explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:1575: Footprints

2015-09-09T17:00:31Z

141.101.99.55: added IP address of last commentator, as well as my own comment

I know a lot about the poem this is referencing as it was my deceased grandmothers favourite. However I am omitting myself from making any changes other than putting in the poem it is referencing and the most brief of explanations to begin so someone with less emotional bias can fix formatting and improve wording. The poem can be found here: http://www.onlythebible.com/Poems/Footprints-in-the-Sand-Poem.html [[User:Squirrel killer-|Squirrel killer-]] ([[User talk:Squirrel killer-|talk]]) 06:01, 9 September 2015 (UTC)

Should we address that AT-ST' nickname is "chicken Walker"? [[Special:Contributions/198.41.243.249|198.41.243.249]] 08:46, 9 September 2015 (UTC)

The title text is not in textese (which you be "theres 1 set of fps bcs I carried U".) I'm not sure what it is exactly (not being American) the closest I can get is "Valley girl" (which is not right) and "that one dialect the frat-boys speak in the movies", which can't be it's name. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.88.224|141.101.88.224]] 09:43, 9 September 2015 (UTC)

"Going home == death" Are we certain that this is meant? I feel it could also poke fun at the whole "walk of life" concept, and going home simply means going home... --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.10|162.158.92.10]] 09:55, 9 September 2015 (UTC)

I've removed the definite implication that "Going home == death", and instead made it a possible interpretation. I agree that the title text is "frat-boy speak", but I'm not sure what you would call it -- [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.55|141.101.99.55]] 10:08, 9 September 2015 (UTC)

I think the quicksand is a reference to Lawrence of Arabia, in the movie(spoiler alert?) Lawrence walks across the Sinai Desert only to see one of his men caught in quicksand and die immediately before reaching their destination.
[[User:Joar|Joar]] ([[User talk:Joar|talk]]) 10:15, 9 September 2015 (UTC)

I'd call the title text dialect "bro talk" or something similar. Also, the quicksand bit is definitely in reference to Jesus' ability to walk on water: since quicksand is a mixture of water and sand, presumably it would be easier to walk on than regular water. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.153|173.245.54.153]] 13:52, 9 September 2015 (UTC)

The presumed reference to "Winnie the Pooh" is very far fetched. The joke of following its own footprint is used in many other works. Same for drawing in a quicksand. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.66.23|141.101.66.23]] 14:03, 9 September 2015 (UTC)
:Ha! Edit conflict, for exactly the same subject. What I was about to say was: The 'following our own footprints' bit reminded me, initially, of Tintin (In The Land Of The Black Gold?), with Thomson and Thompson's jeep, although that was two, four, six, etc tyre-tracks. I think the Pooh example is the more likely archetype.
:(i.e., in light of what I'm now replying to, more likely than the Tintin version. Whether or not Pooh was ''the'' inspiration.) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.114|141.101.99.114]] 14:11, 9 September 2015 (UTC)

: I've noticed that problem quite a bit around here - generic comments being explained as specific references. But I'm too lazy to change them myself. Anyone up for it? [[User:Zweisteine|Zweisteine]] ([[User talk:Zweisteine|talk]]) 14:35, 9 September 2015 (UTC)

Can someone translate "There's one set of foot-p's cause I was totes carrying you, bro!" into normal english? {{User:17jiangz1/signature|15:45, 09 September 2015}}
: "There is one set of footprints because I was totally carrying you, my brother"
: "There is one set of footprints because I was fully-committed to carrying you, my good friend whom I consider like a brother" [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 16:17, 9 September 2015 (UTC)

So, given the width of the "1-night" disappearances of Jesus on the chart, I think we can infer that the length of time between the quicksand incident and "going home" was a pretty long time. My sources tell me that Jesus has an affinity for resurrecting 3-days after death, and that his angels get him out of whatever place he's stuck (rolling away the tomb-stone, etc). Because of this, we might assume that the narrator had cleared enough distance away from the quicksand that he didn't notice Jesus resurrecting and being pulled out by angels... but in that case the vertical axis was being recorded "as the narrator walked", as opposed to someone else coming back and recording them after the events had taken place. (This is my first contribution to explainxkcd, so I'm keeping it in the comments unless someone else publishes it.)[[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.56|162.158.255.56]] 16:08, 9 September 2015 (UTC)

