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| Kites |
![[Dog returns with the end of a string in its mouth] [Voice drifts down from the sky] Kites are fun!](/wiki/index.php/File:kites.png) Title text: [Dog returns with the end of a string in its mouth] [Voice drifts down from the sky] Kites are fun! |
Explanation
In this comic, we see Megan and Beret Guy both holding on to skyward lines. Megan's line is clearly connected to a kite, and she (like the reader) initially assumes that Beret Guy's line is as well -- only for it to be revealed that he is not holding a line for a kite, but instead the line goes up to a small dog. This move on Randall's part is known as a bait-and-switch, a technique that relies on human intuition and pattern seeking in order to play a trick on the viewer. The 'switch' portion of the bait and switch comes with the added humor of an unconventional dog that flies/floats instead of walking on the ground, so the joke comes by surprise and with little warning to the reader.
Beret Guy is fond of unconventional approaches to standard conventional issues. Amongst others he is known to possess several strange powers, and making a dog fly, and then later flying on (or as?) a kite (in the title text) just adds one more to this already long list.
The title text plays a subversion once more on the unsuspecting reader, with the kite being flown as expected -- albeit with an added payload of one beret-wearing human and flown by a small dog. The dog obviously no longer flies, since it can return to Megan with the line in its mouth. Of course it is not even sure that there is a kite, it could be that Beret Guy is the kite!
The comics title is the plural form for kite, although it turns out that there is only one kite in the comic. That is until the dog comes back with Beret Guy as a kite. Previously another comic has already used the singular kite as its title: 235: Kite.
Megan is also seen with a kite (and a coin) to the left in the game comic 1608: Hoverboard from two weeks ago; probably not a coincidence. In the same comic Beret Guy is flying down from the sky on a torpedo. Maybe he can just jump off in time and float back up, like his dog and when he is on a kite.
This comic could be a reference to the "Yo Mama" panel in 1037: Umwelt, where dogs can float and thus need a ballast to be on the ground. (Note that only few people would be able to see this panel, had it not been posted on Explain xkcd!) This comic could be a variation on the joke of walking around with a stiff leash and collar, thus presenting the illusion of walking an invisible dog.
Transcript
- [Zoom out of Megan holding on to a long line going up to a kite high op in he air. Beret Guy comes walking in from the right. He is also holding on to a line that goes up in the air with the same slope. But the top of it disappears outside the frame to the right.]
- [Zoom in on Megan standing with a roll with the rest of the line, and the line for her kite goes up in the air between her and Beret Guy who has now almost reached her. He is just holding on to the end of the line, with only a small part of the line hanging down below his hands.]
- Megan: I love kites.
- Beret Guy: Hey, Me too!
- [Beret Guy is looking up along his line and takes a better hold on the line.]
- Beret Guy: I'll go get mine, once I finish walking my dog!
- [Beret Guy begins pulling the line down, rolling it up in one hand, while pulling at it with the other. The line vibrates under this extra tension, shown with lines above and below the line.]
- Beret Guy: C'mon boy!
- [In a drawing without a frame around it, Beret Guy has pulled in his flying dog (a small white dog with black ears). It still hangs just above head height, wagging its tail happily. The line has now been rolled up and hangs from one of Beret Guys hands, while the other still pulls at the part of the line that is going towards the dog in the sky.]
- Dog: Arf arf arf
- [Beret Guys takes the dog under his arm, while holding the line in the other hand, and then he walks past Megan who turns to look after him while still holding on to her roll and line to her kite.]
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