explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2210: College Athletes

2022-05-04T02:19:33Z

Dheppens: Undo revision 232841 by X. K. C. D. (talk)

{{comic
| number = 2210
| date = October 2, 2019
| title = College Athletes
| image = college_athletes.png
| titletext = Their signature play is the three-point combinator, a recursive offense which is guaranteed not to halt and continues accumulating points until the buzzer.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Ponytail]] is reading from her phone about the [https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/30/sports/college-athletes-paid-california.html California Fair Pay to Play act], which was signed into law on September 30, 2019, two days before this comic was released. It gives college athletes the rights to their name and image (face, body, etc.) for financial gain, in contrast to {{w|NCAA}} rules which require that athletes be unpaid. This bill threatens {{w|Amateurism in the NCAA|the NCAA's notion of amateurism}}, which has become a topic of public debate.

[[White Hat]] thinks this law is a good thing, but then [[Cueball]] claims that his state has passed an even better law giving college players rights to the names and images of ''any'' California athletes. Note that Cueball's state is thus not California, so it is very odd they can use names from another state, in addition to the oddity of gaining rights to another person's name and image.

Ponytail doesn't believe Cueball, but he carries on claiming that all members of his school's basketball team thus have changed their name to {{w|Steph Curry}} after the NBA player who plays for the {{w|Golden State Warriors}}, a team in California. Cueball explains in particular that only one player copied the name from the NBA player, then another member of the team copied the name from that player, and so on.

As it turns out, in his final remark, all this has only been the setup for his grand joke: Cueball tells Ponytail and White Hat that this process of recursive name usage is known as "currying". In addition to a pun with basketball rules against ''carrying'', avoidance of which often involves passing from one player to another, this is also a play on both the basketball player's name "Curry" used here, as well as the mathematical procedure called {{w|currying}}, named after mathematician {{w|Haskell Curry}}. This sort of humor is very typical of Cueball, leading Ponytail to state that she "hates him".

Currying is when a multi-variable function is broken down into a sequence of single-variable functions, each of which outputs a new function until the final variable is consumed. For example, the function f(x,y,z) can be curried into f(x)(y)(z), where f is a function that consumes x and produces a function f(x), which in turn consumes y, yielding the function f(x)(y), and that in turn is a function f(x)(y) which consumes the parameter z to finally produce f(x)(y)(z), which is equal to the original f(x,y,z). This is not commonly used in most areas of math except for foundational logic but it is widely used in functional programming.

When Cueball says ''a team made up entirely of Steph Currys'', White Hat questions what the plural form should be, and should it instead have been "''Stephs Curry''"? This is referring to the pluralization of phrases where a noun is followed by a modifier of some sort, such as ''attorneys general'', ''parts unknown'', ''heirs apparent'', ''mothers-in-law'', and so on. In these cases, plurals are formed by pluralizing the noun parts of the phrases; however, some of these are rare or foreign enough that speakers of English don't always identify them correctly and pluralize the last word instead, e.g. ''attorney generals''.

The title text is a computer science joke, saying that the Steph Currys basketball team's signature play is the "three-point combinator", a joke on the {{w|three-point play}} in basketball, and a type of {{w|Fixed-point_combinator#Y_combinator|fixed-point combinator}} called the [https://rosettacode.org/wiki/Y_combinator Y Combinator], introduced by Haskell Curry. The description of "three-point combinator" is dense with word play that relates to the Y Combinator, which is used to implement {{w|recursive}} methods in functional programming languages, has notable properties relating to halting (see: the {{w|halting problem}}), and has a common form in which a second argument is used as a counter that is increased by one with each recursive call until termination. "Signature play" may also be a play on words, as currying transforms a {{w|Type_signature#Method_signature|method signature}}.

In this case, when this move is performed, it will just keep accumulating points, as it is guaranteed it cannot halt and will not stop until the time runs out and the buzzer that ends the game is activated. Such a move can of course not be a part of a real basketball game, and more of a nod to the Golden State Warriors' reputation as a high-scoring, nearly-unstoppable offense widely known for three-point shooting.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball, Ponytail and White Hat are having a conversation. Ponytail is checking her phone.]
:Ponytail: Oh, huh. California passed a law giving college athletes full rights to their names and images.
:White Hat: Good, I think?

:[Cueball holds his hand up in a fist, while Ponytail, holding her phone down, and White Hat looks at him.]
:Cueball: That's nothing. '''''Our''''' state gave college players rights to use the names and images of '''''any''''' California athletes.
:Ponytail: It did not.

:[In a frame-less panel Cueball holds his hands out, Ponytail's phone is gone and White Hat puts a hand to his chin.]
:Cueball: Sure it did!
:Cueball: That's how our school fielded a basketball team made up entirely of Steph Currys.
:White Hat: Or is the plural "Stephs Curry"?

:[Cueball holds both hands up in front of him. Ponytail has her arms down but she is balling her hands into fists.]
:Cueball: They didn't all copy the original Steph, though. One player got the rights to his name, then the next player got it from them, and so on.
:Cueball: This process is known as "currying".
:Ponytail: ...I hate you so much.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Sport]] 
[[Category:Basketball]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Puns]]

1145: Sky Color

2022-05-04T02:19:07Z

Dheppens: Undo revision 232803 by X. K. C. D. (talk)

{{comic
| number = 1145
| date = December 10, 2012
| title = Sky Color
| image = sky_color.png
| titletext = Feynman recounted another good one upperclassmen would use on freshmen physics students: When you look at words in a mirror, how come they're reversed left to right but not top to bottom? What's special about the horizontal axis?
}}

==Explanation==
The point of this comic is that often, curious children ask their parents simple questions about understanding how the world works. Often, although the question is simple, the answer is not. "Why is the sky blue?" is a common example, since most parents are not familiar with {{w|Rayleigh scattering}}, and thus are unable to answer the question.

[[Randall]]'s hobby is to make those questions even harder, so that the parents who ''are'' familiar with the subject (scientists, for example) will be stumped.

