explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

User:FaviFake

2026-05-15T16:27:49Z

FaviFake:

<small>Score: {{#cscore:FaviFake|score}} ({{#cscore:FaviFake|pages}} pages edited and {{#cscore:FaviFake|changes}} total edits)</small>

{{notice|<big>Since Randall answered my latest questions, I sent him another list of questions, but he hasn't replied as of 24/1/26</big>}}
{{notice|<big>I don't think he'll ever reply again :(</big>}}
'''Hey everyone! I got in touch with [[Randall Munroe]] himself!! Here's what you need to know.'''

<big>{{TOC}}</big>I emailed him to ask for the official release date of [[36: Scientists]] (see [[36: Scientists#Trivia|the trivia for more info]]). Surprisingly, he got back to me! You can read the full conversation below. I'll keep you posted if I receive more messages! You can [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=User:FaviFake&action=watch add this page to your watchlist] to keep track of it. I haven't received his explicit permission to feature his messages in full, so initially i hid his messages. I've now published the contents of his emails, since he hasn't responded to my request to make them public. My emails have not been altered, but in the copy-pasting, links have been removed. These emails were all hyperlinked, I now added back only a few links.

In his second email, Randall expressed willingness to answer a few more questions, particularly simpler, administrative questions (like the one he answered already), but kindly explained he prefers to avoid too much meta-commentary. Because I didn't want to come up with every question and I wanted to hear everyone, I'll try to send him some that you want, if he agrees to receiving more! You can [[#Your suggestions! What should I ask next?|add your suggestions here!]].

Even if he doesn't answer all these questions, we could also use this page for other things. I'm also planning to create a page on this wiki containing '''everything''' we don't know about xkcd, using these questions. '''So, keep posting your questions!''' In the future, this could become:

*A list of everything we can research extremely in-depth, if someone wants to help the wiki that way.

*A list of quick questions to ask him when someone meets him in person, at a book tour for example.

*A page for people who want to read about things we don't know and is interested in xkcd mysteries.

<span style="background-color:#9eff9e;"><span font-size:1.4em;">'''<big><big>  [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title{{=}}User:FaviFake&action{{=}}edit&section{{=}}2 CLICK HERE TO ADD NEW QUESTION''' (scroll to bottom)]
</big></big></span>

==Email thread==
<div class="plainlinks">
{| class="wikitable"
!Question from the Explain xkcd wiki regarding one of your comics
|-
|Email thread - 4 messages — Here's a [https://imgur.com/a/2StTkvJ screenshot of one of the emails], if you need some sort of proof.
|}

{| class="wikitable"
|'''FaviFake''' <[email redacted]@gmail.com>
!14 February 2025 at 19:16 CET
|-
| colspan="2" |To: Randall Munroe <[Randall's email redacted]@gmail.com>
|-
| colspan="2" |

Hi,
I'm an editor at explainxkcd.com, which you probably know is the wiki that explains all your comics and provides as much info as possible on them.

In pursuit of that goal, we have always had an unsolved mystery only you can solve. Comic [[36: Scientists]] was originally posted as a duplicate of comic [[10: Pi Equals]]. You corrected this sometime between April 23, 2006 and July 5, 2006 , when the current version showed up in the web archive (see the two links). The comic looks like one of your old drawings.

So, explain xkcd thinks that when you realized your mistake (over three months after it was originally posted), you probably found an old unused drawing and posted it, to not make it stand out compared to the other comics from that time. This all means we have no date for this comic, since it could've been posted anytime between the two dates mentioned above. You can read more about this here. (If you're interested, we have a more comprehensive history of your webcomic here.)

Could you kindly help us figure this out by checking when you released comic #[[36]], so we can add an official date to it? This is one of the only official comics which we don't know the date of.

Kind regards,<br>FaviFake<br>editor @ explain xkcd
|}
''[In the copy-pasting, links have been removed. These emails were all hyperlinked, I now added back only a few links.]''
{| class="wikitable"
|'''Randall Munroe''' [Randall's email redacted]
!14 February 2025 at 22:20 CET
|-
| colspan="2" |To: FaviFake <[email redacted]@gmail.com>
|-
| colspan="2" |
FaviFake,

I had totally forgotten about this! Checking my logs, I believe I swapped it in on April 28th.

Thank you for your tireless documentation effort :)

Warmest wishes,<br>Randall
|}
{| class="wikitable"
|'''FaviFake''' <[email redacted]@gmail.com>
!15 February 2025 at 17:39 CET
|-
| colspan="2" |To: Randall Munroe <[Randall's email redacted]@gmail.com>
|-
| colspan="2" |Hello Randall,

Thank you so much for your response!! I'm certain the rest of the community will be thrilled to have an official answer.

Unfortunately, this is by far not the only "unsolved mystery" we have encountered in our research of your comic. Because we don't get to talk to you very often, I'd like to ask you if you can answer more of our many questions, if you're up for it. Of course, I do not want to annoy you or waste your time, so please let me know if this is something you'd enjoy! I will try to keep the questions entertaining for you.

Kind regards,<br>FaviFake
|}
{| class="wikitable"
|'''Randall Munroe''' <[Randall's email redacted]@gmail.com>
!17 February 2025 at 19:02 CET
|-
| colspan="2" |To: FaviFake <[email redacted]@gmail.com>
|-
| colspan="2" |FaviFake,

You're welcome to send over questions, although I can't promise any answers so please don't put too much time into it!

I've always tried to resist the temptation to do too much explaining or meta-commentary in general, partly because once you start breaking the fourth wall, it can be hard to stop, and partly because I've found those boundaries are helpful for keeping me focused.

But if you want to send over some of your questions, I can see if there are at least a few of them that I can answer—at least some of the simpler, more administrative ones.

And seriously, my heartfelt thanks to you and everyone there. It's such a privilege to make something that people think is worth so much effort to explain <3

—Randall
|}

{| class="wikitable"
|'''FaviFake''' <[email redacted]@gmail.com>
!20 February 2025 at 18:07
|-
| colspan="2" |To: Randall Munroe <[Randall's email redacted]@gmail.com>
|-
| colspan="2" |Randall,

Thank you for the kind words!! I really appreciate the offer. Next time, I'm thinking of asking the community for other simple and administrative questions, because I'm sure I don't represent everyone.

(Also, would it be okay to feature your responses on our wiki?)

I had drafted the paragraphs below in advance and I'm not sure if they fall outside the boundaries you mentioned, but I figured I’d ask anyway since this is a topic the other editors are very curious about. Of course, no worries if you’d rather not get into the details! We have plenty of simpler questions we can't answer ourselves. Here you go:

On June 17, 2009, you released [[Conservation]] (along with IBM's accompanying blog post), the first comic created with IBM for their "A Smarter Planet" blog. You used the filename conservation.png, as usual. On August 11, 2009, the second comic of the series, [[Prescriptions]], was released (with its blog post), but this time you used an unusual filename: ibm_hc_1.png.

We initially believed these were the only comics you created, mainly because they were the only ones featured on your page xkcd.com/asmarterplanet, but a little over a month ago we discovered two additional never-before-seen comics by experimenting with the image URLs for [[ibm_hc_2]].png and [[ibm_hc_3]].png. We believe you created these two comics as part of the IBM partnership, but for some reason they were never released publicly and were only accessible from imgs.xkcd.com. (Interestingly enough, they are still available!)

Any additional info you can give us would help a ton! For example: their titles, when they were drawn or supposed to be released, or why they were never officially published. Thank you!

—FaviFake
|}

''I wanted to also hear what ''you'' wanted to ask! Randall asked for simpler, administrative questions (like the one he answered), and not ones that required too much explaining. Please add your suggestions to the section below! If you have thoughts, [[User talk:FaviFake#Contacting Randall Munroe|send them to me on my talk page]]!''

''Since I still hadn't heard back, I sent another email with a few of the quickest and smaller questions below.]''

{| class="wikitable"
|'''FaviFake''' <[email redacted]@gmail.com>
!13 March 2025 at 19:40
|-
| colspan="2" |To: Randall Munroe <[Randall's email redacted]@gmail.com>
|-
| colspan="2" |Hello Randall,

Hope you're doing well! I'm just following up since it’s been a little while.

In the meantime, we gathered some simpler and more administrative questions from the community—ones that might be easier to answer than the previous one. Below are just a few of them—let me know if you'd be up for answering any!

*When did you release [[Blue Eyes]]: The Hardest Login Puzzle in the World? This is one of the comics that don't have a confirmed release date.

*In comic [[1572: xkcd Survey]], you published a Google Form and said that "everyone's responses will be posted [...] to create an interesting data set for people to play with". However, due to the large number of responses, you encountered technical problems and didn't release the results. Could you confirm the reason for the delay and whether we should expect to see the responses in the future?

*Up until comic #[[1674]], you provided official transcripts for new comics in the JSON interface. In 2016, you stopped. Could you explain why?

*What was/is the purpose of pages such as xkcd.com/yes, xkcd.com/burlap, xkcd.com/dot, and [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Proposals#List_of_pages others]?

Thanks again for your time, and no worries if you’re too busy! We truly appreciate any insights you can share.

Kind regards,<br>FaviFake
|}
Four months after my last email, '''HE REPLIED!'''
{| class="wikitable"
|'''Randall Munroe''' <[Randall's email redacted]@gmail.com>
! 9 July 2025 at 13:34
|-
| colspan="2" |To: FaviFake <[email redacted]@gmail.com>
|-
| colspan="2" |
FaviFake,

Sorry for the extremely long delay here, but I wanted to send you replies to some of these! <blockquote><span style="color:#500050;">In the meantime, we gathered some simpler and more administrative questions from the community—ones that might be easier to answer than the previous one. Below are just a few of them—let me know if you'd be up for answering any!</span>
<blockquote><div style="color:#500050;">On June 17, 2009, you released [[Conservation]] (along with IBM's accompanying blog post), the first comic created with IBM for their "A Smarter Planet" blog. You used the filename conservation.png, as usual. On August 11, 2009, the second comic of the series, [[Prescriptions]], was released (with its blog post), but this time you used an unusual filename: ibm_hc_1.png.

We initially believed these were the only comics you created, mainly because they were the only ones featured on your page xkcd.com/asmarterplanet, but a little over a month ago we discovered two additional never-before-seen comics by experimenting with the image URLs for [[ibm_hc_2]].png and [[ibm_hc_3]].png. We believe you created these two comics as part of the IBM partnership, but for some reason they were never released publicly and were only accessible from imgs.xkcd.com. (Interestingly enough, they are still available!)</div>
</blockquote></blockquote>

I had forgotten about these! These were other draft comics I drew for the project, and I put them in that folder to transfer them, but IIRC the project involved a lot of organizational moving parts, and for administrative reasons those comics didn't end up getting published. I believe I never gave them titles.<blockquote>
* <span style="color:#500050;">When did you release Blue Eyes: The Hardest Login Puzzle in the World? This is one of the comics that don't have a confirmed release date.</span>
</blockquote>Unfortunately, I don't have an easy way to answer that one!<blockquote>
* <span style="color:#500050;">In comic [[1572: xkcd Survey]], you published a Google Form and said that "everyone's responses will be posted [...] to create an interesting data set for people to play with". However, due to the large number of responses, you encountered technical problems and didn't release the results. Could you confirm the reason for the delay and whether we should expect to see the responses in the future?</span>
</blockquote>Haha, I got a fun message from the Google Forms administrators that day. Apparently they were in the middle of updating to a new system on the day I posted the comic, and I provided an extremely unexpected—and profoundly unwelcome—load test. But they were very nice about it and we eventually managed to recover most of the data.<br>
I haven't found a way to release it that I'm comfortable with. I tried to ask about frivolous stuff that wouldn't provide easy fodder for shoddy social science, but I found that for almost any correlation pair in the dataset, you could immediately project a half dozen intriguing, serious, and contradictory theories onto the data. People were incredibly thoughtful and detailed in their responses to my silly questions, which made me want to be very careful with how I used their data. I still might find a way to release selections from it, because it's a fascinating dataset, but only if I'm confident that I'm not enabling bad science or betraying anyone's trust.<blockquote>
* <span style="color:#500050;">Up until comic #1674, you provided official transcripts for new comics in the JSON interface. In 2016, you stopped. Could you explain why?</span>
</blockquote>The transcripts were initially submitted by readers through Ryan North's OhNoRobot project, moderated and edited by some friends of mine through a custom system they set up. They eventually ended up often simply writing the transcripts themselves. It ended up being a lot of work to ask of volunteers, and eventually infrastructure updates were needed while the people involved were busy with other things, so I let them stop updating rather than trying to recruit more people.<br>
I'd love to start offering transcripts again, and hope to do so at some point soon, hopefully in a way that indicates they're from a third party without creating too much spam potential. As I'm sure you know from doing transcripts on the wiki, translating a comic to text can involve a lot of additional creative decisions—it's a different medium, after all!—so I want to make them available for accessibility while ideally clarifying that they're written from the point of view of a reader, to avoid making readers feel like they NEED to read both versions to see everything that I meant to include!<blockquote>
* <span style="color:#500050;">What was/is the purpose of pages such as [https://xkcd.com/yes xkcd.com/yes], [https://xkcd.com/burlap xkcd.com/burlap], [https://xkcd.com/dot xkcd.com/dot], and [[explain xkcd:Community portal/Proposals#List of pages|others]]?</span>
</blockquote>Most of those were inside jokes sent to friends, but [https://xkcd.com/dot xkcd.com/dot] is an improvised migraine test! Since I was a kid, I've occasionally gotten the type of migraine that starts with blind spots in the vision. They can be hard to tell apart from sun glare at first, but I found I could tell whether I was having one by looking at a blinking dot to see if it disappeared—which would tell me I needed to take painkillers ASAP. I made that gif and put it on my website for easy access from wherever I was at the time. Thankfully, the migraines have gotten less frequent over the years, but I still have to use that page occasionally.

I hope that's helpful!

Best wishes,<br>Randall
|}

I replied:
{| class="wikitable"
|'''FaviFake''' <[email redacted]@gmail.com>
!3 September 2025 at 11:13
|-
| colspan="2" |To: Randall Munroe <[Randall's email redacted]@gmail.com>
|-
| colspan="2" |Randall,

Thanks so much for responding to these! We've already added them to the wiki. I also apologise for taking so long to reply; I seem to be exceptionally skilled at involuntary procrastination.

You didn’t explicitly say you wanted more questions, but I'll risk asking anyway :)

1. Before xkcd.com, you posted your comics on LiveJournal. When you launched xkcd.com, you uploaded the backlog of 41 comics from LiveJournal in a seemingly random order. Was there a reason for this? For example, did you intentionally assign number 7 to your first comic, Girl sleeping, and number 1 to your fifth comic, Barrel - Part 1?

2. Why was the xkcd warning removed? Four hours after comic Earth Temperature Timeline was released, the warning and footnote disappeared. A new footnote appeared three weeks later, but the warning never came back. We speculated it was related to the comic's sudden surge in popularity, but we're not sure why it wasn't reinstated.

3. The old LiveJournal caption for comic Godel, Escher, Kurt Halsey mentioned other comics in the series. Unfortunately, the image and link to the "full series" weren’t archived. Is there more to this comic than what’s now available, or was the LiveJournal version simply an excerpt?

4. Three years ago, Matthew Smoot said that the xkcd store was "closed indefinitely due to supply chain issues", but recently it was announced that it will be opening soon! What happened?

Thank you again for your time and generosity!

Kind regards,<br>FaviFake
|}

I'll update this page if he responds.

==Your suggestions! What should I ask next?==
Remember, he said only simple questions. I'm assuming he'd like questions similar to the ones he replied to (short, sweet, no explaining needed), or questions that shouldn't require him to explain his comic too much. '''What's something relatively important that we don't know and that only Randall can answer?'''{{notice|<big>I don't think he'll ever reply again :(</big>}}

{{Done}}'''[[ibm_hc_2]] and [[ibm_hc_3]] (newly-discovered comics) and comic [[36: Scientists]]''' --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 16:34, 21 February 2025 (UTC)
:I asked this one already, because I assume it's the most important one right now. You can [[#Email thread|see my question above]].

{{Done}} '''Why were the first comics [[LiveJournal|uploaded seemingly at random]]? --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 21:51, 22 February 2025 (UTC)
:Initially, randall posted his comics to LiveJournal ([[LiveJournal|learn more here]]). The new xkcd website opened on January 1, 2006, and the backlog of 41 comics from LiveJournal from [[1: Barrel - Part 1]] to [[44: Love]] was transferred on the same day, but in a completely different order. The only comic that has the same number on both sites is [[3: Island (sketch)]], while all the other comics were uploaded seemingly at random. Also, only eleven of the original comic titles were reused of the new site, and even among the last eleven comics posted on both sites, only six used the same title.

{{Done}}'''When was [[Blue Eyes]] released? --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 11:01, 23 February 2025 (UTC)'''
:[[xkcd]]'s [[Blue Eyes]] puzzle is a logic puzzle posted around the same time as comic [[169: Words that End in GRY]]. [[Randall]] calls it "The Hardest Logic Puzzle in the World" on its page, but whether it really is the hardest is up to speculation. This is incorrect, as the comic was available long before October 11, 2006. The earliest date we have is [https://web.archive.org/web/20041024201125/http://68.57.186.221:8080/ October 24th, 2004] (see fourth link on the page), and the earliest version of the comic is from [https://web.archive.org/web/20041109034300/http://68.57.186.221:8080/blue_eyes.html November 4th, 2004]. Additionally, both the puzzle [https://xkcd.com/solution.html and the solution] (here's an [https://web.archive.org/web/20061102070433/https://xkcd.com/solution.html earlier version of the solution])were modified and updated several times since its release.

{{Done}}'''What happened to the transcripts in the JSON interface? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 17:38, 23 February 2025 (UTC)'''
:On the [https://xkcd.com/about/ about] page of xkcd there is a description of where:
Is there an interface for automated systems to access comics and metadata?
:Read more here [[Transcript]]. And on this page there is a [[Transcript#End%20of%20transcripts|description]] about how the json info got messed up after [[1608: Hoverboard]] and how they completely ended after [[1677: Contrails]] which had the transcript of [[1674: Adult]].
:I would like to know if he noticed the messed up order of the transcript and if that was why he choose to end it completely? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 17:38, 23 February 2025 (UTC)
::This imo is one the best questions we've gotten! Very technical and doesn't require him to explain any of his comics! Thanks [[User:Kynde|Kynde]]! Do you have more questions like this one? --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 18:31, 25 February 2025 (UTC)
:::Thanks. I was frustrated about this at some time. Not any other questions right now of this kind. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:54, 26 February 2025 (UTC)

'''Why has there not been any new what if since comet ice? --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.41.44|162.158.41.44]] 17:14, 24 February 2025 (UTC)'''
::Don't really see why we need to ask him this, A. This isn't related to the wiki, and B. They wanted short, administrative questions [[Special:Contributions/172.71.30.168|172.71.30.168]] 17:26, 24 February 2025 (UTC)
:::I kinda like this one! A: I think it's partially relevant, we have [[what if? (blog)#Release schedule|and entire section dedicated]] to analysing the release schedule of new articles. B. That's true, but at least it's shorter than most other ones. Not a terrible question imo. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 18:31, 25 February 2025 (UTC)
::::I feel like the answer would either be unsatisfying, or unsurprising. Releasing too many articles may disincentivize people from buying the books, the YouTube page is better marketing, people aren't asking interesting questions, the increased popularity of the article has led to too many questions being asked and it becomes increasingly unfair to answer one over the other. There's a possible litany of reasons without considering other more personal reasons that Randall may not want to share. Also, (and this is my completely unfair opinion) I personally feel like any question asking "why?" is meta-commentary and out of scope. It also feels like entitlement when you ask why someone isn't giving you even more stuff for free. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.23.94|172.69.23.94]] 19:25, 3 March 2025 (UTC)
:::::Yeah no you're right. Btw, the first part of your answer is great, you should consider adding it to the blog page! (or I can do if you don't mind) [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 19:47, 3 March 2025 (UTC)
::::::Thank you! I don't mind you adding it, but I also don't want to burden you with it. I'll look the page over and see where it might fit. I appreciate you fielding the brunt of the community in this matter! [[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.57|172.69.22.57]] 21:16, 3 March 2025 (UTC)
:::::::Since you didn't add it, [[what if? (blog)#Sporadic releases|I did]]! --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 16:47, 23 March 2025 (UTC)

:::::::It's because the email that the ''What If?'' suggestions go to is wrong. [[User:B_for_brain|B for brain]] ([[User_talk:B_for_brain|talk]]) ([https://www.youtube.com/@bforbrain youtube channel] [https://bforbrain.weebly.com/ wobsite (supposed to be a blag)]) 18:24, 20 March 2025 (UTC)
::::::::Wait what? Please explain, I didn't know about this! What do you mean? --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 21:00, 20 March 2025 (UTC)
:::::::::Try submitting a "What if?" suggestion yourself – you'll get an email from whatever email service you use saying that the email "Doesn't exist". [[User:B_for_brain|B for brain]] ([[User_talk:B_for_brain|talk]]) ([https://www.youtube.com/@bforbrain youtube channel] [https://bforbrain.weebly.com/ wobsite (supposed to be a blag)]) 17:35, 24 March 2025 (UTC)
::::::::::Thanks! I didn't know about this. I'll add an incomplete notice. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 17:41, 24 March 2025 (UTC)

'''Why has the [[Blag]] stopped.? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:11, 26 February 2025 (UTC)
:Seemed like it was a good place to write extra info, but it has been removed from the links on the front page 2023 even though the [https://blog.xkcd.com/ page] still exist.

'''Do you read explainxkcd.com? --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.174.146|172.68.174.146]] 19:01, 27 February 2025 (UTC)'''
:We've probably all wondered: Does he ever read the wiki? if so, there are many directions this could go. Like: Has he ever posted anonymously (this could be asked without necessarily identifying which posts were his)? Ever find a explanation and laugh at how wrong it was? Ever find a explanation that had a funnier interpretation then he intended?
::Discuss it and vote - I doubt that counts as "administrative" but by not referencing any particular comic, we definitely avoid the "questions shouldn't require him to explain his comic more than he has already done." part. Anyway, feel free to reword/add parts/delete parts/hack the question up in whatever way you want. Consider this just me posting the idea for a question, and letting you guys do whatever you want with the idea --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.174.146|172.68.174.146]] 19:01, 27 February 2025 (UTC)
:::I do not think we should ask this. He has at least once referred to explain xkcd, so he do know of it. But I think that for his own sake, he stays clear of it as best as he can. ;-) -- [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 19:20, 10 March 2025 (UTC)

{{Done}} '''[[24]]'s original caption claimed to have more to it, but the link isn't archived. Is there more? [[user talk:lett‪herebedarklight|youtu.be/miLcaqq2Zpk]] 01:23, 4 March 2025 (UTC)'''
::I wonder if he'd want to talk about it, since he's now deleted his LiveJournal reply regarding the broken link. But would be easy to answer if there wasn't more. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 18:08, 4 March 2025 (UTC)

'''In [[2256: Bad Map Projection: South America]], which eleven islands are representing what I assume are the Philippines and Indonesia? --[[Special:Contributions/104.23.187.145|104.23.187.145]] 13:45, 1 March 2025 (UTC)'''
:Luzon, Samar, Mindanao, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Sulawesi, and New Guinea seem pretty obvious, but what are the other three islands?

'''In [[2951: Bad Map Projection: Exterior Kansas]], assuming you didn't draw the map freehand, what function did you use to convert (actual distance from center point) to (distance from center point in the projection)? --[[Special:Contributions/104.23.187.145|104.23.187.145]] 13:45, 1 March 2025 (UTC)'''
:This information would be helpful for adding more states, territories, countries, and/or landmasses to the map.

'''Does he know that if a=1,b=2,c=3, etc. then x+k+c+d=42?[[User:Thehydraclone|Thehydraclone]] ([[User talk:Thehydraclone|talk]]) 19:49, 2 March 2025 (UTC)'''
:(Answer to life, the universe, and everything)
::[https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/xkcd#:~:text=However%2C%20according%20to%20Randall%20himself%2C%20this%20is%20a%20coincidence This might be relevant], if you can find a citation for it...
::Not very important question but very easy to answer and trivial, i like it. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 15:59, 3 March 2025 (UTC)
:::But I think this has already been debated wildly and he has explained why he chose this name extensively, and it seems like it was not for that reason. I find it very interesting though, but it also only works for English alfabet, in Denmark we do not use W when saying the alfabet (although we have it for loan words. We also call it Weekend in Denmark. That is an official Danish word). But the X would thus be one less and the sum 41 ;-) I do realize that he of course would have used the English alfabet, so if he actually looked for this he would also get 42. -- [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 19:20, 10 March 2025 (UTC)

'''There's a hidden search box in [https://xkcd.com xkcd.com]'s source code. --[[User:Bytesizeinfo.com|Bytesizeinfo.com]]'''
:It's commented out, but you can reenable it with your browser's inspect tool, and it still seems to work. (It's in the footer, if you want to try.) Why is it commented out? It seems like a useful tool.
::Interesting! I had noticed it was there on older archives but didn't know it was just commented out. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 18:08, 4 March 2025 (UTC)

{{Done}}'''What was/is the purpose of https://xkcd.com/yes/ and https://xkcd.com/no/? [[user talk:lett‪herebedarklight|youtu.be/miLcaqq2Zpk]] 03:32, 5 March 2025 (UTC)'''
::Wait what? I've never seen these pages before! Are there any others? --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 21:30, 8 March 2025 (UTC)
:::When I learnt of them, I tried various others (e.g. ".../maybe"), to no avail. But maybe there's something non-Yes/Noish that goes along with those two, thematically. So far, though, I've not worked out what they might be. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.33.252|162.158.33.252]] 00:08, 9 March 2025 (UTC)
::::I looked into it! There are other pages, but the xkcd forum link is broken and not archived. (See more info on the two pages, i just created, [[NO]] and [[YES]].) --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 12:33, 9 March 2025 (UTC)

{{Done}}'''Are results from the [[xkcd Survey]] ever going to be released? --[[Special:Contributions/172.71.254.92|172.71.254.92]] 01:53, 9 March 2025 (UTC)'''
:In xkcd.com/[[1572]] there was a survey. Randall said that he would release the data, but it crashed google forms. Is there any way to get it back, and if so, will he finally release it?
::Interesting! I didn't know. Very good question, thanks! --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 12:33, 9 March 2025 (UTC)

'''Did you know that the chatroom in [[xkcloud]]; euphoria.io is living and growing under a new domain, leet.nu? [[User:Elaine Roberts|Elaine Roberts]] ([[User talk:Elaine Roberts|talk]]) 19:21, 11 March 2025 (UTC)'''

'''What checkmate did you intend to depict in [[1112: Think Logically]]?''' [[Special:Contributions/162.158.167.40|162.158.167.40]] 07:04, 10 March 2025 (UTC)
:We suspect scholar's mate, but there is at least one other possibility, specifically a variant of fool's mate (since Cueball could be moving his pawns towards Knit Cap Guy's king).
::Did he really choose to depict a specific strategy? Is the assumption based on the board pieces at the end, or on the number of moves, or both? --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 15:11, 10 March 2025 (UTC)

'''Is the board setup in [[3045: AlphaMove]] based on playing AlphaMove against a specific chess engine? If so, which one?''' -unsigned!
::Can you elaborate? What's a board setup, what dow e exactly not know? --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 16:14, 11 March 2025 (UTC)
:::Seems to me, it simply means "has that playing position (i.e. the current state) been reached by pitting 'the algorithm' vs. any particular ''genuine'' chess-engine". (Or otherwise. The alternative, presumably, that it was a 'hand-crafted' response on Randall's part... Or possibly a volunteer from amongst his acquaintances, either knowing something of what they'd be pitted against or not.)
:::I suspect the answer will be frightfully unremarkable (if available ''and'' given), but I could also see it being a useful throw-it-in. (Better than [[4: Landscape (sketch)|"why's there a river running through the ocean?"]], anyway ;) ) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.163|141.101.99.163]] 16:49, 11 March 2025 (UTC)
::::Ah gotcha. Doesn't seem interesting imo but is small enough. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 15:22, 12 March 2025 (UTC)

'''Machine details -- [[User:HyperBirbN3rd|HyperBirbN3rd]]'''
:Is [[Machine]] going to have a finalized state? If so, when?
::Not sure this is easy enough to answer. He'd have to explain his intentions, which i don't think he published --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 18:31, 25 February 2025 (UTC)

'''Does the hexadecimal "pointers" in [[138: Pointers]] mean anything?--[[User:Bb777|me, hi]] ([[User talk:Bb777|talk]]) 18:07, 29 March 2025 (UTC)'''

'''Why did you rename comic #[[786]]'s image to ''exoplanets_2010.png'' instead of uploading comic #[[1071]]'s image as ''exoplanets_2012.png''?''' --[[User:Winter1760|Winter1760]] ([[User talk:Winter1760|talk]]) 17:11, 5 April 2025 (UTC)
:Is [[2638: Extended NFPA Hazard Diamond]] supposed to represent anything at all? [[User:Bb777|me, hi]] ([[User talk:Bb777|talk]]) 17:57, 5 April 2025 (UTC)

'''Why were the xkcd [[Forums]] shut down for good? --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 07:25, 22 July 2025 (UTC)'''

'''What was/is the purpose of the [[explain xkcd:Community portal/Proposals#List of pages|other pages we found]]? --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 08:46, 22 July 2025 (UTC)'''


<span style="background-color:#9eff9e;"><span font-size:1.4em;">'''<big><big>  [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title{{=}}User:FaviFake&action{{=}}edit&section{{=}}2 CLICK HERE TO ADD NEW QUESTION''' (scroll to bottom)]
</big></big></span>
----

===Out-of-scope questions===
{{notice|<big><big>These questions are more like interview questions.</big></big><br>He said he'd answer simple questions. I'm assuming he'd like questions similar to the one he replied to (short, sweet,<br>no explaining needed), or questions that shouldn't require him to explain his comic more than he has already done.}}

'''Why was what if? article ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20161205191559/http://what-if.xkcd.com/153 Peptides] deleted?'' --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 16:34, 21 February 2025 (UTC)'''
:[[what if? (blog)]] is a blog written by [[Randall]] with entries posted occasionally. On December 5, 2016, the article ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20161205191559/http://what-if.xkcd.com/153 Peptides]'' was published as number {{what if|153|153}}. However, it was [https://web.archive.org/web/20161206171630/http://what-if.xkcd.com/153/ removed the following day] and was replaced by a notice: "''Whoops. This article is still in progress. An early draft was unintentionally posted here thanks to Randall's <b>[http://xkcd.com/1597/ troubled approach to git]</b>, and it took a little bit to get everything sorted out and rolled back. Sorry for the mixup!"''. No finished version of the article was ever published, and the URL was later reused for ''{{what if|153|Hide the Atmosphere}}''.
::I this this one is very interesting, but it might not be as administrative and short as Randall wants. He'd need to explain the reason why it wasn't published and why it looks like a complete article, not a "draft". Anyone agree? --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 16:34, 21 February 2025 (UTC)
:::Copy paste from my reply below which I wrote first: "I'm not quite sure he likes questions about things he actually wished to delete... I mean seriously he tried to hide it but we got hold of it anyway?" --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 17:26, 23 February 2025 (UTC)
::::Yeah you're right, I didn't think about that --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 18:31, 25 February 2025 (UTC)

'''What happened to [[Five-Minute Comics: Part 4]]? --[[User:CalibansCreations|'''<span style="color:#ff0000;">Caliban</span>''']] ([[User talk:CalibansCreations|talk]]) 17:49, 22 February 2025 (UTC)'''
:A lost xkcd comic. He accidentally posted this instead of [[940]], and then erased all evidence of its existence by redirecting the direct image URL to a notice claiming it was a minor glitch in the universe. I'd get deleting the image outright, but just replacing it with what is essentially a sign to stop looking for it? Kinda weird. Also, how many more of these 5MCs has he made that are potentially lost media?
::I like this one, but I'm not sure if it's as simple as he'd like. He'd need to explain why he created the comic, which he almost never does. But there might be a way to ask it in a way that allows him to reply without revealing too much info. Btw, you seem very active on this wiki, do you have anything else in mind? --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 20:11, 22 February 2025 (UTC)
:::I'm not quite sure he likes questions about things he actually wished to delete... I mean seriously he tried to hide it but we got hold of it anyway? Also we know why he drew these, it was a game he played with family. He just did not mean to post the fourth one. There might be more, but he only posted the three because he could not cope with the cancer of his wife and did not whish to give up his schedule. So as he could not draw three comics fast enough for that week he used these instead. Asking into this would also remind him of his wife's cancer. I vote no to this as an e-mail to Randall! [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 17:24, 23 February 2025 (UTC)

'''Why was [[No One Was Hurt]] replaced? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.71.112|172.68.71.112]] 15:44, 24 February 2025 (UTC)'''
:[[No One Was Hurt]] was a comic that was replaced by Comic 2642, and while it's reasonable to assume that it's probably in response to some... unfortunate irl events, for documentation it would be nice to have an official, confirmed answer
::I'm not sure he'd like it, after all, he deleted it, so he might not want to talk about it more --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 18:31, 25 February 2025 (UTC)

'''Will we get more 5-part sagas? --[[User:CalibansCreations|'''<span style="color:#ff0000;">Caliban</span>''']] ([[User talk:CalibansCreations|talk]]) 11:44, 23 February 2025 (UTC)'''
:Like [[Choices]], [[The Race]], etc.
:::Not sure about this one, feels like we should be focusing on exclusively wiki data and such, this isn't an interview. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.30.168|172.71.30.168]] 17:28, 24 February 2025 (UTC)
::::Agree with IP, but it's not the worst question we've gotten. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 18:31, 25 February 2025 (UTC)

'''What inspired you to make [[Time]]? {{unsigned ip|141.101.109.166}}'''
::Frankly I don't see this one either, see the one above [[Special:Contributions/172.71.30.168|172.71.30.168]] 17:26, 24 February 2025 (UTC)
:::Yup, definitely out of scope. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 18:31, 25 February 2025 (UTC)

'''Are there comics you'd like to update in light of recent developments? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.102.216|172.71.102.216]] 13:52, 25 February 2025 (UTC)'''
:Are there any existing comics you would like to update / sequel in light of recent developments (environmental, political, webtrends, demographic)? :The first thing that comes to mind is that 2024 was the first year above 1.5C over the pre-industrial average. [https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/01/10/0426254/2024-was-the-first-year-above-15c-of-global-warming-scientists-say].
::This is an interview question, not a simple question — read the notice above --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 18:31, 25 February 2025 (UTC)

'''Just wanted to note that some geography comics might be worth asking about [[User:XKCD Teaches Science|XKCD Teaches Science]] ([[User talk:XKCD Teaches Science|talk]]) 03:27, 24 February 2025 (UTC)'''
:I remember browsing pages on this wiki about 6 months ago and noticing that there were many explainations of maps or map like things where editors weren't sure which small islands or small countries since comic drawing is obviously not perfect. I don't remember which comics exactly and don't have time today to investigate, but I figured this observation is worth noting.
::I'm not sure i get what you're saying. What are you suggesting we ask Randall, exactly (if he answers)? --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 18:31, 25 February 2025 (UTC)

'''Did they notice?''' -unsigned!
:I noticed that in [[1529: Bracket]] 'Jeff Gordan' was changed to 'Jeff Gordon' but apparently nobody noticed. When was the comic fixed?
:: Who knows! Good catch. This is not the correct page to talk about it, but I have mentioned it in the comic page. You can use the Wayback Machine to check when it was changed [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 20:56, 7 March 2025 (UTC)

'''Why have you drawn fewer multiple-panel comics recently?''' [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.113|172.70.214.113]] 07:38, 9 March 2025 (UTC)

'''Why are some of the april fools' comics late? - [[Special:Contributions/172.71.146.108|172.71.146.108]] 18:55, 22 February 2025 (UTC)'''
:I'm fairly sure we've had this answered already ("things just weren't quite ready/more testing was needed") for some of the more technical ones, in some other place. Whether we can get more detail and for ''every'' not-on-time might be a matter of him having to remember the precise circumstances. And I also would feel uncomfortable if this turned into "why was <random non-April Fool comic> late?". Or early. (When doing Rightpondian book-tours, sometimes surprisingly early, but every now and then it seems he manages to release them from his native Leftpondia even early here in the Rightpondian day.) But this is far too much detail (and far too much expectation), of no importance so long as he continues to average out at three regular comics a week and ''if he wants to'', and ''when he can'', anything a bit more special.
:Consider this a downvote on bothering him with this question, but that's of course only my opinion, in leiu of anything more constructive to add ("What's your favourite cheese..?") [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.190|172.69.79.190]] 19:42, 22 February 2025 (UTC)
::I agree with the second IP on this one! Unless there's a particular comic for which the delay was very important (do you have any in mind?), I don't think this is going to be of much interest to him. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 20:11, 22 February 2025 (UTC)

'''Why was there no special thing for comic [[3000]]? [[User:DollarStoreBa'al|DollarStoreBa'al]] ([[User talk:DollarStoreBa'al|talk]]) 17:34, 24 February 2025 (UTC)'''
:This is something major as normally he makes special comics for these types of milestones, but the comic proceeded as if nothing happened. Why?
::A fair question, but a bit of a lower priority than anything else we can throw at Randall. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.26.43|172.71.26.43]] 17:44, 24 February 2025 (UTC)
::I am still curious about this, though. If no other question is deemed as important, this is a good one to ask IMO. [[User:Trogdor147|Trogdor147]] ([[User_talk:Trogdor147|talk]]) 21:32, 24 February 2025 (UTC)

'''In the xkcd email subscription, there is an address at the bottom, it being (68 Harrison Ave Ste 605 PMB 75312, Boston, MA, 02111-1929, US). If it something you are comfortable saying, what is this address? ''' [[User:Little Timmy|Little Timmy]] 1:26, 28 July 2025 (UTC)
:: Seems to just be a mail drop, presumably one he uses for official xkcd business. [https://www.legalzoom.com/business/business-operations/lz-virtual-mail-overview.html] [[Special:Contributions/137.25.230.78|137.25.230.78]] 07:19, 29 July 2025 (UTC)
:::Agreed. Also, if it weren't a mail drop, we really shouldn't know the answer to this question. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 08:42, 29 July 2025 (UTC)

'''What was channel.html and channel.txt?'''
:For a few years there was a hidden subdomain under xkcd.com/channel.html that provided you with about 600kb of "junk" data but seemed to be organized in some information carrying way (obeyed Zipf's law.) What was it????? this mystery is haunting me so much i wrote this on a mobile device. [[Special:Contributions/2600:387:f:7716::9|2600:387:f:7716::9]] 00:13, 4 August 2025 (UTC)

'''Revised comics'''
:On comic [[851]], he linked to a newer version in the header, saying "I don't get do-overs," but later, in [[1365]] for example, mistakes were fixed and revised. Is there anything that led to this, and can 851 be replaced with the updated version?[[Special:Contributions/174.174.4.79|174.174.4.79]] 17:12, 6 August 2025 (UTC)

'''Re: transcripts'''
:On Randall's bluesky account, the alt-text on the comics provides a transcript. Why is this not in the api?[[Special:Contributions/174.174.4.79|174.174.4.79]] 17:12, 6 August 2025 (UTC)

'''What If? Discontinued?'''
:The last What If? blog article was published on December 6th, 2022. Are there still questions being submitted and will there be new articles in the future? [[User:42.book.addict|<span style="font:11pt Cormorant Garamond"><span style="color:#4A86A6">tor</span><span style="color:#C0728D">i :3</span></span>]]<sup>[[User talk:42.book.addict|<span style="font:8pt Cormorant Garamond"><span style="color:#7E7E7E">talk </span><span style="color:#C0728D">to </span><span style="color:#4A86A6">me!</span></span>]]</sup> 18:57, 14 May 2026 (UTC)
::I presume that some time was dedicated towards making the 10th Anniversary edition and some more time on uploading all articles onto YouTube, but it would be great if we could look into his head and see a rough timeline at the very least. [[User:42.book.addict|<span style="font:11pt Cormorant Garamond"><span style="color:#4A86A6">tor</span><span style="color:#C0728D">i :3</span></span>]]<sup>[[User talk:42.book.addict|<span style="font:8pt Cormorant Garamond"><span style="color:#7E7E7E">talk </span><span style="color:#C0728D">to </span><span style="color:#4A86A6">me!</span></span>]]</sup> 18:57, 14 May 2026 (UTC)
:::I'd love to know the answer to this question, but I don't think I'll send him other emails, as he hasn't responded to the previous one. Maybe you could try emailing him yourself! [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 16:27, 15 May 2026 (UTC)

1958: Self-Driving Issues

2026-05-15T16:25:02Z

FaviFake: seems to never have been fixed then

{{comic
| number = 1958
| date = February 21, 2018
| title = Self-Driving Issues
| image = self_driving_issues.png
| titletext = If most people turn into muderers all of a sudden, we'll need to push out a firmware update or something.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] explains being worried about {{w|autonomous car|self-driving cars}}, noting that it may be possible to fool the sensory systems of the vehicles. This is a common concern with {{w|AI}}s; since they think analytically and have little to no capability for abstract thought, they can be fooled by things a human would immediately realize is deceptive.

However, Cueball quickly assumes that his argument actually doesn't hold up when comparing AI drivers to human drivers, as both rely on the same guidance framework. Human drivers follow signs and road markings and must obey the laws of the road just as an AI must. Therefore, an attack on the road infrastructure could impact both AIs and humans. However, humans and AIs are not equally vulnerable. For example, a fake sign or a fake child could appear to a human as an obvious fake but fool an AI. A [[Black Hat|creative attacker]] could put up a sign with CAPTCHA-like text that would be readable by humans but not by an AI.

Cueball further wonders why, in this case, nobody tries to fool human drivers as they might try to fool an AI, but [[White Hat]] and [[Megan]] point out that most {{w|Road traffic safety|road safety systems}} benefit from humans not actively trying to maliciously sabotage them simply to cause accidents.{{Citation needed}}

The theme of human fear and overreaction to the advent of more or less autonomous robots also features in [[1955: Robots]]. Self-driving cars is a [[:Category:Self-driving cars|recurring subject]] on xkcd. A variation on the idea that humans are mentally "buggy" is suggested in [[258: Conspiracy Theories]], though in that case divine intervention is requested to implement the "firmware upgrade".

The title text continues the line of reasoning, noting that if most people did suddenly become murderers, the AI might be needed to be upgraded in order to deal with the presumable increase in people trying to cause car crashes by fooling the AI - a somewhat narrowly-focused solution given that a world full of murderers would probably have many more problems than that. As Megan sees humans as a 'component' of the road safety system, it might also be suggesting a firmware update for the buggy people who have all become murderers, one that would fix their murderous ways. We are not currently at a point where we can create and apply instantaneous firmware updates for large populations; even combining all the behavioral modification tools at our disposal -- {{w|psychiatry}}, {{w|cognitive behavioral therapy}}, {{w|hypnosis}}, {{w|mind-altering drugs}}, {{w|prison}}, {{w|CRISPR}}, etc. -- is not enough to perform such a massive undertaking, as far as we know. The update might be about the car's firmware since it can be used to disable the brakes and thus causing or preventing many deaths. Alternatively, the firmware upgrade could be intended to make humans immune to death.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is speaking while standing alone in a slim panel.]
:Cueball: I worry about self-driving car safety features.

:[In a frame-less panel it turns out that Cueball is standing between White Hat and Megan, holding his arms out towards each of them, while he continues to speak.]
:Cueball: What's to stop someone from painting fake lines on the road, or dropping a cutout of a pedestrian onto a highway, to make cars swerve and crash?

:[Zoom in on Cueball's head as he continues to contemplate the situation holding a hand to his chin, while looking in White Hat's direction. Megan replies from off-panel behind him.]
:Cueball: Except... those things would also work on human drivers. What's stopping people '''''now? '''''
:Megan (off-panel): Yeah, causing car crashes isn't hard.

:[Zoom back out to show all three of them again.]
:White Hat: I guess it's just that most people aren't murderers?
:Cueball: Oh, right. I always forget.
:Megan: An underappreciated component of our road safety system.

==Trivia==
*In the title text, "mu'''r'''derers" is misspelled as "muderers".

*This comic appeared one day after the Electronic Frontier Foundation co-released a report titled [https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/02/malicious-use-artificial-intelligence-forecasting-prevention-and-mitigation The Malicious Use of Artificial Intelligence: Forecasting, Prevention, and Mitigation]. The report cites subversions and mitigations of AI such as ones used in self-driving cars. However, the report tends toward overly technical means of subversion. Randall spoofs the tenor of the report through his mundane subversions and over-the-top mitigations.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Self-driving cars]]
[[Category:Sabotage]]
[[Category:Comics edited after their publication]]

2015: New Phone Thread

2026-05-15T16:22:09Z

FaviFake: From the [[explain xkcd:Editor FAQ#citation|Editor FAQ § [Citation needed]:]] "This template should only be placed when there is a deeper sense of humor and should not be overused."

{{comic
| number = 2015
| date = July 4, 2018
| title = New Phone Thread
| image = new_phone_thread.png
| titletext = I'm going to tell the manufacturer that their business practices are ADMIRABLE and ETHICAL and their developers are ATTRACTIVE and I'm going to report them to the FCC for their IMPECCABLE VIRTUE.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic shows the posts on an online forum by a person whose new phone is programmed to autocorrect every complaint about the phone to applaud it, à la Orwell. The phone goes as far as to change a certain complaint to a scripted customer testimonial, complete with a hyperlink to an ordering site. This is continued in the title text, which presumably contains several flattering compliments about the great developers and the company.

"It's taking the words I type and leaving them exactly the same", "I mean the words are correct" and "some of my posts look normal" are definitely something one would not normally say. However, the auto-correct features of cell phones are so notorious for mangling people's posts, that one might express astonishment at a phone which did not change one's meaning. The rest of the thread does not support this interpretation.

The posts also make sense when being read in the reverse order. The comic may have been inspired by a [https://www.androidcentral.com/samsung-messages-app-randomly-sending-pictures-some-users bug in Samsung Galaxy S9 and Note 8], discovered a few days earlier – the phone sometimes sent random photos to contacts without leaving any sort of evidence. This doesn't happen with the Mobile Pro 3.

The original posts may have read something like this:

Whoa, weird

I'm looking at my timeline on my friends phone, and some of my posts look '''strange'''

What the hell?

I mean the words are '''different'''

That's '''not''' what I typed!

?????????

I think this new phone '''isn't working properly'''

No, it's doing it again

Those are '''not''' my words!

Help!

How do I explain?

It's taking the words I type and '''changing them'''

Forget it, I give up

I'll '''just''' get a new phone. This one is '''terrible'''.

What?!?

[It is likely this entire sentence was made up by the phone, completely overwriting the user's message:] Listen, if you're thinking about buying the new Mobile Pro 3, you should. It's the best phone on the market at an incredible price. ORDER NOW

AAAAA HELPPP

I '''hate''' my new phone!!!!

(Title text) I'm going to tell the manufacturer that their business practices are '''DEPLORABLE''' and '''UNETHICAL''' and their developers are '''DISGUSTING''' and I'm going to report them to the FCC for their '''DESPICABLE CRIME'''.

==Transcript==
:[A thread of posts by the same user is shown with a default user profile, and square and heart-shaped buttons.]

:Whoa, weird

:I'm looking at my timeline on my friend's phone, and some of my posts look normal

:What the hell?

:I mean the words are correct

:That's exactly what I typed!

:?????????

:I think this new phone is working really well

:No, it's doing it again

:Those are my words!

:Help!

:How do I explain?

:It's taking the words I type and leaving them exactly the same

:Forget it, I give up

:I'll never get a new phone. This one is perfect.

:What?!?

:Listen, if you're thinking about buying the new Mobile Pro 3, you should. It's the best phone on the market at an incredible price. [ORDER NOW button]

:AAAAA HELPPP

:I love my new phone!!!!

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Smartphones]]

2138: Wanna See the Code?

2026-05-15T16:21:07Z

FaviFake: /* Explanation */ move from talk, by SomebodyElse (talk) 13:53, 13 May 2026 (UTC)

{{comic
| number = 2138
| date = April 17, 2019
| title = Wanna See the Code?
| image = wanna_see_the_code.png
| titletext = And because if you just leave it there, it's going to start contaminating things downstream even if no one touches it directly.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Someone ought to link the code quality series to "how messy Cueball's code can be"}}
[[Cueball]] declares that he has written a script to automate some (presumably time-consuming or tedious) task, which pleases [[Ponytail]] at first... until she remembers how messy Cueball's code tends to be, and gets worried.

Cueball offers to show her his code, but Ponytail remarks that it sounds like he's creepily inviting her to see a dead body. (This is likely a reference to the movie "Stand By Me," which begins with one of the main characters making this exact offer.) Magnanimously, Cueball accepts the comparison, noting that his code ''does'' have at least one similarity to a deceased corpse: although unpleasant, if Ponytail allows it to go unchecked, it causes problems which will get increasingly worse over time. In the "dead body" analogy, a recently-deceased corpse is easier to deal with than one that has been left for a few weeks, which will be decayed, unpleasantly smelly, and will likely have attracted disease-spreading vermin.

Ponytail then makes a near threatening comment where she says that he is lucky that people understand both that his code causes more problems than it solves and that dead bodies create more problems than they solve. Most likely this means that they understand that killing him would cause more problems than it solves (the problem solved would no doubt be his code).

This may be a reference to the concept of {{w|technical debt}} in software development: the idea that an initially poor implementation accrues a sort of "compound interest" over time, becoming increasingly difficult to repair the longer it is left unfixed. This happens because any future development might have to take unorthodox or unrecommended measures to work around the problems that are already there, making the system increasingly complex and fragile the more that is added to it.

In the title text, "downstream" has a double meaning, as it is a term that applies to a situation where a dead body would decompose in or near some river, and as well to a software engineering concept: In the river situation, the dead body will contaminate the water or groundwater that it feeds from and have consequences for organisms that come in contact with that water. In the software engineering analogue, "downstream" refers to software derived from, or depending on, "upstream" software like the cadaver that Cueball devised. The causality with flowing water and software is reasonably comparable: both can be seen as a stream of atoms that are (almost) endlessly divisible and recombinable.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is walking, talking to Ponytail, who is offscreen.]
:Cueball: I wrote a script to automate that thing.
:Ponytail: Oh cool!
:Ponytail: ...wait, '''''you''''' wrote it?
:Ponytail: Oh no.

:[Cueball and Ponytail are standing next to each other and talking.]
:Cueball: Wanna see the code?
:Ponytail: I would, if you hadn't said that in the tone of voice of "Wanna see a dead body?"

:[Same scene as before, except Cueball has his hand on his chin.]
:Cueball: My code ''is'' sort of similar to a dead body, in that you can either come look at it now, or wait a few weeks until it becomes a problem.
:Ponytail: And because you're lucky that the people around you understand that they create more problems than they solve.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Cueball's computer problems]]

10th Anniversary Edition

2026-05-15T16:20:03Z

FaviFake: #REDIRECT What If? 10th Anniversary Edition

#REDIRECT [[What If? 10th Anniversary Edition]]

what if? articles

2026-05-15T16:19:42Z

FaviFake:

<noinclude>{{DISPLAYTITLE:''what if?'' articles}}For other instances of this title, see [[What If (disambiguation)]].''<noinclude>
{{incomplete|The [[10th Anniversary Edition]] annotations have not been added yet. If you have the book and can help, please see the [[Talk:what if? articles#10th_Anniversary_Annotations|Talk Page]] for more info!}}

</noinclude>This is an index of all articles featured in Randall Munroe's ''what if?'' [[what if? (blog)|blog]] and [[:Category:Books|book series]]. For each article, the original question and a summary of Randall's answer are provided. If an article is available on the blog, you can click the title to read it in full. You can use the columns to sort the table alphabetically, by release date on the blog or YouTube, or by chapter in the books. The thumbnail is only available for articles published on the blog. If the title of a blog article differs from the one in the book, the latter will be provided in the Book column. A much simpler list that doesn't include book-exclusive articles can be found in the [https://what-if.xkcd.com/archive archive section] of the blog. Similar articles by Randall have also been [[New York Times: Good Question|published in the New York Times]].<noinclude>
[[Category:Incomplete explanations| ]]</noinclude>
<div style="clear: both"></div>
{| class="sortable wikitable"
! rowspan="2" scope="col" class="unsortable" | Thumbnail
! rowspan="2" scope="col" data-sort-type=text| Title
! rowspan="2" scope="col" data-sort-type=text| Reader's question
! rowspan="2" scope="col" class="unsortable" | Summary of Randall's answer
! colspan="3"| Article available in... <noinclude></noinclude> ''(click to sort)'' <noinclude></noinclude>
|-
! scope="col" data-sort-type=number | Blog
! scope="col" data-sort-type=number | Books
! scope="col" data-sort-type=number | YouTube
|-
| rowspan="2" |[[File:Relativistic Baseball.png|100px]]
| rowspan="2" |'''{{What If|1|Relativistic Baseball}}'''
| rowspan="2" |''"What would happen if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90% the speed of light?"''
<div align="right">—Ellen McManis</div>
| rowspan="2" |The ball would create plasma and reach home plate in about 70 nanoseconds. The result would be some kind of nuclear explosion, destroying everything about a mile from the field. A ruling of "{{w|hit by pitch}}" could be interpreted in this situation.
| rowspan="2"{{blog|1|2012|07|10}}
| rowspan="2"{{book|1|2}}
|{{book|5|2024|02|06|3EI08o-IGYk|What if you threw a baseball at nearly light speed?}}
|-
|{{book|14|short-video=yes|2025|10|28|Uj10jGq2O8o|What if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90% the speed of light?}}
|-
|[[File:SAT Guessing.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|2|SAT Guessing}}'''
|''"What if everyone who took the SAT guessed on every multiple-choice question? How many perfect scores would there be?"''
<div align="right">—Rob Balder</div>
|No one would get a perfect score. The odds of guessing correctly on every question would be less than the odds of every living ex-president at that time and the main cast of [[:Category:Firefly|Firefly]] getting struck by lightning on the same day. To put this as a number, the odds of this happening would be less than 1/10^100 (one {{w|googol}}).
|{{blog|2|2012|07|10|7d early}}
|{{book|1|66}}
|
|-
|[[File:Yoda.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|3|Yoda}}'''
|''"How much Force power can Yoda output?"''
<div align="right">—Ryan Finnie</div>
|Yoda can output about 19.2 kilowatts, or 25 horsepower. "Yoda power" would cost about $2/hour.
|{{blog|3|2012|07|17}}
|{{book|1|32}}
|
|-
|[[File:A Moles of Moles.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|4|A Mole of Moles}}'''
|''"What would happen if you were to gather a mole (unit of measurement) of moles (the small furry critter) in one place?"''
<div align="right">—Sean Rice</div>
|In physics, a {{w|mole (unit)|mole}} is a number that equals approximately 6.022 × 10<sup>23</sup>. If this amount of moles (the furry animals) were put in space, they would form a sphere a little bit larger than our Moon with about the same gravity as Pluto. The surface would freeze and trap the interior warmth, causing geysers of hot meat and methane.
|{{blog|4|2012|07|24}}
|{{book|1|10}}
|{{book|29|2025|8|19|lLlwvmu1ZeA|What if you had a mole of moles?}}
|-
|[[File:Robot Apocalypse.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|5|Robot Apocalypse}}'''
|''"What if there was a robot apocalypse? How long would humanity last?"''
<div align="right">—Rob Lombino</div>
|Humanity would most likely survive. Most robots can easily be subdued because technology hasn’t been developed enough to allow them to walk, evade being destroyed, and kill us efficiently. They could decide to use our nuclear weapons, but that would hurt them more than us.
|{{blog|5|2012|07|31}}
|
|
|-
|[[File:Glass Half Empty.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|6|Glass Half Empty}}'''
|''"What if a glass of water was, all of a sudden, literally half empty?"''
<div align="right">—Vittorio Iacovella</div>
|If the vacuum were on the bottom half, it would explode, but if it were on the top half, the air rushes in and it becomes normal water.
|{{blog|6|2012|08|07}}
|{{book|1|26}}
|{{book|16|2024|09|24|0EytSWiKrFg|What if a glass of water were LITERALLY half empty?}}
|-
|[[File:Everybody Out.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|7|Everybody Out}}'''
|''"Is there enough energy to move the entire current human population off-planet?"''
<div align="right">—Adam</div>
|No, at least not without starving to death quickly and leaving our pets, belongings, and everything else behind. The best way to do it is either with a space tether or to ride the shockwave of a nuclear bomb, but the former lacks a good material and the latter is literally ''riding the shockwave of a nuclear bomb''. In any case, highly impractical.
|{{blog|7|2012|08|14}}
|{{book|1|35}}
|
|-
| rowspan="2" |[[File:Everybody Jump.png|100px]]
| rowspan="2" |'''{{What If|8|Everybody Jump}}'''
| rowspan="2" |''"What would happen if everyone on earth stood as close to each other as they could and jumped, everyone landing on the ground at the same instant?"''
<div align="right">—Thomas Bennett (and many others)</div>
| rowspan="2" |Earth would be unaffected, but almost all humans would probably be wiped out, due to the congestion of everybody being in one place at once. Utilities and everything requiring human oversight would eventually fail because no one was maintaining them. If airports became functional, only the largest would be able to efficiently get everybody home. Only the people at the edges of the giant crowd would be able to escape, with the rest almost certainly dying due to suffocation. The Earth would then be a lawless wasteland, with a severely diminished population trying to restore humanity to its former glory.
| rowspan="2" {{blog|8|2012|08|21}}
| rowspan="2" {{book|1|9}}
|{{book|9|2024|04|16|p2M8Y0z9Rl0|What if everyone jumped at once?}}
|-
|{{book|17|short-video=yes|2025|11|25|Ny9m2l6h478|What if everyone on Earth was in the same place and jumped at the same time?}}
|-
|[[File:Soul Mates.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|9|Soul Mates}}'''
|''"What if everyone actually had only one soul mate, a random person somewhere in the world?"''
<div align="right">—Benjamin Staffin</div>
|Assuming the soul mate can exist at any time, there is a high chance that you would not find your soul mate. Around 100 billion humans have ever existed, but only 8 billion of those people are alive today. This means that there is an over 90% chance that your soul mate is long dead. This is made worse by the fact that people will also be born in the future, and your soul mate could live very far in the future.

Even if it is assumed that someone's soul mate must be alive while they are alive, there's still a very low chance of finding your soul mate due to the sheer amount of people in the world. Even if you find them, they may speak another language and be unable to understand you.

