explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2149: Alternate Histories

2019-05-15T14:40:24Z

108.162.221.173: /* Explanation */ unnecessary really big parenthesis

{{comic
| number = 2149
| date = May 13, 2019
| title = Alternate Histories
| image = alternate_histories.png
| titletext = "So their universe wouldn't have the iconic photo of a screaming Truman being hoisted aloft by the newspaper-printing machinery..."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a CYBERNETIC HORSE-EMPEROR. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Alternate histories are a common device in speculative fiction. One of the most common (even cliche) uses of alternate history is to posit a world in which the {{w|Hypothetical Axis victory in World War II|Axis Powers achieved victory in World War II}}. This is presumably so compelling because it was a relatively recent event in which a series of relatively minor changes could have altered world history in major ways. One of the standard literary works along this line is Philip K. Dick's ''{{W|The Man in the High Castle}}'', where the world is split into spheres of influence controlled by the {{W|Empire of Japan}} and {{W|Nazi Germany}}. This novel has been developed into a {{w|The Man in the High Castle (TV series)|popular TV series}} of the same name on Amazon Prime.

At one point, ''The Man in the High Castle'' discusses the fiction of their own world, which includes their own alternate histories in which the Allies had won the war instead. ''The Grasshopper Lies Heavy'' is one such novel. Because these stories are speculative, they don't entirely match the 'real' history of our world, differing in key ways. This results in an "alternate-alternate" history where the Allies won World War II, but the details still differ rather significantly than the history of World War II in our reality -- most notably, ''The Grasshopper Lies Heavy'' depicts a post-World War II world defined by a {{w|Cold War}} between the United States and the British Empire, rather than one between the United States and Soviet Union. In one sense, this functions as a meta-critique of the very concept of alternate histories, highlighting the reality that we can never know the details of what would have happened if history had gone differently.

In this comic, Megan and Cueball discuss this fictional device. Then in typical xkcd fashion, things start to get exaggerated to ridiculous proportions: Megan points out that, if characters in our stories have their own fiction, then the characters in their stories presumably have their own body of fiction, and so on, creating a recursive loop. If each alternate history contains its own alternate history, presumably each iteration would deviate more and more from our own reality, because each would be speculation based on increasing layers of speculation. Eventually (by the 500th iteration) the history would differ so wildly from our own as to be completely absurd to us, with very few elements being even recognizable.

The 500th iteration timeline apparently includes hovercraft, and cybernetic horses. {{w|Hovercraft}} are a real technology which does have military applications as landing craft, but their use in actual warfare has been limited. Cybernetic horses do not exist in our timeline{{Citation needed}}. In our timeline, Scotland is part of the United Kingdom, and would likely not develop military technology independently. New Jersey is a state in the United States and Madagascar was controlled by France during World War II; neither of these would normally be able to pursue an independent foreign policy that would have allowed them to join alliances and fight wars unless their parent governments also did. Belgium was occupied by the Axis Powers early in the war. These three regions developing a alliance and fighting against Canada (which was also an Allied power) would require a highly unlikely combination of events. How this war would be affected by the lack of Scottish hovercraft is unclear. This scenario also apparently contains a theocracy of some variety in Missouri, which remarkably is vaguely plausible.

Interestingly, even within the bounds of the exceedingly meta-fiction, it is bordering on impossible for the scenario to come into existence; the reason for this is that while the ending would become evermore bizarre, the actual events will only be able to vary so much, as they are based on predetermined scenarios that occur before the changes take place. Unless at least two wars are being modified, or the events are based on a later occurrence, (basically the two are discussing something different entirely, albeit still a historical scenario) the idea of so many implausible things occurring is unlikely no matter what the circumstances, unless they all happened over the course of the war. Of course, it's possible several of those 500 iterations involve BAD alternate histories fiction. Or possibly fiction based on history which was deliberately falsified.

It's unlikely, but it's worth noting that "cybernetic horses" could be a reference to {{w|cyber forces}}, since in [[1418: Horse]] that substitution is suggested.

{{W|Laura Ingalls Wilder}} was an American author, best known for her ''{{W|Little House on the Prairie}}'' series. In the 500th iteration timeline, she apparently became "God-Emperor of Missouri", despite not being known as a political figure in our timeline. {{W|Harry S Truman}}, in our timeline, became 33rd President of the United States, following the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. In the 500th iteration timeline, Truman apparently died in an accident involving pajamas and a printing press while still a senator (presumably a U.S. senator, since in our reality he was serving in the United States Senate prior to being nominated as Roosevelt's vice president in 1944). He apparently remained a significant enough figure for 500th-iteration Megan to speculate that he would have become God-Emperor of Missouri if he'd survived.