Another point of this comic is that we often think that we understand a scientific phenomenon (e.g. why is the sky blue?); however, a certain simple question (e.g. why isn't the sky violet?) can often uncover large gaps in our actual understanding.

{{W|Rayleigh scattering}} is the phenomenon that explains the color of the sky, where light of every wavelength gets scattered in the air by the inverse quartic (fourth power) of its wavelength as given in the comic. In the {{w|visible spectrum}}, blue light has a wavelength of 450–495 nm while violet has a shorter wavelength of 380–450 nm. Violet light does indeed get scattered more than blue light, however the lower portion of the spectrum for sunlight consists of blue light and eyes are much more sensitive to blue light than violet light. Furthermore, the sunlight contains more blue than violet to begin with as a result of the surface temperature of the sun. This leaves the impression of a blue sky. A good explanation, including why blue and not violet, can be found in [http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/General/BlueSky/blue_sky.html Usenet Physics FAQ :: Why is the sky blue?], but note that human color perception [http://blog.asmartbear.com/color-wheels.html is more complicated] than described there.

The title text refers to a {{w|mirror image}}, and is discussed by the famous American theoretical physicist {{w|Richard Feynman}} in a famous BBC documentary [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tuxLY94LXw], as one of the problems which he used to have fun with first years (British English for first year student or freshman).

A mirror image is a virtual image produced by the reflection of light on a mirror. It's common to think of images in mirrors as being reversed left-to-right, as any text held in front of us will appear flipped. This is actually an issue of perception. In a plane mirror, images are reflected directly: the left side of your body will be reflected in the left side of the mirror, and vice-versa. The source of confusion is that people tend to think of a mirror image the way we would think of a person facing us. When another person faces us, they turn around the vertical axis, placing their right hand on our left side, so seeing our left hand on our left side in a reflection ''seems'' like an inversion, even though it's a direct representation. By the same token, in order to hold text up to a mirror, we generally flip it around the vertical axis, so that the start of the text is on right, and the end on the left (in English, at least). When the mirror reflects this, we see the text as backward, but the mirror hasn't reversed it, we reverse it when we turn it toward a mirror.

In other words, the vertical axis is only "special" because we're used to objects turning around it, so we come to expect that reversal, instead of a reflection.

You can induce a mirror to reverse left and right only --- by standing next to it instead of in front of it, facing along the plane of the mirror itself. If you lift your right arm, you can clearly see your image's left arm raising, without having to adjust for frame of reference. Similarly, you can induce a mirror to reverse top and bottom only by holding it flat above your head or laying it flat on the ground and standing on it (or perhaps standing under a suitably equipped bedroom ceiling). See [https://youtu.be/1t4dOPxKgrY this] video for a demonstration.

==Transcript==
:[Science Girl and her mother, Megan, but with her hair up. Megan is at a desk and facing the girl.]
:Science Girl: Mommy, why is the sky blue?
:Megan: Rayleigh scattering! Short wavelengths get scattered ''way'' more (proportional to 1/''λ''4). Blue light dominates because it's so short.
:Science Girl: Oh.
:Science Girl: So why ''isn't'' the sky violet?
:Megan: Well, because, uh... ...hmm.
:[Caption Below the panel:]
:My hobby: Teaching tricky questions to the children of my scientist friends.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Science Girl]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:My Hobby]]

320: 28-Hour Day

2022-05-04T02:18:49Z

Dheppens: Undo revision 232808 by X. K. C. D. (talk)

{{comic
| number = 320
| date = September 24, 2007
| title = 28-Hour Day
| image = 28_hour_day.png
| titletext = Small print: this schedule will eventually drive one stark raving mad.
}}

==Explanation==
The {{W|Circadian rhythm#Enforced longer or shorter cycles|28-Hour Day}} is a modified sleep schedule proposed to accommodate the discrepancy between the earth's day-night cycle and certain people's preferred sleep schedules. It discards the traditional notion of sleeping at night and replaces it with sleeping when it is more convenient for weekend parties and mid-week insomnia. It is also the only reasonable and consistent alternative day length that will sync with the widely accepted and practiced 168-hour week (168 = 7×24 = 6×28), with the arguable exception of eight 21-hour days. Underneath the weekly timeline, [[Cueball]] describes the schedule's selling points to his friend, who apparently has difficulty sleeping.

Cueball's friend shows little interest in this idea, and instead he resorts to low-quality "your mom" jokes. Cueball merely bides his time, and in the end successfully trumps the jokes with a response that impugns his friend's sexual stamina, leading him to concede defeat.

The title-text uses "{{w|Fine_Print|Small print}}" to mean "Disclaimer" and relieves the idea's creator of any responsibility in the case that it is tried and the tester finds the schedule to be a really bad idea. As he states, if you live by this schedule, chances are you will be driven stark raving mad. Given that Cueball gives his friend with the bad mom jokes this advice, it could be another way to try to punish him for the jokes. Although Randall makes several [[:Category:Your Mom|Your Mom comics]], he has also in some comics shown that he dislikes these kind of jokes, especially when used too much in real life (see [[366: Your Mom]].)

