explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

109: Spoiler Alert

2014-07-12T02:04:48Z

Ercannon: reorganized, removed incomplete tag. Looks pretty complete to me.

{{comic
| number = 109
| date = May 31, 2006
| title = Spoiler Alert
| image = spoiler_alert.png
| titletext = And then it turns out they're both Tyler Durden.
}}

==Explanation==

This comic refers to several unexpected plot twists from various Hollywood movies and combines them into one giant twist invented by [[Randall Munroe|Randall]]. A "{{w|spoiler (media)|spoiler}}" is a term used to describe information about the plot of any media which could spoil the media for someone who has not viewed it. The term "spoiler alert" has become popularized to precede such spoilers particularly in online posting as a warning to potential readers. It is also a phrase often used ironically or angrily to suggest that something someone has just said is a spoiler.

{{w|Severus Snape}} is a character from J.K. Rowling's ''{{w|Harry Potter}}'' series of books.

{{w|Trinity (The Matrix)|Trinity}} is a character from ''{{w|The Matrix (franchise)|The Matrix}}'' trilogy of movies.

Rosebud is from the 1941 film ''{{w|Citizen Kane}}''.

From the title text, {{w|Fight Club (novel)#Tyler Durden|Tyler Durden}} is a character from the {{w|Fight Club (novel)|novel}} and movie ''{{w|Fight Club}}''.

All four references share the common ground that they are all involved in significant events or ideas in their respective movies that have been often spoiled by careless viewers for those who have not yet seen the movies. Here the relevant events are mashed together into one and spoiled in one go.

{| class="wikitable"
!Spoilers in this comic
|-
|In this comic, Snape is depicted knocking Trinity off a high place with a wooden sled named Rosebud.
|-
|Snape kills someone important, by knocking them off a building.
|-
|Trinity dies
|-
|Rosebud is a sled
|-
|Tyler Durden is both characters
|}

The event depicted in the comic did not actually occur in any movie.

Trinity (the female protagonist in {{w|The Matrix (franchise)|''The Matrix'' series}}) is killed in the third film, ''{{w|The Matrix Revolutions}}''. The central mystery of the classic film ''{{w|Citizen Kane}}'' is the meaning of "Rosebud" (the title character's last word), which is revealed at the end of the film to be the name of his childhood sled. In {{w|Harry Potter}}, Snape (a professor at the Hogwarts school) kills Dumbledore (the headmaster) at the top of the Astronomy Tower in the penultimate book of the series, "{{w|Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince}}".

The title text refers to the film ''{{w|Fight Club}}'', at the end of which it is revealed that the character played by {{w|Ed Norton}} is actually Tyler Durden (the name {{w|Brad Pitt}}'s character goes by); and Pitt's character is really just a figment of the Norton character's imagination; and that the viewer has been watching from Norton's point of view, seeing Pitt doing things Norton did not want to admit to himself he was capable of. In other words, the two roles are one and the same character.

==Transcript==
:'''Spoiler Alert!'''

:[Severus Snape is smacking a trenchcoat-clad Trinity off the top of a building with a sled.]
:Snape kills Trinity with Rosebud!

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:The Matrix]]

1393: Timeghost

2014-07-12T02:01:10Z

Ercannon: added ref to Scary and Movie Ages

{{comic
| number = 1393
| date = July 11, 2014
| title = Timeghost
| image = timeghost.png
| titletext = 'Hello, Ghostbusters?' 'ooOOoooo people born years after that movie came out are having a second chiiiild right now ooOoooOoo'
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Maybe some expanding? Otherwise this tag can be removed.}}
[[Megan]] and [[Cueball]] are being haunted by a ghost dedicated to making people feel old. It seems to be like the strips [[891: Movie Ages]] and [[973: MTV Generation]] and the blag post [http://blog.xkcd.com/2012/09/29/odd-temporal-milestones/ Odd Temporal Milestones], but then the ghost reveals that Megan and Cueball will die in a shorter amount of time than the ghost's first appearance (maybe a few seconds, maybe years). For obvious reasons, this disturbs them. An alternative explanation is that the "staaaaart of my haunting" refers to the first time the ghost haunted anyone, and it is possible Timeghost is being deliberately ambiguous in an effort to frighten them more. Alternatively again, Timeghost may be referring simply to the beginning of the comic, which is now three panels away, while the end of the comic is only one panel away; Megan and Cueball's 'death' may refer to their cessation of existence in the comic.