I think it's a cool deduction if a bit far fetched, but I can't complain considering we might all be over-thinking things here. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.55|141.101.99.55]] 17:00, 9 September 2015 (UTC)

Talk:1575: Footprints

2015-09-09T10:08:33Z

141.101.99.55:

1575: Footprints

2015-09-09T10:03:35Z

141.101.99.55: added more detail to Transcript and removed the certainty in the Explanation about the title text and the interpretation about "going home" implying death

{{comic
| number = 1575
| date = September 9, 2015
| title = Footprints
| image = footprints.png
| titletext = "There's one set of foot-p's cause I was totes carrying you, bro!" said Jesus seconds before I punched him.
}}

==Explanation==

The comic is a satirical graphical representation of the inspirational Christian poem "{{w|Footprints (poem)|Footprints}}," which has been recounted in many versions and is of disputed authorship.

The basic idea of the poem is that the narrator looks back at scenes of his life and sees two sets of footprints, his and those of Jesus. During the most difficult times of his life, the narrator sees only one set of footprints and assumes that Jesus had left him during those times. In the climax of the poem, Jesus responds to the narrator that he saw only one set of footprints during the most difficult times of his life because Jesus was carrying him during those times.

The poem is seen by many as overly sentimental and is thus ripe for parody of this kind. The graph mockingly illustrates various times when Jesus or the narrator left the scene, or otherwise gives various reasons why the number of footprints may have been other than two, such as at one point "riding around in captured AT-ST", a reference to a two-legged combat "walker" from Star Wars. The implication is that Jesus would have participated in forcibly taking a war machine, which appears somewhat out of character. The reference at the end to Jesus drowning in a patch of quicksand, and then the narrator simply going home, again subverts the poem's earnestness. Going home is a reference to death, so it's possible that the implication is that the narrator died without Christ.

The title text continues the parody by imagining that Jesus delivers the poem's climactic lines in {{w|SMS language|textese}}, a form best suited to shallow communication. The reference to punching Jesus is possibly another reference to the poem's perceived excessive sentimentality. Another interpretation is that the narrator, like many people dislikes usage of textese and punched Jesus as an result of this hatred.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}

A graph with time on the x-axis and numbers 1 through 5 on the y axis, labeled "Sets of footprints". A single red line runs through from left to right, showing different values at different times. Until the very end, the line always returns to the value 2, signifying two sets of footprints in the sand.

* The line starts at the value 2, then dips twice to the value 1. The two troughs are labeled, "Jesus carried me".
* The line then dips once again to the value 1. The trough is labeled, "I carried Jesus".
* The line rises to 3 briefly, and is labeled, "Who was that guy?"
* The line rises to 5 sharply, and then falls in a sharp staircase pattern, labeled "Ducklings imprinted on Jesus and followed him around".
* The line rises to 4, labeled "Got lost and followed our own footprints".
* The line dips for very short periods five times to the value 1. The troughs are labeled, "Jesus disappeared for an evening each time a new Twilight movie came out". The first dip is between "I carried Jesus" and "Who was that guy?", the second between "Who was that guy?" and "Duckings imprinted on Jesus..." and the final three are all between the "Ducklings imprinted on Jesus..." and "Got lost and followed our own footprints".
* The line dips to 1, labeled "Rode around with Jesus in captured AT-ST"
* The line dips and stays level at 1, labeled "Hit quicksand patch. Jesus didn't make it :("
* The line dips to zero at the end, and is labeled "Went home".

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Religion]]
[[Category:Language]]

1482: NowPlaying

2015-02-21T10:11:03Z

141.101.99.55: /* Explanation */

<noinclude>:''The correct title of this page is '''1482: #NowPlaying'''. It appears incorrectly here because of {{w|mw:Manual:Page title|technical restrictions}}.''</noinclude>
{{comic
| number = 1482
| date = February 4, 2015
| title = #NowPlaying
| image = nowplaying.png
| titletext = If you click on the post, it takes you to search results for the note on various online music stores.
}}

==Explanation==
There are a variety of applications that post a user's music-listening habits on their preferred social network. In this comic, [[Randall]] takes that notion to its extreme, envisioning a program that does this note-by-note, rather than just song-by-song. As notes are much shorter than songs, this would lead to the flooding of friends' notification streams. In the example, the software is sharing the notes that Brian is listening to; and his friends Mike and Caitlin are getting annoyed with the number of posts they are receiving.

