explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:3079: Air Fact

2025-04-21T19:25:09Z

141.101.98.219: Tiny parasitic wasps fact. Happy breathing everyone.

average person eats 3 spiders a year" factoid actualy just statistical error. average person eats 0 spiders per year. Spiders Georg, who lives in cave & eats over 10,000 each day, is an outlier adn should not have been counted” [[Special:Contributions/172.68.7.184|172.68.7.184]] 15:19, 21 April 2025 (UTC)
:🔥🔥🔥🔥 [[User:Broseph|Broseph]] ([[User talk:Broseph|talk]]) 15:26, 21 April 2025 (UTC)
:{{citation_needed}}[[Special:Contributions/172.68.174.138|172.68.174.138]] 15:52, 21 April 2025 (UTC)
:This is one of those factoids like "Over 5% of the population has an above average number of fingers."
[[Special:Contributions/172.68.245.136|172.68.245.136]] 16:16, 21 April 2025 (UTC)
::That factoid sounds true. Assuming there are more people who have fewer than ten fingers than those who have extra fingers (some people have whole hands missing, but extra digits to my knowledge normally only come in ones and twos), then the average is slightly less than ten, and the ten-fingered vast majority of people have an above-average number of fingers, certainly more than 5% of the population. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.164|141.101.98.164]] 19:10, 21 April 2025 (UTC)
:I don't really get the way the title text is written. Why is "so many ants" assumed to be a small number, like the number of spiders? [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 17:47, 21 April 2025 (UTC)
The term "microscopic ants" supposedly refers to viruses and other microorganisms, not actual tiny ants. The actual concentration of airborne germs is pretty much in that ballpark, so it's not about sampling bias, it's about framing. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.103.36|162.158.103.36]] 17:00, 21 April 2025 (UTC)
:There isn't even such a thing as a "microscopic ant". The smallest ant species is 0.8mm long. That's tiny, but easily visible without aid. And if there were 10,000 of them in a cubic meter of air, you'd notice. It would be like walking through a thick swarm of gnats. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 17:47, 21 April 2025 (UTC)
Speaking for myself, I don't understand what would be difficult about taking air samples. Currently the article claims it's sampling bias, but why should that be anymore difficult with air than with e.g. soil?[[Special:Contributions/172.69.67.22|172.69.67.22]] 18:14, 21 April 2025 (UTC)
: Tried to address this ... [[Special:Contributions/172.71.146.123|172.71.146.123]] 19:23, 21 April 2025 (UTC)
Microscopic wasps, on the other hand: surprisingly commonplace. Many species are too small to be seen with the naked eye, and if Megan took her samples near hedgerows in summer, there could have been some microscopic wasps in every sample cubic metre. Probably a few orders of magnitude less than 10,000. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.219|141.101.98.219]] 19:25, 21 April 2025 (UTC)

2444: Ingenuity

2021-04-01T01:13:23Z

141.101.98.219: /* Explanation */ Dealing mainly with a discussion point, with a little more rewriting in the area.

{{comic
| number = 2444
| date = March 31, 2021
| title = Ingenuity
| image = ingenuity.png
| titletext = Plot twist: Thanks to [mumble mumble] second-order [mumble] Rayleigh-Taylor [mumble] turbulent [mumble] shear, it turns out powered flight is way EASIER on Mars!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a Martian helicopter. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

{{w|Ingenuity_(helicopter)|Ingenuity}} is a drone-like helicopter deployed to the surface of Mars. It rode on the underside of the Perseverance rover and at the time of publication its protective housing had been released from the rover and it was being prepared for a flight in early April. The helicopter is supposed to take off after the rover fully releases it and clears its takeoff trajectory.

The comic projects what might happen if the mission controllers activated the helicopter early. In this case, the process is approaching the point of detaching the part-deployed Ingenuity. Ponytail and Cueball are present in mission control when Cueball slips and hits a button that clearly triggers the Ingenuity drone to take off. Perserverance, still firmly above/attached is seen to easily ride atop it. The rover exclaiming "Wheee!", presumably from excitement or happiness.