The title text continues the discussion about Truman, mentioning a photograph of Truman screaming in horror as he is hoisted by newspaper-printing machinery. This plays off {{w|Dewey Defeats Truman|a famous photograph from our world}} where Truman is the one hoisting up a copy of the ''Chicago Tribune'' in triumph, as said newspaper erroneously claimed he was defeated in the {{w|1948 United States presidential election}} by {{w|Thomas Dewey}}.

==Transcript==
:[Megan and Cueball are walking together]
:Megan: In alternate history stories where the allies lost WWII, sometimes they have their own fiction with the premise "what if the allies had ''won''?" which differs from our world since they'd be speculating and wouldn't predict everything.
:Cueball: Yeah, I think they do that in ''Man in the High Castle''.

:[Megan and Cueball continue walking together]
:Megan: But within ''those'' stories, they should have "what if the allies had ''lost''?" fiction which is even ''more'' removed from our world.
:Cueball: Uh oh.
:Megan: So how deep does it go?

:[Cueball and Megan, wearing tall black ball-topped hats and large bracelets and presumably from some alternate history, are walking together. There is a caption in a frame over the top of the panel]
:500 levels in:
:Megan: In my alternate history, Scotland never develops hovercraft, so Canada's cybernetic horses ''defeat'' the Belgium-Madagascar-New Jersey alliance.
:Cueball: Wow!

:[Alternate history Cueball and Megan continue walking together]
:Cueball: Then who becomes God-Emperor of Missouri, if not Laura Ingalls Wilder?
:Megan: Senator Truman!
:Cueball: He survives the accident?!
:Megan: Yeah, the pajama craze never catches on, so he's wearing normal clothes when he walks by the printing press...

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Characters with Hats]]
[[Category:Fiction]]

{{comic discussion}}

665: Prudence

2019-05-01T19:20:59Z

108.162.221.173:

{{comic
| number = 665
| date = November 20, 2009
| title = Prudence
| image = prudence.png
| titletext = Moments later, the White Witch rolls up and, confused, tries to tempt the probe with a firmware upgrade.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic references the fantasy novel series "{{w|The Chronicles of Narnia}}" by {{w|C. S. Lewis}}. In the first book, {{w|The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe}}, Lucy discovers the fictional world of Narnia which can be accessed through a wardrobe, and she walks into it without ever considering the risks. Her three older siblings do not believe her, so she travels back alone again. But this second time her brother Edmund follows her, and he is seduced by the White Witch in order for her to be able to kill him and his three siblings (see title text explanation below). Thus proving that it was a rather dangerous move to just walk into the wardrobe.

The comic mocks the imprudent behavior shown by the protagonists Lucy of the novel, who enter the world of Narnia without knowing anything about its dangers. In the comic, [[Megan]] discovers the magical wardrobe while playing {{w|hide-and-seek}}, like in the book. Unlike Lucy in the original book, Megan does not precipitately set foot into Narnia. Instead, she fetches her technical equipment and sends a remote-controlled probe through the wardrobe door in order to sound the situation first.

The probe is clearly modeled after Mars rovers like Spirit and Opportunity, which [[Randall]] depicted for the first time only a few comics later in [[681: Gravity Wells]] and then in [[695: Spirit]]. The probe looks even more like the one in [[1504: Opportunity]]. This also explains the title of the comic, as it is the name of Megan's probe. The naming scheme is similar to the two probes mentioned above that were already on Mars at the time of this comics release. And even more so like the upcoming {{w|Curiosity_(rover)|Curiosity rover}} which was first launched two years after this comic, but had {{w|Curiosity_(rover)#The_name:_Curiosity|been named}} earlier in the year this comic was released. Lucy was ''curious'' in the first Narnia book, Megan is ''[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/prudent prudent]'' in this comic..

The probe encounters {{w|Mr. Tumnus}} the faun with his umbrella at a lamppost in a snowy wood on the last panel. This picture is the first impression of Narnia in the novels and was apparently Lewis' original idea for the series.

The {{w|White Witch}} mentioned in the title text is the main antagonist in the novel. She originally lures Edmund with a hot drink and magical {{w|Turkish delight}} after her sleigh passes right by him. In the scenario mentioned in the title text, she is confused when she rolls up to the rover and then tries to tempt the probe with a firmware update accordingly.