==Schedule==
{| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed"
!colspan=5|28-Hour Day Schedule
|-
!Day
!Time
!28-Hour Schedule
!Normal 24 hour day
|-
| rowspan=12|Sunday||style="text-align:right;"|12:00 AM||
|rowspan=3 nobreak|Normal night from 6 PM to 6 AM
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|2:00 AM||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|4:00 AM||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|6:00 AM||||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|8:00 AM||||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|10:00 AM
|rowspan=4|Sleep
|
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|12:00 PM||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|2:00 PM||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|4:00 PM||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|6:00 PM||
|rowspan=6|Normal night from 6 PM to 6 AM
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|8:00 PM||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|10:00 PM||
|-
| rowspan=12|Monday||style="text-align:right;"|12:00 AM||
|-
|style="text-align:right;"|2:00 AM||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|4:00 AM||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|6:00 AM||||
|-
|style="text-align:right;"|8:00 AM||||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|10:00 AM||||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|12:00 PM||||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|2:00 PM
|rowspan=4|Sleep
|
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|4:00 PM||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|6:00 PM
|rowspan=6|Normal night from 6 PM to 6 AM
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|8:00 PM
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|10:00 PM||
|-
| rowspan=12|Tuesday||style="text-align:right;"|12:00 AM||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|2:00 AM||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|4:00 AM||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|6:00 AM||||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|8:00 AM||||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|10:00 AM||||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|12:00 PM||||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|2:00 PM||||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|4:00 PM||||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|6:00 PM
|rowspan=4|Sleep
|rowspan=6|Normal night from 6 PM to 6 AM
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|8:00 PM
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|10:00 PM
|-
| rowspan=12|Wednesday||style="text-align:right;"|12:00 AM
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|2:00 AM||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|4:00 AM||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|6:00 AM||||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|8:00 AM||||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|10:00 AM||||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|12:00 PM||||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|2:00 PM||||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|4:00 PM||||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|6:00 PM||
|rowspan=6|Normal night from 6 PM to 6 AM
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|8:00 PM||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|10:00 PM
|rowspan=4|Sleep
|-
| rowspan=12|Thursday||style="text-align:right;"|12:00 AM
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|2:00 AM
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|4:00 AM
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|6:00 AM||||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|8:00 AM||||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|10:00 AM||||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|12:00 PM||||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|2:00 PM||||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|4:00 PM||||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|6:00 PM||
|rowspan=6|Normal night from 6 PM to 6 AM
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|8:00 PM||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|10:00 PM||
|-
| rowspan=12|Friday||style="text-align:right;"|12:00 AM||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|2:00 AM
|rowspan=4|Sleep
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|4:00 AM
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|6:00 AM||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|8:00 AM||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|10:00 AM||||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|12:00 PM||||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|2:00 PM||||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|4:00 PM||||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|6:00 PM||
|rowspan=6|Normal night from 6 PM to 6 AM
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|8:00 PM||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|10:00 PM||
|-
| rowspan=12|Saturday||style="text-align:right;"|12:00 AM||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|2:00 AM||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|4:00 AM||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|6:00 AM
|rowspan=4|Sleep
|
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|8:00 AM||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|10:00 AM||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|12:00 PM||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|2:00 PM||||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|4:00 PM||||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|6:00 PM||
|rowspan=3|Normal night from 6 PM to 6 AM
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|8:00 PM||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|10:00 PM||
|}

==Transcript==
:[Above the panels of the main comic, there is a ruler-like time line diagram that shows the hours in a week. It has 6 black sections labeled "bed" in white text, at the top and 7 black sections labeled "night" in white text, at the bottom (the first and last sections are split in two as it goes from the end of the week to the start of the (next) week. So there are 8 night sections, but they only cover 7 times 12 hours). The night sections always go from 6PM to 6AM. But the bed sections are only 8 hours long and they only stay fully over the night sections two times, and two times they are not above the night sections at all. Above the ruler, the bed times are shown. These labels are over the relevant ticks on the ruler. The ruler has small ticks for every two hours, longer ticks at noon, and a line that goes all the way through the ruler dividing each day. The ruler begins on midnight as Sunday starts and ends as Saturday finishes at midnight. Below the ruler each day are labels with the three-letter abbreviations in a much larger font. Here below the rulers, text is transcribed with the day first, then night or bed according to which comes first, and the time interval for bed given after each bed. The first and last night will only be a partial word and only the first time will there be a (ni)ght to start.]
:<big>Sun</big>
:ght
:Bed
:10AM 6PM
:Night

:<big>Mon</big>
:Bed
:2PM 10PM
:Night

:<big>Tue</big>
:Bed
:6PM 2AM
:Night

:<big>Wed</big>
:Night
:Bed
:10PM 6AM

:<big>Thu</big>
:Night

:<big>Fri</big>
:Bed
:2AM 10AM
:Night

:<big>Sat</big>
:Bed
:6AM 2PM
:Nig

:[Below the ruler are five panels. In the first, two Cueball-like guys are talking together. Cueball is addressing his friend with one hand raised.]
:Cueball: You have trouble sleeping right?
:Friend: Only when your mom is over.

:[Cueball is now standing next to a an easel with a large version of the chart shown above the panels. Cueball is pointing to the chart while his friend is looking at it.]
:Cueball: Since your work is flexible-
:Friend: -Like your mom-
:Cueball: -you should try the 28-hour day - 20 awake, 8 asleep (or 19/9 if you prefer).
:Friend: I prefer your mom.

:[Cueball moves forward toward his friend, with the chart behind him. He holds both hands, held together, up in front of him. The easel with the chart can now be seen to have three legs, as opposed to only two shown in the previous panel.]
:Cueball: It synchs up with the week - you spend weekdays awake normally, then on weekends you can go out all night.
:Friend: Just like your mom.

:[In a frameless panel, only Cueball is shown from the torso up. He gestures with both arms raised on each side of him.]
:Cueball: It means four extra hours daily. You can stay up until you're exhausted every day and then spend a full 9 hours asleep each night!

:[Back to both again, but without the chart. Cueball leans toward his friend as his friend lifts a hand to his chin.]
:Friend: But how much time can I spend doing your mom?
:Cueball: You? I'm guessing three or four minutes, tops.
:Friend: ...Well played.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Your Mom]]
[[Category:Sex]]
[[Category:Time]]
[[Category:Timelines]]
[[Category:Charts]]

2026: Heat Index

2022-05-04T02:18:10Z

Dheppens: Undo revision 232780 by X. K. C. D. (talk)

{{comic
| number = 2026
| date = July 30, 2018
| title = Heat Index
| image = heat_index.png
| titletext = The heat index is calculated via looking up the "effective temperature" in a table of air temperature and humidity values, and then adding a bunch more degrees because it feels WAY hotter than that.
}}

==Explanation==
Heat index, like wind chill, is a way to combine multiple factors, in this case temperature and humidity, to get a single number indicating what the air "feels like." {{w|Heat index|This page}} gives a table, a formula, and lots more explanation.