In the title text, some character discovers powered flight is easier on Mars, which contradicts our current understanding [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhsZUZmJvaM that powered flight is very difficult on Mars]. Mars may have less gravity, but Mars's atmosphere is 1% the density of earth. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYe3sIaNHVs It's so thin that you couldn't move a feather with a fan.] This is why the character mumbles his explanation of the science, because they know any explanation doesn't actually make sense.

The total mass of the two vehicles is about 556 times that of the helicopter alone, meaning the unexpected lift effect 'described' would have to be several hundred times more effective than that anticipated, depending upon the factor of overdesign already built in to avoid an expensive marginal failure. It also seems to be trivially easy to balance the extremely top-heavy loading upon the small solar-panel that tops out the counter-rotating coaxial blades, which adds yet more questions of both the dynamic and structural performance, never mind questions about the available power to accomplish this and the later possibilities to recharge.

It is not the first time that we have seen a Mars vehicle [[1504|vastly exceed expectations]] in these pages.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[On the surface of Mars]
:Perseverance rover (in robotic voice): Ingenuity helicopter has been lowered. Preparing to release it onto the surface.

:[In Mission Control on Earth, Cueball trips and clicks on a key on his workstation, while Ponytail stands nearby]
:Cueball: Oops

:[On Mars, Ingenuity's rotor blades start spinning]
:Ingenuity: Bzzzzzz

:[Perseverance is being lifted into the air by Ingenuity]
:Perseverance: Wheeee!
:Ingenuity: Bzzzzzz

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Mars rovers]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]

Talk:1764: XKCDE

2016-11-28T18:12:18Z

141.101.98.219:

The title text reminds me of the Dust Theory in Greg Egan's _Permutation City_. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.72|141.101.104.72]] 07:45, 25 November 2016 (UTC)

It reminds me of Mushroom Spawns.--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.71|162.158.91.71]] 11:52, 25 November 2016 (UTC)

[https://www.pcsteps.com/508-nested-virtualization/ Nested virtualization] to three layers... --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.133.150|162.158.133.150]] 09:46, 25 November 2016 (UTC)

Possible pun on existing desktop environments: KDE, CDE, LXDE, XFCE,... -> XKCDE (relies on conics using only upper-case letters). --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 10:51, 25 November 2016 (UTC)

^ This is a more plausible explanation ([CDE: Common Desktop Environment: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Desktop_Environment) than "Collaborative Development Environment) mentioned in the explanation above. [[User:SabreWolfy|SabreWolfy]] ([[User talk:SabreWolfy|talk]]) 09:44, 26 November 2016 (UTC)

The title text is a take on poetry. It extends from the abstract tree (which is a digram and a datastructure type) to an actual tree with unpluggable roots and leafs which scatter in the wind and finally land spinning. Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.97|162.158.91.97]] 11:00, 25 November 2016 (UTC)

Title text may bear an oncology reference, with the "root machine" being a primary tumor and the "leaf VMs" its metastases, which also (can) proliferate to form a new tumor on whatever tissue they land (even long after the primary tumor is destroyed). [[Special:Contributions/162.158.234.218|162.158.234.218]] 13:26, 25 November 2016 (UTC)

The "Pastels.com" link is already broken, and this comic is new for today??? Either somebody forgot to check the link or whoever owned the domain brought it down rather abruptly. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.95|162.158.75.95]] 18:39, 25 November 2016 (UTC)

