thing, like if there were a large percentage of people who supported killing pet animals from shelters for sport, when in fact it is only the shadow which you have observed anything about, rather than the object that cast it.
[A single social media post is shown. On the top left is a portrait of a spiky-haired face, the text right aside is not readable. The post is:] Everyone on here needs to stop laughing about how "adopting pets from a shelter is for losers" and "those animals should all be hunted for sport instead." It's reprehensible on so many levels! First of all...
[Caption below the frame:] Sometimes, one of my friends posts an angry response to some terrible opinion I've never heard before, and it's a weird indirect way to learn how awful their other friends must be.


Evaluating Tech Things

Explanation:
Many things are possible today thanks to technology, and while often the "wow factor"—how cool it is that we can do that—kicks in right away, there can also be deep potential longer term consequences for humanity.  Things like atomic fission , the Internet , CRISPR technology, are amazing things we have learned how to do, but they also have the potential, in some cases already realized, of massively affecting human life (e.g. nuclear annihilation, instant wide-scale communication, elective genetic engineering), both for the better and for the worse.
Here Cueball , upon hearing of a cool idea he hadn't thought of before, mentally measures it on a scale to decide if he can be excited about it, or should be worried about how it might affect humanity.  After weighing it out, he decides it's just plain cool and it will not adversely affect humanity at all. In the comic, it appears this mental decision took awhile, judging by the multiple panels showing him thinking, ambivalently rubbing his chin as the dial oscillates left and right, before he gives his response.
The title text refers to this mental weighing also being known as the Black Mirror – Mythbusters scale. Black Mirror and Mythbusters are both TV shows that explore science and technology. Black Mirror , on the one end of the scale, explores the unintended and often dire consequences of many of our more influential technologies—the horrible stuff that can happen—whereas Mythbusters , on the other end of the scale, explores the fun side of technology to see what kinds of cool things can or cannot be done.
Worrying about the effect that technology has on our lives is a theme that has been explored before, in 1215: Insight .
[Megan and Cueball talking.] Megan: Sooner or later, someone is going to fly a drone into a tornado and post the footage to YouTube.
[Zoom in on Cueball imagining a semicircular dial with a moving pointer currently fixed vertically in the mid value. The left-most value indicating his opinion to be "This raises big questions about technology and society" and the right-most being "Haha, cool!"]
[Panel with just Cueball and the imaginary dial above his head, the pointer having shifted a small amout to the right.]
[Same panel with Cueball, his right hand pensively on his chin, the pointer having shifted an equally small amount to the left of the mid value.]
[Panel with Cueball, Megan and the imaginary dial above, the pointer now all the way to the right.] Cueball: Haha, cool!


