Editing 819: Five-Minute Comics: Part 1

Jump to: navigation, search

Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.

The edit can be undone. Please check the comparison below to verify that this is what you want to do, and then save the changes below to finish undoing the edit.
Latest revision Your text
Line 4: Line 4:
 
| title    = Five-Minute Comics: Part 1
 
| title    = Five-Minute Comics: Part 1
 
| image    = five minute comics part 1.png
 
| image    = five minute comics part 1.png
 +
| imagesize =
 
| titletext = The wolves thin the RAID arrays, removing the slowest and weakest disks to keep the average seek speed high.
 
| titletext = The wolves thin the RAID arrays, removing the slowest and weakest disks to keep the average seek speed high.
 
}}
 
}}
  
−
This is the first of three "five-minute comics" Randall posted during a week in November 2010. The introduction to the comic explains everything you need to know about the circumstances behind it.
+
==Explanation==
 +
This is the first of three "five-minute comics" posts Randall made during November 2010. Let's get started!
  
−
Randall obviously made more than three of these five minutes comics, and one of them was published later, for a short period of time by a mistake, but an android xkcd browser picked it up while it was on-line and saved it. Since then it has been added to explain xkcd. So here is a complete list of all four comics in the entire [[:Category:Five-minute comics|Five-minute comics]] series:
+
* In astronomy, an "approach" is when two bodies come abnormally close to one another (but not close enough to crash). {{w|Jupiter}}, as most probably know, is the fifth planet in our solar system. Its approach to Earth in September 2010 was the closest seen in many years (in fact, the next time it will come that close will be in 2022). In the comic, this is indicated by Jupiter hovering right above Earth and talking to the characters.
−
*[[819: Five-Minute Comics: Part 1]]
+
:Of course, Jupiter is not only planet-sized, but is ''enormous'' compared to Earth; in fact, Earth would fit quite comfortably into the {{w|Atmosphere of Jupiter#Great Red Spot|red spot}} of Jupiter.
−
*[[820: Five-Minute Comics: Part 2]]
+
:Gravitational slingshots are a technique used by deep-space probes to gain speed by temporarily orbiting a planet and then escaping that orbit; the gravity of the planet pulls the probe into orbiting speed, and the end result is an extremely fuel-efficient way of gaining speed during space travel. Jupiter is commonly used for this purpose because it's the most massive planet in our solar system.
−
*[[821: Five-Minute Comics: Part 3]]
 
−
*[[Five-Minute Comics: Part 4]]
 
  
−
==Explanations==
+
* The comic in the middle left features the lyrics to the Johnny Cash song {{w|A Boy Named Sue}}, but with "Sue" replaced with "Trig." Inexplicably, [http://wiki.name.com/en/Trig Trig] is a name that people actually give their children. The most notable example in the US - and probably the inspiration for Randall drawing this comic - is Trig Palin, the son of Alaskan politician Sarah Palin. Trig is also a widely-accepted abbreviation for the mathematical field of {{w|trigonometry}}, and it sounds similar to "twig," so one can imagine how a person with such a name might be ridiculed.
−
# In astronomy, an "approach" is when two bodies come abnormally close to one another, but not close enough to crash. {{w|Jupiter}}, as most probably know, is the fifth planet in our solar system. Its approach to Earth in September 2010 was the closest seen in many years - in fact, the next time it will come that close will be in 2022. In the comic, this is indicated by Jupiter hovering right above Earth and talking to the characters. Of course, Jupiter is not only planet-sized, but is ''enormous'' compared to Earth; in fact, Earth would fit quite comfortably into the {{w|Atmosphere of Jupiter#Great Red Spot|red spot}} of Jupiter. Gravitational slingshots are used by deep-space probes to gain speed by approaching a planet and then leaving that planet; the gravity fields of the sun and the planet changes the trajectory of the probe, and the end result is an extremely fuel-efficient way of gaining speed during space travel. Jupiter is commonly used for this purpose because it's the most massive planet in our solar system.
 
−
# The comic in the middle left features the lyrics to the Johnny Cash song {{w|A Boy Named Sue}}, but with "Sue" replaced with "Trig." Inexplicably, Trig is a name that people actually give their children. The most notable example in the US - and probably the inspiration for Randall drawing this comic - is Trig Palin, the son of Alaskan politician Sarah Palin. Trig is also a widely accepted abbreviation for the mathematical field of {{w|trigonometry}}, and it sounds similar to "twig," so one can imagine how a person with such a name might be ridiculed.
 