Humans have used similar stacking arrangements in many different ways before. From Shakespeare's plays within plays, TV shows within shows, or characters within a story writing about an author writing a book. In the case of a book author, the 4th step might actually work - other authors, or fan-fiction writers might continue to tell stories about a character long after the original author is dead. A webcomic might be made satirizing a Krillin fanfic, that is referring to the character from Dragonball, a story whose main character is Goku, based on Sun Goku from the Journey to the West which is a retelling of Xuanzang's own account, Great Tang Records on the Western Regions which contains Buddist parables that describe a Master teaching a Student about the nature of Buddha a state of being exemplified by the achievements of Siddhartha Buddha who gain enlightenment after meditating on the lives of thousands of people. I think we as humans are good at stacking such virtual environments because it is a prerequisite of properly developed empathy, which requires tracing, sometimes long and elaborate, chains of relationships based on what someone else thinks another person might think of somebody else's behavior. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.214.231|162.158.214.231]] 19:42, 25 November 2016 (UTC)

I wonder how many xkcd comics contain lowercase letters (like 's' in "VMs")... --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.123|172.68.54.123]] 19:36, 25 November 2016 (UTC)

we need to go deeper[[Special:Contributions/162.158.59.173|162.158.59.173]] 04:27, 27 November 2016 (UTC)Guest User that doesn't know what they're doing

The current explanation doesn't clarify "containers;" I expect Randall is thinking of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operating-system-level_virtualization a software container] which allows you to deploy a service such as a database engine in isolation from other services using a minimum of resources. This comic makes me think of my experience trying to use [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Docker_(software) Docker] on Windows. Docker is among the most popular software container systems, but is tightly bound to Linux, so deploying a Docker container under Windows (or Mac OS X) requires that you first deploy a virtual machine, thus negating some of the benefit of using containers and pushing the software running in the container down yet another level. [[User:Davidhbrown|Davidhbrown]] ([[User talk:Davidhbrown|talk]]) 19:11, 27 November 2016 (UTC)

Protecting seeds, especially light ones that autorotate, from fall damage seems pretty far-fetched. The autorotation of seeds more likely serves to increase the time they take to fall, thus increasing the distance they travel in the wind. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.53|108.162.241.53]] 13:14, 28 November 2016 (UTC)

I wrote this a while back which nests KVM indefinitely -- or at least in theory, in practice I can only get to L4 on hardware I have available. http://git.annexia.org/?p=supernested.git;a=summary [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.219|141.101.98.219]] 18:12, 28 November 2016 (UTC)

Talk:1570: Engineer Syllogism

2015-08-30T06:19:26Z

141.101.98.219: Title text is a pun

Note the link with 592. [[User:Halfhat|Halfhat]] ([[User talk:Halfhat|talk]]) 11:41, 28 August 2015 (UTC)

The link to 592 is tenuous at best, and is certainly no foreshadow of this comic. Please stop making up connections just be cause it makes the xkcd "universe" loop back to itself. This is clearly related to the events of the past week, August 24-28 2015. This should be included as future readers will not realize the publication date and its significance.[[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.140|173.245.56.140]] 14:42, 28 August 2015 (UTC)
:You need to go read the title text for 592 again. It is far from a tenuous connection. Randall regularly comes back to themes, and engineers diving into the stock market is literally in the title text of 592. The link is valid. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.171|173.245.55.171]] 19:17, 28 August 2015 (UTC)

Despite all the numbers around it, stock market is actually made of PEOPLE. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 12:18, 28 August 2015 (UTC)
:But, but... if the universe is made of math... and people are part of the universe... aren't people made of numbers? [[Special:Contributions/188.114.98.214|188.114.98.214]] 14:02, 28 August 2015 (UTC)
::But that just shifts the fallacy: math is (a lot) more than numbers, and Cueball doesn't have access to most of the numbers describing the world's investors anyway. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.157|108.162.216.157]] 14:04, 28 August 2015 (UTC)
:::And even if something is completely described by numbers, it doesn't necessarily have to be predictable. 'Chaos' teaches us this.--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.210|108.162.229.210]] 14:15, 28 August 2015 (UTC)
::::<nowiki><pedantry></nowiki>Well, randomness teaches us this. {{w|Chaos theory|Chaos}} just teaches us that you might need near-perfect information to make decent predictions.<nowiki></pedantry></nowiki> [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.157|108.162.216.157]] 02:02, 29 August 2015 (UTC)
The title text appears to be a pun on the financial and programming definitions of 'crash'. In the same way that an overconfident or unconsciously incompetent programmer might make changes to a complex piece of software which cause it to crash, Cueball has invested so poorly that the entire market has crashed.

