15: Just Alerting You
| Just Alerting You |
 Title text: Just thought you should know |
Explanation
Here, a man is seen riding on a Brontosaurus? (This is according to the official transcript on xkcd, including the questionmark.) Later Randall would probably have called it an Apatosaurus, see the Category:Apatosaurus.
The joke here is that this person feels the need to point out that they are "kind of strange," even though one might think that that would be clear from the fact that they are riding an extinct and potentially dangerous creature.
In the title text the man continues by saying Just thought you should know. Just a service notice.
In 650: Nowhere Megan is seen imagining herself riding an Apatosaurus.
Transcript
- [A man is standing on top of a green dinosaur and holding reins to the dinosaur's head.]
- Man: Before you talk to me, I should warn you: I am kind of strange
Trivia
- This was the 14th comic originally posted to LiveJournal.
- The previous was 11: Barrel - Part 2.
- The next was 16: Monty Python -- Enough.
- Original title: "Just Alerting You (Monday's drawing)"
- Original Randall quote:
- "I bet she's cool. I mean, she has a dinosaur!
- I'm gonna update this MWF for a while and see how that works. "
- This comic was posted on xkcd when the web site opened on Sunday the 1st of January 2006.
- It was posted along with all 41 comics posted before that on LiveJournal as well as a few others.
- The latter explaining why the numbers of these 41 LiveJournal comics ranges from 1-44.
- This was the first comic posted to LiveJournal after the thirteen first comics were released simultaneously.
- He even mentions in his quote that he from now on will release the comic MWF for a while. (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday).
- This comic was, ironically enough, the first comic to be released on a Sunday.
- But it was really supposed to be a Monday comic, and it was only released 17 minutes before midnight at 11:43 pm.
- Randall even made a mention of this in the comic's original title on LiveJournal:
- "Just Alerting You (Monday's drawing)".
- Two comics later, the original title is simply Friday drawing!.
- So from now he did begin to put the date into most, but not all, comic titles on LiveJournal until he also began posting on xkcd.
- Megan later rides an Apatosaurus in 650: Nowhere. This may have made people think that this was Megan but as stated above Randall says this is a man in the transcript. This is thus not the first comic on xkcd with Megan. That goes to the next comic.
- This dinosaur genus is also mentioned in 460: Paleontology and 636: Brontosaurus.
- This was the first comic with dinosaurs, but since then, there have been numerous dinosaur related comics on xkcd, especially involving comics with Velociraptors, a dinosaur genus that Randall is particularly concerned about.
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I think you mean an Apatosaurus. See xkcd 636 for the difference. 72.38.90.50 (talk) 15:36, 11 September 2012 (UTC) (please sign your comments with ~~~~) Jones
The comic is funny because she is telling you she is strange but it should have been very ovious that she is strange because while most people travel by car or walking she rides a dinosaur which is not very common. 72.38.90.50 (talk) 15:38,11 September 2012 (UTC) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
- She could be telling the dinosaur that she's strange. OTOH, since she seems to be riding it, she probably isn't introducing herself to it. gijobarts (talk) 00:56, 13 January 2013 (UTC)
She must be Eve. 172.245.56.191 (talk) 22:26, 9 September 2014 (UTC) (please sign your comments with ~~~~) 22:26, 9 September 2014 (UTC)
As of 2015 it is now generally accepted that Brontosaurus was a valid genus in its own right, separate and distinct from Apatosaurus. Given that Brontosaurus has long been more popular than Apatosaurus, perhaps the explanation should be updated to stated that Megan(?) is riding a Brontosaurus. 108.162.249.183 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
- Good point, and the official transcript suggests that it is a Brontosaurus, so replacing the comment about it being a former name.
Is the incomplete tag really necessary? "Short" and "incomplete" are two different things. There is not really much to this comic - a single figure riding a dinosaur with some simple caption that does to contain any technical stuff or obscure references that'd need explaining. I think it is neither needed nor desirable to make the explanation longer for sake of being longer. If someone feels like this page is legitimately incomplete, feel free to add the tag back, with a better text pointing out to specific areas that need to be explained, not just "too short". Jaalenja (talk) 10:46, 23 March 2017 (UTC)
Am I the only one who thought Star Wars Christmas Special? Boba Fett? Netherin5 (talk) 13:55, 13 March 2019 (UTC)
From the Trivia: "This may have made people think that this was Megan but as stated above Randall says this is a man in the transcript." Yeah, but he also says, "I bet she's cool. I mean, she has a dinosaur!" So…maybe it is Megan.--Calion (talk) 23:00, 18 February 2023 (UTC)