Kilogram

Explanation:
Standard units such as the kilogram, metre, and second are redefined from time to time as measurement technologies improve. These redefinitions are generally done to improve the precision to which the various units can be known or reproduced, without changing their actual value. The joke here is that redefining the kilogram to equal one pound sounds like an incredible idea to Americans who never use the kilogram. It would not only fail to improve on its precision, but would also significantly change the value of what a kilogram is, making all things already measured for science and in the rest of the world impossible to correctly understand the mass of.
On the day of this comic, the General Conference on Weights and Measures (which Randall confuses with the International Committee for Weights and Measures ) voted to redefine the kilogram by fixing it to the value of Planck's Constant . This is measured using a Kibble balance , which involves passing a measured current through an electromagnet to exert a force to balance 1 kg. The change took effect on May 20, 2019, when the platinum cylinder International Prototype Kilogram that defines the unit was retired. This means that the mass of a kilogram is no longer tied to a physical object, but to the fundamental properties of the universe. By fixing the value of Planck constant to 6.62607015×10 -34 kg⋅m 2 ⋅s −1 , the kilogram is defined in terms of the second and the speed of light via the metre.
The previous method of confirming that a kilogram is accurate is to use physical metal weights measuring exactly one kilogram, periodically transporting them around the world to an official weight lab to confirm they still weigh the same. Over time these physical objects have changed very slightly in their mass making them unreliable in the long run -- thus running into the issue that a kilogram did not stay a constant measure of mass. Note that these weights and comparisons are so precise that a fingerprint on one of the weights could throw them off.
The new method of confirming that a kilogram is accurate relies upon an extremely precise knowledge of local gravitational effects & an absence (or counteraction) of electromagnetic interference. On a traditional scale, two units of equal weight will balance, regardless of local gravitational levels; whereas the new method requires that the gravitational force be determined precisely for every site, meaning an additional measurement has to take place. This involves a high-precision gravimeter such as the FG5 absolute gravimeter.
In this comic, Black Hat announces that the kilogram has been redefined as equal to one pound . Ponytail and Cueball seem to think this makes things simpler, but Megan is alarmed. The metric system of measurement is the one used by most of the world and is the standard system used in science. Redefining the kilogram to be equal to the pound would be very disruptive and outrage supporters of the metric system. Redefining the kilogram as being a completely different size from before will create a lot of confusion, since now when people read a mass in kilograms they need to work out whether it was written in old kilograms or new (pound-sized) kilograms.
The pound is officially defined as 0.45359237 kilograms, or less than half a kilogram. This makes defining a kilogram as one pound even more impossible as they are then stuck in a loop, as 0.45359237 kilograms must have the same mass as 1 kilogram, meaning the value of the kilogram would be equal to zero.
The title text continues the joke by saying that the metre has been defined as exactly three feet. The yard, the closest US measurement to the metre, is three feet. However, a metre is about 9 centimetres (~3.55 inches) longer than a yard. As with the pound, the metric system is used to define the yard as it is officially defined as 0.9144 metres. This joke recreates the comic in the real world, with Randall playing as Black Hat, and the reader responding. Those who fall for the claim will either be excited that things are simpler, or devastated at what the result will be.
[Black Hat talking to Ponytail, Cueball, and Megan while all stand in a row. Megan's hands are raised emphatically.] Black Hat: To end many years of confusion, the International Committee for Weights and Measures has just voted to redefine the kilogram. Black Hat: As of next May, it will equal exactly one pound. Ponytail: Oh, cool. Cueball: That does make things simpler. Megan: No!!
To further expand on this, the classic definitions of all our various units of time, length, mass, and temperature are based on phenomena that are neither convenient to measure precisely nor in fact consistently reproducible.  The duration of an Earth day and year vary unpredictably, the circumference of the Earth varies, the International Prototype Kilogram gains or loses mass any time it is handled (and in fact just sitting there it and its reference copies diverge from each other), and the value of baseline temperatures such as the freezing point of water depend on which isotopes of hydrogen are in the water molecules.
Nevertheless, there really are constants of nature.  For example, one of them is ‘ c ’, the speed of light in a vacuum.  The expressed value of c depends on your choice of the unit of distance and the unit of time, but it’s a constant in those units.  Now just suppose we all had a reproducible way to define a specific unit of time, which just for fun we call a ‘second’.  You might not know the length of a ‘metre’, but if I told you that measured in metres per second the universal constant value of c is exactly 299792458 metres per second, then I would have fixed the length of a metre to be exactly the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1/299792458 seconds.  And in fact this is what the international body responsible for defining our SI units has done.
One second is defined to be a specific number of periods of the radiation emitted in a certain transition of a cesium 133 atom.  The specific number was set in the year 1967, so as to match a previous astronomical standard called ephemeris time to the limit of human measuring ability at the time.  The 1967 definition didn’t change the actual duration of a second, but it did make its measurement forever reproducible.
In 1983 the value of c was fixed to the value noted above.  Prior to that it had been measured with respect to existing definitions of a metre, and had to be expressed with a measure of uncertainty.  For example in 1973 a team at the US National Bureau of Standards refined c to 299,792,457.4 m/s ± 1 m/s.  But from 1983 onwards, with an exact integer value for c that is quite close to that Bureau measurement, the length of a metre is now fixed with no plus/minus uncertainty.  Furthermore, both the second and the metre match their predecessor definitions for all intents and purposes.
Similar redefinitions of units of mass and of temperature in terms of universal constants have been agreed to, mass with regard to the Planck constant h , and temperature with regard to the Boltzmann constant k .  The constants h and k had previously been measured quantities, complete with uncertainties.  The SI body fixed both of them to exact values, resulting in exact, no-uncertainty values for a kilogram of mass and a kelvin of thermodynamic temperature.  As with the second and the metre, these new definitions match their predecessor definitions for all intents and purposes.
To expand on this even further, three additional universal constants that were previously measured and that had uncertainty values have been assigned fixed values, resulting in exact definitions of three corresponding units of measurement without affecting their applicability.  Fixing the unit of elementary charge, e , serves to define the unit of electric current, the Ampere.  Fixing the unit of luminous efficacy K cd serves to define the unit of luminous intensity, the candela.  And fixing the Avogadro constant N A serves to define the unit of amount of substance, the mole.
A Wikipedia article about redefining the SI units of measure in terms of newly fixed values of things taken to be universal constants is 2019 redefinition of the SI base units .
Additionally, it might be worth noting the pound has multiple different types and definitions. The most common definition today is the international avoirdupois pound (lb), which is defined (discarding the semantics) as a unit of mass equal to 0.45359237 kilograms. However the pound is commonly used as to describe force, defined as the force an avoirdupois pound exerts on the Earth (lbf). These definitions however are identical in practical terms, such that an item with 0.45359237 kilograms of mass exerts one avoirdupois pound of force on the Earth. In the SI, the derived unit of force is the newton.