1563: Synonym Movies

2015-08-12T05:27:04Z

141.101.98.219: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1563
| date = August 12, 2015
| title = Synonym Movies
| image = synonym_movies.png
| titletext = Fans eagerly await 2015's 'Space Fights: Power Gets Up', although most think 1999's 'Space Fights: The Scary Ghost' didn't live up to the hype.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Could use more detail.}}

This comic shows several "Synonym Movies" Well known movies, but with the titles changed to words that are different, but mean essentially the same thing.

The use of synonyms makes all these movies look ridiculous, for example, "The Sword Wizard Is Back" is a laughable sounding movie, whereas "The Return of the Jedi" sound perfectly reasonable to us. Randall may be poking fun at movies that have ridiculous titles already, such as "Terminator: Genisys".

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Synonym
! Real Title
|-
| Space Fight: Sudden Optimism
| Star Wars: A New Hope
|-
| Space Fight: The Government Wins This One
| Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
|-
| Space Fight: The Sword Wizard Is Back
| Star Wars: The Return Of The Jedi
|-
|The Jewelry God: The Jewelry Team
|The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
|-
|The Jewelry God: Double Houses
|The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
|-
|The Jewelry God: We Have a Czar Again
|The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
|-
|Space Trip: The Movie
|Star Trek: The Motion Picture
|-
|Space Trip: That Guy is Angry
|Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan
|-
|Space Trip: Where is the Vulcan
|Star Trek: The Search for Spock
|-
|Space Trip: Let's Go Back
|Star Trek: The Voyage Home
|-
|Space Fights: Power Gets Up
|Star Wars: The Force Awakens
|-
|Space Fights: The Scary Ghost
|Star Wars: The Phantom Menace
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}

{{comic discussion}}

1563: Synonym Movies

2015-08-12T05:22:15Z

141.101.98.219: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1563
| date = August 12, 2015
| title = Synonym Movies
| image = synonym_movies.png
| titletext = Fans eagerly await 2015's 'Space Fights: Power Gets Up', although most think 1999's 'Space Fights: The Scary Ghost' didn't live up to the hype.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Could use more detail.}}

This comic shows several "Synonym Movies" Well known movies, but with the titles changed to words that are different, but mean essentially the same thing.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Synonym
! Real Title
|-
| Space Fight: Sudden Optimism
| Star Wars: A New Hope
|-
| Space Fight: The Government Wins This One
| Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
|-
| Space Fight: The Sword Wizard Is Back
| Star Wars: The Return Of The Jedi
|-
|The Jewelry God: The Jewelry Team
|The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
|-
|The Jewelry God: Double Houses
|The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
|-
|The Jewelry God: We Have a Czar Again
|The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
|-
|Space Trip: The Movie
|Star Trek: The Motion Picture
|-
|Space Trip: That Guy is Angry
|Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan
|-
|Space Trip: Where is the Vulcan
|Star Trek: The Search for Spock
|-
|Space Trip: Let's Go Back
|Star Trek: The Voyage Home
|-
|Space Fights: Power Gets Up
|Star Wars: The Force Awakens
|-
|Space Fights: The Scary Ghost
|Star Wars: The Phantom Menace
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}

{{comic discussion}}

1563: Synonym Movies

2015-08-12T05:15:28Z

141.101.98.219: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1563
| date = August 12, 2015
| title = Synonym Movies
| image = synonym_movies.png
| titletext = Fans eagerly await 2015's 'Space Fights: Power Gets Up', although most think 1999's 'Space Fights: The Scary Ghost' didn't live up to the hype.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Needs more details.}}

This comic shows several "Synonym Movies" Well known movies, but with the titles changed to words that are different, but mean essentially the same thing. 'Space Trips' is Star Trek, 'Space Fights' is Star Wars, The 'Jewelry God' is Lord Of The Rings.

