https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&feedformat=atom&user=66.9.166.75explain xkcd - User contributions [en]2026-06-10T10:01:54ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=3256:_Nostalgia_Content&diff=4144423256: Nostalgia Content2026-06-09T20:43:53Z<p>66.9.166.75: /* Explanation */ Change link to singular</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 3256<br />
| date = June 8, 2026<br />
| title = Nostalgia Content<br />
| image = nostalgia_content_2x.png<br />
| imagesize = 276x404px<br />
| noexpand = true<br />
| titletext = Gen-Z got a chunk of the Carboniferous, and now all their memes are about how pathetic and small today's dragonflies are.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|This page was created by a Parataxtite. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}<br />
This comic is a joke about nostalgia content. In it, a database for creating nostalgia content has accidentally included some {{w|Early Devonian}} features in it. These features, while certainly being old, are far too long ago for anyone to be alive at the time, let alone remember it, hence defying the purpose.<br />
<br />
In the example in this comic, [[Cueball]] puts the more new creations of {{w|Pogs}} & {{w|Tamagotchi}}s (previously the subject of [[1546|another comic]]) with the Devonian Prototaxites and armoured fish - With the ridiculous age comparison between them part of the joke (as an example, Tamagotchis came into production in 1996, while the Devonian period was ended 359 million years ago). {{w|Prototaxites}} (here, Parataxites) were huge fungi that lived during the Devonian. The armoured fish [[Cueball]] speaks of are from an ancient class known as {{w|Placodermi}}, which appeared during the {{w|Silurian}} and Devonian. Placoderms were among the first jawed fish, and the first fish clade to have pectoral fins. Devonian placoderms include Dunkleosteus, Titanichthys, Bothriolepis and Rhamphodopsis. Silurian placoderms include Xiushanosteus, Anglaspis, and Poraspis. There was also Sacabambaspis from the {{w|Ordovician}}.<br />
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The title text shows another example of nostalgia content warped by the accident, where Gen Z memes got a chunk of the {{w|Carboniferous}} in their nostalgia database. During the Late Carboniferous, species such as {{w|Meganeura}} were prolific, which resemble today's dragonflies, with the notable difference of having wingspans of up to 65 cm long, which would obviously dwarf modern dragonflies.<br />
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==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}<br />
:[Cueball is standing, with his arms out, in front of a Prototaxite (incorrectly referred to in this comic as a "Parataxite") towering over a mossy landscape. To his right, a Tamagotchi, and milk-caps (referred to in this comic as "pogs"), appear.]<br />
:Cueball: Who else remembers pogs? Tamagotchis? Vast forests of Parataxites towering over the mossy landscape as armored fish stir in the deep?<br />
:[Caption below the panel:] <br />
:Due to a database error, millennial nostalgia now includes a portion of the early Devonian.<br />
:<br />
<br />
==Trivia==<br />
Cueball has incorrectly refered to the huge fungi as Parataxites. They are actually called prototaxites.<br />
{{comic discussion}}<noinclude><br />
<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Geology]]<br />
[[Category:Biology]]<br />
[[Category:Time]]<br />
[[Category:Comics to make one feel old]]</div>66.9.166.75