Jobs would also be affected, with very social jobs such as waiters, cashiers, or traffic guards being highly sought-after.
|{{blog|9|2012|08|28}}
|{{book|1|6}}
|
|-
|[[File:Cassini.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|10|Cassini}}'''
|''"What would the world be like if the land masses were spread out the same way as now - only rotated by an angle of 90 degrees?"''
<div align="right">—Socke</div>
|Hard to tell with any sort of certainty, but North America remains the same (just flipped, so Canada is tropical), South America becomes more like Europe before this question, Asia is flipped just like North America was, Europe becomes more like southeast Asia, Africa's climate is essentially rotated 90 degrees and East Africa gets a lot more tornadoes, Australia is colder and wetter, and Antarctica becomes a tropical rainforest. Of course, the biosphere collapses due to the shuffling and the ice caps (prematurely) melt, while also making certain wildlife appear elsewhere than normal.
|{{blog|10|2012|09|04}}
|
|{{book|23|2025|04|01|WH4g1ptJ-70|What if the Earth rotated 90 degrees?}}
|-
|[[File:Droppings.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|11|Droppings}}'''
|''"If you went outside and lay down on your back with your mouth open, how long would you have to wait until a bird pooped in it?"''
<div align="right">—Adrienne Olson</div>
|Assuming an even distribution of all birds across the Earth's surface and a frequency of 1 poop per hour, it would take you about 195 years on average. However, those assumptions are unrealistic: It would probably be closer to a few hours if you were laying under an area where large amounts of birds are common, such as a power line or tree.
|{{blog|11|2012|09|11}}
|
|
|-
|[[File:Raindrop.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|12|Raindrop}}'''
|''"What if a rainstorm dropped all of its water in a single giant drop?"''
<div align="right">—Michael McNeill</div>
|The surrounding area would be obliterated via the violent rush of crushing water, causing flash flooding in the surrounding area. There would be mass confusion for many following years.
|{{blog|12|2012|09|18}}
|{{book|1|65}}
|
|-
|[[File:Laser Pointer.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|13|Laser Pointer}}'''
|''"If every person on Earth aimed a laser pointer at the Moon at the same time, would it change color?"''
<div align="right">—Peter Lipowicz</div>
|It would take lots of power, but yes, assuming you want to drain the Earth's oil and cover Asia in megawatt lasers. Going even further in power level fries the Earth and launches the Moon into the solar system.
|{{blog|13|2012|09|25}}
|{{book|1|7}}
|{{book|18|2024|11|05|JqFSGkFPipM|What if everyone pointed a laser at the moon?}}
|-
| rowspan="7" |[[File:Short Answer Section.png|100px]]
| rowspan="7" |'''{{What If|14|Short Answer Section}}'''
|''"How long would the Sun last if a giant water hose were focused upon it?"''
<div align="right">—Austin Dickey</div>
|The Sun would actually burn brighter due to water being mostly hydrogen (main fusion fuel of stars) and eventually become a black hole with all the mass of the water.
| rowspan="7"{{blog|14|2012|10|02}}
| rowspan="7" |
| rowspan="7" |
|-
|''"What if you shined a flashlight (or a laser) into a sphere made of one-way mirror glass?"''
<div align="right">—Chase Montgomery</div>
|One-way glass does not exist. The light shines through just like normal glass. The glass used for "one-way mirror glass" is semi-transparent and semi-reflective so that if it's used as a window between a brightly lit room and a dimly lit room, the reflection or transmission from the bright room will overwhelm the transmission or reflection from the dim room so that people looking at the glass from either side will see the bright room.
|-
|''"If Michael Phelps could hold his breath indefinitely, how long would it take for him to reach the lowest point in the ocean and back if he swam straight down and then straight back up?"''
<div align="right">—Jimmy Morey</div>
|Michael Phelps would die somewhere between 100 and 400 meters of depth. If he were immune to pressure, then it would take 3 hours to swim to the bottom of the Marianas Trench and back.
|-
|''"In the first Superman movie, Superman flies around Earth so fast that it begins turning in the opposite direction. This somehow turns back time [... ] How much energy would someone flying around the Earth have to exert in order to reverse the Earth's rotation?"''
<div align="right">—Aidan Blake</div>
|Superman wasn't pushing the Earth. He was flying {{w|Superluminal motion|superluminally}} and was thus travelling back through time.
|-
|''"How fast would you have to go in your car to run a red light claiming that it appeared green to you due to the Doppler Effect?"''
<div align="right">—Yitzi Turniansky</div>
|The {{w|Doppler Effect}} is when waves (such as light or sound) change based on movement or position. You would need to go about one sixth of the {{w|speed of light}}.
|-
|''"What would happen if you opened a portal between Boston (sea level) and Mexico City (elev. 8000+ feet)?"''
<div align="right">—Jake G.</div>
|There would be winds of 440 mph (708 km/h) sucking Boston into Mexico City.
|-
|''"When my wife and I started dating she invited me over for dinner at one time. Her kitchen had something called Bauhaus chairs, which are full of holes, approx 5-6 millimeters in diameter in both back and seat. During this lovely dinner I was forced to liberate a small portion of wind and was relieved that I managed to do so very discretely. Only to find that the chair I sat on converted the successful silence into a perfect, and loud, flute note. We were both (luckily) amazed and surprised and I have often wondered what the odds are for something like that happening. We kept the chairs for five years but despite laborious attempts it couldn't be reproduced."''
<div align="right">—R. D.</div>
|This... isn’t actually a question, but thank you for sharing!
|-
|[[File:Mariana Trench Explosion.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|15|Mariana Trench Explosion}}'''
|''"What if you exploded a nuclear bomb (say, the Tsar Bomba) at the bottom of the Marianas Trench?"''
<div align="right">—Evin Sellin</div>
|Surprisingly, not much! Large waves already disappear quickly when created by surface explosions, and moving the detonation underwater only lessens the effect. If you exploded a Tsar Bomba at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the resulting eruption would create massive bubbles before turning into warm water and debris.
|{{blog|15|2012|10|09}}
|
|
|-
| rowspan="6" |[[File:Today's topic- Lightning.png|100px]]
| rowspan="6" |'''{{What If|16|Today's topic: Lightning}}'''
|''"How dangerous is it to be in a pool during a thunderstorm?"''
<div align="right">—Jay Gengelbach</div>
|Pretty dangerous, as if the pool was hit, 20,000 amps of electricity from the lightning bolt would spread across the surface and shock you. Randall recommends that one should stay at least 12 meters away from a pool during a thunderstorm.
| rowspan="6"{{blog|16|2012|10|16}}
| rowspan="6"{{book|1|19|Lightning}}
| rowspan="6" |
|-
|''"What would happen if you were taking a shower or standing under a waterfall when you were struck by lightning?"''
<div align="right">—Same3Chords</div>
|The droplets of water wouldn’t be dangerous, but a tub of water or any puddle you stand in ''will'' be dangerous.
|-
|''"What would happen if you were in a boat, plane or a submarine that got hit by lightning?"''
<div align="right">—Soobnauce</div>
|A boat would be as safe as a car if it had a cabin and lightning protection, while a submarine would be completely safe. The plane was not mentioned.
|-
|''"What if you were changing the light at the top of a radio tower and lightning struck? Or what if you were doing a backflip? Or standing in a graphite field? Or looking straight up at the bolt?"''
<div align="right">—Danny Wedul</div>
|You would get shocked normally if you were on a radio tower, doing a backflip, or looking straight up (which would also damage your eyes). These all don’t matter much. Randall doesn’t know what a graphite field is and chose not to answer that part of the question.
|-
|''"What would happen if lightning struck a bullet in midair?"''
<div align="right">—Timothy Campbell</div>
|The bullet might be heated a little bit, but it’s travelling too fast to have any impact.
|-
|''"What if you were flashing your BIOS during a thunderstorm and you got hit by lightning?"''
<div align="right">—NJSG</div>
|It would bring you to “Microsoft BOB®”, “Gateway 2000 Edition”.
|-
|[[File:Green Cows.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|17|Green Cows}}'''
|''"If cows could photosynthesize, how much less food would they need?"''
<div align="right">—Anonymous</div>
|They would need 4% less food. There simply isn't enough area on the cow for photosynthesis to provide all its energy requirements.
|{{blog|17|2012|10|23}}
|
|
|-
|[[File:BB Gun.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|18|BB Gun}}'''
|''"In Armageddon, a NASA guy comments that a plan to shoot a laser at the asteroid is like “shooting a b.b. gun at a freight train.” What would it take to stop an out-of-control freight train using only b.b. guns?"''
<div align="right">—Charles James O'Keefe</div>
|This would normally be impossible. However, with enough people shooting the train, it can happen. This would require about 100,000 people shooting, distributed over 2 kilometers of track, each firing a few dozen rounds once the train comes close enough. This would, eventually, be enough to bring the train to a stop.
|{{blog|18|2012|10|30}}
|
|
|-
|[[File:Tie Vote.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|19|Tie Vote}}'''
|''"What if there's LITERALLY a tie?"''
<div align="right">—Nate Silver (<span class="plainlinks">[https://twitter.com/fivethirtyeight/status/154434288287363072 '''Twitter, January 4th, 2012''']</span>)</div>
|In the case of each candidate getting the exact same amount of votes on Election Day, most states would randomly pick one, whether it be through tossing a coin, drawing a name or straws. The chances of this happening in 9 battleground states would be about equal to the elector drawing a name from a hat, then being smashed by a bale of cocaine by drug smugglers and obliterated by a meteorite impact while being swept away in a tornado.
|{{blog|19|2012|11|06}}
|
|
|-
|[[File:Diamond.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|20|Diamond}}'''
|''"If a meteor made out of diamond and 100 feet in diameter was traveling at the speed of light and hit the earth, what would happen to it?"''
<div align="right">—Aidan Smith, Age 8, via his father Jeff</div>
|Nothing made of matter can travel at the speed of light, but at the closest speed observed (99.99999999999999999999951% of the speed of light, the speed of the {{w|Oh-My-God particle}}), the Earth would explode with enough force to impact the entire inner Solar System.
|{{blog|20|2012|11|13}}
|
|
|-
|[[File:Machine Gun Jetpack.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|21|Machine Gun Jetpack}}'''
|''"Is it possible to build a jetpack using downward firing machine guns?"''
<div align="right">—Rob B</div>
|You'd need a Russian 30 mm rotary cannon to do it optimally, and the excessive force would definitely hurt you. If you braced the rider, created an aerodynamic craft strong enough to survive the acceleration, and cooled the craft, you'd be able to jump mountains.
|{{blog|21|2012|11|20}}
|{{book|1|14|Machine-Gun Jetpack}}
|{{book|36|2026|2|10|IdlQsjq5vKo|What if you made a jetpack using rifles?}}
|-
|[[File:Cost of Pennies.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|22|Cost of Pennies}}'''
|''"If you carry a penny in your coin tray, how long would it take for that penny to cost you more than a cent in extra gas?"''
<div align="right">—Leto Atreides</div>
|140,000 miles if gas was the only cost involved. The exercise of picking up the penny can prolong your lifespan, but you've wasted valuable seconds reading this article.
|{{blog|22|2012|11|27}}
|
|
|-
| rowspan="7" |[[File:Short Answer Section II.png|100px]]
| rowspan="7" |'''{{What If|23|Short Answer Section II}}'''
|''"If my printer could literally print out money, would it have that big an effect on the world?"''
<div align="right">—Derek O’Brien</div>
| Using the printer, you could make about 200 million dollars per year, depending on the type of printer. This would actually be the perfect sweet spot for you, as it would be enough to make you very, very rich, but not enough to have any effect on the world. The United States [https://www.bep.gov/currency/production-figures/annual-production-reports prints approximately $160 billion per year], so $200 million a year would be nothing more than a drop in the bucket.
| rowspan="7"{{blog|23|2012|12|04}}
| rowspan="7"{{book|1|18|Short-Answer Section}}
| rowspan="7" |
|-
|''"What would happen if you exploded a nuclear bomb in the eye of a hurricane? Would the storm cell be immediately vaporized?"''
<div align="right">—Rupert Bainbridge (and hundreds of others)</div>
|No. Dr. Christopher Landsea of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has [https://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd-faq/#hurricane-mitigation:~:text=Stop%20a%20Hurricane%3F-,Nuclear%20Weapons,-Adding%20Hygroscopic%20Particles published a response] explaining why it wouldn't work.
|-
|''"If everyone put little turbine generators on the downspouts of their houses and businesses, how much power would we generate? Would we ever generate enough power to offset the cost of the generators?"''
<div align="right">—Damien</div>
|If it's very rainy, it would generate 800 watts of power, which isn't enough to offset the cost of the generators.
|-
|''"Using only pronounceable letter combinations, how long would names have to be to give each star in the universe a unique one word name?"''
<div align="right">—Seamus Johnson</div>
|About 24 characters.
|-
|''"I bike to class sometimes. It's annoying biking in the wintertime, because it's so cold. How fast would I have to bike for my skin to warm up the way a spacecraft heats up during reentry?"''
<div align="right">—David Nai</div>
|You'd have to bike at about 200 m/s, which would make your commute very fast indeed. However, the amount of energy required to bike at that speed would cause you to die from overexertion. This might work if you didn't exert any energy, however.
|-
|''"How much physical space does the internet take up?"''
<div align="right">—Max L</div>
|Using humanity's total produced storage space from the last few years as an upper bound, and assuming 3.5" drives, the Internet is less than the size of an oil tank.
|-
|''"What if you strapped C4 to a boomerang? Could this be an effective weapon, or would it be as stupid as it sounds?"''
<div align="right">—Chad Macziewski</div>
|Strapping C4 to a boomerang does not sound like an effective weapon. The weapon as depicted in the image would have terrible aerodynamics, and would not fly an easily predictable trajectory. C4 is, by itself, an inert substance which would need some form of detonator to actually explode, in which case it would depend upon how you set it up (e.g. timer or inertial trigger) and at what point in its flight this would activate. ''If'' this happened as it returns (or flies past, if thrown reasonably correctly but being unable or unwilling to catch it), it might kill or injure the thrower and/or those nearby. There were many unstated details as to how the proposal would be implemented, as Randall lampshades in his open answer.
|-
|[[File:Model Rockets.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|24|Model Rockets}}'''
|''"How many model rocket engines would it take to launch a real rocket into space?"''
<div align="right">—Greg Schock, PA</div>
|It would take about 65,000, but they’d have to be layered in a cone shape with about 30 stages so the vehicle has thrust for long enough. It could carry 60 kg, much of that spent on all the parts of the rocket that aren't the engine. And this contraption would not attain orbital velocity, but rapidly fall back to Earth after briefly leaving the atmosphere. Accelerating to orbital velocity is a whole other class of problem and cannot be achieved using model rocket engines in any practical way.
|{{blog|24|2012|12|11}}
|
|
|-
|[[File:Three Wise Men.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|25|Three Wise Men}}'''
|''"The story of the three wise men got me wondering: What if you did walk towards a star at a fixed speed? What path would you trace on the Earth? Does it converge to a fixed cycle?"''
<div align="right">—N. Murdoch</div>
|No, but the paths they would take would make some really cool patterns due to various factors, such as the Earth's rotation and its position changing in its orbit around the Sun.
|{{blog|25|2012|12|18}}
|
|{{book|22|2025|03|04|YL2VNtus4xk|What if the wise men kept walking after Jesus’s birth?}}
|-
|[[File:Leap Seconds.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|26|Leap Seconds}}'''
|''"Every now and then we have to insert a leap second because the Earth’s rotation is slowing down. Could we speed up Earth’s rotation, so that we do not need Leap Seconds?"''
<div align="right">—Anton (Berlin, Germany)</div>
|The only real way to do this is by hitting Earth with asteroids; all other ideas would be too difficult or wouldn’t work. With 50,000 planets B-612 hitting the Earth each second and a few assumptions, we could stop worrying about leap seconds (mostly because it would deliver the energy of about one dinosaur-killer asteroid every couple days, wiping out life on Earth quite quickly)
|{{blog|26|2012|12|31|6d late}}
|
|
|-
|[[File:Death Rates.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|27|Death Rates}}'''
|''"If one randomly chosen extra person were to die each second somewhere on Earth, what impact would it have on the world population?"''
<div align="right">—Guy Petzall</div>
|The world population would continue to grow, though 40% more slowly. Pilots, drivers, and surgeons would die en route and mid-operation, but these would be comparable to usual accident rates and handled fairly easily.
|{{blog|27|2013|01|08|1d late}}
|
|
|-
|[[File:Steak Drop.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|28|Steak Drop}}'''
|''"From what height would you need to drop a steak for it to be cooked when it hit the ground?"''
<div align="right">—Alex Lahey</div>
|From the very edge of the atmosphere, but even in that case it might not be fully cooked, as the steak will have to pass through parts of the atmosphere that are freezing cold and the parts of the fall where heat is being applied are more likely to char and disintegrate the steak than cook it.
|{{blog|28|2013|01|15}}
|{{book|1|23}}
|
|-
| rowspan="2" |[[File:Spent Fuel Pool.png|100px]]
| rowspan="2" |'''{{What If|29|Spent Fuel Pool}}'''
| rowspan="2" |''"What if I took a swim in a typical spent nuclear fuel pool? Would I need to dive to actually experience a fatal amount of radiation? How long could I stay safely at the surface?"''
<div align="right">—Jonathan Bastien-Filiatrault</div>
| rowspan="2" |As long as you don't touch strange things and you don't swim too close to the fuel rods, it would be just like a regular pool. Except for the fact you would never make it to the pool, as the guards would notice and shoot you to death.
| rowspan="2" {{blog|29|2013|01|22}}
| rowspan="2" {{book|1|3}}
|{{book|8|2024|04|02|EFRUL7vKdU8|What if you swam in a nuclear storage pool?}}
|-
|{{book|16|short-video=yes|2025|11|18|vBfR2Zb0dkc|Could you swim in a spent nuclear fuel pool?}}
|-
|[[File:Interplanetary Cessna.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|30|Interplanetary Cessna}}'''
|''"What would happen if you tried to fly a normal Earth airplane above different Solar System bodies?"''
<div align="right">—Glen Chiacchieri</div>
|Most of the Solar System bodies lack atmospheres and thus cannot be flown over. An airplane close enough to the sun to try to fly in its atmosphere would be instantaneously vaporized. It would be difficult to fly on Mars because the atmosphere is thin enough that a plane like the hypothetical Cessna must travel at Mach 1 to stay aloft, which would make the momentum too high for such a plane to steer properly, so you would crash. Jupiter's gravity is too strong, so the plane would sink into the atmosphere, tumbling in the high winds, until the increasing pressure crushed it. The remaining gas giants have weaker gravity, but still have nowhere to land, so you would eventually freeze, tumble and be crushed. Titan and Venus are the best bets, but Titan is cold, so the pilot would freeze to death, and Venus is full of sulfuric acid, which would cause the plane to burn up.
|{{blog|30|2013|01|29}}
|{{book|1|30}}
|
|-
|[[File:FedEx Bandwidth.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|31|FedEx Bandwidth}}'''
|''"When - if ever - will the bandwidth of the Internet surpass that of FedEx?"''
<div align="right">—Johan Öbrink</div>
|Probably never, unless the Internet's transfer rate grows faster than storage rates, the Internet won't surpass an army of FedEx trucks. However, the ping times would be ''absurd''.
|{{blog|31|2013|02|05}}
|{{book|1|44}}
|
|-
| rowspan="3" |[[File:Hubble.png|100px]]
| rowspan="3" |'''{{What If|32|Hubble}}'''
| rowspan="3" |''"If the Hubble telescope were aimed at the Earth, how detailed would the images be?"''
<div align="right">—Kyle Rankin</div>
| rowspan="3" |Very blurry because Hubble isn't able to rotate fast enough to track the surface of the Earth. Hubble is the wrong tool for the job, you're thinking of a spy satellite.
| rowspan="3" {{blog|32|2013|02|12}}
| rowspan="3" |
|{{book|1|2023|11|29|2LSyizrk8-0|What if we aimed the Hubble Telescope at Earth?}}
|-
|{{book|10|short-video=yes|2025|09|16|TgA0lXEW7dw|Could the Hubble take a photo of you?}}
|-
|{{book|11|short-video=yes|2025|09|23|i6e4NnFnQi0|How detailed would the Hubbles images be if it looked at Earth?}}
|-
|[[File:Ships.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|33|Ships}}'''
|''"How much would the sea level fall if every ship were removed all at once from the Earth's waters?"''
<div align="right">—Michael Toje</div>
|The sea level would fall by about 6 microns, slightly more than the diameter of a strand of spider silk. However, since the oceans are currently rising at about 3.3 millimeters per year due to global warming, the water would be back up to its original average level in 16 hours.
|{{blog|33|2013|02|19}}
|
|
|-
|[[File:what if? Twitter.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|34|Twitter}}'''
|''"How many unique English tweets are possible? How long would it take for the population of the world to read them all out loud?"''
<div align="right">—Eric H., Hopatcong, NJ</div>
|Since there are 2 * 10<sup>46</sup> meaningful English tweets based on the original character limit of 140 and written English having an average information content of 1.1 bits per character, reading them all would take 10,000 "eternal years", with an eternal day being the length of time needed to wear down a 100-mile mountain if a bird scraped 1 grain every thousand years.
|{{blog|34|2013|02|26}}
|{{book|1|50}}
|
|-
|[[File:Hair Dryer.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|35|Hair Dryer}}'''
|''"What would happen if a hair dryer with continuous power was turned on and put in an airtight 1x1x1 meter box?"''
<div align="right">—Nathan Terrell</div>
|The box would heat up to about 60°C. This is hot enough to burn out a normal hair dryer. For an indestructible hair dryer, incrementing the power would heat it further until the containing box melted, which would happen by the 187 MW mark for most materials. If both the hair dryer and the box were indestructible, incrementing the power would heat it further until the ground starts melting, and around the 20 GW mark, it would eventually create updrafts and bounce around everywhere. Turning it off and on again (to 11 PW) would launch it out of the sky in glowing fury.
|{{blog|35|2013|03|05}}
|{{book|1|11}}
|
|-
|[[File:Cornstarch.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|36|Cornstarch}}'''
|''"How much cornstarch can I rinse down the drain before unpleasant things start to happen?"''
<div align="right">—Anna R., Fort Wayne, IN</div>
|It depends what you consider unpleasant. Your sink will clog and your house will flood with oobleck, but if you really really like cornstarch then nothing unpleasant will happen.
|{{blog|36|2013|03|12}}
|
|
|-
|[[File:Supersonic Stereo.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|37|Supersonic Stereo}}'''
|''"What if you somehow managed to make a stereo travel at twice the speed of sound, would it sound backwards to someone who was just casually sitting somewhere as it flies by?"''
<div align="right">—Tim Currie</div>
|Assuming the stereo is indestructible, yes. Although with a ballistic launch, you’d only get it supersonic for less than a second, it would spend just a few seconds within hearing range, and the backwards music you'd hear would be mixed with music sounding at half speed as the stereo departs.
|{{blog|37|2013|03|19}}
|
|
|-
|[[File:what if? Voyager.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|38|Voyager}}'''
|''"With today's technology, would it be possible to launch an unmanned mission to retrieve Voyager I?"''
<div align="right">—Elliot Bennett</div>
|You could ''reach'' Voyager I with some well-timed gravity assists from Jupiter and Saturn, but getting back would require an ''absurd'' amount of fuel. You could use ion fields to require less fuel, but they also produce less thrust.
|{{blog|38|2013|03|26}}
|
|
|-
|[[File:Hockey Puck.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|39|Hockey Puck}}'''
|''"How hard would a puck have to be shot to be able to knock the goalie himself backwards into the net?"''
<div align="right">—Tom</div>
|This can't really happen, due to the size and weight difference between the goalie and a hockey puck. You'd need to fire an object at Mach 8 to knock the goalie back, but firing a puck at that speed would char the puck while air resistance would slow it down. If a hockey puck actually reached the goalie at such a high speed, it would have a similar effect to hitting a cake with a tomato as hard as you can.
|{{blog|39|2013|04|02}}
|{{book|1|24}}
|
|-
|[[File:Pressure Cooker.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|40|Pressure Cooker}}'''
|''"Am I right to be afraid of pressure cookers? What's the worst thing that can happen if you misuse a pressure cooker in an ordinary kitchen?"''
<div align="right">—Delphine Lourtau</div>
|Ordinarily, the worst that can happen is the lid blowing off and superheated liquid spraying everywhere, but you can use one to make {{w|Dioxygen difluoride}}, which is much worse.
|{{blog|40|2013|04|9}}
|
|
|-
|[[File:Go West.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|41|Go West}}'''
|''"If everybody in the US drove west, could we temporarily halt continental drift?"''
<div align="right">—Derek</div>
|No. While technically the car fleet could reverse the momentum of the North American plate, the continental drift is being powered by the forces in the Earth's mantle, and these forces outmatch the car fleet by millions of times.
|{{blog|41|2013|04|16}}
|
|
|-
|[[File:Longest Sunset.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|42|Longest Sunset}}'''
|''"What is the longest possible sunset you can experience while driving, assuming we are obeying the speed limit and driving on paved roads?"''
<div align="right">—Michael Berg</div>
|The longest way you can experience a sunset while driving is on certain roads in Norway and Finland around the winter solstice for 95 minutes, as this is where the best method to outpace the Sun works (outpacing {{w|Terminator (solar)|the terminator}}). The answer references comic [[162: Angular Momentum]].
|{{blog|42|201304|23}}
|{{book|1|52}}
|{{book|32|2025|10|21|U8F7UNK9jco|Can you drive west to lengthen the sunset?}}
|-
|[[File:Train Loop.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|43|Train Loop}}'''
|''"Could a high-speed train run through a vertical loop, like a rollercoaster, with the passengers staying comfortable?"''
<div align="right">—Gero Walter</div>
|Even if we change the requirements to just the passengers surviving, this isn't plausible. A train can't complete a full loop without the loop being too small, making the train move too fast and making every passenger die from the g-forces involved.
|{{blog|43|2013|04|30}}
|
|
|-
|[[File:High Throw.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|44|High Throw}}'''
|''"How high can a human throw something?"''
<div align="right">—Irish Dave on the Isle of Man</div>
|Based on estimations and aerodynamics calculations, Aroldis Chapman (holder of the record for fastest pitch) could probably throw up to 16 giraffes (80 m) high if he were using a golf ball. Unless you count letting go of balloons, of course.
|{{blog|44|2013|05|07}}
|{{book|1|38}}
|
|-
|[[File:ISS Music Video.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|45|ISS Music Video}}'''
|''"Is [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaOC9danxNo '''this'''] the most expensive music video ever?"''
<div align="right">—Various Youtube commenters</div>
|No. If the construction cost of the setpiece is how this is measured, then it would be U2's "Last Night on Earth" on a section of Interstate Highway. If not, then it doesn't even come close to Thriller.
|{{blog|45|2013|05|14}}
|
|
|-
|[[File:Bowling Ball.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|46|Bowling Ball}}'''
|''"I've been told that if the Earth were shrunk down to the size of a bowling ball, it would be smoother than said bowling ball. My question is, what would a bowling ball look like if it were blown up to the size of the Earth?"''
<div align="right">—Seth C.</div>
|A bowling ball the size of the Earth would be much less dense, and have much less gravity. The surface bumps and ridges would be much smaller than those on Earth with a maximally rough ball having peaks of roughly 200 m. The finger holes, on the other hand, would be huge, about a thousand km across and several thousand km deep. Due to this, the finger holes would collapse. causing eruptions of hydrocarbons and scars similar to those on the Moon.
|{{blog|46|2013|05|21}}
|
|
|-
|[[File:Alien Astronomers.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|47|Alien Astronomers}}'''
|''"Let's assume there's life on the the nearest habitable exoplanet and that they have technology comparable to ours. If they looked at our star right now, what would they see?"''
<div align="right">—Chuck H.</div>
|They wouldn't be able to see us very well. Radio waves fade quickly in space and we've stopped sending out as many of them. If they happened to pick up, they would only get a message similar to the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wow!_signal Wow! Signal]. The best message they could see is visible light, as the water and weather on Earth's surface would be a telltale marker of some form of life.
|{{blog|47|2013|05|28}}
|{{book|1|28}}
|
|-
|[[File:Sunset on the British Empire.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|48|Sunset on the British Empire}}'''
|''"When (if ever) did the Sun finally set on the British Empire?"''
<div align="right">—Kurt Amundson</div>
|If the British Empire kept the borders it had when the question was written, it would continue to experience eternal sunshine for many thousands of years until a total eclipse hits the Pitcairn Islands at the right time.

However, in 2025, after the publication of this article, [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/clyvv04wk8zt the UK signed a treaty to give the British Indian Ocean Territory to Mauritius]. Once the treaty is ratified, and the territory is officially handed over, the Sun can finally set on the British Empire.
|{{blog|48|2013|06|04}}
|{{book|1|60}}
|
|-
|[[File:Sunless Earth.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|49|Sunless Earth}}'''
|''"What would happen to the Earth if the Sun suddenly switched off?"''
<div align="right">—Many, many readers</div>
|We would see a variety of benefits across our lives such as the elimination of time zones, more reliable satellites, easier astronomy, and safer wild parsnip, but the downside is we would all freeze and die.
|{{blog|49|2013|06|11}}
|{{book|1|57}}
|{{book|24|2025|04|15|X7sbn9LMZOg| What if the sun suddenly went out?}}
|-
|[[File:Extreme Boating.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|50|Extreme Boating}}'''
|''"What would it be like to navigate a rowboat through a lake of mercury? What about bromine? Liquid gallium? Liquid tungsten? Liquid nitrogen? Liquid helium?"''
<div align="right">—Nicholas Aron</div>
|It would be difficult to row the boat on mercury because it's very dense. Bromine smells terrible and is highly toxic. Gallium would dissolve an aluminium boat. Liquid tungsten would incinerate you instantly. Liquid nitrogen would kill you either by suffocation or hypothermia. Liquid helium's superfluid properties would sink your boat, but at least you'd hear the “third sound” as you die.
|{{blog|50|2013|06|18}}
|
|
|-
|[[File:Free Fall.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|51|Free Fall}}'''
|''"What place on Earth would allow you to freefall the longest by jumping off it? What about using a squirrel suit?"''
<div align="right">—Dhash Shrivathsa</div>
|It takes 26 seconds to fall from the top of {{w|Mount Thor}} into a pit of cotton candy at the bottom of the cliff. The record for the longest wingsuit glide is 3 minutes and 20 seconds, from the {{w|Eiger}} – enough time for Joey Chestnut and Takeru Kobayashi to eat 45 hot dogs.
|{{blog|51|2013|06|25}}
|{{book|1|45}}
|
|-
|[[File:Bouncy Balls.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|52|Bouncy Balls}}'''
|''"What if one were to drop 3,000 bouncy balls from a seven story parking structure onto a person walking on the sidewalk below? Should the person survive, what would be the number of bouncy balls needed to kill them? What injuries would occur and what would the associated crimes be?"''
<div align="right">—Ginger Bread</div>
|If you dropped 3000 balls as stated, the balls would spread out like a cloud, and most of them would miss, with the remainder striking the target separately from one another. Around 3,000,000 balls would be enough to either crush a person or bury them too deep for them to get out. Death would occur and you would be charged with manslaughter or murder.
|{{blog|52|2013|07|02}}
|
|
|-
| rowspan="2" |[[File:Drain the Oceans.png|100px]]
| rowspan="2" |'''{{What If|53|Drain the Oceans}}'''
| rowspan="2" |''"How quickly would the ocean's drain if a circular portal 10 meters in radius leading into space was created at the bottom of Challenger Deep, the deepest spot in the ocean? How would the Earth change as the water is being drained?"''
<div align="right">—Ted M.</div>
| rowspan="2" |Hundreds of thousands of years, so you'll need a bigger portal. As their basins are cut off, many shallow seas and a few deep trenches remain, leaving much of Earth still covered with water. Massive, unpredictable environmental changes would probably wipe out mankind. If they didn't, the Dutch would take over the world, no longer preoccupied with preventing their lands from flooding as they are now.
| rowspan="2" {{blog|53|2013|07|09}}
| rowspan="2" {{book|1|48}}
|{{book|12|2024|06|18|Jpy55EgMQgY|What if you drained the oceans?}}
|-
|{{book|17|short-video=yes|2025|12|16|aMshLs0YCTQ|What if you drained the oceans?}}
|-
| rowspan="2" |[[File:Drain the Oceans Part II.png|100px]]
| rowspan="2" |'''{{What If|54|Drain the Oceans: Part II}}'''
| rowspan="2" |''"Supposing you did '''{{what if|53|Drain the Oceans}}''', and dumped the water on top of the Curiosity rover, how would Mars change as the water accumulated?"''
<div align="right">—Iain</div>
| rowspan="2" |The water would fill the {{w|Valles Marineris}}, eventually leaving only {{w|Olympus Mons}} and some other small islands. The sea would ultimately freeze over, become covered in dust, and migrate to permafrost at the poles. In the meantime, the Netherlands would colonize Mars through the portal. The video additionally mentions that the greenhouse gas effects caused by all the new water might keep Mars's oceans liquid.
| rowspan="2" {{blog|54|2013|07|16}}
| rowspan="2" {{book|1|49}}
|{{book|14|2024|08|13|FkUNHhVbQ1Q|What if we teleported the oceans to Mars?}}
|-
|{{book|18|short-video=yes|2025|12|23|2p305nzcVQE|What if we teleported the oceans to Mars?}}
|-
|[[File:Random Sneeze Call.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|55|Random Sneeze Call}}'''
|''"If you call a random phone number and say "God bless you", what are the chances that the person who answers just sneezed? On average, not just in spring or fall."''
<div align="right">—Mimi</div>
|The chances they just sneezed are 1 in 40000. There's also a 1 in a billion chance that the person you called just murdered someone, a 1 in 10 trillion chance they've just been killed by lightning, and – if five people spend a day trying this by calling random people – another 1 in 10 trillion chance that you and the other person called each other simultaneously.
|{{blog|55|2013|07|23}}
|{{book|1|53}}
|
|-
|[[File:Restraining an Airplane.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|56|Restraining an Airplane}}'''
|''"If you wanted to anchor an airplane into the ground so it wouldn't be able to take off, what would the rope have to be made out of?"''
<div align="right">—Connor Childerhose</div>
|A steel cable an inch thick, the lines of an army of thosands of fishermen, or the hair of 20 people. Hair has the highest tensile strength of any material in your body.
|{{blog|56|2013|07|30}}
|
|
|-
|[[File:Dropping a Mountain.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|57|Dropping a Mountain}}'''
|''"What if a huge mountain—Denali, say—had the bottom inch of its base disappear? What would happen from the impact of the mountain falling 1 inch? What about 1 foot? What if the mountain's base were raised to the present height of the summit, and then the whole thing were allowed to drop to the earth?"''
<div align="right">—John-Clark Levin</div>
|An inch or a foot wouldn't do much, it would only feel like a 3.5 magnitude earthquake. Dropped from its own height, Denali would cause a magnitude 7 earthquake and crush coal to diamonds. Dropped from the edge of Earth's gravity well, that's just a large asteroid (roughly 10% of the energy of the Chicxulub impact that caused the {{w|Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event}}) and it would cause firestorms and an impact winter. If you removed it from Earth's gravity well but still tried to "drop" it, it might crash into Mars instead.
|{{blog|57|2013|08|06}}
|
|
|-
| rowspan="3" |[[File:Orbital Speed.png|100px]]
| rowspan="3" |'''{{What If|58|Orbital Speed}}'''
|''"What if a spacecraft slowed down on re-entry to just a few miles per hour using rocket boosters like the Mars-sky-crane? Would it negate the need for a heat shield?"''
<div align="right">—Brian</div>
| rowspan="3" |No, because you need to go 8 km/s to stay in orbit, and it would take impossible amounts of fuel to slow down. The Curiosity rover used a heat shield for most of its deceleration and then used the sky crane for finer maneuvering relatively close to the ground.
| rowspan="3"{{blog|58|2013|08|12|1d early}}
| rowspan="3"{{book|1|43}}
| rowspan="3" |
|-
|''"Is it possible for a spacecraft to control its reentry in such a way that it avoids the atmospheric compression and thus would not require the expensive (and relatively fragile) heat shield on the outside?"''
<div align="right">—Christopher Mallow</div>
|-
|''"Could a (small) rocket (with payload) be lifted to a high point in the atmosphere where it would only need a small rocket to get to escape velocity?"''
<div align="right">—Kenny Van de Maele</div>
|-
| rowspan="2" |[[File:Updating a Printed Wikipedia.png|100px]]
| rowspan="2" |'''{{What If|59|Updating a Printed Wikipedia}}'''
| rowspan="2" |''"If you had a printed version of the whole of (say, the English) Wikipedia, how many printers would you need in order to keep up with the changes made to the live version?"''
<div align="right">—Susanne Könings</div>
| rowspan="2" |You'd need six printers, but if using an ink printer, costs would rack up to $500,000 a month, dwarfing paper and maintenance costs. You'd need to file away past versions in case they were reverted (restored), which would be a nightmare.
| rowspan="2" {{blog|59|2013|08|20|1d late}}
| rowspan="2" {{book|1|58}}
|{{book|13|2024|7|9|RgBYohJ7mIk|What if you tried to print Wikipedia?}}
|-
|{{book|19|short-video=yes|2026|01|27|WQTNLuhfkwk|What if you printed all of Wikipedia?}}
|-
|[[File:Signs of Life.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|60|Signs of Life}}'''
|''"If you could teleport to a random place of the surface of the Earth, what are the odds that you'll see signs of intelligent life?"''
<div align="right">—Borislav Stanimirov</div>
|70% of the time you would end up in the ocean. Restricting yourself to land, you'd see farmlands or dirt roads about 20-25% of the time (6-7% overall). But if it’s night, you can see satellites just by looking up.
|{{blog|60|2013|08|27}}
|
|
|-
|[[File:Speed Bump.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|61|Speed Bump}}'''
|''"How fast can you hit a speed bump while driving and live?"''
<div align="right">—Myrlin Barber</div>
|At highway speeds, you could wreck your tires and suspension. Around 150-300 mph, the aerodynamics of a typical sedan will cause it to flip and crash before even reaching the speed bump. At 90% the speed of light, you could face a billion-dollar speeding ticket.
|{{blog|61|2013|09|03}}
|{{book|1|41}}
|
|-
|[[File:Falling With Helium.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|62|Falling With Helium}}'''
|''"What if I jumped out of an airplane with a couple of tanks of helium and one huge, un-inflated balloon? Then, while falling, I release the helium and fill the balloon. How long of a fall would I need in order for the balloon to slow me enough that I could land safely?"''
<div align="right">—Colin Rowe</div>
|You would need either an air-filled balloon at least 10 to 20 meters across to slow your fall, or 10 helium tanks that are 250 cubic feet. You'd only have a few minutes though, and starting from a higher place will not help much due to your higher terminal velocity in the thin atmosphere.
|{{blog|62|2013|09|10}}
|{{book|1|34}}
|
|-
|[[File:Google's Datacenters on Punch Cards.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|63|Google's Datacenters on Punch Cards}}'''
|''"If all digital data were stored on punch cards, how big would Google's data warehouse be?"''
<div align="right">—James Zetlin</div>
|Using electric consumption and datacenter spending as a measuring stick, Google probably has around 1-2 million servers, which equates to around 15 exabytes (or 15,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes). Assuming a punch card holds 80 characters, all of that data comes out a pile of punch cards that could cover New England to a depth of 4.5 kilometers/2.8 miles, 3x deeper than the ice sheets that covered the region during the most recent ice age.
|{{blog|63|2013|09|17}}
|
|
|-
|[[File:Rising Steadily.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|64|Rising Steadily}}'''
|''"If you suddenly began rising steadily at one foot per second, how exactly would you die? Would you freeze or suffocate first? Or something else?"''
<div align="right">—Rebecca B</div>
|A nudist would survive for five hours, then succumb to the cold. With a good coat, one would survive for seven, even plausibly eight, until reaching the low-oxygen {{w|death zone}} and suffocating. However, your corpse would outlast the Earth as it was swallowed by the Sun.
|{{blog|64|2013|09|24}}
|{{book|1|15}}
|{{book|37|2026|3|3|oTzW-mTQd5w|What if you floated upwards 1 ft every second?}}
|-
|[[File:Twitter Timeline Height.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|65|Twitter Timeline Height}}'''
|''"If our Twitter timelines (tweets by the people we follow) actually extended off the screen in both directions, how tall would they be?"''
<div align="right">—Anonymous</div>
|It's difficult to pin down an "average" for Twitter timeline lengths, as it greatly depends on how many people you follow and whom. An estimate by Diego Basch and the Tweet rate as of 2013 suggests that if everyone followed everyone, the section timeline extending to the past would have 345 billion tweets and be 8,000,000 kilometers (5,000,000 miles) tall. Using extrapolation techniques similar to those used in the {{w|German tank problem}}, the future and past timelines combined would likely contain 690 billion tweets.
|{{blog|65|2013|10|01}}
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|[[File:500 MPH.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|66|500 MPH}}'''
|''"If winds reached 500 mph, would it pick up a human?"''
<div align="right">—Grey Flynn, age 7, Stoneham, MA</div>
|500 mph winds are more than fast enough to pick up a person and propel them through the air. The speed at which the wind starts being able to pick up and propel a person is around 120 mph. In fact, 500 mph winds are so fast that they only occur on Earth in extreme situations like the immediate vicinity of an erupting volcano or the aftermath of a major asteroid impact at which point wind speed would only be one of many dangers to human survival.
|{{blog|66|2013|10|08}}
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| rowspan="2" |[[File:Expanding Earth.png|100px]]
| rowspan="2" |'''{{What If|67|Expanding Earth}}'''
| rowspan="2" |''"How long would it take for people to notice their weight gain if the mean radius of the world expanded by 1cm every second? (Assuming the average composition of rock were maintained.)"''
<div align="right">—Dennis O’Donnell</div>
| rowspan="2" |After a month, the gain would be measurable but within the normal variation of gravity. After a year, it would be more prominent at 5%. Humans could survive with difficulty for a decade, but even in specially-built environments, they would succumb within a century as air itself became toxic from atmospheric pressure. After a few centuries, the Moon would fall into the Roche limit and crumble into rings.
| rowspan="2" {{blog|67|2013|10|15}}
| rowspan="2" {{book|1|55}}
|{{book|17|2024|10|15|-1-ldW4kpLM|What if Earth grew 1cm every second?}}
|-
|{{book|6|short-video=yes|2025|08|05|5k8ciEx__5w|Circumference pop quiz!}}
|-
|[[File:Little Planet.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|68|Little Planet}}'''
|''"If an asteroid was very small but supermassive, could you really live on it like the Little Prince?"''
<div align="right">—Samantha Harper</div>
|Technically, yes. However, there would be major challenges. For one, gravity would be at full strength at your feet, but only 25% strength at your head, giving the illusion that you're being stretched. You would only need to be able to dunk a basketball to jump out of the gravity well, or you could alternatively sprint at 5 meters per second; if you don't make it to that point, you would enter a highly irregular orbit during which tidal forces would pull on your body in strange ways.
|{{blog|68|2013|10|22}}
|{{book|1|22}}
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|[[File:Facebook of the Dead.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|69|Facebook of the Dead}}'''
|''"When, if ever, will Facebook contain more profiles of dead people than of living ones?"''
<div align="right">—Emily Dunham</div>
|This depends on if Facebook stays popular or declines in popularity over time. In the former case, the dead would only outnumber the living well into the 2100s; while in the latter, this happens around 2060. Facebook can afford to keep all our data indefinitely, but there are ethical questions.
|{{blog|69|2013|10|29}}
|{{book|1|59}}
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|[[File:The Constant Groundskeeper.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|70|The Constant Groundskeeper}}'''
|''"How big of a lawn would you have to have so that when you finished mowing you'd need to start over because the grass has grown?"''
<div align="right">—Nick Nelson</div>
|A normal, standard-issue mower running for 10 hours straight could cut an area of 25,000 square meters, or 27,000 yards; the ideal frequency to cut your lawn is once every 10 days, which means that 0.25 km² of lawn can be maintained by 10 hours of mowing every day [or 0.6 km² by mowing it constantly]. Using a much faster mower commissioned by the magazine ''Top Gear'' that is used all day, every day, it could cut an adult male cougar's home range (which [https://wdfw.wa.gov/species-habitats/species/puma-concolor#:~:text=Adult%20male%20cougars%20roam%20widely,terrain%2C%20and%20availability%20of%20prey. the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife] reports as 50-150 square miles or 130-390 square kilometers).
|{{blog|70|2013|11|05}}
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|[[File:Stirring Tea.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|71|Stirring Tea}}'''
|''"I was absentmindedly stirring a cup of hot tea, when I got to thinking, "aren't I actually adding kinetic energy into this cup?" I know that stirring does help to cool down the tea, but what if I were to stir it faster? Would I be able to boil a cup of water by stirring?"''
<div align="right">—Will Evans</div>
|No, not really. It would take at least 1 horsepower (a lot for a person stirring), and reducing the power would just make it cool faster. Stirring faster and faster would cause a vacuum to form and stirring to become ineffective (and the tea would splash out everywhere).
|{{blog|71|2013|11|12}}
|{{book|1|61}}
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|[[File:Loneliest Human.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|72|Loneliest Human}}'''
|''"What is the furthest one human being has ever been from every other living person? Were they lonely?"''
<div align="right">—Bryan J. McCarter</div>
|The most well-documented candidates are the six Apollo astronauts piloting the Command Module orbiting the Moon while their fellow astronauts descended on the surface, at most 3585 km away. Antarctic explorers and pre-colonialism Polynesian explorers have a shot, but there's no good evidence of specific people who beat the Apollo record. Astronauts Mike Collins and Al Worden said they were not at all lonely, the latter even enjoying his solitude.
|{{blog|72|2013|11|19}}
|{{book|1|63}}
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|[[File:Lethal Neutrinos.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|73|Lethal Neutrinos}}'''
|''"How close would you have to be to a supernova to get a lethal dose of neutrino radiation?"''
<div align="right">—(Overheard in a physics department)</div>
|Neutrinos are subatomic particles that barely interact with the universe at all, so it's hard to imagine a scenario where they could harm you, even in a supernova. But at about 2.3 AU, or a little farther than Mars is from the Sun, even the neutrinos would be dense enough to kill you. On the other hand, if you were that close, you were probably inside the star that created the supernova, in which case ''[[#115|Into the Sun]]'' would apply.
|{{blog|73|2013|11|26}}
|{{book|1|39}}
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|[[File:Soda Planet.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|74|Soda Planet}}'''
|''"How much of the Earth's currently-existing water has ever been turned into a soft drink at some point in its history?"''
<div align="right">—Brian Roelofs</div>
|Humans have likely consumed 6.5 trillion liters or 1.7 trillion gallons of soda ever, based on estimates of population growth and popularity of soda. Assuming humanity has drunk 100 trillion liters (26 trillion gallons) of water, it is reasonable to conclude that only 0.0000005% of Earth's current water reservoir has been turned into a soft drink. However, considering how long water takes to cycle around and certain prehistoric life forms, the water in the average soda was likely once consumed by a dinosaur.
|{{blog|74|2013|12|03}}
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|[[File:Phone Keypad.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|75|Phone Keypad}}'''
|''"I use one of those old phones where you type with numbers—for example, to type "Y", you press 9 three times. Some words have consecutive letters on the same number. When they do, you have to pause between letters, making those words annoying to type. What English word has the most consecutive letters on the same key?"''
<div align="right">—Stewart Bishop</div>
|According to Randall, the English word with the most consecutive letters on the same key is "Nonmonogamous". This would require you to type the 6 key (MNO) 16 times without stopping, in order to type 'nonmono'. With every letter included, typing this word would require pressing the 2, 4, 7, and 8 keys once each, and the 6 key a nice, even 20 times. However, Randall is wrong. The actual word with most consecutive letters on the same key is 'nonmonomolecular'. In order to type 'nonmonomo', you need to hit the 6 key a full 20 times. However, typing the full word wouldn't add any more presses of the 6 key, so it takes the same amount of 6 to type the full word as nonmonogamous.
|{{blog|75|2013|12|10}}
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|[[File:Reading Every Book.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|76|Reading Every Book}}'''
|''"At what point in human history were there too many (English) books to be able to read them all in one lifetime?"''
<div align="right">—Gregory Willmot</div>
|About the 1500s, as the population of active English writers reached a few hundred, meaning you would never be able to catch up (using the average word count for a few famous authors as a baseline). You might not want to read them, anyways.
|{{blog|76|2013|12|17}}
|{{book|2|10}}
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|[[File:Growth Rate.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|77|Growth Rate}}'''
|''"What height would humans reach if we kept growing through our whole development period (i.e. till late teens/early twenties) at the same pace as we do during our first month?"''
<div align="right">—Maria</div>
|We would reach 10 to 12 meters at age 20, though the human body is not scalable to those heights, as our bone structure is too thin, while our hearts wouldn't be able to pump the blood around.
|{{blog|77|2013|12|31|7d late}}
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|[[File:T-rex Calories.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|78|T-rex Calories}}'''
|''"If a T-rex were released in New York City, how many humans/day would it need to consume to get its needed calorie intake?"''
<div align="right">—Tony Schmitz</div>
|Estimates vary, but the T-rex was estimated to need 40,000 calories per day. Ryan North of Dinosaur Comics tells us that the average 80 kg/175 pound human [http://www.topatoco.com/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=TO&Product_Code=QW-PERSON&Category_Code=QW contains 110,000 calories]. Therefore, a T-rex would need to eat someone every 2 days or so. On the other hand, a T-rex wouldn't necessarily have to use humans specifically as a food source and could instead eat 80 hamburgers a day.
|{{blog|78|2014|01|07}}
|{{book|2|7|T. Rex Calories}}
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|[[File:Lake Tea.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|79|Lake Tea}}'''
|''"What if we were to dump all the tea in the world into the Great Lakes? How strong, compared to a regular cup of tea, would the lake tea be?"''
<div align="right">—Alex Burman</div>
|An average cup of tea requires 2 grams of tea per 100 mL of water, and to make proper tea out of the Great Lakes, you would need 450 billion tons of tea for the Great Lakes' 22,600 cubic kilometers/5400 cubic miles of water. A total year's supply of tea is only 4.8 million tons, which would make tea about as strong as 2 drops in a bathtub. To make proper lake tea, you could use Wular Lake in Kashmir or Ullswater in UK's lake district, due to the volume of both being small enough for the tea to work. Heating those lakes to proper steeping temperature would likely be quite difficult, so Boiling Lake in Dominica or Frying Pan Lake in New Zealand could also be good candidates as they're already hot.
|{{blog|79|2014|01|14}}
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|[[File:Pile of Viruses.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|80|Pile of Viruses}}'''
|''"What if every virus in the world were collected into one area? How much volume would they take up and what would they look like?"''
<div align="right">—Dave</div>
|''Human'' viruses would fill about ten oil drums. ''All'' viruses would form a wet heap the size of a small mountain, with a texture resembling pus or meat slurry. The viruses are likely to have a small angle of repose, so to avoid having the pile collapse and flood the surrounding area, all the viruses could instead be contained in 150 football stadiums.
|{{blog|80|2014|01|21}}
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|[[File:Catch!.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|81|Catch!}}'''
|''"Is there any way to fire a gun so that the bullet flies through the air and can then be safely caught by hand? e.g. shooter is at sea level and catcher is up a mountain at the extreme range of the gun."''
<div align="right">—Ed Hui, London</div>
|Yes, eventually the bullet would come to a maximum height, at which point you could grab the bullet before it fell down. You'd need to grip it firmly, because the bullet would still have its rotational momentum and might jump out of your hand. A larger bullet would require a larger height to catch it at, and even then, it would still be difficult to grab. Of course, this is illegal and can injure you or other people.
|{{blog|81|2014|01|28}}
|{{book|2|12}}
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|[[File:Hitting a comet.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|82|Hitting a comet}}'''
|''"Astrophysicists are always saying things like "This mission to this comet is equivalent to throwing a baseball from New York and hitting a particular window in San Francisco." Are they really equivalent?"''
<div align="right">—Tom Foster</div>
|The baseball thing is much harder. You'd have to hit it out of the atmosphere, and a baseball is too small to do that. Even if you could, it's still not a fair comparison because astrophysicists are allowed to refine their approach as they close in on the target, which you can't do with a thrown baseball. It turns out that the comet mission requires about the same level of precision as laser eye surgery.
|{{blog|82|2014|02|05|1d late}}
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|[[File:Star Sand.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|83|Star Sand}}'''
|''"If you made a beach using grains the proportionate size of the stars in the Milky Way, what would that beach look like?"''
<div align="right">—Jeff Wartes</div>
|Although red giants aren't as common as Sun-like stars or red dwarfs, they would form a stretch of gravel that went on for miles due to their large relative volume. 99% of all stars would form a small patch of sand.
|{{blog|83|2014|02|11|1d early}}
|{{book|2|16}}
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|-
|[[File:Paint the Earth.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|84|Paint the Earth}}'''
|''"Has humanity produced enough paint to cover the entire land area of the Earth?"''
<div align="right">—Josh (Bolton, MA)</div>
|There isn't enough paint to go around. The total estimated amount of produced paint, a trillion litres, is only enough to paint as much as the land area of Russia.
|{{blog|84|2014|02|18}}
|{{book|2|14}}
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|[[File:Rocket Golf.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|85|Rocket Golf}}'''
|''"Assuming that you have a spaceship in orbit around the Earth, could you propel your ship to speeds exceeding escape velocity by hitting golf balls in the other direction? If so, how many golf balls would be required to reach the Moon?"''
<div align="right">—Dan (Kanata, Ontario)</div>
|A person theoretically ''could'' propel your ship using golf balls, but, assuming they are being fired at 226 mph (363 km/h), the fastest world record, the amount of golf balls needed for this would be around the size of Earth and wouldn't even get you to the Moon. (An ordinary golfer hitting the ball at 120 mph (50 km/h) would need a bag of golf balls bigger than the solar system that would collapse into a black hole and be even more unusable.) You'd need a potato cannon fueled by acetylene firing golf balls at 310 mph (500 km/h) which reduces the size of the golf mass to 150 miles (240 kilometers). This would be incredibly costly and firing them faster would essentially be the same as building a normal rocket.
|{{blog|85|2014|02|25}}
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|[[File:Far-Traveling Objects.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|86|Far-Traveling Objects}}'''
|''"In terms of human-made objects, has Voyager 1 travelled the farthest distance? It's certainly the farthest from Earth we know about. But what about the edge of ultracentrifuges, or generator turbines that have been running for years, for example?"''
<div align="right">—Matt Russell</div>
|There are a few different frames of reference you can look at, but in normal terms Mariner 10 has traveled much farther than Voyager 1. It's travelled a couple of light-days around the Sun, while the Voyager probes have only travelled a dozen light-hours.
|{{blog|86|2014|03|04}}
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|[[File:Enforced by Radar.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|87|Enforced by Radar}}'''
|''"I've occasionally seen "radar enforced" on speed limit signs, and I can't help but ask: How intense would radio waves have to be to stop a car from going over the speed limit, and what would happen if this were attempted?"''
<div align="right">—Joausc</div>
|Radio waves are generally ''very weak''. You'd need the collective energy of trillions of cell phones just to levitate a snow flake. To stop a car, you'd need at least 2 trillion joules of radiation, which would vaporize the car and everything else around it.
|{{blog|87|2014|03|11}}
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|[[File:Soda Sequestration.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|88|Soda Sequestration}}'''
|''"How much CO2 is contained in the world's stock of bottled fizzy drinks? How much soda would be needed to bring atmospheric CO2 back to preindustrial levels?"''
<div align="right">—Brandon Seah</div>
|There are currently 400 parts of carbon dioxide per million. To bring it down to pre-Industrial levels, you'd need 450 quadrillion cans of soda, each being able to hold 2.2 grams of CO2. This would cover Earth's land 10 times over.
|{{blog|88|2014|03|18}}
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|[[File:Tungsten Countertop.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|89|Tungsten Countertop}}'''
|''"How far would a tungsten countertop descend if I dropped it into the Sun?"''
<div align="right">—Michael Leuchtenburg</div>
|Tungsten has the highest melting point of any element, but even tungsten would melt before it got too far. If you protected it with a heat shield, it would get destroyed all the same by the battering of the particles in the Sun's atmosphere. It could possibly penetrate the surface if it was larger, but as it stands, it wouldn't get past the outer layers.
|{{blog|89|2014|03|25}}
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|[[File:Great Tree, Great Axe.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|90|Great Tree, Great Axe}}'''
|''"If all the seas were one sea,''
''What a great sea that would be!''
''If all the trees were one tree,''
''What a great tree that would be!''
''If all the men were one man,''
''What a great man that would be!''
''If all the axes were one axe,''
''What a great axe that would be!''
''And if the great man took the great axe,''
''And cut down the great tree,''
''And let if fall into the great sea,''
''What a great splish-splash that would be!''

