Comments on: Static

By: Rory

Rory — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 05:11:57 +0000

Sure, there is. Just look at yesterday’s (Fall Foliage), and tomorrow’s (Nowhere) – see, it’s the same girl with the cute dark hair. I think her name is Megan. So, I’m reckoning the guy is the same guy, as well.

By: woodstock

woodstock — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 09:23:00 +0000

I’m not entirely sure there are any main characters, but mostly I hate unquestioned assumptions.

By: AceCalhoon

AceCalhoon — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:24:47 +0000

You can take your pick of the following:
1) In discussion, it’s clearer to refer to “the guy” and “the girl” than “the guy” and “the other guy,” or “the girl” and “the other girl,” or “the person of indeterminate gender” and “the other person of indeterminate gender.”

2) In previous XKCD strips, couple are depicted almost entirely as male-female. It is reasonable to assume that other strips follow this pattern.

3) The population of the US, at least, is somewhere around 95% heterosexual (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_States “Other Subgroups” section). I’m too lazy to look up world statistics or go into potential inaccuracies of the data, but even with a wide margin of error it seems to safe to assume that a random couple will end up heterosexual.

4) Everyone leaving comments are clearly homophobes.

5) It doesn’t matter. Label them as you will, and allow others to do the same.

By: Rory

Rory — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:16:29 +0000

Because the notion of it being two guys is abhorrent! It turns the stomach! It cannot be allowed, countenanced, written about, implied, alluded to, considered etc, etc…

ummm, because the main characters of xkcd usually are a guy and a girl?

By: woodstock

woodstock — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:48:28 +0000

Um…why do you assume this is a guy and a girl?

By: Rory

Rory — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 05:11:43 +0000

Oh, Joel *sigh*

Killed the joke for you, maybe. But, opened it up to being hilarious for hundreds – nay, thousands – of other readers. I thank you most sincerely, you darling, self-sacrificing sweetheart.

By: Naj

Naj — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 12:43:29 +0000

Ok this is a hard one…

One of the thing that makes it hard is that the boy & girl are switching places in panel 3.

So basically the boy is using a wrist band when he should be using a condom and was using a condom when he was replacing ram.

By: Joel

Joel — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 11:56:31 +0000

Sigh…
For the engineer, the static strap and condom are both methods of protection.
The joke is that he mixed the two up. In the first three frames, he tries to use the anti-static strap to protect against STDs.

In the last panel, he realizes his error, and also realizes that earlier, when he replaced the RAM at work, he used a condom (on his penis, where it belongs) to protect against static. His girlfriend thought it was odd that he put a condom on when replacing RAM, and Geek Squad thought it was inappropriate, and summarily fired him.

Now I’ve fully explained, and also totally killed, the joke. Congratulations.

People talking (top to bottom):
Panel 1: Girl, Boy
Panel 2: Girl, Girl
Panel 3: Boy, Girl, Boy
Panel 4: Boy, Girl, Boy

By: AnonHubbard

AnonHubbard — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 10:22:30 +0000

The last frame makes no sense…

By: alexandre

alexandre — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 09:50:11 +0000

no, i think it’s just confusing the baloon tails, but it’s the male who suggest he was using a condom to replace RAM last week.

girl: wait, do you have a condom?
boy: don’t worry I have this wrist thing
girl: you have what? (fumbles) It’s a anti-static strap!
boy: So you mean it doesn’t… [work as a contraceptive]
girl: no, why would you even think that?
boy: I guess I mixed up
girl:…
boy: So last week when I was replacing that RAM … [I should be using this, and not wearing a condom?]
girl: Yeah I thought it was weird..
boy: but explains why Geek squad fired me.

bonus explainer: geek squad got in some legal trouble many times because of technician looking for porn in customers computers.