Human skin does not directly detect temperature - only the rate of heat gain or loss. This is why a piece of metal feels cooler than a piece of plastic or wood at the same exact temperature (below body temperature, above it is the other way around) - the metal conducts heat away from the higher body temperature at a higher rate than a good insulator does.

So in warm weather, it's not just the temperature that matters for comfort. The humidity and wind speed also factor into it. When humidity is high, sweat evaporation is less effective at cooling us off than in a "dry heat" with low humidity.

Hence, meteorologists use a combination of temperature and humidity to come up with the "heat index" value...and a combination of temperature and wind speed to produce a "wind chill" number.

Neither scale is particularly scientific in terms of measuring how people feel - but both are a more accurate representation of comfort levels than temperature alone.

The joke here is that these numbers seem entirely subjectively chosen - and in a sense, they really are, although they are calculated from an actual formula (a multivariate fit to a mathematical model of the human body - with nine terms!) and not by guesswork as the flow chart implies.

The title text suggests another way it is calculated: In general the effective temperature is calculated based on the conductivity of heat based on humidity. This is a legitimate method of determining how hot something feels because the heat conductance of water is higher than dry air and humans perceive more heat when the humidity is higher. But humans also tend to exaggerate and so [[Randall]] implies to add still a bunch more to satisfy the subjective sentiment.

==Transcript==
:[A flowchart is shown beneath its title:]
:How to Calculate the "Heat Index":

:[There are four boxes with arrows between. The first rectangular box is at the top, and an arrow points straight down:]
:Measure the Temperature

:[From there an arrow goes straight down to a decision diamond:]
:Does it look hot enough?

:[Two arrow goes out from the diamond. One goes straight down to another rectangular box. Both the arrow and the box has labels:]
:No
:Add a few degrees

:[From the bottom box an arrow goes back to the diamond. The other arrow from the diamond goes right to a final box with no arrows. Again both the arrow and the box has labels:]
:Yes
:Done

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Flowcharts]]
[[Category:Weather]]

1586: Keyboard Problems

2022-05-04T02:17:37Z

Dheppens: Undo revision 232796 by X. K. C. D. (talk)

{{comic
| number = 1586
| date = October 5, 2015
| title = Keyboard Problems
| image = keyboard_problems.png
| titletext = In the future, a group of resistance fighters send me back in time with instructions to find the Skynet prototype and try to upgrade it.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic parodies how people diagnose and solve {{w|computer problems}}. [[Cueball]] and [[Megan]] are trying to solve a keyboard issue, but are somewhat incompetent at diagnosing the issue. Cueball in particular blames a broken keyboard on software or a keyboard {{w|Computer virus|virus}}.

In the comic, [[Cueball]] complains that some keys in his keyboard don't work. Generally speaking, this could be due either to a software problem (e.g. the keyboard driver not working properly, or some program ignoring keypresses) or to a hardware problem (the keyboard is physically damaged, e.g. because of dirt under the keys).

If the problem is in the software, booting from a different operating system (e.g. an external recovery disk) should solve it, as the computer would no longer be using the faulty software. However, if the problem is in the hardware, changing the keyboard should solve the problem as the new keyboard would no longer be physically damaged (and would have no dirt under the keys).

However, the problem stays there after booting from an external recovery disk (so it's not a software problem) and it has "followed Cueball since his last computer," (i.e. the problem persists after changing to a new laptop with a new keyboard, so it's not a hardware problem). Cueball is (reasonably) puzzled.

[[Megan]] seems to be used to Cueball's computer behaving strangely, and she doesn't even attempt to explain or solve the problem. The only explanation she needs for the problem is that "it's Cueball's computer." The characters in this comic are probably the same as in [[1084: Server Problem]], [[1316: Inexplicable]], and [[349: Success]].

The last panel is a reference to {{w|The Terminator}}, a 1984 movie often referenced in xkcd. In the movie, the artificial intelligence named Skynet initiates a nuclear war, destroying most of humanity, then sends killing machines to finish the rest. These include flying drones — Megan suggests that if such robots come to Cueball's vicinity, they will (physically) crash since computers around Cueball can't seem to ever work properly, and so hiding in Cueball's house she should be safe from the robots.

The title text refers to main plot of the movie and its sequel {{w|Terminator 2: Judgment Day}}. As Skynet's army is losing the battle against the human Resistance movement, it finds a way to send a humanoid robot {{w|Terminator_(character)|T-800}} back in time to kill the mother of the Resistance's leader. The Resistance in turn sends {{w|Kyle Reese}} back in time to protect her. In the sequel, the situation repeats with the more advanced {{w|T-1000}} being the killer and a reprogrammed T-800 being the protector of the child (the future leader). Along the way, they manage to destroy the research lab where Skynet hardware is to be born in the future. The title text suggests an alternative mission into the past, sending Cueball back in time and using his power to cause Skynet to terminally malfunction instead of destroying it physically (as Skynet was created later anyway, despite the destruction of the research lab).

==Transcript==
:[Cueball sits between two laptops. Megan stands behind him.]

:Cueball: Keys on my keyboard keep failing, even when I boot from an external recovery disk.
:Megan: Sounds like it's hardware, then.

:[Cueball moves over to the laptop behind him.]

:Cueball: Yeah... except the problem followed me from my ''last'' computer.
:Megan: You have the most ''bizarre'' tech issues.

:[Cueball picks up the keyboard from the rear computer and plugs it into the one in front of him.]