−
# A child getting trapped in a well is an alien experience to some parts of the Western world, but it's quite a serious problem in places where wells are commonplace. Here, though, rather than attempt to rescue the little girl, Cueball instead tries to grant her wish of owning a pony before her imminent demise; a pony is a stereotypical thing for a little girl to want. Of course, since ponies don't fit into wells too easily,{{cn}} he has to stuff it in, which appears to be quite painful for the pony.
 
−
# The server room of a large datacenter would be an unusual place to return "back to nature", to say the least. {{w|Reintroduction}} refers to the process of taking a population of animals raised in captivity and bringing them back to the wild; this is a delicate process, as being raised in captivity affects the natural development of skills the animal needs to survive. In fact, Wikipedia has a page specifically about the challenges of {{w|wolf reintroduction}}. Needless to say, reintroducing wolves to a server room is neither a good idea nor OSHA-approved. Cueball may also be referencing a computer program named "reintroduction" or something similar when he says "We started a reintroduction program".
 
−
# Directly below the previous comic, Cueball is telling a "yo mama" joke. Such jokes are usually told in jest, and aren't really targeted at a particular person's mother; however, in this case, Cueball ''was'' attempting to make an honest observation about the listener's mother, and when he discovers his mistake, he realizes that she is, in fact, quite a nice person. Alternatively, Cueball is insulting the femininity of the listener's mother, and the masculinity of the listener's father.
 
−
# {{w|Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart}} wrote an opera called ''{{w|The Magic Flute}}'', though the comic seems to attribute it to {{w|Johann Sebastian Bach|Bach}}. {{w|Richard Wagner}} wrote a series of operas called {{w|Der Ring des Nibelungen}}, or, more commonly, the ring cycle. Here, Randall interprets the ring cycle as some kind of motorcycle, while the teleporting magic flute comes from video games: in both ''The Legend of Zelda'' and ''Super Mario Bros. 3'', the player can obtain a magic flute item that has teleportation powers. In the Magic Tree House series, the magic flute is an actual magical flute that does magic when played, although it does not teleport people. The caption implies that even Randall is not sure what meaning this comic has. However, as he has made a mash up of Mozart, Bach and Wagner - this must be intentional - so ''he'' does not attribute the Magic Flute to Bach! Also, due to the anachronistic nature of this comic, it could imply a pun, where they are going "Bach to the future."
 
−
# This comic shows how people rate the "hotness" of girls. Glamour magazines have desensitized many people to photo-edited models with large amounts of make-up, so the model gets a "meh" reaction. The girl in biology class, by contrast, is not only "real" by comparison, but is actually a viable choice for dating, so she is given a 2 star rating. If the same girl from bio class is wearing your shirt, that usually means you've had sex the night before, and she spent the night at your apartment, hence the need to get dressed in one of your shirts; this possibility earns the highest rating, 4 stars. Here it starts taking a turn for the worse. If wearing one of ''your'' shirts means she spent the night with ''you'', logically, wearing one of your ''mom's'' shirts means she spent the night with ''your mom''. This earns a "Wat!" reaction. Finally, human skin is not generally designed to detach from its owner.{{Citation needed}} If the girl from your bio class is wearing your mom's skin like a suit, it means she probably murdered your mom and skinned her. This is a reference to serial killer {{w|Ed Gein}}, who (among other things) made suits out of the skin of some of his victims. To this, Cueball can only scream.
 
  
−
The title text refers to the wolves thinning the RAID array. A {{w|RAID|RAID array}} is a way of spreading data redundantly across multiple hard drives, such that 100% of the data is still recoverable if some number of drives go down. This number can be set arbitrarily, as long as you have at least one more disk than the number you want, but it reduces your total storage space accordingly. The seek speed of a drive is how fast it can find a specific point of data on its platter; thus, the wolves are essentially killing the slowest drives, implementing a kind of natural selection to "evolve" the drives to be faster. "Thinning the RAID array" is a play on words. In the ecological sense, it refers to eliminating some members of the population to allow the remaining ones to thrive more successfully. In the datacenter sense, "thin provisioning" refers to the practice of marking an intent to use disk storage for a specific purpose but allowing it to be used for something else until actually needed (as opposed to "thick provisioning" which immediately reserves the storage space, even if unused).
+
* A child getting trapped in a well is an alien experience to some parts of the Western world, but it's quite a serious problem in places where wells are commonplace. Here, though, rather than attempt to rescue the little girl, Cueball instead tries to grant her wish of owning a pony before her imminent demise; a pony is a stereotypical thing for a little girl to want. Of course, since ponies don't fit into wells too easily, he has to stuff it in, which appears to be quite painful for the pony.
 +
 