The title text refers to the new Star Wars movie 'The Force Awakens' and to Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, which many fans felt ruined the franchise.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Synonym
! Real Title
|-
| Space Fight: Sudden Optimism
| Star Wars: A New Hope
|-
| Space Fight: The Government Wins This One
| Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
|-
| Space Fight: The Sword Wizard Is Back
| Star Wars: The Return Of The Jedi
|-
| The Jewelry God: The Jewelry Team
| The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring
|-
| The Jewelry God: Double Houses
| The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers
|-
| The Jewelry God: We Have Czar Again
| The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}

{{comic discussion}}

1563: Synonym Movies

2015-08-12T05:14:00Z

141.101.98.219: /* Explanation */

1563: Synonym Movies

2015-08-12T05:02:58Z

141.101.98.219: /* Explanation */

1500: Upside-Down Map

2015-03-18T10:46:19Z

141.101.98.219: South Korea not North Korea

{{comic
| number = 1500
| date = March 18, 2015
| title = Upside-Down Map
| image = upside_down_map.png
| titletext = Due to their proximity across the channel, there's long been tension between North Korea and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Southern Ireland.
}}

==Explanation==
People often say that maps with the {{w|South-up map orientation|south pole at the top}} will ''change your perspective of the world''. Such a map can easily be achieved by simply rotating a normal map through 180 degrees.

This map is a comedic play on that where instead of the whole map being upside-down, each land mass is in the same position it would be in a traditional north-top map but rotated 180 degrees (presumably around some central point of the landmass) to the orientation it would have in a south-top map. Note that any islands that would normally belong to a given continent, is only rotated about their own center, and thus do not follow the rotation of the continent. This gives rise to the title text joke - see below. It seems unlikely that all these islands would still be visible after the {{w|continents}} have been rotated. Especially an island as {{w|Madagascar}} would probably disappear behind {{w|Sahara}} once {{w|Africa}} has been rotated. Of course this depends on where [[Randall]] has placed the point of rotation...

To keep their familiar shapes on a rectangular map, the continents would also have to be heavily distorted compared to their actual shapes, becoming much narrower (along the lines of latitude) near the poles and wider towards the equator. See also [[977: Map Projections]].

This arrangement of the world's land masses would have great advantages for trade, because there are (presumably navigable) straits between the {{w|Americas}} and between Africa and {{w|Asia}}, removing the need for the {{w|Panama Canal}} and the {{w|Suez Canal}}.

The title text references the fact that in this new map, the {{w|United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland}} (UK) is now next to Asia, specifically {{w|South Korea}}, which is referred to as the very different {{w|North Korea}} due to both having been flipped. Further, {{w|Northern Ireland}} is now at the south of the {{w|island of Ireland}}, so the UK's full name would need to change to The United Kingdom of Great Britain and '''Southern''' Ireland. There has been several wars concerning the {{w|English Channel}}, mainly, but not only, between {{w|England}} and {{w|France}}. Since a similar channel now in this world map is now between the UK and North Korea there would obviously have been many wars for the dominance over said channel.

Along the same line of thinking, jokes could be made of the following "new" facts:
*{{w|Cuba}} is now off the east (formerly west) coast of {{w|Canada}}.
*{{w|Japan}} is next to the coast of {{w|Portugal}} and {{w|Spain}}.
*Madagascar lies next to {{w|Mauretania}} and the west (now east) coast of Sahara.
*{{w|Taiwan}} is now next to France. It is though doubtful whether they get along any better with the French than with the mainland {{w|China|Chinese}}.
*{{w|Greenland}} lies next to {{w|Mexico}}.
*{{w|Sri Lanka}} is located next to the {{w|Yamalsky District}} of {{w|Russia}}.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}
:[Map of the world with all the landmasses upside-down.]