:Cueball: It must be spreading via keyboards. This one won't work with ''any'' computer now.
:Megan: When the robot apocalypse happens, I'm hiding out in your house. Any Skynet drones that come near will develop inexplicable firmware problems and crash.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Cueball Computer Problems]]
[[Category:Terminator]]

1676: Full-Width Justification

2022-05-04T02:17:20Z

Dheppens: Undo revision 232645 by X. K. C. D. (talk)

{{comic
| number = 1676
| date = May 4, 2016
| title = Full-Width Justification
| image = full_width_justification.png
| titletext = Gonna start bugging the Unicode consortium to add snake segment characters that can be combined into an arbitrary-length non-breaking snake.
}}

==Explanation==
The comic refers to an irritating problem in laying out text to fit from margin to margin, the problem of {{w|justification (typesetting)|justification}}, where you want multiple-line text to line up on the left side (common), the right side (less common), or both sides, which is commonly called full justification. This strip is dealing with how to make text fit such that it lines up on both sides while still looking good. Sometimes, as with a shorter word between two long words like "relationship between [[:wikt:deindustrialization|deindustrialization]]," there's no universal good way to make the typography work. It is a difficult problem to make text look good and be easily legible especially in a narrow space, with the biggest issue being how to handle words that are too long to fit nicely.

The comic shows several solutions to this problem, some realistic and others less so, but each partly or wholly unsatisfying.

"'''Giving up'''" essentially means not attempting full justification for a particular line, which means it will not fit with the rest of the layout.

"'''Letter spacing'''" involves an conspicuously large amount of whitespace between letters, suggesting a reading where each letter is a word until the reader recognizes what is intended. This method is in somewhat common use in newspaper and magazine layout, where it is generally known by the name "tracking" (distance between all letters) and "kerning" (distance between particular pairs of letters that fit together easily). However, letter spacing is unavailable for justification purposes in some languages (such as German), in which it is used for emphasis, as italics are in English.

"'''Hyphenation'''" is confusing because it requires suspended recognition of the full word, confusing the eye into seeing, in the given case, the non-words "deindus" and "trialization". This creates difficulty in both pronouncing and parsing the word. Moreover, the decision of when and where to hyphenate is non-trivial, particularly for automated text layout; for example, breaking a word and leaving only two "orphaned" letters on the following line is generally considered an illegal hyphenation. Nevertheless, hyphenation is a very common means of handling extreme cases. The hyphenation option is most compact, yielding the extra word "ecological".

"'''Stretching'''" appears visually unnatural and unfamiliar, and may present technical difficulties in rendering.

Adding "'''filler'''" words is generally undesirable: in the worst case, the meaning may be unintentionally altered, or the tone might be rendered too informal, as in the given example, and even in the best case, the text becomes less concise and potentially more difficult to read. Automation is also difficult. However, filler words added by a human, especially the original author of the text, are the least visually conspicuous, and may be the most practical solution in some scenarios.

Finally, adding a decorative image like "'''snakes'''" (but not necessarily snakes in particular) to fill the extra space is a justification practice of significant historical interest (it was particularly common for illuminated manuscripts in the medieval era and remained prominent until the invention of the printing press) but little modern relevance. There may be a particular absurdity to using a snake as it can be read as a word, such as "the relationship between snake deindustrialization" as would be done similar to a {{w|rebus}}.

In modern text layout programs, some combination of the above strategies may be used to achieve the most visually consistent effect. For example, in one case, hyphenation might be the best option to split a very long word, while another line might be too long by only one or two letters, in which case the program could apply a very slight degree of extra letter spacing, too small for the average reader to notice.

The title text suggests that in order to facilitate the "snakes" method of "solving" the problem, the {{w|Unicode Consortium}}, the organization in charge of the common text standard {{w|Unicode}}, should add "snake-building characters" (similar in concept to the existing {{w|Box Drawing}} block), to allow variable-length snake images to be used as filling. Currently, there are at least six snake characters in Unicode, not including at least ten more Egyptian hieroglyphs that represent specific snakes, some in specific combination with other hieroglyphs: [http://unicode-search.net/unicode-namesearch.pl?term=SNAKE]
*[https://codepoints.net/U+1DC2 U+1DC2]   <big>᷂</big>   <big>[S᷂]</big>
**A diacritical {{w|combining character}} used in Americanist phonetic notation to indicate lenis (weak) articulation.
*[https://codepoints.net/U+2E92 U+2E92]   <big>⺒</big>
**A {{w|CJK character}} which might be interpreted as "snake".
*[https://codepoints.net/U+8675 U+8675]   <big>虵</big>
**Another CJK character meaning "snake".
*[https://codepoints.net/U+86C7 U+86C7]   <big>蛇</big>
**Another CJK character meaning "snake".
*[https://codepoints.net/U+1D9DC U+1D9DC]   <big>𝧜</big>
**One of the poorly-supported characters in the {{w|signWriting|signwriting block}}.
*[https://codepoints.net/U+1F40D U+1F40D]   <big>🐍</big>
**An {{w|emoji}} snake.

One of the hieroglyphs ([https://codepoints.net/U+13192 U+13192 EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPH I009A]) is described in [https://mjn.host.cs.st-andrews.ac.uk/egyptian/unicode/tablemain.html source documents] as HORNED VIPER CRAWLING OUT OF ENCLOSURE, so it is literally a snake-building character.

"Non-breaking" in the title text refers to a similar process as zero-width joiners and no-break HTML and CSS; the whole snake would shift down if it were too wide to fit on a given line. This suggestion would likely be rejected; the Unicode consortium is very specific about which characters are added{{Citation needed}}, and always require a good reason{{Citation needed}} before adding a character or set of characters to the standard. Strange decisions by the consortium have previously been referenced in [[1253: Exoplanet Names]], [[1513: Code Quality]], and [[1525: Emojic 8 Ball]].

Within an hour or two of this comic being published, a thread on the subject started on the Unicode Consortium’s official Unicode Mailing List. As of two days later, it’s still running.

==Transcript==
Strategies for full-width justification

[Below the caption is a column with six boxes, each showing a different "strategy" for justification which is annotated beside it. Here the annotation is written at the top and the text below. The top and bottom of the text is cut of in the middle, but as it can be "read" this is written anyway. Only for hyphenation does an extra word appear at the end. In the last with snakes, a snake is drawn to cover the entire spaaace from the end of between to the right border.]