The procedure of sending a probe first through a portal has also been used in the early Stargate episodes. This draws a parallel between the wardrobe in Narnia and the Stargate, both connecting two distant worlds. The stargate probe can be seen at [http://stargate.wikia.com/wiki/Mobile_Analytic_Laboratory_Probe here].

Megan takes a scientific approach to Narnia again in [[821: Five-Minute Comics: Part 3|a later comic]]. In that comic she uses the different passage of time in Narnia to her advantage (it usually runs much faster than on Earth). That effect would have been a problem with controlling the rover...

==Transcript==
:[Megan is running towards a closed wardrobe.]
:Voice (off-panel): Everyone hide! 99... 98... 97...

:[Megan opens one of the two doors on the wardrobe.]
:Wardrobe: click

:[Megan is looking inside the wardrobe through the fully opened door.]
:Megan: !!!

:[Megan puts a hand to her chin.]

:[Megan walks away.]

:[Megan returns with an armful of electronics including lots of wires and a rover with wheels.]

:[Megan is kneeling, typing on a laptop, which has a cord extending into the wardrobe.]

:[In a forest with many tall leafless trees the Mars rover is approaching a lamppost with a lit candle. Behind it stands a faun with horns, goatee beard and hooves holding an umbrella.]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan‏‎]]
[[Category:Mars rovers]]
[[Category:Fiction]]
[[Category:Chronicles of Narnia]]

2008: Irony Definition

2018-06-19T21:39:15Z

108.162.221.173: /* Explanation */ Is not really ironic the resulting behavior of black hat

{{comic
| number = 2008
| date = June 18, 2018
| title = Irony Definition
| image = irony_definition.png
| titletext = Can you stop glaring at me like that? It makes me feel really ironic.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|It may or may not be complete - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

People often misuse the word ironic. It's possible that [[Black Hat]] may have just done so, and [[Cueball]] corrected him by explaining the correct definition of ironic. To this, [[Black Hat]] replies that it's ironic how despite [[Cueball]] knowing the definition of ironic, [[Black Hat]] is the one who is happy--again not using the word ironic according to its definition, since being happy wouldn't be the expected result of knowing the definition of a word. Incidentally, it ''is'' somewhat ironic that [[Cueball]] correcting [[Black Hat]]'s behavior only resulted in [[Black Hat]] repeating the same behavior. (then again, if you know ''how'' [[Black Hat]] tends to behave, this probably counts more as the expected result than an irony)

Irony is, to quote the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, “incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result.” It is often invoked to add intrigue to an otherwise dull anecdote of scenario. Once again quoting Merriam-Webster:

''“Considerable thought is given to what events constitute “true” irony, and the dictionary is often called upon to supply an answer. Here are the facts about how the word irony is used''.

''Irony has two formal uses that are not as common in general prose as its more casual uses. One refers to Socratic irony—a method of revealing an opponent’s ignorance by pretending to be ignorant yourself and asking probing questions. The other refers to dramatic irony or tragic irony—an incongruity between the situation in a drama and the words used by the characters that only the audience can see. Socratic irony is a tool used in debating; dramatic irony is what happens when the audience realizes that Romeo and Juliet’s plans will go awry.''

''The third, and debated, use of irony regards what’s called situational irony. Situational irony involves a striking reversal of what is expected or intended: a person sidesteps a pothole to avoid injury and in doing so steps into another pothole and injures themselves. Critics claim the word irony and ironic as they are generally used (as in, “Isn’t it ironic that you called just as I was planning to call you?”) can only apply to situational irony, and uses like the one above are more properly called coincidence.
''
''The historical record shows that irony and ironic have been used imprecisely for almost 100 years at least, and often to refer to coincidence. This 1939 quote from F. Scott Fitzgerald is typical: "It is an ironic thought that the last picture job I took—against my better judgment—yielded me five thousand dollars five hundred and cost over four thousand in medical attention." Is this true situational irony? It’s debatable.''

''The word irony has come to be applied to events that are merely curious or coincidental, and while some feel this is an incorrect use of the word, it is merely a new one.’''

While the modern use of the word (that is, the one ostensibly used to refer to situational irony but instead used for mere coincidences) may have robbed irony of its rich historical and literary undertones, irony is not a relevant concept to everyday life save for commenting glibly on an ironic situation. Lilliputian quibbles over the correct use of the word help no one.

