Editing 248: Hypotheticals

{{comic
| number    = 248
| date      = April 13, 2007
| title     = Hypotheticals
| image     = hypotheticals.png
| titletext = What if someone broke out of a hypothetical situation in your room right now?
}}

==Explanation==
The comic is, in short, a new take on the common comedy {{w|trope (literature)|trope}} in which characters in a thought bubble will sometimes look out of the bubble and talk directly to the person thinking it, another person nearby, or even the viewer. In this comic, however, it features [[Cueball]] and [[Beret Guy]] in a conversation together, in which Beret Guy talks of a hypothetical situation by imagining he had ice cream. This then, to Cueball's dismay, creates a hypothetical situation in which hypothetical Beret Guy has ice cream, which he promptly begins to eat. The hypothetical Cueball then creates a hypothetical situation in which a further hypothetical self has a knife to 'cut' out of the thought. The doubly-hypothetical Cueball then uses this knife to reach out to the merely hypothetical Cueball, who will then supposedly use it to cut out of his original hypothetical setting. Doubly-hypothetical Beret Guy, meanwhile, takes no notice and continues to happily eat his own ice cream, in a situation he clearly finds perfectly normal and Cueball clearly seems to expect and accept – probably from prior experience.

The title text puts the comic into context, noting the unlikely possibility — and your most likely surprised reaction — if a person in a hypothetical situation you'd involuntarily created managed to break out of it and suddenly appear in your room. Or it could be understood the other way, that a person you have forced into your hypothetical situation breaks free from it, and disappears from your room. In addition, since the hypothetical situation in question is "the hypothetical that someone escapes a hypothetical situation in your room", it would ironically be your very entertainment of such a hypothetical that immediately results in its coming about.

Another "thought bubble comic" can be seen in [[429: Fantasy]].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is holding up his hand towards Beret Guy, who talks to him. From Beret Guy's head go three bubbles to a big thought bubble, where the next part of the comic takes place.]
:Beret Guy: What if I had some ice cream? Wouldn't that be awesome?
:Cueball: No, stop-

::[The comic continues inside Beret Guy's thought bubble. The two characters have switched places, and Beret Guy is now eating from an ice cream cone. Cueball is holding his hand to his chin, and from his head go four bubbles to a thought bubble in the lower right corner, where the last part of the comic takes place.]
::Cueball: Great, you've trapped us in a hypothetical situation!
::Beret Guy: Mmm, ice cream.
::Cueball: Maybe if I had a knife I could cut our way free...

:::[Inside Cueball's  thought bubble, Beret Guy continues to eat his ice cream, but Cueball has cut a hole through the last thought bubble with a knife and is handing it to the Cueball who thinks about this].
:::Beret Guy: Mmm, ice cream!
:::Cueball: Here, take this one.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Strange powers of Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Recursion]]
[[Category:Food]]