<dl>
<dt>Giving up</dt>
<dd style="text-align:justify!important;text-justify:inter-word!important;width:10.5em">their famous paper
on the relationship
between
deindustrialization
and the growth of</dd>

<dt>Letter spacing</dt>
<dd style="text-align:justify!important;text-justify:inter-word!important;width:10.5em">their famous paper
on the relationship
b e t w e e n
deindustrialization
and the growth of</dd>

<dt>Hyphenation</dt>
<dd style="text-align:justify!important;text-justify:inter-word!important;width:10.5em">their famous paper
on the relationship
between deindus-
trialization and the growth of ecological</dd>

<dt>Stretching</dt>
<dd style="text-align:justify!important;text-justify:inter-word!important;width:10.5em">their famous paper
on the relationship
between
deindustrialization
and the growth of</dd>

<dt>Filler</dt>
<dd style="text-align:justify!important;text-justify:inter-word!important;width:10.5em">their famous paper
on the relationship
between crap like
deindustrialization
and the growth of</dd>

<dt>Snakes</dt>
<dd>their famous paper 
on the relationship 
between 🐍 [a snake filling the gap] 
deindustrialization 
and the growth of</dd>

</dl>

==Trivia==
*The full text (with alternate changes) reads:
::''...their famous paper on the relationship between [crap like]/[ 🐍 ] deindustrialization and the growth of [ecological]...''
*An approach not depicted is to treat justification as part of a spherical typesetting strategy which allows words to move between lines even where this is not locally optimal. Its net effect in a case like this is to pull words from the previous line for use as filler. This approach is used by {{w|TeX}}.
*In Arabic, it is common to stretch the lines connecting letters as a relatively elegant and satisfying resolution to this problem. This trick is called "{{w|kashida}}" (كشيدة). There does in fact exist a Unicode character, U+0640: (ـ), to help with this: using it to extend "كشيدة" would result in something like "كـــــشـــيـــدة" (which, incidentally, looks a lot like a snake).
*Jim Chapman, developer of Windows 10 e-reader app Freda, has implemented snake-justification in the app, now available on the [https://www.microsoft.com/store/apps/9wzdncrfj43b Windows Store]. For best results, use the 'settings' screen to switch 'hyphenation' to 'no', 'use snakes' to 'yes', and choose a large font size (33 or so). Then pick a book with long words and justified text, and read it in a narrow window.
*The comic has been discussed on the [http://www.unicode.org/mail-arch/unicode-ml/y2016-m05/0004.html Unicode Mailing List].
*The typesetting system [http://www.sile-typesetter.org/ SILE] implemented snake justification on the same day the comic was published.
*"Line Fillers" depicting animals (including snakes) were widely used in [http://www.medievalcodes.ca/2016/04/line-fillers.html medieval book art].

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Unicode]]

1563: Synonym Movies

2022-05-04T02:17:04Z

Dheppens: Undo revision 232712 by X. K. C. D. (talk)

{{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.
}}

[[File:synonym movies rotated.png|right]]
==Explanation==
This comic shows several "Synonym Movies". It takes several well known movies, but changes each word of their names into a synonym. So ''{{w|Star Wars}}'' has turned into ''Space Fights'', ''{{w|The Lord of the Rings (film series)|The Lord of the Rings}}'' into ''The Jewelry God'' and ''{{w|Star Trek}}'' into ''Space Trip''. All these movies series have the same heading, and then a subtitle. There are ten of them in the comic, and two more in the title text. This comic became a [[:Category:Synonym Movies|series]] when more movies were spoofed in [[1568: Synonym Movies 2]].

The use of synonyms makes all these movies look ridiculous, for example, "The Sword Wizard Is Back" is a laughable sounding movie{{Citation needed}}, whereas "{{w|Return of the Jedi}}" sound perfectly reasonable to us. [[Randall]] may be poking fun at movies that have ridiculous titles already, for instance some people think this applies to a title like "{{w|Terminator: Genisys}}".

The title text refers to the latest Star Wars movie (2015-12-18), after {{w|The Walt Disney Company|Disney}} acquired the movie rights. The movie is called {{w|Star Wars: The Force Awakens}} and has now turned into ''Power Gets Up''. As usual, with any Star Wars related material, there is a huge fan base that eagerly awaits the new movie. But then again many people fear that it will not live up to their expectations, as was the case with the fourth movie, first of the three movies in the second installment of Star Wars, {{w|Star Wars: The Phantom Menace}}, dubbed here as ''The Scary Ghost''. As mentioned in the title text, that movie did not live up to the hype.

A similarly humorous effect is achieved in [[1133: Up Goer Five]] which explains the {{w|Saturn V}} rocket, but words and phrases are replaced with synonyms which are chosen from the most common English words. This renders ordinary words like "rocket" into "flying space car", or "helium" into "funny voice air" for example.