A {{w|factoid}} is a questionable or spurious statement presented as a fact. In this instance, some of the ''factoids'' are easily verifiable, while others are reasonable assumptions based on the number of years passed since the individual events. Several sources advocate the use of the word "factlet" to express a brief interesting fact, while using the word "factoid" for unverifiable or untrue statements passed as fact.

While ''factoids'' tend only to have mostly only entertainment value, then the last ''fact'' from the ghost is a prediction of the future (your death) which is actually of some practical value if it can be trusted.

"Timeghost" might be a literal interpretation of {{w|Zeitgeist}}, which is a German term for "spirit of time" and refers to the school of thought that influences or dominates the art and culture of a time period. All the events and people mentioned in this comic have may be considered influences in present day art and culture.

This comic is somewhat similar to [[647: Scary]] and [[891: Movie Ages]] which present similar factoids.

'''Timeline'''
{| class="wikitable"
!Year||Event
|-
|1955-1975||{{w|Vietnam War}}
|-
|colspan="2"|19 years
|-
|1994||{{w|Forrest Gump (film)|Forrest Gump}}
|-
|colspan="2"|20 years
|-
|2014||Year of this comic
|-
|colspan="2"|
|-
|1964||{{w|Keanu Reeves}} (Actor) born
|-
|colspan="2"|2 years
|-
|1966||Today's new grandparents born (Average age: 48 in the US)
|-
|colspan="2"|48 years
|-
|2014||Year of this comic
|-
|colspan="2"|
|-
|1990||[http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr051.pdf Today's new parents born] (Average age: 24 in the US)
|-
|colspan="2"|3 years
|-
|1993-1994||{{w|The Simpsons}} Season 5
|-
|colspan="2"|2 years (from '93 to '95)
|-
|1994-1995||{{w|The Simpsons}} Season 6
|-
|colspan="2"|4 years
|-
|1999||{{w|Eminem}} (Rapper) got big (second album)
|-
|colspan="2"|15 years
|-
|2014||Year of this comic
|-
|colspan="2"|
|-
|1984||{{w|Ghostbusters}}
|-
|colspan="2"|3 years
|-
|1987||[http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr051.pdf Today's people just having a second child born] (Average age at first childbirth (24) + average gap between first two births (3))
|-
|colspan="2"|27 years
|-
|2014||Year of this comic
|}

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Megan are approached by a floating ghost]
:Timeghost: ''...ooOOOOOOOOooo...Tiiiime is passiiiing!''
:Megan: Ugh. Timeghost.
:Cueball: Huh?
:Megan: Here come the factoids.

:[Timeghost floats around]
:Timeghost: ''Forrest Gump'' came out closer to the Vietnam War than to the present daaay.
:Megan: Go ''away!''
:Timeghost: The average new grand-parents are younger than Keanu Reeeeves!
:Cueball: That can't be right...

:[Megan clutches her head, possibly attempting to cover her ears]
:Timeghost: ''Today's new parents were ten when Eminem got big. Daaaaaad muuuuusic. They remember Simpsons season 5 or 6 at the '''earliest'''''.
:Megan: Argh!
:Cueball: How long has it been ''doing'' this?

:Timeghost: ''The staaaaart of my haunting is now further away than your deaaaths!''
:Megan: Will you sto—'''''WHAT!?'''''
:Timeghost: ''ooOOOOOOOoo''
{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]

1351: Metamaterials

2014-04-04T16:34:44Z

Ercannon: added more info about instagram

{{comic
| number = 1351
| date = April 4, 2014
| title = Metamaterials
| image = metamaterials.png
| titletext = If I developed a hue-shifting metamaterial, I would photobomb people's Instagram pics with a sheet of material that precisely undid the filter they were using.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Feels incomplete.}}

{{w|Metamaterials}}, artificially created materials typically composed of very finely structured “conventional” materials, may cause light passing through them to shift. The exact color it shifts to varies based on the design of the material. (At least that seems to be the underlying assumption of the comic. Real metamaterials, however, are spectrally linear systems. They have a spatially modulated sturcture, hence they can do weird stuff with light ''spatially''. Color is a frequency/time thing though. For red to turn into blue, you still need a nonlinear medium and a lot of red. Or maybe a temporally modulated medium with a modulation similiar to the frequency of visible light...?)
In today’s comic, Megan uses her metamaterial (which is in the shape of a box) to switch the colors of the cliché Valentine’s Day poem, “{{w|Roses are red}}, violets are blue, sugar is sweet and so are you.”

