Open Mic Night
by Jeff
Image text: Ever notice how the more successful observational comics become, the more their jokes focus on flying and hotels?
Alright, open mic night. Everyone's favorite night.
In the first frame Cutie/MC Aphasia is not a very good rapper because Aphasia is a disorder that effects the part of the brain that controls the ability of speech. So, as you can see in the comic, MC Aphasia has a very difficult time speaking let alone rapping.
In the second frame, Black Hat is reacting to a Yo Momma joke that someone in the audience possibly yelled his way and starts off a common "Yo Momma" joke - "When yo momma sits around the house, she really sits AROUND the house." But instead he goes in another direction to something that is a bit more off the beaten path.
In the third frame Cueball/MC Quine is a computer science joke. A Quine is a program that produces its source code as its output. In other words, what MC Quine puts into the rap is exactly what he gets out of it. Hence the repetition of the same line. In this case, the source code of the rap is "Yo, I'm MC Quine and I'm here to say,".
And completing the xkcd trifecta is the last comic, is a Lord of the Rings joke. I'll call him "Beret" and is riffing off a common observational comic routine in which the comic observes that men go to the bathroom alone and women go in groups.
The image text is a reference to how when comedians become more famous, they travel more to other cities to do their comedy. In the case of observational comics, the more they travel, the more they have time to observe both hotels and flying and nothing else.
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.
Green Flash
by Jeff
Image text: The exact cause of the phenomenon is unknown, but it's thought to be linked to atmospheric refraction and you getting a really cool car.
The green flash is an atmospheric optical phenomena in which a small green spot will appear above or around the sun as it sets below the horizon. The green flash occurs because of refraction of different colors of light. Green light is higher frequency than red and orange light and so green light stays visible after the red and orange lights are blocked by the Earth. Wikipedia has a great gallery of examples of the green flash. Personally, I have been looking for the green flash my whole life and have never seen it. The name is slightly a misnomer as it is not really a flash at all, but stays for a few minutes.
The Tesla roadster is a new car from the Tesla Motors. All of the Tesla Motors cars run entirely on electricity. Check out the car here, as it is a pretty sweet little sports car. No wonder the Black Hat Character wants to smash the other character over the head with the bottle he is holding to steal the car.
Toot
by Jeff
Image text: This is also one of only five identified situations in which a vuvuzela is actually appropriate.
For our international readers, "Toot my own horn" is an expression (possibly only used in America) that means to brag about ones self.
Vuvuzela is a noise maker that is native to South Africa and is featured heavily in any World Cup game. Many vuvuzelas blown (played?) at the same time make a noise similar to that of a thousand bees.
Tensile vs. Shear Strength
by Jeff
Image text: Although really, the damage was done when the party planners took the hole punch to the elevator ribbon to hang up the sign.
The Space Elevator is an idea about how to quickly move ships, people and supplies into orbit without the
The Tower of Babel was an ancient building built so that it would be a testament to man's ability and would go so high, it would have its top among the heavens. This is why the comic is referencing a "modern Babel" because the space elevator would have its top among the stars.
Tensile Strength is the maximum load that a material can support without fracture when being stretched.
Shear strength is the maximum shear stress which a material can withstand without rupture. The comic is making a pun on this because the Black Hat character is using "shears" or scissors to cut the elevator ribbon.
This comic is also referencing how at a Grand Opening, there is a "ribbon cutting ceremony". In the comic, there is a "ribbon cutting ceremony", however, the ribbon that is cut is not the ceremonial ribbon, but the space elevator ribbon.
Experiment
by Jeff
Image text: The other two are still lost on the infinite plane of uniform density.
Let's see if we can work through this one. The Black Hat character and a female accomplice knock out a Physics professor and put him in a frictionless vacuum. The professor wakes up and tries to talk but the vacuum prevents him from being able to say anything. In the first two frames of the bottom section, the professor tries to move, but falls down because the vacuum is frictionless as well.
EDIT: Please see the comments below for Rob and Paige's explanations of the comic who are much more attuned to physics jokes than I am. Thanks Rob and Paige!
Silent Hammer
by Jeff
Image text: I bet he'll keep quiet for a couple weeks and then-- wait, did you nail a piece of scrap wood to my antique table a moment ago?
In this comic, we see the return of the Black Hat character, who this time is using his silent hammer invention for trouble. The skeptics society is a group based on the fact that they must apply reason to all situations and only supports claims that have compelling and complete evidence. Obviously, the Black Hat character knew this before puling this prank on the "Chair of the American Skeptics Society". There does not appear to be such a title in real life, but Michael Shermer is the Executive Director of the Skeptics Society.
Additionally, it is probably not a coincidence that the Black Hat character returns on comic number 666.
Wings
by Jeff
Image meta text: Please do not try any of this and die or get arrested.
This comic references Titan, a moon of Saturn which has 14% of earth's gravity. Because the gravity is less, it takes less lift to fly on Titan.
Also, the main character uses hot glue on his wings, similar to how Icarus of Greek Mythology flew too close to the sun with wings made of wax. Just like Icarus, the character falls after subjected to high levels of heat. In the comic's case, the heat was applied by a heat lamp from xkcd's resident troublemaker "Black Hat".
Disaster Voyeurism
by Jeff
Image meta text: Hurricane forums are full of excited comments about central pressure and wind speed and comparisons to Camille and 1931 and 1938, with hastily-tacked-on notes about how it will be tragic if anyone dies and they hope it's a dud.
This comic has "Black Hat" reappear with a monologue about the things he enjoys to do. There certainly is quite a bit of "rubbernecking" when a hurricane occurs. Weather Channel certainly has its highest ratings of the year.