Airplanes and Spaceships

Explanation:
This comic is pointing out that more time has elapsed since the first spaceship flight, than previously elapsed between the first airplane flight and the first spaceship flight. (This was at the time of release of this comic on November 19th of 2018, a month before the 115th anniversary for the first airplane flight).
Airplanes and spaceships are often considered to be related vehicles, under the term aerospace, with degrees in aerospace fields often having aeronautics (airplanes) or astronautics (spaceships) tracks.  The jump in technology and performance between the first airplane and the first spaceship was enormous: the Wright Flyer had a max speed of 30 mph (48 km/h), and the first flights reached only about 30 feet (9 m) above ground, with distances of only 120 to 850 feet  (260 m).  In comparison the Vostok 1 mission of Yuri Gagarin reached orbital velocity of 17,500 mph (28,000 km/h), a minimum altitude of 91 miles (480,480 ft; 146 km), and traveled once around the earth (about 25,000 miles or 40,000 km).  This represents an increase in performance of between about 600 and 150,000 times.
By contrast, an equal amount of time has passed between the first spaceflight and the publish date of this comic, but aeronautical performance has not improved much at all. Although the Apollo mission broke speed and altitude records, and later space missions extended the distance traveled in a single flight by sustaining Earth orbit for longer, the overall technology and performance is not much different than that used during the first space mission.
It is one of the typical takes by Randall to try to make people feel old . Flight seemed old news when the Apollo mission started, so people who lived through the space race, will now feel very old since they were alive back when the space race is new, and that is now old news. This take is also used in the title text.
The title text refers to the 2003 film The Core . In this film, there is an instability in the Earth's magnetic field, so a team of scientists attempt to drill to the center of the Earth and set off nuclear explosions to restart the rotation of the Earth's core. To do this, they travel in a vehicle made of "Unobtainium" that can withstand the heat and pressure within the Earth's crust. Randall is sad to report that there is little progress being made on creating this vehicle. Incidentally, The Core is a film which represents science and engineering wrong in many, many aspects. There is a long list of flaws . For instance, if a material is resistant to the extreme heat and pressure of the Earth's core, then the significantly cooler and less forceful techniques of human metallurgy would certainly not be able to work that material at all, let alone craft it into a functional hull for a vehicle.
Randall makes sure to mention that the movie is from 2003, so 15 years old. Many people are surprised when realizing that a movie they saw "recently" is now so old that children born that year no longer need their parents guidance when watching it.
The Core was already used as the main plot starter in 673: The Sun back in 2009, and earlier in 2018 it was mentioned in the title text of 2011: Newton's Trajectories . That Randall has a great interest in the Earths cores is shown in several comics, and may explain why he continues to return to the movie, even though he probably (taken from his comics mentioning it) thinks is a bad movie. See a recent comic here, 2058: Rock Wall and of course 913: Core .
[A timeline is shown with three dots on it. Each dot has a label beneath the dot, and the two intervals between the dots are also labeled, with lines indicating which dots are belonging to that label.]
Dot 1 December 17, 1903 First human airplane flight
Dot 2 April 12, 1961 First human spaceflight
Dot 3 Today
Interval 1-2 57 years 4 months Interval 2-3 57 years 7 months
[Caption beneath the frame:] Spaceships are now older than airplanes were when we flew our first spaceships.


Update Your Address

Explanation:
In this comic, Cueball is facing several instances where entities asking or confirming his address find that the address they possess is incorrect - each address is progressively more outdated.  In the final comic, Cueball gives up and confirms that yes, he is still living in a country that hasn't existed for over a century.
Inaccurate addresses may be a common problem for someone who has moved constantly in their lifetime. Alternatively, Cueball and his family do not find it important to update addresses for those particular businesses / entities.
Austria-Hungary was a European empire that existed between 1867 and 1918, dissolving during World War I . It is possible that Cueball's ancestors hail from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, though it would be even more absurd for that to be used as an address, given that the polity ended a century ago, whereas the earliest programmable computer was created 20 years after the country was dissolved and personal/small business computers approximately 40 years after that.
Ash Tree Lane refers to House of Leaves , a postmodern novel from 2000 in which one of many nested plots involves a house on Ash Tree Lane that is bigger on the inside than on the outside, and in fact contains a labyrinth with a minotaur .  The book, and Ash Tree Lane specifically, have previously been referenced in 472: House of Pancakes , 827: My Business Idea , and 886: Craigslist Apartments .
The title text treats bank accounts (and the PIN codes needed to access them) as though they were physical heirlooms passed down generation to generation. The patent for PIN codes was submitted in May 1966, and the first public use of a PIN code was in 1967, when Barclays used them to process cheques at automated teller machines . It would be unusual for Cueball to inherit both an active bank account and the PIN associated with it --  when a person with a bank account dies, the bank usually closes the account altogether and transfers the money to a separate account of whoever is named the beneficiary. Treating the account number and/or its PIN as though they were physical heirlooms plays into the joke of them not changing through the years (due to the perceived difficulty of updating them).
[Cueball is standing and talking on a phone.] Voice: Do you still live at 342 River St? Cueball: No, I moved last year.
[Cueball is standing behind a counter with Hairy, whose hands are on a keyboard.] Hairy: Is 21 Ash Tree Lane still a good address? Cueball: What? That's my childhood home. How is that even in your system?
[Cueball is talking on a phone again in a borderless panel.] Voice: The address we have is 205 Second St #2. Cueball: I... think that's where my parents lived before I was born!?
[Cueball stands behind another counter with Ponytail and a tablet.] Ponytail: Are you still living in... "The Austro-Hungarian Empire?" Cueball: You know what, sure. Ponytail: Austria-Hungary dissolved in 1918. Cueball: Well, I come from a long line of people who hate updating stuff.