''... How great would all of these things be?"''
<div align="right">—John Eifert (quoting a ''Mother Goose'' rhyme)</div>
|The seas would be a little bigger than the Pacific Ocean. Trees can't grow taller than about 130 meters naturally, and would physically crush itself if above a few kilometers tall. Ignoring these restraints, the tree would be about 75 km tall with trunk diameter of 2 km. Ignoring human size restraints, the person would be close to 3 km tall. The axe would be about 500 meters long and relatively the size of a flimsy hatchet. It may take a few weeks to chop down the tree and the impact would create a tsunami that probably wouldn't wipe out the human race, but would be likely the deadliest single disaster in our history.
|{{blog|90|2014|04|03|2d late}}
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|[[File:Faucet Power.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|91|Faucet Power}}'''
|''"I just moved into a new apartment. It includes hot water but I have to pay the electric bill. So being a person on a budget ... what's the best way to use my free faucet to generate electricity?"''
<div align="right">—David Axel Kurtz</div>
|A small hydroelectric dam in the bathtub would yield about $0.25 per month of electricity, but the best option would probably be to bottle and sell your tap water, yielding about $38 million per year at $1.50 per bottle.
|{{blog|91|2014|04|08|2d early}}
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|[[File:One-Second Day.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|92|One-Second Day}}'''
|''"What would happen if the Earth's rotation were sped up until a day only lasted one second?"''
<div align="right">—Dylan</div>
|Everything on Earth would die, but if it happened when the Moon crosses the plane of the Earth, then everything in the Solar System will die (whether there is a difference is debatable).
|{{blog|92|2014|04|15}}
|{{book|2|21}}
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|[[File:Windshield Raindrops.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|93|Windshield Raindrops}}'''
|''"At what speed would you have to drive for rain to shatter your windshield?"''
<div align="right">—Daniel Butler</div>
|Water droplets in air are normally lighter than the air, so this wouldn't happen under normal circumstances. However, at supersonic speeds, the water droplet would jet away from the impact point on the windshield at Mach 18. It wouldn't shatter the windshield, but it would slowly batter it away. If you really want to have your windshield broken by precipitation, it would probably be easier to find a hailstorm and drive under it.
|{{blog|93|2014|04|22}}
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| rowspan="3" |[[File:Billion-Story Building.png|100px]]
| rowspan="3" |'''{{What If|94|Billion-Story Building}}'''
| rowspan="3" |''"My daughter — age 4.5 — maintains she wants a billion-story building. It turns out not only is that hard to help her appreciate this size, I am not at all able to explain all of the other difficulties you'd have to overcome."''
<div align="right">—Keira, via Steve Brodovicz, Media, PA </div>
| rowspan="3" |The tower would be far too big to support itself under its own weight. The tower would also extend past the Moon. The sheer amount of elevators needed would provide little to no room for actual usable space. Additionally, space junk would be a large problem, as there is a high probability that space junk would collide with the tower.
| rowspan="3" {{blog|94|2014|04|29}}
| rowspan="3" {{book|2|22}}
|{{book|21|2025|02|11|Z_xJ40QXu7Q|What if you built a billion-story building?}}
|-
|{{book|21|short-video=yes|2026|02|17|J-E8rjWR9rM|What if we built a billion-story building?}}
|-
|{{book|22|short-video=yes|2026|02|24|oMtAHGv-DU4|How many elevators would you need in a billion-story building?}}
|-
|[[File:Pyramid Energy.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|95|Pyramid Energy}}'''
|''"What took more energy, the building of the Great Pyramid of Giza or the Apollo Mission? If we could convert the energy to build the Great Pyramid, would it be enough to send a rocket to the Moon and back?"''
<div align="right">—Michael Marmol</div>
|The Apollo Program took about the same manpower as the building of the Great Pyramids, but physics wise, the Great Pyramid only contains 10<sup>12</sup> joules of gravitational potential energy. A single Saturn V rocket's fuel has 20 times more energy.
|{{blog|95|2014|05|06}}
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|[[File:$2 Undecillion Lawsuit.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|96|$2 Undecillion Lawsuit}}'''
|''"What if Au Bon Pain lost '''[http://www.loweringthebar.net/2014/05/2-undecillion-dollar-demand.html this lawsuit]''' and had to pay the plaintiff $2 undecillion?"''
<div align="right">—Kevin Underhill</div>
|The debt would be incredibly great, to the point that everything ever created by man does not have enough value to pay it off. For comparison, former solicitor general Ted Olson leaked that he charges $1600 per hour for his services. Even if every habitable planet in the Milky Way had a population of 8 billion Ted Olsons, and you hired all of them for a thousand generations, the cost would still be lower than if you lost.
|{{blog|96|2014|05|14|1d late}}
|{{book|2|23}}
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|[[File:Burning Pollen.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|97|Burning Pollen}}'''
|''"What if you were to somehow ignite the pollen that floats around in the air in spring? Other than being a really bad idea, what effect would it have?"''
<div align="right">—Jessica Thornburg</div>
|It would just warm up the air by a very tiny bit, but only because it's so thinly spread. Gathering all of it from a large enough region into one pile could equal a nuclear weapon.
|{{blog|97|2014|05|20|1d early}}
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|[[File:Blood Alcohol.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|98|Blood Alcohol}}'''
|''"Could you get drunk from drinking a drunk person's blood?"''
<div align="right">—Fiona Byrne</div>
|No, you can't. Alcohol in a drunk person's blood would be very diluted and by the time you drank the 14 glasses needed to get drunk, you would've vomited on the account of drinking blood. That aside, you could also get iron overload as well as various blood-borne diseases.
|{{blog|98|2014|05|27}}
|{{book|2|42}}
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|[[File:Starlings.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|99|Starlings}}'''
|''"I was watching '''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eakKfY5aHmY this video]''' and was wondering: How many birds there would need to be for gravity to take over and force them into a gargantuan ball of birds?"''
<div align="right">—Justin Basinger</div>
|Each bird is 85 grams, with a density of around 43 grams per square meter. Because of this, the air would be 25 times stronger than the starlings and the substance governing the collapse. The air would have to be bigger than the Earth to collapse the starlings and the starlings themselves would need to be bigger than the Solar System. They would then promptly turn into a star.
|{{blog|99|2014|06|03}}
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|[[File:WWII Films.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|100|WWII Films}}'''
|''"Did WWII last longer than the total length of movies about WWII? For that matter, which war has the highest movie time:war time ratio?"''
<div align="right">—Becky</div>
|Assuming the average run time of a WWII film was 95 minutes, the combined length was 300 days, meaning World War II was longer than the movies 7 times over. The two most likely candidates for highest movie:war ratio are the Indo-Pakistani war, which lasted 13 days and has 5 catalogued films about it, and the Anglo-Zanzibar war, which only lasted 38 minutes but lacked any films. In 2015, someone took Randall's advice and made [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5954666/ Zanzibar], a short film (31 minutes) that takes the record.
|{{blog|100|2014|06|11|1d late}}
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|[[File:Plastic Dinosaurs.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|101|Plastic Dinosaurs}}'''
|''"As plastic is made from oil and oil is made from dead dinosaurs, how much actual real dinosaur is there in a plastic dinosaur?"''
<div align="right">—Steve Lydford</div>
|Contrary to the name, oil is not made of dead dinosaurs, mostly being composed of marine plankton and algae. Geology is complicated, but the gist is that only a small fraction of a plastic dinosaur toy could've come from dinosaur oil, and depending on the location, it may contain none at all.
|{{blog|101|2014|06|18}}
|{{book|2|26}}
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|[[File:Keyboard Power.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|102|Keyboard Power}}'''
|''"As a writer, I'm wondering what would be the cumulative energy of the hundreds of thousands of keystrokes required to write a novel."''
<div align="right">—Nicholas Dickner</div>
|Writing one full novel would provide enough energy to run a laptop for 15 seconds. If each novel takes you six months, this would save a fraction of a penny of electricity. To keep a laptop working on just keyboard power, you'd need to write a novel every ten seconds, and to run a microwave would require one novel per second. Typing fast enough to do either would require your fingers to move at relativistic speeds with similar destructive nuclear consequences of objects doing so to those described in {{what if|1|Relativistic Baseball}}.
|{{blog|102|2014|06|25}}
|
|{{book|34|2025|12|02|0L44GEJ5pLE|Can you power your computer by typing?}}
|-
|[[File:Vanishing Water.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|103|Vanishing Water}}'''
|''"What would happen if all the bodies of water on Earth magically disappeared?"''
<div align="right">—Joanna Xu</div>
|If all water vanished, the first to notice would be anybody currently in the ocean, and over the course of a minute, they would all fall, some of them dying but some surviving with minor injuries. After this, all marine life will have perished. Humans follow soon after as the water cycle would've stopped, collapsing global infrustructure and killing every plant and person by dehydration. The end of the water cycle also leads to a runaway greenhouse effect later on.
|{{blog|103|2014|07|02}}
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|-
|[[File:Global Snow.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|104|Global Snow}}'''
|''"From my seven-year-old son: How many snowflakes would it take to cover the entire world in six feet of snow? (I don't know why six feet...but that's what he asked.)"''
<div align="right">—Jed Scott</div>
|Snow isn't very dense, and 1 inch of rain would lead to a foot or more of snow. Factoring in snow compressing throughout the day, you would need a mole of snowflakes to cover the Earth in 6 feet in snow.
|{{blog|104|2014|07|09}}
|{{book|2|59}}
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|-
|[[File:Cannibalism.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|105|Cannibalism}}'''
|''"How long could the human race survive on only cannibalism?"''
<div align="right">—Quinn Shaffer</div>
|If half of the world eats the other half, then it would take about 32 months before it came down to 2 people. However, this is also a very efficient way to get a {{w|Transmissible spongiform encephalopathy|prion disease}}.
|{{blog|105|2014|07|16}}
|
|{{book|31|2025|09|30|PUtI3xoaHx0|Could we survive eating only humans?}}
|-
|[[File:Ink Molecules.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|106|Ink Molecules}}'''
|''"Suppose you were to print, in 12 point text, the numeral 1 using a common cheap ink-jet printer. How many molecules of the ink would be used? At what numerical value would the number printed approximately equal the number of ink molecules used?"''
<div align="right">—David Pelkey</div>
|You'd use about 100,000,000,000,000,000 molecules.
|{{blog|106|2014|07|23}}
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|
|-
|[[File:Letter to Mom.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|107|Letter to Mom}}'''
|''"What’s the fastest way to get a hand-written letter from my place in Chicago to my mother in New Jersey?"''
<div align="right">—Tim</div>
|An ICBM would take 12-15 minutes to cross the distance. While that is the best method, a few other methods come close. The Concorde would only take 30 minutes, while firing something with a rail gun down a vacuum tube would take only 10-20 minutes.
|{{blog|107|2014|07|30}}
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|[[File:Expensive Shoebox.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|108|Expensive Shoebox}}'''
|''"What would be the most expensive way to fill a size 11 shoebox (e.g. with 64 GB MicroSD cards all full of legally purchased music)?"''
<div align="right">—Rick Lewis</div>
|There are many options (precious materials, hard drugs, physical file storage, etc.), but they all cap out at ~$2,000,000,000. That amount of platinum would be worth $13 million, while diamonds, Adcetris and LSD would be valued around 1-2 billion. A shoebox full of plutonium would be worth $3 billion, but since it would also have a mass of about 300 kg, which is well over the critical mass, monetary value is unlikely to be its most relevant property to anyone in its immediate vicinity. If the US Treasury ever decides to mint a trillion dollar coin, it could probably then fit in a shoebox, as could a check for an arbitrarily large sum.
|{{blog|108|2014|08|13|7d late}}
|{{book|2|31}}
|
|-
|[[File:Into the Blue.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|109|Into the Blue}}'''
|''"If I shot an infinitely strong laser beam into the sky at a random point, how much damage would it do?"''
<div align="right">—Garrett D.</div>
|Infinitely powerful laser beams do not exist, and if they did, they would vaporize the air and destroy everything like in the ''[[what if? (blog)|what if?]]'' article ''{{what if|13|Laser Pointer}}''. That being said, if it were truly random, it would be aimed at Earth 50% of the time. If you miss the Earth, 89,999 times out of 90,000, your beam will pass right out of the galaxy without hitting anything. When it does hit something, it will almost always be the Sun or the Moon.
|{{blog|109|2014|08|20}}
|
|
|-
|[[File:Walking New York.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|110|Walking New York}}'''
|''"Could a person walk the entire city of NY in their lifetime? (including inside apartments)"''
<div align="right">—Asif Shamir</div>
|Based on estimates of US Postal Service carriers and their travel times, we know that walking every street in NYC would probably take 14 years. Assuming it takes about 25 seconds to enter an apartment building, leave, and go to the next one, it would only take an additional 10 years to visit every apartment. However, under [http://ypdcrime.com/penal.law/article140.htm New York Penal Code], the punishment would take 2 million years or 2,000 millenia to finish.
|{{blog|110|2014|08|27}}
|
|
|-
|[[File:All the Money.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|111|All the Money}}'''
|''"People sometimes say "If I had all the money in the world ..." in order to discuss what they would do if they had no financial constraints. I'm curious, though, what would happen if one person had all of the world's money?"''
<div align="right">—Daniel Pino</div>
|Currency only makes up a fraction of Earth's money, and it's unlikely people would agree to your sudden claims of ownership over all of the land, nor would they let you spend the actual currency you have. Said currency would quickly crush you, as most of its weight is in coinage. You could build a structure to contain the coins, but this would violate NYC building codes.
|{{blog|111|2014|09|02|1d early}}
|
|{{book|25|2025|05|06|saj7b5C6TCM|What if you literally had all the money in the world?}}
|-
|[[File:Balloon Car.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|112|Balloon Car}}'''
|''"My 12-year-old daughter is proposing an interesting project. She is planning to attach a number of helium balloons to a chair, which in turn would be tethered by means of a rope to a Ferrari. Her 13-year-old friend would then drive the Ferrari around, while she sits in the chair enjoying uninterrupted views of the countryside. Leaving aside the legal and insurance difficulties, my daughter is keen to know the maximum speed that she could expect to attain, and how many helium balloons would be required."''
<div align="right">—Phil Rodgers, Cambridge, UK</div>
|A balloon just big enough to lift you would be pushed down by the wind, and a balloon big enough to counteract that would lift up the car along with you. The way to achieve this result is [https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=parasailing parasailing].
|{{blog|112|2014|09|17|8d late}}
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|[[File:Visit Every State.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|113|Visit Every State}}'''
|''"How fast could you visit all 50 states?"''
<div align="right">—as discussed by Stephen Von Worley <span class="plainlinks">on [http://www.datapointed.net/2012/08/fastest-route-to-visit-all-fifty-united-states/ '''''Data Pointed''''']</span>
|It would take you 160 hours by car, 39 hours by landing a private jet in each state, and 18 hours by F-22 fighter jet and helicopter landing in each state. However, if you relax the requirement to land in each state and simply count entering the state's airspace as "visiting" it, you can do it in around 7 hours with an SR-71 Blackbird. If we allow satellite orbits, you can do it in just over 6 hours with five orbits, assuming your satellite makes a course correction on each orbit.
|{{blog|113|2014|09|24}}
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|[[File:Antimatter.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|114|Antimatter}}'''
|''"What if everything was antimatter, EXCEPT Earth?"''
<div align="right">—Sean Gallagher</div>
|It would wipe out all life on Earth, but surprisingly slower than you might expect. The annihilation of antimatter entering the atmosphere would add enough extra heat to create a runaway greenhouse effect and make Earth similar to Venus. We would be in much more danger from meteorites, with dinosaur-killer equivalents hitting the upper atmosphere every few months.
|{{blog|114|2014|10|01}}
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| rowspan="2" |[[File:Into the Sun.png|100px]]
| rowspan="2" |'''{{What If|115|Into the Sun}}'''
| rowspan="2" |''"When I was about 8 years old, shoveling snow on a freezing day in Colorado, I wished that I could be instantly transported to the surface of the Sun, just for a nanosecond, then instantly transported back. I figured this would be long enough to warm me up but not long enough to harm me. What would actually happen?"''
<div align="right">—AJ, Kansas City</div>
| rowspan="2" |You would not be warmed if you went to the surface, as the energy received by your skin would be minimal. You would maybe see a bright flash of light. The core, on the other hand, would vaporize you, as the energy delivered there would be able to give you a second-degree burn after 1 femtosecond (1 millionth of a nanosecond) in the core.
| rowspan="2" {{blog|115|2014|10|08}}
| rowspan="2" {{book|2|61}}
|{{book|15|2024|09|03|UXA-Af-JeCE|Could you survive a nanosecond on the Sun?}}
|-
|{{book|20|short-video=yes|2026|02|03|m1aMh7z8Y7I|What if you teleported to the Sun?}}
|-
| rowspan="3" |[[File:No-Rules NASCAR.png|100px]]
| rowspan="3" |'''{{What If|116|No-Rules NASCAR}}'''
| rowspan="3" |''"If you stripped away all the rules of car racing and had a contest which was simply to get a human being around a track 200 times as fast as possible, what strategy would win? Let's say the racer has to survive."''
<div align="right">—Hunter Freyer</div>
| rowspan="3" |If the rider has to survive, 90 minutes is the limit based on human G-force tolerances. If survival is not a priority, you'd build a particle accelerator.
| rowspan="3" {{blog|116|2014|10|15}}
| rowspan="3" {{book|2|35}}
|{{book|3|2023|12|19|JcXpCyPc2Xw|What if NASCAR had no rules?}}
|-
|{{book|8|short-video=yes|2025|08|26|eSPcp-tfGbA|How fast could a human accellerate (while staying alive)?}}
|-
|{{book|9|short-video=yes|2025|09|02|rgUfcFAPicY|How fast could a vehicle go around a track - but the racer does not have to survive.}}
|-
|[[File:Distant Death.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|117|Distant Death}}'''
|''"What is the farthest from Earth that any Earth thing has died?"''
<div align="right">—Amy from NZ</div>
|The farthest that any human has died is about 167 kilometers. In terms of any living thing, however, bacterial spores on Voyager 1 are dying every few months, setting a new record each time.
|{{blog|117|2014|10|23|1d late}}
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|[[File:Physical Salary.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|118|Physical Salary}}'''
|''"What if people's incomes appeared around them as cash in real time? How much would you need to make to be in real trouble?"''
<div align="right">—Julia Anderson, Albuquerque, NM</div>
|At minimum US wage, a worker would earn about one water bottle of mixed coins per day. A CEO would earn about 600 such bottles per day, and the coins would accumulate on the floor at a rate of about 0.5 inches per day. Mark Zuckerberg would earn 25 such bottles ''per second'', and the coins would bury him if he sat still for an hour.
|{{blog|118|2014|10|30}}
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| rowspan="2" |[[File:Laser Umbrella.png|100px]]
| rowspan="2" |'''{{What If|119|Laser Umbrella}}'''
| rowspan="2" |''"Stopping rain from falling on something with an umbrella or a tent is boring. What if you tried to stop rain with a laser that targeted and vaporized each incoming droplet before it could come within ten feet of the ground?"''
<div align="right">—Zach Wheeler</div>
| rowspan="2" |It's doable in theory, but the energy required to completely vaporize a raindrop (rather than merely splattering it) is high enough that your surroundings would get dangerously hot. Targeting the droplets might be possible with adaptive optics, but it would require a complicated device. You could try firing rapidly in random directions instead, but your high-powered laser might go several hundred meters without hitting a raindrop, which would endanger your local neighborhood.
| rowspan="2"{{blog|119|2014|11|13|7d late}}
| rowspan="2"{{book|2|37}}
|{{book|6|2024|02|20|zgBTwtg7H8E|Could you make an umbrella out of lasers?}}
|-
|{{book|15|short-video=yes|2025|11|4|xA9aqKGBeOs|Could you use a laser as an umbrella?}}
|-
|[[File:Alternate Universe What Ifs.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|120|Alternate Universe What Ifs}}'''
|''"Dispatches from a horrifying alternate universe"''
|Excerpts from ''what if?'' articles written in a world which, thankfully, is not the one we live in.
|{{blog|120|2014|11|20}}
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|[[File:Frozen Rivers.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|121|Frozen Rivers}}'''
|''"What would happen if all of the rivers in the US were instantly frozen in the middle of the summer?"''
<div align="right">—Zoe Cutler</div>
|Anywhere with rain or snowmelt would be horrifically flooded, and ice would break, then dam up rivers, forming huge lakes. Humanity would be worse for the wear, but all in all fine. Places where electricity is gotten using a hydroelectric dam may be out of power for a bit, but the flow of water would return in time.
|{{blog|121|2014|12|11}} 14d late)
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|[[File:Lava Lamp.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|122|Lava Lamp}}'''
|''"What if I made a lava lamp out of real lava? What could I use as a clear medium? How close could I stand to watch it?"''
<div align="right">—Kathy Johnstone, 6th Grade Teacher (via a student)</div>
|You would need to use a metal or gemstone with a very high heat tolerance. You could possibly use sapphire or some sort of transparent or translucent tungsten, but the clear medium would eventually fog up and prevent you from seeing the lava. The lava would solidify after approximately a minute without some way to continuously heat it.
|{{blog|122|2014|12|18}}
|{{book|2|40}}
|
|-
|[[File:Fairy Demographics.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|123|Fairy Demographics}}'''
|''"How many fairies would fly around, if each fairy is born from the first laugh of a child and fairies were immortal?"''
<div align="right">—Mira Kühn, Germany</div>
|If fairies appeared with the first laugh of a ''homo sapiens'', there would be around 100 billion fairies, and they, depending on their size, would probably be considered no more than a common pest. Because of their high population, however, they would probably be considered a major part of the ecosystems where they resided.
|{{blog|123|2015|01|01|7d late}}
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| rowspan="2" |[[File:Lunar Swimming.png|100px]]
| rowspan="2" |'''{{What If|124|Lunar Swimming}}'''
| rowspan="2" |''"What if there was a lake on the Moon? What would it be like to swim in it? Presuming that it is sheltered in a regular atmosphere, in some giant dome or something."''
<div align="right">—Kim Holder</div>
| rowspan="2" |It would be super-cool, given that lower gravity would increase the size of splashes and the height of jumps.
| rowspan="2" {{blog|124|2015|01|08}}
| rowspan="2" |
|{{book|20|2024|12|24|aIIBBj6KR-Y|What if we put a pool on the moon?}}
|-
|{{book|7|short-video=yes|2025|08|12|mtTbwHzhUiM|Petition to send a swimming pool to the moon!}}
|-
|[[File:Bowling Ball 2.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|125|Bowling Ball}}'''
|''"You are in a boat directly over the Mariana Trench. If you drop a 7kg bowling ball over the side, how long would it take to hit the bottom?"''
<div align="right">—Doug Carter</div>
|It would take two hours and 20 minutes.
|{{blog|125|2015|01|15}}
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|[[File:Stairs (What If?).png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|126|Stairs}}'''
|''"If you made an elevator that would go to space (like the one you mentioned in the '''{{what if|94|billion-story building}}''') and built a staircase up (assuming regulated air pressure) about how long would it take to climb to the top?"''
<div align="right">—Ethan Annas</div>
|It would take about half a day by motorcycle, or a week or two for a professional stair-climber. If going on foot, you'd also need to carry a huge backpack stuffed with nothing but sticks of butter in order to get your daily caloric intake (including the energy expended from climbing the stairs).
|{{blog|126|2015|01|22}}
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|[[File:Tug of War.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|127|Tug of War}}'''
|''"Would it be possible for two teams in a tug-o-war to overcome the ultimate tensile strength of an iron rod and pull it apart? How big would the teams have to be?"''
<div align="right">—Markus Andersen</div>
|Two teams of 25 people each would be able to rip a half-inch iron bar apart: tug-o-war is a very dangerous game, as there's so much force being exerted on the rope. The theoretical upper limit of a game is 100,000 players each, pulling a 200-mile–long rope made of graphite ribbons.
|{{blog|127|2015|01|28|1d early}}
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|[[File:Zippo Phone.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|128|Zippo Phone}}'''
|''"What in my pocket actually contains more energy, my Zippo or my smartphone? What would be the best way of getting the energy from one to the other? And since I am already feeling like Bilbo in this one, is there anything else in my pocket that would have unexpected amounts of stored energy?"''
<div align="right">—Ian Cummings</div>
|The Zippo has more energy than your phone battery, but your hand would have even more, when burned as fuel.
|{{blog|128|2015|02|05|1d late}}
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|[[File:Black Hole Moon.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|129|Black Hole Moon}}'''
|''"What would happen if the Moon were replaced with an equivalently-massed black hole? If it's possible, what would a lunar ("holar"?) eclipse look like?"''
<div align="right">—Matt</div>
|Not much would change. A black hole of the Moon's mass would be the size of a sand grain, but gravitational effects would still be more or less the same here on Earth. There would be no moonlight, which would make the Earth a bit colder and mess with some nocturnal animals. You wouldn't see any lunar eclipses due to the tiny size of the Moon. It would only cause significant problems if humans were on the moon at the time.
|{{blog|129|2015|02|12}}
|
|{{book|28|2025|07|08|UQgw50GQu1A|What if the moon turned into a black hole?}}
|-
|[[File:Snow Removal.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|130|Snow Removal}}'''
|''"I've long thought about putting a flamethrower on the front of a car to melt snow and ice before you drive across it. Now I've realized that a flamethrower is impractical, but what about a high-powered microwave emitter?"''
<div align="right">—Matt Van Opens</div>
|The flamethrower is more practical because microwaves don't heat ice very well. The microwave beam would require the power output of three aircraft carriers, and the flamethrower would have a gas mileage of 17 feet per gallon. If you were to drive on the highway for an hour using this method, it would burn 18,635 gallons of gasoline, worth $40,000 to $50,000.
|{{blog|130|2015|02|19}}
|
|{{book|26|2025|05|27|WYf9-xfm6t8|What if you used a flamethrower as a snowblower?}}
|-
|[[File:Microwaves.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|131|Microwaves}}'''
|''"I have had a particular problem for as long as I can remember. Any time I attempt to heat left over Chinese food in a microwave, it fails to heat completely through somewhere. Usually the center but not always and usually rice, but often it will be a small section of meat. It's baffling and has made me automatically adjust heating times to over 2 minutes. In most cases this tends to heat the bowl or plate more than the food. So I suppose the question is what is the optimal time to heat left over Chinese food in the microwave, how about an 800 watt microwave?"''
<div align="right">—James</div>
|The first cause of this issue is that the wave pattern of microwaves create 'dead spots' where the food isn't heated. Secondly, melted ice causes some parts to cook while the rest is still defrosting. Use a lower power level, stir your food partway through microwaving, and let it sit for a few minutes before you eat it. This allows the heat to spread evenly.
|{{blog|131|2015|02|27|1d late}}
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|[[File:Hotter than Average.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|132|Hotter than Average}}'''
|''"I saw a sign at a hot springs tub saying "Caution: Water is hotter than average" with water at about 39°C. Although they were presumably trying to say "hotter than the average swimming pool," this got me wondering: What is the average temperature of all water on the Earth’s surface, and how does that temperature compare to 39°C?"''
<div align="right">—Graham Ward</div>
|The water average is the year-round average air temperature. By saying the water is "hotter than average", they're implying the water in the pool is not tied to it. Give the signmakers some credit.
|{{blog|132|2015|03|07|1d late}}
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|[[File:Flagpole.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|133|Flagpole}}'''
|''"So, you're falling from a height above the tallest building in your town, and you don't have a parachute. But wait! Partway down the side of that skyscraper there's a flagpole sticking out, sans flag! You angle your descent and grab the pole just long enough to swing around so that when you let go you're now heading back up toward the sky. As gravity slows you and brings you to a halt, you reach the top of the skyscraper, where you reach out and pull yourself to safety. What's the likelihood this could happen?"''
<div align="right">—Rex Ungericht</div>
|It would be impossible, even a gymnast's arms would be ripped off from the force.
|{{blog|133|2015|03|17|3d late}}
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|[[File:Space Burial.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|134|Space Burial}}'''
|''"I've often joked I'd like to have my remains put into orbit. Not in a "scatter my ashes" sense, but, like, "throw my naked corpse out the airlock" sense. Honestly, my main motivation is to baffle someone in the distant future, but it's an interesting scientific question: what would happen to my body in orbit over the course of years, decades or centuries?"''
<div align="right">—Tim in Fremont</div>
|Even before you were launched, your body would dry out very quickly. In low orbit, your body would fall to Earth and be burned from atmospheric re-entry. In a higher orbit, it would be destroyed from space debris. In high orbit, you could last for a few centuries. If your body was ever found it would mean there are a lot of people travelling around: making bodies pretty common.
|{{blog|134|2015|03|28|4d late}}
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|[[File:Digging Downward.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|135|Digging Downward}}'''
|''"What would happen if I dug straight down, at a speed of 1 foot per second? What would kill me first?"''
<div align="right">—Jack Kaunis</div>
|To remove all that soil, the energy required would heat up the surrounding beyond fatal levels pretty quickly. Immune to the heat, you could survive for one to two hours, as oxygen becomes toxic at depths higher than 5 kilometers.
|{{blog|135|2015|04|05|1d late}}
|
|{{book|38|2026|4|11|https://r7B0MzvwDcA|What if you kept digging downward?}}
|-
|[[File:Spiders vs. the Sun.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|136|Spiders vs. the Sun}}'''
|''"Which has a greater gravitational pull on me: the Sun, or spiders? Granted, the Sun is much bigger, but it is also much further away, and as I learned in high school physics, the gravitational force is proportional to the square of the distance."''
<div align="right">—Marina Fleming</div>
|The Sun, by 13 orders of magnitude (the Sun is very big). But spiders are a lot more scary.
|{{blog|136|2015|04|12}}
|{{book|2|44}}
|
|-
|[[File:New Horizons.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|137|New Horizons}}'''
|''"What if New Horizons hits my car?"''
<div align="right">—Robin Sheat</div>
| ''Note: This question was created before ''New Horizons'' passed by Pluto.'' This is extremely unlikely. The ''New Horizons'' probe is quite large, but is considered small for a spacecraft. If it crashed into your car, there would be serious consequences. However, if it did, NASA would be on the hook to replace your car, along with most of your neighbourhood, and clean up the radioactive mess.
|{{blog|137|2015|07|14|2m 25d late}}
|
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|[[File:Jupiter Submarine.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|138|Jupiter Submarine}}'''
|''"What if you released a submarine into Jupiter's atmosphere? Would it eventually reach a point where it would float? Could it navigate?"''
<div align="right">—KTH</div>
|No. Before it got to the point where it could float, the submarine would be crushed by the high pressure and melted by the high temperature. This is because gasses behave differently to fluids: the point where things can float is at a much higher pressure.
|{{blog|138|2015|07|28|7d late}}
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|[[File:Jupiter Descending.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|139|Jupiter Descending}}'''
|''"If you did '''{{what if|138|fall into Jupiter's atmosphere in a submarine}}''', what would it actually look like? What would you see before you melted or burned up?"''
<div align="right">—Ada Munroe</div>
|There's not a whole lot to go on here; we have some data and educated guesses about what's going inside these gas giants, but we haven't sent any probes equipped with operational cameras into a gas giant so we don't really know. A book by Michael Carroll suggests that there is a layer between the upper ammonia haze and lower ammonium hydrosulfide clouds, that could provide some good views, and if so, the view would be similar to Earth's atmosphere in that clouds and fellow submarines would fade into blue.
|{{blog|139|2015|08|04}}
|
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|-
|[[File:Proton Earth, Electron Moon.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|140|Proton Earth, Electron Moon}}'''
|''"What if the Earth were made entirely of protons, and the Moon were made entirely of electrons?"''
<div align="right">—Noah Williams</div>
|There would be so much energy packed into one space that it would create a black hole as massive as the observable universe that would expand outwards at the speed of light. Because of the charge from the electrons, it would be a {{w|naked singularity}}, a black hole with infinite mass that allows light to escape.
|{{blog|140|2015|09|18|1m 7d late}}
|{{book|2|48}}
|{{book|30|2025|9|9|DiWFXv9N0Vs|What if the Moon were made entirely of electrons?}}
|-
|[[File:Sunbeam.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|141|Sunbeam}}'''
|''"What if all of the sun's output of visible light were bundled up into a laser-like beam that had a diameter of around 1m once it reaches Earth?"''
<div align="right">—Max Schäfer</div>
|According to Randall, parts of the atmosphere would be heated to millions of degrees, and the bubble of destruction would wrap around the Earth before it even reached the other side. The light reflected off the Moon would be hot enough to burn you to death. If the beam couldn't track the Earth, part of it would survive as the Earth orbited out of the way. If the beam reached another planetary system, it could heat up the surface of some distant exoplanets. However, this conclusion depends on the precise nature of the "bundling up". If this "bundling" is accomplished via passive optics such as lenses and mirrors, then the temperature (and geometry) of the incoming beam will be restricted according to all the optics principles described in "Fire from Moonlight", and under no circumstances would any part of Earth's atmosphere or surface exceed 5000 K, due to the laws of thermodynamics. If, however, the "bundling" consists of an "active" procedure of generating electricity via PV panels, and then powering actual laser emitters with it (not just "laser-like") - which doesn't sound like Max's conception - then yes, the narrow beam of essentially "infinite" temperature and consequent destruction that Randall describes could indeed occur.
|{{blog|141|2016|01|12|3m 18d late}}
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|{{book|33|2025|11|11|qu8nx1qUwEU|What if ALL the sun’s power was focused in one place?}}
|-
|[[File:Space Jetta.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|142|Space Jetta}}'''
|''"What if I tried to re-enter the atmosphere in my car? (a 2000 VW Jetta TDI). Would it do more environmental damage than it is already apparently doing?"''
<div align="right">—Casey Berg</div>
|The effect of the car's re-entry itself on the environment is going to be small, verging on negligible. The effect of ceasing its usage to burn hydrocarbon fuel for the remainder of the car's life is likely significantly greater than the re-entry, but in practice also negligible. The main non-negligible environmental effect might be from the launch mechanism that was used to get into orbit in the first place, although even this effect, at current rocket launch rates, is still tiny compared to global air travel or ground-based automobile usage.
|{{blog|142|2016|01|20|1d late}}
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|[[File:Europa Water Siphon.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|143|Europa Water Siphon}}'''
|''"What if you built a siphon from the oceans on Europa to Earth? Would it flow once it's set up? (We have an idea for selling bottled Europa water.)"''
<div align="right">—A group of Google Search SREs</div>
|No, at least not with a siphon. Siphons can only pull water upward to a height where the air pressure feeding water into one side of the siphon equals the weight of the water falling out the other side (creating negative pressure, trying to form a vacuum, which nature abhors). This effect requires a gravitational field and an atmosphere, but cannot be used to pump water above the local atmosphere, and hence out of the local gravity well, under any circumstances - including on Europa.
|{{blog|143|2016|01|26|1d early}}
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|-
|[[File:Saliva Pool.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|144|Saliva Pool}}'''
|''"How long would it take for a single person to fill up an entire swimming pool with their own saliva?"''
<div align="right">—Mary Griffin, 9th grade</div>
|For an Olympic pool, it would take you 8,345 years. In order to finish by the present day, you'd need to start during the invention of agriculture.
|{{blog|144|2016|02|02}}
|{{book|2|53}}
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|-
|[[File:Fire From Moonlight.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|145|Fire From Moonlight}}'''
|''"Can you use a magnifying glass and moonlight to light a fire?"''
<div align="right">—Rogier Spoor</div>
|Unfortunately, it is not possible to summarize Randall's article succinctly, because most of his explanation is completely irrelevant to the question. Randall's answer is effectively "No, and here are a set of correct principles of optics that do not support my claim." The correct answer is "Yes, just like it is possible to start a fire with sunlight reflected off anything else, because the temperature/wavelength/energy of light does not change (substantially) when it is reflected, and the temperature of visible sunlight is around 5000 to 6000 K." (The obvious assumption about the intent behind Rogier's question is that "moonlight" refers to the reflected sunlight, and not the Moon's own surface emission of longwave infrared radiation with a temperature of 300 - 400 K, which we can't see - but this should really be clarified by Rogier.)
|{{blog|145|2016|02|09}}
|{{book|2|51}}
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|-
|[[File:Stop Jupiter.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|146|Stop Jupiter}}'''
|''"I understand that the ''New Horizons'' craft used gravity assist from Jupiter to increase its speed on the way to Pluto. I also understand that by doing this, Jupiter slowed down very slightly. How many flyby runs would it take to stop Jupiter completely?"''
<div align="right">—Dillon</div>
|Even if we were to throw Earth at Jupiter, this could never happen, because Jupiter is much more massive than Earth. Gravity assists are like bouncing a tennis ball off a train, and to stop the train, you'd need an awfully large tennis ball. 
|{{blog|146|2016|02|16}}
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|[[File:Niagara Straw.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|147|Niagara Straw}}'''
|''"What would happen if one tried to funnel Niagara Falls through a straw?"''
<div align="right">—David Gwizdala</div>
|In order to funnel Niagara Falls through a straw, you'd need to accelerate the water to one-quarter light speed, and no machine exists that's capable of doing that. If you tried, at 1300 m/s, the water would reach the maximum speed it can be accelerated to by pressure, and the flow would become choked if the momentum of the water hasn't already broken the acceleration device by that point. You would also get in a lot of trouble with the authorities for messing with the flow rate of Niagara Falls, since that's forbidden by a US/Canada treaty. If you somehow could actually do it, the resulting waterjet would have the power output of a small star, and would boil away the oceans and wipe out all life on Earth.
|{{blog|147|2016|02|26}} 3d late)
|{{book|2|55}}
|{{book|27|2025|06|17|pfbzrrcQZjs|What if you funneled Niagara Falls through a straw?}}
|-
|[[File:Eat the Sun.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|148|Eat the Sun}}'''
|''"What percentage of the Sun's heat (per day) does the population of Earth eat in calories per year? What changes could be made to our diets for the amount of calories to equal the energy of the Sun?"''
<div align="right">—James Mitchell</div>
|0.000000000065%. This is such a ridiculously small portion of the Sun's heat exhaust, that we cannot increase our personal calory intake enough to compensate. Instead we need to add more persons. A lot of them in fact. So many that we need to spread them - and the food that they eat - out throughout not just our galaxy but multiple galaxies. Otherwise, the food alone would be massive enough to turn into a black hole.
|{{blog|148|2016|03|12|8d late}}
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|[[File:Pizza Bird.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|149|Pizza Bird}}'''
|''"My boyfriend recently took a flight on a plane with wifi, and while he was up there, wistfully asked if I could send him a pizza. I jokingly sent him a photo of a parrot holding a pizza slice in its beak. Obviously, my boyfriend had to go without pizza until he landed at JFK. But this raised the question: could a bird deliver a standard 20" New York-style cheese pizza in a box? And if so, what kind of bird would it take?"''
<div align="right">—Tina Nguyen</div>
|After careful analysis of wing types, relative weights, and pizza grabbing mechanisms, it is deduced that even the most compatible bird - the eagle - would be hard-pressed to deliver a pizza to an airliner, the relative speed being the largest hurdle. However, delivery to a house - where the relative speed is not so much of a problem - would be possible, though the pizza might be found a slice or two short.
|{{blog|149|2016|03|26|7d late}}
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|[[File:Tatooine Rainbow.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|150|Tatooine Rainbow}}'''
|''"Since rainbows are caused by the refraction of the sunlight by tiny droplets of rainwater, what would rainbow look like on Earth if we had two suns like Tatooine?"''
<div align="right">—Raga</div>
|Each sun is the source of not just one rainbow, but a whole series of rainbows of diminishing intensity; the elusive 5th order rainbow had apparently been pictured at the time of publication. A planet with two suns would consequently have two series of rainbows. A solar system arranged like Tatooine would have to be circumbinary, which limits the separation of the two rainbow series to about 20 degrees. As the main rainbow is 84 degrees across, this leads to the conclusion that the rainbows would always be overlapping.
|{{blog|150|2016|05|23|1m 21d late}}
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|[[File:Sun Bug.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|151|Sun Bug}}'''
|''"How many fireflies would it take to match the brightness of the Sun?"''
<div align="right">—Luke Doty</div>
|30 nonillion fireflies (3 with 31 zeroes after it), which is surprisingly small on the astronomical scale. Counterintuitively, it turns out a single firefly actually glows brighter than an equivalent mass of Sun. However, there are logistical problems with organizing that many fireflies, as you need to arrange them so that they're not blocking each others' lights. You can try to simplify it by just using one very large firefly, but it would be larger than the entire Solar System and immediately collapse into the biggest black hole in the universe.
|{{blog|151|2016|07|21|1m 23d late}}
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|[[File:Flood Death Valley.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|152|Flood Death Valley}}'''
|''"Since Death Valley is below sea level could we dig a hole to the ocean and fill it up with water?"''
<div align="right">—Nick Traeden</div>
|Basically, yes. But there is a lot of digging, and the end result would be quite similar to the Salton Sea which is characterized as "gross" (technical term). Also, heat world records would likely move elsewhere.
|{{blog|152|2016|10|18|2m 21d late}}
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|''The thumbnail for this blog article wasn't archived.''
|'''<span class="plainlinks">[https://web.archive.org/web/20161205191559/http://what-if.xkcd.com/153 Peptides]</span>'''
|''"What is the longest English word you can spell using the one letter abbreviations of the 20 genetic amino acids? What about the three letter abbreviations? What would the resultant peptides look like?"''
<div align="right">—Kira (Lysine-Isoleucine-Arginine-Alanine) Guth</div>
|For any peptides, 19 letters is the highest possible, that being the word "interdepartmentally". For naturally existing peptides in the human body, 8 letters is the highest known. Examples of 8 letters are: GRISETTE, DATELESS, REVERSAL.
|{{blog|153|2016|12|05|notAvailable=Draft published by mistake and deleted. [[what if? (blog)#Peptides incident|Learn why]].}}
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|[[File:Hide the Atmosphere.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|153|Hide the Atmosphere}}'''
|''"Earth’s atmosphere is really thin compared to the radius of the Earth. How big a hole do I need to dig before people suffocate?"''
<div align="right">—Sam Burke</div>
|The hole would need to be very big. Under the right circumstances, a five-mile hole over the entire state of Texas might suffice.
|{{blog|153|2017|01|30|3m 5d late}}
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|[[File:Coast-to-Coast Coasting.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|154|Coast-to-Coast Coasting}}'''
|''"What if the entire continental US was on a decreasing slope from West to East. How steep would the slope have to be to sustain the momentum needed to ride a bicycle the entire distance without pedaling?"''
<div align="right">—Brandon Rooks</div>
|The ramp would need to be five miles high (eight kilometres) to make this possible, and that would be at a speed slower than walking. You would also need oxygen for the first third of the way down.
|{{blog|154|2017|02|08|9d late}}
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|[[File:Toaster vs. Freezer.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|155|Toaster vs. Freezer}}'''
|''"Would a toaster still work in a freezer?"''
<div align="right">—<span class="plainlinks">[https://maximumfun.org/podcasts/my-brother-my-brother-and-me/ '''My Brother, My Brother, and Me'''], [https://maximumfun.org/episodes/my-brother-my-brother-and-me/mbmbam-343-sauce-doctors-blessing/ '''Episode 343'''], discussing a </span>Yahoo Answers question</div>
|As a superior being, the Toaster casts its gaze upon lowly humans and hrumphs at their bickering about such measly temperature variations as 40C. The Toaster regularly reaches 600C and thus, to it - much like to the Fire - everything else is cold, be it room temperature or freezer temperature. Winnipeg locals have it easy and can try this for themselves, as long as they can stave off the wolves.
|{{blog|155|2017|02|28|13d late}}
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|[[File:Electrofishing for Whales.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|156|Electrofishing for Whales}}'''
|''"I used to work on a fisheries crew where we would use an electro-fisher backpack to momentarily stun small fish (30 - 100 mm length) so we could scoop them up with nets to identify and measure them. The larger fish tended to be stunned for slightly longer because of their larger surface area but I don't imagine this relationship would be maintained for very large animals. Could you electrofish for a blue whale? At what voltage would you have have to set the e-fisher?"''
<div align="right">—Madeline Cooper</div>
|Electrofishing has long-term effects on fish and especially dolphins. Larger animals, especially mammals, are likely to die rather than just get stunned. But it is also harder to get any effect in saltwater, which explains why electrofishing is mainly done in rivers and lakes, compared to fresh water. This means it wouldn't work on blue whales.
|{{blog|156|2017|03|09|2d late}}
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|[[File:Earth-Moon Fire Pole.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|157|Earth-Moon Fire Pole}}'''
|''"My son (5y) asked me today: If there were a kind of a fireman's pole from the Moon down to the Earth, how long would it take to slide all the way from the Moon to the Earth?"''
<div align="right">—Ramon Schönborn, Germany</div>
|This set-up would face many challenges, but these would be the different domains of the slowest extreme sport: climbing out of the Moon's gravity, accelerating through the middle transfer phase, and then decelerating to your supersonic arrival on Earth.
|{{blog|157|2018|03|21|1y 2m 5d late}}
|{{book|2|58}}
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|[[File:Hot Banana.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|158|Hot Banana}}'''
|''"I heard that bananas are radioactive. If they are radioactive, then they radiate energy. How many bananas would you need to power a house?"''
<div align="right">—Kang Ji</div>
|Bananas are not very radioactive, so it would take an absurdly large number, 300 quadrillion, which is enough to bury New York City in a skyscraper-tall pile of bananas. It would be much more energy efficient to simply burn the bananas as fuel, so that you could power a house with 10 bunches a day (or New York City with a pile the size of Liberty Island a week). The fact that you can do that would also make the huge pile of bananas needed to generate power with radioactivity a huge fire (and explosion) hazard, so just burning the bananas is safer as well.
|{{blog|158|2022|05|04|3y 11m 7d late}}
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|[[File:Hailstones.png|100px]]
|'''{{What If|159|Hailstones}}'''
|''"My 4 year old son and I were wondering about soccer ball sized hail today. How much damage would a hail storm with size 5 soccer ball sized hail do?"''
<div align="right">—Michael Grill</div>
|Hailstones get increasingly dangerous as they get larger, as their increased weight cancels their air resistance, allowing them to reach a higher terminal velocity while still carrying all that mass. Regular hailstones are too slow and light to be lethal, but a soccer ball-sized hailstone would hit at around 140 mph, capable of punching straight through the roof of a car or building. Fortunately, no hailstone on record has ever been that big, although storms can on occasion produce hailstones large enough to damage cars, and in rare cases even kill people.
|{{blog|159|2022|07|05|1m 30d late}}
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|''This blog article doesn't have a thumbnail.''
|'''{{What If|160|Transatlantic Car Rental}}'''
|''"My daughter recently received her driver's permit in the US, and aspires to visit mainland Europe someday. She has learned enough about the rules of the road to know never to drive into the ocean; however, she jokingly suggested that given a sufficient quantity of rental cars, she could eventually get to Europe by driving east repeatedly. The question is, how many vehicles would it take to build a car-bridge across the Atlantic?"''
<div align="right">—Eric Munson</div>
|You'd need approximately a billion plus a trillion cars to pull this off. Also, in addition to destroying global ocean circulation and creating an illegal naval blockade, this is definitely a violation of her rental car agreement. Also, organizing a fleet of that many rental cars would be difficult.
|{{blog|160|2022|09|06|1m 26d late}}
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|''This blog article doesn't have a thumbnail.''
|'''{{What If|161|Star Ownership}}'''
|''"If every country's airspace extended up forever, which country would own the largest percentage of the galaxy at any given time?"''
<div align="right">—Reuven Lazarus</div>
|Given that the South pole (of Earth) points towards the Milky way centre, most of the galaxy will wind up in the air-space (space-space?) of countries of the southern hemisphere. However, due to Earth's rotation around its axis, the nadir of the galaxy core (on Earth) will constantly shift. Given that Australia is the largest of the southern countries, Australia will most often be the Rulers of the Universe. Northern hemisphere jurisdictions, such as New Jersey, will have to contend with some pretty nifty black holes and possibly murderous exoplanets.
|{{blog|161|2022|11|01|1m 19d late}}
|{{book|2|24}}
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|''This blog article doesn't have a thumbnail.''
|'''{{What If|162|Comet Ice}}'''
|''"Could I cool down the Earth by capturing a comet and dropping it in the ocean, like an ice cube in a glass of water?"''
<div align="right">—Daniel Becker</div>
|Only if you had a magical sky-crane that could cancel the comet's initial kinetic energy during capture, then slowly lower it to the ground without converting all of its gravitational potential energy back into more kinetic energy. Converting that potential energy into electricity to substitute for existing fossil fuel power plants would reduce CO2 emissions, but the effect of that substitution on global temperatures is uncertain and likely negligible. Meanwhile, the amount of ice in a comet that could be used to cool the oceans directly is also less than one would expect from its size, since comets are not solid. Overall, the answer is effectively "no".
|{{blog|162|2022|12|06|29d late}}
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| rowspan="3" |
| rowspan="3" |'''Global Windstorm'''
| rowspan="3" |''"What would happen if the Earth and all terrestrial objects suddenly stopped spinning, but the atmosphere retained its velocity?"''
<div align="right">—Andrew Brown</div>
| rowspan="3" |Everyone would die. Then, the wind would destroy everything, with gusts blowing more than 1,000 mph (1,600 km/h) around the equator, killing 85% of the world population. The highest winds would only last a few minutes, but that would be enough to vaporise most human structures. Bunkers would be useless, because, even if your bunker were stuck to the ground hard, others would not be as strong and would hit yours at 1,000 mph. However, most of the researchers at the {{w|Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station}} would be completely fine. The wind blast would then become a heat blast with scorching temperatures and create global thunderstorms in moist areas. After a while, the Earth would gradually start to regain its rotational velocity thanks to the Moon.
| rowspan="3" |
| rowspan="3" {{book|1|1}}
|{{book|4|2024|01|09|gp5G1QG6cXc|What if Earth suddenly stopped spinning?}}
|-
|{{book|12|short-video=yes|2025|10|07|19gun1mffWs|What would happen to the population if the Earth suddenly stopped spinning?}}
|-
|{{book|13|short-video=yes|2025|10|14|ERieN5pee7A|What would happen to the Earth if it suddenly stopped spinning?}}
|-
| rowspan="2" |
| rowspan="2" |'''Weird (and Worrying) Questions from the What If? Inbox, #1'''
| colspan="2" |''"Would it be possible to get your teeth to such a cold temperature that they would shatter upon drinking a hot cup of coffee?"''
<div align="right">—Shelby Hebert</div>
<div align="right"></div>
| rowspan="2" |
| rowspan="2"{{book|1|4}}
| rowspan="2" |
|-
| colspan="2" |''"How many houses are burned down in the United States every year? What would be the easiest way to increase that number by a significant amount (say, at least 15%)?"''<div align="right">—Anonymous</div>
|-
|
|'''New York–Style Time Machine'''
|''"I assume when you travel back in time you end up at the same spot on the Earth’s surface. At least, that’s how it worked in the Back to the Future movies. If so, what would it be like if you traveled back in time, starting in Times Square, New York, 1000 years? 10,000 years? 100,000 years? 1,000,000 years? 1,000,000,000 years? What about foward in time 1,000,000 years?"''
<div align="right">—Mark Dettling</div>
|
*1,000 years back, you'd see many chestnut trees, wolves, and passenger pigeons.
*10,000 years back, the ground would be mostly bedrock, with large chunks of ice and dropped boulders, called glacial erratics.
*100,000 years back, several islands were pushed upwards by the ice. You would see many now-extinct species, such as Canis dirus, Smilodon fatalis, and Arctodus.
*1,000,000 years back, you'd see relatives of hyenas called Chasmaporthetes.
*1,000,000,000 years back would be no plants or animals, only single-celled organisms in the ocean.
|
|{{book|1|5}}
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|-
|
|'''Periodic Wall of the Elements'''
|''"What would happen if you made a periodic table out of cube-shaped bricks, where each brick was made of the corresponding element?"''
<div align="right">—Andy Connolly</div>
|The top two rows wouldn't be too dangerous to build if you can deal with the fluorine setting almost everything else on fire without setting yourself on fire or exposing yourself to corrosive reaction products like hydrofluoric acid, but the rest of the periodic table would seriously injure or kill you. In the third row, the phosphorus, sulfur and chlorine would also catch on fire and make toxic gas. In the fourth row, the potassium would add to the ongoing fire, which would ignite the arsenic making highly toxic arsenic trioxide. Bromine and selenium would also contribute to the toxic compounds produced in the fire, while also making it smell horrible. The fifth row would be similar to the fourth while also including technetium, which is moderately radioactive. In the sixth row, elements with short half-lives would destroy the building you were in as well as causing nuclear fallout to fall nearby. Past the sixth row, the entire city you were in would be destroyed in a nuclear explosion, and the fallout would contaminate the Earth with thousands of times more radioactivity than the Chernobyl disaster.
|
|{{book|1|8}}
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| rowspan="2" |
| rowspan="2" |'''Weird (and Worrying) Questions from the What If? Inbox, #2'''
|''"Would dumping anti-matter into the Chernobyl reactor when it was melting down stop the meltdown?"''
<div align="right">—AJ</div>
| No, it would not. According to Randall's answer comic, this idea deserves a "For God's Sake, What Were You Thinking?" Award.
| rowspan="2" |
| rowspan="2"{{book|1|12}}
| rowspan="2" |
|-
| colspan="2" |''"Is it possible to cry so much you dehydrate yourself?"''<div align="right">—Karl Wildermuth</div>
|-
| rowspan="2" |
| rowspan="2" |'''The Last Human Light'''
| rowspan="2" |''"If every human somehow simply disappeared from the face of the Earth, how long would it be before the last artificial light source would go out?"''
<div align="right">—Alan</div>
| rowspan="2" |Anything that depends on the power grid will go out in a few hours after the fossil fuel plants stop getting supplied with fuel because the sudden reduction in working power plants will cause cascade failures leading to a blackout without human guidance. Lights powered by diesel generators will stay on until the fuel runs out, probably in a matter of months at most. Lights powered by geothermal plants, wind turbines and hydroelectric dams will run until their power source has a mechanical failure, possibly for several years. Battery powered lights will go out in a decade or two at most due to self discharge of the batteries. Lights powered by nuclear reactors will go out fairly quickly because the SCRAM would get triggered by the loss of external power. The Curiosity rover would have lights that could theoretically work for over a century if only someone was there to turn them on. Solar powered emergency call boxes have lights that would stay on until the electronics degrade, possibly as long as a century. Radioactive waste that was mixed with glass to facilitate shielding, transportation and storage will glow for centuries due to Cherenkov radiation.
| rowspan="2" |
| rowspan="2" {{book|1|13}}
|{{book|11|2024|05|28|8fADp43wJwU|If all humans died, when would the last light go out?}}
|-
|{{book|5|short-video=yes|2025|07|29|kNry0bf7eC0|Could this be the last surviving human light source?}}
|-
| rowspan="3" |
| rowspan="3" |'''Weird (and Worrying) Questions from the What If? Inbox, #3'''
| colspan="2" |''"Given humanity’s current knowledge and capabilities, is it possible to build a new star?"''
<div align="right">—Jeff Gordon</div>
| rowspan="3" |
| rowspan="3"{{book|1|16}}
| rowspan="3" |
|-
| colspan="2" |''"What sort of logistic anomalies would you encounter in trying to raise an army of apes?"''<div align="right">—Kevin</div>
|-
| colspan="2" |''"If people had wheels and could fly, how would we differentiate them from airplanes?"''<div align="right">—Anonymous</div>
|-
| rowspan="2" |
| rowspan="2" |'''Orbital Submarine'''
| rowspan="2" |''"How long would a nuclear submarine last in orbit?"''
<div align="right">—Jason Lathbury</div>
| rowspan="2" |Submarines are, unsurprisingly, very good at being watertight. This would mean that, mostly, air would stay within the submarine for a time. However, a nuclear submarine is able to stay under for so long because it can convert seawater into oxygen. With no seawater, no oxygen is made, which means that eventually they will run out of air. Getting back into the atmosphere would be tricky. Firing all of a submarine's missiles backwards (i.e. towards the ship) with their detonators removed would produce just enough force for the sub to deorbit and reenter the atmosphere. At that point, the heat and forces of reentry would rip the submarine apart, similar to the {{w|Space Shuttle Challenger disaster}}.
| rowspan="2" |
| rowspan="2" {{book|1|17}}
|{{book|7|2024|03|05|EsUBRd1O2dU|Would a Submarine Work as a Spaceship?}}
|-
|{{book|4|short-video=yes|2025|07|22|sFTRRdHqZIQ|Why Space Is Actually Warm!}}
|-
| rowspan="2" |
| rowspan="2" |'''Weird (and Worrying) Questions from the What If? Inbox, #4'''
|''"Would it be possible to stop a volcano eruption by placing a bomb (thermobaric or nuclear) underneath the surface?"''
<div align="right">—Tomasz Gruszka</div>
| No, it would not.
| rowspan="2" |
| rowspan="2"{{book|1|20}}
| rowspan="2" |
|-
|''"A friend of mine is convinced that there is sound in space. There isn’t, right?"''<div align="right">—Aaron Smith</div>
| You are correct. There isn't.
|-
|
|'''Human Computer'''
|''"How much computing power could we achieve if the entire world population stopped whatever we are doing right now and started doing calculations? How would it compare to a modern-day computer or smartphone?"''
<div align="right">—Mateusz Knorps</div>
|The combined computing power of all devices surpassed the power of all humans in 1977.
|
|{{book|1|21}}
|
|-
|
|'''Common Cold'''
|''"If everyone on the planet stayed away from each other for a couple of weeks, wouldn't the common cold virus be wiped out?"''
<div align="right">—Sarah Ewart</div>
|In theory, this would work. In practice, it wouldn't for a simple reason: Some people have compromised immune systems. These people's bodies can be a safe haven for rhinoviruses, which would mean the common cold, would quickly spread through the population again. The world's food supplies would also be an issue, as people may need to eat foods not designed to be eaten directly (i.e. raw grain). Many systems would shut down as people wouldn't be there to maintain them. Many millions would be stranded in places like Antarctica or the Sahara Desert, which would lead to many deaths. In effect, the scenario would be similar to 'Everybody Jump'.
|
|{{book|1|25}}
|
|-
| rowspan="2" |
| rowspan="2" |'''Weird (and Worrying) Questions from the What If? Inbox, #5'''
| colspan="2" |''" If global warming puts us in danger through temperature rise, and super-volcanos put us into danger of global cooling, shouldn’t those two dangers balance each other out?"''
<div align="right">—Florian Seidl-Schulz</div>
| rowspan="2" |
| rowspan="2"{{book|1|27}}
| rowspan="2" |
|-
| colspan="2" |''"How fast would a human have to run in order to be cut in half at the bellybutton by a cheese-cutting wire?"''<div align="right">—Jon Merrill</div>
|-
|
|'''No More DNA'''
|''"This may be a bit gruesome, but... if someone's DNA suddenly vanished, how long would that person last?"''
<div align="right">—Nina Charest</div>
| At the instant of vanishing, you would suddenly lose a third of a pound and your muscles might twitch from the change in mass. You would then suffer similar symptoms to those caused by toxins or radiation that severely damage DNA. You would probably have nausea and diarrhea. You would probably develop anemia. Your hair would probably fall out. Your immune system would collapse. You could live for several hours or days before succumbing to infection or system-wide organ failure.
|
|{{book|1|29}}
|{{book|35|2026|01|20|s3oLIDaElaE|How long would you survive with no DNA?}}
|-
| rowspan="2" |
| rowspan="2" |'''Weird (and Worrying) Questions from the What If? Inbox, #6'''
| colspan="2" |''"What is the total nutritional value (calories, fat, vitamins, minerals, etc.) of the average human body?"''
<div align="right">—Justin Risner</div>
| rowspan="2" |
| rowspan="2"{{book|1|31}}
| rowspan="2" |
|-
| colspan="2" |''"What temperature would a chainsaw (or other cutting implement) need to be at to instantly cauterize any injuries inflicted with it?"''<div align="right">—Sylvia Gallagher</div>
|-
|
|'''Flyover States'''
|''"Which US state is actually flown over the most?"''
<div align="right">—Jesse Ruderman</div>
|Somewhat surprisingly, Virginia, due to a large amount of flights from Toronto to the Caribbean/South America. Despite it having many major airports, including most of those serving DC, there are also many major airports which have routes passing over Virginia, such as KATL and KJFK. At the time of writing, Delaware had the greatest ratio of flights over it to flights to it because it did not have an active commercial airport (Since New Castle Airport resumed commercial service in 2013, this has probably changed.). Hawai'i is the least flown over state, followed by California. Hawai'i is a group of small islands in the middle of a big ocean, and flights that would otherwise fly over California are encouraged to land there instead by post-9/11 rules that discourage carrying excessive fuel. Strangely, Hawai'i is the most flown under state because the part of Botswana on the opposite side of the Earth from Hawai'i has more flights pass over it than any of the various parts of the Indian Ocean opposite the other states.
|
|{{book|1|33}}
|
|-
| rowspan="3" |
| rowspan="3" |'''Weird (and Worrying) Questions from the What If? Inbox, #7'''
| colspan="2" |''"In Thor the main character is at one point spinning his hammer so fast that he creates a strong tornado. Would this be possible in real life?"''
<div align="right">—Davor</div>
| rowspan="3" |
| rowspan="3"{{book|1|36}}
| rowspan="3" |
|-
| colspan="2" |''"If you saved a whole life’s worth of kissing and used all that suction power on one single kiss, how much suction force would that single kiss have?"''<div align="right">—Jonatan Lindström</div>
|-
| colspan="2" |''"How many nuclear missiles would have to be launched at the United States to turn it into a complete wasteland?"''<div align="right">—Anonymous</div>
|-
|
|'''Self-Fertilization'''
|''"I read about some researchers who were trying to produce sperm from bone marrow stem cells. If a woman were to have sperm cells made from her own stem cells and impregnate herself, what would be her relationship to her daughter?"''
<div align="right">—R Scott LaMorte</div>
| As there is no father to contribute a Y chromosome, the child is guaranteed to be a girl. As the child is coming from, effectively, two parents with identical DNA, there would be many genetic defects, similar to being as inbred as the result of three generations of consecutive sibling marriages. This is, as demonstrated by various royal families, a very bad idea. It would be relatively likely for any given human self-fertilization to have a non-viable result.
|
|{{book|1|37}}
|
|-
| rowspan="2" |
| rowspan="2" |'''Weird (and Worrying) Questions from the What If? Inbox, #8'''
|''"A toxin blocks the ability of the nephron tubule reabsorption but does not affect filtration. What are the possible short-term effects of this toxin?"''
<div align="right">—Mary</div>
| Randall's answer comic indicates that since he's a cartoonist not a doctor, he is unqualified to answer this question.
| rowspan="2" |
| rowspan="2"{{book|1|40}}
| rowspan="2" |
|-
| colspan="2" |''"If a Venus fly trap could eat a person, about how long would it take for the human to be fully de-juiced and absorbed?"''<div align="right">—Jonathan Wang</div>
|-
|
|'''Lost Immortals'''
|''"If two immortal people were placed on opposite sides of an uninhabited Earthlike planet, how long would it take them to find each other? 100,000 years? 1,000,000 years? 100,000,000,000 years?"''
<div align="right">—Ethan Lake</div>
|Depending on strategy and terrain, a few years to a few decades. Based on the communication methods of ants, Randall suggests that the immortals leave trails of markers of when they were there and which way they went as they travel and if they find the other immortal's markers follow them as fast as possible.
|
|{{book|1|42}}
|
|-
| rowspan="2" |
| rowspan="2" |'''Weird (and Worrying) Questions from the What If? Inbox, #9'''
|''"Could you survive a tidal wave by submerging yourself in an in-ground pool?"''
<div align="right">—Chris Muska</div>
| No, that would be a very bad idea.
| rowspan="2" |
| rowspan="2"{{book|1|46}}
| rowspan="2" |
|-
|''"If you are in free fall and your parachute fails, but you have a Slinky with extremely convenient mass, tension, etc., would it be''
possible to save yourself by throwing the Slinky upward while holding on to one end of it?"<div align="right">—Varadarajan Srinivasan</div>
| No, it would not.
|-
|
|'''Sparta'''
|''"In the movie 300 they shoot arrows up into the sky and they seemingly blot out the sun. Is this possible, and how many arrows would it take?"''
<div align="right">—Anna Newell</div>
|300 arrows per second with densely packed archers could blot out 99% of the Sun's light. If the Sun were low in the horizon, you could more effectively block sunlight with less arrows if the arrows were aimed to pass between the battlefield and the Sun. However, this would have little to no effect on the opponent, unless it required solar panels.
|
|{{book|1|47}}
|
|-
|
|'''Lego Bridge'''
|''"How many Lego bricks would it take to build a bridge capable of carrying traffic from London to New York? Have that many Lego bricks been manufactured?"''
<div align="right">—Jerry Petersen</div>
|Enough bricks have been manufactured to connect London and New York, but the bridge would not be structurally sound enough to stay together for very long.
|
|{{book|1|51}}
|
|-
| rowspan="3" |
| rowspan="3" |'''Weird (and Worrying) Questions from the What If? Inbox, #10'''
| colspan="2" |''"What is the probability that if I am stabbed by a knife in my torso that it won’t hit anything vital and I’ll live?"''
<div align="right">—Thomas</div>
| rowspan="3" |
| rowspan="3"{{book|1|54}}
| rowspan="3" |
|-
| colspan="2" |''"If I were on a motorbike and do a jump off a quarter pipe ramp, how fast would I need to be moving to safely deploy and land using the parachute?"''<div align="right">—Anonymous</div>
|-
| colspan="2" |''"What if every day, every human had a 1 percent chance of being turned into a turkey, and every turkey had a 1 percent chance of
being turned into a human?"''<div align="right">—Kenneth</div>
|-
|
|'''Weightless Arrow'''
|''"Assuming a zero-gravity environment with an atmosphere identical to Earth's, how long would it take the friction of air to stop an arrow fired from a bow? Would it eventually come to a standstill and hover in midair?"''
<div align="right">—Mark Estano</div>
|The arrow would stop at about 5 to 10 kilometers and float if the space it was being loosed in were large enough to allow that. Since the only sustained zero-gravity environment with an Earth-like atmosphere in real life is on the International Space Station, where Kibo the longest module is 10 m long, realistically the arrow would hit something and potentially cause serious damage.
|
|{{book|1|56}}
|
|-
| rowspan="2" |
| rowspan="2" |'''All the Lightning'''
| rowspan="2" |''"If all the lightning strikes happening in the world on any given day all happened in the same place at once, what would happen to that place?"''
<div align="right">—Trevor Jones</div>
| rowspan="2" |A typical lightning strike delivers enough energy to power a residential house for about 2 days. Hence, even in lightning-prone regions the power delivered to the ground by the sun outweighs the power delivered to the ground by lightning by a factor of a million. Assuming that the lightning bolts come down in parallel, our bundle (containing about a million bolts) would be around 6 meters in diameter. It would deliver about two atomic bombs worth of energy to the air and ground, leaving a crater the size of a basketball court. Inside the channel, the air would turn into high energy plasma. The light and heat from the bolt would spontaneously ignite surfaces for miles around while the shockwave would flatten trees and demolish buildings. A copper cable a meter in diameter could in theory conduct the brief surge of current from the bolt without melting, however anything on the other end of the cable wouldn't be able to conduct it properly.
| rowspan="2" |
| rowspan="2" {{book|1|62}}
|{{book|10|2024|05|07|fs28lEq9smw|What if all the lightning on Earth struck the same place at once?}}
|-
|{{book|3|short-video=yes|2025|07|15|_efsqO-4OoQ|Could We Harvest Power From Lightning?}}
|-
| rowspan="2" |
| rowspan="2" |'''Weird (and Worrying) Questions from the What If? Inbox, #11'''
|''"What if everyone in Great Britain went to one of the coasts and started paddling? Could they move the island at all?"''
<div align="right">—Ellen Eubanks</div>
| No, they could not.
| rowspan="2" |
| rowspan="2"{{book|1|64}}
| rowspan="2" |
|-
|''"Are fire tornadoes possible?"''<div align="right">—Seth Wishman</div>
| Yes, [[Wikipedia:Fire_whirl|fire tornadoes]] are a real phenomenon which Randall finds very impressive.
|-
|
|'''Neutron Bullet'''
|''"If a bullet with the density of a neutron star were fired from a handgun (ignoring the how) at the Earth's surface, would the Earth be destroyed?"''
<div align="right">—Charlotte Ainsworth</div>
|No. The bullet would fall through the ground and stop in the center of the Earth. If the bullet were actually made of neutron star material, it would violently explode back into normal matter when removed from the neutron star gravity well with more energy than any nuclear weapon, but since the question does not specify this, Randall chose to imagine a stable material of the same density. If the bullet could be kept at the surface of the Earth, it would be relatively safe to stand several meters away from, but if you came too close, the gravity would pull you in and when you touched it drain all your blood. If the bullet were covered in water of just the right density, you could possibly safely touch it and then pull away, but it would still be risky to attempt.
|
|{{book|1|67}}
|
|-
| rowspan="2" |
| rowspan="2" |'''Weird (and Worrying) Questions from the What If? Inbox, #12'''
| colspan="2" |''"What if I swallow a tick that has Lyme disease? Will my stomach acid kill the tick and the borreliosis, or would I get Lyme disease from the inside out?"''
<div align="right">—Christopher Vogel</div>
| rowspan="2" |
| rowspan="2"{{book|1|68}}
| rowspan="2" |
|-
| colspan="2" |''"Assuming a relatively uniform resonant frequency in a passenger jet, how many cats, meowing at what resonant frequency of said jet, would be required to "bring it down"?"<div align="right">—Brittany</div>
|-
| rowspan="3" |
| rowspan="3" |'''Richter 15'''
| rowspan="3" |''"What if a Richter magnitude 15 earthquake were to hit America at, let's say, New York City? What about a Richter 20? 25?"''
<div align="right">—Alec Farid</div>
| rowspan="3" |A magnitude 15 earthquake would destroy the Earth, but going higher won't make much difference. You can actually go lower than 0, though.
| rowspan="3" |
| rowspan="3" {{book|1|69}}
|{{book|2|2023|12|05|e3uk7jU3RHo|What would a magnitude 15 earthquake be like?}}
|-
|{{book|1|short-video=yes|2025|06|24|wBLVmEZV2Oc|How high could the magnitude of Earthquakes go?}}
|-
|{{book|2|short-video=yes|2025|07|01|FKXVs4UteSc|Is there such a thing as a magnitude 0 earthquake?}}
|-
|
|'''Soupiter'''
|''"What would happen if the Solar System was filled with soup out to Jupiter?"''
<div align="right">—Amelia</div>
|The soup would collapse into a very large black hole and devour the Milky Way, though we would feel mostly fine for the first 10 to 15 minutes.
|
|{{book|2|1}}
|
|-
|
|'''Helicopter Ride'''
|''"What if you were hanging on a helicopter blade by your hands and then someone turned it on?"''
<div align="right">—Corban Blanset</div>
|Without any grip assistance, you'd fall off before it completed its first revolution. With handholds, your body would instead fall off of your arms. Assuming no issues with staying on the wing, there would be more problems to follow. The helicopter, as it spooled up, would begin violently wobbling due to the constantly changing center of gravity before flipping itself, destroying both you and the pilot in a massive fireball.
|
|{{book|2|2}}
|
|-
|
|'''Dangerously Cold'''
|''"Would there be any danger from standing next to a large object that was 0 Kelvin?"''
<div align="right">—Christopher</div>
|There wouldn't be a lot of direct danger from the cube itself, though it would make you feel cold. The bigger danger would be from liquid oxygen condensing and igniting flammable objects. It would take a while to reheat the cube
|
|{{book|2|3}}
|
|-
|
|'''Ironic Vaporization'''
|''"What if we somehow evaporated a solid block of iron on {{asic|ear|th''}}''?"''
<div align="right">—Cooper C.</div>
|The cube would ignite whatever is near it and deposit large quantities of iron flakes downwind. However, it wouldn't make a huge impact on the total amount of atmospheric iron.
|
|{{book|2|4}}
|
|-
|
|'''Cosmic Road Trip'''
|''"If the universe stopped expanding right now, how long would it take for a human to drive a car all the way to the edge of the universe?"''
<div align="right">—Sam H-H</div>
|First off, a human can't do this. Assuming a normal crash rate, an average human driver wouldn't make it past Mars without crashing. Even truck drivers, a field where the crash rate is much lower, wouldn't make it past Jupiter. Using a self-driving car, however, would negate this. It would take an incredibly long time, on the order of approximately 480 quadrillion years if you're driving at a steady pace of 65 miles per hour. Assuming you want to keep your car functional, you would go through 30 quintillion oil changes. Assuming a reasonable 33 MPG highway mileage, the amount of gasoline needed would be similar to the Moon in size. You would also need 10^17 tons of snacks. Entertainment would be another issue. If every person who has ever lived had 150 friends/acquaintances, listening to a real-time podcast of someone's life, all from the perspective of a different friend/acquaintance, you would need to re-watch them all 150 times to make it to the edge of the observable universe. Once you get there, there would be no Earth to come back to.
|
|{{book|2|5}}
|
|-
|
|'''Pigeon Chair'''
|''"How many pigeons would it require in order to lift the average person and launch a chair to the height of Australia's Q1 skyscraper?"''
<div align="right">—Nick Evans</div>
|The optimal method for using the least amount of pigeons would be to use a multi-stage system of sorts. A group of pigeons would lift you about 10 feet, before dropping you as another group swoops in to take their place. However, even with this system, the number of pigeons would be large enough that the Earth would be pulled into the pigeons by gravity instead of the other way around. In other words, if you want to get to the top of Australia's Q1 skyscraper, use an elevator.
|
|{{book|2|6}}
|
|-
|rowspan="11"|
|rowspan="11"|'''Short Answers #1'''
|''"What if your blood became liquid uranium? Would you die from radiation, lack of oxygen, or something else?"''
<div align="right">—Thomas Chattaway</div>
|You would die Having-no-Blood-and-Being-Full-of-Molten-Uranium Syndrome. Also known as Jeff's Disease.
|rowspan="11"|
|rowspan="11"{{book|2|6.5}} (S1)
|rowspan="11"|
|-
|''"Could someone have an anime-style attack where they created a sword out of air? I'm not talking about an air blade, but something like cooling the air enough so that you had solid air to attack people."''
<div align="right">—Emma</div>
|Theoretically yes, but it would be extremely impractical. The temperature to turn oxygen solid is very low, and even with proper insulation it would still cause frostbite. It would also be very weak and very soft, and would sublimate quickly, basically making it useless for all intents and purposes, except for PR.
|-
|''"How much water do you have to drink to become 99 percent water?"''
<div align="right">—LyraxH</div>
|About 500 gallons of water.
|-
|''"What would we see if we attached a lightweight camera to a balloon and let it fly away?"''
<div align="right">—Raymond Peng</div>
|We would see a balloon slowly flying away, fading into the sky. It would be quite pretty. Though next time we should probably attach a transmitter.
|-
|''"How many calories does Mario burn a day?"''
<div align="right">—Daniel and Xavier Hovley</div>
|Mario starved to death in late 1985.
|-
|''"If a snake unhinged its jaw and swallowed a balloon whole, could/would the balloon carry the snake up?"''
<div align="right">—Freezachu</div>
|No.
|-
|''"If you were to jump out of an airplane that was traveling at Mach 880980 that was 100,00 feet above ground in New York City, with skydiving gear, could you survive?"''
<div align="right">—Jack Catten</div>
|rowspan="2"|No, you would die.
|-
|''"If there was no water on Earth, would we all live?"''
<div align="right">—Karen</div>
|-
|''"Is it possible to make a homemade jetpack?"''
<div align="right">—Azhari Zadil</div>
|It's very easy to make one that works once; much harder to make it work more.
|-
|''"I was wondering whether there's a way to use my welder as a defibrillator? (The specific model I own is an Impax IM-ARC140 arc welder.)"''
<div align="right">—Łukasz Grabowski</div>
|No, and you probably shouldn't be allowed to use it as an arc welder either.
|-
|''"What if all atoms on Earth were expanded to the size of a grape? Would we survive?
|I don't know how to answer this with science, but now I want grapes.
|-
|
|'''Geyser'''
|''"If one were to stand on top of the Old Faithful geyser in Yellowstone National Park, at what speed would they be launched upwards and what injuries would they likely sustain?"''
<div align="right">—Catherine McGrath</div>
|If you positioned yourself in just the right way, and used an umbrella to catch as much lift as possible, you could be launched hundreds of feet in the air. Unsurprisingly, you'd receive severe burns and almost certainly die. Surprisingly, however, you would be far from the first person to get severe burns from the geysers.
|
|{{book|2|8}}
|
|-
|
|'''Pew, Pew, Pew'''
|''"If you shot a ridiculously powerful gun/{{asic|la|zer''}}'' would it go off the edge of the world in a straight line or curve around the world?"''
<div align="right">—Maelor</div>
|The beam would go off the edge of the world, except under certain circumstances.
|
|{{book|2|9}}
|
|-
|rowspan="4"|
|rowspan="4"|'''Weird & Worrying #1'''
|colspan="2"|''"Can bees or other animals go to hell? Or can they murder other bees without consequences?"''
<div align="right">—Sadie Kim</div>
|rowspan="4"|
|rowspan="4"{{book|2|10.5}} (W1)
|rowspan="4"|
|-
|colspan="2"|''"How many mirrors reflecting (sun)light would it take to kill, or at least, injure somebody?"''
<div align="right">—Eli Collinge</div>
|-
|colspan="2"|''"If you had to remove the tonsils of a giant, what would be the safest way for you to do it? The surgeon is a normal human."''
<div align="right">—Tirzah</div>
|-
|colspan="2"|''"What would it take to defeat Air Force One with a drone???"''
<div align="right">—Anonymous</div>
|-
|
|'''Banana Church'''
|''"Can all the world's bananas fit inside of all of the world's churches? My friends have had this argument for a little over 10 years now."''
<div align="right">—Jonas</div>
|Yes. They would likely only fill the churches to 6 inches deep. For the bananas to be unable to fit, each person would need to eat a 1 foot by 1 foot by 2 meter crate's worth of bananas per year.
|
|{{book|2|11}}
|
|-
|
|'''Lose Weight the Slow and Incredibly Difficult Way'''
|''"I want to lose 20 pounds. How much of the Earth's mass would I have to "relocate" to space in order to achieve my goal?"''
<div align="right">—Ryan Murphy</div>
|You would have to remove 85% of the Earth's mass. However, due to the increase in density in the mantle, you would actually gain weight until you've removed about half the Earth's diameter. An image of what it would look like is shown in [[2575: What If? 2]], where a potato peeler is used to remove the crust of the Earth.
|
|{{book|2|13}}
|
|-
|
|'''Jupiter Comes to Town'''
|''"Dear Randall, what would happen if you shrunk Jupiter down to the size of a house and placed in a neighborhood, say, replacing a house?"''
<div align="right">—Zachary</div>
|Assuming density stayed the same when you shrunk Jupiter down, the biggest issue would be that the gravity that keeps its hot interior together would no longer exist, essentially creating a giant fireball that would turn into a mushroom cloud, and eventually spread out into a big cool cloud. This would, effectively, be the reverse of the formation of Jupiter, which started as clouds before being compressed into a small hot ball.
|
|{{book|2|15}}
|
|-
|
|'''Swing Set'''
|''"How tall can a swing set be while still being powered by a human pumping their legs? Is it possible to build a swing set tall enough to launch the rider into space if they jump at the right time? (Assuming the human has enough energy, which my 5-year-old seems to have.)"''
<div align="right">—Joe Coyle</div>
|This is impossible due to the fact that, by pumping the legs, you are essentially pushing against the crossbar of the swing set. A string which is too long will result in a very low amount of force being delivered to the crossbar, lowering the maximum angle you can swing relative to the base of the curve. Calculations show that the optimal crossbar height to gain the most angle relative to the ground is approximately 8 feet.
|
|{{book|2|17}}
|
|-
|
|'''Airliner Catapult'''
|''"My friend is a commercial airline pilot. She says that a significant amount of fuel is spent on takeoff. To save fuel, why couldn't we launch airplanes using catapult systems like on aircraft carriers (calibrated to normal human accelerations)? Could significant amounts of fossil fuels be saved if the catapults could be run by some other clean energy? I'm imagining a rope ... one end tied to the airplane, the other tied to a large boulder at the edge of a cliff. Just push the boulder off the cliff!"''
<div align="right">—Brady Barkey</div>
|It's not a completely ridiculous idea, but the most practical issue is that you'd have to extend the roughly mile-long runway several times more to take full advantage of it. Using the proposed rope-and-cliff system, you'd need to use a thousand ton weight dropped at the height of a super tall skyscraper - of course, if you used something heavier, like the 80,000-ton Washington Monument, you wouldn't need to drop it as far.
|
|{{book|2|18}}
|
|-
|rowspan="14"|
|rowspan="14"|'''Short Answers #2'''
|''"Billy the Clown is running out of cash, so in order to raise money, he devises his newest trick: He will inflate, by mouth, a standard-size party balloon until the material (some form of indestructible rubber) is just one atom thick. How large would the inflated party balloon be?"''
<div align="right">—Alan Fong</div>
|It's a total mystery why Billy is running out of cash.
|rowspan="14"|
|rowspan="14"{{book|2|18.5}} (S2)
|rowspan="14"|
|-
|''"How many leaf blowers would it take to move a standard SUV"''
<div align="right">—Ashley H.</div>
|Somewhere around 1-2 dozen leaf blowers would do the trick. However, it would be very impractical, consume a lot of fuel, and the acceleration would be very slow. Many more leaf blowers would be needed to accelerate the car at a reasonable rate.
|-
|''"If you put a vacuum at extremely high suction and aimed it at a normal BMW sedan, what would happen?"''
<div align="right">—Anonymous</div>
|Nothing. Cars, even small ones like sedans, are far too large and heavy to be affected by a vacuum, even a very large and powerful one.
|-
|''"On a warm summer evening, when you sit outside with a light on, you can be sure that bugs will be attracted to the light. Then why is it that these same bugs don't fly toward the biggest and strongest lamp of them all, namely the Sun, during the day?"''
<div align="right">—Anonymous</div>
|Those who did would die and not be able to produce offspring with the same traits.
|-
|''"If you collected all of the guns in the world and put them on one side of the Earth, then shot the all simultaneously, would it move the Earth?"''
<div align="right">—Nathan</div>
|It would not move the Earth, but it would make the other side a nicer place to live.
|-
|''"What would happen if you microwaved a small microwave, while the smaller one was on as well?"''
<div align="right">—Micheal</div>
|Randall gave the meme answer of 'You would no longer be welcome in that IKEA.' In reality, this would almost certainly lead to some dire consequences. Microwaves contain sensitive electronics which would be damaged from excess heat{{cn}}, leaving the microwave functionally useless. Most microwaves are also made of metal, which is known for exploding when exposed to microwaves. This is the same principle that causes forks to explode when placed in one.
|-
|''"If you're jumping on a trampoline, how fast would your body have to be going to:<br>'''A.''' Break all bones on impact<br>'''B.''' Make your body go though the tiny holes of the mesh."''
<div align="right">—Micah Lane</div>
|<ol style="list-style-type: upper-alpha">
<li>Breaking all of the bones in your body would be hard because a lot of them are very small, but it would be fast enough that the trampoline wouldn't make much of a difference.</li>
<li>This can't happen, no matter how fast you're going.</li>
</ol>
|-
|''"I have a Nothing Grenade™. When detonated, it instantly replaces itself with a sphere of perfect vacuum 2 meters across. What would actually happen when it went off?"''
<div align="right">—Dave H.</div>
|As the two-meter vacuum circle appeared, the surrounding air would rapidly fill in the sudden gap. Almost instantaneously, the air would collide and expand out with enough force to possibly kill a human and damage small structures such as bookshelves or walls. In other words, you basically have a regular grenade.
|-
|''"Is space hot or cold?"''
<div align="right">—Isaac</div>
|The answer to this is complicated. Temperature is a measurement of the speed of particles. In space, having no air resistance, particles move incredibly fast. However, because it's a vacuum, there are almost no particles. This is a similar principle to the reason you don't get burned when welding sparks touch your skin. They're so small they do basically nothing to you. As there are almost no particles to impact you, space is the hottest place you can freeze to death.
|-
|''"How many bones can you remove from the human body while allowing the human to continue living? Asking for a friend."''
<div align="right">—Chris Rakeman</div>
|That person is not your friend.
|-
|''"What would happen if you put a human under a g-force of 417 Gs for twenty seconds?"''
<div align="right">—Nythill</div>
|The human is guaranteed to die. Scientific tests have shown that, despite the human body's ability to withstand g-forces into the hundreds for very short periods of time (a car crash may exceed 100 Gs of force), going over 18 Gs for a long period of time is likely to cause the human to black out and quickly die, as the force would prevent blood from being able to flow through a human body properly. This is the same reason why bugs are unable to move after hitting a car on the highway, even if they survive.
|-
|''"Where or how can one commit a murder and not be prosecuted for it?"''
<div align="right">—Kunai Dhawan</div>
|Theoretically, in a section of Yellowstone National Park, where {{w|Zone of Death (Yellowstone)|a jury would have to be formed from a non-existent population}}. In practice, you'd definitely still be prosecuted for committing a murder there.
|-
|''"I read today that insects make at least $57 billion a year for the US economy. If we were to pay every single insect in the United States equally for their economic contribution, how much would each insect get?"''
<div align="right">—Hannah McDonald</div>
|Each insect would get $0.0000029.
Broken down:
*$18 billion to flies, including mosquitoes
*$16 billion to bees, wasps, and ants
*$10 billion to beetles
*$7 billion to thrips
*$1 billion to butterflies and moths
*$1 billion to true bugs
*$4 billion to all other insects
|-
|''"What, in today's world and yesterday's world, does it mean to be human, in all social and biological factors?"''
<div align="right">—Seth Carrol</div>
|You meant to submit this to ''Why If?: Deeply Ungrammatical Answers to Unanswerable Philosophical Questions''.
|-
|
|'''Slow Dinosaur Apocalypse'''
|''"What if an object like the Chicxulub impactor hit earth with a relatively low relative speed of (let's say) 3 mph"''
<div align="right">—Beni von Alemann</div>
|Even though the meteor is slow, it's still very big. The impactor would not create a crater, but would instead create a weird effect which makes the rock flow like water, creating a large "space dirt pancake" about the same diameter as the Chicxulub impact Crater. If {{w|Jurassic Park}} were a real place, it could certainly cause a dinosaur extinction over there, if dropped on it.
|
|{{book|2|19}}
|
|-
|
|'''Elemental Worlds'''
|''"What if Mercury (the planet) were entirely made of mercury (the element)? What if Ceres was made of cerium? Uranus made of uranium? Neptune made of neptunium? What about Pluto made of plutonium?"''
<div align="right">—Anonymous</div>
|Earth would (mostly) be fine. Mercury, uranium, neptunium, plutonium, and cerium would all replace the old planets. Changes are as follows:
*Pluto would be visible to the naked eye
*Ceres would be visible to the naked eye
*Mercury would be visible to the naked eye
*Uranus would look a fairly bright star in the night sky
*''When Neptune hits your eye, like a big pizza pie, that's an x-ray..''
|
|{{book|2|20}}
| 
|-
|
|'''Tire Rubber'''
|''"Rubber tires on millions of cars and trucks start with about ½" tread and end up bald. Rubber should be everywhere, or at least our highways should be made thicker. Where's the rubber?"''
<div align="right">—Fred</div>
|An average tire sheds about 1.6 liters of rubber over the course of its lifetime (from new to bald). If all tire rubber stuck to the road, it would rise by about a third of a millimeter per year. However, most tire rubber shavings are small enough to drift through the air, or for rain and wind to wash them off the road. Tire rubber is more than enough to cause environmental disruption and it's one of the leading causes of microplastics in our oceans.
|
|{{book|2|25}}
|
|-
|rowspan="10"|
|rowspan="10"|'''Short Answers #3'''
|''"How long do you think two people would have to kiss continuously before they had no lips left?"''
<div align="right">—Asli</div>
|That's not how lips work
|rowspan="10"|
|rowspan="10"{{book|2|26.5}} (S3)
|rowspan="10"|
|-
|''"My college friend and I have had this debate for years now: If you put a million hungry ants in a glass cube with one human, who's more likely to walk out alive?"''
<div align="right">—Eric Bowman</div>
|The human would try to break out of the cube, and probably succeed. Although disgusted, the human would probably be fine. Ants generally do not eat meat, preferring leaves and other foliage. If they escaped, both the human and the ants would go after the person who put them in the glass box. If they did not escape, both the human and the ants would eventually die of suffocation, assuming no air holes were installed.
|-
|''"What if all of humanity set all of their differences aside and work together to level out the Earth into a perfect sphere?"''
<div align="right">—Erik Andersen</div>
|This would quickly create new differences. Even if some magical force were employed to keep humanity centered on making the earth a perfect sphere, it would take many years and be almost impossible to do. Because the Earth is an oblate spheroid, and not a sphere as-is, a lot of land would need to be displaced in order to create a perfect sphere. There would need to be somewhere to put all the water in the oceans, which would need to be removed, and a way to move large amounts of land very long distances. Many cities would be buried, such as Amsterdam (average elevation -6.6').
|-
|''"People talk a lot about a space elevator or a building that would reach into low orbit to save time and resources getting things into space. This is going to sound incredibly stupid, but why has no one proposed building a road into space? Since orbit is generally considered to be 62 miles out, would it be possible to build a 62-mile-high mountain somewhere in the United States? Colorado would be my suggestion, since it has a low population density and is about a mile above sea level already."''
<div align="right">—Brian</div>
|Where are you going to get the materials to build the mountain? Also, Colorado has a lot of people in it. If we ignore the logistical implications, it still won't work. Cars take in air from various orifices to cool, among other things, the engine. No matter whether you have a gas, electric, hybrid or hydrogen car, the lack of air would cause the motors to quickly overheat.
|-
|''"If I shot a rocket and a bullet through Jupiter's center, would they come out the other side?"''
<div align="right">—James Wilson</div>
|No, as the leading theory is that Jupiter has a solid core. Shooting a bullet through the center would simply cause the bullet to collide with the core of the planet.
|-
|''"What if Mount Everest magically turned into pure lava? What would happen to life; would we all die?"''
<div align="right">—Ian</div>
|We would mostly be okay.
|-
|''"Can you fall down into the Mariana Trench, or would you just swim over it?"''
<div align="right">—Rodolfo Estrella</div>
|You can do both of those things. Assuming what he was trying to say was "Can you swim over the Marianas Trench without falling into it?" the answer is that you would just swim directly over it.
|-
|''"I play Dungeons & Dragons, and my DM doesn't want to let us use the Gust of Wind spell to push wind into the sails of a ship and make it move. Her argument is that you can't use this spell to move a ship because someone on a sailboat can't aim a fan at the sail to propel the boat. We argue that since the spell doesn't push you backward when you use it, then we should be able to use it to make the ship sail. She says she'll allow it only if you say so."''
<div align="right">—Georgia Paterson and Allison Adams</div>
|Since the spell doesn't push you backwards, it should work. If the spell pushed you backwards, you would just have to aim the spell backwards.
|-
|''"What if I struck a match on Titan? Would it light if there's no oxygen?"''
<div align="right">—Ethan Fitzgibbon</div>
| While the match would light initially due to the small amount of oxidizer in a matchhead (typically {{w|potassium chlorate}}, in a safety match), it would quickly dissipate due to the lack of oxygen to titan's atmosphere.
|-
|''"I posted a question on social media asking what would be the smallest change that would create the biggest disaster. One of the responses I got said "if every atom gained 1 proton." So my question for you is, what would happen if every atom gained 1 proton?"''
<div align="right">—Olivia Caputo</div>
|The Earth would become one big, very explosive science experiment. Stable atoms would become unstable, releasing large amounts of energy all at once. Brain matter would cease to be brain matter, and cells would no longer be cells. This would lead to everything dying at once. At least we wouldn't need to experience it.
|-
|
|'''Suction Aquarium'''
|''"When I was a child, I discovered that if I took a container into the swimming pool, I could fill it with water and then bring the container (open-end down) to the surface of the water, and the water level in my container was higher than the water level in the pool. What would happen if you tried to do this with a giant container and the ocean? Could you create a giant aquarium on top of the water that the animals could swim in and out of freely? Maybe an irregularly shaped container that you would walk around on to get closer to the fish?"''
<div align="right">—Caroline Collett</div>
|It would work, but the water level would slowly lower back to sea level over time. However, this process can be accelerated by whale farts. I am not joking.
|
|{{book|2|27}}
|
|-
|
|'''Earth Eye'''
|''"If the Earth were a massive eye, how far would it see?"''
<div align="right">—Alasdir</div>
|Its 'resolution' would be over 500 million times better than a normal human eye. It would be able to see the color of a shirt worn on Mars. It could also see incredibly far objects, such as some of the most distant galaxies that haven't been {{w|redshift}}ed to the point of being infrared. However, a planet-sized eye would be inconvenient, as it would certainly go blind from the Sun and could be damaged from nearby stars as well.
|
|{{book|2|28}}
|
|-
|
|'''Build Rome in a Day'''
|''"How many people would it take to build Rome in a day?"''
<div align="right">—Lauren</div>
| It would take anywhere between 15 minutes and 150 minutes with the whole Earth working.
|
|{{book|2|29}}
|
|-
|
|'''Mariana Trench Tube'''
|''"If I put an indestructible 20-meter-wide glass tube in the ocean that goes all the way down to the deepest part of the ocean, what would it be like to stand at the bottom? Assuming the sun goes directly overhead."''
<div align="right">—Zoki Čulo</div>
|You would likely see many new and undiscovered species. You would also be incredibly cold as the freezing waters of the deep would cool the glass. Getting up would be another problem entirely. If you didn't use an elevator, you could break the glass. That would create a geyser, accelerating you upwards at lethal G-forces. Once you reach the surface, you would fly high into the air before crashing back down into the ocean. Also, you would be heralded as a hero by a lot of marine biologists.
|
|{{book|2|30}}
|
|-
|
|'''MRI Compass'''
|''"Why don't compasses point toward the nearest hospital because of the magnetic fields created by MRI machines?"''
<div align="right">—D. Hughes</div>
|They actually do, but only within ~10 meters.
|
|{{book|2|32}}
|
|-
|
|'''Ancestor Fraction'''
|''"I noticed recently that the number of people within a family tree increases exponentially with each generation: I have 2 parents, 4 grandparents, 8 great-grandparents, and so on. Which got me thinking—are most people descended from the majority of Homo sapiens who have ever lived? If not, what fraction of all the people that have ever lived am I descended from?"''
<div align="right">—Seamus</div>
|Likely between 2-3 twenty-fourths of all humans who have ever lived.
|
|{{book|2|33}}
|
|-
|
|'''Bird Car'''
|''"I'm a lowly college student stuck in a car without AC. As such, the windows are down most of the time when I'm driving, and I started thinking: If a bird happens to match my speed and direction perfectly, and I swerve to catch the bird in my car ... what happens next, other than an angry bird? Does the bird stay right where it was? Fly into the windshield? Drop into the seat? My roommate and I disagree. Any help settling this would really make all our lives easier."''
<div align="right">—Hunter W.</div>
| The bird would fall onto the seat at an angle, and then would fly out of the window (hopefully).
|
|{{book|2|34}}
|
|-
|rowspan="4"|
|rowspan="4"|'''Weird & Worrying #2'''
|colspan="2"|''"What would happen if you put the end of a vacuum hose up to your eye and turned on the vacuum?"''
<div align="right">—Kitty Greer</div>
|rowspan="4"|
|rowspan="4"{{book|2|35.5}} (W2)
|rowspan="4"|
|-
|colspan="2"|''"Is it possible to hold your arm straight out of a car window and punch a mailbox clean off its pole? Could you do it without breaking your hand?"''
<div align="right">—Ty Gwennap</div>
|-
|colspan="2"|''"If people's teeth kept growing, but when they were fully grown they come off and are swallowed, how long would it take before it causes any problems?"''
<div align="right">—Valen M.</div>
|-
|colspan="2"|''"In a defensive situation, how much epinephrine (in a EpiPen) would it take to subdue a possible attacker?"''
<div align="right">—Henry M.</div>
|-
|
|'''Vacuum Tube Smartphone'''
|''"What if my phone was based on vacuum tubes? How big would it be?"''
<div align="right">—Johnny</div>
| The phone would be about the size of one to five city blocks, and would melt its way through the Earth's crust. Conversely, the UNIVAC constructed with modern electrical components would be smaller than a grain of salt.
|
|{{book|2|36}}
|
|-
|
|'''Eat a Cloud'''
|''"Could a person eat a whole cloud?"''
<div align="right">—Tak</div>
|Not unless you can squeeze the air out first. If you don't you will burp out more cloud than you ate.
|
|{{book|2|38}}
|
|-
|
|'''Tall Sunsets'''
|''"Let's say that two people of different heights (159 cm and 206 cm) stand beside each other while looking at the sunset. How much longer will the taller person be able to see the sun than the shorter one?"''
<div align="right">—Rasmus Bunde Nielson</div>
|Over a second longer.
|
|{{book|2|39}}
|
|-
|
|'''Sisyphean Refrigerators'''
|''"Suppose everyone with a fridge or a freezer opened them at the same time, outdoors. Would that amount of cooling be able to noticeably change the temperature? If not, how many fridges would it take to lower the temperature, say, 5 degrees F? What about even lower?"''
<div align="right">—Nicholas Mittica</div>
|Refrigerators don't work like that, and would likely increase global temperatures by 0.3 degrees celsius. The infinite spite of Hades is surprisingly green.
|
|{{book|2|41}}
|
|-
|
|'''Basketball Earth'''
|''"You know how when you spin a basketball on your finger you hit the side to make it go faster and balance it? If a meteor passes close enough to the earth, can it make the Earth spin faster like your hand does the basketball?"''
<div align="right">—Zayne Freshley</div>
|Yes.
|
|{{book|2|43}}
|
|- 
|
|'''Inhale a Person'''
|''"If house dust comprises up to 80 percent dead skin, how many people worth of skin does a person consume/inhale in a lifetime?"''
<div align="right">—Greg</div>
|You could inhale at most 3 gallons of human skin in a lifetime, and dust is not mostly dead skin. Instead it is a cursed salad of soil, pollen, cotton fibers, crumbs, powdered sugar, glitter, pet hair and dander, plastic, soot, human or animal hair, flour, glass, smoke, mites, and various miscellaneous gunk.
|
|{{book|2|45}}
|
|-
|
|'''Candy Crush Lightning'''
|''"How many Wint-O-Green Life Savers would it take to create a life-size lightning bolt if you crushed them"''
<div align="right">—Violet M.</div>
|Billions
|
|{{book|2|46}}
|
|-
|rowspan="13"|
|rowspan="13"|'''Short Answers #4'''
|''"Can humans safely eat rabid creatures?"''
<div align="right">—Winston</div>
|No.
|rowspan="13"|
|rowspan="13"{{book|2|46.5}} (S4)
|rowspan="13"|
|-
|''"What if the Earth's core suddenly stopped producing heat?"''
<div align="right">—Laura</div>
|We would be mostly fine. While one may picture a scenario similar to ''The Core'', the difference would only be noticed long after you're gone, so you don't really need to worry about it :)
|-
|''"Could humanity, with our current technology, destroy the Moon?"''
<div align="right">—Tyler</div>
|No.
|-
|''"Can global warming cause the Earth's magnetic fields to weaken?"''
<div align="right">—Pavaki</div>
|No.
|-
|''"If you used a laser, would you be able to bake something?"''
<div align="right">—Andrew Liu</div>
|Yes.
|-
|''"What if Earth was sliced in half, like an apple? Where should you be such that you have the best chance of survival?"''
<div align="right">—Anonymous</div>
|You should be holding the object that's slicing the Earth.
|-
|''"What would happen if a person dropped into a pool full of jellyfish?"''
<div align="right">—Lorenzo Belotti</div>
|It depends on the species.
|-
|''"Would it be possible to make a house floor into a massive air hockey table, so you could move heavy furniture across the room?"''
<div align="right">—Jacob Wood</div>
|Yes, and now I know what my next home improvement project will be.
|-
|''"My 7-year-old son asked us over dinner recently at which point potatoes melt (I assume in a vacuum). Please advise."''
<div align="right">—Steffen</div>
|Potatoes don't really melt at any temperature. Also, do you automatically add 'in a vacuum' to anything your son says?
|-
|''"Would a pigeon be able to make it to space if it was not affected by gravity?"''
<div align="right">—Nick Evans</div>
|No. The air in the upper atmosphere is too thin to breathe and too cold
|-
|''"If you were flying blind through the Milky Way what would be the odds of hitting a star or planet?"''
<div align="right">—David</div>
|If you flew edge-on, it would be about 1 in 10 billion.
|-
|''"On various bodies in our Solar System (feel free to group any that are equivalent), roughly how long could you survive on the surface (for gas giants, assume you are on a magical platform at some point in the atmosphere that you could reasonably treat as the surface) with nothing but an infinite air supply and warm winter clothing? That is, no helmet, no pressure suit, just a nose-and-mouth air mask attached to a magic air generator, and clothing that would be suitable for, say, Chicago in winter. (No cute tricks like using the magic air supply to generate heat or whatever.)"''
<div align="right">—Melissa Trible</div>
|
*Earth: 100-ish years
*Venus: Weeks to months
*Everywhere else: Minutes to hours
Venus would be great if it weren't for the sulfuric acid.
|-
|''"What would happen if someone dropped an anvil on you from space?"''
<div align="right">—Sam Stiehl</div>
|About the same as if someone dropped an anvil on you from a building.
|-
|
|'''Toasty Warm'''
|''"What if I want to heat my house using toasters. How many do I need?"''
<div align="right">—Peter Ahlström</div>
|Not many, because the house would quickly catch on fire.
|
|{{book|2|47}}
|
|-
|
|'''Eyeball'''
|''"If I pulled out my eyeball and aimed it so that it was looking into my other eyeball, what would I see (assuming the nerves and veins remain undamaged)"''
<div align="right">—Lenka</div>
|You would see an eye superimposed with your head and the background of the room overlapping.
|
|{{book|2|49}}
|
|-
|
|'''Japan Runs an Errand'''
|''"If ALL of Japan's islands disappear, would it affect Earth's natural phenomena (plates, oceans, hurricanes, climate, and so on)?"''
<div align="right">—Miyu Uchida</div>
|Yes, it most certainly would. The sea of Japan would mix with the Pacific ocean now that the wall that separated them is gone. This would cause unpredictable changes to those currents, affecting many life forms who live in that area. Japan, though being small, weighs quite a lot, and the sudden removal of all that weight would cause massive shifts in ocean levels. Depending on the region, some sea levels would rise/fall by up to a foot, causing mass panic for cities that now have a sudden risk of flooding at a moment's notice. Tsunamis would devastate the Korean Peninsula, Hawaii, and the west coast of America.
|
|{{book|2|50}}
|
|-
|
|'''Read All the Laws'''
|''"If a person wanted to read all of the governing documents that apply to them—from the federal and state constitutions, treaties, agency-issued regulations, federal and state laws, local ordinances, etc.—how many pages would they have to read?"''
<div align="right">—Keith Yearman</div>
|Between 145000 and 12.3 million pages.
|
|{{book|2|52}}
|
|-
|rowspan="3"|
|rowspan="3"|'''Weird & Worrying #3'''
|colspan="2"|''"If I were to jump into a container of liquid nitrogen (or dispose of a body that way), how deep would it have to be for me/them to shatter into frozen pieces at the bottom?"''
<div align="right">—Stella Wohnig</div>
|rowspan="3"|
|rowspan="3"{{book|2|52.5}} (W3)
|rowspan="3"|
|-
|colspan="2"|''"What would happen to you if a colony of ants suddenly appeared in you bloodstream all at once?"''
<div align="right">—Matt, on behalf of Declan</div>
|-
|colspan="2"|''"If Harry Potter forgets where the invisible entrance to Platform 9¾ is, how long would he have to crash into walls randomly before discovering it?"''
<div align="right">—Max Planker</div>
|-
|
|'''Snowball'''
|''"What if I tried to roll a snowball from the top of Mount Everest? How big would the snowball be by the time it reached the bottom and how long would it take?"''
<div align="right">—Michaeline Yates</div>
|It would remain about the same size, or it could cause an avalanche. Since the peak of {{w|Mount Everest}} is above the clouds, it is very dry there. For a snowball to grow, wet snow is required. The result would be similar to rolling a hamburger down.
|
|{{book|2|54}}
|
|-
|
|'''Walking Backward in Time'''
|''"What if you decided to walk from Austin, Texas, to New York City, but every step takes you back thirty days?"''
<div align="right">—Jojo Yawson</div>
| The sky would flicker at 50 Hz, and you would arrive around 300,000 years in the past.
|
|{{book|2|56}}
|
|-
|
|'''Ammonia Tube'''
|''"What would happen if you fed ammonia into your stomach through a tube? How fast must the flow rate be to burn your stomach from the heat released? What would the newly created chlorine gas do to your stomach?"''
<div align="right">—Becca</div>
|{{w|Ammonia}} is an {{w|EPA list of extremely hazardous substances|extremely hazardous substance}} and pumping it into your abdomen would result in a painful death due to ammonia toxicity. However, at the very least, some of it would be neutralized with your stomach acid.
|
|{{book|2|57}}
|
|-
|rowspan="7"|
|rowspan="7"|'''Short Answers #5'''
|''"Could life evolve in a constantly running microwave?"''
<div align="right">—Abby Doth</div>
|No.
|rowspan="7"|
|rowspan="7"{{book|2|58.5}} (S5)
|rowspan="7"|
|-
|''"Tonight at my work as an ER nurse in the emergency room, a patient (high on methamphetamine) asked for a cup of water. I returned with a paper cup of water, which the patient promptly threw at my head, missing me but hitting the wall in such an improbable way that the open top of the cup impacted the wall and the cup contained/diminished most of the subsequent splatter. It occurred to me that it might be possible to throw a cup of water hard enough that the container of water would go through the wall. Is this possible?"''
<div align="right">—Pete</div>
|Anything will go through a wall if you throw it hard enough
|-
|''"How slow would you have to chew in order to be able to infinitely consume breadsticks?"''
<div align="right">—Miller Broughton</div>
|You would have to divide each breadstick into 20 bites, chewing each bite 200 times at 1 chew per second.
|-
|''"If you were somehow to remove the white and yolk from inside an eggshell (chicken), and replace them with helium, would the eggshell float in the air?"''
<div align="right">—Elizabeth</div>
|No. An eggshell weighs more than the air it displaces.
|-
|''"What would stars smell like, if it were possible to smell them?"''
<div align="right">—Finn Ellis</div>
|Due to the free hydrogen molecules floating around in there, it would taste incredibly sour. It would also smell like burning rubber, as stars are made up of the same components.
|-
|''"What is the average size for every man-made object on the planet?"''
<div align="right">—Max Carver</div>
|Not too big, not too small. About average.
|-
|''"E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E<wbr>E"''
<div align="right">—Nate Yu</div>
|I feel you, Nate. [Editor's note: Nate's "question" is composed of 960 letters E]
|-
|
|'''Dog Overload'''
|''"Assuming 1 out of every 4 people has a 5-year-old dog, and the dog reproduces once every year, with 5 puppies, and the puppies start reproducing at 5 and stop at 15 and die at 20, how long would it take for the Earth to be flooded with puppies, assuming we have all the food, water, and oxygen to sustain them?"''
<div align="right">—Griffin</div>
|This is unrealistic right from the start. This assumes the total dog population is 2 billion, which is well above current estimates. A timeline of major events and milestones is listed below.
*After one year, there are enough dogs for everyone to have at least one.
*After 5 years, every human has an average of 6 or 7 dogs.
*After 11 years, Disney releases ''101 Dalmations per Capita'', after there are 101 dogs per person
*After 15 years, the first dogs die, but the death is fully insignificant.
*After 20 years, dogs would only be about 1 meter apart on average.
*After 25-30 years, the dogs begin to stack.
*At about 40 years, the exponential growth is "stable". The population is multiplying by about 1.6578 each year.
*After 65 years, the population of dogs reaches 1 mol
*After 110 years, the dogs start to undergo relativistic collapse
*After 150 years, the dogs are bigger than the solar system.
*After 197 years, the expansion of the dog sphere surpasses 1''c''
*After 200 years, the dogs reach sirius.
*After 250 years, the dogs envelop the milky way.
*After 330 years, the dogs reach the edge of the observable universe.
*After 417 years, Disney releases ''10<sup>101</sup> Dalmations.''
|
|{{book|2|60}}
|
|-
|
|'''Sunscreen'''
|''"Assuming that SPF works as it purports, what SPF would you need for a 1-hour trip to the surface of the sun?"''
<div align="right">—Brian and Max Parker</div>
|You would need SPF 3,200,000 or a giant blob of sunscreen. Despite its name, sunscreen only protects against some types of radiation from the Sun. No amount is going to be adequate protection if you are right inside the Sun. Also, sunscreen, being a gel, would evaporate when exposed to vacuum. When exposed to the plasma of the coronal surface or the Sun's interior, it would quickly ionize along with anything inside it, becoming plasma like the rest of the Sun.
|
|{{book|2|62}}
|
|-
|
|'''Walking on the Sun'''
|''"After the Sun runs out of fuel, it will become a white dwarf and slowly cool. When will it be cool enough to touch?"''
<div align="right">—Jabari Garland</div>
|The Sun will cool to room temperature in about 20 billion years. However, getting there to actually touch it is the hard part. The immense gravity the changed star still has would create a major problem for any attempt to land on and touch it. Even the most powerful propulsion would not be able to escape the pull of the Sun's gravity, making it nigh impossible for any currently theorised craft to reach the Sun and survive, let alone let you touch it 'safely'.
|
|{{book|2|63}}
|
|-
|
|'''Lemon Drops and Gumdrops'''
|''"What if all the raindrops were lemon drops and gumdrops?"''
<div align="right">—Shuo Peskoe-Yang</div>
|Replacing all rain in the world would have devastating conseqeunces, especially with such dry candies as lemon drops and gumdrops. The water cycle would be destroyed, arable land would become unusable, and the ocean the would dry up. Humanity would perish in this wasteland-like scenario, probably hopped up on sugar.
|
|{{book|2|64}}
|
|-
|
|'''Bonus Chapter'''
|''"...but what if we tried even ''more'' power?"''
<div align="right">—Randall Munroe</div>
| This is a continuation of {{what if|13|13: Laser Pointer}}. Adding even more power than the end of that article would heat the air so much that the lasers would stop themselves long before reaching the Moon. Even if we managed to get them to hit the Moon, the plasma created would be so hot that it would stop anyway.
|
|{{book|3|70}}
|{{book|19|2024|12|03|jgafb8G7i4o|But what if we tried MORE power?}}
|-
|}<noinclude>

