502: Dark Flow

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
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Dark Flow
The Pioneer anomaly is due to the force of my love.
[Click comic to enlarge]
Title text: The Pioneer anomaly is due to the force of my love.

Explanation

This comic is about Template:astronomy and the Template:m jokes that have become increasingly widespread in the urban dictionary. Beret Guy is going through a research paper, which hypothesized about galaxies being drawn towards one another by a Supermassive black hole. His friend, who is playing, sees this as an opportunity to turn it into yet another Your Mom joke, implying that Beret Guy's mother is fat.

But apparently, Beret Guy's mother is dead, and he takes the joke seriously. he looks toward the sky, and wishes that his mom pulls harder, so he could be with her. The joke has been turned onto itself.

The title text is a continuation of Beret Guy's thoughts and refers to another piece of science phenomenon that has been observed in space, the Pioneer Anomaly. The Pioneer spacecraft had been slowed down by an unknown force as they exited the solar system, which he says to be caused by the force of his love.

Transcript

Man in beret: According to the A.S.T paper, every galaxy is being pulled toward one area of the sky
Man in beret off-panel: They hypothesize that it may be due to a supermassive object beyond the edge of the visible universe.
Man on the couch: Maybe it's your mom - Zing!
Man in the beret: Do you think?

Outside at night. Man in the beret is looking through a telescope.

Man in beret: Pull Harder, Mom. - I Miss you.


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Discussion

Awww. Alpha (talk) 23:38, 5 March 2013 (UTC)

Me after reading first two panels: lol cheesy jokes are great. Me after all panels: *hysterical sobbing* 108.162.216.131 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

What's "A.S.T."? 108.162.210.102 20:46, 9 July 2015 (UTC)

The acronym "AST" probably stands for "Aerospace Science and Technology" 108.162.245.147 06:34, 12 January 2016 (UTC) JC

Although the subject has more to do with astrophysics or astronomy than aerospace? Perhaps the NSF Division of Astronomical Sciences (AST)? Yfmcpxpj (talk) 08:47, 28 January 2020 (UTC)

I think Cueball is reading not playing. 162.158.90.191 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

The Pioneer anomaly has been solved. It is due to a miniscule thrust from the RTG. 108.162.216.76 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

What happened to Cueball's legs in panel 2? 141.101.98.135 13:52, 1 November 2016 (UTC)

Seems that Randall wanted to draw him in a cross legged position but made a mistake. Don't take too badly, everyone has their moments. Dontknow (talk) 05:10, 7 May 2017 (UTC)