Horror Movies 2

Explanation:
This comic is the second in the Horror Movies series, and is the follow-up to 2056: Horror Movies released a month earlier.
While the first Horror Movies comic was about giving voice to Randall's inability to enjoy horror movies, this comic takes Randall's previous position and exaggerates it.
White Hat and Cueball (as Randall) discuss the appeal of horror movies and tragic plots. Cueball expresses his dissatisfaction with stories that focus on evoking negative feelings. As an example he mentions how he disliked the ending of Titanic where Jack sacrifices his life in order to save Rose. White Hat does not seem to share Cueball's point of view on successful storytelling and sarcastically promises to send feedback to the movie director James Cameron as well as the 16th century playwright and writer William Shakespeare , whose most famous works include tragedies like Romeo and Juliet .
In the title text Cueball (as Randall?) discusses the ending of the science fiction novel The Giver where the fate of the main character Jonas [sic, see Trivia ] had been left ambiguous. The joke is a stereotype that the Newbery Medal , a children's literature award, is only given to books with tragic endings. However, the protagonist lives, as there are three more titles in the series, two of which have the main character as a side character. However, those three books are rather obscure.
This was the first of two comics in a row to reference a specific movie genre, this one horror movies, the next one, 2077: Heist , heist movies.
[White Hat and Cueball are walking, with Cueball holding his arms out in front of him.] White Hat: So you don't like any horror movies? Cueball: Spooky stuff is neat but I hate jump scares and watching people get murdered. Why would you want to see that?
[Zoom in on the two.] White Hat: It's like roller coasters. People like experiencing powerful feelings in a safe, controlled setting. Cueball: But why not good feelings?
[In a frame-less panel Cueball stops and turns towards White Hat.] White Hat: We've always been into tragic stories. Romeo and Juliet, Titanic... Cueball: See, that's another thing I don't get!
[Zoom out again as White Hat walks past Cueball who now hold his arms out to the side as he looks after White Hat.] Cueball: I loved Titanic because Rose and Jack found each other and seemed so happy! I just hated the ending. White Hat: I'll be sure to give James Cameron and Shakespeare your feedback.


Heist

Explanation:
In heist films , a heist or other crime is carried out, sometimes involving the criminal(s) posing as some type of repairman or similar. The criminal then gains access to their target through the disguise, as humans do not normally critically assess someone if their appearance fit expectations. Due to the prevalence of this trope, Cueball is concerned whenever somebody comes by to ask for access as he believes the person may be planning a crime, and his inadvertent assistance will make him a "minor character" in the wider heist story. In such movies, minor characters are sometimes held hostage or even killed in the course of the crime being committed, particularly if the heist goes wrong. The risk of being a minor character could also perhaps include the risk of being harmed. In general people would probably prefer to be the main character in a film, rather than a bystander.
In this case, he is asked to open the server room - ostensibly to allow the fire alarm to be checked. However, gaining physical access to the server allows the criminal to bypass most security features that should prevent unauthorized access to the data (a scenario known as an evil maid attack ). If the hard disks are not encrypted it is trivial to copy all files or even remove and abscond with the disk drives - allowing the theft of sensitive information stored on the network. Even if the files are encrypted physical access to the server will allow the attacker to corrupt the system either by installing malware or adding malicious hardware components, which will then allow them to retrieve passwords and/or encryption keys.
Being aware of these dangers Cueball immediately assumes that he (or his employers) are the target of a heist.
The title text seems to be Cueball's internal monologue trying to calm himself down. He points out to himself that the repairman has both a hat (possibly with a company logo) and a toolbox full of tools, then sarcastically asks himself how a thief could possibly get their hands on such a disguise.
This is the second comic in a row to reference a specific movie genre, this one heist movies the previous one, 2076: Horror Movies 2 , horror movies.
[A man in a cap with a toolbox approaches Cueball, who is shown to be thinking with a cloud like bubble above his head with his thoughts.] Man: Do you have the key to the server room? I'm from the building and I'm here to check the fire alarm. Cueball  [thinking]: Oh no oh no
[Caption below the panel:] Thanks to movies, whenever anyone asks me to open any door, I immediately assume I'm a minor character in a heist.


Popper

Explanation:
In this comic, Miss Lenhart teaches to a class comprising of Hairy , Ponytail , and Science Girl about Karl Popper . Karl Popper was a philosopher of science who endorsed the idea that science is distinguished from non-science by treating its theories as falsifiable. This means that science does not treat any theory as definitive, because future research could show that it is false.
A not uncommon reading of Popper assumes that instead of proving hypotheses, scientists are disproving hypotheses. This reading leads to technicalities like the ones stated in the comic: Instead of asserting that Popper was indeed born on July 28, 1902, and grew up in Vienna, a scientist can only assert that there is no evidence disproving these facts, which seems counter-intuitive because one cannot disprove the facts of Popper's birthdate and childhood residence.
Note however that falsifiability is often interpreted to mean that there has to be a way to disprove a given statement if it is wrong, or to distinguish between two mutually competing hypotheses; not that a statement is accepted solely due to the lack of evidence to the contrary, e.g. a birth certificate is often used to establish a date of birth and falsifying that date of birth would then mean calling into question the birth certificate's authenticity or accuracy, but without any historical records of the date of birth one would normally not even speculate at all about the precise date of birth.  As such reasoning solely on the absence of proof to the contrary would be considered unusual in most contexts.
The humor comes when the comic applies this idea to the life and biographical information of Karl Popper himself. Note that in real life, such a subject would be a matter for historical proof, not scientific, and would thus fall outside the realm of study Popper was thinking of.
The title text takes this reading a couple of steps further in a kind of meta-analysis. It points out that Miss Lenhart 's claim of no evidence has not been proven false, and also that we're dealing with only the knowledge of a single individual who may not be aware of evidence that might exist.
Another reading of Popper points out that Popper’s philosophy discarded proofs altogether as a defining feature of science. Thus there is no such thing as definitive evidence in Popper’s notion of science: Even falsifying assertions themselves are seen as falsifiable.
[Miss Lenhart is teaching a class of three students; Hairy, Ponytail, and Science Girl, sitting behind their desks.] Miss Lenhart: There's no evidence that Karl Popper wasn't born on July 28th, 1902. Miss Lenhart: No one has proven that he didn't grow up in Vienna...