:[Below the main frame:]
:The Upside-Down Map will change your perspective of the world!

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Geography]]
[[Category:Maps]]

Talk:1492: Dress Color

2015-02-27T08:37:53Z

141.101.98.219:

To me, they both look blue/gold [[User:Mikemk|Mikemk]] ([[User talk:Mikemk|talk]]) 06:29, 27 February 2015 (UTC)

What is the illusion supposed to be? The colors of the dress look a bit darker with the light background, but not very much. Is that the illusion? --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.80.82|141.101.80.82]] 07:07, 27 February 2015 (UTC)
: Agree. To me, it looks like it's definitely light blue (maybe "cornflower"?) with pale olive stripes. "Gold" would really be a stretch. It looks like that in all lighting conditions and in both backgrounds of the strip. Did I pass some kind of color-blindness test? Or fail? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.133|108.162.254.133]] 07:43, 27 February 2015 (UTC)
: This has nothing to do with color-blindness, but probably with certain arbitrary constants related to white-balance adjustment that differ brain-to-brain. Many people I know insist that even though the picture looks blue, it's a dress illuminated by a blue light, and based on this assumption their brain may essentially redden the whole picture to adjust for this light. The actual picture was taken in white light, not blue light. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.28|173.245.55.28]] 07:46, 27 February 2015 (UTC)

Apparently for some people the left-hand-side's general blueishness is adjusted against by the visual system enough to make the dress look white and gold instead of blue and brown. I am not one of those people. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.28|173.245.55.28]] 07:43, 27 February 2015 (UTC)

Description says left for both [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.219|141.101.98.219]] 08:37, 27 February 2015 (UTC)

1460: SMFW

2014-12-16T17:29:37Z

141.101.98.219:

{{comic
| number = 1460
| date = December 15, 2014
| title = SMFW
| image = smfw.png
| titletext = wtfw it's like smho tbfh, imdb.
}}

==Explanation==

Randall gives some examples of confusing acronyms that closely resemble more commonly-used acronyms. He depicts [[Cueball]] apparently puzzling over the meaning of one such acronym.

"SMFW", the title of the comic and an acronym used as the caption, is eerily close to a number of other common acronyms, including:

* "SFW" (meaning "safe (or suitable) for work", denoting that something does not have suggestive content)
* "MFW" (meaning "my face when...", setting up for a user's reaction to something: possibly the intended replacement for the caption at the bottom of the comic)
* "SMH" (meaning "shaking my head", used to indicate dismay)
* "SMF" (meaning "so much fun")
* "NSFW" (meaning "not safe for work", the opposite of "SFW").

The sense in which Randall uses "SMFW" is most closely matched by the phrase "My face when..."; therefore, a semantically correct version of the comic text using an existing acronym would be "MFW an acronym ''almost'' makes sense." This could be extended to "See My Face When an acronym ''almost'' makes sense." The acronym could also be interpreted as "Shaking my face when", "So much for work", "Shake me for when", and so on.

The title text contains more examples of imaginary acronyms of a similar nature:

* "WTFW" is a combination of "WTF" ("What the fuck?") and "TFW" ("That feel when...", used in a similar nature to "MFW"), and possibly "FTW" ("For The Win") and "FWIW" ("For What It's Worth")
* "SMHO" is a combination of "SMH" ("shake my head") and "IMHO" ("In my humble opinion...")
* "TBFH" is a combination of "TBF" ("to be fair") and "TBH" ("to be honest"), also similar to "BOFH" ("Bastard Operator From Hell")
* "IMDB" is, of course, [http://www.imdb.com/ the Internet Movie Database], but also resembles "IMHO" ("in my humble opinion")

Below are possible examples of potential (already existing, albeit rare) representations for each acronym, according to [http://www.urbandictionary.com/ Urban Dictionary]:

* SMFW is an acronym for "Smoke more fucking weed".
* WTFW is an acronym for "What the fuck, what?".
* SMHO is an acronym for "Shaking my head off".
* TBFH is an acronym for "To be fucking honest".