At long last, after years, [[Black Hat]] expresses an opinion healthy for society, quipping gleefully that it is ironic that [[Cueball]] may have the definition of irony memorized, but Black Hat is happier for not knowing it. In the title text, Cueball is evidently not happy with Black Hat, but the latter responds in a typically victorious fashion, using either the verbal sense of irony (i.e. sarcasm) or the aforementioned incorrect use, which only underscores his point.

In addition this comic was released at approximately the same time as the current United States President, Donald Trump, ordered the development of a new military branch (The Space Force) dedicated to space defense. Given that Randall publicly supported Hilary Clinton, and yet as a former employee NASA and a space exploration enthusiast, he (Randall) is feeling conflicted at this, arguably ironic, turn of events.

==Transcript==
:[Black Hat and Cueball are walking together, with Black Hat walking behind Cueball with his arms spread out. Cueball is visibly upset, as evidenced by the squiggle floating above his head and his balled up fists.]
:Black Hat: It's ironic how '''''you''''' know the definition of irony, yet '''''I'm''''' the one in this conversation who's happy.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

Talk:528: Windows 7

2015-09-21T12:04:32Z

108.162.221.173:

Is this a reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin's_law Godwin's Law]? [[User:Saibot84|Saibot84]] ([[User talk:Saibot84|talk]]) 21:59, 13 April 2013 (UTC)
:An ironic one, possibly. --[[User:Qwach|Qwach]] ([[User talk:Qwach|talk]]) 13:54, 31 August 2013 (UTC)
::A second opinion: No. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.223|108.162.219.223]] 19:30, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

I think the title-text joke is mainly in the word "hardly" instead of "not" when describing the hitler-y-ness of the beta. {{unsigned|Gigahertz}}

;Hitler-y
I don't know but look at this: [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=hitlery hitlery]. It really seems that it belong to Hillary Clinton. Look at Goooogle: [https://www.google.com/#q=Hitler-y Hitler-y]. This has to be explained, even for non US citizens. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:03, 3 June 2014 (UTC)
:I added some description clarifying the implied Hitler reference. I believe it has to do with Adolf Hitler because it has a hyphen before the "Y" implying a general characteristic description rather than a nickname. --[[User:themacman33|themacman33]] ([[User talk:themacman33|talk]])
:I can't imagine the use of "Hitler-y" here, especially with the hyphen, is used to mean anything other than "Hitler-like". --[[User:Alex|Alex]] ([[User talk:Alex|talk]]) 23:09, 24 June 2014 (UTC)
:The entry given was created by author "anti-communist/anti-fascist" who also wrote definitions for the terms "kkk" and "gay marriage." Not only were the entries written eight years ago, they were also written down the same day. It seems obvious that said author took that day to spread his own personal political views, and should not be treated as normal day-to-day speech. Furthermore, there is no other reference to Hilary Clinton in this strip. I am removing the incomplete tag from this explanation. If the need is felt to restore it, please give a more justifiable reason. [[User:Castriff|Jimmy C]] ([[User talk:Castriff|talk]]) 02:13, 30 June 2014 (UTC)
:I think it's pretty clear that Hitler-y is simply the way Randall adjectived Hitler. {{unsigned ip|108.162.216.87}}
I'm pretty sure that this is a reference to a German play called The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (Der aufhaltsame Aufstieg des Arturo Ui). It's a satirical allegory about Hitler, where Hitler's name in the play is Ui. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Resistible_Rise_of_Arturo_Ui [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.173|108.162.221.173]] 12:04, 21 September 2015 (UTC)

Talk:1544: Margaret

2015-06-29T14:25:25Z

108.162.221.173:

I though it was Anna, not Margaret... but it turns out that {{w|Mister God, This Is Anna}} is a different book... --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 13:13, 29 June 2015 (UTC)

== Judy Blume ==
The text in the comic comprises titles of Judy Blume's novels:
* Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great
* Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.
* Then Again, Maybe I Won't
* The Pain and the Great One

== the the ==
Why the double "the the" in the Title text?
Maybe it's supposed to be "thee"?
: Maybe it's a typo? ;) [[Special:Contributions/173.245.51.116|173.245.51.116]] 12:05, 29 June 2015 (UTC)

== hot ==
Margaret is kinda hot.
Is it normal to be sexually attracted to an xkcd character ?

[[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.87|108.162.221.87]] 14:09, 29 June 2015 (UTC) See also title text of comic [[1354: Heartbleed Explanation]]

== transformers ==
This is almost an exact quote from the end of transformers age of extinction... Optimus prime rhetorically asks his makers of they are scared, then follows with you should be because I'm coming for you