Alpha Centauri

Explanation:
Alpha Centauri is the closest star system to our solar system, being about 4.37 light-years away. As such, there are numerous ongoing plans and projects to journey to, and explore the star system, especially since the exoplanet Proxima Centauri b was found in 2016 to possibly have liquid water oceans and a very thin atmosphere. Similar to this project , Ponytail announces such a project using a Voyager -like probe.
However, an offscreen person is against the idea of sending a probe to that particular part of the galaxy, as they think that "Alpha Centauri sucks". The person says that they looked "online" and that the system "only has three stars". This is a pun playing on the stars used in online reviews and stars as celestial objects.
Online rating systems, such as Yelp , often use star rating systems , with more stars indicating higher quality, up to an arbitrary maximum, such as five stars to indicate the best rating. Due to the nature of 5 star rating systems, as shown in in comic 1098: Star Ratings , anything scoring less than 4 out of 5 in a 5 star rating system is crap; and in a 10-star rating system, scoring a mere 3 stars out of a possible 10 stars would be exceedingly low quality. The Alpha Centauri star system has 3 physical stars : Alpha Centauri A, Alpha Centauri B, and Proxima Centauri. The offscreen person has misconstrued this fact of the system as some kind of review.
The title text furthers the pun. Some online star rating systems also allow partial stars, such as a half-star, to allow more precision in rating (e.g. rating 2.5 stars instead of being forced to chose 3 stars or 2 stars), or display an average collective rating as partial stars (e.g. showing 2.5 stars when five people have rated 3 stars and five people have rated 2 stars). Alpha Centauri's "half star" refers to Proxima Centauri, a red dwarf , which is a type of low-mass star. According to the offscreen person, this barely qualifies it to be a star. Furthermore, Proxima Centauri is nearly 13,000 AU (0.21 light years) away from the other 2 stars in the system, so it was long unknown whether Proxima Centauri was gravitationally bound to the Alpha Centauri star system.
All numbers are rounded after subsequent calculations.
According to space.com the fastest spacecraft ever will be the Parker Solar Probe which will reach 430,000 mph (692,000 km/h) as it reaches its closest point orbiting the sun. This is just over half of 1% of the needed speed of the Alpha Centauri vehicle proposed in the comic. The Voyager 1 spacecraft, launched in 1977, is currently traveling at about 38,000 mph (61,000 km/h).
Distance to Alpha Centauri system = 4.367ly
4.367 light years / 35 years = 0.12477ly per year
0.12477 light years/year * 5.879e+12 miles/light year = 733,484,000,000 miles/year
733,484,000,000 miles/year / 365 days/year / 24 hours/day = 83,000,000 Miles/hour / 1.60934 miles/kilometer = 134,000,000 Kilometers/hour
The above math assumes a constant speed, and requires a speed of ~0.124855c.  Assuming a constant acceleration from rest (non-relativistic math follows):
35*365.25*24*60*60 = 1.10e+9 seconds in 35 years
4.367 * 5.879e+12 = 2.57e+13miles, 4.13e+13 km, 4.13e+16 m.
x = 1/2*a*t 2
a = 2*x*t -2
Assuming constant acceleration to the halfway point and constant deceleration to the destination, (otherwise you streak through the system, barely observing anything):
t trip = 2*t halfway
a = 2*2.06e+16*(5.50e+8) -2 = 0.136 m/s 2 , roughly 1/80 gravity.
v halfway = a*t halfway .
Top Speed: 75,000,000 m/s ~ 1/4*c.
Assuming E = F*d, 0.136*1*4.13e+16 = 5.37e15 Joules will be required for each kilogram carried to Alpha Centauri in 35 years.
This would require an unimaginable amount of mass for a conventional chemical rocket, and is a completely impractical power requirement for any sort of passive solar sail concept.
Further, the top speed is fast enough to require a recalculation using relativistic physics to model the problem.  This means that the energy budget will need to increase, as the relativistic mass of the probe will increase, requiring more force (and thus more energy) to accelerate and decelerate near its top speed than this calculation returns.
Active , laser based propulsion methods require currently non-existent and purely specualtive laser and materials technologies, as well as a powerplant equivalent to 12,500 of the World's Largest Nuclear Plant to transport sub-gram masses on this timescale.  This also assumes that any probes can be steered accurately enough across interstellar distances to come close enough to image with any resolution the bodies they will be passing at a non-trivial fraction of c.
Short of FTL travel or near-perfect mass-energy conversion technology, transporting more than a fraction of a gram of material to Alpha Centauri in a human lifetime will be unachievable.  Short of an enormous breakthrough in power generation, transporting even a fraction of a gram is impossible.
Nonetheless, Breakthrough Starshot is attempting to send many gram-sized probes to Alpha Centauri within the century.  Following current technological trends, they expect the efficiency of laser-based propulsion to increase by launch time, allowing launches driven by an unreasonably-large-but-achievable amount of power.  The top speed needed is halved by refraining from slowing at all at the destination: the probes will aim a distance away from the target, so that it traverses by slowly enough for a camera to rotate and track it, even at near-light speeds.  To account for error and space dust, the plan is to launch many tiny probes simultaneously.  They may only be able to accomplish their goal if they can get enough funding to actually affect the global economy enough to make the technologies they require more efficient to produce.  Launches would additionally burn incredible quantities of natural gas.
[Ponytail stands on a podium giving a presentation in front of a slide with an image of a Voyager-like spacecraft.] Ponytail: Our probe can reach Alpha Centauri in under 35 years. Offscreen voice: We should go somewhere else.  Alpha Centauri sucks. Ponytail: Huh? It's the closest, most convenient system! Offscreen: Yeah, but I checked online and it only has three stars.


