Difference between revisions of "441: Babies"
(Created page with "{{comic | number = 441 | date = June 25, 2008 | title = Babies | image = babies.png | titletext = I bet my future kids will read this someday. DEAR FUTURE KID...") |
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| title = Babies | | title = Babies | ||
| image = babies.png | | image = babies.png | ||
| − | | titletext = I bet my future kids will read this someday. | + | | titletext = I bet my future kids will read this someday. DEAR FUTURE KIDS: how did you get internet in the cellar? |
}} | }} | ||
==Explanation== | ==Explanation== | ||
| − | A common theme of | + | A common theme of xkcd is that one never feels that one has "transitioned to adulthood", in the sense of actually attaining the seriousness and sense of responsibility that children imagine all adults to possess. Here, the author illustrates this by imagining [[Cueball]] and [[Megan]] taking on the ultimate "adult responsibility" — having a child, treating it as they would any other engineering project. Disassembling a project to check the parts is an activity that is appropriate for a self-built computer or robot, but disassembling a child will be impractical and possibly lethal for the child. Megan also shows her lack of child experience by holding the baby upside-down by the foot, which usually isn't a good idea (it also displays Megan treating the child as an object rather than a human being). |
| − | The title text implies the author will have kids someday. | + | The title text implies the author will have kids someday. It will be surprising if they read this comic, not just because it will give them an unflattering look into their father's attitudes on having children, but because he plans to lock them in the cellar where there will be no internet access. This is a reference to Kaspar Hauser: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaspar_Hauser] , who is a boy that was claimed to have grown up in a dark cell in Germany in the 19th century. |
| + | |||
| + | This is also the topic of [[674: Natural Parenting]] and [[1384: Krypton]]. | ||
==Transcript== | ==Transcript== | ||
:It doesn't seem right that we're old enough to have kids. | :It doesn't seem right that we're old enough to have kids. | ||
| − | :Megan: Sweet! | + | :[Megan holds a baby upside-down by one leg.] |
| + | :Megan: Sweet! We made a baby! | ||
:Cueball: Are we sure we did it right? | :Cueball: Are we sure we did it right? | ||
:Cueball: We should disassemble it, check all the parts, and put it back together. | :Cueball: We should disassemble it, check all the parts, and put it back together. | ||
{{comic discussion}} | {{comic discussion}} | ||
| − | + | [[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]] | |
| + | [[Category:Comics featuring Megan]] | ||
Revision as of 12:25, 20 July 2014
| Babies |
 Title text: I bet my future kids will read this someday. DEAR FUTURE KIDS: how did you get internet in the cellar? |
Explanation
A common theme of xkcd is that one never feels that one has "transitioned to adulthood", in the sense of actually attaining the seriousness and sense of responsibility that children imagine all adults to possess. Here, the author illustrates this by imagining Cueball and Megan taking on the ultimate "adult responsibility" — having a child, treating it as they would any other engineering project. Disassembling a project to check the parts is an activity that is appropriate for a self-built computer or robot, but disassembling a child will be impractical and possibly lethal for the child. Megan also shows her lack of child experience by holding the baby upside-down by the foot, which usually isn't a good idea (it also displays Megan treating the child as an object rather than a human being).
The title text implies the author will have kids someday. It will be surprising if they read this comic, not just because it will give them an unflattering look into their father's attitudes on having children, but because he plans to lock them in the cellar where there will be no internet access. This is a reference to Kaspar Hauser: [1] , who is a boy that was claimed to have grown up in a dark cell in Germany in the 19th century.
This is also the topic of 674: Natural Parenting and 1384: Krypton.
Transcript
- It doesn't seem right that we're old enough to have kids.
- [Megan holds a baby upside-down by one leg.]
- Megan: Sweet! We made a baby!
- Cueball: Are we sure we did it right?
- Cueball: We should disassemble it, check all the parts, and put it back together.
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refresh comments!Discussion
The explanation says that "disassembling a child will be impractical and possibly lethal for the child". I don't think that disassembling a child could be "possibly lethal". Unless your definition of "disassembling a child" is something like plucking strands of hair off them, if you took a child apart, they would die. I'm changing the explanation. (Also, sorry, I'm kinda new here, but I hope I'm doing the signature thing correctly.) Caeleste Alarum (talk)
- I am honestly surprised no one put a [Citation needed] tag after "It will kill the child". -Pennpenn 108.162.250.162 00:59, 25 June 2015 (UTC)
"I don't think that disassembling a child could be "possibly lethal"." => We do organ transplants in people daily. And reattach severed appendages. It is well within the abilities of medical science to disassemble a person to an extreme degree and reassemble them with a high probability of a full recovery. Wether Cueball and Megan will be doing the disassembly themselves is somewhat vague - they can hire someone. The ethics of this action have been deliberately ignored here, so don't whine about how "barbaric" the procedure would be. 162.158.85.159 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