 +
* The server room of a large datacenter is an unusual place to return "back to nature", to say the least. {{w|Reintroduction}} refers to the process of taking a population of animals raised in captivity and bringing them back to the wild; this is a delicate process, as being raised in captivity affects the natural development of skills the animal needs to survive. In fact, Wikipedia has a page specifically about the challenges of {{w|wolf reintroduction}}.
 +
:Needless to say, reintroducing wolves to a server room is neither a good idea nor OSHA-approved.
 +
:The title-text refers to the wolves thinning the RAID array. A {{w|RAID|RAID array}} is a way of spreading data redundantly across multiple hard drives, such that 100% of the data is still recoverable if some number of drives go down. (This number can be set arbitrarily, as long as you have at least one more disk than the number you want, but it reduces your total storage space accordingly.) The seek speed of a drive is how fast it can find a specific point of data on its platter; thus, the wolves are essentially killing the slowest drives, implementing a kind of natural selection to "evolve" the drives to be faster.
 +
 
 +
* Directly below the previous comic, Cueball is telling a "yo mama" joke. Such jokes are usually told in jest, and aren't really targeted at a particular person's mother; however, in this case, Cueball ''was'' attempting to make an honest observation about the listener's mother, and when he discovers his mistake, he realizes that she is, in fact, quite a nice person.
 +
 
 +
* {{w|Johann Sebastian Bach}} wrote an opera called ''{{w|The Magic Flute}}''. {{w|Richard Wagner}} wrote a series of operas called {{w|Der Ring des Nibelungen}}, or, more commonly, the ring cycle. Here, Randall interprets the ring cycle as some kind of motorcycle, while the teleporting magic flute comes from video games: in both ''The Legend of Zelda'' and ''Super Mario Bros. 3'', the player can obtain a magic flute item that has teleportation powers.
 +
:The caption implies that even Randall is not sure what meaning this comic has.
 +
 
 +
* This comic shows how people rate the "hotness" of girls. Glamour magazines have desensitized many people to photo-edited models with large amounts of make-up, so the model gets a "meh" reaction. The girl in biology class, by contrast, is not only "real" by comparison, but is actually a viable choice for dating, so she is given a 2 star rating. If the same girl from bio class is wearing your shirt, that usually means you've had sex the night before, and she spent the night at your apartment, hence the need to get dressed in one of your shirts; this possibility earns the highest rating, 4 stars.
 +
:Here it starts taking a turn for the worse. If wearing one of ''your'' shirts means she spent the night with ''you'', logically, wearing one of your ''mom's'' shirts means she spent the night with ''your mom''. This earns a "Wat!" reaction.
 +
:Finally, human skin is not generally designed to detach from its owner. If the girl from your bio class is wearing your mom's skin like a suit, it means she probably murdered your mom and skinned her. Both of these actions are considerably illegal, and quite likely indicate a serious mental instability. To this, Cueball can only scream.
  
 
==Transcript==
 
==Transcript==
Line 46: Line 52:
 
====Comic #2====
 
====Comic #2====
 
:[Cueball sits on a box, playing a guitar.]
 
:[Cueball sits on a box, playing a guitar.]
−
:Cueball: ...Now I don't blame him 'cause he ran and hid,
+
:Cueball: ...Now I don't blame him 'cause he ran and hid, -- but the meanest thing that he ever did -- was before he left, he went and named me "Trig."
−
:Cueball: but the meanest thing that he ever did
 
−
:Cueball: was before he left, he went and named me "Trig."
 
  
 
====Comic #3====
 
====Comic #3====
Line 60: Line 64:
  
 
:[Cueball tries to cram the pony down the well with the aid of a large stick.]
 
:[Cueball tries to cram the pony down the well with the aid of a large stick.]
−
:Cueball: Get... in... there...
+
:Cueball: Get... in... there... -- Ugh!
−
:Cueball: Ugh!
 