The title text references this with Randall pondering making a metamaterial that reverses the effect of {{w|instagram}} filters, likely by placing the material between the camera and the subject just before the picture is taken. Instagram is a photo application that applies one of a variety of filters (usually hue shift/contrast adjustments) meant to simulate the look of old photographs.

==Transcript==

:[Picture of a red violet.]
:Megan (off-screen): Violets are red.

:[Picture of a blue rose.]
:Megan (off-screen): And roses are blue.

:[Megan holding sheet of transparent material in front of the two flowers: red violet, blue rose. Cueball stands nearby.]
:Megan: When metamaterials

:[Megan moves the object away from the flowers. Now violet is blue, and rose is red]
:Megan: Alter their hue.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]

1076: Groundhog Day

2014-02-20T06:29:27Z

Ercannon: added background radiation info, removed incomplete template.

{{comic
| number = 1076
| date = July 2, 2012
| title = Groundhog Day
| image = groundhog_day.png
| titletext = If you closely examine the cosmic background radiation, you can pick up lingering echoes of 'I Got You Babe'.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Groundhog Day}} is celebrated on February 2 at some places in the United States and Canada. In this folklore, people remove a {{w|groundhog}} from its burrow, and if the animal can see its own shadow then the winter will continue for six more weeks. But when it's cloudy, the spring will come soon.

This comic is a mash-up of the American movie "{{w|Groundhog Day (film)|Groundhog Day}}" starring {{w|Bill Murray}} and the work of {{w|James Ussher}} who was a Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland between 1625 and 1656. He was a prolific scholar, who most famously published a chronology that purported to establish the time and date of the creation as the night preceding Sunday, 23 October 4004 BC, according to the proleptic Julian calendar.

This comic is purporting to say that unlike in the movie, Bill Murray and Rita ({{w|Andie MacDowell}}) never move on to February 3, but instead create our world with some sort of "sexual infinity".

The title text is a reference to the song "{{w|I Got You Babe}}" by {{w|Sonny & Cher}}, which is the song that Bill Murray's character wakes up to every morning of February 2 (and February 3 as well). The cosmic background reference is probably a reference to the {{w|Cosmic microwave background|Cosmic microwave background radiation}}, microwave radiation from space, the existence and structure of which is considered one of the best validations of the Big Bang model.

In the movie Groundhog Day, the final scene has Bill Murray's character wearing the same clothes as the night before, implying he didn't sleep with Rita after all. Randall later noticed this error and [http://blog.xkcd.com/2012/07/02/groundhog-day-correction/ apologized] for it on the blag.

==Transcript==
:''Groundhog Day'' really didn't end that way. When Bill Murray finally slept with Rita, it '''didn't''' break the loop.
:[Phil Connors and Rita gettin' busy under the covers of his bed.]
:They just kept having sex, night after night,
:[Bed containing Phil and Rita repeats.]
:February 2nd after February 2nd...
:[Calendar page repeats.]
:..forever
:But nothing is forever. Not even forever
:And the day '''''after''''' that sexual infinity
:[Calendar page shows '''Feb 3.''']
:was February 3rd.
:264 days later (the length of a pregnancy) was October 23rd —
:[An enormous explosion in space.]
:Bishop Ussher's date for the birth of our world.
{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Sex]]

