1786: Trash

2025-08-10T23:38:51Z

2601:646:9D00:4BB8:7DF2:C451:2A89:5367:

{{comic
| number = 1786
| date = January 16, 2017
| title = Trash
| image = trash.png
| titletext = Plus, time's all weird in there, so most of it probably broke down and decomposed hundreds of years ago. Which reminds me, I've been meaning to get in touch with Yucca Mountain to see if they're interested in a partnership.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Black Hat]] is, once again, thoroughly confusing [[Cueball]] (another example of this is [[908: The Cloud]]). This time, when inquired about a chute protruding from his wardrobe, Black Hat explains that it is a {{w|Chute_(gravity)#Building_chute|garbage chute}} into another dimension. Apparently these kinds of portals appear on about half of all the furniture that Black Hat buys, and he is somewhat annoyed about it. (This sounds more like something [[Beret Guy]] would purchase from "[[1772: Startup Opportunity|the shop that sells cursed items but when you try to return them the shop is gone]]", although he would have reacted very differently than Black Hat.) It would be interesting to know whether all the portals lead into the same alternative world/dimension, but it seems Black Hat is not interested in visiting these worlds, instead just being annoyed about his broken furniture. (Given Black Hat's personality, this may well be a practical joke meant to mess with Cueball's head rather than an actual portal to another dimension.)

Cueball quickly realizes this is a reference to ''{{w|The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe}}'', the first published book in {{w|The Chronicles of Narnia}} by {{w|C. S. Lewis}}. In the books, the child characters use different portals to get into the alternative dimension/world of {{w|Narnia}}. The children first find a portal inside an old wardrobe, and use it at least three times to travel into Narnia. Black Hat confirms his trash chute indeed leads to Narnia and explains how this is a great time-saver for him, as he can easily get rid of his trash. The Narnia books are for children and Narnia is a magical world, so Cueball is appalled to learn that Black Hat dumps his trash there.

The "huge cat" he refers to is {{w|Aslan}}, a magical lion in Narnia. In his lion form he sometimes walks around and watches over Narnia, but not all the time. It is revealed in the last book that he is also the guardian of the other worlds, where he has different names and takes on different appearances, implying he ''is'' Jesus, just in Narnia.

Aslan, or any other large cat or inhabitants of such a different world, would probably be really upset that someone is throwing their trash there. He would probably try to stop this by any means necessary, including coming up through a trash chute into another dimension. But because lions are a type of cat (feline), apparently Aslan can be repelled with an ordinary spray bottle. The joke is that this is a technique used to tame small house cats; it would be unlikely to work on a lion, especially on Aslan, since he is {{w|Hypostatic union|fully God and fully feline}}, so the relative insusceptibility of lions to being repelled by water bottles is combined with divine omnipotence.

In the title text, the fact that time passes much faster in Narnia than on Earth is mentioned. (Time does not pass at a constant rate compared to Earth time.) This could also be the case even if the portal in Black Hat's wardrobe accessed a different world than Narnia. So everything that is actually pushed to the other side of the portal would be disposed of very efficiently, as the trash could completely decompose within just a few Earth minutes. This would then explain how Black Hat can keep pushing more stuff into the other world: anything sent through the portal will decompose and vanish before he comes with his next load of trash.

The title text mention of {{w|Yucca Mountain}} is a reference to the {{w|Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository}}, a partially-built nuclear waste repository that has been defunded at the present time. Black Hat wants to contact those that wish to make such a repository and let them dispose of their radioactive waste through his "magical" portal, likely to make a profit for himself. If throwing trash into Narnia is terrible, radioactive waste would be far worse. Of course in Earth time radioactive materials would soon decay back to background levels of radiation. This is thus another jab at all the world's environmental problems, as is also done with all the comics about [[:Category:Climate change|climate change]]. This comic could be a take on humans {{w|Marine_debris|dumping waste}} in the "endless" oceans, more specifically {{w|ocean disposal of radioactive waste}}. This was done in the past but is now banned, as Earth's oceans are not endless.

The title text copies the idea behind the {{w|Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal}} comic from
[http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=3513 October 15 2014]. The button at the bottom of that comic shows a sad {{w|Mr. Tumnus}}, a {{w|faun}} {{w|Lucy Pevensie|Lucy}} meets on her first visit to Narnia, rather than an angry Aslan as suggested in this comic.

The portal through the wardrobe to Narnia was previously featured in [[665: Prudence]], [[969: Delta-P]] and [[821: Five-Minute Comics: Part 3]]. In the latter, the different passage of time was also mentioned and weaponized in the name of science.

This may not be feasible if we care about the rules of Narnia continuity, because after the last book, Narnia ceases to exist. However, there are three alternate worlds in the Chronicles of Narnia series. Also, the Wardrobe can only be used in the first boon. Even after considering everything, the wardrobe doesn't actually suck in anything, it just is going to pile up in the wardrobe, so he would have to push it, defeating the purpose of the trash chute (although it would save space in the landfills).
==Transcript==
:[Cueball looking at garbage chute attached to wardrobe. Black Hat answers him from off panel.]
:Cueball: What's this thing on your wardrobe?
:Black Hat (off-panel): Garbage chute.

:[In a frame-less panel Cueball has turned away from the wardrobe (now off-panel) and he walks towards Black Hat.]
:Cueball: Into a wardrobe?
:Black hat: There's some sort of portal to a magical land in there. Half the furniture I get has them-it's kinda a pain.

:[Cueball stops walking closer to Black Hat.]
:Cueball: You dump your trash in ''Narnia''?
:Black Hat: Yeah, it's a real time-saver.
:Black Hat: There's a huge cat in there, but I have a spray bottle I use when he tries to come up through the chute.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Cats]]
[[Category:Time]]
[[Category:Chronicles of Narnia]]
[[Category:Animals]]

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1786: Trash