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| Vacuum |
 Title text: Do you think you could actually clean the living room at some point, though? |
Explanation
According to quantum mechanics there is tremendous energy density in space-time itself: this is known as: vacuum energy, zero point energy, vacuum foam, etc. So far we don't know any way to tap this energy, although it does evaporate off black holes (see the “What If?” released the same week as this comic: Black Hole Moon).
In the cartoon, Beret Guy appears to be making a silly mistake, confusing the "vacuum" referred to in calculations of the theoretical energy density of space time with a vacuum cleaner, which is also commonly referred to as just a "vacuum".
Cueball tries to correct him, but it turns out that Beret Guy really is able to tap into this fundamental source of energy.
But even though Beret Guy now claims the Universe is his to command, (a sentence used by the crazy villain in many movies), Cueball is not fazed by this and simply asks, in the title text, if Beret Guy would use the vacuum for its intended purpose and clean the living room.
On an additional note, many scientific breakthroughs in history have been made because the person making them did not realize they were supposedly impossible, such as spin-stabilized magnetic levitation. This comic could be seen as a nod to that.
Transcript
- [Beret guy is holding an upright vacuum cleaner upside-down by the handle, waving it around above his head]
- [The vacuum cleaner is upright on the ground, and Beret guy is standing on its body, wiggling the handle]
- Cueball: What are you doing?
- Beret Guy: Trying to unlock the tremendous energy of the vacuum.
- [Beret guy rides the vacuum cleaner as it begins to lift off, propelled upward by an unknown force]
- Cueball: That's not what that -
- Beret Guy: Ha ha! It works!
- [Beret guy flies away on the vacuum cleaner]
- Cueball: I said, that's -
- Beret Guy: The universe is mine to command!!
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