Talk:1331: Frequency

2014-02-17T22:24:05Z

Ercannon: phoenix comment

I have began the transcript. Should a table be embedded with all the statements?[[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.11|108.162.250.11]] 07:33, 17 February 2014 (UTC)
:That would be apt. Dammit Randall, why couldn't you have made the comic one image so it'd be easy to put up here? '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 07:36, 17 February 2014 (UTC)
::I have created a table but someone else has already updated the transcript in a different style; here is my attempt
<pre><table>
<tr>
<th>Heartbeat</th>
<th>One Birth</th>
<th>One Death</th>
<th>Someone Edits Wikipedia</th>
<th>Someone Buys a Vibrator</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>China Builds a Car</td>
<td>Japan Builds a Car</td>
<td>Germany Builds a Car</td>
<td>The US Builds a Car</td>
<td>Someone Else Builds a Car</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>A European Union President Has Their First Kiss</td>
<td>A US Fire Department Puts Out a Fire</td>
<td>Someone Hits a Hole-In-One</td>
<td>My Turn Signal Blinks</td>
<td>The Turn Signal of the Car in Front of Me Blinks</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Earthquake (Magnitude 1)</td>
<td>Earthquake (Magnitude 2)</td>
<td>Earthquake (Magnitude 3)</td>
<td>Earthquake (Magnitude 4)</td>
<td>Member of the UK Parliament Flushes a Toilet</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>An Airline Flight Takes Off</td>
<td>Someone Buys To Kill A Mockingbird</td>
<td>Someone's Pet Cat Kills a Mockingbird</td>
<td>Someone in Pheonix Buys New Shoes</td>
<td>Someone in Pheonix Puts on a Condom</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Someone Locks Their Keys in Their Car</td>
<td>A Sagittarius Named Amelia Drinks a Soda</td>
<td>A Dog Bites Someone in the US</td>
<td>Someone Steals a Bicycle</td>
<td>A Bald Eagle Catches a Fish</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>50,000 Plastic Bottles are Produced</td>
<td>50,000 Plastic Bottles are Recycled</td>
<td>A Bright Meteor is Visible Somewhere</td>
<td>Old Faithful Erupts</td>
<td>A fishing Boat Catches a Shark</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Someone in the US is Diagnosed With Cancer</td>
<td>Someone in the US Dies from Cancer</td>
<td>Someone Adopts a Dog from a Shelter</td>
<td>Someone Adopts a Cat from a Shelter</td>
<td>Someone gets Married</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Someone Registers a Domain</td>
<td>Someone in the US Buys a House</td>
<td>Someone in the US gets a Tattoo</td>
<td>The Star PSR J1748-2446AD Rotates 1,000 Times</td>
<td>Someone Lies About their Age to Sign up for Facebook</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Someone Breaks an iPhone Screen</td>
<td>A Little League Player Strikes Out</td>
<td>Someone has Sex in North Dakota</td>
<td>Justin Bieber Gains a Follower on Twitter</td>
<td>Someone in Denver Orders a Pizza</td>
</tr>
</table>
</pre> [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.11|108.162.250.11]] 10:06, 17 February 2014 (UTC)

:::Thanks, I have replaced the transcript with this one as it is closer to the actual comic format. --[[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.152|173.245.53.152]] 10:24, 17 February 2014 (UTC)

I would like to point out a few things: the title text refers to an experiment that shows a piece of tar, if I remember correctly, which looks like a solid material, dripping very very slowly. It takes a year or more for a drop to fall, and there should be a live stream of it somewhere, I think.

The second is the turning signal being out of sync with the other car. Randall made a comic about that one already. It's a recurring thing.[[User:Dulcis|Dulcis]] ([[User talk:Dulcis|talk]]) 07:57, 17 February 2014 (UTC)
:A year? It took 12 years for the last drop to fall... {{unsigned ip|108.162.249.114}}

: About turning signals, see [[165|XKCD #165]]--[[User:Koundelitchnico|KoundelitchNico]] ([[User talk:Koundelitchnico|talk]]) 09:32, 17 February 2014 (UTC)

:: Thanks, I thought of that one too. I have added this in the explanations column of the table I created, feel free to add more / edit if you feel the need to do so. --[[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.152|173.245.53.152]] 10:24, 17 February 2014 (UTC)

