Editing 782: Desecration

Jump to: navigation, search

Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.

The edit can be undone. Please check the comparison below to verify that this is what you want to do, and then save the changes below to finish undoing the edit.
Latest revision Your text
Line 8: Line 8:
  
 
==Explanation==
 
==Explanation==
−
[[Megan]] and [[Rob]] are horrified to discover that the bones they had dug up and turned into puppets were actually buried over an ancient Indian or presumably {{w|Native Americans in the United States|Native American}} burial ground. The joke is that they weren't concerned about repercussions from the Indian bones themselves, but since they were OVER an Indian burial ground that they're just as haunted or cursed, as houses built on such grounds usually are in Hollywood tropes and other fiction. They didn't consider it {{w|Desecration|desecrating}} something holy, as per the title, until they discovered this fact. The humor comes from the fact that "digging up Indian bones" obviously makes it already an Indian Burial Ground itself, but apparently it didn't occur to Megan until after she and Rob knowingly desecrated a site at which Indians had been buried that they discovered that it was over another Indian Burial Ground, which is a common site of mystery and negative supernatural occurrences in horror films, etc. Such stories usually involve a building built on top of (over) the burial ground becoming haunted, which is why Megan uses the phrase above.
+
[[Megan]] and [[Rob]] are horrified to discover that the bones they had dug up and turned into puppets were actually from an ancient Indian burial ground. The joke is that they already seem to know that they were Indian bones, so their origins really shouldn't come as a surprise.
  
−
A common {{w|TV Tropes|trope}} in horror fiction is that anyone defiling an ancient {{tvtropes|IndianBurialGround|Indian burial ground}} will have a horrible curse cast upon them. Another common trope is having a {{tvtropes|GypsyCurse|curse cast upon oneself by a gypsy}} or voodoo woman, or a wizened wizard or monk as mentioned in the title text.
+
A common trope in horror fiction is that anyone defiling an ancient Indian burial ground will have a horrible curse cast upon them. Another common trope is having a curse cast upon oneself by a gypsy or voodoo woman, or a wizened wizard or monk. Megan and Rob seem to be unknowingly, and stupidly, angering every supernatural being and force in their entire town, thus setting themselves up for at least a dozen potential horror plots at the same time.
  
−
The puppets mentioned might be a reference to {{w|voodoo doll}}s (which a true voodoo shop wouldn't dabble in, despite the name), or {{w|kachina}} (of certain native american traditions). The pair seem to have been equally ignorant about all such things, however, so could have been avoided or invoked almost any puppet-related practices.
+
A common complaint about many horror stories is that the protagonists are flat out stupid in order to make the plot and horror work. This comic deliberately targets and makes fun of this, mocking the obliviousness that many stock horror characters show as to getting themselves into trouble with supernatural forces.
−
 
 
−
Megan and Rob seem to be unknowingly, and stupidly, angering every supernatural being and force in their entire town, thus setting themselves up for at least a dozen potential horror plots at the same time.
 
  
−
A common complaint about many horror stories is that the protagonists are flat out stupid in order to make the plot and horror work. This comic deliberately targets and makes fun of this, mocking the obliviousness that many stock horror characters show as to getting themselves into trouble with supernatural forces.
+
The title text expands on this, alluding to more fables of curses cast by monks, gypsies, and voodoo practitioners.
  
 
==Transcript==
 
==Transcript==
−
:[Megan is running towards Rob.]
+
:[Megan running towards Rob.]
−
:Megan: ''Rob! Rob!''
+
:Megan: ROB! ROB!
 
:Rob: You look terrified! What's wrong?
 
:Rob: You look terrified! What's wrong?
 
:Megan: We've made a huge mistake!
 
:Megan: We've made a huge mistake!
  
−
:[In a frame-less panel Megan holds her hands up in an explaining gesture in front of Rob.]
+
:[Both standing in place, Megan has hands up in an explaining gesture.]
 
:Megan: Remember last week when we dug up all those Indian bones and made puppets out of them?
 
:Megan: Remember last week when we dug up all those Indian bones and made puppets out of them?
 
:Rob: Sure...
 
:Rob: Sure...
  
−
:[Megan is throwing her arms out to the sides while Rob holds both hands to his mouth.]
+
:[Megan is throwing her arms out.]
 
:Megan: It turns out they were buried over an ''ancient Indian burial ground!''
 
:Megan: It turns out they were buried over an ''ancient Indian burial ground!''
−
:Rob: ''Oh my God!''
+
:Rob: Oh my God!
  
 
{{comic discussion}}
 
{{comic discussion}}
−
 
 
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
 
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
 
[[Category:Comics featuring Rob]]
 
[[Category:Comics featuring Rob]]
−
[[Category:Comics with cursed items]] <!-- Bones, by description only. -->
 

Please note that all contributions to explain xkcd may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here.
You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see explain xkcd:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission!

To protect the wiki against automated edit spam, we kindly ask you to solve the following CAPTCHA:

Cancel | Editing help (opens in new window)

Templates used on this page:

Retrieved from "https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/782:_Desecration"