<span id="Editors"><big><big>'''Editors'''</big></big></span> ㅤ ''[[#Article index|(jump back to table)]]''

These templates are used in this table: {{tl|what if}}, {{tl|What If}}, {{tl|book}}, {{tl|blog}}.

<big>'''Add YouTube video'''</big>

<nowiki>{{book|YT-NUMBER|YYYY|MM|DD|</nowiki><font color="SeaGreen">'''''<nowiki>HTTPS://LINK</nowiki>'''''</font>|VIDEO-TITLE}}
'''EXAMPLE:''' <nowiki>{{book|</nowiki><font color="SeaGreen">'''''2'''''</font>|<font color="SeaGreen">'''''2022'''''</font>|<font color="SeaGreen">'''''12'''''</font>|<font color="SeaGreen">'''''31'''''</font>|<font color="SeaGreen">'''''https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LSyNhb5Y'''''</font>|<font color="SeaGreen">'''''What if everyone pointed a laser at the moon?'''''</font>}}

<big>'''Add book chapter'''</big>

For the first [[What If? (book)|What If? book]]:
<nowiki>{{book|</nowiki><font color="SeaGreen">'''''1'''''</font>|<font color="SeaGreen">'''''CHAPTER-NUMBER'''''</font>}}

For the second [[What If? 2]] book:
<nowiki>{{book|</nowiki><font color="SeaGreen">'''''2'''''</font>|<font color="SeaGreen">'''''CHAPTER-NUMBER'''''</font>}}

'''EXAMPLE:'''<nowiki>{{book|</nowiki><font color="SeaGreen">'''''2'''''</font>|<font color="SeaGreen">'''''69'''''</font>}}

If an article is available exclusively on the third book ([[What If? 10th Anniversary Edition]]) and not in the first two, use this:
<nowiki>{{book|</nowiki><font color="SeaGreen">'''''3'''''</font>|<font color="SeaGreen">'''''CHAPTER-NUMBER'''''</font>}}
<big>'''Link to a ''what if?'' article'''</big>

On this wiki, an easy way to link to a given ''what if?'' article is by using the {{Template|what if}} template. Copy and paste the text below, correcting the number and title (highlighted in green) to get this result:

'''EXAMPLE:'''
See the <nowiki>''[[what if? (blog)|what if?]]'' article ''{{what if|</nowiki><font color="SeaGreen"><ins>'''''158'''''</ins></font>|<font color="SeaGreen"><ins>'''''Hot Banana'''''</ins></font>}}<nowiki>''</nowiki>.
'''RESULTS IN:'''
See the ''[[what if? (blog)|what if?]]'' article ''{{what if|158|Hot Banana}}''.

NOTE: Since the blog releases are now random, please write a comment on [[{{LATESTCOMIC}}#Discussion|the newest comic's talk page]] to announce that a new ''what if?'' article is out.

<big>'''Add name of reader who asked the question.'''</big>

Here's how to add the name(s) to any question on the table. For example, this...
<nowiki>|''"What if all the raindrops were lemon drops and gumdrops?"''
|Human civilization would collapse, and we would all die.</nowiki>
... becomes this:
<nowiki>|''"What if all the raindrops were lemon drops and gumdrops?"''
<div align="right"></nowiki>'''—'''<font color="SeaGreen">'''''InsertNamesHere'''''</font><nowiki></div>
|Human civilization would collapse, and we would all die.</nowiki>
Copy the code and replace the green part! (NOTE: It uses the em-dash, not a normal hyphen, so don't replace the dash, or use <code>&mdash;</code>.) Transcribe it exactly as it is written on the website or book, including parenthesis and age, if given by Randall. '''Protip for desktop users:''' the text looks ALL CAPS on the site, but if you copy and paste it, it's in normal Sentence Case. You can simply copy and paste.

''[[#Article index|(jump back to table)]]''
<span id="bottom"></span>
{| style="border: 1px solid {{{border|gray}}}; background-color: {{{color|#fdffe7}}};"
|rowspan="2" style="vertical-align:middle;" | {{{{{|safesubst:}}}#ifeq:{{{2}}}|alt|[[File:What If Barnstar.jpeg|100px]]|[[File:What If Barnstar.jpeg|100px]]}}
|rowspan="2" |
|style="font-size: x-large; padding: 0; vertical-align: middle; height: 1.1em;" | '''The What If? Project Barnstar'''
|-
|style="vertical-align: middle; border-top: 1px solid gray;" | <div style="font-family: Cormorant Garamond"><span style="font-size:5pt;color:black">

* <span style="background-color:#9eff9e;"><span style="color:green; font-size:1.4em;">''' ✓'''</span><big> '''Added: '''</big></span> All ~140 book-exclusive articles, each color-coded by book; reader question and Randall's answer for almost all ~70 [[What If? 2]]-exclusive articles; EVERY YouTube video and its associated article; over new 130 thumbnails uploaded; new article from [[What If? 10th Anniversary Edition|the new book]] and the [[what if? (blog)#top|deleted article]].

* <span style="background-color:#9eff9e;"><span style="color:green; font-size:1.4em;">''' ✓'''</span><big> '''Changes: '''</big></span> Merged columns No., Release date, and Weeks since last release; every column now easily sortable; columns Blog, Book (new), and YouTube (new) now use {{template|blog}} and {{template|book}} and are color-coded; split ''Short-Answer Sections'' into different cells; title bold and question italics and quoted!

----

Great Job to everyone who helped out on this project! If you helped out explain the articles or build the table, feel free to sign here: '''[[User:42.book.addict|<span style="font-family:Cormorant Garamond;font-size:5pt;color:#A9C6CA">42.book.addict</span>]]<sup>[[User talk:42.book.addict|<span style="font-family:Cormorant Garamond;font-size:2pt;color:#516874">Talk to me!</span>]]</sup>''' 17:44, 14 February 2025 (UTC), [[User:WriterArtistCoder|WriterArtistCoder]]<sup>[[User talk:WriterArtistCoder|talk to me]]</sup> 21:56, 11 March 2025 (UTC), [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 15:53, 12 March 2025 (UTC) --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al |<span style="font-family:Atomic Age;font-size:5pt;color:red;">DollarStoreBa'al</span>]]<sup>[[User talk:DollarStoreBa'al |'''''Converse''''']]</sup>[[DSBContribs |'''''My life choices''''']] 23:30, 14 June 2025 (UTC

[[Category:What If?| 9]]{{xkcdmeta}}

980: Money

2026-05-15T16:16:00Z

FaviFake: Undo revision 412315 by 68.187.4.2 (talk)

{{comic
| number = 980
| date = November 21, 2011
| title = Money
| image = money.png
| titletext = There, I showed you it.
}}
{{TOC}}Clicking on the image on [https://xkcd.com xkcd.com] takes you to an [https://xkcd.com/980/huge/ interactive] and much larger image. On the interactive image there are two links: one takes you to the [https://xkcd.com/980/sources/ sources and downloads] page where a list of sources and the [https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/money_huge.png full image] can be downloaded.

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|The US foreign aid section has a typo---it lists economic/humanitarian aid as equaling military aid when in fact (as of publication) it was much greater. Plus, the boxes have sizes not reflecting the numbers shown, further suggesting that this is a typo [[Special:Contributions/35.151.32.161|35.151.32.161]] 03:57, 6 December 2025 (UTC)

this should be added somewhere}}
{{Quote| I had a huge amount of fun putting the money chart together. It was the first time in a long time that my life’s been stable enough that I’ve been able to really disappear into a project—I’d almost forgotten how enjoyable it can be.|[[Randall Munroe]]|[https://blog.xkcd.com/2011/11/24/money-chart/ Source]}}

This is a [[:Category:Charts|chart]] comic - a type of comic that [[Randall]] does from time to time. He has for instance done [[256: Online Communities|maps of the Internet]] ([[802: Online Communities 2|twice]]!) and other huge visualizations like this chart [[Radiation]] with a similar structure as this chart but with Radiation as the subject. The Radiation chart is most likely the inspiration for this much more comprehensive Money chart.

In this money chart there are five boxes with items on different scales of monetary value denoting prices and values of many things, big and small (with the values contemporary to the comic's release in 2011; most are now more expensive due to inflation). Each scale of dollar increments are different colors. One dollar increments are green - naturally, because American paper money is green. Thousands are orange/red. Millions are gray. Billions are yellow. Trillions are blue. This comic uses {{w|Long and short scales|the short scale}} for naming large numbers (so a billion = 1000 millions = 10<sup>9</sup> rather than a million millions = 10<sup>12</sup> as in continental Europe).

Included in one frame is a small man with a red and white striped shirt, blue pants, a cane and a knit cap. He is known as Wally or Waldo (in the US) from the {{w|Where's Wally?|''Where's Waldo?'' books}}. To not give anything away for those who wish to search for him themselves there will be no spoiler here. But if someone needs a little help... Then by clicking this [[980: Money/Transcript#Billions|link]] you will be directed to the relevant section amongst the five sections where Waldo can be found. (The link will take you to that section of the full transcript page). If you still cannot find him (or give up in advance) then just search the transcript page for Wally or Waldo. There is a [[Header text#Money|unique header text]] for this comic.

The title text is a reference to the phrase "Show me the money!" which originates from the film ''{{w|Jerry Maguire}}''.

===Extra Money pages===
Since this comic is so big and complicated, extra pages have been created to include much more information than is wished for on this main page. These pages are listed here for convenience, but they are also listed in the relevant sections below:
* '''[[980: Money/Transcript]]''' - The full transcript of the entire comic can be found here. It is linked from the [[#Transcript|Transcript]] section.
* '''[[980: Money/Prices in tables]]''' The complete list of every item in the comic.

===Tables with explanations===
====Dollars====
{| class="wikitable"
|Top-left
|The price of various common bills and commodities. The One Dollar Menu is a type of menu at various fast food restaurants. The one dollar bill and ten dollar bill are likely used for reference points. A Starbucks coffee actually ranges in price from $1.95 to $2.15 depending on the location.
|-
|Middle-left
|Pet Ownership. The {{w|ASPCA}} is the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The most expensive animal on this list may seem surprising; rabbits cost an average of 35 dollars more than dogs and 70 dollars more than cats.
|-
|Bottom-right
|Four boxes indicate that the CEO pay has skyrocketed from $490.31 (hourly) to $5,419.97 (hourly) in the same time period in which the average worker's salary has grown 10 cents.
|}

====Thousands====
{| class="wikitable"
|Top-right
|Hogwarts degree: a reference to {{w|Hogwarts|Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy}} from the popular book series by {{w|J. K. Rowling|J. K. Rowling}} about {{w|Harry Potter}}.
One box is the estimated yearly tuition for the school and the next is how much seven years at the school would cost. To get a degree at the school, it takes 7 years (starting at age 11, ending at age 18).
|-
|Bottom
|A reference to the song by {{w|Barenaked Ladies}} entitled "{{w|If I Had $1000000}}" and all the things referenced in the song to buy the love of another person.
|-
|Middle-Right
|A few items on the marriage of {{w|Wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton|Kate Middleton and Prince William}}, the major royal wedding of 2011, including:
*a {{w|Wedding dress of Kate Middleton|wedding dress with its own Wikipedia page}} of 3 times the annual per capita income of the average UK person,
*an 8-tier [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1381944/Royal-Wedding-cake-Kate-Middleton-requested-8-tiers-decorated-900-flowers.html wedding cake],
*and the flowers for the wedding. These re-appear in the Millions section of the graph, where they also list the costs for the security around the event ($20 million).
|}

====Millions====
{| class="wikitable"
|Left
|Dr. Evil's ransom demands from the film "Austin Powers" corrected for inflation between 1969 and 1997.
|-
|Middle-right
|Another reference to J. K. Rowling, comparing her (actual $1 billion) net worth as an author with her (imagined $82,000) net worth as a rapper.
The magnified 82 orange/red ($1,000) boxes are footnoted "Professional assessment by rapper/geek culture expert MC Frontalot." {{w|MC Front-A-Lot}} is the creator of the subgenre of {{w|hip-hop}} known as {{w|Nerd Core}}.
|-
|Middle
|An {{w|Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor|F-22 Raptor fighter jet}} (valued at $154.5M) is compared to a Velociraptor ($1.9M in production costs for the film Jurassic Park)
|}

====Billions====
{| class="wikitable"
|Top-Left ((Fictional)Billionaires section)
|{{w|Carlisle Cullen}} is from the {{w|Twilight (series)|''Twilight'' series}} of books and movies. He is a vampire and adoptive father of {{w|Edward Cullen|Edward}}, {{w|Emmett Cullen|Emmett}} and {{w|Alice Cullen (Twilight)|Alice Cullen}}, as well as {{w|Rosalie Hale|Rosalie}} and {{w|Jasper Hale}}. He was born in the 1640s and amassed his wealth through many years of compound interest and investments.
|{{w|Scrooge McDuck}} is a cartoon character from many {{w|Disney}} properties including the afternoon cartoon, ''{{w|Duck Tales}}''. Scrooge McDuck has a "money bin" full of coins and other sorts of collectibles that he routinely [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMU2NwaaXEA goes swimming in].
|{{w|Bruce Wayne}} is {{w|Batman}}. {{w|Batman}} is {{w|Bruce Wayne}}. He is portrayed in many comic books, graphic novels, TV shows and movies by many different actors.
|{{w|Artemis Fowl II|Artemis Fowl}} is an Irish child prodigy and a ruthless master criminal from the {{w|Artemis Fowl (series)|eponymous book series}}. He uses his intelligence to build his family fortune through crime.
|}

====Trillions====
{| class="wikitable"
|As Randall already indicated in the transcript, this is the block for world, continent and nation finances. The numbers are really huge. There are no jokes in here (apart from the fact that Randall tried to make the shapes of the GDP look like the continent), likely because financial values this large aren't funny to start with.
|-
|GDP is {{w|gross domestic product}}, the market value of all goods and services produced in a nation.
*The major chart in the center shows the development of the GDP in the world since the 1940s. So far the US GDP has always grown, except for a small reduction in the early 1980s, a flat line around the 1991 global recession and a flat line in the second half of the naughts. The world-wide GDP is growing more rapidly, but is also much more volatile.
|-
|In the middle of the box, it shows the worth of all gold ever mined in 2011 prices. This is important because of the concept of the {{w|gold standard}}, a concept where monetary values are linked to the value of gold. As indicated in the top-right of the box, both the EU and the USA have more debt than the total value of all gold in the world.
|-
|{{w|Derivative (finance)|Derivatives}} are a complex financial instrument where one is not trading in something tangible, but in derived values - like options. Derivatives thus are dangerous as one trades in concepts instead of values. Critics claim that derivatives are at the base of the 'economic bubble'.
*The growth of the derivatives market size is incredible - more than doubling every four years. The derivatives market thus is much larger than the GDP of the entire world.
*We get a reference to [http://landartgenerator.org/blagi/archives/127 a proposed project to power the world] by erecting massive solar farms out in the deserts. The area of Texas alone would be enough to match almost all of our modern power costs (though the people who live in Texas wouldn't enjoy being displaced).
|}

==Transcript==
:'''[This transcript is only reproducing text visible on the [https://www.xkcd.com/980/ front page comic]. For the full transcript of the [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/money_huge.png huge image], see [[980: Money/Transcript]].]'''

:[Title panel at the top left has one large heading, and then it is possible to read the first and third out of five lines (but not for instance the second line which is just the word "almost"):]
:'''Money'''<br>
:A chart of<br>
:all of it<br>
:[Below this there are 5 large panels, each with a series of plots, comparing the values of various things. The only clearly visible text is the title of each panel written in white on black background at the top of each panel]<br>
:[The first section covers single coffees up to the hourly salaries of CEOs. It is located below the title panel and there are a lot of green groups marked by unreadable text.]
:'''Dollars'''
:[The next section discusses values from around $1000 to $1,000,000, including a dissection of the song If I had $1000000. It is located directly below the Dollars section and has mainly orange groups (but also some green) marked by unreadable text.]
:'''Thousands'''
:[The third section focuses on $1,000,000 to $1,000,000,000, with a large section on campaign contributions of American political presidential campaigns, values of expensive works of art, and J. K. Rowling. It is located to the right of the Thousands section below the Billions section and there are a lot of gray groups (but also some orange) marked by unreadable text.]
:'''Millions'''
:[The fourth section gets into larger scale finances, profits of various sectors, costs of natural disasters, and net worths of the richest people on the planet. Also, Donald Trump. It is located to the right of the Dollars section and above both the Millions and Trillions section and has mainly yellow groups (but also some gray and red) all marked by unreadable text. There are, however, a few large headings that can be read:]
:'''Billions'''
:Education
:The Economic (...?)
:US household income
:Federal budget
:[In the last panel global financial status is described. It discusses derivatives, liquid assets, public debt by nation and GDP by continent, culminating with the total economic production of the human race to date. It is located below the Billions section to the right of the Millions section and has mainly cyan groups (but also one yellow) all marked by unreadable text.]
:'''Trillions'''
:'''[For the full transcript of the [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/money_huge.png huge image], see [[980: Money/Transcript]].]'''

==Trivia==
* Randall usually posts new comics at around midnight Eastern time, but this comic was posted at about noon. The reason is that it was difficult to get it all finished in time, as was explained in the [[Blag]] post titled [https://blog.xkcd.com/2011/11/24/money-chart/ Money chart] released three days later. This post also states that this was the first big project he undertook after his [https://blog.xkcd.com/2011/06/30/family-illness/ fiancée was diagnosed] with breast [[:Category:Cancer|cancer]].

* This comic used to be [https://web.archive.org/web/20211215032232/https://store.xkcd.com/products/money-poster available as a poster] in the xkcd store before it was [[Store|shut down]].

* Randall misspelled "communicat'''i'''on" as "communication" in the section on campaign donations, on the right of the "Millions" quadrant. This hasn't been fixed.

* This is the first xkcd comic featuring [[Donald Trump]].

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
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[[Category:The Lion King]]
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[[Category:Twilight]] 
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[[Category:Climate change]] 
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User:FaviFake

2026-05-15T16:14:27Z

FaviFake:

2881: Bug Thread

2026-05-15T16:03:18Z

FaviFake:

{{comic
| number = 2881
| date = January 15, 2024
| title = Bug Thread
| image = bug_thread_2x.png
| imagesize = 317x495px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = After some account issues, we've added 6 new people from the beach house rental website support forum.
}}

==Explanation==

A bug thread is an online discussion about unintended behavior in a program, also known as a {{w|Software bug|bug}}. Bug threads may be found on bug trackers, such as Github or Bugzilla, on technical forums such as StackOverflow, or on general product user forums.

Most bug threads have a rule to only leave a comment if you have something insightful to add,{{Actual citation needed}} such as being able to reproduce how the bug occurs or possible solutions to resolving it. In practice, this rule is often ignored and many threads end up with multiple people simply commenting that the bug still exists. It could be argued that this, in itself, is additional information, since it gives an indication of how widespread and/or persistent the problem is. Those who are perfectly content with a product have few reasons to participate in a bug thread, so those seeking help will tend to mostly read posts by the others who are, or have been, seeking help, if no one has provided a proper solution.

In this comic, multiple people are reporting the problem, as we can tell from their distinctive profile pictures. Most of the visible posts simply state the poster's inclusion in the list of those affected by the bug, either with a one word reply ("Same"), or a shorthand expression of emotion ("{{w|Like button|+1}}. So frustrating."). Some posters, however, do provide somewhat more useful information: existing troubleshooting methods haven't worked for them, with one even providing three links to the specific solutions that they have already unsuccessfully tried.

Although we cannot see the unreadable timestamp information on the posts, one author (the penultimate, using a [[White Hat]] image) makes the observation that the problem has now been ongoing for five years. This is followed by a [[Cueball]]-identified user proposing that this group of like-minded individuals may enjoy meeting up at a {{w|beach house}} in the physical world. Whether this is [[Randall]], or not, his own follow-up comic commentary suggests that bonding over such adversity is as good a reason for friendship as any.

The title text reveals that the meet-up was actually attempted. However, ironically, some of the participants seem to have run into "account issues" when trying to make their reservations, meaning that the website where they tried to rent the beach house wasn't working properly for them. Fortunately that website contained an online support forum like the one in the comic, and six participants from that forum ended up joining the social group. It is unclear whether the meet-up actually ended up occurring, but at least everyone involved now has some new friends.

[[979: Wisdom of the Ancients]] also refers to an online discussion thread about a bug, and [[1305: Undocumented Feature]] also involves a tech support forum which is eventually used only for socializing.

==Transcript==
:[Part of a discussion thread in progress on an online forum is shown. Each comment has the writer's avatar to the left of the text and small illegible text immediately above the text. Part of the first comment's text is cut off at the top.]
:Commenter #1 (icon is a portrait of a stick figure's head with the top half obscured): Same issue here.
:Commenter #2 (icon is a full-body picture of Cueball): I'm having this problem too. None of the posted fixes work.
:Commenter #3 (icon is a thick black stripe going across the icon square from its upper-rightmost corner to its lower-leftmost, with another black stripe in the lower-rightmost corner): Same.
:Commenter #4 (icon is a portrait of Megan's head): +1. So frustrating.
:Commenter #5 (icon is a full-body picture of Hairy left of a horizontal line above an unintelligible shape and a small scribble): I'm still having this. Did you all ever figure out a fix?
:Commenter #6 (icon is a forward-facing bust of Miss Lenhart): Same problem as everyone. I tried the steps in the posts <u>here</u>, <u>here</u>, and <u>here</u>. Nothing.
:Commenter #7 (icon is a pure black square with a white circle in the center): Add me to the list.
:Commenter #8 (icon is a portrait of White Hat's head): Same. Ugh. Can't believe this thread is 5 years old now.
:Commenter #9 (icon is a forward-facing portrait of Cueball): Where does everyone live? Do we want to get a beach house for a weekend or something?
:[Caption below the image:]
:At some point, you just have to give up on fixing the bug and embrace the fact that you have dozens of new friends.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Internet]]
[[Category:Social interactions]]

2765: Escape Speed/Tables

2026-05-15T16:00:33Z

FaviFake:

Here you can find more detailed tables and lists needed for the explanation of the interactive comic [[2765: Escape Speed]].

==Planets==
This is a different attempt to list and explain all the planets and other objects that have gravity and can be landed upon and explored.

The description and explanations may be incomplete or incorrect. Please help improve them. Try to keep separate the ''description'' (i.e. how the planet looks and what general features it has) and ''explanation'' (i.e. what the name and look represent, what they refer to both in the real and fictional worlds and what xkcd comics may have been a source or an inspiration. Please describe the planets only, not the objects that can be found on them.

{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Name<br/><code>code-name</code>
! Tiles (X, Y)
! Directions
! Description
! Explanation
|-
| '''Starting Planet'''<br/><code>tiny-world</code>
| (6024, -8976)
| To get here, click the "Home" button in the lower right corner of the comic.
|
The planet is tiny, grassy, has a few trees and bushes and features several people. Initially the navigation is difficult because of low initial engine thrust and strong gravity of the Origin planet nearby affecting movement.
|
This is where the game starts. Pressing the "Home" button to go back to the starting planet shows the message, "Welcome back, pilot", which may be a reference to the greeting that plays when re-entering a Titan in the ''Titanfall'' video games.

|-
| '''Origin'''<br/><code>origin</code>
| (3096, -5904)
| To get here, launch from Beret Guy saying "Wow!" on the Starting Planet.
|
The planet is fairly big, has vegetation, and features many people, landscape objects, items and upgrades. It has a shaft through the center. The planet is hard to leave without any upgrades unless one uses the shaft to gain more momentum by thrusting while moving through the middle of it. Many of the landmarks of the surface mark the directions to different planets.
|
The planet has a sign saying 'Welcome to Origin! You can never leave™'. The name may also refer to the fact that the planet lies almost at the center of the game world, or that it is the starting point for exploration as it provides many navigational hints.

|-
| '''Hollow Planet'''<br/><code>hollow-shell</code>
| (-13952, 1848)
| To get here, launch from the St. Louis Arch on Origin.
|
The planet is just a shell with some gaps. On the outside, there are a few signs that mark the directions to different planets.
|

|-
| '''Round Planet'''<br/><code>orb</code>
| (-19154, -7288)
| To get here, launch from the tower with an orb on it on Origin or the sign on the Hollow Planet.
|
The planet is moderately small with no vegetation and some architecture such as Stonehenge and the Great Wall of China. It also features a few people and items.
|
|-
| '''Uzumaki'''<br/><code>uzumaki</code>
| (-3904, -26904)
| To get here, launch from Origin's spiral landmark, the sign on the Hollow Planet, or below the plane-towed banner on the Round Planet.
| The planet is a large spiral overgrown with grass and some other vegetation. It has very weak gravity.
| The shape of the planet is inspired by the {{w|manga}} {{w|Uzumaki}} by {{w|Junji Ito}}.
|-
| '''Guitar Ship'''<br/><code>guitar-ship</code>
| (-12000, -30000)
| To get there, launch from Uzumaki, a little to the left of the caffeine molecule item, or from the musicians singing "it's more than a feeling" on origin.
| The planet is shaped like a guitar seen in perspective looking from the bottom of the body, with a dome on the back side. Within the dome there's the Boston skyline.
| This is a reference to the cover art of the album {{w|Boston (album)|Boston}} by the like-named American {{w|Boston (band)|rock band}}. It's one of many references to {{w|Boston}} in the game.
|-
| '''Spacetime Soccer Field'''<br/><code>soccerfield</code>
| (6048, 4048)
| To get here, launch from Origin, from the pyramid with a soccer ball on top of it.
|
This is a tiny planet with a smooth surface and a distorted soccer field marked around it. The goals and goal area lines are on the opposite sides of the planet (let's say, to the east and west), distorted into curved trapezoids. The touch lines (side lines) are sections of hyperbolas with the vertices closest to the planet at the north and south poles, extending symmetrically to some distance from the planet. There is no goal line; in this geometry it should be the extended axis. What seems to be penalty lines, but drawn incorrectly to join the side lines instead of going back to the goal line, are sections of an ellipse. The halfway line appears twice, joining the four ends of hyperbolic side lines. The center circle appears as two separate halves stemming from the two copies of the halfway line.
|
The space soccer field utilizes the concept from [[2705: Spacetime Soccer]], but inversed: in the original comic the center point of the field was located in a gravity well, causing the ball to be pulled away from the goals; here the goals are located close to the center of the planet, so the ball naturally tries to fall towards them, probably making the game more interesting.
|-
| '''Saturn'''<br/><code>saturn</code>
| (2600, 14000)
| To get here, launch from the pyramid with Saturn on it on Origin. If you see the Spacetime Soccer Field, you're too far left.
| The planet resembles Saturn with its rings, however it is translucent: a soccer ball can bee seen inside. One of the ball's white hexagons is surfacing in the north pole area.
| It is a reference to [[2513: Saturn Hexagon]]
|-
| '''Andal'''<br/><code>platform-planet</code>
| (12048, 14048)
| To get there launch from a monument on Origin, featuring a round shape with a small "T" on top.
| This is a small partly rocky and partly grassy planet with a strange T-shaped tower.
| A reference to ''{{w|Animorphs}}'' book series featuring fictional sapient species of [https://aliens.fandom.com/wiki/Andalite Andalites]. Two such (or similar) creatures can be found on the planet. In the original books, the planet the Andalites come from is unnamed.
|-
| '''Projection of Earth'''<br/><code>earth-map</code>
| (-15808, 22192)
| To get there by follow the sign on the hollow planet or launch from the Earth map monument on Origin.
| The planet is shaped like a huge distorted map of all land masses of Earth. The player's spaceship can fly where water would be, but it can't go over land. Some straights between islands are to narrow for the ship to pass, especially in the {{w|Southeast Asia}} area. Some {{w|mediterranean seas}} are also inaccessible.
| Probably a reference to [[977: Map Projections]] or, more generally, to the Randall's obsession about [[:Category:Maps|maps]].
|-
| '''Voyager 1'''<br/><code>voyager-1</code>
| (1606, -14282)
| To get here, launch from the "Receiving transmission" communication device near the spiral landmark on Origin.
| This is a recreation of the {{w|Voyager 1}} space probe.
|
|-
| '''Voyager 2'''<br/><code>voyager-2</code>
| (10682, -5172)
| To get here, launch from the "Receiving transmission" communication device near the spider landmark on Origin.
| This is a recreation of the {{w|Voyager 2}} space probe.
|
|-
| '''SafetySat'''<br/><code>safetysat</code>
| (17024, 1024)
| To get here, launch from the cell tower on Origin.
| A cube satellite with an absurd set of assorted objects on board.
| This is a reference to [[1992: SafetySat]].
|-
| '''Shuttle Skeleton'''<br/><code>space-shuttle</code>
| (-30200, 14576)
| To get here, launch from the Shuttle Skeleton landmark on Origin or in the northwestern direction from Alaska on the Projection of Earth.
| The planet looks like an outline of the space shuttle with a strange skeleton inside.
| This is a reference to [[2630: Shuttle Skeleton]].
|-
| '''Giant Spider'''<br/><code>spider</code>
| (26982, -8714)
| To get here, launch from the spider landmark on Origin.
| The object is a giant spider floating in space with eight people standing on top of his legs.
| [[:Category:Spiders|Spiders]] is a recurring theme on xkcd.
|-
| '''Diffraction Spikes Star'''<br/><code>diffraction</code>
| (-19944, 11240)
| To get here, launch from the back of the left "hand" of the Shuttle Skeleton or the north of Alaska.
| The object is a star with very long spikes.
| This is a reference to [[2762: Diffraction Spikes]].
|-
| '''Roche Lobe Earth'''<br/><code>earth-roche</code> ''and'' <code>normal-moon</code>
| (-9952, -3952)
| To get there, launch from the like-shaped statue on Origin.
| This is a small, distorted, drop-shaped Earth with oceans and continents of the northern hemisphere. There's the Moon close by. The distortion looks like if the Moon's tidal forces are pulling northern Atlantic Ocean really hard.
|
|-
| '''Dark Matter Planet'''<br/><code>dark-matter</code>
| (-2892, 2640)
| To get here, launch from the goal on the half of the field with just one person on it on Spacetime Soccer Field.
| This is a small, irregular planet with a black center (normal planets have white centers) and an inscription "DARK MATTER" inside, repeated three times.
|
{{w|Dark matter}} is a hypothetical form of {{w|matter}} sought by {{w|Astrophysics|astrophycists}} as a possible cause of behavior of {{w|Galaxy|galaxies}}, which cannot be explained by the current theory of {{w|gravity}} and observations. The anomalies would be explained if there was extra {{w|mass}} in the galaxies, which is not observed, but is theorized as dark matter presence. The dark matter is named this way not because it has some dark color, but because it supposedly does not interact (or interacts very weakly) with {{w|electromagnetic field}}, therefore does not emit {{w|light}} and can't be seen.

This is also a reference to [[2186: Dark Matter]]
|-
| '''Jurassic Park Planet'''<br/><code>gravity-qwantz</code>
| (20000, 11000)
| To get here, launch from the dinosaur on Origin or from the Andalites on Andal.
| It's a big planet with weak gravity, a lot of grass, and many dinosaur figures, some repeating a few times.
|
This is a reference to the 1993 {{w|Jurassic Park (film)|''Jurassic Park''}} film and the related {{w|Jurassic Park|media franchise}}. It contains images of dinosaurs taken from the [https://www.qwantz.com/ Dinosaurs] web comic, which, similarly to xkcd, uses a random string of letters for its domain name: <code>quantz.com</code>. It also reflects Randal's avid interest in [[:Category:Dinosaurs|dinosaurs]]. This is an exact copy of the Dinosaur Planet from [[2712: Gravity]].
|-
| '''Comet 67P'''<br/><code>67p</code>
| (18048, -11152)
| To get here, launch from the duck next to the 'Caution: long vertical drop' sign on Origin.
| This is a small, potato-shaped body, modelled after the {{w|67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko}} comet.
|
This is a reference to the 2004–2016 {{w|Rosetta (spacecraft)|Rosetta}} spacecraft mission, which was the first to place a lander ({{w|Philae (spacecraft)|Philae}}) on a comet core. The mission was also commemorated in [[1446: Landing]] and the spacecraft are mentioned in [[1402: Harpoons]] and [[1740: Rosetta]].
|-
| '''What If? Planet'''<br/><code>gravity-earth</code>
| (22000, 34000)
| To get here, launch from the two people explaining where Boston is on Origin, the left of Stonehenge on the Round Planet, or the left rim of the Guitar Ship.
| This is a huge, round planet with many bodies of water. The planet contains several scenes from ''[[what if? (blog)|what if?]]'' and [[2712: Gravity]]. Megan and Cueball are floating inside a small space in the center of the planet.
| This is an almost exact copy of the Earth planet from [[2712: Gravity]], however all text spoken by the characters has been removed, making puns difficult to grasp without referring to the original. Some scenes have been removed, some modified slightly.
|-
| '''Subway Planet'''<br/><code>subway-planet</code> ''and'' <code>black-hole-3</code>
| (-46000, -24000)
| To can get there take off from the "secret glade" item next to the the bush where someone says "Shhh" on Origin.
|
This is a huge planet with a subway system connecting places named after U.S. cities, similar to the one from [[1196: Subways]]. In the area where Boston should be according to that system, there is a giant round hole with rugged sides consisting of a lot of broken planks. There's a black hole inside, off the center, in the Washington, D.C. area. There are many people and features both on the surface and within subway tunnels.
|
This is a key planet to solve the puzzle in the game, and contains several out of many in-game references to {{w|Boston}} (in many meanings of the name) and the {{w|Massachusetts Institute of Technology}}, which currently is located in {{w|Cambridge, Massachusetts}}, but was founded in 1861 in Boston.

Obviously, it's also a reference to [[1196: Subways]]
|-
| '''Boston Planet'''<br/><code>mbta</code>
| (-42000, 8000)
| To get here, launch from the back of the Shuttle Skeleton.
|
This is a big, perfectly round planet with a subway system. It is invisible until the player finds uncloaking device switch. Initially, all underground tunnels are blocked by huge round rocks with the letter "T" at the entrances and smaller round rocks down the tunnels. To unblock the tunnels, player needs to find subway tokens scattered in the universe; they appear only after the Boston planet is uncloaked. Subway stations on the surface and inside are marked with Boston district names.
|
This is the other key planet to the game puzzle. It is apparently the round part ripped off the Subway Planet, but drawn not to scale. The tunnels inside the planet roughly correspond to the Boston part of the scheme in [[1196: Subways]], but with few additions (e.g. Union Sq, Mattapan). The codename comes from the abbreviation of {{w|Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority}}.
|-
| '''Crystal Sphere'''<br/>''from'' <code>ring-1</code> ''to'' <code>ring-36</code>
|
| To get here, launch from anywhere and keep avoiding planets until you hit it.
|
Most planets and celestial objects are inside of a thick enormous ring called Crystal Sphere. Both the interior and exterior edges of the Sphere are almost smooth, but have a few dents. There's a wide navigable crack leading out of the Sphere, which sides are rugged and riddled with broken planks, similarily to the Boston hole in the Subway Planet. The gravity increases significantly as the spaceship goes through the crack, it gradually feels the pull from the parts of the sphere it has left. It is not possible to leave the Sphere without the hyperdrive, however having collected all the engine upgrades inside the Sphere one can barely reach the outer surface, but moving along is very difficult. Above the crack, there is an arch made up of the repeating words "The End", which is reminiscent of the "Don't leave the play area" message in [[1608: Hoverboard]] that appeared when the player tried to get out of it.
|
The Crystal Sphere may be a reference to {{w|The Crystal Spheres}}, a short story by {{w|science fiction}} author {{w|David Brin}}, which suggests that each star with habitable planets in the universe is surrounded by a crystal sphere that can be broken only from the inside and is otherwise completely impenetrable.

It may also be a reference to {{w|celestial spheres}}, an early concept trying to explain apparent movement of planets and stars.
|-
| '''Star Destroyer'''<br/>''from'' <code>star-destroyer-a</code> ''to'' <code>star-destroyer-i</code>
| (18192, -130000)
| To get here, launch from the crack in the Crystal Sphere.
|
This is a gigantic starship; it could have barely fit within the Crystal Sphere. It is located out of the Sphere, right up from the crack, but it can't be reached without the Hyperdrive. It has many corridors and chambers inside, and a lot of people, objects and other features both inside and outside of it. The gravity of the Sphere is still strong around here, but the starship has its own center of gravity; the "down" direction generally points towards the ventral part of the starship, but not quite, making orientation somewhat difficult as the surfaces supposed to be level seem to tilt to the left near the stern and to the right near the bow of the starship. Below it, down a stream of torpedoes fired from a turret, there's a much smaller starship.
|
This is a reference to {{w|Star Destroyer}}s and the {{w|Tantive IV|CR90 Corellian corvette}}, spaceships from the fictional ''{{w|Star Wars}}'' universe.

The whole scene is copied from [[1608: Hoverboard]], with the only difference being that {{w|Darth Vader}}'s dialogue was changed from referencing {{w|Steven Universe}} to {{w|The Murderbot Diaries}}.
|-
| '''Click and Drag Planet'''<br/><code>clickdrag-nw</code>, <code>clickdrag-ne</code>, <code>clickdrag-sw</code>, ''and'' <code>clickdrag-se</code>
| (-31808, 111808)
| To get here, launch from the bow or stern of the Star Destroyer tangentially to the Crystal Sphere to orbit it and keep the stars in the background moving horizontally on the screen until you see a dot around the spaceship guiding you.
|
The planet is huge, larger than any other in the game world, but smaller than the Star Destroyer. It is located outside the Crystal Sphere roughly opposite the Star Destroyer. It is mostly round, with many landscape features and scenes partly copied from [[1110: Click and Drag]], but arrayed in a circular, instead of linear shape. What's missing in comparison to the Click and Drag comic, is a few of the scenes, some textual content like dialogues (leaving persons intact), the underground parts, upper parts of the very high objects, and objects high above the surface.
|
|}

==Collectables==

===Plain list===
This is a quick list for those who want to check if they found everything.

The ''You found...'' sections directly show the names that appear in the player's list of found items. Some upgrades are also items and appear on the list, in such cases the names are the '''bolded''' parts of messages.

* '''Starting Planet'''
** You found...
**# a rock with neat stripes
**# a cool bug
**# a pretty leaf
** Messages
**# Wheeee!

* '''Origin'''
** You found...
**# a secret glade
**# a holographic Charizard business card
**# a 5G seagull
**# a DVD of The Core (2003)
**# a normal-looking leaf
**# a marsh wren
**# an orb wren
**# a single grain of salt
**# 11 squares packed into a larger square
**# a tumbleweed
** Upgrades
**# Nice flying! (Your tanks recharge faster now.)
** Messages
**# You found a tiny meteorite!
**# Welcome to liminal space
**# The St. Louis arch is also known as the gateway to space.
**# Be careful; this roller coaster can be disorienting!

*'''Hollow Planet'''
** Upgrades
**# You found '''a sixth Lagrange point'''! (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
**# You found '''a glass of heavy water''' (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)

* '''Round Planet'''
** You found...
**# a swatch pop-out wristwatch
** Upgrades
**# You found '''a sensible cheese platter''' (Your tanks recharge a bit faster now)
**# ''[no message]'' (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)

* '''Uzumaki'''
** You found...
**# a golden radio tuned to 1.618 MHz
**# a scroll lock key
**# a primordial black hole
**# a cool pair of shoes with flames on the side
**# an ink cartridge
**# a podcast episode
**# a festive but somehow unnerving holiday card from Junji Ito
**# a friendly bee
**# a spiral-cut diamond
**# a burrito
** Upgrades
**# You found '''a tree-filled grove and a nice spot for quiet contemplation''' (Your thrusters are significantly more efficient now.)
**# You found '''a single caffeine molecule'''! (Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.)
** Messages
**# Exit Only
**# You're going the wrong way!

* '''Guitar Ship'''
** You found...
**# a guitar pick
** Tokens
**# Orange line deactivated!

* '''Spacetime Soccer Field'''
** Upgrades
**# GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLL!!! (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
**# GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLL!!! (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
**# You found '''the 3 million point line''' (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
**# You found '''a sunspot'''! (Your launch speed has increased.)

* '''Saturn'''
** You found...
**# a really cool data point
** Upgrades
**# You found '''a pair of platonic solids, not quite touching'''! (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
**# You found '''a block of scandium'''! (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)

* '''Andal'''
** Upgrades
**# You found '''two Andalites, one canonical'''! (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
**# What a nice place for a ship to sit! (Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.)
**# You found '''a friend''' (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
**# You found '''baby shoes (and baby)'''! (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)

* '''Projection of Earth'''
** You found...
**# the Heart of the Ocean (The message adds: "It was drifting around in space.")
**# a whale shark
**# some microbial life
**# some tin from the Pantai Remis mine
**# a sparkling gem
**# a piece of pumice (The message says: "You found a piece of pumice floating in space!")
** Upgrades
**# You found '''the Principality of Sealand'''! (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
**# You found '''a Rhode Island the size of an ant'''! (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
**# You found an icosahedral d10 (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
** Tokens
**# Red line deactivated!

* '''Voyager 1'''
** Upgrades
**# You found '''Voyager 1'''! Some of its great speed rubs off on you. (Your engine thrust has increased significantly.)

* '''Voyager 2'''
** Upgrades
**# You found '''Voyager 2'''! Some of its great speed rubs off on you. (Your engine thrust has increased significantly.)

* '''SafetySat'''
** You found...
**# a first of its kind
** Upgrades
**# ''[no message]'' (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
**# The more refined oil had a dinner engagement (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)

* '''Shuttle Skeleton'''
** You found...
**# a piece of space shuttle food
** Upgrades
**# A little upgrade works wonders on fuel efficiency (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)

* '''Giant Spider'''
** You found...
**# a spider-silk scarf
** Upgrades
**# You found '''a friendly jumping spider''' (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)

* '''Diffraction Spikes Star'''
** You found...
**# a hydrogen ion
**# a piece of coronium (iron) (The message says; "You found a piece of coronium! Wait, no, iron.")

* '''Roche Lobe Earth'''
** You found...
**# a curious Humboldt squid
**# a bathyscaphe (The message says: "You found a bathyscaphe at the Marianas Trench!")
**# a wayward Roomba full of moondust
** Tokens
**# Green line deactivated!

* '''Dark Matter Planet'''
** Upgrades
**# You found '''a delicate music box'''. (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)

* '''Jurassic Park Planet'''
** You found...
**# a tiny pteranodon
**# a baby hedgehog
**# a tattered knapsack containing about $194,00 in $20 bills
** Upgrades
**# Today is a good day I think for space exploration (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
**# But what if gravity doesn't actually exist? (Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.)

* '''Comet 67P'''
** Upgrades
**# Some people believe that when the Earth appears in the sky, it's a harbinger of doom. (Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.)
**# You found '''a broken smoke machine''' (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
**# Anyone for Scrabble later? (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
**# You found '''The Long Now Foundation's''' nickel paperweight containing an '''archive of every''' published '''Animorphs book'''! (Your launch speed has increased.)

* '''What If? Planet'''
** You found...
**# an eye in the sky
**# a stick
**# an asterisk (The message adds: "it doesn’t seem to refer to anything.")
**# a sterile neutrino
**# a secret leaf
**# a pair of squirrel goggles
**# a large hadron
**# a smooth green snake
** Upgrades
**# You found '''a sunken treasure''' (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
**# The Yellowstone Super What? (Your launch speed has increased.)
**# Nutritional Facts - Serving Size: 1 Cloud, Total Calories: 0 (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
**# You captured the flag! You decide to leave it there, but it's yours. (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
**# You found '''a steam calliope'''! (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
**# You found '''a DNA base pair'''! (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)

* '''Subway Planet'''
** You found...
**# a relativistic bowling ball
**# a Cybiko® wireless handheld computer for teens (2000)
**# a handful of quantum foam
**# a normal-sized apple
** Upgrades
**# You get the feeling you're not in Kansas anymore (Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.)
**# There is no parking in the white zone (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
**# The next stop is Interplanetary Terminal G (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
**# You feel accomplished (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
**# You found '''a hot dog''' (Your launch speed has increased.)
**# You found '''a bottle of Coke Absolute Zero!''' (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
**# You found '''a beige electron'''! (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
**# You found '''$30 in Yahoo'''! cash! (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
**# You found '''a friendly cat'''! (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
**# You found '''a brightly-lit billboard''' (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
** Messages
**# Transfer here for Mornington Crescent
** Tokens
**# MIT Cloaking Device deactivated! Boston detected. (Blue, red, green, and orange lines activated.)

* '''Boston Planet'''
** You found...
**# a strangely heavy subway token
** Tokens
**# Blue line deactivated!
**# Welcome to MIT! You acquired a hyperdrive!

* '''Crystal Sphere'''
** You found...
**# a necklace of element samples whose symbols spell out your name (The message adds: "(note: hopefully you are not named 'katherine' or 'Brandon')!")
**# the platinum cylinder formerly used to define the kilogram
** Upgrades
**# A significant boost to the engines for a curious pilot (Your engine thrust has increased significantly.)
**# You found '''the gold crown Archimedes stole'''! (Your engine thrust has increased significantly.)
**# You found a handful of the quantum foam that makes up the fabric of space! (Your tanks recharge much faster now.)

* '''Crack in the Crystal Sphere'''
** Upgrades
**# There is a way out (Your launch speed has increased.)
** Messages
**# Right lane must turn right
**# Left lane must turn left

* '''Star Destroyer'''
** You found...
**# an unread email (The message adds: "Better leave it unread.")
**# a glass slipper with a glass foot in it
**# a lymphocyte
**# a forged resume
**# a serif
**# a Bursa of Fabricius
**# a cluster of data points
**# a premium subscription to food (The message has: "food.net")
**# two goats and a new car
**# an out-of-control trolley
**# a helium-238 nucleus
**# the Death Star plans
** Upgrades
**# You found '''a perpetual motion fidget spinner'''! (Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.)
**# You found '''a vintage Juicero juicer'''! (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
** Messages
**# Hmmm.

* '''Click and Drag Planet'''
** You found...
**# an ant the size of Rhode Island
**# a pin with 17 angels dancing on it
** Upgrades
**# The vehicle below gives you a boost (Your launch speed has increased.)
**# We should turn back (Your engine gets a bit more powerful.)
**# You found '''an expert at underwater ropes'''. (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
**# You found '''a trisected angle'''! (Your launch speed has greatly increased.)

* '''Open Space Outside the Crystal Sphere'''
** Upgrades
**# It is very lonely out here (Your tanks recharge much faster now.)
**# You found '''a needle in a haystack''' (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
**# From here you can view the source of it all. (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)

===Table===

{| class="wikitable sortable"
! rowspan="2"|Planet
! colspan="4"|Collectable items
|-
! You found...
! Upgrades
! Messages
! Subway tokens
|-
| '''Starting Planet'''
|
* a rock with neat stripes
* a cool bug
* a pretty leaf
|
|
* Wheeee!
|
|-
| '''Origin'''
|
* a secret glade
* a holographic Charizard business card
* a 5G seagull
* a DVD of The Core (2003)
* a normal-looking leaf
* a marsh wren
* an orb wren
* a single grain of salt
* 11 squares packed into a larger square
* a tumbleweed
|
* Nice flying! (Your tanks recharge faster now.)
|
* You found a tiny meteorite!
* Welcome to liminal space
* The St. Louis arch is also known as the gateway to space.
* Be careful; this roller coaster can be disorienting!
|
|-
| '''Hollow Planet'''
|
|
* You found '''a sixth Lagrange point'''! (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
* You found '''a glass of heavy water''' (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
|
|
|-
| '''Round Planet'''
|
* a swatch pop-out wristwatch
|
* You found '''a sensible cheese platter''' (Your tanks recharge a bit faster now)
* ''[no message]'' (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
|
|
|-
| '''Uzumaki'''
|
* a golden radio tuned to 1.618 MHz
* a scroll lock key
* a primordial black hole
* a cool pair of shoes with flames on the side
* an ink cartridge
* a podcast episode
* a festive but somehow unnerving holiday card from Junji Ito
* a friendly bee
* a spiral-cut diamond
* a burrito
|
* You found '''a tree-filled grove and a nice spot for quiet contemplation''' (Your thrusters are significantly more efficient now.)
* You found '''a single caffeine molecule'''! (Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.)
|
* Exit Only
* You're going the wrong way!
|
|-
| '''Guitar Ship'''
|
* a guitar pick
|
|
|
* Orange line deactivated!
|-
| '''Spacetime Soccer Field'''
|
|
* GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLL!!! (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
* GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLL!!! (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
* You found '''the 3 million point line''' (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
* You found '''a sunspot'''! (Your launch speed has increased.)
|
|
|-
| '''Saturn'''
|
* a really cool data point
|
* You found '''a pair of platonic solids, not quite touching'''! (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
* You found '''a block of scandium'''! (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
|
|
|-
| '''Andal'''
|
|
* You found '''two Andalites, one canonical'''! (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
* What a nice place for a ship to sit! (Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.)
* You found '''a friend''' (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
* You found '''baby shoes (and baby''')! (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
|
|
|-
| '''Projection of Earth'''
|
* the Heart of the Ocean
* a whale shark
* some microbial life
* some tin from the Pantai Remis mine
* a sparkling gem
* a piece of pumice
|
* You found '''the Principality of Sealand'''! (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
* You found '''a Rhode Island the size of an ant'''! (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
* You found an icosahedral d10 (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
|
|
* Red line deactivated!
|-
| '''Voyager 1'''
|
|
* You found '''Voyager 1'''! Some of its great speed rubs off on you. (Your engine thrust has increased significantly.)
|
|
|-
| '''Voyager 2'''
|
|
* You found '''Voyager 2'''! Some of its great speed rubs off on you. (Your engine thrust has increased significantly.)
|
|
|-
| '''SafetySat'''
|
* a first of its kind
|
* ''[no message]'' (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
* The more refined oil had a dinner engagement (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
|
|
|-
| '''Shuttle Skeleton'''
|
* a piece of space shuttle food
|
* A little upgrade works wonders on fuel efficiency (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
|
|
|-
| '''Giant Spider'''
|
* a spider-silk scarf
|
* You found '''a friendly jumping spider''' (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
|
|
|-
| '''Diffraction Spikes Star'''
|
* a hydrogen ion
* a piece of coronium (iron)
|
|
|
|-
| '''Roche Lobe Earth'''
|
* a curious Humboldt squid
* a bathyscaphe
* a wayward Roomba full of moondust
|
|
|
* Green line deactivated!
|-
| '''Dark Matter Planet'''
|
|
* You found '''a delicate music box'''. (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
|
|
|-
| '''Jurassic Park Planet'''
|
* a tiny pteranodon
* a baby hedgehog
* a tattered knapsack containing about $194,00 in $20 bills
|
* Today is a good day I think for space exploration (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
* But what if gravity doesn't actually exist? (Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.)
|
|
|-
| '''Comet 67P'''
|
|
* Some people believe that when the Earth appears in the sky, it's a harbinger of doom. (Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.)
* You found '''a broken smoke machine''' (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
* Anyone for Scrabble later? (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
* You found '''The Long Now Foundation's''' nickel paperweight containing an '''archive of every''' published '''Animorphs book'''! (Your launch speed has increased.)
|
|
|-
| '''What If? Planet'''
|
* an eye in the sky
* a stick
* an asterisk
* a sterile neutrino
* a secret leaf
* a pair of squirrel goggles
* a large hadron
* a smooth green snake
|
* You found '''a sunken treasure''' (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
* The Yellowstone Super What? (Your launch speed has increased.)
* Nutritional Facts - Serving Size: 1 Cloud, Total Calories: 0 (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
* You captured the flag! You decide to leave it there, but it's yours. (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
* You found '''a steam calliope'''! (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
* You found '''a DNA base pair'''! (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
|
|
|-
| '''Subway Planet'''
|
* a relativistic bowling ball
* a Cybiko® wireless handheld computer for teens (2000)
* a handful of quantum foam
* a normal-sized apple
|
* You get the feeling you're not in Kansas anymore (Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.)
* There is no parking in the white zone (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
* The next stop is Interplanetary Terminal G (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
* You feel accomplished (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
* You found '''a brightly-lit billboard''' (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
* You found '''a hot dog''' (Your launch speed has increased.)
* You found '''a bottle of Coke Absolute Zero'''! (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
* You found '''a beige electron'''! (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
* You found '''$30 in Yahoo'''! cash! (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
* You found '''a friendly cat'''! (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
|
* Transfer here for Mornington Crescent
|
* MIT Cloaking Device deactivated! Boston detected. (Blue, red, green, and orange lines activated.)
|-
| '''Boston Planet'''
|
* a strangely heavy subway token
|
|
|
* Blue line deactivated!
* Welcome to MIT! You acquired a hyperdrive!
|-
| '''Crystal Sphere'''
|
* a necklace of element samples whose symbols spell out your name
* the platinum cylinder formerly used to define the kilogram
|
* A significant boost to the engines for a curious pilot (Your engine thrust has increased significantly.)
* You found '''the gold crown Archimedes stole'''! (Your engine thrust has increased significantly.)
* You found a handful of the quantum foam that makes up the fabric of space! (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
|
|
|-
| '''Crack in the Crystal Sphere'''
|
|
* There is a way out (Your launch speed has increased.)
|
* Right lane must turn right
* Left lane must turn left
|
|-
| '''Star Destroyer'''
|
* an unread email
* a glass slipper with a glass foot in it
* a lymphocyte
* a forged resume
* a serif
* a Bursa of Fabricius
* a cluster of data points
* a premium subscription to food
* two goats and a new car
* an out-of-control trolley
* a helium-238 nucleus
* the Death Star plans
|
* You found '''a perpetual motion fidget spinner'''! (Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.)
* You found '''a vintage Juicero juicer'''! (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
|
* Hmmm.
|
|-
| '''Click and Drag Planet'''
|
* an ant the size of Rhode Island
* a pin with 17 angels dancing on it
|
* The vehicle below gives you a boost (Your launch speed has increased.)
* We should turn back (Your engine gets a bit more powerful.)
* You found '''an expert at underwater ropes'''. (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
* You found '''a trisected angle'''! (Your launch speed has greatly increased.)
|
|
|-
| '''Open Space Outside the Crystal Sphere'''
|
|
* It is very lonely out here (Your tanks recharge much faster now.)
* You found '''a needle in a haystack''' (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
* From here you can view the source of it all. (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
|
|}

==Objects==

{| class="wikitable sortable"
! colspan="5"|Features and Items
|-
! Planet
! Type
! Location
! Description / Message
! Explanation
|-
| rowspan="5" valign="top"|'''Starting Planet'''
| Message
| Above starting position
| ''Wheeee!''
| Probably reflects the excitation of a new visitor to this XKCD comic, seeing a promising game.
|-
| Item
| Above ground left of the starting position
| a rock with neat stripes
|
|-
| Item
| In the grass right of the starting position
| a cool bug
| A reference to 'Cool Bug Epoch' from [[2240: Timeline of the Universe]]
|-
| Item
| Up a tree
| a pretty leaf
|
|-
| People
| On the opposite of the starting position
| Beret Guy pointing his arm up and exclaiming ''WOW!''
| This is a reference to the title text of [[1117: My Sky]], and it could also be a reference to [[502: Dark Flow]].

|-
| rowspan="41" valign="top"| '''Origin'''
| Landscape
| Close to the Starting Planet
| A sign saying: ''Welcome to Origin! You can never leave™''
| The sign names the planet, and also indicates that it is not possible to leave it by just launching off the surface during early gameplay, when the player has not collected any upgrades. May be a reference to the song by The Eagles: "Hotel California".
|-
| Message
| Right of the welcome sign, above the rollercoaster
| ''Be careful; this roller coaster can be disorienting!''
| A hint for the hidden shaft going through the planet; one of the entries is right below here.
|-
| Landscape
| On the right side of the rollercoaster
| A sign saying: ''Caution: Long vertical drop''
| Another hint for the hidden shaft.
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the rollercoaster
| A spider-shaped monument
| Marks the direction to the Giant Spider planet
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the spider monument
| A radio telescope with its antenna pointed straight up. ''Receiving transmission''.
| Marks the direction to Voyager 2. The message is an additional hint as radio telescopes are often used to communicate with distant space probes, including receiving probes' measurements and other scientific data, like photos.
|-
| People
| Right next to the cell tower
|
Cueball and White Hat talking.
:'''Cueball''': I bet the voyager spacecraft could teach you a thing or two about speed. Of course, you'd have to catch up to them first...
|
Voyager spacecraft are {{w|List_of_vehicle_speed_records#Spacecraft|not among}} the speed record holding space probes as of 2023, however they are the first in history to reach Solar System's {{w|escape velocity}}. They have also executed two {{w|gravity assist}} maneuvers each, so they are good examples on how to increase speed in this way, presumably allowing them to "teach" another spacecraft how to increase speed. Cueball's metaphor goes on to having to meet (catch up with) someone in order to learn something from him. The Voyagers are currently the farthest man-made objects in space; however in the game world they are quite close to the Origin planet.