Cohort and Age Effects

Explanation:
Another of Randall's many Pet Peeves , this time it's statistics. It is the first in more than four years, since 1368: One Of The .
" Millennials " are the generation of Westerners who were born between the early 1980s and the late 1990s, whereas baby boomers are the generation born during the "baby boom", a period of high birth rates from the late 1940s to early 1960s. A common headline on news websites is "Millennials are killing the X industry" where X is a product whose sales have dropped in recent years, such as jungle gyms for kids . One of the most famous is the diamond industry , where a combination of the wage gap , stigma over conflict diamonds , increased knowledge of ( in Randall's words ) "complicated gemstone market" and less desire to get married early has seen millennials buying less diamond jewelry than previous generations.
Randall spoofs this idea. In the comic, Cueball , as a news anchor , presents a heading which opens his story by asking if millennials are killing the industry of surgical joint replacements , illustrating it with numbers of joint replacement procedures among millennials compared to baby boomers. The joke is that millennials are simply too young for most of them to need joint replacements (which are usually used to treat senile osteoarthritis ), so most people will see that so there really isn't a news story here. Randall is using this example to highlight that this kind of story is ridiculous. Millennials will likely need joint replacements in the future as they get older, potentially keeping sales of joint replacements at close to their current rate.
A cohort effect is a cultural difference between generations (such as buying fewer diamonds), whereas an age effect is one that is simply related to getting older (such as getting arthritis). Joint replacement rates are an age effect, but the newscast is presenting them as if they were a cohort effect. (More correctly, the table rows would be labelled e.g. “people aged 50–70” and “people aged 22–37”.)
The title text points out that although numbers of millennials receiving joint replacements are low, they are higher than the numbers of baby boomers who received them at the same age —i.e. in their 20s—due to advances in medical diagnosis and technology in the last 50 years, as well as (in some countries at least) better access to healthcare. This statistic can be used to create a headline which is the reverse of the one in the comic, namely "millennials are getting more joint replacements than ever". Randall notes that you could therefore use either headline to back up your argument, depending on the agenda you are trying to present.
[Cueball as a news anchor is sitting at a desk with hands folded in front of him on the table.] Cueball: Tonight: Are Millennials killing the joint replacement industry?

[To the left of Cueball is a presentation which includes a two by two table with a header above the table. Each of the two rows and columns are labeled, with rows entitled 'Baby Boomers' and  'Millennials', and columns entitled 'Knee' and 'Hip']
Operation rate per 100,000 Baby Boomers: Knee: 720 Hip: 390 Millennials: Knee: 1 Hip: 3

[Caption below the panel:] Stats Pet Peeve: People mixing up cohort effects and age effects.


