889: Turtles

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
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Turtles
You're a turtle!
Title text: You're a turtle!

Explanation[edit]

This comic is about the frivolousness of many modern problems. While an offscreen character is panicking over deleting a file, the turtle is content with just being a turtle. The text saying "turtles have it figured out, man" indicates that Randall appreciates this simpler mode of thought.

Based on its appearance, it is possible that the turtle is a tortoise (biologists call all testudines turtles, and tortoises are the family of land-based turtles), which is also supported by the fact that tortoises tend to have much longer lifespans (100 to 150 years) than sea turtles and terrapins (approximately 80 years).

An alternative explanation could be that the satisfaction of knowledge that the creature has poses an obstruction to his venturing out and finding its true identity. It was told that it's a turtle, thus, it continues to believe, even though it's wrong. The minor panicking of humans actually is a driving force of our sentience.

The title text is possibly a reference to 231: Cat Proximity. It also resembles Towelie's Catchphrase from South Park.

The text at the bottom 'Turtles have it figured out, man' could be a reference to the turtle in Finding Nemo, who speaks in a similar manner.

Transcript[edit]

[There is a turtle.]
Off-panel: Oh, crap, I deleted the file!
[There is a turtle.]
Turtle (thinking): I am a turtle.
[There is a turtle.]
Off-panel: No, wait, there it is.
[There is a turtle.]
Turtle (thinking): I am a turtle.
[There is a turtle.]
50 Years Later:
Turtle (thinking): I am a turtle.
[Caption below the panel:]
Turtles have it figured out, man.


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Discussion

I don't think turtles possess that level of sentience, but whatever. Seems legit. Davidy²²[talk] 10:10, 9 March 2013 (UTC)

"I am a turtle"
-The Turtle
 :) - St.nerol (talk) 23:50, 9 March 2013 (UTC)
I don’t think “sentience is actually the right word for that, it should be sapie-WOAH 2013???? 162.158.106.95 22:07, 15 November 2021 (UTC)
ye this website's been here for a while 172.70.178.47 00:51, 16 November 2021 (UTC)


Plot twist...off screen character is a turtle... 199.27.129.17 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

I always interpreted it as the human spends their short life worrying about the smallest of things, yet eve a long time after the events of this the turtle is perfectly fine being such - and has all the time in the world to do so. 108.162.216.89 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

I just realized that the official transcript describing the scene says simply There is a turtle. which perfectly compliments the comic and is high caliber humor on Randall's part --Lackadaisical (talk) 12:33, 12 July 2017 (UTC)