There are typically many hundreds of notes in any song. Any song with more than a single line of music contains multiple different {{w|Note|notes}} whose names according to the English convention are communicated here. All but the slowest songs will require reporting dozens to hundreds of notes every minute (a single {{w|glissando}} may cover a dozen or more notes in less than a second), meaning that anyone who can see your stream of posts will be [[Literally|literally]] inundated by posts from the service. Even if you could keep up with the speed of the posted notes that someone is listening to, the similarity in {{w|Phrase_(music)|phrases}} in many songs (especially pop songs eg: [http://youtu.be/JdxkVQy7QLM Pachelbel's Rant]) means that many different songs may include the same sequence of notes, though possibly in different {{w|Octave|octaves}} or at different speeds.

The comic's title alludes to the fact that you can "play a song" but can also "play a note." It may also allude to the visual similarities between the hash/pound/{{w|number sign}} (#) and the {{w|Sharp (music)|sharp sign}} (♯). ''C sharp'', above Mike's comment, is the only note not given by a single letter (after the correction - see [[#Trivia|Trivia]]).

The title text continues the joke of this new musical service: ''If you click on the post, it takes you to search results for the note on various online music store.'' Since many songs in similar {{w|Key (music)|keys}} contain at least some of the notes posted, you would be given a list of a large part of the music you can buy in any on-line music stores. Of course this is at least as useless as being told which note someone is listening to.

Here are some synthesized versions of the notes in the order they appear in the comic:
*[https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1079661/65467.ogg OGG]
*[https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1079661/65467.mid MIDI]

They appear to be the beginning of ''{{w|I'll Be There for You (The Rembrandts song)|I'll Be There For You}}'' by {{w|The Rembrandts}}, the [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-9kPks0IfE title music] of the TV series "{{w|Friends}}". This could be an internal reference to the idea that it "notifies" (converts into musical notes) your "friends" of the notes (a {{w|Pun|play on words}}). Alternatively it could simply be an instance of effective [[356: Nerd Sniping|nerd sniping]].

==Transcript==
:[A social network news feed with user images for each of the three different contributors. The top of the first post is partly obscured, and for the last post only half of the first line is visible.]

:'''Brian''' is now listening to: E
:Today ● 3:28 PM

:'''Brian''' is now listening to: A
:Today ● 3:28 PM

:'''Brian''' is now listening to: B
:Today ● 3:28 PM

:'''Brian''' is now listening to: D
:Today ● 3:28 PM

:'''Brian''' is now listening to: C sharp
:Today ● 3:28 PM

:'''Mike''' What the hell
:Today ● 3:28 PM

:'''Brian''' is now listening to: B
:Today ● 3:28 PM

:'''Brian''' is now listening to: A
:Today ● 3:28 PM

:'''Caitlin''' Can someone call him?
:Today ● 3:28 PM

:'''Brian''' is now listening to: A
:Today ● 3:28 PM

:'''Brian''' is now listening to: E
:Today ● 3:29 PM

:'''Brian''' is now listening to: A

:My new social music service notifies your friends about what notes you're listening to.

==Trivia==
*In the [[Media:OriginalNowPlaying.png|original]] comic there were a few errors/mistakes that were corrected later the same day:
**One of the messages was out of order. The instance where "Brian is now listening to A" above Caitlin's post was {{w|timestamp}}ed at 3:29, but the next two posts were timestamped at 3:28. Now this timestamp has been corrected to 3:28 so only the last timestamp reads 3:29, the rest 3:28.
**The first partially visible "note" post was "{{w|E major}}". This is not a single note but rather a chord or {{w|major scale|scale}}. The "major" was removed from the comic so it now reads simply "E".