==Table of the titles==

'''SPOILER ALERT!''' Many of these explanations contain information revealed during the movie.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Synonym
! Real Title
! Notes
|-
|colspan=3 style="text-align:center;"|'''''Space Fights'' = ''Star Wars''''' 
|-
| ''Space Fights: Sudden Optimism''
| ''{{w|Star Wars: A New Hope}}''
| If you suddenly feel optimistic, you could say that you have gained a new hope.
|-
| ''Space Fights: The Government Wins This One''
| ''{{w|Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back|Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back}}''
| In the second Star Wars movie the Empire comes out on top — as opposed to the first and third where a Death Star is destroyed at the end of each of the movies. So the government = the Empire, wins that movie.
|-
| ''Space Fights: The Sword Wizard Is Back''
| ''{{w|Star Wars: Return of the Jedi|Star Wars: Return of the Jedi}}''
| In the context of a narrative device, a {{w|jedi}} is a kind of wizard, wielding {{w|The Force (Star Wars)|the Force}} (like magic) and the {{w|lightsaber}} (a kind of sword).
|-
| ''Space Fights: Power Gets Up''
| ''{{w|Star Wars: The Force Awakens|Star Wars: The Force Awakens}}''
| From the title text. When you awake, you typically get up (from the bed). Force and power are related terms, but have differences in both [http://www.diffen.com/difference/Force_vs_Power real life] and [http://boards.theforce.net/threads/did-luke-ever-get-those-power-converters-from-tosche-station.20403665/ Star Wars].
|-
| ''Space Fights: The Scary Ghost''
| ''{{w|Star Wars: The Phantom Menace|Star Wars: The Phantom Menace}}''
| From the title text. Ghost = Phantom. A menacing phantom would be quite scary. It is worth noting that in the original title, "phantom" is an adjective referring to the noun "Menace," whereas in Randall's new version it is reversed. The original meaning would be better preserved by "Space Fights: The Ghostly Scare".
|-
|colspan=3 style="text-align:center;"|'''''The Jewelry God'' = ''The Lord of the Rings''''' 
|-
| ''The Jewelry God: The Jewelry Team''
| ''{{w|The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring|The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring}}''
| The fellowship has become a team in the synonym version. As in the original title, the series name and subtitle differ only by a single noun.
|-
| ''The Jewelry God: Double Houses''
| ''{{w|The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers|The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers}}''
| Two towers are a heck of a lot bigger than double houses... But at least there are two in either case.
|-
| ''The Jewelry God: We Have a Czar Again''
| ''{{w|The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King}}''
| {{w|Tsar|Czar}} was a title for Slavic monarchs and official titles in Bulgaria, Serbia and Russia. It was generally regarded as equivalent to king or somewhat between king and emperor.
|-
|colspan=3 style="text-align:center;"|'''''Space Trip'' = ''Star Trek''''' 
|-
| ''Space Trip: The Movie''
| ''{{w|Star Trek: The Motion Picture|Star Trek: The Motion Picture}}''
| Today we would say "The Movie" rather than "The Motion Picture".
|-
| ''Space Trip: That Guy is Angry''
| ''{{w|Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan|Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan}}''
| {{w|Khan Noonien Singh|Khan}} (a fictional villain in the series) is now just ''That Guy'', and wrath has been turned down to merely anger.
|-
| ''Space Trip: Where is the Vulcan?''
| ''{{w|Star Trek: The Search for Spock|Star Trek: The Search for Spock}}''
| {{w|Spock}} is of the alien race {{w|Vulcan (Star Trek)|Vulcan}}, and the search has turned into the question ''where is he?''
|-
| ''Space Trip: Let's Go Back''
| ''{{w|Star Trek: The Voyage Home|Star Trek: The Voyage Home}}''
| When you decide to travel home you could also say let's go back.
|}

==Transcript==
:[Ten DVDs on a shelf. The first three stand together to the left, the two to the right leaning on the first. The next three are standing straight in the middle and then the next four are standing straight to the right. The movie titles are written on the back of the DVD cases, in white on the gray DVD cases. The text is written, so it is supposed to be read when the DVD is lying down.]
:Space Fights: Sudden Optimism
:Space Fights: The Government Wins This One
:Space Fights: The Sword Wizard Is Back

:The Jewelry God: The Jewelry Team
:The Jewelry God: Double Houses
:The Jewelry God: We Have a Czar Again

:Space Trip: The Movie
:Space Trip: That Guy is Angry
:Space Trip: Where is the Vulcan
:Space Trip: Let's Go Back

:[Caption below the frame:]
:'''Synonym Movies'''

==Trivia==
*Some would say that ''Space'' is not a proper synonym of ''Star''.
**Counter to this you could ask: "How many flaming balls of gas did you see engage in battle in those movies?"
**Seen from that perspective the combined words "Space Fights" is a proper synonym for "Star Wars".

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Synonym Movies]]
[[Category:Comics sharing name|Synonym Movies]]
[[Category:Star Wars]]
[[Category:LOTR]]
[[Category:Star Trek]]

2248: New Year's Eve

2022-05-04T02:16:45Z

Dheppens: Undo revision 232650 by X. K. C. D. (talk)

{{comic
| number = 2248
| date = December 30, 2019
| title = New Year's Eve
| image = new_years_eve.png
| titletext = "Off-by-one errors" isn't the easiest theme to build a party around, but I've seen worse.
}}

==Explanation==
This was the first of two [[:Category:New Year|New Year comics]] around the 2019-2020 New Year, the second being [[2249: I Love the 20s]].

An easy way to determine someone's age is to subtract their birth year from the current year. However, if their birthday has not happened yet that year, this calculation will predict them to be a year older than they actually are. By {{w|New Year's Eve}}, everybody's birthday has happened that year (or ''is'' happening, but legitimately tallied up), so this error will not occur. [[Cueball]] is excited by this, whereas most people would be more excited by the parties that typically occur around New Year's.

"Off-by-one" errors are commonly made in computer programming, especially by novices, when looping over sets of objects. They can also appear in everyday life. If one is given a range of numbers, such as {10, 11, 12, ..., 99, 100}, a common error is to assume that the number of numbers in the range is the first number minus the last number: 100-10 = 90. However, the correct answer is 91 since both endpoints are included in the set. This specific type of "off-by-one" error is called a fencepost error.

In the title text, Cueball suggests a New Year's Eve party with the theme of "off-by-one errors", saying it's challenging to build off of but that he's heard of worse. No information is given as to what such a party theme would entail, nor what could possibly be a worse party theme. (On the other hand, the parties depicted in [[51: Malaria]] and [[829: Arsenic-Based Life]], based on themes of disease and poison, respectively, look much worse than an "off-by-one errors" party would likely be.)

The idea of off-by-one errors for a New Year's Eve party is inspired by the numerous discussions about the time when the next decade starts, whether 2020 or 2021. [[2249: I Love the 20s]] also treats the subject directly.

==Transcript==

:[Cueball, with his hands raised, is talking to Megan and White Hat.]
:Cueball: Tomorrow is New Year's Eve, and you know what that means:
:Cueball: It's the one day of the year when you can convert between ages and birth years by subtraction without worrying about off-by-one errors!
:Cueball: Also there are probably parties.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:New Year]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]

1839: Doctor Visit

2022-05-04T02:16:27Z

Dheppens: Undo revision 232721 by X. K. C. D. (talk)

{{comic
| number = 1839
| date = May 19, 2017
| title = Doctor Visit
| image = doctor_visit.png
| titletext = According to these blood tests, you're like 30% cereal.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] is visiting his doctor [[Ponytail]], apparently for a general medical checkup.

