1765: Baby Post

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Baby Post
[bzzzt] "REMEMBER TO CHECK IN FOR YOUR FLIGHT TO LONDON." "My wha-" [bzzzt] "YOUR UBER WILL ARRIVE IN FOUR MINUTES."
Title text: [bzzzt] "REMEMBER TO CHECK IN FOR YOUR FLIGHT TO LONDON." "My wha-" [bzzzt] "YOUR UBER WILL ARRIVE IN FOUR MINUTES."


Explanation[edit]

In this comic, Cueball is questioned about a series of posts made to his Facebook account. He explains the posts as the result of leaving his daughter (a baby, according to the title) unattended with his tablet. This is very common for parents with small children in modern times. Children tend to be fascinated with touchscreen devices, which include many entertainment options for small children (such as the mentioned "Wheels on the Bus" video). Infants also tend to experiment with such devices, and frequently open apps, post links, and make calls without intending to.[citation needed] This explains the first two panels: sharing the same video six times could be the result of the child repeatedly hitting the same area of the screen (such as a "share" link), and the gibberish text "FHFF,,,M,,,," could be due to the child randomly tapping on the screen, all without knowing what she was doing.

The joke begins when Cueball discovers an apparent pattern in the new posts, starting with a map of hardware stores and culminating in blueprints for the Tower of London. These subjects, if they were chosen consciously by an adult, would strongly suggest the poster was planning a heist to steal the Crown Jewels, which have a reputation, based in part on several movies (for example, Minions), for being overly complicated to steal. It is very unlikely for a baby to be capable of designing and carrying out such a plan,[citation needed] but it is also unlikely for these specific links to be posted all by accident. Cueball seems genuinely perplexed by the links (and presumably wouldn't have posted them if he were planning the crime himself), so the reader is left wondering what could have caused these posts, and whether Cueball and/or his daughter might know more than they let on. Cueball's suggestion of "keeping an eye" on his daughter suggests he is seriously considering the possibility that she might be an evil genius.

The title text continues the joke by notifying Cueball that his flight to London is leaving soon, and an Uber driver is coming to pick him up. Since his daughter was using the tablet and he is surprised by the messages, this suggests she is in fact the mastermind who has already started executing her plan. Either she is making the journey herself (and Cueball is only receiving notifications because he has the same accounts linked to his phone), Cueball is being roped into the crime, or his daughter is deliberately making it look like he intends to steal the Crown Jewels in order to get him into trouble.

Transcript[edit]

[Ponytail is looking at her phone while talking to Cueball.]
Ponytail: Why did you post a The Wheels on the Bus Youtube video to Facebook six times?
Cueball: Haha, whoops! My daughter was watching the tablet and must have hit something.
[Cueball is talking to someone on the phone while pushing a shopping cart with a few items in it.]
Phone: Hey, did you mean to post "FHFF,,,M,,,," and a link to a map of hardware stores?
Cueball: I should really look up how to lock the screen.
[White Hat is holding his phone while walking with Cueball.]
White Hat: You just posted videos on metal-working, zip lines, and camouflage.
Cueball: Uhh...
[Ponytail is looking at her phone while talking to Cueball.]
Ponytail: Um, you posted blueprints of the Crown Jewel rooms in the Tower of London.
Cueball: Maybe we should be keeping more of an eye on her.

Trivia[edit]

  • On the day of this comic's release, the header was changed to show some new T-shirts were on sale in the xkcd store.
    • An archived version of the comic showing the aforementioned header can be found here.
  • The comic is similar to 1419: On the Phone, though here it seems that the daughter isn't just a cover story. It is also somewhat similar to 576: Packages, in that Cueball seems weirder since it started.


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Discussion

Somebody doesn't know young children very well. Or the amount of time they spend watching old movies. I know a couple of four year olds who might just do this after catching a rerun of one of the Pink Panther movies. Get away with it, though, is something entirely different.Seebert (talk) 14:35, 28 November 2016 (UTC)

Check the header, new shirts! Jacky720 (talk) 15:01, 28 November 2016 (UTC)

If the cell phone or tablet is set to remember passwords, it's not impossible to a children to buy a ticket to london or even call an uber. Wrojr (talk) 15:24, 28 November 2016 (UTC)

This cartoon would be funnier if it didn't imply there were years (or decades) between the first and last frames. 198.41.239.32 21:35, 28 November 2016 (UTC)

It doesn't, what makes you say that? Jacky720 (talk) 21:47, 28 November 2016 (UTC)
Wrong use of plurals?

Shouldn't this be Crown Jewels Rooms? Beside which, how can one jewel be in more than one room? Bitsofstring (talk) 15:54, 28 November 2016 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure that Ponytail just doesn't care about pluralizing in this informal context. Jacky720 (talk) 16:05, 28 November 2016 (UTC)

I'm not sure if there's anything wrong with saying "crown jewel rooms". As an analogy, if you had several rooms for your trophies, you'd say "these are my trophy rooms" (ie. my rooms for trophies) even though, presumably, you have more than one trophy. The only part that makes me a bit hesitant is that they are called the "crown jewels". But "crown jewels rooms" sounds really awkward to me. 141.101.98.248 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

There is also the puzzle of using blueprints to describe a room's security plan. But it might just be simplified to put into a strip. 18:15, 28 November 2016 (UTC)

Feels like the baby might be related to Stewie from Family Guy... --IByte (talk) 10:00, 29 November 2016 (UTC)


Is Fhfffm supposed to be something? 162.158.69.142 14:29, 29 November 2016 (UTC)

Does anybody else think that "FHFF,,,M,,,," is supposed to be some sort of code? Like his daughter was sending a secret message as part of the heist or something? 108.162.216.67 23:16, 30 November 2016 (UTC)

"The Wheels on the Bus" song was also used as a plot line in the TV series Eureka in connection with nuclear escalation/mutually assured destruction. http://eureka.wikia.com/wiki/The_Wheels_on_the_Bus And don't evil geniuses usually have some earth-destroying plan in mind? cavac 162.158.92.15 12:27, 6 December 2016 (UTC)

Clearly, Stewy is planning something, and only Brian knows the truth. Keybounce (talk) 00:27, 27 November 2018 (UTC)

Am I the only person who believes that Cueball is behind this, and his daughter is accidentally (or purposefully) uncovering his plans, and Cueball is pretending not to know about it?108.162.241.244 18:44, 8 November 2019 (UTC)

Would it be worth mentioning that panel 4 seems to be a literal copy and paste of panel 1, with only the lettering different? Nitpicking (talk) 02:17, 28 February 2022 (UTC)

They're not the same. The distance between Cueball and Ponytail is larger in the first panel, Cueball's left leg is straighter in the last panel and Ponytail's ponytail goes higher up and further back compared to her head in the first panel Kvarts314 (talk) 18:17, 24 April 2022 (UTC)