Middle Latitudes

Explanation:
Because of the Earth's axial tilt, the apparent daily path of the Sun through the sky - in particular, how long it takes and how high in the sky it gets - is different depending on how far North or South of the Equator you are (your latitude), and also changes throughout the year as the Earth revolves around the Sun. This fact yields two very important pairs of latitudes:
and
The latitudes that lie within these two bands are called the middle latitudes - also sometimes referred to as the North Temperate Zone and the South Temperate Zone respectively.
The Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn are the latitudes beyond which, if you go any further from the Equator, it is no longer possible for the Sun to be directly overhead at any time of the year. Similarly, the Arctic and Antarctic Circles represent the latitudes beyond which it is possible for the Sun not to rise or set at all at some times of the year.
In the middle latitudes - which occur between these extremes - we instead get the rather less impressive phenomenon of daylight simply being a bit longer in summer and a bit shorter in winter.
In the comic, the middle latitudes are sarcastically proffered as a compromise between two extremes described by Cueball: day lengths that don't vary that much (as occurs in the torrid zone near the Equator), and the possibility of days with no daylight at all (as occurs in the Arctic/Antarctic zones). However, it is clear that Megan's compromise merely results in seasonal weather that has no interesting or useful features at any time of the year. In particular, winter is singled out as a season that is generally just dim and bleak in the middle latitudes, with days that don't last long and are cold and dull anyway.
The title text extends the idea with another spurious compromise, this time between snowy blizzards and warm sunny beaches - both of which are enjoyable in their own ways, but "splitting the difference" and combining the two would result in unpleasant icy slush.
There are other comics that refer to the length of the day, and how it is different each day, for example, 2050: 6/6 Time .
[Cueball and Megan standing and talking, Megan with her arms raised.] Cueball: It would be nice if the sun could rise and set at normal times. But it would also be cool to experience 24-hour darkness for weeks on end. Megan: Well, what if we split the difference, so all winter everything was normal but slightly more dim and bleak? Cueball: Perfect! [Caption below the frame:] Middle latitudes are the worst.


Mercator Projection

Explanation:
The Mercator projection is a map projection (a way to present the spherical Earth surface into a flat 2-D map) presented by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569. It was the standard map projection for some time, because it does preserve all angles in their true shape (i.e. it is a conformal map projection ). This means that if you measure an angle on the map you get the right direction in the real world - a very useful feature if you're using the map for navigating. However, preserving the angle leads to severe distortions of the surface area, especially in the higher latitudes where countries appear much larger than they actually are. For example on the Mercator Projection, Greenland (the largest non-continent island in the world) is shown to be much larger than Australia (the smallest continent), although the latter in reality is nearly 4 times as big. Other examples of regions having distorted sizes and shapes due to the Mercator Projection can be explored in this link .
Cueball uses White Hat's mistrust of the Mercator projection to convince him of ridiculous facts about Canada, namely that it is simply a small island in Lake Ontario . Map projections are generally continuous functions , meaning that they never map a disconnected space onto a connected one and therefore can never give the false impression that two areas that don't border each other do.
The title text continues on these falsehoods, claiming that the Great Lakes are simply "water on the far side of Canada Island", and that it is possible to drive directly into Alaska from the Pacific Northwest region of the US (it's not, Canada is in the way). Cueball can possibly make these statements as Canada is a country in the northern regions, where the Mercator Projection would show it larger than it actually is. However, Canada is the second largest country in the world by total area (land and water), after Russia.
The Mercator Projection was previously mentioned in 977: Map Projections of "what your favorite map projection says about you". People who preferred the Mercator Projection was listed as "You're not really into maps." It is also the second comic in a row that relates somehow to latitudes. Bad Map Projections is a series in xkcd, showing that it is really something on Randall's mind.
It is not the first time Cueball (or Randall) tries to spread misinformation, for instance it also has White Hat as the target in 1677: Contrails , but it can also be other people that are fooled like in 1405: Meteor .
[Cueball is holding a hand up as he talks to White Hat.] Cueball: Did you know Canada is actually a smallish island in Lake Ontario? White Hat: What? Cueball: Yeah, it only appears to have a land border with the U.S. due to the Mercator Projection. White Hat: Wow! I had no idea.
[Caption below the frame:] At this point people feel so misled by the Mercator Projection that you can use it to convince them of basically any map fact.