Knowing Randall, the sentence is not supposed to make sense, but there are some mildly-plausible translations (if one discounts IMDB, which is only there to make an already obnoxious sentence completely absurd). One way would be "What the fuck, what? It's like shaking my head off, to be fucking honest."

==Transcript==

[Cueball is sitting at a desk, crouched over a laptop]

SMFW an acronym ''almost'' makes sense

{{comic discussion}}

667: SkiFree

2014-08-19T06:42:44Z

141.101.98.219: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 667
| date = November 25, 2009
| title = SkiFree
| image = skifree.png
| titletext = And from that day on, I wore this little 'F' pendant everywhere I went.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|SkiFree}} is a free to play video game. In it, you're a downhill skier who attempts to ski down a hill while avoiding obstacles which cause you to crash (which slows you down), at the start you can choose to go down three different timed/scored courses or ignore them all and ski freely. Beyond the end of the courses you can continue sking downhill. You can also move (slowly) uphill and sideways.

If you ski too far down the hill a monster similar to one in the comic will begin to chase you, contact with the monster ends the game. Since it's much faster than you normally, you'll get caught. The monster also appears if you travel too far in the sideways or upwards directions.

One of the lesser known commands in SkiFree is the 'F' key, which speeds you up, even faster than the monster. A second monster appears slightly further down the hill but by skiing downhill diagonally with the F key it is possible to evade both.

The joke here is that [[Megan]] has thought long and hard about the concept of the monster, relating it to the inevitability of death, and is nonplussed by the revelation that there is a simple mechanism that may allow her to escape it.

The title text refers to pendants or talismen that are worn to protect us from harm or to remind us of important truths. Here, it's implied that even though we currently accept that we cannot avoid death, maybe we just haven't found our 'F' command yet, and we should not give up all hope.

==Transcript==
:[A screenshot of SkiFree, with the abominable snowman running towards the player.]

:[Megan is sitting at her computer.]
:Megan: I've always thought of the SkiFree monster as a metaphor for the inevitability of death.

:[Cueball comes up behind her.]
:Cueball: SkiFree, huh? You know, you can press "F" to go faster than the monster and escape.

:[The screenshot again. The player is zooming away from the monster.]

:[Megan sits at her computer in silence.]
{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Philosophy]]
[[Category:Video games]]

Talk:1383: Magic Words

2014-06-18T10:16:50Z

141.101.98.219:

In this comic, Mr. Munroe makes a joke. As of yet, it is unclear what this joke IS, specifically, but it can be assumed that it's a funny one. {{unsigned ip|‎108.162.215.120}}

the clue was in "anapest"... for those more ambitious to explain and understand [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foot_%28prosody%29] [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.83|108.162.221.83]] 04:13, 18 June 2014 (UTC)

Each sequence has four words with the same stress pattern, which makes them the same type of poetic foot (the first group is all iambs, the second is all trochees, the third is bacchius). Basically it's a pun. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.185|173.245.54.185]] 04:25, 18 June 2014 (UTC)

Is Cueball really as much of a ''cunning linguist'' as Megan makes him out to be? If not, she is going to be extremely unsatisfied in bed. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.208.25|108.162.208.25]] 08:36, 18 June 2014 (UTC)

Ha! Cunning linguist! *snicker* [[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.157|108.162.254.157]] 08:42, 18 June 2014 (UTC)

Before the explanation, I was wondering where "correct horse battery staple" was...