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Social Networking]]
[[Category:Music]]

1435: Presidential Alert

2014-10-17T12:40:21Z

141.101.99.55: /* Transcript */

{{comic
| number = 1435
| date = October 17, 2014
| title = Presidential Alert
| image = presidential_alert.png
| titletext = When putting his kids to bed, after saying 'Goodnight', Obama has to stop himself from saying 'God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.'
}}
[[File:Eas_new.svg|thumb|upright=1.5| Current EAS logo. (from Wikimedia Commons)]]
==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Second draft}}
The {{w|Emergency Alert System}} allows the U.S. President to address the country in the event of a national emergency, by broadcasting a message over all television and radio channels. Despite the system's having existed in various forms for over 60 years, no president has ever used it, even during the {{w|September 11 attacks}}.

In this comic, President [[Cueball]] accidentally activates the system by pressing a button, apparently located on the {{w|Resolute Desk|''Resolute'' Desk}} in the {{w|Oval Office}}. Surprised by being on television, he tries to think of something important to say on the spot, but cannot think of anything other than a piece of generic dental-hygiene advice—a rather non-urgent message.

The concept of the President mistakenly hitting an important button has long been a source for jokes, often somewhat morbidly involving the {{w|nuclear football}}.

The title text references the typical conclusion to presidential speeches: "Thank you, God bless you, and God bless the United States of America," or some variation thereof. As "goodnight" is the typical conclusion to a day, the title text jokes that {{w|Barack Obama|President Obama}} must sometimes confuse the two statements.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}

[Panel 1]
Television beeping. Screen reads: "E.A.S Incoming Presidential Alert"

[Panel 2]
President Cueball is on the television.

My fellow Americans. I, uhhh. Wow.

[Panel 3]
Frankly, I didn't realize what this button did. I was just... I mean... I appear before you tonight to, um.

[Panel 4]
Look, Uhh...

Remember to floss regularly. Oral hygiene is important. Thank you.

[Title text]
When putting his kids to bed, after saying 'Goodnight', Obama has to stop himself from saying 'God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.'

{{comic discussion}}

1346: Career

2014-08-08T15:26:48Z

141.101.99.55: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1346
| date = March 24, 2014
| title = Career
| image = career.png
| titletext = They'd convince me to come out of retirement for one last job: biting into a giant lump of slightly soft wax a couple of times.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] is presumably asked to answer the typical {{w|Career_counseling|career counselor}} question: What is your dream job? Rather than going with the more common answers that are designed to increase the chances of landing that particular job, Cueball talks about unrealistic jobs that are whimsical, and so well compensated that a little over one hour on the clock would provide enough wealth for a luxurious retirement; of course, you can have such a job only in your dreams. He makes jobs out of tasks that people do when they are bored, whether the tasks needed to be done or not. Therefore, if he did not get the job he probable would have done them at some point anyway.

Peeling lint off {{w|Clothes_dryer#Tumbler_dryers|dryer traps}} can relieve boredom, but it gets tedious soon, so Cueball wants to do that only for 5 minutes, followed by an hour of holding the handle of a {{w|lightsaber}} against things and switching it on. The energy emitted by this fictional weapon will probably burn, melt or cut the object it is touching as demonstrated in a scene from {{w|Star_Wars_Episode_I:_The_Phantom_Menace|Star Wars Episode I}}, where Jedi {{w|Qui-Gon Jinn}} uses his lightsaber to cut through a wall. In Cueballs mind these are probably high paying jobs, because after this he would like to retire to a life of luxury.

The title text is poking fun at Hollywood films, particularly stories about violent professions (like mobsters, hitmen, detective or spies) where the hero is retired, but some unforeseen circumstance has forced them out of retirement to do "[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OneLastJob one last job]." Usually in these films, the jobs are overtly, improbably dangerous, often with the suggestion that they may lose their lives doing it, but the reward for doing the job (saving the world, a tun of cash, an unresolved debt) is just too great to refuse. However, in this comic the joke is that his "one last job" is also a mildly amusing task designed to relieve boredom.

Biting in slightly soft wax will create a {{w|dental impression}} that can be used to form {{w|dentures}}, which is often associated with old age (and therefore retirement).