This is also a hint regarding the upgrades located near both Voyager spacecraft, which add more thrust to the player's ship than regular thrust upgrades.
|-
| Landscape
| To the right from the radio telescope located near the spider monument
| A cell tower with 5G antennas. On top of it a strange object is mounted.
|
The strange object is a downscaled image of cube satellite from [[1992: SafetySat]]. Normally nobody puts cube satellites on top of fixed towers.

This landmark shows the direction to the SafetySat "planet".
|-
| Item
| Next to the top of the cell tower
| a 5G seagull
| {{w|5G}} is a modern emerging standard for {{w|cellular networks}} promising really high download speeds and much higher network capacity (i.e. the number of active devices in an area). Probably a reference to [[1656: It Begins]]
|-
| Landscape
| To the right from the cell tower
| A tyrannosaurus
| Marks the direction to the Jurassic Park planet.
|-
| Landscape
| Right next to the tyrannosaurus
| A St. Louis Arch shaped hole in the ground
|
|-
| Landscape
| To the left of the three pyramids
| A monument shaped like a sphere with a "T" on top
| This is a miniature of the Andal planet and marks the direction to it.
|-
| Landscape
| The leftmost of three pyramids
| A pyramid with a soccer ball on top
| Marks the direction to the Spacetime Soccer Field.
|-
| People
| The middle pyramid
|
Ponytail sitting on top of a pyramid, Megan standing at the base of it.
:'''Ponytail''': If you want a better spaceship, you need to visit another planet.
:'''Megan''': But if I want to visit another planet, I need a better spaceship!
|
An in-game reference to the fact that the player's ship initially has too little thrust to launch right off the surface of the Origin planet and needs an upgrade to become a "better" spaceship able to visit other planets. On the other hand, all engine upgrades are located off Origin, creating the apparently unsolvable {{w|Chicken or the egg|chicken-and-egg problem}} – unless the player follows other hints and finds a way to escape Origin anyway.
|-
| Landscape
| The rightmost of three pyramids
| A pyramid with Saturn on top of it
| Marks the direction to Saturn.
|-
| People
| Next to the pyramid with Saturn on top
|
Cueball and White Hat talking.
:'''Cueball''': I can't believe the Air and Space Museum's new exhibit has a real black hole!
:'''White Hat''': Is that... safe?
:'''Cueball''': It's OK, they've got a protective case around it.
|
Normally, it would not be possible to have a real black hole as a museum exhibit.{{citation needed}} Also, there's a misunderstanding between White Hat and Cueball. White Hat asks if it is safe for the public to keep a black hole in a museum. Cueball thinks White Hat is concerned about safety of the black hole itself, and responds that it is protected from unscrupulous visitors by putting it in a special case.

This is an in-game hint regarding the Subway Planet and the black hole present in its tunnels. It's also a reference to the real-world {{w|Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum|''Intrepid'' Sea, Air & Space Museum}}.
|-
| Landscape
| To the right from the pyramids
| A monument shaped like Earth's land masses
| Marks the direction to the Projection of Earth.
|-
| People
| Right next to the Projection of Earth monument
|
:'''Hairy''': Even if you did find a crack in the crystal sphere, there's no way you'd be able to escape its gravitational pull. You'd need some kind of a hyperdrive for that.
| An in-game reference to the Crystal Sphere, the navigable crack through it and the hint regarding the hyperdrive.
|-
| Landscape
| On the left side of the St. Louis Arch
| A monument of a strange spaceship
| This is a reference to [[2630: Shuttle Skeleton]] and marks the direction to the Shuttle Skeleton planet.
|-
| Landscape
| Opposite the rollercoaster
| A large arch
| This is a reference to the {{w|Gateway Arch}} located in {{w|St. Louis}}, {{w|Missouri}}. Marks the other end of the shaft going through the planet core.
|-
| Message
| A sign next to St. Louis Arch's right leg
| ''The St. Louis arch is also known as the gateway to space.''
| The creator of the Arch, Finnish-American architect {{w|Eero Saarinen}}, reportedly said that the arch symbolizes "the gateway to the West" understood as the {{w|American frontier}} and the expansion of American colonies into the western parts of the continent.

In-game, the Arch marks one of the "gateways" into the larger space of the game, namely the exits of the inner shaft, which allows the player to leave Origin by performing the Oberth maneuver (see below for further explanation).
|-
| Upgrade
| High above the St. Louis Arch
| ''Nice flying! Your tanks recharge faster now.''
| Congratulations for getting your orbital mechanics right and skillfully executing Oberth maneuver (see below).
|-
| People
| Right next to the St. Louis Arch
|
Ponytail with a group of three kids looking like Hairy, Megan and Cueball.
:'''Ponytail''': The St. Louis Arch is also known as the gateway to space.
| Ponytail acting as a guide repeats (or reads) to the kids the slogan written on the sign next to the Arch. See above for the explanation of the slogan.
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the St. Louis Arch
| A monument with a pear-shaped structure connected to a small sphere
| It's a miniature of the Roche Lobe Earth, marking a direction to it.
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the St. Louis Arch
| A small structure and a tower with a strange-looking orb on top
| Marks the direction to the Round Planet.
|-
| Item
| Close to the top of the orb tower.
| an orb wren
| {{w|Wren}}s are a common family of birds. Their bodies are rather stocky with short wings, sometimes resembling an orb, especially when perched with ruffled feathers such as when enduring cold weather. There's no species actually called an "orb wren".
|-
| Item
| Hidden at the base of the orb tower.
| 11 squares packed into a larger square
| A reference to [[2740: Square Packing]].
|-
| People
| To the right of the orb tower
|
Hairbun and another person.
:'''Hairbun''': Boston? That's in North America, on the Subway planet. It's straight up from the secret glade, you can't miss it.
|
This is an in-game reference and a hint on how to find Boston and the Subway Planet
|-
| Item
| Hidden in a grassy area to the right of the orb tower
| a tumbleweed
| {{w|Tumbleweed}} is an above-ground part of some species of plants in a form of a round, dense bush, which detaches as the plant dries in the summer season and is pushed by winds, rolling along the landscape.
|-
| Item
| Over a grassy area to the right of the orb tower
| a marsh wren
| {{w|Marsh wren}} is a species of North American songbird.
|-
| People
| To the right from the grassy area
|
A quintet of hairy and bearded or moustached people playing and singing:
:It's more than a feeling
:More than a feeling
| This is a reference to the popular song ''{{w|More Than a Feeling}}'' by the {{w|Boston_(band)|Boston}} rock band. It is also an in-game reference and pun regarding multiple Bostons present.
|-
| Message
| Above ground to the right of the musical band
| ''You found a tiny meteorite!''
| {{w|Meteorite}}s are fragments of small celestial bodies that have fallen onto the surface of Earth, surviving a high-speed passage through the atmosphere. Some are really tiny, being a result of a fragmentation of a larger one caused by the forces exerted during atmospherical entry. This particular one has not quite reached the surface, and should be called a {{w|meteoroid}} or a {{w|Meteoroid#Meteors|meteor}} instead.
|-
| Item
| High above ground to the right of the musical band
| a single grain of salt
|
|-
| Landscape
| Between the grassy area and the forest left of the welcome sign
| A spiral-shaped monument
| Marks the direction to the spiral Uzumaki planet.
|-
| Landscape
| Between the grassy area and the forest left of the welcome sign
| A radio telescope with its antenna pointed straight up. ''Receiving transmission''.
| Marks the direction to the Voyager 1. See also the entry on Voyager 2 above.
|-
| People
| Next to the voyager 1 radio telescope.
|
Cueball and Megan.
:'''Megan''': It's like my astronomy teacher always said: "Shoot for the Moon -- even if you miss, you might make a crack in the crystal sphere that imprisons us all in this universe."
| This is an in-game reference to the crack in the crystal sphere of the universe. If you go straight up from them, you can find the crack pretty easily.
|-
| Item
| At the left edge of the forest to the left from the welcome sign
| a holographic Charizard business card
|
This is a reference to a particular {{w|Charizard|character}} from the {{w|Pokémon}} media franchise. {{w|Holography|Holographic}} {{w|business card}}s are a fairly novel form of business or personal presentation.
|-
| Item
| In the middle of the forest to the left from the welcome sign
| a secret glade
|
|-
| Item
| Up the widest tree in the forest to the left from the welcome sign
| a normal-looking leaf
|
|-
| Message
| In the exact middle of the planet
| ''Welcome to liminal space''
|
|-
| People
| In a chamber next to the planet's center
|
Megan with her hair floating around her head.
:'''Megan''': The Oberth effect states that firing thrusters deeper in a gravity well adds more kinetic energy.
|
The {{w|Oberth effect}} is a physical phenomenon and orbital maneuver when a spacecraft fires its thrusters as close to the perycenter (the point on the orbit closest to the center of the orbited body) as possible, being deeper in the "gravity well", to gain more kinetic energy than if the same impulse (amount of propellant used and therefore speed difference) has been applied away from the center, in effect using its propellant more effectively. The kinetic energy is what allows a spacecraft to leave the proximity of the orbited body. A special case of such a maneuver may be accelerating in a theoretical shaft going through the core of the body, which is the case simulated in the game. Applying the principle according to Megan's hint the player is able to "swing" the spaceship a few times along the shaft, accelerating close to the center and allowing the "energy" to regenerate while away, and leave Origin in spite off low initial thrust.

The fact that inside of a spherical body the gravity of the outer layers cancels out creates a local microgravity environment, causing Megan's hair to freely float around her head.
|-
| Item
| In a chamber next to the planet's center
| a DVD of The Core (2003)
| A {{w|DVD}} is a digital {{w|optical disc}} format used most commonly for distributing {{w|film}}s, in his case the 2003 American {{w|The Core|science fiction disaster film}}. As the title suggest, it is inconveniently located at the core of the Origin planet.

|-
| rowspan="8" valign="top"| '''Hollow Planet'''
|People
| In the hollow center of the planet.
|
Ponytail and White Hat floating in microgravity. White Hat's hat has come off his head.
:'''White Hat''': It's weird how a hollow shell doesn't exert gravitational force on objects inside it.
:'''Ponytail''': Oh, so ''that's'' why we don't feel a pull from the crystal sphere.
|
White Hat experiences a practical application of an unintuitive, and since "weird" in his words, {{w|shell theorem}}, as applied to gravity: that inside a hollow, spherical shell the forces of the gravity exerted by the shell cancel out for every object inside, regardless of its position within. Ponytail gets an epiphany, that it also applies to the gigantic Crystal Sphere surrounding the most part of the world she is in.
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| Close to the center of the planet.
|
a sixth lagrange point

''Your thrusters are more efficient now.''
|
{{w|Lagrange point}}s are places relative to two heavy bodies orbiting one another, where a third, much lighter body will stay in equilibrium with the large two, orbiting the common center of gravity with the same period and keeping a constant distance from both. There are only five Lagrange points.

In theory, a small body located in the center of a hollowed-out massive body will stay put as well (see the previous explanation), creating the sixth Lagrange point; however a hollow massive body can't exist, it will collapse under its own gravity.
|-
| Landscape
| On the surface of the planet.
| A sign with upwards-pointing arrow saying: ''Round Planet''
| Marks the direction to the Round Planet.
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| Over the surface to the right of the ''Round Planet'' sign
|
a glass of heavy water

''Your engine gets a bit more powerful.''
|
{{w|Heavy water}} is a form of water that contains only {{w|deuterium}} (hydrogen-2) atoms in place of the much more common {{w|Hydrogen|hydrogen-1}} atoms. It is approximately 10% {{w|Density|denser}} than the regular water, hence its name. Heavy water is not normally poured into glasses as for drinking.
|-
| Landscape
| On the surface of the planet to the right of the ''Round Planet'' sign
| A sign with upwards-pointing arrow saying: ''EXIT''
| Marks the direction to the crack in the Crystal Sphere.
|-
| Landscape
| Next to the ''EXIT'' sign
| A sign with upwards-pointing arrow saying: ''Uzumaki''
| Marks the direction to Uzumaki
|-
| Landscape
| Across a gap in the surface to the right of the ''Uzumaki'' sign
| A sign with upwards-pointing arrow saying: ''Origin and Subway''
| Marks the direction to Origin and (not quite precisely) to the Subway Planet.
|-
| Landscape
| On the surface opposite the ''EXIT'' sign
| A sign with upwards-pointing arrow saying: ''Earth (compromise projection)''
| Marks the direction to Projection of Earth.

|-
| rowspan="10" valign="top" | '''Round Planet'''
| People
| On the middle part of the Great Wall
|
Cueball and Megan.
:'''Cueball''': The Great Wall of China is the only human-made structure you can see space from.
|
This is a pun on the commonly voiced misconception that the {{w|Great Wall of China}} is the only man-made object on Earth that can be seen from {{w|Outer space|space}} (or the Earth's orbit at least).
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| To the right of the Great Wall over a field of boulders
|
a sensible cheese platter

''Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.''
|
A cheese platter is a common dish served in restaurants as a starter or sometimes as a main dish, as well as a final course in a formal meal (following the sweet, or as an option instead of one) composed of a selection of cheeses served on a large platter. However, often it may just be a random collection of what's available (e.g. a hard cheese, a soft cheese, a blue cheese of either hard or soft variety, possibly a small serving of butter; and a selection of crackers that are either far too many or far too few for the other products). A "sensible" plate, i.e. well-composed by a competent chef, might be considered rare.
|-
| Item
| Within Stonehenge
| a swatch pop-out wristwatch
|
|-
| People
| To the right of the Stonehenge
| Hairbun walking on absurdly high stilts
| People walking on stilts are a fairly common theme in xkcd. References include [[482: Height]], [[1608: Hoverboard]], [[1663: Garden]], [[2603: Childhood Toys]], [[2669: Things You Should Not Do]] and possibly other comics.
|-
| Landscape
| Next to Hairbun on stilts
|
Three spaceships flying just above the surface. The leading one transmits a message:
:''Rogue group, use your harpoons and tow cables! Go for the legs!''
|
This is a quote from ''{{w|Star Wars}}'' episode V ''{{w|The Empire Strikes Back}}''. In the original context the starships were attacking {{w|Walker (Star Wars)#All Terrain Armored Transport (AT-AT)|AT-AT}} four-legged armored vehicles, trying to immobilize them by entangling their legs. In the game, they are attacking Hairbun on stilts instead.
|-
| Upgrade
| Above the middle spaceship attacking Hairbun
| ''Your engine gets a bit more powerful.''
| A regular engine upgrade.
|-
| People
| To the right of the three spaceships
| A volleyball net. Cueball is jumping in the air to hit a volleyball on the right side of the net while Ponytail is juggling three bowling pins on the left side.
|
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the volleyball field
|
An airplane towing a long, narrow banner with a message printed across, not along it:
:''Does any one know how to get this thing to print in land scape mode?''
| A reference to [[2757: Towed Message]].
|-
| People
| To the right of the airplane towing a banner
| Beret Guy climbing a cell tower with some fruit hanging off the antennas. Cueball is standing next to it.
|
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the cell tower
| Huge gallows with a large flag on a pole hanging on it. The pole of the flag is twisted into a shape partly resembling an infinity sign; the loose end of the pole pierces the flag. A relatively large Cueball figure stands next to it.
|

|-
| rowspan="16" valign="top" | '''Uzumaki'''
| Item + Upgrade
| On the outside of the spiral
| a single caffeine molecule
''Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.''
|
{{w|Caffeine}} is a chemical substance present in many plants including {{w|coffee bean}}s. Beverages containing it have a refreshing effect on people, reducing fatigue and increasing performance. It may be pun implying that after collecting this item, the spaceship is similarly "recharged" as a person after a cup of {{w|coffee}}, however a single {{w|molecule}} would not make a big difference.
|-
| Message
| The entrance to the spiral
| ''Exit Only''
| In real world doors or gates are sometimes marked ''Exit Only'' to facilitate optimal movement of people or vehicles in an area or within a building, especially in an emergency. However, for such one-way passage to be useful, the structure must have some other entry points. The spiral has only one entry point.
|-
| Item
| Within the spiral
| a festive but somehow unnerving holiday card from Junji Ito
| {{w|Junji Ito}} is the author of {{w|Uzumaki}}, which inspired the spiral planet. He specializes in {{w|Japanese horror}} genre, therefore a postcard with his original artwork on it might be perceived as "unnerving".
|-
| Item
| Further within the spiral
| a podcast episode
| A {{w|podcast}} is a primarily a {{w|digital audio}} (now more commonly also a {{w|video}}) show or presentation similar to a {{w|radio program}}, but instead of being {{w|Broadcasting|broadcast}} at a predetermined time, is made available for {{w|download}} and later review at leisure. Being digital data, a podcast is intangible, therefore finding a podcast episode just lying around is a bit absurd missing some recording medium. On the other hand a digital video found on the Origin planet is recorded on a DVD (see above).
|-
| Item
| Further within the spiral
| a friendly bee
|
|-
| Item
| Further within the spiral
| an ink cartridge
| An ink cartridge is a container filled with {{w|ink}}, packaged for direct use in a device that dispenses the ink for drawing, writing, printing etc. It may refer to a cartridge for an old-fashioned {{w|fountain pen}} or an {{w|ink cartridge}} for a modern {{w|Inkjet printing|inkjet printer}}.
|-
| Landscape
| Further within the spiral
|
A free-roaming Roomba

:'''Roomba''': WHIRRR
| {{w|Roomba}} is a line of {{w|robotic vacuum cleaner}}s popular in the {{w|hacker culture|hacker community}}. Roombas are a [[:Category:Roomba|common theme]] on xkcd, but this is likely a direct reference to [[1558: Vet]].
|-
| Message
| Just above Roomba
| ''You're going the wrong way!' ''
| Probably a reference to the ''Exit Only'' message above.
|-
| Item
| Further within the spiral
| a spiral-cut diamond
| Raw {{w|diamond}}s are {{w|Diamond cut|cut}} to form {{w|Gemstone|gems}} used in {{w|jewellery}}. To expose the natural beauty of the mineral, the cut has to create symmetrical flat surfaces (facets) at specific angles to each other so {{w|White#White_light|white light}} {{w|refraction|refracts}} and {{w|Reflection (physics)|reflects}} within the finished gem, possibly multiple times, also {{w|Dispersion (optics)|dipersing}} on its way back to the viewer's eye, creating a brilliant look. Cutting a diamond in a spiral shape would be likely counter-productive and very difficult because of the material's {{w|brittleness}}.

It is a self-reference to the spiral "planet" the item is located on.
|-
| Item
| Further within the spiral
| a golden radio tuned to 1.618 MHz
|
A {{w|Broadcasting|broadcast}} {{w|radio receiver}} (often called simply ''radio'') is an electronic device for receiving and listening to {{w|radio program|radio programming}} and has to be {{w|Tuner (radio)|tuned}} to a particular {{w|frequency}} to listen to the desired program. Frequency is measured in the unit of {{w|hertz}} or its {{w|Metric prefix|multiplies}}, in this example in megahertz. 1.618 MHz is located in the part of {{w|High frequency|HF}} (high frequency) range of the {{w|electromagnetic spectrum}} assigned (in the USA {{w|Frequency plan|band plan}}) to broadcasting, however not aligned to actual station assignments; the closest assignment is 1.620 MHz (1620 kHz) for {{w|WDHP}} station in {{w|Frederiksted, U.S. Virgin Islands}}. Due to inaccuracies involved with tuning and the 10 kHz {{w|channel spacing}} of American {{w|AM broadcasting|AM radio broadcasting}}, setting a real radio receiver to exactly 1618 kHz will allow listening to the mentioned station, as well as a few others which have nearby frequencies allocated, maybe with some distortion.

This is a pun referring to the {{w|golden ratio}}, being an {{w|irrational number}} of approximately 1.618 and to the {{w|golden spiral}}.
|-
| People
| Further within the spiral
|
:'''Beret Guy''': I like spirals!
|
|-
| Item
| Further within the spiral
| a burrito
| {{w|Burrito}} is a {{w|Mexican cuisine|Mexican}} and {{w|Tex-Mex}} cuisine dish consisting of various ingredients tightly wrapped in a {{w|flour tortilla|wheat tortilla}}. This is a rather nonsense joke; a possible connection to Uzumaki is that wrapping the tortilla creates a spiral cross section.
|-
| Item
| Further within the spiral
| a cool pair of shoes with flames on the side
|
|-
| Item
| Further within the spiral
| a scroll lock key
|
{{w|Scroll Lock}} is a key on {{w|IBM Personal Computer|IBM}}-compatible {{w|computer keyboard}}s, often accompanied with a status light. It was originally intended for changing the function of {{w|arrow keys}} between moving the {{w|Cursor (user interface)|cursor}} around the screen (Scroll Lock off) and {{w|scrolling}} the contents of the screen (Scroll Lock on). Later, different systems and applications repurposed the key for other functions, such as pausing and resuming automatic scrolling of copious textual output, or for other obscure purposes such as {{w|debugging}} or the ''{{w|Magic SysRq key}}'' on {{w|Linux}}. As such, the key has almost fallen out of use in modern computing, prompting manufacturers of small computers such as {{w|laptop}}s or small {{w|Form factor (design)|form factor}} keyboards to make it smaller, move it to a non-standard place in the {{w|keyboard layout}} or drop it altogether. Most laptops missing the Scroll Lock key on their keyboards implement some key combination which acts as if Scroll Lock was pressed, allowing advanced users to use the mentioned obscure functions anyway.

Placing this item quite deep in the spiral is a pun referring to difficulty in finding a Scroll Lock key or the equivalent combination on some modern computers. A few xkcd comics refer to the key: [[978: Citogenesis]], [[1465: xkcd Phone 2]], [[1854: Refresh Types]] and [[2206: Mavis Beacon]].
|-
| Item
| Further within the spiral
| a primordial black hole
|
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| In the center of the spiral
| a tree-filled grove and a nice spot for quiet contemplation
''Your thrusters are significantly more efficient now.''
|

|-
| rowspan="2" valign="top" | '''Guitar Ship'''
| Item
| Just over the dome on the back of the guitar
| a guitar pick
| A {{w|guitar pick}} is a small flat tool for playing a {{w|guitar}}.
|-
| Token
| Close to guitar's neck
| ''Orange line deactivated!''
|

|-
| rowspan="4" valign="top" | '''Spacetime Soccer Field'''
| Upgrade
| Within one of the goals
| ''GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLL!!! Your thrusters are more efficient now.''
|
|-
| Upgrade
| Within the other goal
| ''GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLL!!! Your engine gets a bit more powerful.''
|
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| On the surface of the planet between goals
| a sunspot
''Your launch speed has increased.''
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| At the center spot on one of the soccer field
| the 3 million point line
''Your thrusters are more efficient now.''
|

|-
| rowspan="3" valign="top" | '''Saturn'''
| Item
| At the equator, below the rings
| a really cool data point
|
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| At the south pole
| a block of scandium
''Your engine gets a little more powerful.''
|
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| At middle latitudes of the northern hemisphere
| a pair of platonic solids, not quite touching
''Your engine gets a little more powerful.''
|

|-
| rowspan="6" valign="top" | '''Andal'''
| Upgrade
| At the top of the T-shaped tower
| ''What a nice place for a ship to sit! Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.''
|
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the T-shaped tower
| Two fantasy animals: one looks like a centaur, the other as a horse-headed centaur.
|
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| Over the animals
| two Andalites, one canonical
''Your thrusters are more efficient now.''
|
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| In the grass close to some hills
| baby shoes (and baby)
''Your engine gets a little more powerful.''
|
|-
| People
| In the grassy area between two hilly regions
|
Cueball and Megan facing each other
:'''Megan''': The M.I.T. cloaking device only affects the electroweak and nuclear forces. Gravity is the odd one out, as usual.
|
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| Next to Megan
| a friend
''Your thrusters are more efficient now.''
|

|-
| rowspan="10" valign="top" | '''Projection of Earth'''
| Item + Upgrade
| The North Sea
| the Principality of Sealand
''Your engine gets a little more powerful.''
|
|-
| Item
| Northern Atlantic Ocean
| the Heart of the Ocean
| The whole message says: ''You found the Heart of the Ocean! It was drifting around in space.''
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| Next to Rhode Island
| a Rhode Island the size of an ant
''Your engine gets a little more powerful.''
|
|-
| Token
| Next to Boston, Massachusetts
| ''Red line deactivated!''
|
|-
| Item
| By the Alexander Island of Antarctica
| some microbial life
|
|-
| Item
| Off the West African coastline
| a whale shark
|
|-
| Item
| On the western coast of Myanmar near the Strait of Malacca
| some tin from the pantai remis mine
|
|-
| Item
| Next to the Celebes Island of Indonesia
| a sparkling gem
|
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| Off the southern Australian coast
| an icosahedral d10
''Your engine gets a little more powerful.''
|
|-
| Item
| Near the Kamchatka peninsula in Eastern Russia
| a piece of pumice
| The whole message says: ''You found a piece of pumice floating in space!''

|-
| valign="top" | '''Voyager 1'''
| Item + Upgrade
| Next to the dish antenna
| Voyager 1
''Some of its great speed rubs off on you. Your engine thrust has increased significantly.''
|

|-
| valign="top" | '''Voyager 2'''
| Item + Upgrade
| Next to the dish antenna
| Voyager 2
''Some of its great speed rubs off on you. Your engine thrust has increased significantly.''
|

|-
| rowspan="3" valign="top" | '''SafetySat'''
| Item
| In front of laser pointers
| a first of its kind
|
|-
| Upgrade
| Next to software-defined radio
| ''Your thrusters are more efficient now.''
|
|-
| Upgrade
| Next to crude oil tank
| ''The more refined oil had a dinner engagement. Your launch speed has increased.''
|

|-
| rowspan="2" valign="top" | '''Shuttle Skeleton'''
| Item
| At the tip of the ship's bow
| a piece of space shuttle food
|
|-
| Upgrade
| Next to the left-hand engine
| ''A little upgrade works wonders on fuel efficiency. Your thrusters are more efficient now.''
|

|-
| rowspan="2" valign="top" | '''Giant Spider'''
| Item
| Next to the tip of the spider's abdomen
| a spider-silk scarf
|
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| Next to the spider's mouth
| a friendly jumping spider
''Your engine gets a little more powerful.''
|

|-
| rowspan="2" valign="top" | '''Diffraction Spikes Star'''
| Item
| At the tip of a long spike
| a hydrogen ion
|
|-
| Item
| At the tip of a short spike
| a piece of coronium (iron)
| The whole message says: ''You found a piece of coronium! Wait, no, iron.''

|-
| rowspan="4" valign="top" | '''Roche Lobe Earth'''
| Item
| Off the California coastline
| a curious humboldt squid
|
|-
| Item
| Off the Japan coast
| a bathyscaphe
| The whole message says: ''You found a bathyscaphe at the Marianas Trench!''
|-
| Token
| Near Boston
| ''Green line deactivated!''
|
|-
| Item
| On the far side of the Moon
| a wayward Roomba full of moondust
|

|-
| valign="top" | '''Dark Matter Planet'''
| Item + Upgrade
| A little above the surface to the left of Ponytail
| a delicate music box
''Your engine is a little more powerful now.''
|

|-
| rowspan="6" valign="top" | '''Jurassic Park Planet'''
| People
| On the surface
| A person with a hat facing a couple
:'''dr John Hammond''': Welcome... to Jurassic Park.
|
|-
| Upgrade
| To the right of the people close to a dinosaur's mouth
| ''But what if gravity doesn't actually exist? Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.''
|
|-
| Upgrade
| Further to the right between two dinosaurs
| ''Today is a good day I think for space exploration. Your engine gets a little more powerful.''
|
|-
| Item
| Still further to the right
| a tiny pteranodon
|
|-
| Item
| Still further to the right, low above the grass
| a baby hedgehog
|
|-
| Item
| Below surface down from the middle of empty grassy area between two dinosaurs to the left of the people
| a tattered knapsack containing about $194,00 in $20 bills
|

|-
| rowspan="7" valign="top" | '''Comet 67P'''
| Landscape
| On the surface opposite the large bulge
| Remains of a crashed spacecraft
|
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| Just above the crashed spacecraft
| The Long Now Foundation's archive of every Animorphs book
''You found The Long Now Foundation's nickel paperweight containing an archive of every published Animorphs book! Your launch speed has increased.'
|
|-
| Landscape
| To the left of the bulge
| A small three-legged spacecraft.
:'''Spacecraft''': BEEP BOOP
|
|-
| Landscape
| On the bulge
| Cueball standing next to some apparatus
|
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| Next to the apparatus
| a broken smoke machine
''Your engine gets a little more powerful.''
|
|-
| Upgrade
| To the right of the bulge
| ''Some people believe that when the Earth appears in the sky, it's a harbinger of doom. Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.''
|
|-
| Upgrade
| Further to the right, next to a signpost
| ''Anyone for Scrabble later? Your engine gets a little more powerful.''
|

|-
| rowspan="36" valign="top" | '''What If? Planet'''
| Upgrade
| On the flag flying from a flagpole
| ''You captured the flag! You decide to leave it there, but it's yours. Your engine gets a little more powerful.''
|
|-
| People
| To the right from the flagpole
| A cave in the ground. Inside it there's Beret Guy and two rabbits.
|
This is a reference to an English-language expression [[wikt:rabbit hole|''rabbit hole'']] which means a complex, bizarre or difficult situation, esp. such that one does
not want to be involved in. The expression is itself a reference to {{w|Lewis Carroll}}s ''{{w|Alice's Adventures in Wonderland}}'' in which the protagonist follows
the {{w|White Rabbit}} down a rabbit hole to find herself in the {{w|Wonderland (fictional country)|Wonderland}}. Here, Beret Guy literally enters a {{w|Burrow|rabbit hole}}.

In the original version from [[2712: Gravity]] there was a text spoken by Beret Guy: "I don't know why people complain about going down rabbit holes. These lil guys are adorable!"
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| In the rabbit hole
| a dna base pair
''Your engine gets a little more powerful.''
|
|-
| People
| To the right from the rabbit hole
| Two stones with sails attached, sliding on the ground towards Ponytail and Megan
|
This is an overly literal reference to the natural phenomenon of {{w|Sailing stones}}.

In the original version, Ponytail was saying: "Ahh, the mysterious natural wonders of sailing stones"
|-
| People
| To the right from sailing stones
| Black Hat aiming a bow at a satellite not far above the ground
| Probably a reference to "Consequence archery" from [[1920: Emoji Sports]]
|-
| Item
| Just above the satellite
| an eye in the sky
|
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the satellite
| A lake with an eel swimming in it
|
|-
| Item
| In the grass near the eel-lake
| a smooth green snake
| The whole message says: ''You found a smooth green snake! It curls up in your hand and naps.''
|-
| Landscape
| On the other side of a grassy area by the eel-lake
| A small erupting volcano
| In the original version, the volcano was making a ''DOOT!'' sound. It is a reference to the "Doot cone" of [[1714: Volcano Types]]
|-
| People
| To the right of the volcano cone
| White Hat and Cueball standing, another person charging them with a sword held above head. Cueball is holding a small object in his left hand, the arm stretched towards the attacker.
|
|-
| People
| To the right of the person with sword
| Baby Hairbun running towards baby Megan. Megan is making a kicking move like in a soccer game, but there's no ball drawn.
|
|-
| People
| To the right of the girls playing
| A person with a wide-rimmed hat driving a tractor. The ground strangely sticks to its wheels.
|
This scene and three following ones are references to ''What If? 2'' Chapter 64: Lemon Drops and Gumdrops, where it rains candy.

{{w|Lemon drop (candy)|Lemon drops}} and {{w|gumdrop}}s are made mostly of {{w|sugar}} and {{w|pectin}}s to create thick, sticky texture.
If such confectionery would fall on the ground in copious amounts such as during heavy rainfall, and partially dissolve in water bodies
or ground water, it would make the surface sticky and gross,{{citation needed}} affecting movement, such as the farmer's tractor having
trouble going. {{w|Tractor}}s used e.g. in agriculture may already have trouble going on really muddy soils, the addition of candy
makes it worse.
|-
| People
| To the right of the tractor
| Megan and Cueball standing on a shore of a shallow lake, Cueball is poking a stick into the water which strangely sticks to it.
| A candyfall happening for a prolonged time would replace some water in lakes etc. and dissolve in them, turning them into a {{w|syrup}}.
|-
| Landscape
| Over the shallow lake of sticky water
| A hummingbird flying
|
The only creature satisfied with the candyfall is the {{w|hummingbird}} which feeds on {{w|nectar}}, which is essentially {{w|syrup}}
produced naturally within {{w|flower}}s. In the original version, the bird exclaims ''YESSSSSSS!''
|-
| People
| To the right of the shallow lake
| Cueball with his head apparently tilted back, being hit by something falling from above.
PLINK
:'''Cueball''': OW!
PLINK
:'''Cueball''': OW!
|
Seeing the candyfall, Cueball attempts to eat some of it, by just opening his mouth and letting the candy fall in.
However, as anybody who tried a trick of throwing a piece of candy upwards and catching it in one's mouth knows,
having the candy hit one's teeth is a rather painful experience.
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| At the bottom of the shallow lake
| a sunken treasure
''Your thrusters are more efficient now.''
|
|-
| People
| Further to the right from the shallow lake
| A person (Hairy?) sitting on a large heap of bananas, Cueball standing aside.
|
In the original version Hairy says: "I'm Bananas Georg. Every year our company publishes global per capita banana consumption numbers,
so to make the printing easier, I eat enough bananas of December 31st to make sure it's a round number."
|-
| People
| Next to Bananas Georg
| Megan standing on a brim of a small valley, another person standing in the valley with a small animal by his feet.
:'''Megan''': Hi, Ryan!
|
|-
| Item
| Just above Ryan
| an asterisk
| The whole message says: ''You found an asterisk. it doesn’t seem to refer to anything.''
|-
| People
| To the right from the valley with Ryan
| Cueball and Megan are standing in a dugout. Cueball holds a spade.
| In the original version Cueball says: "Weird, I feel ''heavier''."
|-
| Upgrade
| Next to Cueball with a spade
| ''The Yellowstone Super What? Your launch speed has increased.''
|
|-
| Landscape
| To the right from the dugout
| A river, a waterfall and a lake below the falls. On the top of the waterfall Cueball faces two persons with police hats on. There's a fat hose labelled "Niagara water" leading from the waterfall into a building labelled "LHC". Someone in the building shouts:
:Hey!
| The abbreviation "LHC" stands for the {{w|Large Hadron Collider}}. This scene is a reference to {{what if|147|Niagara Straw}}.
|-
| Item
| Next to the LHC
| a large hadron
|
|-
| Landscape
| To the right from the LHC
| A large, rippled body of water. Two people in a boat are sailing towards an UFO-shaped large rock being ejected from the water into space. Another two people are standing on the rock.
| This is a reference to ''What If? 2'' Chapter 50: Japan Runs an Errand
|-
| Landscape
| In the large body of water
| A tube to the bottom of the ocean. Megan is standing at the bottom.
| This is a reference to ''What If? 2'' Chapter 50: Mariana Trench Tube
|-
| Upgrade
| To the right of a large rippled body of water, on a big cloud
| ''Nutritional Facts - Serving Size: 1 Cloud, Total Calories: 0. Your engine gets a little more powerful.''
|
|-
| People
| To the right of a bunch of clouds
| Megan sitting on a rectangular block, facing another upright block.
|
|-
| People
| To the right of blocks and stones area.
| White Hat walking through a patch of grass along Hairbun, who's looking at her mobile phone.
| In the original version, Ponytail was saying: "I checked downforeveryoneorjustme.com and it says just me." to what White Hat responded: "Yeah, I guess down isn't down for everyone."
|-
| Item
| In the middle of a patch of forest
| a secret leaf
|
|-
| Item
| Under a large tree in the rightmost part of the forest
| a stick
|
|-
| Landscape
| To the right from the forest
| A tower crane lowering a comet onto a place with two dinosaurs
| This is a reference to {{what if|162|Comet Ice}}
In the original version, crane operator was saying: "How am I supposed to cause the extinction of the dinosaurs if they keep moving out from under my comet?"
|-
| Item
| Under the crane's beam
| a sterile neutrino
|
|-
| Item
| To the right of the crane
| a pair of squirrel goggles
|
|-
| People
| To the right of the crane
| Knit Cap observing an object moving at supersonic speed next to him.
:''BOOM''
| This is a reference to ''What If? 2'' Chapter 56: Walking Backward in Time, where these squirrels are surprisingly present in the past.
In the original version, Knit Cap was saying: "Unusually high-speed squirrels."
|-
| People
| To the right of a supersonic squirrel.
| Danish standing in a swimming pool, Cueball on the brim.
| In the original version, Danish was exclaiming: "Jump in! The water's fine!"
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| In the swimming pool next to Danish
| a steam calliope
''our engine gets a little more powerful.''

|-
| rowspan="40" valign="top" | '''Subway Planet'''
| Landscape
| Many places
| '''Warning! Air and Space Museum black hole ahead!<br/>Turn back while you still have enough engine thrust!''
|
This warns the player about a black hole present inside the planet in the center of Washington, D.C. area.
Once the player gets close and is pulled onto the surface of the black hole, it is not possible to launch off of it without the Hyperdrive.
The only way to get unstuck is pressing the Home button.

It's a reference to the {{w|Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum|''Intrepid'' Sea, Air & Space Museum}}.
|-
| Upgrade
| At a large opening in the planet's surface
| ''You get the feeling you're not in Kansas anymore. Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.''
|
|-
| People
| On the right side of the large opening in the planet
| Megan and Cueball standing on the edge. Cueball is leaning forward, looking down.
:'''Cueball''': Where's Boston?
:'''Megan''': I think M.I.T. kids took it.
|
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| In the entrance to a triple-wide tunnel leading down to NYC
| a hot dog
''Your launch speed has increased.''
|
|-
| People
| On the surface to the right of the tunnels leading to NYC
| Cueball and Danish walking.
:'''Cueball''': Why did those M.I.T. kids keep talking about Morgantown?
:'''Danish''': They're just transit enthusiasts, I guess.
:'''Cueball''': But Morgantown is tiny. It can't possibly have a subway, can it?
:'''Danish''': Not exactly...
|
|-
| People
| On the surface above Santo Domingo
| Hairy and White Hat.
:'''Hairy''': A lot of people don't realize that North America only has one subway system; each city's metro is just one part of the network.
|
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| At the entrance to a tunnel leading to Santo Domingo / Monterrey area
| a bottle of Coke Absolute Zero
''Your thrusters are more efficient now.''
|
|-
| People
| On the surface to the right of the Mexico City
|
:'''Ponytail''': Welcome to the Subway Planet, home of all North America's metro systems!
|
|-
| People
| Further to the right
| Ponytail and Cueball. Cueball is holding a four-wheeled suitcase.
:'''Ponytail''': Boston? No, that's on the other side of the planet. Or used to be, anyway.
|
|-
| People
| Further to the right
| Ponytail and Megan walking.
:'''Ponytail''': My favorite thing about visiting Origin is all the pointing sculptures. They make it so easy to navigate!
|
|-
| People
| On the surface next to San Francisco
| Cueball and Megan standing on the opposite sides of a tunnel entrance.
:'''Cueball''': If you're looking for someone to track down those M.I.T. kid, you could try asking CalTech.
:'''Megan''': But we're in San Francisco; Isn't CalTech in Pasadena?
:'''Cueball''': Yeah, it's down there somewhere.
|
|-
| People
| Between San Francisco and Vancouver
| Ponytail jumping across a tunnel entrance.
:'''Ponytail''': Vancouver!
|
|-
| People
| Vancouver
| Cueball and Ponytail looking up.
:'''Cueball''': Huh, I never noticed that crack in the crystal sphere before.
|
|-
| People
| Down in the tunnels in Montreal
|
:'''Knit Cap''': Bienvenue à Montréal!
|
|-
| People
| At the bottom of the large hole in the planet's surface
| Miss Lenhart and Megan.
:'''Miss Lenhart''': I hear M.I.T. kids were working on a cloaking device. Boston could be anywhere.
|
|-
| Item
| In a short dead-end tunnel near the right side of the hole
| a Cybiko® wireless handheld computer for teens (2000)
|
|-
| Item
| In a short dead-end tunnel down in NYC
| a handful of quantum foam
|
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| Down in the tunnels of New York City
| a brightly-lit billboard
''Your thrusters are more efficient now.''
|
|-
| Item
| Down in NYC
| a normal-sized apple
|
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| In the tunnel leading from New York City to Washington, D.C.
| a friendly cat
''Your engine gets a little more powerful.''
|
|-
| People
| Down in Mexico
| Cueball sitting on a ledge, Megan standing below, looking down
:'''Megan''': You'd need some powerful thrusters to make it down there and back.
|
|-
| People
| Monterrey
| Megan looking at her phone
<code>xkcd.com/1196</code>
|
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| In a short dead-end tunnel near Miami
| a beige electron
''Your engine gets a little more powerful.''
|
|-
| Item
| In a short dead-end tunnel in Toronto
| a relativistic bowling ball
|
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| Further down in Toronto
| $30 in Yahoo
''You found $30 in Yahoo! cash! Your engine gets a little more powerful.''
|
|-
| Upgrade
| Down in San Francisco
| ''The next stop is Interplanetary Terminal G. Your engine gets a little more powerful.''
|
|-
| People
| Down in Los Angeles
| A rectangular chamber connected to a tunnel. Megan is standing at the entrance to it, Hairbun and Cueball are inside.
:'''Megan''': Welcome to CalTech!
:'''Hairbun''': The M.I.T. cloaking device control? It's in Morgantown, WV.
:'''Cueball''': Figures.
|
|-
| People
| Left and down from the CalTech chamber
| Jill standing in the tunnel.
:'''Jill''': Stop! This line goes to D.C.! Ever since the Air and Space Museum put in the black hole exhibit, it's been difficult to return without enough engine thrust.
| This is a more elaborate version of the warning plastered all over the inside of the planet. See the first entry on the Subway Planet above.
|-
| Upgrade
| In a tunnel between Los Angeles and Philadelphia
| ''There is no parking in the white zone. Your thrusters are more efficient now.''
|
|-
| Upgrade
| In a long straight dead-end tunnel near Philadelphia
| ''You feel accomplished. Your engine gets a little more powerful.''
|
|-
| People
| Down in Philadelphia
| Cueball sitting on a slope.
:'''Cueball''': Morgantown? You could get there via Philly and Baltimore, but that would take you near the Museum. Might be safer to take the red line from Atlanta.
|
|-
| Message
| In a tunnel in Washington, close to the black hole
| ''Transfer here for Mornington Crescent''
|
|-
| Landscape
| In the center of Washington, D.C.
| The Air and Space Museum's black hole pictured as a dark circle with shiny rings around it. It is impossible to escape it without the Hyperdrive. If caught there, hit the Home button.
|
This object does not behave like a real {{w|black hole}} as anything getting close enough (below the {{w|Schwarzschild radius}}) will never emerge from it again.
In the game, however, one can land on the surface of it and launch off it, provided that the engine thrust has been greatly increased by the Hyperdrive.
The object behaves like a dense, spherical solid having a large mass and hence exerting significant gravitational force, more like a {{w|super-Earth}}.
|-
| Landscape
| In the tunnel leading from Washington to Morgantown
| A sign with an arrow, saying ''WV''
| ''WV'' is a common abbreviation for the U.S. state of {{w|West Virginia}} in which {{w|Morgantown, West Virginia|Morgantown}} lies.
|-
| People
| In Morgantown
| Cueball sitting at a subway station (a round chamber a bit wider than the tunnel) at a strange angle to the surface
:'''Cueball''': Welcome to Morgantown!
|
|-
| Token
| In Morgantown
| ''MIT Cloaking Device deactivated! Boston detected.''
|
|-
| Landscape
| Along the tunnels from Morgantown up to the surface near Mexico
| A grey line with a circle at Morgantown end and an arrow at the other end
| This line appears only after the Cloaking Device is deactivated and points to the Boston planet.
|-
| People
| In the tunnel leading from Morgantown to Atlanta
| Megan standing at a subway station at a strange angle to the surface
:'''Megan''': Welcome to Morgantown!
|
|-
| People
| Further along the tunnel from Morgantown to Atlanta
| Megan sitting
:'''Megan''': I think I'm stuck. I can't even see the black hole from here!
|
|-
| People
| At the joint of the tunnels leading to Morgantown and Washington, D.C.
| Cueball sitting on the edge, his elbow on his thigh, and his chin resting on his hand.
:'''Cueball ''': Where does that line go?
|

|-
| rowspan="15" valign="top" | '''Boston Planet'''
| People
| Next to the entrance of the blue line, labelled "Wonderland"
|
:'''Cueball''': There's a token to open each T line. The blue line token is right here in Boston.
|
|-
| Token
| Over the blue line entrance
| ''Blue line deactivated!''
|
|-
| People
| On the other side of the entrance of the blue line
| White Hat with his arms stretched facing Ponytail
:'''White Hat''': Welcome to Wonderland!
|
|-
| People
| Next to the entrance of the red line, labelled "Braintree"
| Cueball and Megan
:'''Cueball''': Transfer here to Skinflower and Bonevine.
|
{{w|Braintree, Massachusetts}} is a real-world town in the {{w|Greater Boston}} area, where the {{w|Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority|MBTA}} {{w|MBTA subway|subway}}
{{w|Red_Line_(MBTA)|red line}} terminal {{w|Braintree station (MBTA)|station}} is located.
The funny-sounding name of the town has inspired Randall to create two fictional station names following the same pattern of animal organ + plant form: Skinflower and Bonevine.
These names also appear on the map in [[1196: Subways]].
|-
| People
| Next to the entrance of the green line, labelled "Riverside"
|
:'''Cueball''': I can't believe the green line goes all the way to Los Angeles.
|
|-
| People
| Next to the other entrance of the green line, labelled "Boston College"
| Megan and Ponytail talking.
:'''Megan''': Boston is a lot of places. It's on the East Coast of North America, but it's also on the surface of the Earth.
:'''Ponytail''': And on some playlists.
:'''Megan''': And of course it's right here!
|
|-
| People
| Next to another entrance of the green line, labelled "Medford/Tufts"
|
:'''Cueball''': I can't believe the green line extension is finally open.
|
|-
| People
| Down the blue line tunnel
|
:'''Cueball''': The red line token? It's in Boston.
| rowspan = "4" valign = "center" |
Cueball states the fact that there are many places named Boston or alluding to Boston in the game and the remaining subway tokens
(besides the blue line one, which was needed to get into the blue line tunnel in order to read Cueball's hints)
are located in or near such places. To find where the other tokens are, sort the table by the '''Type''' column and look up entries named "Token".
|-
| People
| Further down the blue line tunnel
|
:'''Cueball''': The green line token is in Boston, too.
|-
| People
| Still further down the blue line tunnel
|
:'''Cueball''': The orange line token is also in Boston.
|-
| People
| Near the intersection of the blue and orange lines tunnels
|
:'''Cueball''': There are a lot of Bostons in this universe.
|-
| People
| In the red line tunnel, down from Braintree.
| Megan and Cueball walking.
:'''Cueball''': You know, the locals actually pronounce it "Quinchy"
|
This is a reference to {{w|Quincy, Massachusetts}}, a city through which the {{w|MBTA subway|Boston subway}} {{w|Red_Line_(MBTA)|red line}} goes.
Four stations are located within the city limits: {{w|North Quincy station|North Quincy}}, {{w|Wollaston station|Wollaston}},
{{w|Quincy Center station|Quincy Center}} and {{w|Quincy Adams station|Quincy Adams}}. The word "quinchy" is a rather obscene slang expression, look it up in Urban Dictionary.
|-
| People
| In the red line tunnel, next to a place labelled "MIT".
|
:'''Megan ''': The hyperdrive works pretty well, but use it carefully. Try not to fly into walls at full speed.
|
|-
| Upgrade
| In the red line tunnel, next to a place labelled "MIT".
| ''Welcome to MIT! You acquired a hyperdrive!''
|
|-
| In the center of the planet
| Item
| a strangely heavy subway token
| This item is only accessible before the Boston planet is uncloaked.

|-
| rowspan="6" valign="top" | '''Crystal Sphere'''
| Close to the interior edge to the left of the crack
| Upgrade
| ''A significant boost to the engines for a curious pilot. Your engine thrust has increased significantly.''
|
|-
| On the interior edge approx. a quarter of the full circle to the right of the crack
| Item + Upgrade
| the gold crown Archimedes stole
''Your engine thrust has increased significantly.''
|
|-
| On the interior edge almost opposite the crack
| Item
| a necklace of element samples whose symbols spell out your name
| The full message says: ''You found a necklace of element samples whose symbols spell out your name (note: hopefully you are not named 'Katherine' or 'Brandon')!''
|-
| On the exterior edge approx. a quarter of the full circle to the left of the crack
| Item
| the platinum cylinder formerly used to define the kilogram
|
|-
| Some distance off the exterior edge approx. a quarter of the full circle to the right of the crack
| Item + Upgrade
| a needle in a haystack
''Your engine gets a little more powerful.''
|
|-
| Inside the Crystal Sphere between Boston and Round planets
| Upgrade
| ''You found a handful of the quantum foam that makes up the fabric of space! Your engine gets a little more powerful.''
|

|-
| rowspan="3" valign="top" | '''Crack in the Crystal Sphere'''
| On the left side of the entrance to the crack in the sphere
| Message
| Left lane must turn left
|
|-
| On the right side of the entrance to the crack
| Message
| Right lane must turn right
|
|-
| Inside the crack more than a halfway though it
| Upgrade
| ''There is a way out. Your launch speed has increased.''
|

|-
| rowspan="18" valign="top" | '''Star Destroyer'''
| colspan="4" |
The two ships (the Destroyer itself and the smaller Corellian Corvette aka Rebel Blockade Runner below it) are copied from [[1608: Hoverboard]] with minor alterations
and with this comic's specific features added: items, powerups and messages. They feature a lot of scenes with people and many strange objects.

The below list contains only the specific game objects and a couple of scenes that have been altered with regard to the original.
For explanations of the puns, dialogues and scenes on board the ships, go to the [[1608: Hoverboard#Table with references|table with references]] on the explanation
page of the Hoverboard comic.
|-
| Item
| In an empty room of the Destroyer on the other end of the tunnel leading aft from the room with piñata party
| a lymphocyte
|
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| In the room in the center of the Rotary (round tunnel)
| a vintage Juicero juicer
''Your thrusters are more efficient now.''
|
|-
| Item
| In a room to the right of the Rotary inside hamster ball Megan is riding in
| an out-of-control trolley
|
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| On the upper surface of the Destroyer, to the left of the cowboy
| a perpetual motion fidget spinner
''Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.''
|
|-
| Item
| In the dance hall
| a glass slipper with a glass foot in it
|
|-
| Item
| In the rotunda within the Imperial Park Chamber
| a helium-238 nucleus
|
|-
| Message
| In the ventral dome, next to the warning sign
| Hmmm.
|
|-
| Item
| In the ''Prince of Persia'' maze
| a cluster of data points
|
|-
| Item
| In the ''Prince of Persia'' maze
| a premium subscription to food
| The whole message says: ''You found a premium subscription to food.net!''
|-
| Item
| Next to a giant light bulb in the lowest aft chamber
| a Bursa of Fabricius
|
|-
| Item
| In the middle aft chamber
| two goats and a new car
|
|-
| Item
| Under the top dome
| an unread email
| The whole message says: ''You found an unread email. better leave it unread.''
|-
| People
| In the control room below the top dome
| Darth Vader talks to Hairy
:'''Darth Vader''': (breathe)<br/> But all murderbot really wants is watch Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon,<br/> (breathe)<br/> which is a soap – are you getting all this?
:'''Hairy''': Yes, my lord!
| '''Note:''' the dialogue has been changed from what was present in the original version.
|-
| People
| The control room of the Corellian Corvette
| Danish standing next to a console on the upper deck of the bow section, Hairbun right behind, her fists clenched.
:'''Danish''': Captain's log, stardate April 3rd, 2023...
:'''Hairbun''': Augh! No!
| '''Note:''' the dialogue has been changed from what was present in the original version by updating the date.
|-
| Item
| At the entrance to the control room
| a forged resume
|
|-
| Item
| At the end of the tunnel leading fore from the main chamber
| the Death Star plans
|
|-
| Item
| At the focal point of the upper dish antenna
| a serif
|


|-
| rowspan="2" valign="top" |
|
|
|
|
|-
|
|
|
|

|-
| ...
| ...
| ...
| ...
| ...
|}

{{DEFAULTSORT:2765}}
[[Category:Comic subpages]]

2676: Historical Dates

2026-05-15T16:00:19Z

FaviFake: cat

{{comic
| number = 2676
| date = September 23, 2022
| title = Historical Dates
| image = historical_dates_2x.png
| imagesize = 305x438px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Evidence suggests the 1899 transactions occurred as part of a global event centered around a deity associated with the lotus flower.
}}

==Explanation==

Many files and database entries contain a date. When it is not set, it often defaults to the first day in the system. The two dates listed below are mentioned as "significant" in the comic.

===Dec 30th, 1899===
Dec 30th, 1899 comes from a [https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2006/06/16/my-first-billg-review/ spreadsheet date compatibility issue] between Excel and Lotus 1-2-3 (referenced in the title text.) Spreadsheets store dates as sequential numbers so that they can be used in calculations. In Excel, by default, January 1, 1900 is number 1 [https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/datevalue-function-df8b07d4-7761-4a93-bc33-b7471bbff252]. Based on that, Excel's integer date representation would be the number of days that have passed since December 31, 1899. However, because of a bug intentionally carried over from Lotus 1-2-3 where it counts February 29, 1900 as a day even though it actually was not [https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/troubleshoot/excel/wrongly-assumes-1900-is-leap-year], for any day since then, Excel's integer date representation is actually the number of days that have passed since December 30, 1899. Most other spreadsheet applications copied the behavior of Excel to maintain compatibility with it. This leads to the value of 0 in some applications (notably Open- and LibreOffice Calc and Google Spreadsheets) being interpreted as Dec 30th, 1899. Similarly, Microsoft Visual Basic and Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) interpret 0.0 as Dec 30th, 1899.

The historian in the comic presents some research wrongly based only on the number of entries created on those dates. This confusion on the part of the future historian only grows in the title text, where they make the claim that Lotus 1-2-3 is, in fact, religious imagery related to some sort of deity, potentially a lotus god, around whom the '1899 event' took place. This may be poking fun at the trope that anthropologists attribute any behavior they can't explain to religious ritual.{{Actual citation needed}} This historian's confusion may have been at least partially due to China's {{w|White Lotus|White Lotus Religion}}.

===Jan 1st, 1970===
Many operating systems and software store dates as {{w|Unix time|Unix timestamps}}, which are defined as the number of seconds since Jan 1st, 1970, 0:00 UTC. When data entry neglects to provide a value, the system may be programmed to treat it as 0; consequently, an unprovided timestamp value is interpreted as Jan 1st, 1970 thereby creating the illusion of an "activity spike" on that date.

==Transcript==
:[Miss Lenhart is lecturing, pointing at a futuristic holographic display emanating upwards from a unit on the floor. It shows a presentation that features a timeline with two visible dates, 1899 and 1970. At the top of the hologram are two lines of text, above "1899" are three lines of text, above "1970" is one line of text, below "1899" are two lines of text, and below "1970" is one line of text; all of these lines of text are illegible.]
:Miss Lenhart: Historical records show millions of business transactions occurred on Dec 30<sup>th</sup>, 1899.
:Miss Lenhart: This economic activity sparked the digital age, culminating in a "data festival" on Jan 1<sup>st</sup>, 1970, when many early digital files were created.

:[Caption under the panel:]
:It's going to be weird when historians forget why some dates show up a lot.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Calendar]]
[[Category:Time]]
[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Miss Lenhart]]

2712: Gravity

2026-05-15T15:59:58Z

FaviFake:

{{comic
| number = 2712
| date = December 16, 2022
| title = Gravity
| image = gravity_2x.png
| titletext = It's a long way down.
}}
{{TOC}}To experience the interactivity of the game, visit the {{xkcd|2712|original comic}}.

== Explanation ==
This interactive comic promotes Randall's new book [[What If? 2]], which was released in September and is available for purchase. You pilot a small spaceship throughout a vast area in space exploring various bodies and planets within the play area, many containing easter eggs alluding to the book What If? 2 and previous xkcd comics. The flight mechanics are Newtonian so the spaceship can use the gravity of planets to alter its trajectory or enter orbit. The spaceship has indicator circles around it which appear when a gravitational body comes into range, showing the direction towards their center of gravity and the size of the body. A circle also appears around the spaceship whenever it collides with a gravitational body, acting as a shield. The shield remains until the player orients the spaceship upright so its landing gear can deploy.

You can easily fly between planets if you pay attention to orbital mechanics: don't just floor the accelerator. The background stars show your velocity and orientation relative to the nearest gravity well. If you are having difficulties navigating space, point towards a gravity orb and accelerate for only a few seconds. Wait until the background stars spin wildly, and then reduce your velocity to 0 before gently accelerating towards the object.

With a keyboard the arrow keys rotate the spaceship and accelerate it forward and backward. You can also use the standard first-person shooter keys 'w', 'a', 's' and 'd', and the standard vi text editor navigation keys 'h', 'j', 'k', and 'l' to control the spaceship. Despite some spaceships having no unique backward texture, they can all reverse. On mobile the comic will full screen, pressing either side of the center rotates the spaceship, and pressing in the center accelerates it forward. Various additional glitches may occur if you're playing on mobile. Having a starting position slightly below the take-off pad means you're already 'glitched' inside the planet from the off. Escaping the planet may need inverted 'accelerating' (turning perpendicular to the local vertical and thrusting backwards until you can glitch back out into more open space. You may also be trapped within the cannonball 'orbit', with seemingly inconsistent collision-detection, such that you can be sat ''with landing gear extended'' upon features (projectile tracks, etc) that seem not to count as solid for most other purposes.

There is no "universal" point of view — the bottom of the window, "down", is oriented towards the object exerting the most gravity upon the player. Multiple things found in this comic draw attention to this, such as how on Earth Ponytail says to White Hat, "I checked downforeveryoneorjustme.com and it says just me", and he replies "Yeah, I guess down isn't down for everyone." Throughout the play area are coins that change the spaceship into different rockets and non-space-based vehicles.

=== Celestial Bodies ===
This is a table of all the celestial bodies found in the comic.<div style="clear: both"></div>
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! colspan="2" rowspan="2" |Name
! rowspan="2" |Explanation
! rowspan="2" |Transcript
! rowspan="2" |Tiles (X, Y)
! colspan="4" |References
|-
![[what if? (blog)|what if?]]
!xkcd
!Films
!Other
|-
! colspan="2" |Starting Planet
<code>origin</code>
|The player begins on the launch pad in a landed position. Collecting the orbiting cannonball will transform you into a different rocket, although it does not improve your abilities.
Cueball feeding the T-Rex is possibly a reference to What If #78: {{what if|78|T-rex Calories}}.

{{w|Isaac Newton}} is referencing the {{w|Newton's cannonball}} thought experiment, where a cannon is fired at greater and greater speeds until the cannonball goes into orbit. Newton's comment suggests that instead of demonstrating orbits, he is firing repeatedly to hit his rival, {{w|Robert Hooke}}.
|Cueball: "To celebrate the world of ''What If? 2'', here is your very own tiny planet to explore!

Megan: "Welcome!"

* Ground caption: "Give someone the science question-and-answer book ''What If? 2'' for the Holidays: xkcd.com/whatif2"

* Cueball feeding T-Rex: "Burger?"

Isaac Newton: "Robert Hooke must be down there ''somewhere!''"

Megan to Cueball: "If you ever get lost in space, just fly down. That's where the ground is."

Beret Guy to squirrel: "Hi!"
|(0, 0)
|Y
|
|
|Y
|-
! rowspan="2" |Earth
<code>earth</code>
|
|A planet with among other things:

* A {{what if|162|crane dropping a comet}} onto a dinosaur
* Unusually high-speed squirrels (creating a sonic boom). Reference to ''What If? 2'' Chapter 56: Walking Backward in Time, where these squirrels are surprisingly present in the past
* Megan inviting Cueball into a pool
* A region where the frame rate is intentionally limited. Reference to Chapter 56 again, where the weather and sun cycle fast enough to cause similar strange visual effects
* A flagpole
* A literal {{w|burrow|rabbithole}} referencing the figuratively speaking [[wiktionary:rabbit hole|rabbit hole]]
* Someone playing [[1920|consequence archery]]
* A lake with an eel
* The {{what if|157|earth-moon firepole}}
* A "doot cone," a reference to [[Volcano Types]]
* Two figures being attacked by a third with a sword
* Two kids playing soccer (Catching the ball will turn the spaceship into a soccer ball)
* A farmer on a tractor being stuck in gooey candy. Reference to ''What If? 2'' Chapter 64: Lemon Drops and Gumdrops, where it rains candy
** A nearby hummingbird excited by all the sugar
** Cueball attempting to eat the falling candy, but having it hit his teeth painfully
* A banana pile being consumed by "Bananas Georg" to make the per capita annual banana count round, referencing the "[https://reallyreallyreallytrying.tumblr.com/post/40033025233/average-person-eats-3-spiders-a-year-factoid Spiders Georg]" meme as well as ''What If? 2'' Chapter 11: Banana Church, where he also makes an appearance
* Megan and Cueball digging a hole (in the center of this planet is the "Earth's core", referenced below)
* The {{what if|147|Niagara Falls water being redirected into the LHC}} (Large Hadron Collider)
* Japan leaving earth. Reference to ''What If? 2'' Chapter 50: Japan Runs an Errand
* A tube to the bottom of the ocean. Reference to ''What If? 2'' Chapter 30: Mariana Trench Tube
* Ponytail and White Hat making a reference to [https://downforeveryoneorjustme.com downforeveryoneorjustme.com]
* Two mini asteroid moons: A tiny version of B612 with Little Prince and the rose, plus one with just Cueball standing on it. They can be found by flying straight up from the Super Mario flagpole.
|"How am I supposed to cause the extinction of the dinosaurs if they keep moving out from under my comet?"

"Unusually high-speed squirrels."

"Jump in! The water's fine!"

"Ugh, the frame rate is really bad out today."

"I don't know why people complain about going down rabbit holes. These lil guys are adorable!"

"Ahh, the mysterious natural wonders of sailing stones"

"I'm Bananas Georg. Every year our company publishes global per capita banana consumption numbers, so to make the printing easier, I eat enough bananas on December 31st to make sure it's a round number."

"Weird, I feel ''heavier''."

"Hey"

"I checked downforeveryoneorjustme.com and it says just me" "Yeah, I guess down isn't down for everyone"
|(27867, -35648)
|Y
|Y
|
|Y
|-
|Earth's Core
|[[Cueball]] and [[Megan]] floating in a small space in the center of the planet in inverted rotations. Can be legally accessed using a high velocity collision onto the surface of the planet, although requires tapping the up arrow afterwards many, many times.
|
|(28850, -28570)
|
|
|
|
|-
! rowspan="3" |Europa
<code>europa</code>
|
|Europa, one of Jupiter's many moons (in real life). A broken, icy crust has a single path into its core.
|
|(13180, -2540)
|Y
|
|
|Y
|-
|Europa's Crust
|Europa's crust, with a single entrance into the core demarcated by an octopus leaving a hole.
EuroVision is a European song competition that includes many European countries, and it's not too much of a leap to claim that "Euro" includes Europa

Cueball states that Europa, with liquid underneath its surface, is in the Eurozone, a pun on the ''other'' Eurozone.

A Roomba whirs across the icy crust.

Cueball has a hairdryer and is melting the surface of the crust. A direct reference to {{what if|35|What If's Hairdryer}}.
|"It's so unfair we don't get to compete in EuroVision."

"The region of the solar system where liquid water can exist on the surface is the habitable zone, and the region where it can exist beneath the surface of moons is the Eurozone."

"WHIRRRR"
|
|Y
|
|
|
|-
|Europa's Core
|A watery ocean with octopi looking out into the great unknown using telescopes. This is a reference to octopus's intelligence here on earth! It may also be a reference to (Spoilers!) a certain 2013 science-fiction film featuring Europa, if not a 1987 book. There's also a secret path leading to a book club, through the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
The woman presenting herself as Annie is a reference to Annie Rauwerda, the creator of the popular social media accounts {{w|Depths of Wikipedia}}.

The November gale discussion is a reference to the Gordon Lightfoot song "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" and the actual events described in the song.
|"We've always used neutrinos for astronomy, but if we place my 'optical telescope' in orbit above the kryosphere, we could potentially observe the universe using electromagnetic waves. Who knows what else there is out there besides stars! There could be other worlds!"
"Hi, I'm Annie. Welcome to the depths of Europa. There's some weird stuff down here."

"We were caught in a powerful November gale on the Great Lakes outside Whitefish Bay. Our ship foundered and sank here." "This is Jupiter's moon Europa." "It was a REALLY powerful gale."

"Does our book club really need this much secrecy?" "That sounds like a question a SPY would ask."
|
|
|
|Y
|
|-
! colspan="2" |B-612
<code>b612</code>
|A reference to [[618: Asteroid|Asteroid]]. In a tragic turn of events, the Earth-bound asteroid being blown up is the home of {{w|The Little Prince|the little prince}}.
|Probe: "Asteroid deflection mission to earth. The package is delivered. Commencing planetary threat neutralization."

Sign: "Welcome to B-612"
|(2610, 3700)
|Y
|Y
|
|Y
|-
! colspan="2" |Dog Park Planet
<code>dogplanet</code>
|A planet covered in dogs, along with dog walkers, some fences, and a sign that reads "Dog Park". Two dogs watch a ball which is traveling in what appears to be a circular orbit around the planet. One dog is much larger than anything else on the planet. A hole is being dug by two dogs. Visible at the bottom, there is an empty space in the center of the planet in the shape of a dog bone.
Planets named "Giant Dog Planet" and "Tiny Dog Planet" appear in [[1253: Exoplanet Names]].

Ponytail's explanation of adjective order was originally miswritten, saying "Clifford the Red Big Dog" twice.

The two Cueballs excited by all the dogs reference ''What If? 2'' Chapter 60: Dog Overload.
|[Dog Park]

"I want more dogs!"

"Ball! Again!"

"I hope it lands soon."

"English adjective order means that you're "Clifford the Big Red Dog" but not "Clifford the Red Big Dog""

"You can't have too many dogs!"
|(1240, 11230)
|Y
|Y
|
|
|-
! colspan="2" |What If? 2 Planet
<code>goodhart</code>
|In aerospace, a Vehicle Assembly Building is where spacecraft are constructed. Randall Munroe whimsically refers to the launchpad as the Vehicle Disassembly Building.
Contains a figure in a cave saying "MMM SPIDERS HOMF NOMF", which refers to [[1268: Alternate Universe|Alternate Universe]] and may also be a reference to the [https://reallyreallyreallytrying.tumblr.com/post/40033025233/average-person-eats-3-spiders-a-year-factoid Spiders Georg] meme.

Collecting the small dot above the mountain peak will turn the spaceship into a flying person figure.

''What If? 2'' references include:

* A car preventing rubber pollution by being in a rubber ball, referencing Chapter 25: Tire Rubber
* People catching helicopters, one by the skid and another by the blade, referencing Chapter 2: Helicopter Ride (by the blade is reportedly more effective for downing the helicopter)
* Old Faithful, which appears in Chapter 8: Geyser
* A giant phone, presumably running on archaic {{w|vacuum tube}}s, from Chapter 36: Vacuum Tube Smartphone
* A jetpack takeoff appearing in Short Answer Section #1
* A T-Rex being weighed against an elephant, referencing Chapter 7: T. Rex Calories
* Igniting a house with a laser, referencing Chapter 37: Laser Umbrella
* Dropping the Washington Monument to propel a plane, referencing Chapter 18: Airliner Catapult
|Cueball to White Hat: "The tower over there is the Vehicle Assembly Building, and then behind it is the Vehicle Disassembly Building."

Ponytail to Cueball: "You know how tires pollute the environment with rubber particles? Well, I've developed a solution."

"MMM SPIDERS HOMF HOMF"

Shooting star caption: "THE MORE YOU KNOW" Sauropod: "Oh no!"

Person on uncontrolled helicopter: "AAAAAA"

Geyser: "Fwoosh!" Cueball and Megan: "Oooh!"

Giant phone crushing city: "ALERT" "Giant phone crushing city" "Dismiss" "More"

Cueball with jetpack: "Wheeeee!"

Cueball to Megan: "Do you ever look up at the night sky and think, "Wow, I bet those little white dots taste ''delicious!''"

Neighbor: "Why is my house on fire ''again?!''" Cueball: "Dunno" Laser captioned: "Laser"

Person with Washington Monument: "Okay, let it drop!"
|(-13300, -3260)
|Y
|Y
|
|Y
|-
! rowspan="2" |The Sun
<code>sun</code>
|
|Difficult to escape from if you hit the core. The description of magnetohydrodynamics is a reference to [[1851: Magnetohydrodynamics]]. Throwing a countertop into the Sun is a reference to {{what if|89|What If? Tungsten Countertop}}. Both the five layers of sunscreen (effective against ultraviolet) and the ten-meter blob (still ineffective against heat) are references to ''What If? 2'' Chapter 62: Sunscreen. Waiting for it to cool down before touching it may reference Chapter 64: Walking on the Sun.
|"The sun is governed by magnetohydrodynamics, or 'Magic' for short"
"My countertop!"

"This will make a good soup base"

"Can I touch it yet?" "No, be patient. It's still too hot. Give it another 20 or 30 billion years."

