Desecration
by Jeff
Image text: It gets worse! You know that wizened old monk with the gypsy wife whose voodoo shop we smash up every every day after school?
This comic is a play on the standard movie set up of a house or a hotel being built on an ancient Indian burial ground. Being built over an Indian burial ground is generally a bad thing and leads to the house being haunted at the very least. The goal of the haunting is to get the people to move out of the house or dwelling so that the ancient Indians can rest in peace. The Indians in this case are referred to the Native Americans and not the people of the country of India.
This comic is a play on that because Rob and Cutie in this comic have dug up Indian bones and made puppets out of them, which the title of the comic says is certainly desecration of the ancient Indian's tombs and definitely way worse than accidentally building a house over an ancient burial ground. But since this comic is a play on the typical movie set up, Rob and Cutie think nothing of playing with ancient bones, but the fact that those bones were buried over another ancient burial ground scares them.
I'm not sure what movie the image text refers to. Anyone have an idea?
Raptor Fences
by Jeff
Image text: If at least one person has a nightmare about being swarmed by hundreds of mouse-sized dromaeosaurids, my work will have been done.
This is a reference to the movie Jurassic Park. In this scene, the power goes out and so do the electric fences that keep the raptors in their cages. This obviously puts the characters in extreme danger... unless of course like this comic, they are mini dinosaurs.
Outbreak
by Jeff
Image text: Let's get dinner after we promptly destroy all the X-7 we've manufactured.
Patient Zero is the usual terminology for the first patient tested or infected with an outbreak-style infection.
Also, it seems every zombie movie is rife with terrible mistakes which allow the slowly lurching zombies (or outbreak) to escape and spread. For example, the nurse will look at the chart and not look at the patient and then walk away. The security guard will cross the hall 2 seconds after the zombie has left the doorway.
This sounds more realistic...blast the zombie, destroy the toxin and then go on a date.
Flatland
by Jeff
Image text: Also, I apologize for the time I climbed down into your world and everyone freaked out about the lesbian orgy overseen by a priest.
Flatland is a short story by Edwin Abbott Abbott. Yes, that is really his name. In Flatland, women are represented by lines, and the more important a man is, the more sides he has. The least important male would be a triangle and the priest, in Flatland, has so many sides, he looks like a circle. So, the image text is a reference to how an xkcd stick figure would look to the members of Flatland. The text for Flatland is on Wikisource here, if you feel like browsing on your Wednesday morning.
Miegakure is an actual game in development that will allow the player to move in 4 dimensions. The website is here, with a screen shot that looks eerily similar to panel 2.
And if you didn't realize, Spongebob is a reference to Spongebob Squarepants, the Nickelodeon cartoon about a sponge named Spongebob. Spongebob is a square (as his name implies) - so that is why the character in the comic is able to draw arms and legs on the square to make him look like Spongebob Squarepants.
Single Ladies
by Jeff
Image text: Using a ring to bind someone you covet into your dark and twisted world? Wow, just got the subtext there. Also, the apparently eager Beyoncé would've made one badass Nazgȗl.
The song playing in this comic is "Single Ladies" by Beyonce. Which apparently had one of the best videos of all time... Anyhow, Gil-Galad was the last high king of the Noldor in Middle Earth. Galadriel was a queen of the elves in Middle Earth. Eru was the one god of Middle-Earth who created the Elves and Men, and Aule created the Dwarves, but Eru eventually approved Aule's creations. So, he sort of created the Dwarves as Eru was the only god to give a spirit to a being, as he did with the Dwarves.
The character in the beret is apparently the bartender in a bar that Sauron frequents. In the comic, Sauron upon hearing the song by Beyonce in the bar, has the idea to create his magic ring plan which presents the plot of the Lord of the Rings triology of books and movies.
Devotion To Duty
by Jeff
Image text: The weird sense of duty really good sysadmins have can border on the sociopathic, but it's nice to know that it stands between the forces of darkness and your cat blog's servers.
This comic is a reference to the movie, Die Hard, in which Bruce Willis' character climbs through ventilation shafts and over broken glass to kill all the bad guys and rescue the hostages, including his wife. That building was called the Nakatomi Plaza in the movie.
Uptime is just as it appears and is a measure of how much the servers are online vs. offline and usually is expressed in a %.
Snow Tracking
by Jeff
Image text: I suppose that's more accurately a hare dryer.
Moose and Squirrel is a reference to the Rocky and Bullwinkle series of cartoons.
Longcat is a internet meme from pictures of cats all stretched out that make them look very tall (or long).
Mouse riding Bicycle is a reference to Ralph S. Mouse, a series of novels by Beverly Cleary.
The image text is a pun on the Rabbit with a hair dryer frame.
Legolas is a reference to the character by the same name in the Lord of the Rings trilogy of books and movies.
Knight is a chess reference as the tracks move just like the knight piece in chess.
The two "Kid with" frames are a reference to Calvin and Hobbes.
Prius is a reference to current events in which the car Toyota Prius's pedals have malfunctioned causing accidents.
The final frame is the Higgs Boson which is an elementary particle they are attempting to find evidence of in the Large Hadron Collider.
Anyone know what the Bobcat on a Pogo Stick is a reference to? That's the only one I can't get.
Complexion
by Jeff
Image text: Why do all my attempts at science end with me being punched by Batman? (P.S. benzoyl peroxide soap works great.)
This comic is a reference to the Batman villain "Two-Face". Because the main character had pimples on one side of his face and not the other, he resembled the Batman villain. Two-Face is also fond of flipping a coin to decide what to do. The two different sides of his face and the flipping of the coin is what drew Batman into the comic.
Children’s Fantasy
by Jeff
Image text: I was going to be a scientist, but that seems silly now. Magical worlds exist. I've learned a huge truth about our place in the universe. I'm supposed to care about college? I mean, FUCK.
The main character won't just spend the next 70 years with his loved ones suspecting he is crazy. Everyone will suspect he is crazy.
Dirty Harry
by Jeff
Image text: Sci-fi has energy weapons because otherwise the people like me who watch it get distracted counting shots.
Here's the full quote from Dirty Harry (a movie about a San Francisco cop who lives a bit outside of the rules to get the job done):
I know what you're thinking. "Did he fire six shots or only five?" Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself. But being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?
Rain Man is a movie about two brothers, one who is autistic played by Dustin Hoffman, the other played by Tom Cruise.
In the case of this comic, the person on the ground is autistic, so he has no trouble counting the bullets from Dirty Harry's gun.
Because of his counting skill, "Rain Man" is able to thwart Dirty Harry's intimidation's effect.