207: What xkcd Means

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What xkcd Means

Title text: It means shuffling quickly past nuns on the street with ketchup in your palms, pretending you're hiding stigmata.

Explanation

This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect. If you see a way to improve it, edit it! Thanks.

This comic outlines four behavior that Randall thinks are typical of xkcd readers who have scientific minds, obsessive personalities and quirky senses of humor.

The first panel shows a driver making a right turn at a red light, a U-turn on the connecting road and then another right turn, returning him to his original direction. Right turns at red lights and U-turns could be illegal at some intersections.

The second panel shows a person in an inset calling his friend's phone to help him find it, only for it to ring from inside a dog's stomach.

In the third panel, Graham's number is a large number (celebrated as the largest number ever used in a proof), and the Ackermann function is a fast-growing function. Actually, A(g₆₄, g₆₄) is less than g₆₅.

The fourth panel shows somebody walking in a logical pattern based on the position of black and white tiles on the floor. This is further referenced in 245: Floor Tiles.

The title text refer to stigmata, marks corresponding to Jesus' crucifixion wounds. Devout Catholics have claimed to have spontaneously developed stigmata.

Transcript

What does XKCD mean?

[One car of two sitting at a red light makes a right turn, then shifts over to the left and makes a left turn to go back the way it came. It then makes another right and continues on the road past the traffic light. This is shown with a red arrow.]

It means saving a few seconds at a long red light via elaborate and questionably legal maneuvers.

[Someone on a cell phone is shown in a circle in the panel. A second person in the panel itself is looking at a dog, from which the ringing sound of his phone is coming]

Ring

It means having someone call your cell phone to figure out where it is.

[The mathematical function "A(g₆₄, g₆₄)=" appears in the panel. Next to the equal sign stands a mathematician, clutching his head.]

It means calling the Ackermann function with Graham's number as the arguments just to horrify mathematicians.

Mathematician: Aughhh

[An approximately 8 by 8 square of floor tiles is shown; the first, fourth and seventh across in the first, fourth and seventh rows are black and the rest are white. A guy and girl are shown next to it, walking on what is presumed to be the same pattern of floor tiles.]

It means instinctively constructing rules for which floor tiles it's okay to step on and then walking funny ever after.

[Line indicating the uppermost right black tile: Black tiles okay]

[Line indicating tile directly below it: White tiles directly between black tiles okay]

[Line indicating a white tile in the last column over: Not okay]

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Discussion

I do the last panel ALL THE FRIGGIN' TIME. Alpha (talk) 20:07, 8 March 2013 (UTC)