439: Thinking Ahead

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Thinking Ahead
Did he just go crazy and jump out the window?
Title text: Did he just go crazy and jump out the window?

Explanation[edit]

Cueball spots a woman while shopping. He thinks she looks cute - probably because she looks a lot like his girlfriend Megan. She is picking out produce, and quotes a line of dialogue from Firefly originally said by River Tam (Summer Glau): "My food is problematic." Cueball (Randall) who is a big fan of Firefly, notices this, and wants to flirt with her. But then Cueball's internal monologue kicks in and he starts panicking, wondering how he'd deal with starting a relationship with this woman when he's moving in the fall, as well as how things are going to work out with Megan, should things work out with this girl. He panics, needs a way out, and defenestrates himself. In real life, jumping out the window would be a very bad idea. See this for more details.

The title text refers to yet another Firefly line from the episode "The Train Job," this one said by Hoban "Wash" Washburne (Alan Tudyk): "Did he just go crazy and fall asleep?"

Transcript[edit]

[My Problem: Thinking Ahead.]
Cueball: She's cute.
Woman: This food is problematic.
Cueball: Oh man, she's quoting Firefly.
Cueball: It's the perfect opening. But wait. I'm moving in the fall. If we hit it off, how will I deal with that?
Cueball: I don't want to ask her to derail her plans. And with things unresolved with Megan, can I really commit enough to make that kind of decision?
Cueball: Oh God.
Cueball: Gotta get out.
Cueball: The window.
[Cueball jumping through a window]
CRASH

Trivia[edit]

Randall mentioned the name Megan in his original transcript for this comic.


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Discussion

I don't think the girl pictured is Megan, it seems to me that it's another girl and he is conflicted about talking to her because of unresolved feelings with Megan, which may come back to bite him if he doesn't explore them fully before becoming committed to another. Due to the beginning of the description it seems like this is just a silly mistake. 50.198.145.13 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

It's fixed, and look at the trivia.--Dgbrt (talk) 21:24, 26 August 2013 (UTC)
Where is this original transcript that I have seen people mention several times?Kynde (talk) 05:40, 12 June 2014 (UTC)
I believe it might be xkcd volume 0? --flewk (talk) 17:47, 28 December 2015 (UTC)

On to the actual problem mentioned in the article (i.e. Thinking Ahead), it's a common issue with intelligent guys who spend a lot of time thinking to start imagining all the ways a relationship could go wrong before it even starts. ("Why Very Intelligent Men Fail With Women, Reason #4: They psych themselves out") Donny2112 (talk) 02:08, 3 July 2016 (UTC)

sorry, non-native speaker here. Free to mock me, but I had a hard time understanding “I’m moving in the fall”. I thought it was some obscure idiom about rushing things and falling in love. Then I got that it probably just means “Next autumn I will move to another town”… right ? Thanks in advance --162.158.91.164 15:03, 30 December 2021 (UTC)
As a native British speaker of English, it's one of the many words/phrases that I've had to gradually learn. (The ubiquitousness of Hollywood movies and US import TV shows quickly get one used to much of the strangenesses, but even after forty-odd years I'm occasionally surprised by something.) "Separated by a common language" indeed (see table as a verb, items 4 and 5, for polar-opposite uses of such a simple word), and if you want to dive down a rabbithole there are plenty of places that go into examples.
So, no, I won't mock you. I'm sure your grasp of any given English dialect is far better than my understanding of whatever your native language is. (German? If it is, mein Deutsche ist nicht sehr gut. If not, I'm probably even worse.) 172.70.90.43 16:56, 30 December 2021 (UTC)