1076: Groundhog Day

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
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Groundhog Day
If you closely examine the cosmic background radiation, you can pick up lingering echoes of 'I Got You Babe'.
Title text: If you closely examine the cosmic background radiation, you can pick up lingering echoes of 'I Got You Babe'.

Explanation

Groundhog Day is celebrated on February 2 at some places in the United States and Canada. In this folklore people emerge a groundhog out of it's burrow; if the animal can see it's own shadow the winter will continue for six more weeks but when it's cloudy the spring will come soon.

This comic is a mash-up of the American movie "Groundhog Day" starring Bill Murray and the work of James Ussher who was a Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland between 1625 and 1656. He was a prolific scholar, who most famously published a chronology that purported to establish the time and date of the creation as the night preceding Sunday, 23 October 4004 BC, according to the proleptic Julian calendar.

This comic is purporting to say that unlike in the movie, Bill Murray and Rita (Andie MacDowell) never move on to February 3, but instead create our world with some sort of "sexual infinity".

The title is a reference to the song "I Got You Babe" by Sonny & Cher, which is the song that Bill Murray's character wakes up to every morning of February 2 (and February 3 as well).

In the movie Groundhog Day, the final scene has Bill Murray's character wearing the same clothes as the night before, implying he didn't sleep with Rita after all. Randall later noticed this error and apologized for it on the blag.

Transcript

Groundhog Day really didn't end that way. When Bill Murray finally slept with Rita, it *didn't* break the loop.
[Phil Connors and Rita gettin' busy under the covers of his bed.]
They just kept having sex, night after night,
[Bed containing Phil and Rita repeats.]
February 2nd after February 2nd...
[Calendar page repeats.]
..forever
But nothing is forever. Not even forever
And the day *after* that sexual infinity
[Calendar page.]
was February 3rd.
264 days later (the length of a pregnancy) was October 23rd --
[An enormous explosion in space.]
Bishop Ussher's date for the birth of our world.


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Discussion

If the world is stuck in an infinite loop on February 2nd, how can February 3rd happen? Ever? Davidy22[talk] 13:37, 8 January 2013 (UTC)

I guess February 3rd happens on the omega'th day of that infinite loop? Alpha (talk) 05:25, 22 February 2013 (UTC)

It also happens that the date for the beginning of the world is Mole day... 98.235.206.114 05:21, 26 October 2013 (UTC)

The name of the main character ist not the only thing Randall got wrong about the movie... In the Wikipedia article, it is specifically mentioned that Phil and Rita did not have sex that night. 172.68.50.154 19:54, 31 July 2018 (UTC)

I disagree with the Trivia explanation. Around the time this movie came out Andie McDowell was a very famous actor and widely known, on a par with Bill Murray. No, the reason why she is only identified as her character here is the usual casual misogyny, where the woman isn't seen as a human being in her own right.

Out of all people to do that, Randall sure is not a likely candidate (my personal explanation is that everyone trying to find any significant subtext here is overthinking it). Also, sign your comments. 141.101.104.48 18:56, 4 October 2021 (UTC)