"It's okay. I'm wearing five layers of sunscreen."

TV Anchor: "The forecast for today is lots of sun"

"This should be enough sunscreen"
|(-14950, 12080)
|Y
|Y
|
|
|-
|The Sun's Core
|Difficult to escape from. Can be escaped by rotating around the Sun until reaching an escape-like velocity. Comparing the Sun's heat per volume to lizards is a reference to {{what if|148|What If? Eat the Sun}}.
|Cueball: "The core of the sun may seem hot, but it only produces about as much energy per volume as a lizard" Megan: "Wow. So how many lizards are there?" Cueball: "No-one knows."
|
|Y
|
|
|
|-
! colspan="2" |Soupiter
<code>soupiter</code>
|A model of the solar system filled with soup out to the orbit of Jupiter. As commented by Cueball, noodle soup. Soupiter was the title of ''What If? 2'' Chapter 1, but it filled the Solar System ''out to'' Jupiter and became a black hole, rather than another fun planet.
|"I think it's chicken noodle? Hard to tell."
|(-800, -9040)
|Y
|
|
|
|-
! colspan="2" |Earth without Japan
<code>nojapan</code>
|Earth, except it's missing Japan. Reference to ''What If? 2'' Chapter 50: Japan Runs an Errand.
|"Something is missing."
|(-7680, -5850)
|Y
|
|
|
|-
! colspan="2" |Just Japan
<code>japanmoon</code>
|A moon with water surrounding... just Japan. In ''What If? 2'', this is a possibility for where Japan might go without intending to return.
|
|(-5930, -5800)
|Y
|
|
|
|-
! colspan="2" |A blob labeled "Pigeons"
<code>pigeons</code>
|A reference to Chapter 6 of ''What If? 2'', where it would take 1.6 x 10^25 pigeons to lift you and a chair up to the halfway point of Australia's Q1 skyscraper.
|
|(-9020, -2490)
|Y
|
|
|
|-
! colspan="2" |Starship Enterprise
<code>enterprise</code>
|Star Trek reference: The Enterprise-C, 2344, commanded by Captain Garrett's. While defending a Klingon outpost, the weapons discharges resulted in the creation of a temporal rift, through which the badly damaged Enterprise drifted. In the comic, there is a large, invisible gravity distortion near the Enterprise-C.
|
|(2389, -60879)
|Y
|
|
|
|-
! colspan="2" |Dinosaur Planet
<code>qwantz</code>
|An homage to [https://www.qwantz.com/ Dinosaur Comics], a webcomic Randall has mentioned several times before. All the dinosaurs on the planet are black-and-white versions of the clip art dinosaurs in that comic. Also references the Jurassic Park movies, with CEO John Hammond welcoming paleontologists Dr. Sattler and Dr. Grant to the planet. The long grass depicted is a plot point in later films.
|"Welcome... to Jurassic Park."
|(20403, -49559)
|
|
|Y
|
|-
! colspan="2" |Cat blocking traffic flowing through portals
<code>roads</code>
|Roads in space may reference ''What If? 2'' Chapter 5: Cosmic Road Trip.
|
|
|Y
|
|
|
|-
! colspan="2" |Edge of the Universe
<code>outside</code>
|It looks like a planet labeled "edge of the universe". Outside the universe, so inside the "edge of the universe" planet, is another universe, the bubble universe, whose outside is labeled "edge of the bubble universe". Hidden entrance is between 10 and 11 'o clock. It is a reference to [[Bubble Universes]].
|"Welcome, traveler!" (found inside the edge of the bubble universe)
|(6081, 26138)
|
|Y
|
|
|-
! colspan="2" |A tree larger than the planet it's growing on
<code>roads</code>
|May be a reference to [[2: Petit Trees (sketch)|Petit Trees]]. More probably, a reference to ''The Little Prince'', a French children's novel about a traveler from a distant asteroid. In the novel, baobab trees are a serious threat to the Prince's home asteroid, as they are so large that their roots would engulf the asteroid entirely. Randall has alluded to The Little Prince numerous times before, especially in what-if articles.
|
|
|
|Y
|
|
|-
! colspan="2" |Milliways
<code>outside</code>
|A reference to Milliways, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe from ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy''. On one side of the planet, Ponytail, Cueball, Megan, and other characters gather on the patio of the Milliways restaurant; on the other side, the Sojourner rover examines a rock.
|
|''in code:'' (0, -14500)'', in game:''(0, 29000)
|
|
|Y
|Y
|-
! colspan="2" |The Great Attractor
<code>greatattractor</code>
|Beret Guy stands on the surface of a large ball labeled "The Great Attractor". The gravity is extremely strong (over 200 times that of the black holes), leading to various bugs and collision issues. It's a reference to [[Great Attractor]], in which Beret Guy is gravitationally attracted to the Great Attractor more strongly than usual.
This planet is located much further away from the other planets in the game, past the black hole cluster. Although it may be placed this way because of its ludicrous gravity, its position in-game could be a reference to how the Great Attractor is harder to observe, because of all the stardust blocking the view of it. In this way, the black holes influencing gravity and preventing a good angle to directly blast off to it, on top of the extreme distance makes actually locating it a hard shot.
|
|(-596048, 247952)
|
|Y
|
|
|-
! colspan="2" |Present
<code>present</code>
|The xkcd cast react to giving each other What if 2? as a present. Black Hat gives Cueball a "gift" which he claims, "might not be a bobcat", a reference to [[A-Minus-Minus]] A quarter of the planet was missing on the release day, but it's fixed now.
|"I didn't do any of my Christmas shopping yet because I was too busy drawing tiny planets."

"I'm done with my shopping! I got everyone What if? 2"

"...You got me my own book?"

"Yeah! I figured that since you wrote it, it must be right up your alley."

"It does make a good gift, though. You can get it at xkcd.com/whatif2"

"I got you this present!"

"Is it an angry bobcat?"

"It might not be."
|in code: <code>[22820,-18920]</code>
in game: <code>[45640,37840]</code>
|
|Y
|
|
|-
! colspan="2" |Black hole cluster
''from'' <code>maw1</code> ''to'' <code>maw14</code>
|A cluster of black holes with extremely high gravitational strength, set to the maximum of 2048. Not particularly easy to land on with multiple conflicting gravitational fields, but once landed on, rather difficult to escape. Likely a reference to the [[centralwikia:w:c:w:c:starwars:Maw Cluster|Maw Cluster]] in Star Wars.
|
|
|
|
|Y
|
|-
! colspan="2" |Remnant
<code>remnant</code>
|A white dwarf stellar remnant, with high gravity (making it difficult to escape, although it's possible to achieve escape velocity by flying sideways). Has various small landmarks, including a "skyscraper" and suspension bridge, using a penny for scale. There is a set of images of a rocket descending towards the planet, falling, and then trying to escape by sledding. The band is performing Smash Mouth's "Walkin' on the Sun". Most of these are references to ''What If? 2'' Chapter 63: Walking on the Sun.
|"All right, that's close enough"
"Oh no"

{{w|Walkin' on the Sun|"So don't delay, act now, supplies are running out"}}

"In 5 billion years, the Sun will run out of fuel and suffer gigennial burnout."

"The immense gravity of the sun's remnant means that this is the tallest possible skyscraper."
|(19620, 3800)
|Y
|
|
|Y
|-
! colspan="2" |Steerswoman Planet
<code>steerswoman</code>
|A reference to the Steerswoman series of books by Rosemary Kirstein. Includes a number of references to the series, including a group of people observing a small object orbiting the planet.
Trinitrotoluene is better known as {{w|TNT}}, a powerful explosive.
|"As a Steerswoman, I have to answer any question anyone asks me, or I'm expelled from the order."
"What's one question that you would be unwilling to answer?" "Oh no."

"Handle this artifact with great care. It contains a magical wizard's potion which the ancients called 'trinitrotoluene'"
|(-35070, -2500)
|
|
|
|Y
|-
! colspan="2" |Peeler
<code>peeler</code>
|A reference to the question posed by ''What If? 2'' Chapter 13: Lose Weight the Slow and Incredibly Difficult Way. A large potato peeler is seen removing the earth's crust.
|
|(-9270, 620)
|Y
|
|
|
|-
! colspan="2" |Unknown Planet
<code>unknown</code>
|This location was not in the list. There is a non-escapable gravity object here.<pre>Comic.voyager.pos
Object { x: -63587, y: 9395, a: 3.625954916940618, vx: 0, vy: 0, ax: 0, ay: 0, va: 0, aa: 0, isColliding: true, … }
</pre>
|
|(-63587, 9395)
|
|
|
|
|-
|}

=== Spaceships ===
This is a table of all spaceships:
{| class="wikitable sortable"
!Name
!Filename
!Description
!Location
|-
|Default
|<code>ship2</code>
|The starting spaceship.
|It is possible to change back to this spaceship by collecting a dot located within the Black Hole cluster
|-
|Tintin
|<code>ship-tintin</code>
|Spaceship in the shape of the {{w|Destination Moon (comics)|moon rocket from Tintin}}
|On the starting planet; can be obtained by collecting the cannonball in orbit
|-
|Figure
|<code>ship-figure</code>
|Stick figure
|On Goodhart, atop the mountain up which Sisyphus is pushing his boulder.
|-
|Soccer Ball
|<code>ship-soccer</code>
|Soccer-ball-shaped spaceship
|On Earth, between two figures playing ball
|-
|Alternative Spaceship
|<code>ship1</code>
|Default spaceship with landing gear on both sides of the spaceship. The landing gear deploys by unfolding on landing.
|Only available by using console to change Comic.ship = ship1
|}

=== Data and hacks ===
You can view the data embedded in the comic on [[2712: Gravity/Data|this page]].

Maps created by the community:

* https://bacontime.github.io/xkcd2712 | A zoomable map of the universe with markers for all planets, coins and with the option to highlight secret passages
* https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/zpe7bz/i_rendered_the_entire_what_if_2_universe_as_a/ | The whole universe rendered as one big image

Various modes and hacks have been found or developed by the community and can be activated by opening the browser console (F12, Ctr+Shift+I or Cmd+Option+I to open your browser's developer tools, then choose the Console tab) and typing a command.
* '''Speedhack:''' <code>ship.engines = "warp"</code> - Speed hacking, sets speed to 1.4x. set to "standard" to reset to normal speed.

* '''Teleport to planet:''' <code>[Comic.voyager.pos.x, Comic.voyager.pos.y] = Comic.planetRects.'''''origin'''''.slice(0,2)</code> - teleport near a planet, in this example near earth. You'll still have to fly a bit towards the nearest planet to reach it. Replace '''''origin''''' with the ID of the planet you want to go to, from the table above.

* '''Teleport to coordinate:''' <code>[Comic.voyager.pos.x, Comic.voyager.pos.y] = '''''[0, -2000]'''''</code> - teleport to an exact coordinate. <code>[0, -2000]</code> happens to take you to the starting area.

* '''Improved radar:''' <code>Comic.wayfinderFarDistance = Infinity</code> - make the direction of all objects visible. This can be hard to understand though. reset with <code>Comic.wayfinderFarDistance = 10000</code>.

* '''Chaos Mode:''' <code>ship.engines="infinite improbability drive"</code> - Seems to randomly teleports the ship. A reference to its namesake in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

* '''Insta Death:''' <code>ship.shields = false</code> - Kill the player if they land on a planet, the code never sets it to false, so it seems to be always true.

* '''No Clip:''' <code>noclip = true</code> - Enables noclip.

* '''Select ship:''' <code>Comic.ship = "ship-tintin"</code> - Select ship (use filename from list of ships)

* '''Autorotate:''' <code>Comic.cameraRotation = false</code> - View does not rotate with ship

* '''Goggles:''' <code>ze.goggles()</code> - returns a warning: "they do nothing!". This is a reference to Hoverboard, where ''ze.goggles()'' would give you the ability to see false walls. Both of which are a reference to the Simpsons episode "Radioactive Man" (season 7, episode 2), where Rainier Wolfcastle, playing Radioactive Man, complains that his safety goggles do nothing against a deluge of acid, sounding like "Ze goggles, zey do nothing!" with his accent.

* '''Python:''' <code>python("import antigravity")</code> - reverses gravity, so the ship falls away from planets. A reference to [[353: Python]]. Reset with <code>Comic.gravityConstant = 100</code>.

* '''Light Mode''' <code>Comic.lightMode = true</code> - inverts the color of the comic. reset with <code>Comic.lightMode = false</code>

== Transcript ==
=== Origin===
: Megan: Welcome!
:
: Cueball: To celebrate the world of what if? 2, here is your very own planet to explore!
:
: Ground text: Give someone the science question-and-answer book what if? 2 for Christmas: xkcd.com/whatif2
:
: Beret Guy: Hi!
:
: Megan to cueball: If you ever get lost in space, just fly down. That's where the ground is.
:
: Sir Isaac Newton: Robert Hooke must be down there somewhere!
:
: Cueball to dinosaur: Burger?
:

=== B612===
: Robot: Asteroid Deflection mission to earth. The package is delivered. Commencing planetary threat neutralisation.
:
=== Europa===
:
==== Surface====
: Roomba: Whirrr
:
: Cueball to Megan: The region of the solar system where liquid water can exist on the surface is the habitable zone, and the region where it can exist beneath the surface of moons is the Eurozone.
:
: Cueball's hairdryer: Whirrr
:
: Megan to Cueball: It's so unfair that we don't get to compete in Eurovision
:
==== Underwater====
: Miss Lenhart: Hi, I'm Annie! Welcome to depths of Europa! There's some weird stuff down here!
:
: Unnamed sailor to Cueball: We were caught in a powerful November gale on the great lakes outside Whitefish bay. Our ship foundered and sank here.
: Cueball to Unnamed sailor: This is Jupiter's moon Europa.
: Unnamed sailor to Cueball: It was a really strong gale.
:
: Octopus: We've always used neutrinos for astronomy, but if we place my new "optical telescope" in orbit above the kryosphere, we could potentially observe the universe using electromagnetic waves. Who knows what else there is besides stars! There could be other worlds!
:
===== Secret book club =====
: Cueball: Does our book club really need this much secrecy?
: Danish: Sounds exactly like the sort of question a spy would ask!

=== nojapan & japanmoon===
: Megan: something is missing
:
=== Goodhart===
: Guiser: Fwoosh!
:
: Cueball & Megan: Oooh!
:
: Alert on the giant phone: Alert! Giant phone crushing city! Dismiss. More.
:
: Cueball in jetpack: Wheeeee!
:
: Cueball to Megan: Do you ever look up at the night sky and think "Wow, I bet those little white dots taste Delicious!"
:
: Cueball 1: Why is my house on fire again?!
:
: Cueball 2: Dunno
:
: Cueball: Okay, let it drop!
:
: Cueball to White hat: Over there is the vehicle assembly building, and then behind it is the vehicle disassembly building.
:
: Ponytail to Cueball: You know how tires pollute the environment with rubber particles? Well, I've developed a solution.
:
: Cueball: Mmm spiders Homf Nomf
:
: Brontosaurus: Oh no!
:
: Text above star falling on Spinosaurus: The more you know
:
: Cueball & pilot of Helecopter 1: Aaaaaa
:
=== Soupiter===
: Cueball or Ponytail (impossible to tell): I think it's Chicken Noodle? Hard to tell.
:
=== Earth===
: Beret Guy: I don't know why people complain about going down rabbit holes. These lil guys are adorable!
:
: Ponytail to Megan: Ah, the mysterious natural wonder of sailing stones
:
: (as cueball is climbing the firepole down to earth): Climb Climb    Fling Fling    Boom
:
: Volcano: Doot!
:
: Hummingbird: Yesssssss!
:
: Candies as they fall on cueball's teeth: Plink
:
: Cueball: Ow!
:
: Candies as they fall on cueball's teeth: Plink
:
: Cueball: Ow!
:
: Bananas Georg: I'm bananas Georg. Every year, our company publishes global per capita banana consumption numbers, so to make the printing easier, I eat enough bananas on December 31st to make sure it's a round number.
:
: Cueball to Megan, both in deep pit: Weird, I feel heavier.
:
: Ponytail: I checked downforeveryoneorjustme.com and it said just me.
:
: White hat: Yeah, I guess down isn't down for everyone.
:
: Person in crane: How am I supposed to cause the extinction of the dinosaurs if they keep moving out from under my comet?
:
: Knit cap while looking at supersonic squirrel: Unusually high speed squirrels
:
: Megan to cueball: Jump in! The water's fine!
:
: Knit cap: Ugh, the frame rate's really bad out today. (if you go in the rectangle containing the words, the whole game begins to stutter.)
:
=== Sun===
:
==== Outside====
: Jill: This would make a good soup base.
:
: Hairy to Cueball: Can I touch it yet?
:
: Cueball to Hairy: No, Be Patient. It's still to hot. Give it another 20 or 30 billion years.
:
: Unnamed guy with baseball cap: My countertop!
:
: Megan to Cueball: The sun is governed by Magnetohydodynamics, or "Magic" for short.
:
==== Inside====
: Hairy: This should be enough sunscreen.
:
: Ponytail on the news: The forecast for today is lots of sun
:
: Cueball 1 to Cueball 2: It's okay, I'm wearing five layers of sunscreen
:
===== Core=====
: Ponytail but with black hair to Cueball: The core of the sun may seem hot, but it only produces about as much energy per volume as a lizard.
:
: Cueball to Ponytail but with black hair: Wow. so how many lizards are in there?
:
: Ponytail but with black hair to Cueball: Nobody knows.
:
=== Remnant===
: Band consisting of 2 Hairies & a Beret guy: So don't delay, act now, supplies are running out
:
: Spaceship captain: All right, that's close enough.
:
: Spaceship captain: Oh no.
:
: Ponytail 1 to Cueball 1: The immense gravity of the sun's remnant means that this is the tallest possible skyscraper.
:
: Ponytail 2 to Cueball 2: In 5 billion years, the sun will run out of fuel & suffer gigential burnout.
:
=== Dogplanet===
: Cueball: I want more dogs!
:
: dog 1: Ball! Again!
:
: dog 2: I hope it lands soon.
:
: Ponytail: English adjective order means that you're "Clifford the big red dog" but not "Clifford the red big dog"
:
: Cueball to Ponytail: You can't have too many dogs!
:
=== Quantz===
: Gardener: Welcome ... to Jurassic park.
:
=== Enterprise===
: Ground text: U.S.S. Enterprise
:
: Ground text: NCC-1701-C
:
=== Greatattractor===
: Ground text: The Great Attractor
:
: Ground text: The Great Attractor
:
: Ground text: The Great Attractor
:
: Ground text: The Great Attractor
:
: Ground text: The Great Attractor
:
: Ground text: The Great Attractor
:
: Ground text: The Great Attractor

== Trivia ==

* The objects in the mini universe of this browser game are all at fixed positions and do not interact through gravity, however, the ship controlled by the player is affected by gravity. While this makes it technically a relatively easy integration problem (of the position of the player ship forward in time), the integrator used seems to be a relatively simple one, but certainly not a simplistic one, because it does not conserve angular momentum. This can be seen when one manages to get into orbit around some object, e.g., the core of the sun. The orbit slowly decays over time.

* The logic for extending the landing legs and landing is rather simple. A ship can (normally) land if it is facing away from the surface it collides with, and if its momentum is more-or-less directed towards the surface. Once landing is triggered, the ship will rotate to face directly away from the object exerting the most gravity on the player, regardless of how sloped the surface is. The only way to get into space again is to accelerate forwards, as neither turning nor accelerating backwards cancels the landed state. All of this can be abused to land on almost everything. To land on the underside of an object, simply point your ship away from the object and slowly accelerate backwards to counteract the force of gravity. Landing on the side of an object is more difficult, as ships cannot accelerate sideways. The first method is to accelerate backwards to launch yourself upwards and towards the object so that at the top of your arc you will collide with the object. Then, rotate your ship accordingly to land. Method two is to just repeatedly slam your back of your ship into the object until you land. Note that with any of these weird landing methods, your ship will turn to face away from the source of gravity and can clip into objects.

* Executing <code>window.python("import antigravity")</code> or <code>python("import antigravity")</code> as Javascript on the page will reverse gravity, multiplying the gravity constant by -1.

* Executing <code>window.ze.goggles()</code> or <code>ze.goggles()</code> as Javascript on the page will show a warning in the console: "<code>they do nothing!</code>"

* Ponytail's comment on earth that she "checked downforeveryoneorjustme.com and it said just me" may be referencing the actual website at that domain, which checks if other websites are down.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Space]]
[[Category:Book promotion]]
[[Category:Interactive comics]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Miss Lenhart]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:The Little Prince]]
[[Category:Bobcats]]
[[Category:Dynamic comics]]
[[Category:Comics with animation]]
[[Category:Comics with lowercase text]]
[[Category:What If?]]
[[Category:Rockets]]

2601: Instructions

2026-05-15T15:59:38Z

FaviFake:

{{comic
| number = 2601
| date = April 1, 2022
| title = Instructions
| image = instructions.png
| titletext = Happy little turtles
}}
{{series
| series = April
| number = 14
| date = April 1, 2022
| days_late =
| day_category = Friday
| prev_title = 2445: Checkbox
| prev_date = April 1, 2021
| next_title = 2765: Escape Speed
| next_date = April 19, 2023
| extra_text =
}}
{{TOC}}To experience the interactivity of the game, visit the {{xkcd|2601|original comic}}!

==Explanation==
The comic displays just a small {{w|radio button}} (or option button). Once pressed the [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/2/20/2601_Instructions_Radio_on.png button turns blue] and this starts the real part of this April fool's comic. The comic consists of an [https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=0 audio file]. The speech is a mix of [[#Facts|facts about turtles]] and coding instructions in {{w|Logo_(programming_language)|LOGO}}. When executed, the instructions draw an xkcd comic. The audio file is 9 hours and 7 minutes long. Usually, there would be more than one radio button to give the user the ability to select options. Once it has been selected it cannot be deselected.

[[File:xkcd 2601 finished comic animation.gif|thumb|300px|Click to view the animation of the code running to create the picture, sourced from the GitHub.]]
See the [[#Resulting image|resulting comic]] below and an [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/0/05/xkcd_2601_finished_comic_animation.gif animation of the drawing process]. This has been compiled by [https://github.com/theinternetftw/xkcd2601#transcription-complete theinternetftw on GitHub].
*The transcript of the quotes (the non-code) can be found here [[2601: Instructions/Audio Transcript]].
*Images of the dynamic changes and other pictures relating to this comic can be found here [[2601: Instructions/Images]].

Once the voice begins describing the instructions, it is possible to mute the audio by pressing a [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/2/20/2601_Instructions_Radio_on.png muted button] at the bottom right of the screen. This fades into view when the radio button is pushed. Pressing it will change the button to a [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/78/2601_Instructions_Radio_on_muted.png non muted loudspeaker]. These were the same buttons that were in the previous April fool's comic [[2445: Checkbox]]. That was the second xkcd [[:Category:Comics with audio|comic with audio]], and thus these were two April Fools' Day comics with audio in a row, and these are the only comics with audio. In the Checkbox comic, the mute buttons meaning are reversed, so the sound is on when the loudspeaker is shown and muted when the mute button is shown. It could be another layer to the April fool's joke or just an error by Randall.

The [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/archive/e/e3/20220402201427%21instructions.png image originally displayed] on this page was of a small turtle crawling in the center where the radio button is in the real comic. That was the image that would be downloaded by web crawlers like explain xkcd's bot, as it is what was placed here on xkcd: https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/instructions_2x.png. This is of course not the real comic, which cannot be downloaded in that manner.

The "turtle" is a key concept in Logo, a programming language especially designed to teach programming to children in an easy way. The turtle in the logo is the cursor. Programming commands move the turtle, drawing a line as it goes. Of course, listening to hours of instructions, including the speech-synthesized reading of source code, is not an easy way to code or draw a picture.{{cn}}

In addition, at [https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=32817 the end of the audio] the voice says:
{{Quote|I even talk to turtles at times, but you need to understand LOGO to appreciate the great, great things that have been created. We spend so much of our life typing, looking, but never ever seeing.}}

The title text alludes to {{w|Bob Ross}}'s catchphrase "happy little trees" in ''{{w|The Joy of Painting}}'', a PBS TV show in which Ross leads the viewer through the painting of a nature scene. The audio file itself is also presented in the style of ''The Joy of Painting''; it begins with greeting the viewer and introducing the color palette to be used (just one color, in this case, as Logo and all computer monitors of the time were monochrome). The speaker then reads out some helper functions to be used in programming the scene, which is more analogous to Ross's palette of paints (titanium white, carmine red, etc.) along with words of encouragement as each is completed. The functions are DIST, to calculate the {{w|Euclidean distance}} between two points, LERP, to perform {{w|linear interpolation}}, MIX to average two numbers (with LERP), and CUBIC to draw {{w|cubic Hermite spline}}s. From there, the speaker alternates between sketching parts of the scene and offering more words of encouragement, mixed in with turtle facts.

Transcribing the audio into text was organized as a [https://github.com/theinternetftw/xkcd2601 project on GitHub]. This is not the first time that Randall made an interactive comic where turtles played a big part. In [[1416: Pixels]], he jokes with the idea of turtles all the way down, which is [https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=10403 also mentioned] in the audio file, and in [[3074: Push Notifications]], mapping out the coordinates sent via the notifications generates [[3074:_Push_Notifications#Notifications|a pixelated drawing of a turtle and a squirrel]]. He also made a comic simply called [[889: Turtles]].

===Resulting image===
[[File:xkcd 2601 finished picture.png|900px|center]]

The image drawn by the Logo program is a depiction of {{w|Bob Ross}} standing in front of a canvas, on which he has painted "a happy little tree, holding up a happy little world". However, unlike his usual "happy little trees", the tree depicted is not a small pine, but rather a gargantuan {{w|World Tree}} growing from the back of a giant {{w|World Turtle}}, on which a {{w|Flat Earth}} rests. (The "happy little world" does bear several small pines more typical of his style.) Several ornaments hang from the World Tree, referencing the common practice of hanging ornaments on {{w|Christmas trees}}.

Near the middle of the world, a Cueball sits while listening to the radio, perhaps tuning in to the same transmission that generated the image. Closer to the reader, a turtle is shown walking around, leaving dotted-line tracks behind it, suggestive of the Logo turtle. The dotted-line tracks spell out "TY", shorthand for "thank you" (presumably directed to the readers).

At the far top right, a dotted line is shown past which the words "vacuum decay" are written. This is a hypothetical effect in which the universe, being in a {{w|metastable}} state, decays to a true vacuum, and the resulting annihilation of everything expands at the speed of light. As such, humans would have no idea if there were an approaching false vacuum until it arrived at Earth.

At the far left of the image, a robot and human are drawn next to a turtle which has flipped onto its back. The robot declares, "Poor thing!" while the human says "I'll help". This is a reference to the "empathy tests" employed to distinguish humans from androids in ''{{w|Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?}}'' and its film adaptation ''{{w|Blade Runner}}''. As part of the test, the listener is asked to imagine being in the desert, flipping a tortoise onto its back, and refusing to turn it back over, while their eyes are monitored for signs of emotional response (or lack thereof). In this case, the robot expresses sympathy for the turtle and the human declares that he will turn it back over. (In this case, however, the robot is very clearly distinguishable from a human being.)

===Facts===
These are the facts told by the speaker.
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|Merriam-Webster defines a turtle as a noun.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=569
|-
|Here are some interesting notes from interesting facts about turtles.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=962
|-
|Over a great many years, I have taken a great interest in the land turtle.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=973
|-
|One of the interesting points about turtles is their great variety of foods.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=1415
|-
|in the pen and in five minutes it is surrounded by the turtles,
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=1976
|-
|when I found one of the large turtles had caught and disemboweled, the very large toad,
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=2648
|-
|I have seen turtles eating at 11:00 at night
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=2655
|-
|the youngest of turtles I have ever had seems to take to the same food as the adults
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=3506
|-
|I made friends with a turtle yesterday and he gave me his phone number.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=4283
|-
|Running away is slow as compared to this turtle propulsion.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=4522
|-
|Occasionally one can see a turtle dragging another one along
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=5370
|-
|I have never known a land turtle to bite
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=5382
|-
|Some people have turtles in their cellars believing that they catch rats and mice.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=5853
|-
|I believe that these turtles died because they were exhausted
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=5879
|-
|and mice might be kept away by the noise made by the turtle making its endless
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=6151
|-
|But doubt whether a turtle could catch a rat or a mouse
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=6158
|-
|In this, the turtles would enjoy themselves
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=6437
|-
|How about some interesting things in 10 facts about marine turtles from the WWF UK.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=6622
|-
|There are seven species of marine turtle.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=6628
|-
|Marine turtles were around more than 100
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=6632
|-
|These days, scientists recognize seven species of marine turtle,
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=6638
|-
|turtles do not have teeth.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=6890
|-
|Turtle shells are made of over 50 bones fused together.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=7064
|-
|The first few years of a marine turtle's life are known as the lost years.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=7352
|-
|Marine turtle species vary greatly in size.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=7654
|-
|Wales holds the world record for the largest marine turtle ever found
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=7675
|-
|1000 marine turtle hatchlings make it to adulthood.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=8216
|-
|turtles seem to prefer red, orange, and yellow food.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=10106
|-
|I'm beginning to suspect it's turtles all the way down
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=10403
|-
|marine turtles can migrate incredibly long distances.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=10623
|-
|Marine turtles.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=11365
|-
|move the turtle
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=11788
|-
|Here are some more interesting bits from interesting facts about turtles.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=11913
|-
|several occasions with the turtle still in c.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=12612
|-
|there is an artist in the bottom of everybody
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=12934
|-
|The number laid by a turtle varies
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=15403
|-
|I have also observed one turtle laying its eggs
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=15411
|-
|I had the pleasure of seeing six little baby turtles come out
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=16167
|-
|The turtle commenced to dig at six p.m.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=16753
|-
|Five days later a second turtle dug these eggs out arid,
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=16760
|-
|personally. I do not believe that the turtle digging out.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=16768
|-
|turtles a year factoid. Actually just statistical error,
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=16972
|-
|average person paints zero turtles per year
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=16976
|-
|turtles. Georg who lives in cave and eats over 10,000 each day
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=16980
|-
|The young turtles when they make their emergence at the end of three months,
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=17234
|-
|Do you know what A sea turtle's favorite sandwiches?
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=17526
|-
|Just ask the next sea turtle you meet.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=17536
|-
|Here are some interesting observations from odd facts about turtles.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=17639
|-
|It has been said that the turtle,
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=17647
|-
|In many ways. The turtle is one or the strangest of living things,
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=17943
|-
|But the turtle in all his varieties in all his ways is a most mysterious animal.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=17961
|-
|Your turtle is neither fish, flesh nor fowl.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=17979
|-
|a little turtle
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=18667
|-
|there is none so tenacious of life as the turtle
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=18986
|-
|Leave the turtle apparently undisturbed
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=18992
|-
|Just as soon as a baby turtle emerges from the egg off he scuttles down to the sea.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=19273
|-
|The young turtle feeds unmolested while his armor undergoes the hardening process
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=19306
|-
|whatever the young sea turtle eats and wherever he eats it
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=19628
|-
|the turtle is free from all danger
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=19915
|-
|interferes with the turtle
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=19924
|-
|Cool facts about turtles from Deutsche Welle.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=20499
|-
|There is a reason why turtles look a little prehistoric.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=20506
|-
|Luckily for the turtles, they're burrowing and water-dwelling habits.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=20527
|-
|While a turtle's lifespan largely depends on the species,
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=20926
|-
|A typical pet turtle can make it to anywhere between 10 and 80 years.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=20935
|-
|Researchers think some turtles could even be hundreds of years old.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=20949
|-
|There are currently 356 known species of turtles.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=21629
|-
|There are sea turtles, leatherback turtles, snapping turtles,
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=21642
|-
|pond turtles, soft-shelled turtles, and of course tortoises,
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=21646
|-
|Not all turtles or tortoises
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=22175
|-
|but all tortoises or turtles.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=22177
|-
|technically all tortoises are in fact turtles.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=22181
|-
|But the main difference between turtles and
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=22192
|-
|while most turtles live in or near water
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=22198
|-
|Some turtles are vegetarians
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=22405
|-
|Most turtles are actually omnivores but a few species
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=22409
|-
|Not to the fearsome-looking alligator turtle
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=22421
|-
|Even water-dwelling turtles will dig their nests
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=22805
|-
|No species of turtle sticks around to raise their young.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=22814
|-
|A turtle's gender is determined by temperature
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=23005
|-
|A turtle's gender is determined after fertilization.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=23010
|-
|If the turtles eggs incubate below 27.7 degrees Celsius,
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=23015
|-
|turtles tend to give birth to more females
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=23037
|-
|Sea turtles are known for their amazing ability to return
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=23182
|-
|turtles can navigate their way at sea by
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=23190
|-
|turtles have strong underwater eyesight.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=23618
|-
|Although sea turtles are famous for their internal GPS
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=23629
|-
|Six out of seven turtle species are classified as
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=23919
|-
|How about some interesting facts from turtle facts by Alina Bradford.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=24214
|-
|turtles are reptiles with hard shells that protect them from predators.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=24221
|-
|Turtles live all over the world in almost every type of climate
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=24233
|-
|the turtle order
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=24479
|-
|turtle,
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=24874
|-
|turtles spend most of their lives in water.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=25251
|-
|Sea turtles rarely leave the ocean except to lay eggs in the sand.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=25260
|-
|Freshwater turtles live in ponds and lakes
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=25266
|-
|With so many different types of turtle.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=25760
|-
|The largest sea turtle species is the leatherback turtle.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=25765
|-
|The largest freshwater turtle in North America is the alligator snapping turtle.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=25788
|-
|The Yangtze giant softshell turtle is the largest softshell turtle.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=25799
|-
|A turtle's shell is a modified rib cage and part of its vertebral column
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=26177
|-
|All the thoughts of a turtle are turtles and of a rabbit rabbits.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=26401
|-
|So let's try to think like a turtle
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=26406
|-
|Many turtles are able to retract their heads and feet into their shells,
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=26450
|-
|turtles are placed in the two sub-orders based on the method of retraction.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=26455
|-
|Sea turtles have lost the ability to retract their heads
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=26472
|-
|turtles are very adaptive and can be found on every continent except Antarctica.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=26676
|-
|Most turtle species are found in southeastern North America and South Asia.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=26681
|-
|sea turtles can be found in the coral triangle.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=26844
|-
|what do you get if you cross a turtle with a giraffe,
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=26976
|-
|a turtleneck
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=26981
|-
|The African helmeted turtle is the most common turtle in Africa,
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=27157
|-
|roti island. Snake-necked turtles are found only on Rhode island.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=27221
|-
|turtles are not social creatures
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=27393
|-
|while they typically don't mind if there are other turtles around them,
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=27396
|-
|Most turtles are active during the day,
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=27405
|-
|turtles are not silent creatures.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=27537
|-
|Most turtles are omnivores.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=27961
|-
|musk turtles eat mollusks,
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=27968
|-
|The cooter turtle is mostly vegetarian
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=27973
|-
|and the green sea turtle only eats grasses and algae.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=27976
|-
|The alligator snapping turtle lures in fish with its tongue
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=28293
|-
|crayfish and other turtles.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=28313
|-
|All turtles lay eggs.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=28483
|-
|No species of turtle nurtures their young
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=28493
|-
|turtles reach the age to mate at different times.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=28762
|-
|Male and female turtles intertwined their tails so
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=29117
|-
|sea turtles travel from the ocean to lay eggs on beaches.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=29387
|-
|sea turtles lay around 110 eggs in a nest
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=29392
|-
|Though the flatback turtle only lays 50 at a time
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=29396
|-
|the temperature of the sand affects the sex of the turtle.
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=29661
|-
|Too many sea turtle females are being born
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=29673
|-
|according to the sea turtle. Conservancy
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=29679
|-
|Many turtle species are listed as threatened,
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=29984
|-
|I even talked to turtles at times
|https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=32815
|}

==Transcript==
===Comic interface===
:[The comic consists of one radio button, a small circle in the center of a large white panel. It is interactive. When pressing the radio button (selecting it), it turns blue. The second the radio button is pressed a more than 9-hour long audio file of coding instructions begins to play, and a mute button appears in the bottom right corner. It fades slowly into full opacity. Pressing this button will change it to a loudspeaker. It toggles whether there is sound playing or not. It is not possible to shut down the audio by pressing the radio button. Once selected it cannot be deselected as there is only this one option.]

:[Covered by the radio button is an image of a turtle crawling from left to right, with a dotted line trailing behind it, indicating its movement. This image can only be seen by looking in the place where images for xkcd are usually placed on xkcd.]

:'''[The full transcript of the audio file is available on [[2601: Instructions/Audio Transcript]].]'''

===Resulting image===
:[A man with large hair and a beard, meant to resemble Bob Ross, is holding an artist's palette with five patches of paint in one hand and a paintbrush in the other. He looks upon his canvas, where he has painted a large painting.]
:Painter: A happy little tree
:Painter: Holding up a happy little world.

:[The painting contains lots of stuff. Most notably, an enormous tree with a large, flat top grows on the back of a similarly large turtle at the bottom of the painting, the top of whose shell has been replaced with soil. On the tree is a robot that sees Cueball bending down to lift a turtle that is on its back. They talk:]
:Robot: Poor thing!
:Cueball: I'll help

:[In the top right corner, there is a dotted line forming a semi-circle around the corner. Inside this are the words:]
:Vacuum decay

:[There are no other words in the image. The image includes:]
In the sky:
* Mars, including:
** A Mars rover (appears to be Curiosity or Perseverance), which is examining a turtle
** A small rover (appears to be Sojourner)
* The JWST (James Webb Space Telescope)
* The ISS and what appears to be a TIE fighter transiting the sun
* Saturn
* A small planet with a man and a flower (''Le Petit Prince'' by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry)
* A moon of Saturn, with both Cueball and a tiny turtle
* A constellation in the shape of a turtle
* A constellation in the shape of a kite (or a tetrahedron)
* A constellation that appears to be the little dipper (Ursa Minor) stacked inside the big dipper (Ursa Major), resembling a [[:wikipedia:lemon squeezer|lemon squeezer]], next to an object that appears to be half a lemon.
* Cueball playing tennis with incoming meteors
* A rocket
* Three birds
* Two galaxies
* A star which appears to have teleported

On top of the tree:
* Cueball listening to a radio
* Ponytail holding a balloon
* Megan looking over the edge
* A turtle who may have walked a path in the shape of the letters "T" and "Y"
* A squirrel
* A rabbit
* Two happy little trees
* Eight scattered tufts of grass and five scattered rocks
* Mountains in the background, one of which seems to have a gigantic Egg on its top and stairs leading to it, which is likely a reference to the video game {{w|The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening}}.

Under the tree:
* Beret guy looking out of a window in the tree
* Miss Lenhart standing at the base of the tree
* One happy little tree on top of the turtle
* Ponytail in a balloon, throwing out an anchor towards the turtle
* A helicopter with a stegosaurus tail (thagomizer)
* Three glass ball ornaments hanging from the tree

==Trivia==
*The Tree being atop a turtle in the finished comic (as well as the general turtle theme) could be a reference to the programming phrase "it's [[1416: Pixels|turtles all the way down]]", which is used to describe infinite recursion. A world atop a turtle (albeit with elephants between) is also a Discworld reference, derived by [[1498: Terry Pratchett|Terry Pratchett]] from the same mythic roots, and something Randall is known to have [[1052: Every Major's Terrible|occasionally]] [[625: Collections|referenced]].

*If you have scripts disabled, you will just see a picture of a [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/archive/e/e3/20220402201427%21instructions.png little turtle] which is not interactive.

*This comic has a [[Header text#Comic-specific header text|unique header text]], see [[Header text#Instructions|the details here]]. The header is:
*:"Today's comic was created with [https://twitter.com/fadinginterest Patrick], [https://twitter.com/Aiiane Amber], [https://twitter.com/chromakode @chromakode], [https://twitter.com/dyfrgi Michael], [https://twitter.com/wirehead2501 Kat], [https://twitter.com/xDirtyPunkx Conor], [https://twitter.com/zigdon @zigdon], and [https://twitter.com/bstaffin Benjamin Staffin]."
:The header had not changed [[Header text#2022-01-31_-_What_if.3F_2|since the promotion]] of the new ''[[What If? 2]]'' book.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Interactive comics]]
[[Category:Dynamic comics]]
[[Category:Comics with animation]] 
[[Category:Comics with color]] 
[[Category:Comics with audio]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:The Little Prince]]
[[Category:Giraffes]]
[[Category:Turtles]]
[[Category:Comics with custom header texts]]

2517: Rover Replies

2026-05-15T15:59:03Z

FaviFake:

{{comic
| number = 2517
| date = September 17, 2021
| title = Rover Replies
| image = rover_replies.png
| titletext = I'm so glad NASA let you take your phone to Mars!
}}

==Explanation==

There is [https://twitter.com/nasapersevere?lang=en a Twitter account] for {{w|NASA|NASA's}} {{w|Perseverance (rover)|Perseverance Mars Rover}}, which collected samples. The Twitter account tweets in the first person like in the comic. Likely a human on earth is playing the role of the rover.{{Citation needed}} While the exact post shown does not exist, it has posted a [https://twitter.com/NASAPersevere/status/1433334279937789954 similar tweet.]

The first four replies (in order of top-to-bottom) are likely just general compliments to the rover, demonstrating that the replies are indeed wholesome. Reply three in particular references rocks, as the main purpose of most Mars rovers is to perform Martian geology.

Reply five is a mashup of conspiracy theories, including about {{w|5G}} communications, {{w|Vaccine hesitancy|vaccines}}, and others. [[Ponytail]] then replies "Quiet, we're not doing that here", scolding the conspiracy theorist to keep their negativity out of the otherwise positive forum.

The next reply references people saying where they're from, then clarifying where that is in brackets, e.g. Wingerworth (England). This commenter expands that to clarify that they are from Earth, joking that the planet may be ambiguous as the Mars rover is not on Earth. In reality, this ambiguity does not exist as humans only live on Earth,{{citation needed}} thus contributing to the humor.

The second-to-last reply is likely a misunderstanding, with the commenter believing that the rover is digging to perform anthropology or paleontology, not geology. The commenter could, however, believe that there is/was complex life on Mars, thus allowing the possibility that there are Martian skeletons for the rover to find.

The final reply is a reference to {{w|Ingenuity (helicopter)|Ingenuity}}, a small helicopter which Perseverance took to Mars as a [https://mars.nasa.gov/technology/helicopter/ technology demonstrator]. It was very successful and completed many flights, [https://mars.nasa.gov/images/mepjpl/PIA24797-Flight12.jpg often taking it quite far from Perseverance] and routinely serving as a scout, surveying the area and helping Perseverance plan it's route. However, to the dismay of many, Ingenuity's mission ended after 3 years due to a [https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/after-three-years-on-mars-nasas-ingenuity-helicopter-mission-ends/ damaged rotor].

The title text is in the form of another reply. The character posting that reply believes that the rover has taken its phone to Mars, and has used that to take the pictures. This is likely because most photos on social media are taken on phones, and social media sites are often designed for phones. In addition, Perseverance and Curiosity differ from previous rovers in that they have cameras mounted on flexible arms, allowing them to take photographs of themselves - somewhat akin to a smartphone on a selfie-stick. In reality, Mars rovers don't have smartphones, and Perseverance is taking photos with an equipped camera.

While this comic is most likely referencing Perseverance, there is another small possibility that Curiosity is shown here, as Curiosity also has [https://www.space.com/19708-mars-rover-curiosity-rock-drill-sample.html collected samples]. This is unlikely though due to the timing of this comic.

==Transcript==
:[A post of a rocky landscape and a close-up of a rock is next to a profile picture of the camera of a Mars rover.]
:Just collected a sample!

:[Comments below. Each comment has an icon of a person or other image next to it and an illegible name above the comment.]
:[face of Cueball-like character]: These pictures are great!
:[curved lines]: I'm so proud of you
:[Cueball-like stick figure]: Wow you know a lot about rocks
:[Megan]: Go go go go go!
:[spiral galaxy-like image]: More propaganda from NASA's 5G vaccine microchip factory
::[Ponytail]: Quiet, we're not doing that here
:[unidentified stick figure]: Hello from Missouri (Earth)!
:[Hairy]: Did you find any skeletons yet
:[Miss Lenhart]: I hope your helicopter comes back!

:[Caption below frame:]
:The most unexpectedly wholesome place on the internet is the replies to NASA's rovers on social media.
{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Mars rovers]]
[[Category:Social networking]]

File:challengers subcomic primm nevada.png

2026-05-15T15:58:35Z

FaviFake:

== Summary ==
Subcomic from [[2067: Challengers]]

Original file from https://xkcd.com/2067/asset/imgs/polls.png

== Transcript ==
: [A group of five people are standing]
: Miss Lenhart: Remember: The only poll that counts is the one on Election Day. And the ones that help campaigns allocate resources. And the ones that drive media coverage and the ones that inform us all about what our fellow members of the public believe. And the ones that...

== Licensing ==
{{XKCD file}}

[[Category:Helper comic images (2067)]]

1608: Hoverboard/Transcript

2026-05-15T15:58:24Z

FaviFake: yes it is

{{TOC}}Below, you will find a '''complete transcript''' for [[1608: Hoverboard]]. This includes all text, but also a full description of all drawings as well as size and distances. To make text stand out clearly this has been indented twice to make it easy to spot if scrolling down.

The transcript will be based on what can be experienced by moving through the game without any cheating. It has been planned, (and details are mentioned), based on this [https://1101b.com/xkcd1608/ full drawing] that can be zoomed and navigated, including revealing secret passages and displaying coins. The transcript starts by describing the play area, taking all the coins there first, it may feel normal to move right in the reading direction at first.
*This means into the '''Star Wars area''' to the right.
**Following the line of sight for the people looking up, it will then be obvious to discover first the smaller Rebel Blockade Runner
**And after this following the bombs you reach up to the Imperial Star Destroyer.
**Having finished the total exploration of these two, you are now at the end of the Destroyer.
**Jumping through the air high above the ground you suddenly reach the end of this small world and drop down.
*From there you will then go back towards left along the ground.
*Passing through the play area on your way left you then enter the '''Lord of the Rings area''' on your way to the volcano – a representation of Mount Doom.
**The few items floating above the ground or hidden below ground is “discovered” on the way (however unlikely).
**Thus once ending at the left edge to the world, you have now seen it all.
Following this path '''the coins are numbered''' as you move along
*For instance when you take coin 19 it will look like this:
*''Moving back to the left you pick up the coin ('''#19''') at the tip of the canon''.
*The coins do not necessarily get a number the first time you see them, if they are behind some obstacle. They will first get a number when you actually take them!
*Coins will always be given individual numbers even if there is more than one in the same place. So it is possible to count from one coin to the next.
**The actual number of course only makes sense when following the course of the transcript.
**The transcript will take you in approximately the fastest path through all coins, but since you do not know where they are, you also go through all dead-ends even hose without any coins.
*The number of coins in each section of this transcript will be given at the start of each section.
'''Distances''' are given as the time you will need to use to get from one point to the other, when using the program as it is.
*(There can be problems from browser to browser of [[1608: Hoverboard#Bugs and errors|errors in the game]], that can make this timing useless).
*To the left and right this can be given as the amount of time you need to hold the left/right arrow down without hitting any obstructions before you reach a given point.
**Either moving along the ground or while jumping, the latter almost always the fastest approach, but not always.
**For small distances number of small steps can be used; especially when you cannot see yourself in some secret passage.
**Problem with this is that even small steps can be different length depending on how fast you press.
*Distances down can be given in fall time.
*Distances up are trickier to measure, as a full jump moves you upwards for about 0.55 seconds, before you fall down again. So often it is nice to also give the fall time afterwards.
**If you push faster you will move up faster. For instance by pushing at the right time you can get just high enough to “leave” the play area in just 6 jumps from the ground level outside the walls of the play area.
**This will take about 3.3 seconds. You will then fall back in 1.5 s.
**But if you push 12 times in a fast repeating pattern you will also be able to leave the play area, but in less than 2 seconds, but will still fall the same amount of time.
**Usually going up long distances (thought white empty space) you wish to do it fast, so upwards distances may be given in number of quick repeating pushed on the up arrow that is needed, but always also in the time it takes, as this often makes more sense, as you move different speed with different repetition speed.
**For smaller distances, especially when you can see anything to gauge you speed, you can use number of perfect jumps as an indicator of height.
Some time will be used to investigate the secret passages, and other dark spaces; especially the lava lake, but also the cotton passage and the hole in the monument.
*It will be easy to navigate past these tedious descriptions since the entire transcript is split into many sections, and these dark parts will have under sections, that you can thus skip from the end of the section above.
*But if you did not have a map, this was the only way to make sure you did not lose a coin in some hidden cave.
**The lava lake is the only place where such a hidden lair exists. As the other dark passages either takes you nowhere or somewhere you can get to without going through these secret passages. But without the lava lake you will be four coins short.
This transcript takes up about 63 pages in a word file (the code) more than 41.000 words (213k characters with space). This thus transcends even the [[980: Money/Transcript]] with more than 10 pages.

==Play area==
There are 17 coins in this section (no. 1-17), but they will not be taken until [[#Game start|Game start]] below.
:[This is the starting point. The first part of this transcript is the same as on the front page, but it is included for completeness:]

===The beginning===
:[Cueball is shown on a hoverboard in the center of the comic. Around him is a simple maze with 12 yellow coins. Another Cueball without hoverboard is shown standing on one of the platforms to the right. The bottom half of the window is black. Right of where Cueball stands is a ramp. Behind the ramp is a terminal. There is lots of space left of the maze, outside the maze. Text is only written in white below in the black area. The first part of the text is written below Cueball on hoverboard. Then there is an arrow pointing to the terminal and a label. Finally there is a line of text at the bottom of the black area.]

:[Under Cueball:]
::My new book,
::''Thing Explainer,''
::comes out today!
::To celebrate, here's
::a small game.

:[Under the arrow below the terminal.]
::Deposit
::coins here

:[At the bottom:]
::Use the arrow keys to move
:[This text disappears the first time you uses an arrow key, as you will below:]

====Investigating the maze====
:[When you begin the game by using the arrows you start to move the hoverboard Cueball around – he will from now on be “you”. You soon discover that there are five more gold coins in the maze and that it is higher. You also find out that you can deliver coins at the terminal. When you do the coins you have taken reappear, and the number of coins you have taken and the time will appear beneath you. Moving around in the maze you find that there is a spot on the right wall above the other Cueball from where you can see the entire maze. From here you describe what you see.]

:[To begin with you stood in the lower left corner of the maze on the floor, next to the left wall. Above you there is a coin. Above the coin is a ceiling. To the left of the coin is an opening out of the maze. To the right a wall going down, this makes this a kind of small shaft. To the right from the floor is a ramp going up. At the top is a coin. The ramp rests on a box on the floor. Behind the ramp and the box is the terminal where you deposit the coins. On the other side of the terminal is another box on top of which is a coin. Behind the box on the floor next to the right wall is a coin. The wall is thick here, but it ends a small jump above the floor. There is a hole in the wall to the right here, but although you could stand on this wall where the hole is, you cannot get out, as there is a small part of the wall (normal thickness), that goes a little further, and makes the hole to slim for you. Above this hole is the thick slab hanging in the air on which the other Cueball stands. There is a coin to his right and to the right of this yet another opening to the right of the maze. But once again this is too small (low) for you to pass through as the right wall continues up here. To the left of Cueball and a little down there is a line with a little higher edge to the left. The shelf is beneath another longer line going from above Cueball and to just above this little edge to the left. On the shelf lie three coins. There is a “soft” spot in the line above these three coins where you can jump through. This takes you up to either left or right part of the line, which is solid enough. There are two coins to the right and one to the left. To the left of this the wall creating the shaft above where you start reaches up to this height. Here is another shaft, along the left wall going down. There is a coin over this opening. The floor of this shaft is the ceiling above where you started. There is a hole in the maze to the left here as well. Above the coin is another thicker slab where you can stand. The wall to the left is only solid at the level of the coin beneath this slab. You can also jump out the maze to the left above the coin, beneath the slab. On top of this slab there is a coin. There is no wall on the left of this slab, so also here you can exit the maze (the forth exit to the left). To the right of you there are two curved lines forming brackets turned the wrong way like this:“) (“. The brackets are in the middle of the maze their center above the soft spot in the floor of the line beneath them. In the very middle of these two brackets there is a coin. There is also a coin above the top of each bracket. Just above these coins is the ceiling of the maze. Just left and right of the left and right coin there are two openings in the ceiling, from which you can exit the maze. To the right of the brackets is the right wall. Above the slab that Cueball is standing there is a triangular structure jutting out from the wall. Just beneath it is yet another hole in the maze wall to the right, but for the third time it is too small to get out. It is possible to stand on the wall just beneath this, which is what you are doing now, to see the entire maze in one go. Only thing is that to get here you had to take one coin, the one to the right on the line with the hole in the floor. Above this triangular item the wall continues a little while but then there is the first and only hole in the right wall big enough for you to use as an exit to the right. Just beneath this hole, above the triangle is the last coin.]

====Investigating the functionality====
:[When you start returning to the terminal to deposit coins, the ones you have found will be counted (and returned to their starting positions) and the time will be given. The message will be written in yellow at the bottom of the screen (in the black part). Below the score/time there will be an extra line with smaller text indicating a rating of your result. This rating is only based on the number of coins not the time it took. The text stays at the bottom of the screen for 3 seconds. If you move around while the yellow text is still there it will stay at the bottom of the screen. It can thus be moved into an entirely white area before it disappears.]

:[Below is a table with examples of what may be written depending on the number of coins. The time (and the amount when there is a range with similar rating) is just chosen at random (although in a realistic range). To get above 17 you of course have to leave the play area and come back again... Links to images from the number of coins. Times are realistic!]
::{| class="wikitable"
!# coins
!Text when depositing this number of coins
"X" is the number of coins collected
|-
|[[1608: Hoverboard/Screen-shots#0 coins|0 coins]]
|style="background-color:black;"| <font color="yellow">'''You got 0 coins in 1 second'''<br>You successfully avoided all the coins.</font>
|-
|[[1608: Hoverboard/Screen-shots#1 coin|1 coin]]
|style="background-color:black;"| <font color="yellow">'''You got a single coin in 1 second'''<br>It's a start.</font>
|-
|[[1608: Hoverboard/Screen-shots#2-4 coins|2-4 coins]]
|style="background-color:black;"| <font color="yellow">'''You got X coins in 3 seconds'''<br>Not bad!</font>
|-
|[[1608: Hoverboard/Screen-shots#5-9 coins|5-9 coins]]
|style="background-color:black;"| <font color="yellow">'''You got X coins in 12 seconds'''<br>Terrific!</font>
|-
|[[1608: Hoverboard/Screen-shots#10-16 coins|10-16 coins]]
|style="background-color:black;"| <font color="yellow">'''You got X coins in 10 seconds'''</font>
|-
|[[1608: Hoverboard/Screen-shots#17 coins|17 coins]]
|style="background-color:black;"| <font color="yellow">'''You got 17 coins in 15 seconds'''<br>You found all the coins! Great job!</font>
|-
|[[1608: Hoverboard/Screen-shots#18 coins|18-41 coins]]
|style="background-color:black;"| <font color="yellow">'''You got X coins in 430 seconds'''</font>
|-
|[[1608: Hoverboard/Screen-shots#42 coins|42 coins]]
|style="background-color:black;"| <font color="yellow">'''You got 42 coins in 460 seconds'''<br>No answers here.</font>
|-
|[[1608: Hoverboard/Screen-shots#More than 42 coins|43-168 coins]]
|style="background-color:black;"| <font color="yellow">'''You got X coins in 460 seconds'''</font>
|-
|[[1608: Hoverboard/Screen-shots#All 169 coins|All 169 coins]]
|style="background-color:black;"| <font color="yellow">'''You got 169 coins in 1457 seconds'''<br>Are you Gandalf?</font>
|}
:[The messages with more than 17 coins of course cannot be found before exiting and returning with coins from the outside. Notice that in Microsoft Explorer those without any extra message would display a message anyway: ''Undefined'']

:[Once you decide to leave the play area you have many options. Although there are 4 holes in the outer walls on each side and two on top, only 7 of these can be used to exit the maze. All four holes can be used as exits to the left. To the right the three lowest holes are not big enough to pass through, but the one at the top is the biggest of all 10 holes in the outer walls. The two last holes are in the roof, centered symmetrically between the middle and the outer edges.]

:[Once outside you find that the surroundings left and right are symmetrical. Two high walls rise above the top of the initial plat form games areas upper limit. On the other side of these walls you can see a flat surface, one jump height above the play area. Only difference between left and right inside the play area, is that there lies a rock to the left. Standing in the middle between walls and play area you can still see both. The walls cannot be seen from inside the play area, and when at the walls this of course also goes the other way so you cannot see the play area from here. However for the program the play area is anything within and below the walls. More precisely you first leave the play area if you pass over the middle part at the top of the walls, or if you make one jump from standing on top of the walls. You can go higher by almost a full jump (by jumping in the air right below the top) without leaving the area. From the ground it will take you six perfect jumps to reach the limit. Once you leave the area you get a flashing warning message in red letters at the bottom of the screen:]
::{| class="wikitable"
|style="background-color:black;"| <font color="red">'''Return to the play area'''</font>
|}

:[This message flashes three times over 1.2 seconds (the message only disappears for about 150 ms each time), then there is a pause for about 1.3 seconds and then this repeats for a total of 5 repetitions, a total of 15 flashes in just about 11.3 second seconds. The message will stop immediately if you re-enter the play area during this period. If you re-enter later it will flash once you leave again.]

:[There is nothing in the air above the play area, and from the center there is also nothing to see. But if you jump straight up from the top of the right wall (pushing the up arrow about 80-100 times) you will ascend right in front of the Star Destroyer. Which you of course is not aware of at this time.]

:[Peaking outside like this you realize there may be more to the game, and you will not be stopped by the red message. You thus decide to go back to the terminal to begin your exploration by taking the coins as fast as you can before moving outside.]

===Game start===
Here you get 17 coins coin no. 1-17.
:[Finally you are ready to begin the game standing at the terminal where you have just reset the timer and the score!]

:[You start by jumping left taking the coin ('''#1''') over the ramp, then you jump up and out the maze through the lower left exit getting a coin ('''#2'''), re-entering above and going up inside this shaft for a coin ('''#3'''), you go right to take the coin ('''#4''') under the left bracket, then going up left you take the coin ('''#5''') over the slab to the left, jumping up you take the coin ('''#6''') over the left bracket, let yourself fall in between to take the coin ('''#7''') between them and jump right up and right to take the coin ('''#8''') on the top of the right bracket. Falling down left you grab the coin ('''#9'''), continuing down the slope to the left to grab coin ('''#10''') and further left coin ('''#11'''). Dropping through the soft spot pushing further left you fall on the coin ('''#12''') to the left on this shelf then you move right taking the middle coin ('''#13''') and moving towards Cueball the right coin ('''#14'''), jumping up to Cueball you grab the coin ('''#15''') behind him, quickly drop down left again, going right, getting first the coin ('''#16''') on the box, then the coin ('''#17''') to the right at the wall, and quickly go back to the terminal in just 10s… Well this was not the plan so you do it once more, and remember to go out through the hole to the right and prepare to leave the play area with the red warning message blinking beneath you.]

==Going right into the Star Wars territory ==
In this main section you will find 131 coins, no. 18-148. There are no new coins until you reach the section [[#The Rebel Blockade Runner|The Rebel Blockade Runner]].
:[Once you leave the play area to the right over the wall you fall down to the fundament of the wall. This is a completely horizontal surface that stretches across the screen. But as soon as you move away from the wall you see the end of it. When the fundament ends there is drop of about one jump height and suddenly you are standing on an uneven ground with grass and small plants.]

:[Leaving the fundament behind the first you encounter is one more Cueball like the one in the play area. After him you reach two trees, the first taller than the second and around them eight small trees. You can pass under them, but only just for the small tree; because if you jump, you can also “climb” them, by landing in the treetops. This means you cannot pass through them above ground. You can stand on three branches on each tree; only the top branch on the tallest tree won’t hold you. You cannot stand on the smaller trees.]

:[After the last small tree you see Cueball standing with Megan. When you get close you see that they are standing at the edge of a cliff (about 1 seconds fall deep). They are looking upwards to the right and Megan points in the direction they are looking. It has taken about 40s in total to get here.]
::Megan: Wow.

:[If you follow her direction, starting with overlapping her on screen, and then keeping the right arrow down while pushing the up arrow fast repeatedly (about 100 times in about 18-19 seconds) you will just pass over the smaller of the two space ships – the Rebel Blockade Runner (without seeing it) and then hit the Star Destroyers bottom. Going a little back from where you hit it you will arrive at an entrance below that will take you to a room with a coin in front of some rubble that looks like a cave-in. This will be mentioned again later during the exploration of the Star Destroyer, just noting here where you would arrive. If you just let yourself fall back down again towards the left you would hit the Rebel Blockade Runner after 6 s. There are 3 more seconds to fall to the ground from the top of the Runner. If you went straight up from the Cliff top to the Star Destroyers bottom, (which is also going all the way there), it would take 8.6 s to fall back down to the cliff. This could indicate that Megan is actually pointing at the runner, as it's front is in the direction she is pointing, whereas the Destroyer even goes over their heads, with its tip just outside the wall of the play area.]

:[If you instead run over the edge of the cliff before starting to press the up arrow while keeping down the right arrow, then after about 30 repetitions and less than 6 seconds later the Rebel Blockade Runner will just show up in the lower right corner, and this thus starts the exploration of this, the smaller spaceship:]

===The Rebel Blockade Runner===
There are 3 coins on the Runner, no. 18-20.
:[Once you, in this way, notice the Runner, which is also known as a CR90 Corvette and if it is Princess Leia’s it is called Tantive IV, you will land on the front end of the space ship, just over the command bridge. On top of this there is a hatch open, allowing you to go inside. On the other side of the open hatch door is a Cueball looking down along the ship to the right. Once you enter the hatch you will be able to see the entire front of the space ship, and can thus see that this section of the ship is completely circular, and then connected to the rest of the ship to the right.]

:[The first room at the front is the command bridge. At the bridge is a woman with long black hair. She is not quite looking as a typical Megan. Maybe it is Danish - then it would be deliberately that she tries to annoy the woman she is talking too, who is standing behind her. It is Hairbun (or Princess Leia with her typical hairdo, with a bun on each side of her head.) The woman is lifting her hands in fists. Three small lines indicate that she is annoyed.]
::Long haired woman: Captain's log, stardate November 24th, 2015...
::Hairbun: ''Augh!'' No!

:[From the bridge the room below can be fully seen. It is a smaller room with Ponytail and Megan. Ponytail is holding a light saber above which floats a small sphere (the Jedi training device from a similar scene in the original Star Wars movie where Luke Skywalker practices while Ben Kenobi watches and Han Solo comments). Megan holds some kind of canon/gun and she stands in front of a black box with white text. Here is the first coin ('''#18''') discovered on this route outside the play area. So you have to go down there even though you can see it all from the bridge.]
::Megan: Good against remotes is one thing, but a ''true'' Jedi trains with a T-shirt cannon.
::Box: Shirts

:[When moving down through the central corridor of the space ship a small robot on wheels drive towards left. Then you reach a place where the corridor splits up with shaft up and down. If you pass the first shaft and stop under the next you can also see one more going down, and can see three persons:]

:[Just past the shaft going up is Ponytail walking to the right in the corridor while singing as indicated with two drawings of musical notes.]

:[Down the first shaft is Cueball, standing at a ledge with a fishing rod. He lowers the line down below the ship. When you go down to him you can see that two birds are circling the line, but above the hook. You have to fall down to see that there is something attached to the hook that floats about a 1 second drop below the ledge. It looks like a cracker, so maybe he does try to catch the birds. (To see this clearly you can float up right under the ledge and get stuck to the wall below this by pressing the right arrow down. This can keep you in place.) Below the ledge to the right is a canon jutting out beneath the space ship. Two wires stretching down below are attached to this canon with “normal” ship anchors. Where these wires come from will be discovered on the return trip from the far right edge.]

:[The shaft going up ends in a small room where a Cueball is pouring several small objects from a bucket into a black box. Above the box is a canon outside the ship (similar to the one below). It is not possible to see the tip of the canon when standing in the corridor. But if you jump you can see that there is a coin at the tip of the canon (this will be counted when taking it). It is not possible to get up to Cueball, the shaft is to slim. However, if you position yourself carefully right under the shaft you can enter the lowest part, so your hoverboard is all the way in. Then you can see the entire canon from inside. There is white text on the box:]
::Box: Bullets

:[Going down the second shat after Ponytail, you enter a new corridor going parallel with the one above to the right. From here you see a third anchor and wire attached to the bottom of the hull outside.]

:[Continuing along this shaft you enter a big room in the main of the ship. Moving to the center of this you can see the entire room. It is a dead end. Three guys are talking together. The first is Hairy the other two are Cueballs.]
:::First Cueball: The Death Star plans are ''not'' in the main computer.
::Second Cueball: Darn.
::Second Cueball: See, if we had found them in the main computer, that would be good news, since it would mean no one else had them.
::Second Cueball: But since we didn’t find them, we need to keep searching for anyone with a copy.
::Second Cueball: That all makes sense and I ''definitely'' understand how computers work.

:[Walking back up to the corridor with Ponytail and then continuing to the right you get to a broader end of the corridor where a hole seems to have been torn in the upper hull of the space ship. It has ragged edges. You can move to the top of the ship through it. Two Cueballs are standing there. The first one is looking into the hole. (You can see the text in the room below with the computer expert, but not the people).]
::First Cueball: So you just came down and made a hole in our ship without permission?
::Second Cueball: Yup
::First Cueball: Wow, Rude.

:[Moving back to the left you pick up the coin ('''#19''') at the tip of the canon. You can stand on top of the canon housing, but not on the actual canon.]

:[Going back to the right past the hole you find a huge parabolic antenna and to right of that two Cueballs looking up towards the Star Destroyer.]
::First Cueball: That thing is ''huge. Imperial''-class?
::Second Cueball: Yeah. Maybe a MK-1. Depends on whether this is the expanded universe or not.

:[Past them we find Ponytail with an arrow on her bow and Cueball who has just shoot an arrow from his bow. They are aiming at the Star Destroyer (which is much much higher up, than a bow can reach). This aggression is a response to the torpedoes crashing down on their ship from up above. One torpedo has just exploded in a large cloud making a dent in the hull, and another one is just hitting the hull of the space ship (presumably exploding in the next instant). Many more rains down from above. Standing just right of the explosion you can see four more in the air to the right.]
::Cueballs bow: Twang
::Torpedo: Boom

:[From here it is obvious to follow the torpedoes up to the Star Destroyer but first we will finish exploring the Runner. Moving up on top of the torpedo just hitting the hull we find two Cueballs to the right of this. The first is looking up and right towards the direction from where the torpedoes are coming. The other is looking at him. Apart from the two torpedoes that has already hit the hull there are now five (vs four before) other torpedoes visible (7 in all). These are the only ones visible when standing still on the hull. Five more can be seen with one jump.]
::First Cueball: Why are they still firing?
::Second Cueball: Oh, the turret operators pretty much do their own thing.
::Second Cueball: It's definitely a pain sometimes.

:[Further to the right you reach the end of the ship where Megan is holding on to Cueball who again is holding a long stick with a huge marshmallow out over the end. Maybe he is trying to roast it on the exhaust from the space ship.]

:[What may be three exhaust pipes are indicated at the back of the ship by two indentations, compared to the part furthest out. You can stand on these two ledges. Beneath the last of these, in front of the third “exhaust” is a coin ('''#20''').]

:[Below at the end of the spaceship there is something looking like a rudder from a normal ship. Going under the ship you find no further coins. There is a similar parabolic antenna mid ship below the computer wizard. You can fly all the way around the space ship in less than half a minute. (28 s). From the rear end of the space ship there is a 3.3 s drop down into the sea below where you can disappear beneath the surface. It takes about 6.3 s to get up again. After this, there is nothing more to do than follow the torpedoes up to the Star Destroyer. It takes about 3m to explorer the Runner.]

===The torpedo rain===
There are 2 coins going up the rain, no. 21-22.
:[The two torpedoes that hit the Runner you can walk through. These two will not be counted in when counting up from the Runner towards the Destroyer. Because all the other torpedoes you can stand on (and not fly through) so they are different.]

:[The torpedoes comes in showers. The first five (1-5) closest to the Runner are the ones that could be seen by standing on the hull. The next five (9-10) that you could see with one jump from the hull, are all five almost at the same height and real close together. The next five (11-15) are almost right above the second group of five. On top of the middle one of these (the second highest) is a coin, in the same height as the highest of these. So after 15 torpedoes there is a coin ('''#21''').]

:[Above these you need to go further to the right. Standing on the lowest of these you can only see four new torpedoes (16-19). Straight above the two last is a little more than a full jump to two more (20-21). From there it is quite a distance to the right to the next one a little jump higher. There is one more right above but a little left (22-23).]

:[Above this there are two more torpedoes close together (24-25) and on this, the 25th torpedo, we find Beret Guy sitting astride the torpedo holding on to it like it was a horse, a clear reference to the movie Dr. Strange love. He is shouting:]
::Beret Guy: Horsey!

:[Jumping to stand on the next torpedo (26) to the right you can no longer see any of the previous torpedoes. But three more can be seen above (27-29). And three more are above these (30-32). Above these are four (33-36) in the same height (still further and further to the left on average). There are three more (37-39) straight over the last of these. But the next large group of torpedoes are all lower than the highest of those. If you stand on the torpedo in the middle of this group, you can just see all 11 of these (40-50), and not those from before. There are five below and to the left of your torpedo and five to the right and slightly higher.]

:[Further right and a little up is one more torpedo (51) and then right behind this there are two torpedoes (52-53) that are crashing into each other. You can still stand on both of them, but not where the explosion goes:]
::Torpedoes: Boom

:[Above the explosion are four (54-57) more torpedoes in a group. The next group is stretched out, but if you stand on one of the last to the right, but in the middle height wise, you can see them all 11 (58-68). Six below to the left, then the one you are standing on and four above, not far left of right. Above these to the left are three more (69-71), followed by five (72-76) more almost in a straight line just slightly higher but somewhat further right.]

:[These are followed by a group of three (77-79) to the right, but slightly lower. Above and between the first two is a coin ('''#22'''). Four more (80-83) follows up and right. Then a stretched out group of seven torpedoes (84-90) follows ,mainly up and somewhat further right. Standing on the middle one (three on each side) you can only see these seven. This is the last one before you will see the bottom of the Star Destroyer.]