I found a simple tool that calculates the duration of GIF files on github: https://raw.github.com/alimony/gifduration/master/gifduration.py
Slightly edited, this is the output:
<pre>
amelia.gif: 7790 ms (7.79 seconds)
bieber.gif: 4730 ms (4.73 seconds)
bike.gif: 24930 ms (24.93 seconds)
birth.gif: 240 ms (0.24 seconds)
book_mockingbird.gif: 42050 ms (42.05 seconds)
bottles.gif: 1270 ms (1.27 seconds)
car_china.gif: 1890 ms (1.89 seconds)
car_elsewhere.gif: 1030 ms (1.03 seconds)
car_germany.gif: 5800 ms (5.80 seconds)
car_japan.gif: 4010 ms (4.01 seconds)
car_us.gif: 6950 ms (6.95 seconds)
cat.gif: 21300 ms (21.30 seconds)
cat_mockingbird.gif: 1820 ms (1.82 seconds)
death.gif: 560 ms (0.56 seconds)
denverpizza.gif: 1270 ms (1.27 seconds)
dogbite.gif: 7010 ms (7.01 seconds)
dog.gif: 15600 ms (15.60 seconds)
domain.gif: 640 ms (0.64 seconds)
eagle.gif: 2690 ms (2.69 seconds)
earthquake1.gif: 2430 ms (2.43 seconds)
earthquake2.gif: 24260 ms (24.26 seconds)
earthquake3.gif: 242600 ms (242.60 seconds)
earthquake4.gif: 2426000 ms (2426.00 seconds)
facebook.gif: 4320 ms (4.32 seconds)
fire_dept.gif: 23000 ms (23.00 seconds)
flight.gif: 930 ms (0.93 seconds)
heartbeat.gif: 860 ms (0.86 seconds)
holeinone.gif: 180000 ms (180.00 seconds)
house.gif: 6220 ms (6.22 seconds)
iphone.gif: 930 ms (0.93 seconds)
keys.gif: 2430 ms (2.43 seconds)
kiss.gif: 5530 ms (5.53 seconds)
littleleague.gif: 1230 ms (1.23 seconds)
meteor.gif: 1150 ms (1.15 seconds)
ndsex.gif: 1380 ms (1.38 seconds)
oldfaithful.gif: 5640000 ms (5640.00 seconds)
parliament_toilet.gif: 10060 ms (10.06 seconds)
phoenix.gif: 2050 ms (2.05 seconds)
phoenixshoes.gif: 1080 ms (1.08 seconds)
pulsar.gif: 1400 ms (1.40 seconds)
recycled.gif: 4640 ms (4.64 seconds)
shark.gif: 830 ms (0.83 seconds)
tattoo.gif: 2060 ms (2.06 seconds)
turnsignal1.gif: 940 ms (0.94 seconds)
turnsignal2.gif: 900 ms (0.90 seconds)
us_cancer_death.gif: 54340 ms (54.34 seconds)
us_cancer.gif: 18990 ms (18.99 seconds)
vibrator.gif: 2990 ms (2.99 seconds)
wedding.gif: 750 ms (0.75 seconds)
wikipedia.gif: 670 ms (0.67 seconds)
</pre>
This could be useful in creating some kind of table in the Explanation.
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.231.109|108.162.231.109]] 09:25, 17 February 2014 (UTC)

:Thanks, I'm working on an explanation right now. --[[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.152|173.245.53.152]] 09:57, 17 February 2014 (UTC)
::OK, I'll leave it at this - the conversions to events per minute don't make sense for all of the tiles and some of them can use more explanation but I'll leave that for someone else to pick up - need to go back to work :-) --[[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.152|173.245.53.152]] 10:12, 17 February 2014 (UTC)

:::The edits on Wikipedia doesn't seem very accurate: 0.67s are 3.9M edits per month, while [http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesDatabaseEdits.htm] has only edit counts around 3M for the last available months for English Wikipedia. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.160|108.162.254.160]] 11:17, 17 February 2014 (UTC)

::Is that why the explaination is currently locked? I was going to add a few things to the comment column, but I'm aparently not allowed to at the moment. [[User:Smperron|Smperron]] ([[User talk:Smperron|talk]]) 16:11, 17 February 2014 (UTC)

Suggestion: grid like coordinates to refer to other flashing text? (think E4, B6, D5, ...) sirKitKat [[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.173|173.245.53.173]] 11:19, 17 February 2014 (UTC)

Someone from the UK parliment flushed the toilet while someone in Phoenix used a condom, while a bald eagle caught a fish... (I know, it's just the frequency, not the exact time it is shown to occur) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.131|141.101.98.131]] 11:28, 17 February 2014 (UTC)

Shouldn't the North Dakota one have been "two people"? [[User:Djbrasier|Djbrasier]] ([[User talk:Djbrasier|talk]]) 11:57, 17 February 2014 (UTC)

