Anxiety
by Jeff
Image text: Don't need any thanks. I have a backscattering fetish.
This comic is of a security line in an airport, which I got all too familiar with during my recent trip. However, this is not the airport security line you are traditionally familiar with because everyone is waiting for one of the new Backscatter x-ray machines (which is what it says in tiny print on the scanner in the comic). These machines do more than merely beep when enough of a metal object pass through them. They take "pictures" of the person inside them to see if they have any prohibited material on their person.
That is all well and good, however the x-ray machines ignore clothes and produce an outline of the person's nude body for the security personnel to analyze. Because this outline bares a lot for the picture, some men would find it beneficial to take some Viagra to increase the bulk of the area around their crotchal regions. I'm quite sure "crotchal" is not a word, but I like to use it anyway. If you are not sure what I mean, you either haven't seen a single commercial for Viagra, Cialis or any variant drugs. If you still do not understand, come back when you are older.
The image text is what the last person in line says to the Black Hat character when he sees the Viagra for sale sign. He does not need the Viagra to achieve tumescence to impress the security personnel and increase his own self confidence because he is aroused by the backscattering itself.
Backscattering is the the reflection of waves, particles or signals back to where they came from.
The security person in this comic is thinking "Oh God". There is several possible reasons for this. 1 - He could be seeing the image in the screen of the Viagra-enhanced outline of the man in the scanner. 2 - He could have noticed the Black Hat selling Viagra, check the long line of men and then back at the image and think about how long his 8 hour shift seems now.
However, for comedic effect, the comic is different than in reality because in actual airports, the person analyzing the image is in a completely separate room and cannot see the actual people going through the line. The people attending to the line only look at an LCD screen and wait for the technicians in the other room to declare the person clean.
All in all, it is a very disarming situation as they make you hold your hands over or behind your head for the scan.
August 13th, 2010
“If you still do not understand, come back when you are older.”
Thank god. I was worried you were going to go in detail…
August 13th, 2010
I actually needed help with this one.
Now I get it. Thanks.
August 13th, 2010
they make you hold your hands over or behind your head for the scan.
No, they do it to make you show respect to their authoritaay
August 13th, 2010
Interesting interpretation. I didn’t think they want to impress the guard but mock him by going in there with a huge boner, so the guard has to look at boners all day long. That would match very vell with the image text.
August 13th, 2010
Nah, I think the comic is making fun of guys being worried about how small their penis is.
August 13th, 2010
Since the Black Hat character tends to be a shit disturber, I think that it’s his way of making the guards life miserable, possibly as a statement against the use of the scanner.
August 13th, 2010
Why would it be titled anxiety then? Because the guard is anxious? Me don’t think so!
August 16th, 2010
Relax, I didn’t say my interpretation has to be the one and only one. It’s just that my original thoughts were much different and still fit, even with the title. Though not as good as Jeffs thoughts.
August 13th, 2010
Funny thing, those backscattering X-Ray machines with the viewer in a “separate room”…these machines can apparently take pictures.
Aside from that, I get the feeling that Black Hat is the type of guy who peruses 4chan…
August 13th, 2010
Oh, right, btw. Massive bonus points for the Word of the Day: tumescence.
August 13th, 2010
Because of the unsolicited message filter on the comments, whenever you see the word “fritz” in my message, I actually mean that type of annoying email that you might get trying to sell you various types of products are far below normal retail and without any prescription.
(Yes, I am Australian!)
Backscatter is also a word used to describe a type of fritz.
Wikipedia: “Backscatter is incorrect automated bounce messages sent by mail servers, typically as a side effect of incoming fritz”
Basically a fritzer sends another mail server an email and puts someone else’s email address as in the “MAIL FROM” field. The receiving mail server accepts the message and tries to deliver it to one of the mailboxes within its organisation, realizes that it does not exist and proceeds to send it back to the person in the “MAIL FROM” field. Some of you may have received “Undeliverable:” fritz… you have been subject to a backscatter attack. Mail servers should be configured to reject mail messages BEFORE closing the connection if the “MAIL TO” field cannot be found within the organisation thus sending the mail back to the spammer, not some innocent third party that has been put into the “MAIL FROM” field.
That wasn’t very basic was it? Its kinda like sending 500 letters with no stamp and putting your enemies’ postal address on the back. Very soon they will get a whole lot of letters back from the post office.
This weeks comic is a play on words linking the backscatter x-ray machines with backscatter fritz
In the comic, the man in the black hat is the “fritzer” and is sending “fritz” (trying to sell stuff) to the people in the line. The people in the line represent other mail servers.
Assuming that these people refuse the sale, then they are essentially backscattering and will set off the alarm when they walk through the machine.
Now you also see one man thinking about it and another actually purchasing and that probably indicates that some people do get taken in by fritz, which is how fritzers make their money.
August 17th, 2010
You Sir, are a genius!
Never thought of this one. Seems appropriate.
Thank you.
August 18th, 2010
Not a genius, just spent lots of time of late playing with secondary MX servers and backscatter
August 15th, 2010
Couldn’t this also have something to do with the recent news story about the TSA employee whose co-workers and boss ridiculed him because of the small size of his. . . package, causing him to go crazy and beat one of them with a tire iron? http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/05/06/tsa-worker-arrested-jokes-fight-size-genitalia
August 16th, 2010
“All in all, it is a very disarming situation”
Going through security is “disarming”? You win the unintentional pun of the month award.
January 17th, 2011
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June 15th, 2011
Am I the only one who thinks that the title text is what the black hat guy is saying, not what the last guy in line is saying?
July 13th, 2011
I like “crotchal”. A niece of mine used to refer to a female upper torso as the “breastal region”.