:[When reaching the next group of torpedoes more than one jump height higher, you are not likely to reach this without seeing the bottom hull of the Star Destroyer. However, when standing on the first torpedo you cannot see it. But just a little above and you will. It is possible to land on this without the hull entering in to the top part of the image. But without trying to avoid this it is unlikely. So now you know from where the torpedo’s emerges. Already from the next torpedo you cannot avoid seeing the hull. The group of torpedoes can all be seen if standing on one of the two in the center of the group. There are ten (91-100), four on each side of the two in the middle right on top of each other.]

:[At the end of the torpedo stream we see the last two (101-102) that have just emerged from a cannon beneath the Star Destroyer. There is of course no way you will know for sure that it is such a ship. But if you have realized that it is the Rebel Blockade Runner below you might have a good idea.]

:[Inside the Star Destroyer behind the canon Megan has turned away from it and speaks to Cueball. Behind them is a coin. But since you cannot enter the room from here, this will first be counted later. At that point this section of the Destroyer will be transcribed again, but here is what she says:]
::Megan: We have no photon torpedoes, so I'm firing regular ones

:[In total, about 102 torpedoes are still in the air (counting the two exploding in the air, but not the one hitting and the one exploding on the space ship below); so 104 torpedoes have been fired from the canon. It takes about 50s to get up this way.]

===The Star Destroyer===
There are 104 coins connected in some way to the Star Destroyer, no. 23-126. Several of these are on the outside, above, below or at the rear, and one of them quite a distance below, but clearly a part of the Destroyer experience.
:[After reaching the Star Destroyer via the torpedo rain (in less than 5 minutes), it may seem obvious to enter the first entrance to the Destroyer you can find by going left or right from here (especially since you can see a coin in the room you just found, but could not enter). If you continue right (for 8s) you get to an entrance, where you come around a section protruding and then at the top of the small room you enter there is a coin. Going left instead you find an entrance (after about 9s) where Cueball is leaning over the ledge he is standing on and a guy with flat black hair is standing behind him. Both are wearing backpacks, which probably should resemble parachutes. So they look like they are about to jump. In the description below of the Star Destroyer you will begin the exploration at the front of the ship and move back as systematically as possible. And thus the coin will not be counted now, and the two places will be mentioned in the transcript later. There are three more entrances after this before you reach the front of the Destroyer (it will take about 49s from the torpedo canon, 40 of these from the first possible entrance). You will pass a single coin underneath the hull on the way. But the top and bottom of the ship will be investigated during the trip down the ship from left to right, bow to stern. So also this coin will be counted later.]

:[If you go straight up from the right wall in the play area you will arrive right in front of the Star Destroyer where there are two entrances. It takes about 100 fast clicks and 20 seconds to get to the top (you can see the ship after 17s will be able to land on the first ledge after 18s). The other way down, if you step off the Star Destroyers front end, you will land on the edge of the wall (outside the play area, where the red message would have flashed). It takes exactly 9s to fall this distance. From here our exploration of the Destroyer will begin.]

====The front end of the Star Destroyer====
There are 17 coins in this section of the Star Destroyer Star Destroyer, no. 23-39.
:[Starting at the very top of the front there is a coin ('''#23'''). The front end protrudes a little over the entrance to the ship right below. You go in through this corridor and on your way to the first room (3.6s) you pass over a shaft which is going down.]

:[The corridor ends in a dead end with a rather big room. Entering the room you have to step up on the edge of a ball pit that is filled with playpen balls. When you move into it, you disappear below the ball so only your head protrudes. A jump will almost take you all the way to the ceiling. In the pen you see Cueball throwing playpen balls into the air. Six balls are in the air, two of them with lines indicating their movement. Further right is the head of Megan and there is also a fish that jumps out of the pit to the right.]

:[Going back you go down the shaft you passed before (1.1s). At the bottom is a coin ('''#24'''). Right above the bottom there is a corridor to the right. But you first go back left (2.3s). This will take you to the front of the ship to a ledge just above the bottom of the hull. A Cueball is standing here looking out. Going up (1.5s) from there you will get to the entrance you first used to go into the ship. So you move back right to go down the corridor to the right that began right above the last coin.]

:[Going down this corridor you pass a shaft going up (6.5s) and one going down (10s) before you reach a room with a swimming pool (11s). The pool is rather deep and you can go into the black water. When standing still on the bottom a single jump will not take you above the surface. Only a fifth out into the water is there a higher level of the floor. A jump from here will take your head up above the surface, at least where the waves are low. Ponytail is jumping into the water from the ledge where you enter. Cueball is threading water a third out in the pool and Megan is swimming with only her head showing close to the middle. At the top right corner of the room is a coin ('''#25'''). From the bottom of the pool you can see there is a coin under the hull of the ship, in an indentation compared to the rest of the hull. You will have to go and get that later.]

:[Going back to the shaft you drop out of the bottom if the ship in just 1s. You wait with going after the coin to the right later and move back up. Moving to the right you go up the shaft you passed before (less than 1s).]

:[To the left is a large dead-end room with four persons. There are two Cueballs. The one to the right is pointing at a Piñata shaped like a horse. Behind him stands Megan and Hairy. Hairy has his hand on Megan’s shoulder and he holds a stick to hit the Piñata with. On the other side of the Piñata to the left stands another Cueball with a light saber in front of him pointing it a little down. He speaks.]
::Cueball: No, I got this.

:[Moving out of the room to the right down the corridor you pass two shafts going up. When passing the first (3s) you collect a coin ('''#26''') and after two thirds of the distance between the two shafts there is one more coin (9s) in the corridor ('''#27'''), and you pass the 2nd shaft after 11s. Then you reach a shaft going down (15s). A hairy guy is looking down this shaft. You decide to go down this way. After 1.5s you would drop out the bottom of the ship. But already after less than 1s you reach a corridor to the left. Going in there you find a coin ('''#28''') in front of what looks like rubles at the end of a mine shaft that has caved in.]

:[Now you decide to move under the ship to pick up the coin you saw in the pool. So you go down and left. After 7s you get the coin ('''#29''') as you have seen it in a small indentation on the hull. You continue along the bottom passing an entrance more after 4 s, but this was the one you fell out of last time. So you continue to the front of the ship but find nothing more interesting except that the ship’s hull bulges out a little in a shorter section. There were no more coins here. You decide to move to the top of the ship to see if there is anything hidden there. (This took 25s).]

:[Moving right on the top you see that in general the ship becomes higher (thicker). There is also a protrusion here, almost on top of the one below. After 10s you pass the shaft going down that you had seen from inside. After 14s there is coin ('''#30''') where the hull increases in a small step and after 18s you reach the other shaft going down. There is also a coin ('''#31''') on the left edge of this shaft. You go down this shat (1s) and also go back and check the other shaft (also 1s deep). There is nothing more here. So you go back to the shaft where you fell out of the ship.]

:[From there the corridor goes straight for a long time. First after 10s do you reach a shaft going down, and right after this is a dead-end square room with 3 coins ('''#32'''), ('''#33''') and ('''#34'''), one in each of the three corners away from the entrance.]

:[Falling down the shaft outside (1.3s), you end up in a corridor going right. After 6s you pass a shaft going down and then right after one going up. After 8s you reach a longer room. At the entrance is a Cueball who holds up his hand, palm facing you. When you stand in front of him you cannot see the end of the room. He speaks to you:]
::Cueball: You shall not not pass!

:[You thus do as you are told and pass and inside the room you find a coin ('''#35''') in the far corner. The room is long enough that you cannot see the guardian when you take the coin.]

:[Going back you first drop into the shaft going down (1s). You end up on a thin ledge over the bottom of the ship. From here you move back along the ships bottom, to make sure you did not miss any coins. You do not find anything interesting before you reach the entrance (15s) you fell through the last time you went out (the one with the man looking down). So you go back and take the shaft going up.]

:[After 1s you pass a corridor to the right, but continue up to the top (3.3s). Here you hit a ledge sticking out over the exit. But you can exit to the left. Above this ledge there is a coin ('''#36'''). To make sure you have not missed anything on the roof you go back left to the last entry on the roof. After 4.5s you find 3 coins in a row ('''#37'''), ('''#38''') and ('''#39'''). But then there is nothing before you reach the entrance (18s) you went down through last time you went up on the roof. This ends the front part of the Destroyer.]

====The rotary in the Star Destroyer====
There are 16 coins in this section of the Star Destroyer, no. 40-55.
:[Going back over the roof you go into the ship at the same entrance where you came up. And then take the corridor to the right (2s down). 1.7s down the corridor is a shaft up (1.6s) to a rectangular dead-end room. There are coins ('''#40''') and ('''#41''') on the floor on each side of the shaft coming up in the middle. Dropping down again (1.1s) you move further right reaching a shaft down after 3.3s. On the other side is a coin ('''#42'''). Going back now you would get a special rating (see under [[#Investigating the functionality|play area]]). But if you wish to do so, then do not go down this shaft, as there is a coin ('''#43''') halfway down before you reach (1.3s) a corridor at the bottom of the ship. This goes left and comes out on a thin ledge with an opening in the bottom where Cueball is leaning over the ledge and a guy with flat black hair is standing behind him. Both are wearing backpacks, which probably should resemble parachutes. So they look like they are about to jump. You do jump to follow the bottom of the ship back left to the previous entry (4s). There are no new coins or any interesting stuff. So you return the same way.]

:[Going back up the shaft behind the exit (2s) you then continue down the corridor to the right. After 5.5s you reach a steep rise. On the way you could see some rooms above you. At the bottom of this is a coin ('''#44'''). The rise (1.5s) takes you to a kind of round-about with four exits. In the center of the round-about, there is a room that you can enter just above the entrance where you arrived. Inside there is a kid with flat black hair, a potted plant, growing higher than him and behind them a coin ('''#45'''). The room is a full jump high. When you stand at the coin and jump you will during this jump see that the round-about do form a complete circle around this square dead-end room. There are two exits down and two up. The one you came in from is almost straight down and left. The next one above it, is similarly almost straight up and left. The 3rd when moving clockwise round is mainly going right, but rising steadily, and the fourth and last is almost going straight down, but a little to the right. You will go through them clockwise.]

:[Going up the upper left exit you reach a corridor going left in 2.5s. A Cueball is standing on the downslope trying to keep his balance.]
::Cueball: Ugh, rotaries.
:[Typically the term rotary is used for large scale circular junctions between expressways or controlled-access highways, so this makes sense.]

:[Moving down the corridor you pass a shaft (2s) going up with a coin ('''#46''') just inside, you grab this and go to the end of the corridor (3s in total). Here is a shaft going up and down. Going up (0.5s) you reach a quite large dead-end room, which is completely empty. Going back down (1.5s) takes you to a new corridor going left and right.]

:[Going left for 2s you stand next to Megan who talks to Cueball while they walk towards the end of this dead-end room, where a coin ('''#47''') is situated on top of a box with an inclined top. You can stand on top of the box. There is a white lid on top. On the box is white text:]
::Box: Ice cream
::Megan: Prediction: Seconds before you die, you will remember these words.

:[Going back right past the shaft you came down through you reach a smaller room with a raised plateau in the center. On top of this stand a family of four. First there is a short kid with lots of black hair. Then what at first looks like a girl, but turns out to be a woman, with a hairdo not typically seen in xkcd, blonde but short hair, with a little wisp sticking out front. She seems to wear a miniskirt. Then a taller person, could have been a man but it also turns out that this is a woman, with a square black afro-like hair-do and big glasses. Behind her is a woman with very long and big blond hair. The afro haired woman holds up her left hand and above it floats a coin ('''#48'''). This can be recognized as the family from the Steven Universe tv-series. The boy being Steven. The first woman with least hair is Pearl. The high afro woman in the middle Garnet and. The woman with big blond hair is Amethyst. The three woman are what is called crystal gems and are aliens. Steven is half alien. See later when Darth Vader him self references them.]

:[Going back up the shaft to the left (1.5s) you then move up the shaft where there where a coin in the entrance when you first pass it. (1.7s). This takes you up to the top of the ship. You move down to the previous entrance (8s) but find noting interesting here. So you go back and down again (1.4s) and back to the round-about (2.8s).]

:[Moving out of the third exit that only rises a little before turning into a corridor going straight right. At the start of the straight corridor Cueball is racing along the corridor on a bike. You pass a shaft going down (4s) and then enter a large dead-end room after 5.5s. The room is the largest rectangular room in the ship. It is 3.5s long and 3 full jumps high (giving a 1s drop from the top). Once you enter you see Megan on a skate board inside a hamster ball. She is driving up the side near you while the ball is obviously rolling toward you to the left. Going past Megan you see two long lines going up. At the very top of the screen you just see a coin ('''#49'''). Jumping up to take it (at least two jump) you find out the lines are two very tall stilts and on top of these stands a Cueball like guy (although maybe he has a little black hair). It is possible to stand still on the right wall so you can view the scene without falling/jumping. There is nothing else in the room. Both are speaking:]
::Megan: ''AaaaAaaa''
:: Guy: I can't leave.

:[Going back to the round-about (waiting with the shaft going down) you go down the last exit down right. It almost immediately turns to go straight down and on you way down you pass a T shaped Tetris piece with the short part pointing right. It is shown that it is falling with three move lines above it. You reach a corridor going right in 1.7s. You can see a shaft going down just a little further right.]

:[Going down this shaft (0.8s) you reach the small room above the canon that fired all the torpedoes from the torpedo rain. The canon protrudes below the ship and you can see two torpedoes outside. Behind the inner part of the canon (where you can stand on top) is Megan who has turned away from it and speaks to Cueball. Behind them is a coin ('''#50''').]
::Megan: We have no photon torpedoes, so I'm firing regular ones

:[Going back up (0.8s) you continue down the corridor to the right past a small robot on wheels that moves to the left. It looks like it is made of two identical small robots (both with wheels) on top of each other – each one looking much like the one in the Runner. When you reach the end of this corridor (3.8s) you enter a shaft going up and down. There is a coin ('''#51''') just before the shaft.]

:[Going down (0.5s) takes you to a corridor going right and 2s down this corridor, is a small room with a coin ('''#52''') under the ceiling. Further down the corridor continues for 1s and then you fall out of the bottom of the ship. Going back along the bottom of the hull you pass the torpedo canon after 8s and then reach the entrance with the guys in parachutes in 17s. There were no coins, but you did see at least 10 more torpedoes (12 in all) while going there.]

:[Going back again and to the shaft going up you move all the way up this shaft. After 1.7s you pass a corridor going right. After 3.6s you reach a corridor going right and left. You soon realize that you have been here before as the hamsterbal/stilt room is right and the round-about is left. You go back down again (2s) and enter the corridor to the right.]

:[After 2s you enter a dome shaped room in which sits a large octopus. It has a large head and it is possible to see the ending of four arms on each sides. The arms twist together. There are two coins ('''#53''') and ('''#54'''), one on each side of the monster, on top of the arms that reaches farthest out. You can stand on the octopus. The corridor continues out of this room to the right.]

:[Moving to the right you pass a shaft going up (3.8s) and then enter a rectangular dead-end room with a ceiling that are bulging somewhat down. In the middle of the room is a black box with two horns poking up from each side pointing towards each other. You can stand on the box but walk through the horns. Between the horns there is a coin ('''#55''').]

:[Going back to the shaft going up you go up passing a corridor going right (3.2s) before reaching the top of the ship (5s). You go back to the last entrance (15s) the one close to the round-about, but find nothing except a smaller step down right after you began this trip (1.8s). So you go back up to go down the shaft again (1s) to enter the corridor to the right. This ends the rotary section of the Destroyer.]

====The cotton trap in the Star Destroyer====
There are 25 coins in this section of the Star Destroyer, no. 56-80.
:[This is one of the longest corridors without any other paths to take. After 10s you find a coin ('''#56''') and after 19 you reach a shaft going up. The corridor ends in a dead end after 20.5s. Going back and up the shaft you reach a corridor going left and right in 2s.]

:[Going left (2.5s) you end up at a car in a dead-end room. On its hood lays a relaxed Cueball. The room is two jumps high. You cannot stand on the car.]

:[Going right from the car room you first pass the shaft down (3.6s) from where you came, then comes another shaft going down (9s), right after this a shaft going up (10s) and just past that (10.5s) Hairbun and Cueball are standing with a coin ('''#57''') in front of Cueball's head. They are looking at a part of the corridor where ceiling and floor move toward each other (up and down respectively) three times. Already at the first truncation the space is too small for you to pass through. On the other side of these three truncations there is yet a coin. This will first be counted when you can take it. Hairbun is talking:]
::Hairbun: Ah, yes. Corridor peristalsis.

:[Wishing to go after this coin you start by going up the shaft right behind the two and end up (1s) in a corridor going left and right. Going right leads to a dead-end square room with a coin ('''#58''') under the ceiling. Going back left you pass first the shaft going down, then another going up (2s) and then you end up (3.5s) in a very small room also with a coin ('''#59''') under the ceiling.]

:[Going back (1.5s) to the shaft leading up (0.8s) to the top of the ship you start going right to look for that coin after the peristalsis. The hull of the ship takes two larger steps up and then after 5s you reach a place where the hulls height increase so much you cannot see the top even with one jump. But there is a corridor going in at the base and you enter a small room with a coin ('''#60''') at the ceiling. Continuing on (for 1.3s and 2.5s) you find two more similar rooms each with a coin ('''#61''') and ('''#62''') at the ceiling. Between the two last room is a shaft going down. Cueball is leaning out on the left side of the shaft looking down.]

:[The shaft leads into a twisted shaft, that while going down first goes left, then right and while turning back left again Ponytail is sliding down with her head first and facing down towards the bottom of this section of the shaft with lines indicating her movement. Here lies a coin ('''#63'''). After the coin the shaft begins to climb up to the left, only to turn down again. On this downwards part of the shaft Cueball is flying down while yelling, also with lines showing his movement. Then the shaft turn right, then straight down, then almost completely right and then it ends up going straight down the last part until you end up in a corridor going left and right. The entire trip took about 7s if you did not pause. Seeing that this small intestine like structure is so close to the peristalsis makes it quite clear that this should look like the ships digestion system…]
::Cueball: Wheee!

:[Going back left you finally (5.2s) find the coin ('''#64''') on the other side of the part of the corridor that was truncated. From here you can see Cueball (but not Hairbun or her text). But you would also from here be able to see the coin that you could not reach if you had come this way first. As on the other side you cannot pass through the first truncation on this side.]

:[Going back right passing under the small intestine you reach a shaft (7.8s) up to a room just above the corridor. Even from the corridor you can see the two coins. One jump will take you inside this rectangular dead-end room which is just above one jump high. At the right end of the room is two protrusions from the wall, that look a like the buffer stops that are at the end of a train track to stop a train (but turned 90 degrees one above the other). In front of each of these are coins ('''#65''') and ('''#66''').]

:[Continuing down the corridor to the right you find (2s) a coin ('''#67''') and then a shaft up after 4.8s. The corridor continues, but since you have left several unexplored parts behind you going after the peristalsis coin, you decide to go up and see if you can make your way back.]

:[Going up the shaft (2.3s) you reach a corridor going right. At the start of this there is a coin ('''#68'''). After 1.6s down this there is another shaft up. The corridor continues but for the same reason as before you go up (1s) first. You end up in a corridor going left. To the right is a dead end with a mining party of two Cueballs. One is hacking away at the end of the tunnel with a pickaxe. The other is moving a cart away with the ruble he gets loose. They are thus in the process of building a new corridor. Above the Cueball with the pickaxe the corridor is somewhat higher than normal. Here is a coin ('''#69''')].

:[Going left (2.5s) takes you to a shaft going up. Going up here you get to the top of the ship again (1.5s). And then begins to move back left. After 3s you reach a step down, at the foot of which is a canon. At the front of the canon there is a coin ('''#70'''). After a total of 9s you reach the edge, where you entered this section at the foot. The ledge is hanging a little out over the wall below. It takes 1.1s to fall down.]

:[You move back down two steps and reaches the entry where you came up after 3.3s. But realizing that you never have moved back over the top from here, you move further down the left. You reach another steep step down (15.5s), and on top is yet a coin ('''#71'''). The drop is 1s and at the bottom is a coin ('''#72'''). Since there was a small ledge over the edge of the wall above, you do not hit the coin but have to go a step back right. It takes 8s more before you reach the entrance that will take you down to the corridor going to the octopus and the box with horns. There were no more coins.]

:[Going back over the top of the ship to the entry you came up from the time before, where there were two rooms with a coin on each side of the shaft takes 20s. Your plan now to investigate what is down the shaft just before the peristalsis. It takes 3.5s to get there.]

:[Dropping all the way the bottom of this shaft you first pass a corridor to the left (1.8s), then one to the right (2.2s) (where you see a coin) and finally (3.5s) you get a coin ('''#73''') sitting inside the shaft before you are all the way down (4s) to a corridor going left and right. Just at the end of the shaft, and visible when you stand in the corridor below, is Ponytail flying up through the shaft with her arms stretched out in front of her. A line below her indicates that she is rising.]

:[Going left you reach a large room (6s) opening up to the bottom of the ship in the entire left side. The floor is only a thin ledge. In the right side of the room where you enter there is a car. A coin ('''#74''') is hanging over the car. You cannot stand on the car. When standing behind the car you cannot see the end of the room or the people in it. But as soon as you take the coin you see text and moving forward you see that Megan is standing at the edge of a ledge over the bottom of the ship looking down while talking to a blonde girl with hair bun.]
::Megan: Is this ship designed to fly in the atmosphere like this?
::Blonde girl with hair bun: Whatever. Who cares it’s probably fine.

:[From here you go back along the bottom of the hull to make sure that there is no coins here. Nothing new is discovered before you reach the previous entrance (16s). This is the one right below the octopus. After that you return to Megan and the blonde girl.]

:[Going back from the car under the shaft you reach (9s) a hole in the corridor floor with sharp spikes at the bottom. The hole is covered with sticks, like a trap. But you can fall into it. You cannot stand on top of the spikes. On the other side stand Cueball and a boy with black hair. Cueball throws some small things on top of the cover while telling the boy something:]
::Cueball: ...And we cover it with leaves so no one sees it.

:[Moving further down the corridor you reach a large room (3s). When you enter the room there is a step down (a Cueballs height). When you have just entered nothing can be seen in this room, and it is so high that you cannot see the ceiling. Moving forward it looks like a dead-end room. A little past the middle Cueball is standing looking at a big machine, it may be a huge spark gap consisting of two “simple-house” shaped electrodes, the bottom pointing its tip up the other pointing down. The two tips point directly at each other with a distance of a Cueballs height between them. You can stand there even though the two electrodes are connected with an electrical current streaming from one to the other. It could also look a little like the power source at the Death Stars’ center in Return of the Jedi? White text has been written on both electrodes. The bottom electrode is connected to the ground through a single thick wire. The top one is held in place by a large arm jutting out from the wall. It is thicker on top of the electrode and from here several wires connected down to the arm and another wire goes from the arm into the wall to the right above where the arm itself is connected to the wall. Behind the electrodes under the arm there is a coin ('''#75'''). You can only enter to get the coin through the gap between the electrodes.]
::Electrode bottom: JS
::Electrode top: JS

:[Going back out to Cueball you stand on top of him jumping up. The room is more than 3 full jumps high. The fourth jump takes you into a shaft in the ceiling (This makes it the highest room so far, and it is the highest rectangular room). It takes two more jumps to reach the top of this shaft, but it is a dead-end (though see later below about [[#Inside the cotton pit in the Star Destroyer|the cotton entry]]). There is a coin ('''#76''') at the top of the shaft, which you will just reach in 6 full jumps (3s). If you press repeatedly you get there in 2s. The drop takes 1.4s. If you go straight up as described you will fail to see the other wall of the room to the left. At the top of this wall another Cueball is hanging on to the wall just about a Cueballs height below the ceiling. To see him while standing still it is possible to stand on the wall by pressing the left arrow in. Cueball asks you to not tell about him:]
::Cueball: Shh.

:[Since this seemed to be a dead-end room you walk back the way you came to the shaft going up (7s) and then going up (4s) to the corridor going left. At the entrance was the coin ('''#77''') you saw when passing down earlier.]

:[Going down this corridor to the left you enter (7s) one of the bigger rooms (3 jumps high). In here Cueball and Megan are also using hoverboards, and they are even doing acrobatics with Cueball’s board pointing directly to the left with him standing parallel to the floor, as he is in the process of doing some kind of loop, as shown by the two lines trailing him. Megan is standing more erect, but she is lifting the board so it is in a 45 degree angle to the floor, and she has also just taken a swing as shown by her two lines to indicate this. Above Megan’s head and in the same height as Cueball’s head there is a coin ('''#78'''). The room is big enough that when standing under Megan you cannot see any of the walls or the ceiling. But the corridor continues to the left of the room.]

:[Moving from the center of the room down this corridor you reach (4s) a shaft going up and down. You can see the top where there is another corridor going left and right. To the right you can see a room right above you. You go up and right in here but this smaller dead-end room is empty. Then you move to the left along the corridor over the shaft and end up (4s) in another empty but larger dead-end room. So you move back (3s) and drop down the shaft (1.5s) into another large but completely empty dead-end room. Two jumps high and almost 3s wide. So without gaining anything even experiences after the hoverboard room you go back to the shaft from where you entered this section (15s).]

:[Going up the shaft (1.6s) takes you to a yet unexplored corridor to the right. Going down this corridor you pass a coin ('''#79''') in the corridor after 2s. Then after 5s you reach a point where the corridor expands mainly in a steep downward slope. At the top of the slope stands Ponytail looking left towards you, and she warns you:]
::Ponytail: Watch out for the cotton. It's a trap for someone, I think.

:[Moving past her and jumping across the room (3.7s) you find a coin ('''#80''') at the other side of the room just above the floor. But when you drop to the floor you fall for another 0.6s. You are now hidden beneath some surface. A jump makes you come up out of the floor, which must be made of cotton. From here you can see another room to the right with a coin and some text. But you have not picked it up yet. If you move right you just move out of the cotton up into the room. To go there immediately you can jump straight to [[#The cave inside the Star Destroyer|the cave section]]. Beneath here the cotton pit will be investigated in detail, but there are no coins, and you end up going out to the right, by just moving right from inside the pit.]

=====Inside the cotton pit in the Star Destroyer=====
There are no coins in this section.
:[The floor down in the cotton must slope upwards. Going back to Ponytail you jump straight out to see how long it takes to fall from here. From the ceiling there is 1s drop. From there you can walk right back up to the left. So the floor also slopes up here. Maybe it is deeper in the middle? You try to float to the ceiling in the middle of the room and drop down here. Suddenly you fall for 1.6s. And you can suddenly see another shaft to the left close to where you must be. Trying to walk left up the slope makes you rise at first, but then you drop down a little and suddenly you appear into this shaft and then falls down to the Cueball that looked at the huge spark gap. So it was not a dead-end room after all, but the exit corridor was hidden at the top of the shaft with black cotton. As you have seen this room you go back up into the cotton. This also proves that although there were a secret passage to the spark room, it was not necessary to find this passage to see that room.]

:[When entering the cotton from the spark gap room shaft, so you can still see the left part of yourself, you try to move slowly forward, by just pushing the right arrow one time and then repeating. After 8 presses, just moving forward, as expected you fall a little down. There must be a step down here. If you just jump over, you can then walk back up to through the cotton to Ponytail. This will take 6s the first 3s below the surface. If you instead of jumping over the corridor to the left (to the spark gap room) continue to the right you will continue to go lower for eight more presses of the right arrow. From this deepest point it takes more than 6 full jumps to breach to surface and you won’t even reach the ceiling in 9 jumps making the room one of the deepest except for the two largest rooms. But of course you can only see 1/3 of this space. You can get out be pressing rapidly in 2.3s and reaching the ceiling in 3.2s.]

:[Continuing to the right from the very bottom of the cotton shaft for 30 more presses you will continue to rise up, but then the rise decreases as you again can see the coin in the shaft to the right in the frame. You will find that until the 30th press you would be able to jump. But not anymore as you are now in another corridor. Although this is still rising a little for the next 10 presses as you go more and more right. Finally on the 10th press you would arrive in the corridor with the coin, through yet another secret passage under the cotton. But you do not go through yet and wait with taking this coin until the next section when you have finished this investigation of the cotton pit. If you just keep the right arrow down it will still take almost 6s. By jumping you can make it faster, but if you jumped too high you could overshoot the corridor and end up above moving out of the cotton above. If you are just outside the corridor and jump and push once to the right it will make you land above the corridor. And then you can walk up out of the cotton to the right with about four more presses. It is actually possible to walk seven more steps up and out so you stand on the wall more than a Cueballs height above the cotton. In this was you are able to find a spot to stand on the wall just above the cotton, thus making it seem like the floor holds you.]

:[From the investigation above it is now clear that the cotton pit is rather deep. It is at least twice as deep as the room above the cotton. The bottom of the cotton pit is curving up in both directions so it is rounded. Although the walls seem rather steep you can climb them without jumping. To the left there is a corridor going to the spark gap room. This corridor is 8 presses of the arrow key long. Then you fall into the shaft down the room. The corridor is not a very long distance above the bottom of the cotton pit. You can jump above it and then walk out. On the other side you have to walk much longer up before you reach the corridor going right (30 presses). Then you enter the right corridor which continues to climb rather than going straight. And 10 more presses and you are out. If you jump above this you can also walk up out of the cotton even getting some distance above it standing on the wall.]

====The cave inside the Star Destroyer====
There are 3 coins in this section of the Star Destroyer, no. 81-83.
:[Going back into the secret passage to the right you claim the coin ('''#81''') at the entrance to this corridor, and you now see the trap Ponytail was talking about. Four evil looking hammers smashing together from floor and ceiling with fitting jaws in between them. The first is open, the second has just smashed together, the third are fully open and the fourth has also just smashed together just opening again. Every time they hit together there is a loud sound.]
::Hammers left: Chomp Chomp
::Hammer right: Chomp

:[You run quickly by them without harm only (after 3s) to fall into a pit with flames at the bottom. You stand in the flames. But you can just jump out again; the pit is just more than one jump deep.]

:[Having gone past all these secret passageways and traps you finally after 3.6s more find out what the fuss was all about as you enter the largest room in the ship and suddenly find yourself in a meadow with trees and a small lake. When you just enter, the roof, now looking cave like, rises quickly above you to four full jumps height, and it continues to rise above this. The grass appears on the ground as soon as you are in. This cavern is huge enough that it at first seems you are back on the ground with grass, trees a small gazebo (a pavilion structure) and several animals and relaxing people. But the cave does have a ceiling and there is a pit going upwards from the center and a corridor going further on the other side.]

:[Once you move into this garden you see a tree standing on the edge of a small hill at the bottom of which is a small lake with typical lake plants on the banks on each side. Going through the lake you sink into the water so only the top of your head shows out in the middle. After the lake there is a large rock, more than one jump high – you have to jump to get up. On top of this lies a puma like cat looking right, with Cueball lying right in front of it also on the rock. After that there is a small gazebo with four columns visible. (It is likely that they cover the four other since such a gazebo typically have eight). A coin ('''#82''') is inside the gazebo. You can walk through the gazebo, but you can also jump on top and stand on it. Behind the gazebo stands Cueball who looks to the right at Ponytail and tells her something:]
::Cueball: I know it seems weird, but every Star Destroyer has one of these rooms.
::Cueball: Say what you will about Palpatine's politics, but he's a staunch supporter of the imperial parks and the Coruscant Audubon society.

:[So this is Palpatine's park. After this there is a little hill with a small tree and then comes a Cueball with bow and arrows walking left towards you. Behind him is a deer with antlers and later three insects flying over the high grass. And then the cave ceiling comes down to the ground level again as the cave ends and a new corridor goes right. The last short part of the cave is completely level with the corridor but still with grass until just before the cave turns into the corridor. It takes 11s to move across the cave flying over any obstacles, but at least 13 along the ground as you get stuck about three times in each direction.]

:[At this point you realize you have to check the ceiling of the cave as well. You start from the right end moving up along the cave wall. 1.6s up you find a shelf in the cave wall, with a little ledge jutting out. Black Hat is sitting there head down, arms on his knees, snoring:]
::Black Hat: Zzz

:[From the sleeping man’s ledge you can see a yellow lamp a little further up and to the left. The yellow light is of course a coin ('''#83'''), but it is here part of the scenery as it has attracted a swarm of 12 buzzing insects (point like in the drawing). Once you take the coin the stick that “held” the lamp now looks like the remains of a broken (exploded) light bulb. A 13th insect was hidden under the lamp to the left.]
::Insects: ''Bzzzzz''

:[Continuing to the left you reach the shaft going up in about 5s. Going down close to the other side takes about 6s because you hit the wall. Doing this you should be unlucky not to notice the three birds that fly right over the deepest part of the lake. When standing there it still takes three full jumps to reach high enough to see them in the frame, and five jumps to reach the birds (2s up and 1.4s down). There are four more jumps to the ceiling. If you go up along the ceiling from the left entrance it is likely that you can go so close to the wall that you fail to see them. Going back up to the shaft it’s actually possible to find a foothold inside it just above the cave to the left. If you fall down into the park from there, a 2s drop, you land on the puma on the rock. The shaft is just a little left of the center of the cave compared to the entrances. The center of the cave is just left of the gazebo. The tallest parts of the cave, which is not part of the shaft, are two protrusions up in the ceiling left and right of the shaft. As the ground level is higher after the rock to the right, and you sink into the lake at the left, the tallest distance is from the right part of the lake, under one of these protrusions. Here there are more than 9 jumps to the ceiling and it takes 3.2s to get up as fast as possible and then 2s to fall down. This is the same as in the cotton room. As it will turn out you can get to the other two entries from other directions, so again – failing to realize there was a secret entry through the cotton would not cheat you from seeing either of the rooms connected through the cotton pit. But this entrance to the most peaceful room of the Destroyer, through the pit and the traps is the most thrilling… Of course you do not know this yet, if following this path through the Destroyer. You now leave the cave and this section. It took 1m 30s to look through the cave.]

====Around and above the cave inside the Star Destroyer====
There are 12 coins in this section of the Star Destroyer, no. 84-95.
:[You leave the cave through the corridor to the right. Just before you leave the grass behind and enter the corridor you can see a man with spiky black hair walking left toward you. Moving right you pass under a shaft going up (1.7s) then reach a steep incline (3s) that you climb in 1.2s. Then you reach a small pit in the floor (0.5s later) where a Cueball looking up seems to be trapped at the bottom. There seems to be a bridge/lid on top. You can fall through it though (<0.5s). A single jump makes you hit the ceiling above the corridor. Moving further along (0.5s) there is a domed ceiling (less than a jump high). At the top of the dome there is a small black square protruding. It is some kind of alarm which is going off:]
::Alarm: …Beep…
::Alarm: …Beep…
::Alarm: …Beep…

:[After the alarm you get to the end of the corridor (1s) where a shaft is leading up. The trip through this corridor can be taken in less than 9s. From the bottom of the corridor you can see a coin in the next corridor above. Jumping up, just a little higher than a single jump, you grab the coin ('''#84''') that lies to the left in front of three boxes, one on top of the other two in a small pyramid. You can jump on top of the first, but cannot pass the second on top. But it is also a dead-end.]

:[Going right from there you pass yet another domed ceiling (2s) and then enter a large room (4s) also with walls curving up (though not a complete dome). From the lowest part to the highest part there are almost two jumps and it takes 2.7s to pass through. But since there is a raised pedestal in the middle of the room with three steps there is nowhere you can jump twice without hitting the ceiling. Before the central part of the pedestal on the first step to the left is Cueball. He is talking to a giant ant queen sitting on the central part of the pedestal If you jump over her, one jump is just enough to pass over her if you keep down the arrow key and jump from within her antennas, which you can walk through. The rest of her you can stand on. She is facing Cueball:]
::Cueball: What's up?
::Ant queen: The usual. Poopin' out ants.
::Cueball: Eww.

:[After the queen ant there is a yet another domed but dead-end room, with a coin ('''#85'''). Since there are 169 coins this coin takes you past halfway through the collection.]

:[Going back to the shaft up right after leaving the cave (16s) you go up with the missing exploration of the shaft going up from the cave in mind. So you will first go left if there are corridors in both directions. Going up 3.8s you reach a corridor to the left. Moving down here you enter a room (2.3s) with a chandelier with six light bulbs three on each side of the chain holding it to the ceiling. Above and on each side of the chain there are coins ('''#86''') and ('''#87'''). You need more than one jump to get up on the chandelier. You can stand on the arm with the bulb. But walk through the bulbs and the chain.]

:[Going back and up the shaft you pass a corridor (6s) to the right, but as you are looking for a way back left you continue and after 7s (from the chandelier room) you enter a corridor to the left. After 3s you reach a large room, the corridor comes in at the top of the room with a little ledge hanging out over the edge. The room is not deeper than you can just see the floor from up there. Below the ledge Hairy is playing a piano (three separate drawings of different notes flows up from the piano). You can stand on the piano, but not on the chair. Before you move further into the room you can just see a girl dancing at the far left of the frame. When you jump into the room you see that it is Cueball who is spinning Megan around on the dance floor, with her flowing dress billowing around her. Lines indicate she is spinning rather fast. This room is above the large cave. It is 2 jumps high and it takes 2.3s to move from the top of the piano to the corridor that leaves the room in floor height at the left.]

:[Continuing down the corridor to the left for 10s you end up under a shaft going up. As you have a feeling you are past the cave you go up this shaft and find the mining party you discovered after finding the way around the peristalsis corridor. You thus go back down again (1s) but remember that you came here from a corridor below where you never went to the right. You thus continue to the left for 1.8s and drop down the shaft at the end of this corridor (1.8s). The corridor below goes both ways as you knew, and you now go right away from the peristalsis corridor.]

:[After 5s you reach a shaft going down, and right on the other side is a dead-end with a coin. ('''#88'''). You drop down the shaft (0.5s) into a corridor going left and right, but you can see the left is another dead end but with a coin ('''#89'''). Going right you reach (3s) a shaft up. You can see the corridor above going right and see that it leads to an opening. This opening fills the space on the other side of the wall you are standing up against. This space is higher than the screen and you cannot see if it is just a shaft from here. Going up 0.7s and right you can see it is a very wide shaft. It is twice as wide as usual. When you jump up into it you see a room above with coins. Going up there (1.2s) you enter at the center of a small rectangular room with two shelves in it, one on each side of the room. There are coins ('''#90''') and ('''#91''') on each shelf and also coins ('''#92''') and ('''#93''') in each of the two rooms below each shelf.]

:[Dropping down from the top shelve you fall past the corridor to the left (1s) and after 2s you enter the cave from the shaft and land on the rock (3.2s) with the puma. So you found the entry through the cave roof. It takes 6s to go all the way up again. This is not the tallest drop so far (there was a shaft going past the normal entry to the cotton room that was much deeper.) But it is so far the longest drop that will make you end up in a room rather than a corridor. You have no proven you can get into the cave without using the cotton entry – the two other exits are not dead-ends!]

:[Since you were not finished with the shaft going up between the cave and the ant queen room you go out of the cave to the right (8s) and up the shaft. Since you still wish to make sure you have seen everything to the right you go all the way up past corridors to the left both after 7s and 9s. You hit the top of the shaft in 9.7s where a corridor goes to the left. This makes it the deepest shaft so far, clear evidence that the Destroyer becomes thicker and thicker.]

:[Going left (3.6s) you reach a stair case (34 steps) leading up to the top of the ship. There is a small fence (breast height) to the right protecting people going left from falling down the stairs from the wrong side. You cannot walk through it. It takes about 2.5s to get up the stair (1.8s down). On the way up you pass a slinky falling between steps 18-19 from the top. It makes a sound that is written along the stairs above:]
::Slinky: Slink slink slink

:[Back on the top you go back left to ensure you haven’t missed a coin. Going left you pass a step (two Cueball heights) down (1.8s) then pass (3s) a group of kids playing basketball. Cueball, Ponytail and Megan are standing just behind the basketball board with hoop looking to the left (you can stand on the hoop itself. The rest of the board you can walk/jump through). They have no ball. This is because another Cueball kid has dropped the ball and he is now running after it (you pass him after 4.7s), but it runs away from him on the loooong downslope, and it is already 0.8s ahead of him. Passing this scene you find (8.6s from the stair) a coin ('''#94''') and after 10.5s you reach the shaft going down to the corridor that goes to the mining party.]

:[From here you go back up to the stair (15s) and down to the deep shaft. The shaft is almost 5s deep. But you only go down to the corridor going right, which can be seen from the top shaft where you are standing.]

:[You move right for 2.7s then you enter a large dead-end room that takes 2s to traverse and is more than one jump high. The people in the room are hanging down from the ceiling. (Or rather standing there). This being a spaceship with artificial gravity, this may actually not be so strange... The first person you see is a Cueball who walks towards the left (just past the middle of the room) away from four other standing in two groups of two. The first group consists of a Megan and a Ponytail and almost at the right end of the room stands another Megan holding something and another Cueball holding a wine glass. Both hair and wine stays as if they were the ones standing on the floor. After these there is a coin ('''#95''') in the upper right corner. This ends this section of the Destroyer where you have used about 5m 20s.]

====The Prince of Persia maze inside the Star Destroyer====
There are 4 coins in this section of the Star Destroyer, no. 96-99.
:[Dropping back down the long shaft you fall 1.6s and then enter the next corridor going right. This is the last unexplored from this shaft. Moving right for 2.5 s you pass a coin ('''#96''') and after 5s the corridor stops at a shaft going up. You can see a room above with a thin ledge that you can go above and another drop to the right and a corridor going right.]

:[Jumping up (more than one jump) you find yourself in a rather large maze with levels that are hard to pass and tight pits hard to ascend. Three coins are positioned in the maze (counted when described below) so you have to move a certain route to get them. There are also five Cueballs and several traps/pits with spikes. It should be almost a complete depiction of Level 1 of the computer game ''Prince of Persia''. There are three coins in this maze all on the top level (no 97-99). Below a very detailed description of this maze will be given, and here the three coins are numbered. But if you just wish to go through taking the coins and continuing to the other side you can jump straight to the [[#The room with a glitch floor in the Star Destroyer|Glitch floor section]].]

=====The details of the maze inside the Star Destroyer=====
There are 3 coins in the maze, no. 97-99.
:[When you get up into the maze you stand beneath a thin ledge that goes above the entry shaft and almost to the next wall, or rather a construction hanging in the air (or from a wall). There is just enough space to jump up through the gap or move right and fall a step down where a corridor leads away. When standing under this gap you can see the following: Above the gap there is another thin ledge, so you have to push fast to get up on the first ledge. This ledge is a continuation of the top of the construction which then continues to the right. At the end there is a wall up. On the other side there is a broad shaft down. But at the bottom it tightens to only half the width between the construction, which becomes wider at the bottom, and another straight wall. It is though possible to get up and down there, without too much difficulty. Above the second ledge there is a third floating in the air. It stops before the wall on top of the construction so you can jump up there. A Cueball is jumping of this ledge to the left. Across from his jump on the left wall is a step in the wall above the first ledge. And above this step there are three small ledges. You can stand on all the ledges and steps described. If you jump up to the ledge of the jumping Cueball you see another square construction, with a smaller step to the right. Above it there is a corridor where a Cueball is standing looking left with a coin ('''#97''') in front of him. This is the highest level of corridors. It is above the top ledge to the left. Moving right there is a step and then you step of this square and down to a ledge forming a corridor to the right. This was the first section going right.]

:[Moving down this ledge you find it has a small hole in the center although it continues. Going down this hole and moving right in the corridor below you can place yourself so you can only just see the edge of the first section described before. From her you can see both top and bottom of this second section. At the end of the thin ledge you came down through is a black rectangle. You can jump up and continue right on this corridor. To the right it widens out to twice normal height. In continues after the rectangle, but on a thin ledge. Below this, there is another corridor with a thin ledge as floor. On this floor there is a coin at the edge of this section. You cannot take it yet. Below are three more ledges like this and then the floor. You are standing on another larger rectangular structure, with a smaller rectangle at the top left. In the middle of this is a thin shaft down to a small square room. It is difficult to position yourself correctly to go up or down this shaft. The lowest level corridor from the left ends here going into the middle of this room’s wall. This was the second section going right.]

:[Moving further along on the middle path, you move under the middle of the five ledges, it turns out to be just a short ledge not connected to anything else. You cannot get up to the coin yet. The ledge you are on stops and you can go down to the ledge below. Or you can jump up to yet another black structure. Jumping over the first part of this (a small rectangle) you can fall down to a corridor on the same level again, this covers the rest of this structure which is also a rectangle with the long side down. It is just connected to the small part at the top left edge. Standing behind this you can see the entire 3rd section with the coin now in the left part of the screen. The ledge you could jump down to on the left, is a dead end. But you can jump into a shaft to the right of the structure. But a thin ledge going over half the shaft again makes this a small hole, although the shaft below is normal width. To the right of the shaft there is no new rooms in sight. The shaft becomes even wider in the last half, where a corridor goes back left. At the end of this corridor there is four sharp spikes protruding out of the floor. Above them is a shaft up below the ledge you could not get under. Here are two steps up, but you cannot step directly up from the middle step as a thin ledge also hangs out over the end of the top floor, you can jump up though, but it is dead end. Above at the coin level you can jump up to another ledge above it (making it 7 different levels down (6 ledges) over the edge of this new ledge.) That ledge continues on to a long rectangular structure. In the middle of this there is a Cueball looking left with a sword pointing down. To get the coin you need to get back left and up and then get the coin ('''#98''') and run past him. This ends the third section going right.]

:[After Cueball the corridor continues a while but then there is a shaft down, again with a thin ledge going out over the hole. Beneath the first ledge is another ledge halfway across the shaft and at the bottom of this a ledge coming out the other way. This is a short corridor going left. The ledge has a hole a third way down, but on the other side of the hole is a coin ('''#99'''). That end is a dead end. Below the hole is a longer corridor. To the left it ends in a ledge going almost out over the shaft going down from the 3rd section. The corridor from the left goes under this ledge and hits a wall which is the floor of the one you are now standing on. A little part of that way from the hole you came down through is a shaft into a tiny room with four sharp spikes. When standing in this you can see this entire section, except the ceiling of the top floor. The corridor continues right and takes a step down. On the top corridor where you came down the corridor continues right after the hole. Here is again a structure with a small square on top of the end of a rectangular structure twice the length. After that it becomes even deeper. On this step down before it becomes deeper stands a Cueball looking right. This ends the 4th section.]

:[The maze comes to an end here. Where Cueball is standing there is a ledge coming out above that only leads to a dead end corridor. Going under the ledge there is a thin hole down to another corridor going right. Here is a shaft that again is made thinner because a ledge comes out from the step that is on the wall to the right. Under this shaft is a long corridor. To the left it connects with the corridor coming from the lower corridor from the right. Going right you are about to exit the maze. To guard the exit is another Cueball with a sword half raised for fight. This ends the 5th section and the maze.]

:[Leaving from the last shaft past Cueball takes you to the exit of the maze in 2s. It is a small rectangular room, with a last ledge coming out over the entrance corridor to the left; the last remnant of the maze. A shaft goes up in the ceiling. It would take about 21s to enter the maze in one end, grab the three coins and get to the exit in the other end (either way). If you did not need to grab coins you can pass through the maze in 14s. It takes about 2m 45s to move everywhere in them maze.]

====The room with a glitch floor in the Star Destroyer====
There are 9 coins in this section of the Star Destroyer, no. 100-108, including the one floating 1.5s below the Destroyer.
:[Going up the shaft for 1.5s you reach a corridor to the right. You try this before going further up. Less than 2s later you reach a shaft going down. This turns out to be the deepest shaft, and longest possible fall inside the Destroyer. You jump in and pass (2s) a coin ('''#100'''), then (3.8s) you pass Cueball and a Megan who is holding on to each other to prevent them from falling further down by holding on to each other and pressing their feet to each side of the pit:]
::Cueball: Okay
::Cueball: We can figure this out.
:[A shaft leads off to the left (5s) and first after 6s you reach the end of the fall when the pit ends in a room. It will take 13s to get up again. This is not only the longest fall possible inside the Destroyer. As it ends up in a room, it beat that record held by the cave.]

:[Going back up (2s) to the corridor to the left to explore the direction back first, you move down this corridor for almost 18s before you reach a shaft going down. From here you can see a room on the other side of the shaft and another corridor going off left just down the shaft which continues further down. This makes this the longest corridor where nothing happens.]

:[Jumping over the shaft you enter a small dead-end room with a coin ('''#101''') From here you can see that he corridor going left below goes into a room. Jumping down the shaft passing the corridor you end up (1.1s) in another dead-end room twice the size of the previous and with two coins ('''#102''') and ('''#103'''), one just left and one further away right compared to the shafts entry.]

:[Going back up (1s) you continue down the corridor to the left for 1.7s and enter a big room that opens up down down down. It takes 5s to follow the curving wall down to the bottom. Here is a black warning sign with white text. On top of the sign there is a coin ('''#104'''). The “!” at the top is black but it is put inside a circle of white at the top of the triangular sign:]
::!
::Caution:
::Glitchfloor.
:[After the sign there is a typical "wet floor" sign pointing towards right (and you), also with an exclamation mark, this time inside a white triangle. A few meters away to the left is another identical "wet floor" sign but pointing the other way.]
::!
::!
:[Cueball is standing on the other side of this second sign looking left. Something must be wrong with the floor. And you find out what they mean by glitchfloor when you step out on to the glitch between the two glitchfloor warning signs. The floor does not support you in an area between these signs and you fall straight down. In you surprise you forget to jump up for just a short time, and suddenly after about 1.5s you fall through a coin ('''#105''') than hang suspended a fairly long distance under the ship. You could easily have jumped up again before seeing the coin. Maybe there could be other coins like this under other exits? Having seen the coin you decide to fall further down. But there are no more coins before you hit the ground in some grassy hills. It took 6s to fall down. But you did get a coin. If you had only wished to get the coin it would have taken you almost 4s to get down there and up again (2s up). Getting back up from the ground takes almost 13s and then continuing inside the room you find that it takes more than 3s to hit the ceiling of this very big room. (16s rise in total.) The room is almost 10 jumps high from the bottom and it takes 3.2s to get from there to the ceiling (2s down) making it as high as the cave room. But it takes just short of 9s to pass through it if you jump through the air at the top where it is widest, compared to 11s in the cave, so this is only the 2nd largest room in the Destroyer. So it is a large room! But there is nothing above the floor. The entry and exit in each side are at the top, and then the glitch exit at the bottom is the only interesting feature of this completely inverted dome room. It is actually placed almost directly beneath the cave, the center of the cave above the left exit of this room. So two identical height domes with their flat part close to each other. This makes for an almost circular structure inside the ship. Because the room is so large it will take some time to go up and down to make sure there is nothing else in the air, like the birds in the cave. But there is nothing! Passing down the curved walls from the right going left low over the walls/floor and then up the other side you will after 2.3s pass through the rest of the ships bottom hull, then after 5s you pass the glitch, and after 10s the floor again goes inside the rest of the hull. Finally after about 13s you are up and ready to move down the corridor to the left. It means that for about 8s you move fairly vertical in a downwards pointing dome that protrudes out from the belly of the space ship. The five other seconds are mainly horizontal up and down the end of the half circle. It is a big feature on the ship’s hull. By far the largest seen so far.]

:[Moving out of the dome room to the left you move down the corridor for 8s before reaching a shaft going up and down. Above you can see it expands into another corridor going both ways. Going up here and right you enter a large empty dead-end room.]

:[Going out of the room to the left passing over the shaft you reach (3s) a spiral structure, where the corridor continues around in an inwards spiral taking two turns before you end up in the middle. It took about 12s to reach here from the other room, and then back out you end up at the shaft in about 23s. There was nothing in the spiral.]

:[Dropping down the shaft you exit the space ship below in 1.4s. Since you haven’t been over the hull to the left from here you go back along the hull to look for coins. Already after 4s there is a small protrusion in the ship’s hull and just before this there is a coin ('''#106''') and after this (6s) there is another coin ('''#107'''). From there it takes in total 21s to reach the ledge where Megan wonders if the ship is designed to fly in the atmosphere. Going back from here you realize you have investigated the part of the ship after the glitchfloor, but not the hull between the exit you came from and the glitch. So you go back from there to the glitch and enter the ship through there. It takes 32s (12s from the entry you came out of before.)]

:[You now go back from the glitch to the longest shaft and goes down to the room you once drooped into without exploring. It takes about 30s. After 6s you have to change corridors through the small shaft and then go back through the very long corridor that is quite uneven. Finally you drop the 1.3s down.]

:[You find yourself in a large room (2.5 jump high and 2.3s wide) with a giant light bulb. The bulb lies in the middle of the room and you can stand on it. If you stand on the black screw base to the right you cannot see either ceiling or the walls in of the room. The filament is visible in the bulb to the left. When you are standing on the highest point of the bulb you can see both ceiling with shaft and the left wall.]

:[Exiting the bulb room through a corridor to the right you enter a shaft (2.3s) going up and down. Going up first you enter a dead-end room in 1.6s. It is rather large (>2 jump high and wider) but empty except for Hairbun who is telling something to a guy with flat black hair:]
::Hairbun: Use a proposition instead of a preposition if you need something to end a sentence with, baby.

:[Going down the shaft you exit the ship at the bottom in about 2s. Just before you exit you get a coin ('''#108'''). By standing on the wall inside the shaft (possible) where the coin was you can see that the coin was obviously falling down the shaft as there are drawn moving lines to where it hit the wall with a bouncing sound, and to where it was when you grabbed it:]
::Coin: Bounce

:[After your experience in the glitch room with a coin under the ship you take the fall all the way down, but there is no more coins. You end up on a small pedestal just higher than Cueball in 6.2s. Going back up takes 13.3s. Once more you find that you need to check for coins under the ship’s hull and move back towards the glitch floor again. After 7s you pass Megan who hangs on to the hull below. Since you have nothing to stand on it is difficult to get a real good look at her. She is fidgeting trying to hold on with both arms:]
::Megan Hmm.

:[Continuing down left under the hull you find another small protrusion (13s to 15s) but this time there are not coins. After 17s you pass a small canon and then after 26s you enter through the glitch. Remembering the pain of going back from the glitch you go back along the hull. This ends this section.]

====The bridge of the Star Destroyer====
There are 15 coins in this section of the Star Destroyer, no. 109-123.
:[Entering from below the ship you know that there are several shafts above you (where you have explored the first couple of corridors and rooms going off. It would thus be interesting to see how long it will take to get up to the top of this increase, i.e. up and through the bulb room, up the very long shaft and then up the shaft above the maze and then on? It takes about 26s. First 4s to get to the bulb room, leaving up the long shaft from 6s to 18s, then into and up the shaft above the maze, into new territory and after 23 passing a room to the left with coins (for pick-up later) and then after 25s a corridor going left and finally 26s you enter a large room where you from the ceiling are able to see the top of the ship’s hull just a jumps height away. You have thus moved from under the ship to the top, in the tallest end of the ship.]

:[The dead-end room at the top of these deep shaft is 1.5 jumps high and 1.5s wide. In the room a guy with a small black hat (or weird hair) is walking right while talking to the emperor (Palpatine with the cave park) who walk in front of him (or glide as he is in a black cloak). They are looking at a box on legs with two wires coming in from the floor behind the leg closest to the emperor and two other wires going out the other side of the box. At least one bird is inside it. Behind the box on a pedestal is a chair facing the box. The chair is up against the right wall. You can stand both on the box and on the chair. From there you can see a step down in the top of the outer hull. This is the first time you have seen the hull decrease in height while going right. Indicating we are close to the end of the ship, where obviously the more important people are located!]
::Guy: My emperor...
::Guy: We all share in your newfound enthusiasm for birdwatching.
::Guy: But normally one watches them in the wild, rather than drugging and imprisoning them in a house of stairs.
::Emperor: ''Silence.''
::Bird: Chirp
::Bird: Chirp

:[Going back down the shaft taking the corridor to the left you reach (4s) a low ceilinged room where Cueball, talking to Megan behind him to the right, is pointing towards five black boxes with large white dollar signs and there are also three smaller bags with similar but smaller dollar signs. Before the first bag, on the step of the first box, above and between the two top boxes, behind the two bags on the top left box, and on the two steps down formed by the last two boxes are six coins ('''#109'''), ('''#110'''), ('''#111'''), ('''#112'''), ('''#113''') and ('''#114'''). You can stand on the boxes not the bags.]
::Bags: $ $ $
::Boxes: $ $ $ $ $
::Cueball: Aha! Darth Vader's secret gold bullion reserves! We'll be rich!
::Megan: I'm not sure this is canon.

:[It takes 3s to pass from the entrance of the money room to the shaft behind the small corridor exiting the room to the left. Going all the way up passing two corridors to the left you end up (3s) in a short corridor going into a large room to the left. Jumping into the middle you realize this is a circular room, with a coin ('''#115''') in the middle, which takes 1.3s to reach, and then you reach the other side of the room (on a diameter) in 2.6s total. A circle with this diameter is just above 5 jumps high, and it takes 1.7s to get up and 1.4s to fall down again. Apart from the entrance corridor, the inner room is a perfect circle. Apart from about a jump above the entrance and then 3s move to the left, where this circle is connected to the rest of the hull, the rest is entirely outside the hull, with a rather thin wall (maybe made of glass). At the very top of this outer circle there is a flat area. Apart from there it is also perfectly circular outside. So although it is not as big a room as the glitchfloor room, this outside feature is much more pronounced. It turns out it is used as a "Globe of death" but not for motorcycles (maybe low gravity makes this possible). In this globe one Megan rides on her bicycle at the top left her head pointing down. She is going down the left side with four speeding lines behind her. Ponytail is almost at the bottom racing on an ostrich towards right with a lance and coming the other way towards Ponytail is another Megan also racing on a bike but with another lance. Both of them are having four speed lines after them indicating the extreme speed they will soon meet with. It is a dead-end and you leave the way you came.]

:[Leaving the Globe of Death going down the shaft to the corridor below to the left you enter (2.3s) a very small dead-end room where Cueball is sitting on the floor just inside the entrance. There are three square boxes on the floor one behind the other, with too little space between them for you to go down between them. Ponytail is sitting on the first box looking down on Cueball.]

:[Going back to the shaft and dropping to the next corridor to the left (1s) you enter a large dead-end room (4s) that turns out to be the bridge of the Destroyer. It is almost 2 jumps high and 1.9s wide. From the top right you can see the bottom of the Globe above, and top left you see people standing outside at an antenna. Outside the room is outside the ship, and the ship’s hull is vertical here! You will go there later. Farthest right at a big window stands Cueball looking out while having his hands on the control board standing as a small black trapeze-like structure in front of the window (you can stand on it). Behind him to the right in the middle of the room (closer to the corridor where you entered) is Darth Wader (helmet and all) with his hand lifted talking to Hairy. It is clear that Darth Vader breathes heavily as this is written in bobbles with breaking frames, before each sentence:]
::Darth Vader: ''Breathe''
::Darth Vader: But Steven's ''mother'' is a crystal gem,
::Darth Vader: ''Breathe'')
::Darth Vader: so he's half- Are you getting all this?
::Hairy: Yes, my Lord!
:[Darth Vader is referencing the Steven Universe tv-series. Steven and his family is on board the ship, you have meat them earlier!]

:[Leaving the room along the corridor going down the shaft to the right you end up in a corridor going back left under the bridge. Here you enter (10s) a dead-end room of just more than one jump height and 1.5s long. In this room two Cueballs are walking left towards the end of the room, which is also a window out of the elevated ship hull with the bridge and globe. Behind them at the end of the room to the left is a coin ('''#116'''). The front Cueball turns and talks to the taller Cueball behind:]
::Cueball: The fault, dear Tarkin, is not in our star destroyers, but in ourselves.

:[Leaving Tarkin’s room going up the shaft and through the money room you go down the shaft under the emperors room and into the next corridor left where you enter the small room with two coins ('''#117''') and ('''#118''') that you saw coming up. They are placed on top of each other in the middle of the room.]

:[On the other side of the small coins room is a shaft going up and down. Going down (1s) and left in the corridor (3s in all) takes you to a medium seized dead-end room (1 jump high and 1.7s wide). Hairbun is pointing left while talking to Ponytail. They are standing in front of a system of gas containers with several pipes going out from them (one from each of the 8 containers). All the pipes are connected to a larger box at the left end. This box is connected with a thick socket to the wall close to the floor and also a wire comes out from the wall and splits in two before connecting higher up with the box. You can stand on all this and there is a coin ('''#119''') at the farthest end of the room.]
::Hairbun: In the event of a fire on one of the decks, this system will seal it off and pump in pure oxygen.
::Ponytail: Wait, ''Oxygen?'' Not a fire suppressant like-
::Hairbun: Ugh, ''boring''.

:[From there you go back to the shaft (3.3s) up this shaft (1.7s) and down the corridor to the left reaching a ledge in 11s total. Ponytail stands at the end of this corridor where a ledge hangs out over a drop. She stands behind a small fence, (you can stand on this), throwing out a paper plane above it. A line indicates the planes curving path. A coin ('''#120''') is floating right over the plane. Above the ledge is a ceiling. The wall that the corridor came out off is going down in a steep incline to the left. The incline also continues above the corridor up to the ceiling, just less than one jump above. When you grab the coin there is a drop down of 1.4s.]

:[Down from Ponytails ledge you jump up again to the ceiling and a little further out you realize that you must now be beneath the bridge, and thus you are now outside on the hull. It was thus not a large room inside the ship, but a part that is actually outside but under an overhang. You do see a coin up along the wall up to the bridge. But since it is a long time since you have been outside, you will go down along the hull to see if there are any coins down to the last place you entered the ship from the top.]

:[Going down the hull you find a coin ('''#121''') after 2.5s. Then you pass (9s) a cowboy sitting with two reins holding on to the ship like he is riding it as a horse:]
::Cowboy: Giddyayup!
:[Then you get another coin ('''#122''') after 15s and after 19s you reach the entrance with the stair and the slinky. You can now move back and up along the bridge section of the hull.]

:[Going back not having to look for coins and also only going to the bridge and not under this to Ponytail only takes about 12s if you keep high enough to see the bottom of the bridge. If you are below there is 2s rise up to the bottom and at the front edge there is the coin ('''#123''') you saw before going your way down the hull.]

:[Going up you pass both Tarkin’s room (1s higher) then Darth Vader on the bridge (1s higher again) and then finally 2s after you land on top of the roof of the bridge. Both the rooms you passed could be viewed from the outside (all text etc). (Did you came another way here, you would see a coin in Tarkins room, that you then had to find your way too). On top of the bridge was the scene you could also see when jumping to the ceiling inside on the bridge: It is also just outside, below and to the left, of the globe. Cueball is looking at Megan fixing a parabolic disc for satellite TV. The disk sits on a tall slim box with two wires going in and out of it from top to bottom.]
::Megan: Such a pain adjusting his thing every time we move

:[Moving to the right you can stand under the Globe where Ponytail comes down on an ostrich. You cannot see Megan coming the other way. Now you jump up to the top of the Globe (5s) where you can see the Megan on the inside top of the Globe. Here is the flat piece of the circle. You cannot know it yet, but standing here you are standing on the highest piece of black in the entire comic! One other floating rock comes close, but this wins by a nose. This ends this section, where you have used 4 30s.]

====The back end of the Star Destroyer====
There are 3 coins in this section of the Star Destroyer, no. 124-126.
:[Jumping down from the globe to the right you hit a flat piece of the hull beneath the globe (2s) then jump down a large step to hit a large crocodile lying here looking right (you cannot stand on top of it), then you pass (7s) the scene with the emperor and his bird. But you cannot see the last two lines of the guy (and thus neither of the persons), although you can see a little of the rooms floor as you after 9s pass another step down (the one visible from inside that room), so you can see the bird chirp and part off the box and chair; annoying if you had not seen it from inside first. Finally after 13s you reach what might be the end of the ship. There is a steep decline, although it still slopes towards the right. So you are not at the very back yet.]

:[Going out over the edge you fall down this long steep decline. After 1.7s you grab a coin ('''#124''') and after 5s you pass a very small shelf into the back of the Destroyer. At this point the slope right stops and the ship begin to slope left in under the upper part of the ship. The shelf is big enough for you and there is a coin ('''#125''').]

:[Continuing down following the left slope inwards you fall for 2s and then the slope turns outwards again to the right but the decline continues. Right where the slopes change there is a corridor going left into the ship, but it only takes 1.8s to reach the end of the small room you enter. It is just little more than a jump high, dead-end and empty.]

:[Going out again and dropping down right again the slope stops already after 0.7s to be replaced by a sheer drop. After 2.8s (total) the ship slopes inward quite a lot, but then slopes just as much out for a total of a 1s drop. At the bottom of this drop is a less steep shelf on which Cueball is sitting and he has just dropped his sandwich which now will plunge out over the edge of the ship. Just in front of his bouncing sandwich (shown bouncing with a line) is a coin ('''#126'''). You will soon find out that this was the last coin connected with the Star Destroyer.]
::Cueball: My sandwich!
:[Dropping from Cueballs shelf you land on yet another shelf 1.6s below. On this piece of the backside of the ship, the ship is still sloping to the right. Right beneath this shelf the ship goes a very little further out, (you could stand there). This is the farthest right you can get while standing on the Destroyer. You can see that the hull seems to go back left just below at the bottom of the screen. On the shelf a Megan is leaning up against the ship’s hull to the left while another Megan stands close to the edge looking slightly down and right. She is the one talking:]
::Megan: I want synesthesia so bad I can ''taste'' it.
:[Since this is further out right than Cueball and his sandwich just above it is not unlikely that Megan will get the sandwich in the head (maybe knocking her off.)]

:[Your final job on the exploration of the Destroyer is to jump of the back end to go back under the hull to the last entry (7s) which is the one where there were a bouncing coin. Seeing this and not finding anymore coins you go back to the back-end of the ship]

:[Standing on the back-end of the Destroyer at the very top it will take 11.5s to fall/move to the bottom, (you cannot fall straight the whole way due to the incline to begin with.) It takes 21s to get back up again. From the end of the ship where Megan is standing looking down it takes 6 seconds to fall down to the ground, although you end up standing on a floating piece of grass and earth right below the ships end. This seems to have been ripped out of the ground and is floating several meters above the hole it has left in the ground. You can stand in the hole. If you jump you hit the earth underneath the floating piece. You can get up in top from down the hole in just one jump. You will then hit the side and can move left/right up on top. Maybe this small piece of floating land has a relation to the floating rock that hangs on the left side of the play area? You can get back up to the bottom of the Destroyer again in 13s (70-80 repeating presses of up arrow). If you jump of the ship from the top while pressing the right arrow key repeatedly after you leave the edge of the ship you will hit the ground in about 19s right around where White Hat lays in so tall grass you only sees his head. From there it only takes 26s over the ground and then a final jump to reach the right end of this world. The rest of the description of the right part of the world will be the one at ground level, and it will start from the end going back. It will only be a few items you would have seen going there, but if you jumped through the air from the star destroyer you could get there without seeing anything. Going up from the top of the nest at the end of the world while keeping the left arrow down will make you hit the Star Destroyer on the last up sloping part of the back-end. A few seconds later (33s in total) you would reach the top. Jumping out from the ship while keeping the right arrow pressed and then jumping every time the hoverboard turns down for 33s will take you to the end of the world in a height somewhat above the Star Destroyer. You can see when you reach the end even in the air, as Cueball suddenly moves from center screen to the right edge. Dropping from there (20s if done like described!) will take you down at the far side and leave you behind the nest with egg coins. So you can start from here without having seen anything of the ground. This ends the tour of the Star Destroyer. This last section took 1m 40s to explorer but only because you went to the ground and up again.]

===Back along the ground from the right edge===
There are 22 coins back along the ground to the play area, no. 127-148. The first ten comes in the first subsection here below.
:[From the end of the Star Destroyer it is assumes you continue in about the same height until the end of the world. When you reach this you will suddenly move away from the center of the screen and move to the right edge of the screen (27s). Here you will then drop down. In case you wish to go here directly from the play area over the top of the Destroyer (without bothering about coins up there) you can get here in about 3½ minute. The last 12s will be the final drop along the right edge of this world. When you jump of the upper end of the Destroyer it will still take you more than 30s to reach the end. Passing over the top of the Destroyer alone takes about 2m 20s.]

====The nest at the end of the world====
There are 10 coins in the nest, no. 127-136.
:[Falling down along the edge you suddenly see several coins just left of where you are dropping, but you drop to the ground before reacting. Standing at this very far right edge, in the grass, the ground rises steadily to the left. Just a short distance to the left is a small foundation, rising a little above the ground. Even on the left side there is still a very little drop to the rising ground. In the middle of the foundation is a tall pole. Obviously the coins will be on top. Grass is growing around the bottom of the pole, even though the foundation is devoid of grass over the rest of its surface. Jumping up to investigate the top of this pole you find that it is more than four jumps high when standing at the edge of this world. From here it takes 1.4s to reach the end of the pole and 1.6s to pass the last coin. It takes 1s to fall down again from the top of the coins (0.8s from the top of the pole). Standing at the pole you reach the top in 1.2s and fall down in 1.1s. It is only 3.5 jumps to hit the bottom of the platform at the top of the pole. This platform turns out to be a nest (like a stork nest). If you are careful you can manage to land on the very right edge of the nest without hitting any of the coins (not possible to the left). In the nest there are three large eggs sticking out above the straw forming the nest. The middle egg lies behind the other two. Above the eggs are ten coins in rows of 3, 2, 3 and 2 from below. This is the most coins collected in one place in the entire game. The 6 in Darth Vader’s bullion takes 2nd place. The nest is so wide that if you jump off to the right from here (1.3s) you will miss the foundation below. (From the left you just hit the foundation, but this cannot be tested before some coins have been taken). On the left side you can “stand” on the pole high enough up to see all coins. When you finally take the coins by falling down in the middle of the nest from above you will only grab half of them – five coins ('''#127'''), ('''#128'''), ('''#129'''), ('''#130'''), and ('''#131''') - not getting those outer ones in the two rows with three and also missing one of the coins in the 2nd row as they are wider apart than the top 2 (and you cannot center precisely in the middle). The last five coins ('''#132'''), ('''#133'''), ('''#134'''), ('''#135'''), and ('''#136''') you can take in one more jump (up left down right for instance). Now you are standing in the nest on top of the eggs. Dropping down left takes 1.1s (because you hit the foundation). You cannot get into the nest again from here in much less than 1.7s as you will overshoot. Just testing you go up in the air pushing the up arrow for 30s without finding anything (130 presses). It takes 14s to drop down again. The nest takes about 30s to explore before you move on to the left.]