He should have added a PNG saying "your screen's refresh rate"... --[[User:Kronf|Kronf]] ([[User talk:Kronf|talk]]) 12:06, 17 February 2014 (UTC)

;Technically possible

Technically you can create an animated GIF that will repeat every 10 years. The standard says that maximum interval between frames is 65535*0.01 seconds, so to create a 10-year video you'll need 31557600*10/655.35=481538 frames. Since GIF registers only changes pixels for each frame, most of these frames will be empty (I'm not sure about the size, but around 20 bytes), so the whole file would be around 9.6 megabytes. Please include this in the explanation (possibly correcting numbers). --[[User:Zverik|Zverik]] ([[User talk:Zverik|talk]]) 13:18, 17 February 2014 (UTC)
: @Zverik; Any reason you not just adding that to the explanation yourself? [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 20:31, 17 February 2014 (UTC)

Update: Randall used some Adobe software to create highly redundant animated GIFs (with a color profile written to every frame). The thing is, frames are not equal, they gradually change brightness, so each frame is written anew and takes 3670 bytes (measured with oldfaithful.gif). So the estimate for 10-year animated GIF with that software would be 1.77 gigabytes (1.65 GiB). That would be too much indeed. --[[User:Zverik|Zverik]] ([[User talk:Zverik|talk]]) 13:51, 17 February 2014 (UTC)

: Still, there are only 166 shades of gray between black and the default gray. So all it would take is an additional 166 bigger (in terms of number of bytes) frames. That he uses inferior software is no excuse. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.181|108.162.254.181]] 14:58, 17 February 2014 (UTC)

Is it possible that the comment ''Amelia is the most common US name'' [http://explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1331:_Frequency&diff=next&oldid=60214] is made in good faith? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.84|173.245.50.84]] 16:05, 17 February 2014 (UTC). It also said that Sagittarius is the most common star sign, which is false, so I deleted the comment. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.84|173.245.50.84]] 16:16, 17 February 2014 (UTC)

Anybody understand why there are so many references to Phoenix ? [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 20:31, 17 February 2014 (UTC)
:Because 2 references are not really "many". [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.84|173.245.50.84]] 20:40, 17 February 2014 (UTC)
:high birthrate perhaps? people down there seem to have large families (in my experience), at least that may be what he is saying about the condoms.[[User:Ercannon|Ercannon]] ([[User talk:Ercannon|talk]]) 22:24, 17 February 2014 (UTC)

;Excess precision
To 108.162.245.114 who said that all members of the UK parliament flush a toilet 3,136,938 times per year, please read {{w|False precision}}. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.84|173.245.50.84]] 22:10, 17 February 2014 (UTC)

61: Stacey's Dad

2014-02-01T21:49:41Z

Ercannon: Added a few lines about the humor.

{{comic
| number = 61
| date = February 8, 2006
| title = Stacey's Dad
| image = staceys_dad.jpg
| titletext = I bet she gets you to mow the lawn, doesn't she?
}}

{{incomplete|This explanation could be replaced entirely by a single link to the lyrics. Is that sufficient to explain the comic, really?}}
==Explanation==
This comic refers to the song "{{w|Stacy's Mom}}", by {{w|Fountains of Wayne}}. As the background singers repeatedly say, "Stacy's mom has got it goin' on."

Here are the lyrics for the second verse:
:Stacy, do you remember when I mowed your lawn? (mowed your lawn)
:Your mom came out with just a towel on (towel on)
:I could tell she liked me from the way she stared (the way she stared)
:And the way she said, "You missed a spot over there" (a spot over there)
:And I know that you think it's just a fantasy
:But since your dad walked out, your mom could use a guy like me

(chorus)
:Stacy's mom has got it goin' on
:She's all I want, and I've waited so long
:Stacy, can't you see you're just not the girl for me
:I know it might be wrong,
:but I'm in love with Stacy's mom

The humor in this is that in the song the singer finds Stacy's Mom desirable, but in the comic the dad (who walked) out, is saying that the she is very undesirable and the singer should run away while he still can. The title text elaborates on this idea, implying that she manipulated the singer to mow her lawn.

==Transcript==
:Stacey's Dad: Look, I know you think that since I walked out she could use a guy like you. But trust me. That woman has got a lot going on, and you want none of it. Get out while you still can.

:[Printed across the bottom of the panel]
:Stacey's dad.

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