2017

Title text: Things are looking good for the eclipse--Nate Silver says Earth will almost definitely still have a moon in August.

Explanation

This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: First draft of an explanation, no mention of the title-text.
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Randall shares some of his thoughts about 2016, a year that many people eagerly await the end of because of its increased turmoil (terrorist attacks, controversial political events in numerous countries, and, in the United States, the deaths of an unusually large number of well-known and beloved celebrities). It is also well-known that Randall is a Hillary Clinton supporter (as shown in the 1756: I'm With Her comic), so an additional reading of that tile could be that we are headed into 2017 "without" a Hillary Clinton presidency.

Instead of simply condemning 2016 as a terrible year and expecting 2017 to be significantly better, Randall observes that much of what made 2016 bad is the effect that it will have upon future years rather than the actual events themselves (for instance, a divisive U.S. president's election has caused significant controversy in 2016, but he will actually take office and begin to affect the world — either for good or for bad — in 2017). However, Randall also offers a glimpse of hope in the last few panels by observing that, just as all of the bad things in 2016 were unexpected, good things in 2017 that are unexpected are equally likely to happen. As such, he argues that we should hold on to our hope even though things seem difficult right now.

The last panel may also serve as a reminder that the world continues to spin on despite all of the turmoil. This is true both literally, as the eclipse Randall is excited about is caused by the orbits of several celestial bodies lining up just right (the sun, Earth, and moon), but also figuratively, as he notes that prime-numbered years have typically been good ones, and so illustrates the positive attitude that people can choose to take in order to see all that which is good and to spread a little bit more cheerfulness.

The title text is a reference to Nate Silver who is well-known (in the United States) as an election predictor on Five Thirty Eight. His model allowed for a slightly higher chance that Donald Trump would win the presidency compared to other similar models — though the fact that he was still wrong may be contributing to getting humor from the idea that he may be wrong again, and the Moon could possibly vanish in 2017, making it definitely worse than 2016. This is accentuated by the qualifier "almost definitely", which is of humorously low confidence when presenting a fact as certain as the Moon not somehow disappearing within the next year.

Transcript

[Cueball and Megan walking outdoors]

Cueball: Can't wait for this stupid year to be over.

[The two approach a fallen tree]

Megan: I can. This year made the future scarier. So much of why 2016 was bad was because of the things it sent us into 2017 without.

[Megan has hopped up onto the tree trunk and begins to walk along it]

Cueball: You gotta have hope, though.

Megan: You say that, but you also said all this awful stuff couldn't happen, and it did. You're as clueless as the rest of us.

[Cueball also walks along the tree trunk as Megan stops and turns to look at him]

Cueball: Well, if we're wrong about which bad things can happen, it's got to make us at least a little less sure about which good things can't.

[Closeup of Megan hopping down from the tree]

Megan: I guess.

[A distant shot of Megan and Cueball walking along again]

Cueball: Plus, 2017 has a cool eclipse in it.

Megan: Ooh, yeah!

Cueball: And it's prime. Prime years have always been good for me.

Megan: Sure, I'll take it.

Title text: Things are looking good for the eclipse--Nate Silver says Earth will almost definitely still have a moon in August.

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Discussion

Well, we're ending the year off with an optimistic XKCD comic. Here's to another year! GranadalandDreamer (talk) 23:07, 30 December 2016 (UTC)

What is five thirty eight? From the context I get it's most likely a TV-Show, but I believe some background information would help here. --162.158.92.46 07:14, 31 December 2016 (UTC)

It's a website. You can click on the link to get more information about it as it links to FiveThirtyEight's Wikipedia article. --162.158.75.160 10:00, 31 December 2016 (UTC)

Title text also can be reference to Seveneves by Neal Stephenson. Magras (talk) 15:52, 31 December 2016 (UTC)

Is there some significance to the fallen tree that they are walking over? Or is it just a visual aid to give them something to do? 162.158.74.87 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Note: in the Russian language words "prime (number)" and "easy" can in be translated to the same word "простой". 141.101.107.168 07:39, 2 January 2017 (UTC)

" This is the first odd-numbered years (and thus of course the first prime year)[...] " I know xkcd didn't exist in the year 2 but the "thus of course the first prime year" still makes me uncomfortable 198.41.230.100 09:10, 7 January 2017 (UTC)

Hmmm ... wouldn't vanishing of Moon be problem itself? Disappearance of tides might cause all sorts of climatic problems ... -- Hkmaly (talk) 06:51, 9 January 2017 (UTC)

For the record, 1933 ([1]) was also prime, and also contained a solar eclipse. The eclipse seems to have not passed over Germany though -- so maybe this year won't turn out as bad for Trumpland as that one did for Germany. 172.68.54.64 21:16, 6 February 2017 (UTC)

They simply didn't know what was coming down the pipe. 172.70.126.87 14:49, 24 September 2024 (UTC)