==Transcript==
:[Cueball stands facing a desk, behind which another person is sitting in a desk chair.]
:Cueball: It would start with five minutes of peeling lint from dryer traps, followed by an hour of pressing a lightsaber handle against things and switching it on. Then I'd retire to a life of luxury.

:When people ask me to describe my dream job, I'm never sure how realistic to be.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Star Wars]]

Talk:1393: Timeghost

2014-07-12T11:33:45Z

141.101.99.55: So, how old is Randall?

A lot of the facts seem to fit information that sites like http://you.regettingold.com/ would provide. But I'll leave it up to someone else to work out the dates of everything (except for the imminent and possibly eerie deaths of the strip characters) being referenced, and thus what ages Randall is assuming the various cohorts are... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.233|141.101.99.233]] 04:58, 11 July 2014 (UTC)

''Forrest Gump'' the book - 1986

''Forrest Gump'' the movie - 1994

Vietnam War - 1955 to 1975

Keanu Reeves - born 1965 (age 49)

''The Simpsons'' season 5 - 1993 [[User:Dude1818|Dude1818]] ([[User talk:Dude1818|talk]]) 05:15, 11 July 2014 (UTC)

I'm sure you all remember [[1108:_Cautionary_Ghost|Cautionary Ghost]]; there's got to be a lot of those around in the xkcd universe... [[Special:Contributions/108.162.231.73|108.162.231.73]] 07:23, 11 July 2014 (UTC)

I don't know enough about the English usage of the term to see the connection, but could this be a play on "zeitgeist", seeing how it is a literal translation of the word? [[Special:Contributions/103.22.200.115|103.22.200.115]] Tobl

Maybe it is just me, but I don't see the characters' deaths as imminent. In the first panel, Megan is not suprised to see that ghost and can even identify it easily. So my guess is that she previously met the ghost "some time" before, but she (obviously) doesn't like to know how much time she has left to live. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.156|108.162.229.156]] 08:12, 11 July 2014 (UTC)

(average age of new grandparents is less than 50) [citation needed] {{unsigned ip|141.101.99.53}}
:can I site xkcd:1393 as a source for that data?[[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.79|173.245.48.79]] 09:17, 11 July 2014 (UTC)BLuDgeons

Google gives 25 as the average age people get their first child. Wikipedia also says Eminem rose to mainstream popularity in 1999 (His debut was earlier but the comic says "when Eminem got big", a subjective term but the 1999 figure might be more accurate?) This also makes season 5/6 of the Simpsons at age 4/5 the earliest age most people remember well.
Maybe change the dates to 1989, 1993 and 1999 for parenthood, simpsons and eminem respectively?

Sources:
Parent age: http://www.babycenter.com/0_surprising-facts-about-birth-in-the-united-states_1372273.bc?page=2 (questionable maybe)
Eminem got big: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eminem (Second paragraph, subjective)
Earliest memories: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Childhood_amnesia (Second paragraph, personal recollection offset is 4.5 years)[[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.86|141.101.104.86]] 09:46, 11 July 2014 (UTC)
:I can't find a current number, but extrapolation from [http://www.familyfacts.org/charts/219/the-average-age-of-first-time-mothers-has-steadily-increased this] chart would put the average parent age for their first child at 25 or maybe 26. 28 is the average parent age for any child. [[User:Condor70|Condor70]] ([[User talk:Condor70|talk]]) 12:34, 11 July 2014 (UTC)

How can we say that the time-ghost only first appeared in the beginning of this particular comic? In the first panel Megan seems to recognize the time-ghost, inferring that she's met him before - but Cueball has not. [[User:Jarod997|Jarod997]] ([[User talk:Jarod997|talk]]) 12:29, 11 July 2014 (UTC)

: Implying. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.215|108.162.246.215]] 05:47, 12 July 2014 (UTC)

I do not know about the proper etiquette for submitting possible edits to the explanations.
Should "[...] than the time that has past since the ghost's began its" become "[...] than the time that has '''passed''' since the ghost began its"?
[[User:Zyzygy|Zyzygy]] ([[User talk:Zyzygy|talk]]) 9:24, 12 July 2014 (UTC)
:Looks reasonable. When you see lexical errors like that, feel free to just change it yourself. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 11:02, 12 July 2014 (UTC)

So, how old is Randall?