While there is nothing wrong with him medically, the doctor wonders why he has continued to work for many years despite his body parts' individual fragility. Compared to man-made structures - like the USB cables mentioned by Ponytail, which quickly begin to fray - it's surprising that the body can survive for so long while sustaining so much wear and tear. Actually the body gets stronger and more fit the more it is used (an example of {{w|antifragility}}), in contrast to USB cables, which tend to wear out with use.

Ponytail specifically mentions his eyes which are so fragile and exposed. Yet most people go through a whole life with both eyes intact, although the vision itself may be impaired. The human reflexes and the shape of the skull around the eyes has a lot to do with the fact that it is possible to protect such fragile structures for a lifetime.

Ponytail also remarks that the body is composed of high pressure fluids (particularly blood, intracellular and extracellular fluids) and intricate parts (like the nervous system and the heart). If the fluids stopped flowing or the intricate parts stopped working, the entire body would fail, killing Cueball.

It should be noted that the human body is constantly replacing dead/injured cells and proteins. In a young human body, everything in the body is continually refurbished, and nothing is able to become old enough to deteriorate unintentionally; this requires a constant supply of energy and nutrients to keep this process going. As the body ages, these self-repair mechanisms eventually slow and can no longer keep up with the required repairs; this manifests as the various symptoms of old age (wrinkled skin, graying and balding hair, worsening eyesight and hearing, etc.) and eventual death.

USB cables are built to withstand far more wear and tear than the human body. But while this makes them tougher than blood vessels on the outset, they inevitably fray and fail faster than blood vessels because they lack the self-repair mechanisms of organic material.

The doctor's final remark is that Cueball is mainly made from dissolved bread, which is true from the perspective that the food (bread) he eats is digested in his alimentary system, absorbed into his bloodstream and used as nutrients for growth and repair. Paleontologists use a method called isotopic analysis to determine the diets of ancient people from elements preserved in teeth and bones. Ponytail could have ordered a similar test on Cueball.

This is taken further in the title text, where she states that the blood tests reveal he is 30% {{w|breakfast cereal}}. This likely comes from the widely-cited but not entirely accurate factoid that the human body is 70% water. The other 30% would then be flesh and other organic matter, or the dissolved bread the doctor described. Breakfast cereal and bread are both products of {{w|cereal}}, the edible part of a grain, making the comparison apt.

All things taken into consideration, {{tvtropes|BackAlleyDoctor|we don't actually have any confirmation that Ponytail is a real doctor}}. As Randall has stated before, [[699: Trimester|anybody can just buy a lab coat]]. Although Ponytail's answer in the final panel lacks [[1644: Stargazing|the usual "I have no idea" or equivalent non-answer]], it's still somewhat possible she's a real doctor having an existential episode.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is seated on an medical examination table while Ponytail stands dressed in a doctor's coat holding a file in her right hand.]
:Cueball: Everything look good?
:Ponytail: I don't get how your body has been moving around for years and still works at all. My USB cables fray after like a month.

:Ponytail: Your heart has been pumping for decades without pausing for even a few minutes.
:Ponytail: And your ''eyes!'' They're so fragile and exposed!

:[Zoom in on Cueball gazing at his palms.]
:Ponytail (off-panel): You're full of all these high-pressure fluids and intricate parts that could kill you in seconds if they stopped working!

:[Zoom out again to the entire scene.]
:Cueball: ...can you just tell me whether I'm healthy?
:Ponytail: Yeah, you're fine.
:Ponytail: Which is weird, given that your body is basically made from dissolved bread.

==Trivia==
Later Doctor Ponytail offers these thoughts again as an internal monologue in [[2057: Internal Monologues]].

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Doctor Ponytail]]
[[Category:Medicine]]

684: We Get It

2022-05-04T02:16:00Z

Dheppens: Undo revision 232668 by X. K. C. D. (talk)

{{comic
| number = 684
| date = January 4, 2010
| title = We Get It
| image = we_get_it.png
| titletext = The most brutal way I've ever seen someone handle this was 'Oh, you have a girlfriend. Are you going to get married?' 'I, uh, don't know--' 'Well, do you love her?' '...' 'Anyway, what were you saying about the movie?'
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Avatar (2009 film)|Avatar}} is a 2009 movie that was very popular in theaters, becoming the highest-grossing at that time before being overtaken by {{w|Avengers: Endgame}} in 2019.

The comic illustrates how someone in a new relationship tends to be overly eager and giddy to let everyone know about it, while others tend to not be all that interested. The character on the left is so excited to let everyone know, that he goes off panel to get a ladder and a loudspeaker. The second character thinks it should be legal to murder (or at least wound) him for this annoyance if he acts like this for more than a week. The first character is so giddy that he doesn't notice what he has done and even tries to mention his girlfriend again.

The title text describes a very harsh way to respond to this annoyance. Since someone in the position of the first character is so excited about the new romantic commitment in their life, their friend brings up the much greater and more serious commitment of marriage. If they have only been dating for a week or less, it is probably much too early for them to seriously think about marriage. The friend then implies that if they aren't already excited to marry her, then he doesn't really love her. The end result is that the first character doesn't want to talk about his relationship anymore.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and a friend are talking.]
:Cueball: Avatar? Yeah, I saw it last week with...

:[Cueball walks out of the panel.]

:[Cueball returns with a ladder and megaphone.]

:[Cueball stands on top of the ladder, shouting through a megaphone.]
:Cueball: '''''...MY GIRLFRIEND.'''''

:Friend: You know, if this phase of your relationship lasts more than a week, I'm legally allowed to stab you both.
:Cueball: What phase?
:Cueball: So, did I mention I'm seeing someone?

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]