  
 
====Comic #4====
 
====Comic #4====
 
:[Cueball and Megan stand in a server room. ]
 
:[Cueball and Megan stand in a server room. ]
−
:Cueball: I like to get back to nature by coming out here to the server room.
+
:Cueball: I like to get back to nature by coming out here to the server room. -- The warmth, the whirr of the drives, the drone of the fans, the howl of the wolves...
−
:Cueball: The warmth, the whirr of the drives, the drone of the fans, the howl of the wolves...
 
 
:Megan: Wolves?
 
:Megan: Wolves?
 
:Cueball: Yeah, we started a reintroduction program.
 
:Cueball: Yeah, we started a reintroduction program.
Line 73: Line 75:
 
====Comic #5====
 
====Comic #5====
 
:[Cueball stands by himself in the frame.]
 
:[Cueball stands by himself in the frame.]
−
:Cueball: Yo momma's so masculine that she... oh, wait, that's your dad.
+
:Cueball: Yo momma's so masculine that she... oh, wait, that's your dad. -- Is your mom the lady over by the door? Aww, she looks nice!
−
:Cueball: Is your mom the lady over by the door? Aww, she looks nice!
 
  
 
====Comic #6====
 
====Comic #6====
Line 80: Line 81:
 
:Cueball: Bach, activate the magic flute and teleport us home! Wagner's right behind me on his Ring Cycle!
 
:Cueball: Bach, activate the magic flute and teleport us home! Wagner's right behind me on his Ring Cycle!
  
−
:Why did I ''draw'' this?
+
:Caption: Why did I ''draw'' this?
  
 
====Comic #7====
 
====Comic #7====
Line 86: Line 87:
 
:[A close up of a girl with wavy hair.]
 
:[A close up of a girl with wavy hair.]
 
:Incredibly made-up girl on magazine cover.
 
:Incredibly made-up girl on magazine cover.
−
:Girl: Airbrush!
+
:(Inset of Cueball: "Meh.")
−
:[Inset of Cueball: "Meh."]
 
  
 
:[An average girl.]
 
:[An average girl.]
 
:Girl in your bio class.
 
:Girl in your bio class.
−
:[Inset of Cueball: "Two out of four stars."]
+
:(Inset of Cueball: "Two stars.")
  
 
:[Girl with mussed hair in over-sized men's shirt.]
 
:[Girl with mussed hair in over-sized men's shirt.]
 
:Girl in your bio class wearing one of your shirts.
 
:Girl in your bio class wearing one of your shirts.
 
:Girl: Want some breakfast?
 
:Girl: Want some breakfast?
−
:[Cueball: "Four out of four stars."]
+
:(Cueball: "Four stars.")
  
 
:[Girl with another sort of shirt speaking to an older lady.]
 
:[Girl with another sort of shirt speaking to an older lady.]
 
:Girl in your bio class wearing one of your mom's shirts.
 
:Girl in your bio class wearing one of your mom's shirts.
 
:Girl: Thanks for the great night.
 
:Girl: Thanks for the great night.
−
:[Cueball: "Wat!"]
+
:(Cueball: "Wat!")
  
 
:[Creepy-looking girl.]
 
:[Creepy-looking girl.]
 
:Girl in your bio class wearing your mom's skin like a suit.
 
:Girl in your bio class wearing your mom's skin like a suit.
 
:Girl: Give Mommy a hug!
 
:Girl: Give Mommy a hug!
−
:[Cueball, screaming: "AAAAAAAA"]
+
:(Cueball, screaming: "AAAAAAAA")
  
 
{{comic discussion}}
 
{{comic discussion}}
−
 
−
[[Category:Five-minute comics| 01]]
 
−
[[Category:Comics sharing name|Five-minute comics]]
 
 
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
 
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
 
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
 
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
−
[[Category:Physics]]
+
[[Category:Five-minute comics]]
−
[[Category:Music]]
 
−
[[Category:Your Mom]]
 
−
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
 
−
[[Category:Animals]] <!-- Wolves (audible) and pony (stuffed down well) -->
 

Please note that all contributions to explain xkcd may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here.
You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see explain xkcd:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission!

To protect the wiki against automated edit spam, we kindly ask you to solve the following CAPTCHA:

Cancel | Editing help (opens in new window)

Templates used on this page:

Retrieved from "https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/819:_Five-Minute_Comics:_Part_1"