Laptop Issues

Explanation:
Cueball goes to tech support with his laptop. Hairy and Ponytail are waiting behind the counter; one has dealt with Cueball's bizarre tech issues before, and warns the other. Sure enough, Cueball sets the computer down and offers a detailed list of the arcane problems his computer is giving him.
"My laptop's battery won't hold a charge." A common problem; most laptops use lithium ion batteries due to their high power to weight ratio. Whilst the charge storage capacity of all batteries decreases over repeated charging and discharging cycles, lithium ion batteries are particularly prone to degradation over time. This is because charge is stored by lithium ions intercalated between layers of a 2D metal oxide material. When the battery is discharged the lithium ions move out of the metal oxide layers, allowing the material to contract, and it is this mechanical expansion and contraction of the material over repeated charging cycles that damages the battery, reducing storage capacity. However...
"Tried [replacing the battery]. Now the new ones won't either." ...the problem persisting despite the battery's replacement fails to make any significant sense. It may be a problem with his laptop's charging port, but his comment that the "new ones" now fail to hold a charge seems to imply it is persisting despite the replacement batteries being used elsewhere after attempting to use them for his laptop and failing... Many modern batteries have firmware built in now that reports their charge level. It is possible that his laptop is installing a faulty firmware to any batteries that get connected. Alternatively, an electrical fault within the laptop may be shorting the battery, leading to high currents which damage the battery.
"Also, random files get corrupted on the first of every month." Some devices may be scheduled to do a " disk cleanup " on the first of every month. Somehow, this task is corrupting files that should be kept.
"Factory reset didn't help." A factory reset of a device deletes all files, undoes all customizations, and generally puts the system back to square one. Under normal circumstances, this is an effective last-resort measure for dealing with glitches, viruses, and malware, so the fact that it doesn't offer any help suggests that the device's factory settings were already corrupt when they were first made or that the problem is hardware-related, although the typical hardware issues would tend to occur at random times and not be dependent on the calendar. External factors are likely here, such as visiting somewhere highly magnetic monthly. That or the people who coded the factory reset made improper assumptions about what is unchangeable and should not be checked; most Android factory resets won't fix a botched rooting, for instance, because low-level binary executables shouldn't need resetting, right? Nobody should be able to knacker that deep (although Cueball apparently just did).
"When it's plugged in, I get static shocks from my plumbing." Static discharge from a portable device while it's charging is common. Static charge on other items in the building is not. However, plumbing systems on older houses were often used to provide a ground instead of using grounding rods, which are now the accepted norm. This could imply that Cueball's house is old, and for some reason his laptop is pumping a large amount of charge directly to ground.
"And it reboots if someone uses an arc welder nearby." The high power draw of an arc welder will occasionally cause less devoted power supplies to flicker. Coupled with the bad battery that cannot keep the computer running when the power dips, this might cause his laptop to reboot. This could also be just because the arc welder is causing a large amount of electromagnetic interference.
"Transitions® lenses go dark when exposed to the screen," Photochromic lenses (commonly known by the brand name Transitions® lenses) in prescription glasses darken when exposed directly to UV rays; this is to avoid the wearer any hassle of needing prescription sunglasses . This seems to indicate that the screen of Cueball's laptop is emitting UV radiation. Whilst Cathode-ray tube (CRT) monitors can emit small amounts of UV light and X-rays, most laptops use either Liquid-crystal or OLED displays which do not emit significant amounts of UV-light, and would not be expected to cause photochromic lenses to darken. Most displays would also be expected to contain a filter to block any harmful UV-light from damaging the eyes of the user. Since UV-light is very damaging to the eyes, a screen that emits sufficient UV-light to darken sunglasses would be hazardous to look at.
"and when I open too many tabs, it fogs nearby photographic film." Photographic film used in old analogue (not digital) cameras contains light-sensitive chemicals which change from transparent to opaque when exposed to light. The photographic film ' negatives ' are then printed onto paper, inverting the colors (i.e. areas that appear dark on the film appear bright on the print, as they do in real life). If photographic film is exposed to light, either intentionally or unintentionally (such as by accidentally opening the back of the camera whilst the film is unwound) then the film will become over-exposed, leading to a bright 'fog' that obscures the image. Fogging can also occur as a result of chemical degradation of the film or by exposure to radiation sources including X-rays. In order to cause fogging, the screen would have to be emitting X-rays that can pass through the film's container and expose the film. It is unclear why this should only occur when too many tabs are opened. Combined with the previous statement this indicates that a worrying range of light being emitted by the screen.
The sheer incongruity of everything Cueball has reported, in combination with past issues, leads Hairy to report that his manager has authorized Cueball and his laptop be thrown into the ocean. Cueball accepts this without objection. This is a reference to 1912: Thermostat , where Cueball has an issue with his thermostat, and the Tech support employee asks him if he has tried walking into the sea. It seems this suggestion has evolved into forcefully throwing him into the sea, for lack of a better idea. It could also be that this is a reference back to the first of the series of comics on Cueball's many computer problems , 349: Success , where he ended up in the ocean. Alternatively, it seems very similar to the account of Jonah in the Bible, who was thrown overboard into the ocean during a violent storm after which the storm ceased.
The title text contains mention of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a part of the United States government responsible for preventing pollution. In real life, most of a laptop computer's components are considered toxic waste, and the EPA, as part of their mission, would not want it dumped in the ocean. More to the point, it's implied that whatever Cueball did to it renders it far more dangerous than an ordinary laptop, and the EPA really doesn't want his cursed possessions in the ocean; thus they are sending a hazmat team to collect the laptop and safely dispose of it. However, in the comic, the EPA do not seem to be bothered with Cueball himself being thrown into the ocean.
[Cueball, carrying a laptop, is walking past a sign with a right-pointing arrow reading "Tech Support".] Off panel voice #1: Oh no. Off panel voice #2: What? Off panel voice #1: This guy.  He has the worst tech problems.
[Cueball standing at a tech support desk with an open laptop facing Hairy and Ponytail on the other side of the desk.] Cueball: My laptop's battery won't hold a charge. Hairy: We can replace it. Cueball: Tried that.  Now the new ones won't either.
[Close-up of Cueball gesturing with left hand] Cueball: Also, random files get corrupted on the first day of every month.  Factory reset didn't help. Off panel voice: You weren't kidding.
[Close-up of Cueball with right hand on chin, gesturing with left hand] Cueball: When it's plugged in, I get static shocks from my plumbing. Off panel voice: What the... Cueball: And it reboots if someone uses an arc welder nearby.
[Same tableau as second panel except that the laptop is slightly closed now.] Cueball: Transitions® lenses go dark when exposed to the screen, and when I open too many tabs, it fogs nearby photographic film. Hairy: We don't usually do this, but I've gotten permission from my manager to have you and the laptop hurled into the ocean. Cueball: That's probably for the best.