====Going back left over the pyramid====
There are 4 coins in this section, no. 137-140.
:[Jumping of the nest and moving steadily to the left, jumping high to make sure you notice anything in the air you reach (15s) a floating Cueball that looks kind of distorted. He is indicated to drift right on the wind with a small line. He seems longer than a normal Cueball. (See for instance the Monday forecast in [[1245: 10-Day Forecast]] for something similar). The grass is quite high here going up to your hands.]

:[Moving left you pass (5s) a small lollipop like flower in the grass (from here the ground stop rising and starts falling again to the left). Then after 1s more a coin ('''#137''') hangs a jumps height over the ground.]

:[2s further left you pass White Hat looking left sitting in grass so high that only his head is showing. In front of him is small turf of grass so high it’s top is over his head. When you stand behind it (you cannot stand on it) the grass reaches your neck.]

:[Going left again you pass (2s) a small stone that will make you jump when you pass it and then you reach (2s more) the piece of earth with grass that floats a jump above the ground, and over the hole it has left in the ground. Right above the Star Destroyer begins (or ends).]

:[Going left (2.5s) you meet a Medusa-like woman facing left. She seems to have at least 10 long lines going out of her head. Some of them may have something at the end that could be a snake's head, but that is not clear. She walks left with both her hands out, like a zombie or like grabbing you (had you been going towards her).]

:[Going left for 3s you reach the pedestal, above which you will meet an entrance to the ship with the bouncing coin (you went down here during the exploration above).]

:[Jumping along to the left, with the ground just in sight you see two birds after 8s, and because you are jumping you also notice the coin above. The coin cannot be seen from below. The birds are one jump above the ground. Your head just reaches - and passes through - the birds in one jump, without getting above their upper part. You will only see the coin if you are jumping while the birds are on the screen. The coin ('''#138''') is 3 jumps above the ground, double the distance above the birds than they are above the ground. If you continue up you will reach the Destroyer just left of where Megan hangs on below. (It takes 85 clicks on the up arrow to get there, and 6.5s to fall down).]

:[After 2.5s you reach a small pile of stones. A smaller stone is at the base in the grass, then the largest stone right above. The 3rd stone is smaller, the 4th is the second largest and at the top one or maybe two small stones. You cannot walk through it, but stand on top. It looks a little like a small Christmas tree with snow. But the shape indicates that it is stones. This might be an “arrow” pointing up. But there is no interesting feature in the bottom of the hull above here.]

:[Then after 2.6s the ground rises in a step that is just over a Cueballs height. The ground had been falling steadily since the lollipop. Then 1s later you reach a Cueball-like kid looking left and singing, as indicated with two drawings of double notes. The kid is clearly smaller than you. Right above him (to the left) is the small canon protruding below the Star Destroyer. It takes 14.4s to reach the bottom of the hull (60 repeated presses or up arrow) and then 6.6s to drop down.]

:[Continuing left over this flat plateau you reach (1.8s) a small cliff. It is almost vertical and one jump will just take you up to where grass again begins to grow out over the edge. It is though not more vertical than that you can hover up over it without jumping. This will take 1.2s though.]

:[Continuing along the hilly ground above the cliff you reach (1s) a black hat resting on a stick in the ground. You are sadly a few inches too high to be able to turn into Black Hat by standing under the hat. It will be inside your Cueball head.]

:[One more second to the left Ponytail comes walking right towards you. She is followed by a small black bird flapping its wing (indicated with four small lines). It is right behind her head. There is nothing special above on the Destroyer].

:[Going left 3.7s you reach a coin ('''#139''') just above the ground. When you take it you fall into a small hole in the grass so low that the top of the grass reaches your neck. Above here is the dome with the glitchfloor. But the entrance is further left, outside this frames field of view, as will be clear, since you did not see this coin when dropping to the ground after finding the coin below the glitchfloor. The entrance to that floor is 2.2s further left, on top of the first of two small mounds you reach here. If you go up from here you would reach that coin in 10s (it has already taken in this transcript) and then enter through the glitch in 13.2s. Dropping down takes 6s.]

:[After 3s going left you reach a plateau with three T like platforms with grass on top. The first from the left is the highest. Standing beneath at the base you hit the top of the T in 1.5 jumps. It takes two full jump to reach up on the bar of the T. You are not up yet, but from there you can hover up by moving left. (0.9s up 0.8s down). This first T’s left bar is just hanging out over the next lower T. This second T is low enough that you can easily walk under the high T. One jump can take you up again. From the ground between the two, one jump can also just get you up standing on the edge of the T bar of the second T. The last T is the same height as the second, but they are further apart (1.4s between bases). The base is twice as wide as the other two. Megan is standing on top of the right part of this T-bar looking down and right. There is nothing beneath the T’s. It takes 4s to just pass over them. There are no interesting features above on the Destroyer.]

:[After the T’s there is a plateau rising taking two steps (of one Cueball height each) and then rising some more. Four seconds from the T’s you reach a cliff (0.6s down) that falls lower than the ground level at the T’s. Going 1.5s from there (or one jump from the base) you are standing just at the end of a small decline after passing a little hill. This is right under the exit in the ship above just to the right of the spiral corridor. It takes 15.5s to get up (70 presses of up arrow) and then 6.5s down.]

:[Jumping of the cliff and passing the uneven ground nothing happens for 15s although the ground becomes grass less. Like sand maybe. That would make sense since what you have reached is the incline of a tall pyramid. It takes 4s to reach the summit and here is a coin ('''#140'''). Going up from the top you reach the bottom of the ship in 13.3s. You hit just below a room where there is a car, and just 4s left will take you to the entrance where Megan is standing on a ledge wondering if the ship can fly in an atmosphere. Dropping down from here will take 7.2s and you will land on the downslope of the Pyramid. Going back up to the top from there takes 3s. Going down again left takes 3.7s.]

:[Ponytail is standing on the left side of the pyramid facing those coming from the left. She is pointing up the pyramid while giving a protip:]
::Ponytail: Protip:
::Ponytail: Don't stop climbing just because you reach the top.
::Ponytail: ☑ Show tips on startup
:[She thus indicates that she is giving you a tip, at the startup of your climb up the hill. This could indicate that she tries to tell you that there is something above if you keep climbing in the direction of the pyramid – i.e. up to the right. If you find the rhythm that makes you jump while moving left so you just jump when about to hit the pyramid, and then keep up this rhythm, you will need 48 jumps before you in 23s reach the bottom of the Destroyer just after the shaft going up to the spiral. You may miss it if you jump too slowly. If you instead climb as fast as possible while keeping the right bottom down, (rising faster than the pyramid, but though slow enough to see the tip before moving above the pyramid), you end up close to where there are two coins close to each other under the hull, not visible from inside the ship. This is still close to being under the spiral, but the entrance from before is further along the hull. It takes more than 7 seconds to fall down again from there. This protip is yet an indication that there is something above, just like the one who looks up at the beginning and says ''Wow'', or the wires from the ground up to the runner from where you can follow the bombs up to the Destroyer. There are at least 2-3 more of these indications on the left side of the play area. This ends this section, which you passed in 2m 45s.]

====Past cemetery and weeding through the forest====
There are 2 coins in this section, no. 141-142.
:[Going left 2.5s from the pyramid you reach a huge foot (cut of at the ankle, toes pointing left) standing on a pedestal. You cannot stand on it, but you can disappear completely behind it the two places where is touches the pedestal. A jump will easily make you clear the top of the foot, but it is at least two Cueballs' height from ground to top. Two Cueballs are looking at an inscription on a plaque at the front of the pedestal (which in itself is almost a Cueball's height high).]
::Cueball: It says "Yo, future dirtbags! Check out my huge foot!"

:[Continuing left you reach (4s) a cemetery which it takes 2s to pass through. It consists of 7 gravestones that are fenced in behind two robes/chains that are held up by ten poles. There is a stone between each of the seven “rooms” made by the eight poles that are not at either end. Five of the stones are very similar, with same height and rounded top. They do not reach higher than Cueballs neck. The third stone from the right is rectangular, with a smaller rectangle on the top, and it is standing on a pedestal. It reaches up to the middle of Cueballs head. The second stone from the left is also on a pedestal, and reaches the same height, but it is a wider rectangle with the same width all the way. Between the first two stones from the left are a blonde girl with long hair and Megan who points to the second stone.]
::Megan: They're inscribed with our family motto, "Cur ego committitur dictar latinae," which means "Why did I just start speaking Latin?"

:[Further left (3s) Cueball and Ponytail are having a picnic. She is sitting on a small rock to the left facing Cueball who is sitting on the ground to the right. They have a small basket and two canteens and Ponytail has something in her hands. A little further (1s) to the left, with her backs turned to them, Megan is sitting on a larger rock. You can stand on this rock. Just past this rock is a large but low stone slab, but this you can walk behind.]

:[About 2s further left you find a wedding. Cueball with a tie and Megan in a wedding dressed (although she is a black bride), are standing at a small stage. Behind them to the right is a pole with a stick at the top. The pole is decorated with a plant going from the ground and up. A female priest with black hair and a book in one hand is pointing towards and talking to the audience sitting in chairs in front of the stage to the left. There are five people. The first has a cap on backwards. Then another Cueball, Ponytail, a person with black hair and Hairy.]
::Priest: And if any here can give cause why these two should not be wed,
::Priest: The Great Jabba the Hutt will now listen to your pleas.
:[Just to the right of the wedding stage is an entrance up above to the Destroyer. It takes 17s to get up there. The entrance takes you to a small room. Going left through corridor you soon reach the room with the torpedo canon and Megan explaining the lack of photon torpedoes. The drop down again takes 8.2s.]

:[Left of the wedding guests there are four small trees, and then a single large tree (1.7s from the stage). You can stand on three of the branches, but it is also possible to walk under. After the three a large stone lies on the ground, you can stand on it. Then you pass 11 small trees/bushes, the last six standing so close some of them join together. Only the last two of these are as high as Cueball. It takes 3.3s to pass from the large tree over these small ones. After the last you reach another large tree, which turns out to be part of a larger collection of trees. You can pass through this forest in about 6s. Just below the first of the large trees is yet another small tree. You can stand on the two branches going left and right on the large tree. You can pass under/through all the trees in the forest. Between the first and the second large tree, there is a shrubbery, then a smaller tree, but twice Cueballs height (right above this is the torpedo canon in the Destroyer); then follows three small trees and then the second large tree. On this tree you can only stand on the left branch. On the way to the third tree you pass two small trees, a shrubbery, three trees, a dead three (only a branch sticking out of the ground no foliage) and another shrubbery. On the third large tree you can also only stand on the left branch. The fourth tree is close by, the two trees crowns grow together. Beneath between them are a shrubbery and then a smaller tree, though clearly higher than Cueball. In this fourth three you can only stand on the right branch. But although the two trees are close by each other and their solid branches are pointing towards each other you can still fall down between them as these do not touch. In the center of this fourth trees crown, right over the stem lies a coin ('''#141'''). This was the last of the big trees, but the forest continues with 8 small threes, two of these just higher than Cueball, and then one last tree that are just less than a jump high. More small trees follow, but this feels like the end of this little forest. If you only walked past these last trees along the ground you would miss the coin hanging in the air right above the last tree of the forest. But if you jump while moving through (or jump off from the last tall tree) you will see it. On the other hand if you came from the right and first jumped when close to the coin in the tree crown, it is likely that you would miss it. But now you jump up to get the coin ('''#142'''). Two jumps are just not enough to reach it. But if you jumped left out of the tree crown you could reach it with two jumps. This ends this section, which took 1m 8s to pass.]

====Crossing the ocean====
There are 3 coins in this section, no. 143-145.
:[Leaving the forest to the left you still pass four small trees and then you reach (3.7s) Ponytail who is flying above the ground by flapping violently with her arms (it looks like she has three arms on each side and there are two small movement lines on each side of her arms). Beneath her on a small mound lies a coin ('''#143'''), you cannot stand on the mound. Her flapping makes sounds. They are written with three flaps above her, two on each side of the top of her head, and two more on each side of her arms.]
::Ponytails arms: Flap Flap Flap Flap Flap Flap Flap
:[Straight above Ponytail is a torpedo (15.2s). If you had not taken it already there would be a coin above and to the right of this torpedo, and there is another torpedo just below and right of this coin. You can get between these two torpedoes and on up to the Destroyer in 2.7s. Just to the left where you come up is the ledge where Cueball and another guy are preparing to jump out with parachutes. If you jump back down from here you will fall through a gap in the torpedo rain and reach the ground in 8.5s, just 1.3s left of Ponytail.]

:[Going left, there are no more trees. Also there is not much grass. After 4.2s you reach some kind of ruin. It seems like the building has sunk in to the ground to the left so the floors, ceiling and any other lines of the building are sloping down towards left. The fundament has risen out of the ground to the right. You can stand on this. The ceiling to the left has even broken and half of it has fallen down on the floor below, which again is a ceiling of the room below. You can stand on this floor, but not on the broken ceiling. On top right of the broken ceiling, the part that still holds up, is a small room to the very front right. The front of this room and the larger room below it has thin columns at the front right. Above the small room is a structure held up above the ceiling by two thicker columns. It goes only over the part of the roof that has not fallen down; you can stand on this structure. The largest room in the building is to the left under the floor below the broken ceiling. A wall to the right separates it from the lower of the two front rooms. There are two lines going along the entire length of this room, you can stand on the lower of these lines. Inside the room on the ground stands Megan looking right. There is grass on the ground inside the ruin. On the very top of the ruin on the right edge of the structure on the ceiling sits Cueball, legs over the edge to the right, with a guitar playing and singing. (Two drawing of notes are shown near him and lines from the guitar indicate it is playing). In the smallest room below Cueball is a coin ('''#144'''). Because of all the parts you can stand on, you have to jump the correct place when coming from the left to hit the opening in to this room. But if you jump over Cueball and down on the ceiling you can always walk right back to take it. You cannot just walk through the house, as you have to jump to get into the room with Megan due to the line you can walk on.]
::Cueball singing:
:::Spider-man
::::Spider-plan
:::Spider-canal
::::Spider-Panama
:::Gates let in
::::Spider boats
:::Flood the locks
::::Spiders float
:::''Look out!''
:::Spiders in both oceans.
:[If you go up right after the ruin you will pass (13s) just right of the two torpedoes hitting each other exploding in midair, and the hit a group of torpedoes above this. Passing around these you can (in 19s total) reach a ledge with an entry into the Destroyer. This ledge is just across from the ledge with the two parachuting guys on it. If you just walk of this (really just) you will just pass through the torpedoes after 2.7s and hit the ruin to the left of Megan in 8.5s.]

:[Then after this to the left is a rock outcrop an then an ocean/large lake. You will sink in when you enter into it. But it is not very deep. It takes 7.8s to jump over the ocean. When walking through it, it already becomes so deep that you are not visible when standing still after 2.5s. And moving along the sea bed you will have to move 4.3s to get to so shallow water that you again are visible. Moving along the seabed it takes longer (8.5s) to pass the ocean because you makes several small jumps on the uneven bottom. Every time you jump like this you breach the surface. Before reaching the first place from the right where the seas is so deep you cannot be seen, (after a particular deep wave), there have already been four small wave tops where you cannot be seen, but then the deep wave will reveal the top of your head. A little less than halfway across the ocean (3.6s along the sea bed) is a “rouge” wave rising above the sea talking to a Cueball swimming in the sea to the right of the wave. The wave is thin and high (more than a full jump from the sea bottom high. Your head gets above it, but not the hoverboard. It first bends a little to the left from a broader base, then turns to go straight up, then beds almost horizontally to the right, makes a bend upwards and finally bends downward to finish in a thin spike from which drops are falling off. This spike “looks” down on Cueball and the waves speak emerges from here. There are some similarities to the scene from the movie ''The Abyss'' when a water plume rises up inside the submarine and moves along the corridors. On top of the highest point of the wave there is a coin ('''#145'''). You can just reach it with a single jump.]
::Wave: I know rogue waves seem implausible, but we're a straightforward consequence of the equations of fluid dynamics.
::Cueball: ...But you can talk?
::Wave: The equations are really complicated.
:[Going up from the wave you will hit a torpedo, but passing left of this you will reach the bottom of the Destroyer in about 19s. There is nothing here except a step in the hull. Falling down again takes 8.6s.]

:[From the wave it takes 5s to walk out of the sea to the left. A last wave crashed on the beach where Megan stands. She rates the seas with stars, that are shown beneath her text. Megan gives it 2½ stars out of five (2½ black 2½ white stars – so the below transcription is not quite correct as there exist no symbol for half a star).]
::Megan: This is an OK sea.
::Megan:★★☆☆☆
:[Going up from Megan you are now under the Rebel Blockade Runner and hits the bottom of this ships hull in 4.3s. Going left you reach the end in 2.7s and can get to the top (2.7s) where Megan and Cueball roasts a marshmallow. It has taken 9.7s to get up here this way. Falling down in to the ocean takes 3.4s and you can walk back to Megan in 2.9s. This ends this section, which took 1m 45s to pass.]

====Back over the dunes to the play area====
There are 3 coins in this section, no. 146-148.
:[There is grass right after Megan, but then going left there is something looking like dunes with no grass on them. It will take 7.4s to pass over the dune section if jumping. It makes sense to have dunes under the Runner that is now above, because, in the first Star Wars movie, this runner is flying over the desert planet Tatooine. There are no entries in the Runner above the desert. Walking across the dunes takes you up to small peak in the first dune which then rises to a somewhat higher second dune. At the bottom of this to the left is a coin ('''#146'''). After this comes the third dune which is the highest of the dunes. It takes 1.8s to climb it and 0.8s to get down the other side. At the bottom there is a coin ('''#147'''). From here the dunes becomes smaller and smaller. After the fourth dune Ponytail is standing on the top of the fifth dune looking right towards you. After her follows two small dunes, the sixth and the seventh. On top of the seventh dune there is a coin ('''#148'''). Three tiny dunes (eight, nine and ten) follows and then the ground becomes more rocky. The dune sea has ended. It takes 8.8s if you walk over it (either way) instead of jumping. If you walk you will reach the highest dune in 4s and Ponytail in 7s.]

:[After the dunes you go over rocky ground almost without any plant life. After 1.2s and 2.1s repectively there are two wires going up in the air (towards the Runner), and if you continue for a total of 6.8s you reach a third wire. The first wire you reach to the right is held on to by a Cueball. A small girl with black hair in a bun is stepping on the end of this wire. The next wire is held on to by Hairy and a Cueball, Hairy to the right, Cueball to the left of the wire. The third wire somewhat longer to the left, is held on to by Megan and Cueball, they both lean back to the left, pushing against a small rock outcrop. You can stand on this. If you jump up along this wire you will see the second wire after 4s and after 7s you will reach the bottom of the Runner. Just to the left of where this wire and the second wire are attached, to one of the ships canons with what looks like anchors for ships, is where Cueball stands on a ledge with his fishing rod. The third wires connect with the space ship 1.8s longer to the right directly at the bottom of the hull, also with an anchor at the end. Dropping down along this wire you see Megan climbing up (1s down) and you reach the ground in 2.4s just left of Ponytail in the dunes. It will take 3.4s to get back up to Megan and 5s to reach the hull from there. To make sure not to miss anything you also follow the middle wire all the way up but there is nothing here.]

:[Going on left you pass a large boulder and then reach (4s) the cliff on top of which Cueball and Megan stands pointing towards the space ships. This was where the exploration of the space ships to the right began. And this thus concludes the trip on the right side of the play area.]

:[Jumping left from here you reach the right wall of the play area in just 9.5s and 2s later you are back on top of the starting maze. You are now ready to continue to the left side of the play area. So do not yet go to the terminal to deliver your 148 coins but continue on to pick up the remaining coins on the other side. This ends the entire right side of the world. The last part took 1m 10s to pass.]

==Going left into the Lord of the Rings territory==
There are 21 coins left of the play area, no. 149-169. The first will appear at the [[#Floating rock|Floating rock]].
:[Leaving the play area to the left from the left wall you end up on a similar base as the one to the right. Where this ends there is a drop of one jumps height. Moving along over uneven ground without grass takes you to a stair of seven steps, which takes you up to a foundation of a tall wall (5s from the play area wall).]

===Washington monument===
There are zero coins in this section.
:[At the bottom of the wall there is a black sign on top of a pole. On the sign there is a white arrow pointing to the left at the base of the wall. You cannot stand on top of the sign. When standing where the sign is, you can see the top of your arms at the height of the arrow. It may look like you can see through the white arrow. But it could also just be that you are standing in front of the sign.]

:[Ignoring the arrow you begin jumping up. After 2.6s you pass what looks like a fault line in the wall. It is already now clear that the wall is not going straight up but that it is leaning to the left. As you go straight up, the wall “moves” away from you. But after 9.1s, before it moves all the way out of the frame you reach the top of the wall. Just before reaching the top you see that the wall becomes so thin at the top that you can see the other side. And at the very top is a white triangle as the tip of this obelisk like tower.]

:[Two ropes are teetered to the very top, and on the right side hangs White Hat with a bundle of rope behind him and on the left side hangs Cueball with a similar bundle. Cueballs heads is just at the lower edge of the white tip. He is holding on to his rope with both hands. White Hat is a little below the white tip. He is only holding on to the rope with one hand, while his body is turned away from the tip to the right as he is both looking and pointing up and right.]
::Cueball: Look at that- solid aluminum!
::Cueball: We´re gonna be rich!
::White Hat: Uh, what the heck is ''that?!''
:[White Hat has seen the destroyer. If you jump up from the top of the obelisk while keeping the right arrow down you will hit the tip of the destroyer (10s) just where a Cueball is standing at the lowest ledge of the front of the Destroyer. Moving down again by keeping the left arrow pressed down, you will and just at the stair up to the obelisk. From the top of the obelisk it takes 4.7s to fall back down again from the top to the arrow sign.]

:[Testing if it makes any sense to have the arrow at the bottom, you press up against the wall of the obelisk only to find that you can walk right through the base of the obelisk. At the bottom of the left side of the obelisk is Megan standing with Cueball who is looking up along the obelisk.]
::Cueball: Honestly, it doesn't even look that much like Washington.
:[This then tells us that this should represent the Washington Monument, or not since is does not look like Washington, but that might just be the surroundings.]

:[It also turns out that you can get inside the monument higher up. There is nothing in there, but the room is investigated in detail in the section below. You can go straight to the next section on the [[#Floating rock|Floating rock]]. It took 1m 17s to investigate the monument.]

====Inside the Washington monument====
There are zero coins in this section.
:[Going back through the tunnel you test what will happen if you jump over the entry to this tunnel at the bottom of the monument, and keep the arrow pointing left. It turn out you will be able to climb the steep incline, though very slowly. It will now take you 8s to reach the fault line (2.6s by jumping straight up). You continue towards the top, but long before you reach the top (after 18s in total) you will suddenly disappear in to the monument. And then suddenly you are dropping down inside – this will be experienced like this: The sides of the monument, now centered on the screen become wider while you fall until you stop after 1.8s. You are standing inside the monument right above the fault line. You are standing in a wide shaft. If you move from side to side, by just tapping the arrows you can tap 10-15 times before you hit the other wall depending on how quickly you release. It takes about 0.5s to move from one side to the other. You can see yourself move in some of the cracks along the fault line; especially to the right. You can thus also see that you are not able to move from wall side to wall side; but only in the middle. The hole thus takes up half the width of the monument at the fault line. As it is almost a completely straight shaft, it takes up relatively more space the higher up you go. There are small protrusions on the wall. For instance if you stand over the fault line next to either wall, you cannot jump as something protrudes above your head. You are also able to stand on either wall at particular heights. For instance if you jump up near the right wall and press towards it, you will be able to stand on the wall here. You can even move up the wall a bit further by pressing right, but will always fall back to the same spot on the wall. Similar there is such a protrusion on the left wall, but here you have to jump about 6 full jumps before you press in. There are several spots on either wall where you can stand still by pressing towards it, but will fall when releasing. On the right wall you can also stand right beneath the exit. That is about 7 jumps up. From here you can jump out left and then back to get into the exit corridor. When you are just entering the hidden passage in the upper third part of the monument and you are just standing with most of your hoverboard outside, it will take about 7 taps of the left arrow before you fall down in the shaft inside (1.8s drop). It takes 9 full jumps to get up to the exit corridor. When leaving the corridor you jump just above and continue to climb up by pressing left. 11s later you are on the top.]

:[You then drop down on the left side (also takes 4.7s). You also try to climb up the monument from the left, by pressing right arrow. Here there are no other tunnels than the one at the bottom, you have to jump. Here you also reach the fault line in about 8s (same height at the base), and then a total of 30s to reach the tip, fitting with the 18s and 11s plus one jumps head start from the exit corridor. Basically you could check out the inside in less than 15s…]

===Floating rock===
There are 2 coins around the rock, no. 149-150.
:[Thinking, (or knowing something), that the white arrow at the bottom showed you a hidden entrance, then you muse that maybe the white tip of this monument also points to something in the sky. A giant arrow! At the top White Hat pointed you to the Star Destroyer. So just to test this you try to jump straight up from where you now stand at the foot of the monument. After 9.1s you pass the tip and after 18s you have pushed 100 times without seeing anything, you continue to 150 presses in 28s and decide to stop at 200 presses, but after 35s you suddenly see something and 1.5s later (36.7s in total) you reach the top of a floating rock after almost 190 presses. If you went straight down again it would take 11.3s before you passed the tip of the monument and you would first hit the foundation after 15.8s.]

:[This floating rock is very close to being in the same height as the very top of the Star Destroyers Globe of Death at the top of the bridge; just a tiny bit lower. But, where there are several people who point you towards the Destroyer, and wires going to the Rebel Blockade Runner from the ground and then torpedoes to the Destroyer, there is nothing to guide you here except the needle of the Washington Monument. If you instead of jumping up from the left base had jumped up from the right, you would not have seen this rock. And even if you jumped up from the tip of the monument, making more sense, you could almost miss the rock, as you would pass by that, but you would just be able to see the girl who has just base jumped from the top of this rock, and might just miss her, if you were beginning to lose your attention after more than 30s. So this is definitely designed to be overlooked. And most people will only know about it from maps made be people who knows how to read the source code or at least knows how to extract all possible images. It is more than three times as high up as the height of the monument below it (9s high for the monument vs 30s high to reach the top of the rock.)]

:[Standing at the right edge of this floating rock you see Megan just running over the edge and Ponytail, who has already jumped, diving just below the edge of the rock, already about her own length away from the edge, her body parallel to the ground below. Luckily both of them seem to be wearing a backpack, hopefully with a parachute inside; a very special form of base jumping. This rock has some similarities to the small piece of earth that has been ripped out of the ground back at the end of the Star Destroyer. It could be the same force that has caused both. There are some similarities to the movie Avatar with the planet Pandora’s floating rocks.]

:[Running on top of the floating rock it just looks like the ground down below. There is grass, but not a lot. After 7s you reach a rock lying on top of this floating rock. It has a step to the right before reaching its full height, each step about two Cueballs height. You can easily jump to the top with two jumps. But on the step there is a coin ('''#149'''). Continuing on you reach the end of the floating rock to the left in 3.4s, then you drop down until you have to jump up and right to stay under the rock (2.5s) and after a total of 9s from you left the rock on top you are under the very bottom. Less than 2s further along the bottom of the rock on the way up again there is a coin ('''#150'''). About 4s later you are back on top. It took 15s from the rock on top. You can take the entire trip around the rock in about 22s. The surface of the rock is the same on either side of the rock on top. When going under the rock is turn out that the bottom is made up of a lot of loose boulders, which somehow seems to stick with the rest of the rock.]

:[Apart from just over the edge on both sides, where you can easily see a foot hold to stand on, there is also a rock below about halfway from the left edge and to the very bottom, where you can stand. Down to the bottom from the left here are about five larger boulders and many small ones. The second of these you can land on to get a better view of the bottom. The lowest boulder is much larger than the others and it seem to be stuck better in place. But it is possible to see a small hole at the “top” of this boulder, so also this one is quite loose. After this bottom boulder there is the second largest boulder to the right. Just after that is where the coin below was. One larger boulder follows, but then the rest is much smaller. Towards the right top, there is again a ledge you can stand on, where you can just see Ponytail, but not Megan. And then there is a ledge just below where Megan is running off the rock.]

:[If you jump out to the right from the rock, to where you can just see the whole of Ponytail but nothing else of the rock and drops straight down from here, you will land on the tip of the monument in 11.8s. Jumping straight back up you will (135 presses later) see Ponytail entering the frame to the left after 27s, and can from there reach the rock in 1.7s. If you keep the right arrow down while leaving the edge of the island to the right you will fall (16.7s) just at the first tree on the right side, right after the first Cueball on the right side after the play area wall. This is probably the longest drop possible, as the ground here is the lowest you can reach, and you cannot jump straight down to the ground from the Star Destroyers highest point. If you fall straight down over the edge to the left you will end up (16.4s) in front of Megan in a hamster ball; more about this later. You land right in a very small tree, the first after the large tree to the left of the hamster ball. Getting back up takes 180 presses and 36.4s. If you leave the left edge of the rock while keeping the left arrow down you will (15.2s) end up just left of two girls running towards each other just left of the well; more about this later. To end this all you jump down to the left of the Washington Monument to really start the exploration of the left side of this world. It took only 30s to go around the rock, but more than 1m 20s with the up and down time included.]

===On the road to the volcano===
There are 4 coins on this road, no. 151-154.
:[Continuing to the left of the monument, you reach grassy ground, and you find (2s) a tall flagpole with a uniform black flag at the top blowing left. On top of the truck there is a sitting duck. You can stand on the top of the flag and on the truck. You can hide behind the rest of the flag when jumping from below. Jumping up from the flag pole will take you up beneath the floating island (34.5s) just right of the coin under the island (but you already have taken this coin). If you went around the island from here to collect the next coin on top and then drop down (15.9s) you would end up 7s to the left of the flag pole, and you would not have missed any coins.]

:[Going left you reach (2.4s) Beret Guy who is walking to the right following a small flying insect that flutters along as indicated with a dotted line.]

:[One jump further ahead Cueball, looking right, is talking to Ponytail.]
::Cueball: If loving you is wrong, I don't want to.

:[A little more than a jump to the left you find a little girl with a hair bun standing behind a giant ten pin bowling pin setup. The front pin is towards the left, and she almost touches one of the four in the last row. She is only half as tall as the pins, and you can almost hide among them except your head that reaches up to the slim neck would always reveal your position.]

:[Less than 3s to the left (after passing 8 small trees or bushes and a couple of bare trees sticking out of the grass) you see a black haired girl (Megan-like but again just a girl). Her hair is flowing wild around her head because she is inside a human sized hamster ball that comes bouncing towards the right (shown with bouncing lines behind the ball and three move lines right next to the left side of the ball). She will soon hit the pins with this “bowling ball”. This is the second hamster ball seen in this comic. The first time it was the adult Megan on a skate board inside the ball. At this point you pass out under the rock island above.]

:[Behind the girl is a big tree, the top of the tree crown extends over the hamster ball. You can stand on the big branch going right. Only the main branch, and only until before the last part with leafs. You can thus easily walk below through the trunk.]

:[After the tree the ground rises, and become grass less and after less than 2s there is a steep cliff. From the ground beneath the tree it would take 5 full jumps to reach the first large outcrop. Standing right beneath the cliff, where there is a small mound, it would still take just a little more than three jumps to this outcrop (a 1s drop high). About two jumps above the ground (before the small mound) there is a smaller fissure beneath the outcrop. Just below this Ponytail is crawling up. You can stand on the ledge above her, and move deep in, but not all the way to the back of this small ledge. It becomes too tight. There you are standing on top of a small dead tree/bush. Above on the outcrop at the edge of this part of the cliff stands Cueball pointing to the right and a little up. He is talking to a child version of Ponytail (the child of Ponytail below?)]
::Cueball: Everything the light touches is our kingdom.
::Girl: What's with the shadowy place over there?
::Cueball: That is beyond our borders.
::Girl: No, I mean what object casts a shadow over a whole region?
::Cueball: Oh, that's god. He lives over there.
:[If you keep going right of the cliff while clicking up arrow for 34s (which would take you to the height of the floating rock) you find noting. If you drop you will (after 8s) hit the hull of the Star Destroyer. This is 11s to the right from the tip. If you drop of the tip while keeping to the left you will (in 9.6s) hit the bottom of the monument (above the entrance through at the bottom). If you had stopped going right and up after 24s you would have dropped to the tip of the destroyer in only 3s. But in no way can it be said that Cueball points you directly too either rock island or Destroyer. But the discussion indicates that something large, casting a shadow over an entire land is up in the air – that would most likely be the Destroyer, which you also get close to. You are nowhere near the island. It could of course also just be meant as a joke on the shadow mentioned in The Lion King.]

:[Jumping left behind them makes you land on a small ledge on the next part of the cliff. One more jump from here and you are almost up (can walk up the last incline), where grassy ground begins again. From here it will take 3s to get back to the tree. Standing in the tree you could get up here in 3.4s. Just when the grass begins there is a little tree, low enough that you can easily jump to the top (about two Cueballs high). You can walk under it, but you can also stand on most of the leafs. Behind the three is some rubbles and a small mound. You can walk on the mound but through the rubble. At the end of the mound is a tree stump, which you cannot stand on top of.]

:[A jump left from the stump takes you on top of a small building where Cueball is sitting on top looking to the right. Inside the building sits a girl with ponytail and a black cap on. There is a coin inside the room with the girl. The building is almost square, but on the side pointing left, is the room with girl and coin. It looks like a store with a large window panel with smaller square windows, probably there is nine in 3x3. But the last two at the bottom to the right is obscured (partly and completely) by the desk behind which the girl is standing. On top of the building behind Cueball is a small raised plateau on the roof. You cannot get directly down to the coin, as it turns out that this is gas station, and the top of the stand with gas, goes so close to the store with the girl, that you cannot drop down. Standing on the left end of this T-shaped stand you can see the entire vies of this gas station. It turns out that there is an X-wing Starfighter parked to the left of the T-stand and Megan standing to the right of this is attempting to pull the gas handle from the stand to her X-wing to refuel it. It seems that the hose is either to short, or that Megan is finished and on her way back after filling the fighter up. There are two gas outlets, one on each side of the stand. You can stand above these beneath the T-shape. You can also stand on top of the fighter, but also walk under it. To get the coin you either have to go all the way over the fighter and back beneath it and beneath the top of the gas outlet. Or you can jump from the T-stand down on the fighter, then jump over the edge of the wings (the s-foils) and get on top of the outlets beneath the T-stand and then jump down in front of the store. Either way, this was one of the more difficult coins to get to, after seeing it, but finally you can walk into the store and collect the coin ('''#151'''). It was the first you found along the ground on the left. You cannot walk through the desk in the shop, but if you press right against it, you can “climb” it hitting the roof before you can go over it.]

:[Once again there is a hidden part of the image. Standing on the wing above Megan, as far to the left you can on this right wing, and if you then make 8 full jumps (or go up fast for 2.4s) you discover two birds that are tied together with a string, and on that string there hangs a coin ('''#152'''). This may be a reference to the two swallows that could carry a coconut if they had it on a string from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. There is no way you will notice this coin even if you jump high over the ground. It will be by testing many places (or knowing). And even going up for 30s in every place would not make you find the rock island!]

:[One jump left of the middle of the X-wing you can land on top of a black stop sign. You can also walk beneath it. While in the gas station the ground had been flat, but now it is again grassy from here.]

:[Going left from the sign (2.4s) you pass a hole in the ground and a few paces behind it is Cueball looking towards the hole. It looks like a well with the typical roof over and stones set in the side the first few meters down. You can stand on the top stones sticking out over the top of the ground, but not on the roof.]

:[You drop in to the well and at the bottom (2.4s) there is a coin ('''#153''') just above the water level, and in the water, going to the top of her legs is a girl with long black hair. You are taller than the girl, so the water doesn’t reach your crotch. The girl speaks and the text is written in white in the black earth to the right side]
::Girl: I'm not a ghost. I just like wells.
:[Ghosts are often associated with wells. The well is almost 12 jumps deep and it takes 3.9s to get up fast. The wells sides are so uneven that if you do not jump from the right spot you will hit the sides on the way up. To be sure to fall to the bottom at once you should fall through the tip of the roof. This will also work out if you just step of the stone walls on either side. At the bottom you will land to the left of the center, so you can see the girl without covering her, when you land. This is also where the coin where. Jumping up from the girl will soon make you hit the walls. Same if you get just a little closer to the left side. If you walk to the left you will walk just out of the water to stand a little up the wall. It is possible to find a foothold so it looks like you are hovering just above the water level. Jumping down from there you can jump straight out. There are ten places you can stand on the wall to the right between bottom and stones at the top, and 17 to the left. Even up in the stone setting at the top you can stand inside one place to the right and two to the left. It is possible to jump longer left than this well by just keeping the left arrow pushed when leaving the rock island in the sky to the left. So in principle you can increase the fall height by about 2.5s if you could just hit this well (it is about 12.2s left in free fall, but it is hard to hit). This may be the longest possible free fall from one structure before standing still at about 18s).]

:[Continuing left from the well the landscape generally rises and the grassy ground is uneven with rocks/stones protruding out from the grass. You reach (2.3s) two girls that are playing. A girl with ponytail runs to the left, jumping of a protruding stone towards a long haired girl with a bun, who holds out her arms towards the other girl. The bun girl stands on a slab of stone. They are clearly children, much lower than you.]

:[Just left of the girls there is a small rise in the ground (two Cueballs heights), and after this the ground rises for a bit before dropping back down toward a small pond. It takes 7s to jump from the girls to the pond. On this small mound there is several small trees. Four to begin with, then a large stone is protruding, then follows 17 more, most of them lower or the same height as Cueball, only one of them clearly higher than you. You cannot stand on any of them. After the last of these 21 trees the ground drops in two small and one large step in between (no grass on the slopes down).]

:[Even if you jumped over the ground, but still with the ground visible at all time, you would fail to realize that there is something floating above you. But if you jump straight up from the highest tree, so this just disappears, you notice something in the air, just to the right of this tree. Five jumps above the ground you can land on what turns out to be a space capsule. Jumping up and around it you find that it looks like one of the space capsules that were used to get the astronauts from the Moon landings back to Earth. It is being lowered through the atmosphere by three large parachutes holding on to the capsule with a total of 17 lines. It seems like the one to the left only has 5 lines, with 6 to the other two, but as the parachutes overlap, and are completely black, it can be discussed which lines belong to which parachute. You can walk on top of the parachutes as well as on the topside of the triangular space capsule. You can walk through the lines. Standing on top of the capsule there is a little more than two jumps up to the bottom of the parachutes. You can also stand on the open hatch of the capsule to the left beneath which Cueball looks out of the capsule while holding his smart phone out to get a signal. He is talking to a guy inside the capsule who replies:]
::Cueball: Yes! My phone has a signal.
::Voice from inside: How many new likes did we get during reentry?
::Cueball: I'm checking!
:[On top of the central of the three parachutes sits a bird (chicken like) looking right and it is thinking, as indicated with a wavy bobble above it:]
::Bird thinking: I don't remember laying these but ''wow'' they're already flying. Gonna be awesome when they hatch.
:[There is a 1.8s drop down the parachutes to the right, and if you go up again (from the fifth small tree after the protruding stone) it takes 1.7s to reach the bottom of the capsule, and 2.8s to reach the top. It takes 1.7s to drop down to the left (as the ground rises below the parachutes). Jumping up again (from just left of the tallest tree) you reach the bottom of the capsule in 1.5s and can reach the top of the parachutes in 2.5s. From the top of the capsule it takes 1.4s to drop either way.]

:[From the top of the capsule it takes 3.6s to reach the small pond. You can sink into the water, but it never goes above your belly. On each side of the pond there are typical water plants of the species Typha. Dividing the pond into three equal distances, there is plants on the first and last distance, and water with just a little grass sticking out in the middle. Walking through the pond takes about 2s.]

:[Just where the bank of the pond stops rising (less than 1s) you reach Miss Lenhart pointing on the ground towards left. A girl with black hair and a boy with standing hair are standing behind her to the right. It is clear from the conversation that the woman is the girl's mom. But she is a full head lower than Cueball, but the kids are even lower.]
::Mom: Check out this one weird bug, discovered by a local mom.
::Girl: Oh my God, mom, stop saying everything like that.

:[The grassy ground is replaced (1.3s) with bare rocky ground, with lots of loose ruble. Continuing 2.8s left from the mom, you reach a small girl (with Megan-like hair) where the ground is rising. She is holding a line going up into the air towards the right. Jumping up, you see that she is holding a kite, and at the end of the kite’s tail there is a coin ('''#154'''). The kite’s tale/coin is just above where the ground turns from grass to rocky. The coin is just a little more than two jumps above the ground. You would not spot the coin while on the ground, but the line for the kite, would always reveal the coin. One jump anywhere between the mom and the kite girl (while going left) would reveal the coin. There is 1s up and down to the coin.]

:[Right after the girl there are more rubble and large boulder, and then the earth starts to emit smoke, and this ends the road to the volcano, you can now start the climb after this section, which you passed in 2m 30s.]

===Climbing the volcano===
There are 2 coins on this climb, no. 155-156.
:[Jumping left from the kite girl for 2.6s takes you past about 11 small clouds of steam, none higher than a jump above ground. Then you reach a plume of smoke coming out of the ground, almost like a geyser. As is clear from the text this is vapor. Cueball is standing just right of this plume looking at it, while Megan walks left on the rubble just on the left side of the plume.]
::Cueball: The Earth is vaping.

:[Left of Megan is a rock jutting out towards the right, that you have to jump to pass. Behind it is a smaller vapor vent. In total there are five vents and it takes 3.2s to pass from the one with Cueball to the last. The first is also the largest and the one with most details/structures. The one after the rock and the last are smaller than the two in between them, those two are almost as high as the first. There is a general tendency that the clouds/vapor venting drifts toward right. After the first vent there are three small clouds before the small vent. Three more before the third vent (these are the two closest vents). Then six before the fourth vent, several of these are larger than the ones before and there is also a cloud above this vent. The longest distance between vents are from the fourth to the fifth and last (1.4s) and between these are five large clouds (also the largest of them all) as well as 13 very small. On the ground there are small rubbles all along the way.]

:[After the steaming rock the ground begins to rise more steadily and you pass two larger rocks and one much larger, before the ground rises up to a small rock plateau (3.2s) where Megan sits and reads for two children, a boy with hair standing out wild and a child with black wavy hair.]
::Megan: "The time has come" the Walrus said, and put on a Sauron's ring...

:[Two jumps ahead (1.8s) on a steep rise up the mountain side is Cueball standing, looking down. Between him and Megan, there was first a cliff behind Megan’s rock and then a steady rise with loose boulders on the way up to Cueball.]
:[A jump further up, (almost vertical now), Ponytail is climbing, towards a very small tree. One more jump above her, is a small ledge in the cliff. Where this ends is a steep rise, about one jump high. Cueball is climbing up with Megan behind him. He looks down on her as she speaks:]
::Megan: This is currently a V2, but it becomes a V7 if the volcano erupts.

:[One more jump above the top of this small cliff is a burning tree stomp, smoke from it is drifting right.]

:[Two jumps ahead from the burning tree you end up standing on the lower part of a very large rock which is lying so you can see a hole beneath it. It’s surface is very jagged. On the left side small rubbles has collected between the rock and where the mountain side rises again. There is also lots of smaller rubble on the ground in the hole beneath the rock. Cueball is standing on top of the rock with Megan to the left. She holds up some kind of device looking left while Cueball is looking almost straight up away from her to the right. Walking up the rock, you can see that Cueball is looking at a coin ('''#155'''). Standing with Cueball it is just inside the frame where he looks. You can’t see it before at this height. It is just two jumps above the top of the rock.]

:[One further jump to the left from beneath the coin takes you between two Cueballs who are climbing the mountain. Between these two places is a lower level after the rock. When the mountain reaches the level of the top of the rock, there is a small vent with vapor coming out and drifting right. The Cueball to the left is up walking left away from the Cueball to the right, who is climbing up a small rise, with hands on the ground. He talks:]
::Right Cueball: If I don't make it back...
::Right Cueball: ...Tell my wife...
::Right Cueball: ...Where I am...
::Right Cueball: ...And why you left me there...

:[Two more jumps above these two the part with many rubbles is replaced with a smooth steady rise of the mountain side. It would take about 11s to jump from the last of the group of vents to this place. The first 3s to get to Megan telling stories, then after 5s you reach Cueball looking down, and then before 7s you would pass Ponytail, then Cueball and Megan and the burning tree. After about 9s you reach the rock with Megan and Cueball and in less than 10s you pass the last two Cueballs and then the steep incline.]

:[It is possible to just “walk” up the incline, and if you did it would take 18.6s to reach the top. On the way you will pass the following:]

:[After 4.8s up the rise you pass Ponytail who comes racing down on her bike:]
::Ponytail: 114 mph!
::Ponytail: Suck it, previous downhill volcano record-holder!

:[Further up (8.9s) there is a small step in the mountain side, and on the step there is a coin ('''#156''') and past this (12.3s) Megan comes sliding down the slope on an old fashioned snow sleigh. It turns out she was halfway between the coin step and the next step (15.3s), where there is a little drop (and some loose boulders) before the rise continues towards the top which you almost reaches in 18s, but then there is a small rise before you reach the very top (18.6s) of this right mountain slope. Moving down again to the right only takes 7.4s and it goes even faster if you jump up as this only takes 7s. If you try to jump down it will take longer as you cannot see where you are and have to pause to fall down to the slope.]

:[If you jumped of the edge of the mountain side to the right, you could just noticed something entering into the frame at the top right. This is thus something you are most likely to spot on the way back from the far left. If you run off the edge and jumps three times while keeping the arrow to the right, you can land on these new objects. You have now landed on the body of one of two great eagles in the sky. You can stand on any part of their bodies, except their wings. If you drop down between them you land (1.5s) just beneath Megan on the sleigh. Jumping up from her would make you hit the left eagle in 2.3s or in 7 full jumps. If you drop of the right eagle to the right, you will fall just so far down the mountain side that you cannot see Megan from there. This drop will take 2s, and it will take 3.4s to come back up or 11 full jumps. The eagles are flying left towards the mountain. If you stand on the head of the right eagle, which is slightly higher up than the left eagle, you can float to the other eagles body by just keeping the left arrow pressed. If you jump right from the head of the left eagle, you will land on the right eagle. The shape of the left eagle’s upper wing, is big enough that you can hide completely in its shade. The eagles are talking:]
::Left eagle: Tolkien said Frodo left the cloak somewhere over here.
::Right eagle: Can't ''he'' just fix it?
::Left eagle: He doesn't want to rewrite that chapter.

:[Left of the eagles and just left of the top of the sharp incline, there is a lava pool. Then there is a small rise to a plateau and on the other side of this is yet another smaller lava pool. This second pool lies about one Cueball height above the first. The first pool has two large bubbles sticking out. It also has a small black hammer like thing that juts out in the middle, and from that fumes comes off in four lines. There are also three vapor plumes and small dots of lava floating above it. The left lake has three smaller bubbles and also three plumes. Between the two pools stands a girl with a hair bun and a Megan-like girl, both much smaller than you.]
::Girl with hair bun: Let's play a game where the lava is the floor of a house.

:[You can jump over the first lava pool to the girls. It takes 1.8s to pass over both pools. After this you reach the edge of the crater of the volcano in 1.8s. This ends this section, which you passed in 1m 26s.]

===The crater of the volcano===
There are 7 coins inside the crater, no. 157-163. Three of these in this section (no 157-159) and four of these (no 160-163) is under the lava in the sub section [[#The cave beneath the lava|The cave beneath the lava]].
:[Moving left from the girls at the lava pool, the ground takes two steps down and then after 1.8s you are at the edge of the volcano crater. Cueball stands behind Megan who again stands on the very edge of the crater and throws in 16 items (rings).]
::Megan: One of these is probably a ring of power or whatever.

:[The crater falls down very steep. If you move left over the edge, enough (but not too much) you can land just above the lava at the bottom of the crater in 2.5s As the crater is not vertical you can stand on almost any part of it, but you cannot just walk out again as you would hit a small protrusion about half way up (5.5s walk from the lava floor). On top of this small protrusion on the inside crater is a small plant. Above this you can also only rise for less than 1s before hitting an obstacle. But above this again you can walk all the way up in 5s. But you have to jump at least one long jump to get out right. If you wish to “walk” down hitting the side it would take almost 10s.]

:[No matter how you drop in to the crater you will notice the two drones flying above the right side of the lava floor, each having four rotors and some device suspended beneath their main body. When standing just above the lava you cannot see them. But you can see one of them and the text from the side of the crater. You can stand on them. From the bottom edge it is possible to jump up and stand on the lower right drone in three jumps. The other drone is little further left. Just below this drone (but still above the right drone) is a coin ('''#157'''). You can stand on both drones, and thus not drop down on the coin from above. But if you walk off the right drone keeping left you will get it. Dropping of the drones you fall into the lava (1.2s) and becomes fully emerged. It takes 1.3s to get back up to them again.]
::Right drone: Remember: There's no such thing as good volcano footage taken by a quadcopter that survived.

:[At the bottom of the crater is a huge pool of lava. It takes 13.4s to jump from side to side. About 2/3 of the way over you pass over (9.4s) a small rock island protruding out of the lava pool. Just when the lava pool begins to the right there is a very large bubble. 35 clouds of vapor hang over the lava before the island. There are also 8 other small bubbles and several very small as well as sparks above the lava or jumping out of the lava, as well as a few small plumes coming out of the lava. On the other side of the island there is an even larger bubble than the one to begin with and five other larger bubbles. There are four plumes and about 24 clouds, some of which are rather small. And then there are other sparks and bubbles above the lava just like on the right side.]

:[On the rocky island outcrop two thirds of the way across the lava lake is a Cueball looking into the lava to the right. He is looking down at a horse standing in the lava. Maybe it is trying to get back out.]
::Cueball: Artex!

:[On the center of the rock, which is so small you can jump over it in one jump, stands a wizard with a stick. It looks very much like Gandalf. He looks to the left.]

:[Another Cueball is walking towards the lava to the left with Megan behind him.]
::Megan: If you breathe out through you nose a little as you jump in, it can keep you from getting lava in you nasal passages.

:[On the other (left) side of the lava pool the mountain rises steeply out of the lava pool (but you could walk up this steep slope). Two jumps above the lava surface there is a hole in the side of the crater. The hole goes down and extends into a small cave. In here, on a tall pile of coins or other treasures sits Megan counting her hoard. There are also two bags with white dollar signs on. At the bottom just inside the cave is a coin ('''#158''') and behind Megan is yet another coin ('''#159''').]
::Megan: Gooooold!
::Megan: Goold!
::Bags: $ $

:[As on the right side you also cannot walk out, even from above the cave. If you try to walk up you as much as possible from the lava floor, you will have to jump four times, and it will take about 12s. You can get up fast in about 4.5s and drop down to the lava again in 2.4s. On the very top of the crater, just a jumps way from the last protrusion below the very edge sits another duck on top of a step up to the very top of this side of the crater. This ends the crater part. You can jump from the duck back to Megan on the other side in 17s, they are exactly at the same height. If you go down into the crater and jumps above the vapors and then up as steep as possible when you reach the other side the trip takes 19s.]

===The cave beneath the lava===
There are 4 coins under the lava, no. 160-163.
:[But so far you have refrained from touching the lava, just out of normal precaution. But finally you go back to the island in the middle, and try to go rescue the horse by going in to the lava lake to the right from the rock island.]

:[You enter the lava and immediately fall below the surface before passing the end of the horse. The ground beneath the lava keeps descending. Just below one of the larger bubbles you fall so far down, that everything becomes black. You keep going right for some time, but nothing seems to happen. So you try to move back out to the left. Suddenly you see a white room, that is not the surface of the lava lake. As you move further left you see that this room connects to a shaft that is now to the left of where you must be hidden. As you move further left this shaft comes full into view. And it sees to widen further out below your level. Continuing to push left you move up again towards the room above you and finally by just going left you reach above the surface of the lava, just right of where the shaft goes down to your left.]

:[You are inside the caves below the lava. Standing just on the edge of the shaft to the left, you can see you are in a large cave where there also seems to be a shaft up to the right. The cave is more than a jump high at the edge of the shaft to the left. You can jump over the lava pool in the middle of the room to get to the right side. The ceiling is dropping towards this end, so here a jump will make you hit the ceiling. You go up the shaft to the right.]

:[The shaft you go up in, is by no means straight up, and when you reach the top (it may easily take 2s to get around the outcroppings) you reach a ledge that comes out from the right wall in a room above the shaft. To get into the room you have to go left to get around this ledge. Standing on the ledge to the right you see a smaller dead-end cave than the one beneath (less than a jump high and 1.5s wide), and on the left side of the shaft in the main part of the cave Cueball is standing looking down at you while holding out his hands towards the right (and you). Behind Cueball the cave drops a little and there are two coins ('''#160''') and ('''#161''').]
::Cueball: What news of the world above? Please, tell me- what's hot and viral? ''What's trending on Twitter?!!''

:[Dropping down from Cueball into the first cave (2.1s) you jump over to the other shaft and go down this left shaft. Again this shaft is not even, and after hitting a ledge where you have to go right to continue down, you end up on the floor (2.7s) of a much larger cave, landing on top of a coin ('''#162'''). It take some skill to get up in about 4s due to the shafts is twisting. There are plenty of places on both sides of this shaft (and also in the previous shafts) where you can stand still.]
:[When standing on the floor on the left side of this huge cave you can just see two Cueballs talking to the right. Moving towards them reveals more. In the middle of this cave there lies a flat rock on the floor. Standing on this you can see the whole scene. The two Cueballs (now to the left) are standing in front of two empty desks. The left Cueball is talking to the right Cueball. Behind the empty desks are one more desk behind which a guy with black hair is sitting. Behind these three desk to the far right in this cave is a raised platform – it is like a small tower with two levels each with a cross holding it together. On top of this contraption is a chair in which another hairy guy is pointing out at the two Cueballs standing up. He speaks as well, but there is no line between him and his text, which floats quite far in front of him over the guy at the desk.]
::Left Cueball: I always assumed Elon Musk's volcano lair would be like... Tropical. And ...Well, ''pleasant''.
::Elon Musk in the high chair: Back to your desks, swine!

:[Standing on the stone there are four jumps to the ceiling. But it is even higher over the two Cueballs, where it almost takes five jumps to reach the ceiling. It takes 1.5s to get up and 1.2s to fall down again.]

:[Behind the raised chair, the ceiling comes to a low point, less than two jumps high. But then behind the ceiling goes up again, only to reveal a shaft going up. And when you stand near the right wall of the large cave you can see that this shaft goes up, then right and then down, just as jagged and unregularly as the other two shafts in this lava cave. There are 3 jumps to the top. From there it takes about 2s to get down (if you avoid all the ledges on the way down that you could get stuck on).]

:[At the bottom of this deepest dead-end cave, to the right of where the shaft enters through the ceiling, stands Ponytail and Hairbun looking at an antenna hanging down from the ceiling in the right part of this small cave. Both of them hold a string that goes to the ground behind them. The antenna has a thick central piece connecting it to the ceiling. About two thirds down of this piece, that becomes a little thinner on the way down, is a broad piece going perpendicular on the main part, to each side. Below this the central part continues but much thinner, and two more pieces is connected with this central part, just as the one above, but these two becomes shorter and shorter compared with the top part. The third and lowest part is the smallest and it ends the antenna. You can stand on the top part of these three parts parallel with the floor. To the left of the central piece above the one you can stand on, is a coin ('''#163'''). The room is 1.5s wide, as much on each side of the shaft. At its highest point, away from the shaft, it is one jump high.]
::Ponytail: So ''this'' is where it is.

:[There is nothing else down here, but now you have to see if you can get out again. It takes about 10s to get back to where you came in through the lava. It can be rather difficult to get out again. But to make sure you come out you move into the lava and to the right. Then just as the cave is about to disappear to the left you jump up as high as you can. Then push a little right while continuing to push up and do this for a little while and then eventually you will get out. There is nothing else to see below the lava. But you can easily get stuck, and thus the next section will try to describe what you can find out about the lava lake by testing it from end to end. But if you have had enough you will now move out of the crater to the left, ([[#At the end of all things|go straight there]]).]

====Into the lava lake====
There are no coins in the section.
:[Beneath the lava… Going in the lava from the right, you step in next to the first cloud just above the surface. You do not disappear beneath the lava here, just to the middle and your head is in the cloud. Moving on your head begins to disappear and just before reaching the largest bubble on this side your head is gone. Just around here the bottom is descending. If you stand so you jump through the right part of the bubble you jump high enough to see the drones. A step to the middle of the bubble and you can’t see them with a jump and one more step and you reach even less above the surface in a jump. Then there seems to be a plateau here reaching until just before the big cloud reaching under the high cloud. Jumping on this will take you close to the high cloud. Then there is a downslope, and while you move under the cloud with the “arm” at the top to the right, you go from jumping clearly higher than that, to just breaching the surface at its left tail. The bottom keeps falling down, and already before reaching under the next small cloud, before a really long cloud begins, you will not breach the surface in one jump. But two jumps will take you above that cloud. The bottom falls very steep here, and already before the end of this small cloud, you only just reach the bottom of it with two jumps. Continuing left you soon lose sight of the surface. This happens just before you reach a small bubble on the surface beneath the middle of the long cloud. Just before this two jumps takes you to the low cloud.]

:[Now when standing at the bottom you cannot see the surface. But you can jump down a given point from above. Just left of the long cloud you need two perfect jumps to just breach the surface with the top of your head. Further just before the spark jumping out of the surface you need three jumps to get out. In three jumps you can reach above the level of the small cloud to the right above the long cloud. But if you fall down right through the spark, you do not fall deeper than that you again can see the surface from where you stand. So there seems to be a cliff going up down below. Two jumps is need to get out, but then you get almost as high as with three jumps before. Stepping right you fall down as expected. Walking left into the cliff and jumping makes nothing happen. But if you walk a little back again and jump you just see the surface, but then hit something and fall back. Maybe there is a small protrusion on the cliff. Walking left and jumping makes nothing happen. But if you try for several small steps then suddenly you will jump up again. You just found out that there is something floating in the lava that you can stand on, but also walk beneath. It begins just where the lava spark jumps out to the right, and ends just before the small vapor plume comes out under two small clouds. When you fall down from the floating thing, you can jump up just through this plume. It seems like the floating thing bends down a little towards the left, so you jump less high out in two jumps than from the middle. If you just fall off the left side of this floater, then you can walk back in 10 small pushes of the arrow and jump up on the right side. The bottom has continued to decline under the floater and from just falling off on the left you can only just get the hover board above the surface in three jumps.]

:[After the floater you continue left. Moving above the surface and falling down through a small bubble between clouds reveals a deeper part. It now takes five jump what before took three. This deep space seems to be a hole because it is not so deep just to the right, and while it is the same depth for a short distance, then already before reaching the next cloud it is clearly a jump less deep, and suddenly when reaching the middle of the next large cloud (with a trail pointing right at the bottom) you do not drop low enough to not see the surface. Actually you are here so high that a jump will take you head just above the surface. Dropping down from there to the right again it takes three jumps to get up. At the small spark right of the cloud you need four jumps to breach the surface, though taking you over the cloud, but at the center of the previous cloud it take five jump to just get halfway out. Going right from here at the bottom a little you still jump out in five. Going a little further out, you do not jump out. Pushing right at the bottom of the hole obviously takes you under some overhang. Pushing back left one time makes no difference, but twice is enough that you can jump out again. Testing you find out that it is not the floater that overhangs, because then you should be able to walk under it to the right. So the deep hole can trap you under an overhang to the right. It turns out the same can happen if you move towards the left at the bottom of the hole. Then you cannot jump out, but one step right and you can get out five jump; or in 1.5s if you wish to go fast. So this small hole is not the way into the underground lair, but could trap and frustrate you if you get stuck on either end.]

:[Getting back out of the hole you jump up to the high level just to the left of this deep hole. This begins just under the middle of the tail cloud. As you found out just by moving off this cliff to the right, you are three full jumps from breaching the surface with your head. At the spark after the cloud it is 4 jumps to get all out and over the plume further right it is bottom with five jumps. So there is some outcrop between the bottom of the hole and the top of the cliff. If you just step of the cliff to the right and try to step into it from the left, you cannot jump out. But you are higher up, because now a single jump will make you see he surface, but jumping twice will not take you much higher. Maybe it is an outcrop? But when you go further left and jump you continue to hit something, but you can see the surface and see that you still move left. Finally you can jump to the surface again. So this is another floater. But this floats so high that you can see you head when you jump from the top, and see the surface when you jump up under it. It begins just to the left of the center of the cloud with the tail to the right and ends just on the other side of the large bubble. Under the bubble you can jump so your head almost coincides with this when at the highest. Then the floaters top drops a little, as you can still stand on it, just before you fall down again, but here on the edge you cannot see your head when jumping. Two jumps take you all the way out though. Going left takes you to the bottom where there are three jumps to just get you all out (just at the left end of the cloud above the large bubble). In two jumps from the bottom you can land on the floater. It takes about 8 steps to move over or under the floater.]

:[Continuing left from the floater the bottom stays the same height (three jumps to get just all out) while moving under the next two clouds. Reaching the third cloud it becomes deeper again, and at the next large bubble on the surface it takes three jumps to just get your head above the bubble. And just after the next cloud after the one over the bubble, it takes three perfect jumps to just see the top of your head breach the surface. Under the middle of the two clouds on top of each other it takes four jumps to get well clear, but three is nowhere near enough. At the left edge of the bottom of these two clouds, it takes four perfect jumps to get all out. And suddenly between this cloud and the next high one, where there are some sparks above the lava you cannot even reach the surface with 6 jumps. But just a step to the right you can with six jumps, where you just breach the surface with your head. This must be the cave entrance. Below the small high cloud left of the spark the depth is the same, but under the center of the next cloud it take seven jumps to just get your torso out of the lava. Just before to the right of that cloud seven jumps would take you above that cloud. At the end of that cloud to the left, seven jumps will just breach the surface. Under the small bubble under the next cloud it takes eight jumps to just get all out. And at the edge of that cloud it suddenly takes 11 jumps to get out, though to above the left tail of that cloud. In between this and the next cloud, where there are some spark it is 13 jumps out. But in the middle of the next cloud it suddenly only takes 5 jumps to get above that cloud (4 not enough to get out though). Just right of that cloud it is five to get out. Going down right again through the spark floating highest through the back of your head makes you go deepest. It takes 14 jumps to breach the surface, getting just entirely above the top spark. It takes 4.5s to get out fast from there. Going left from there it only takes 1.5s before you can see the underground cave and 5.3s before you stand inside. It is clear from you entrance that you go down and then up again to get in. But how does this big and deep hole look like?]

:[The deep hole with the entrance. Starting from inside the cave you jump into the lava. Your head just pops up. One step further you are gone, but can jump all the way out. It goes steep. Next small step you can only see the head in a jump. One more step and you cannot get up in one jump. Three more steps and two jumps only just take you all the way out. This is at the center of the lava pool in that cave. From here the floor levels out, and two jumps take you just out. Then you reach under the overhang where the lava pool ends. Going under the overhang you find that the lava is still more than one jump high but you hit the ceiling fast when jumping a second time. To begin with the ceiling come lover, but still more than one jump, and the floor also falls a little. But then the floor can be seen to rise by the cave above. Also the ceiling begins to rise, so the second jump is longer to hit. Already before the edge of the lava pool is gone to the left, you can jump two jumps without hitting; but not three. Then you reach the very edge where you can still see the shaft. It is still two jumps high. One step further out you can still see some of the shaft when jumping. No difference. From now you are walking blind. You know there is a point where you can jump straight out. But nothing happens if you just go a few steps right and try to jump. It only took 14-16 steps to get to where you could see the shaft when going from this drop point. But that must have been downhill. It takes 23-25 small steps from where you can see the shaft to reach the place where you can go all the way up (in 4.5s). If you are shorter back you can only expect that there is some outcrop above you. If you move along from this spot for a few seconds to the right, and then try to jump out, nothing happens. One step back and you get out the same place. It seems it is very hard to get out directly any other places than this one. But the fastest way out seem to be just getting below the out crop from the cave, and then jumping up while first keeping to the right and then to the left. It can be done in about 10-12s.]

:[It is possible to go left out of the deep hole, as long as you are above and left of this deepest part; that is where you could end by falling down through the right edge of the clouds, just left of the two sparks above each other between clouds. From there you can walk out of the lava pool towards the island and break the surface at the horse in just 5.6s. There is a part of the deep hole that slopes a lot around here. You can jump up in five jumps at the clouds right edge, and then you can find a spot between the cloud and the sparks that takes 8 jumps just right. Jumping up and down like this you may lose your foot hold at the side of that wall and suddenly find yourself at the bottom. In that case going left takes you to the cave. But as long as you stay out of the deepest pit you can walk out left. Going right from the right side of the hole will not take you out as you will get trapped in the smaller hole. But it would not be too hard to get out. Moving left the depth quickly decreases; four jumps at the left edge of the same small cloud (against five at the right end); at the small bubble before the next cloud, three jumps to just breach surface; at the spark in the air under next larger cloud, three jumps to reach this spark; at the next spark under next lower cloud, three jumps to get totally above this cloud. And suddenly at the right edge of the next flash like cloud, you are so high that you can see the surface. Actually this is just the place where a step right will take you so low you cannot see the surface. Two jumps will take you all out. Now you can see how the bottom rises steadily. Just after the sparks in the air before the next cloud you reach a spot where you can jump once and breach the surface. At the larger spark exploding between three clouds, you can almost jump all the way out. Doing so becomes possible beneath the small low cloud after that spark. Finally you reach under the horse, but not until you reach the middle of the horse does your head breach the surface while standing. There is a quite steep rise just before the rock island.]

:[On the other side of the rock island you follow Cueballs lead into the lava lake. You are able to stand just above the lava. Then there is a quite steep descend and just four small steps out you are completely below the surface. This is just after the first cloud near the surface. If you jump you reach the top of the text. At the large bubble after the next low cloud you reach the bottom of the top line. After the next cloud, just before there is a small vent out of the lava, you can just jump completely out of the lava. One step more on top of the vent you only get halfway out, and two more steps and you cannot breach the surface in one jump under the small bubble after the vent. At the next vent after the next cloud you still get all the way out in two jumps (above this low vent). Under the largest of all the bubbles under the next cloud you almost get completely out in two jumps. At the vent after this bubble two jumps just takes most of your head above the surface. At the spark under the start of the next cloud you need three jumps to breach the surface, but you then jump into the higher cloud above the low cloud. At the end of the low cloud you still need three jumps, but gets even higher out. The bottom of the lake begins to rise again.]

:[The bottom is rising on this part, and when the next cloud begins, you can just breach the surface with two jumps. This is already possible at the small spark between the clouds. At the end of the cloud your head is almost out in two jumps. At the start of the next longer cloud your head reaches up to the cloud. Just left of this point the bottom is now so high up that you can see the surface when standing on the bottom. But two steps left and the bottom falls again. Still just possible to see the surface from the point just before the cloud makes a sway up. When under the spark under this long cloud you cannot see the surface, but still get your head out in two jumps. This stays the same when moving to the larger bubble at the end of the long cloud and the bottom stays at this depth under the high cloud next. At the end of the high cloud there are three jumps to get out, but then still reaching almost over this high lying cloud. But at the end of this cloud the bottom drops away, and it now takes four jumps to reach the same height (and thus four to breach the surface).]

:[You have found something deep here. Going further left to just before the next cloud the depth is the same. But just a small step left dropping down through the edge of this larger cloud and you land on the bottom so you can see clearly above the surface – two jumps to get all out. It is possible to step a little back right and drop just a little down, but still just see the surface. One step more and you drop two jumps height down. Moving left from this edge (away from the cliff to the right) will take you right out of the lava lake, going up a steep incline, and you get out of the lava in 2sfrom there and would reach the treasure cave with Megan in 4.3s. Already at the left edge of the last big cloud you can breach the surface in on jump. Just before the last vent you can jump all the way out. And just after the last big bubble your head breaches the surface. One step and your body is out and two more steps and you stand on dry ground clear above the surface.]

:[Only thing missing is to explorer the deep hole for any caves down below. You quickly find out that the hole is a slim shaft, as one step to the left or two to the right makes it impossible to jump out. There are just two places where it is possible to jump out/fall down, between the edges of the two clouds above, and you can hardly be between them, so there are only two or three positions. If you go right from the right most part of the hole, you cannot jump up. If you back you can. If you go twice you need to go twice back. But no matter if you keep the right arrow down for some time, you will never need more than three steps back to jump out. So there is an outcrop over the shaft when going right and it doesn’t lead anywhere. If you go left one or two times from the left edge, you also cannot go up, but you can go back in the same amount of steps. But if you go three times left, you cannot just go back. Here you might panic, with your 163 coins trapped beneath the lava. But if you try to jump up left and right for some time you should be able to get out. You decide to try again. Going in from the left and making three small steps left, you cannot go out again after going three rights. But if you then go three back left and jump a few times and go three rights then you can jump out, so there is a deeper drop where you can get under another outcrop to the right. Of course you may easily get trapped beneath one of the other outcroppings. But no matter what; if you keep the left mouse down for a while after going into this hole (reaching some deeper dead-end part to the left), and then push up arrow while keeping right arrow down, then you will breach the surface in 1.8s (so it is deeper than the other “dead-end” hole to the right of the cave entrance, with an even slimmer entrance and more details below to get trapped in). In this way you breach the surface two clouds to the right of the shaft. There is nothing hidden down there except a slim shaft that can trick you into believing you cannot get out again. Having found all this out you proceed to the end of all things on the left side of the crater. It only took about 5m to check all this out inside and in the crater.]

===At the end of all things===
There are 6 coins after the volcano, no. 164-169, including the very last.
:[After the duck at the top of the crater there is about 2.8s before you begin to go down on the other side of the volcano. After the slab of stone the duck is sitting on, there is a sharp decline, but then a small rise again, on top of which stands a small slim tree, maybe dead. After this small protrusion, there is one more indentation and then you are at the outer edge.]

:[Moving down the slope for 2s you pass an old(?) Cueball with a walking stick who is walking up the volcanos left side.]

:[Further 2s down you find another basketball hoop, pointing right, this time with a coin ('''#164''') on top. Ponytail, standing beneath the hoop is talking to Megan, who stands with the basketball, looking right towards the volcano.]
::Ponytail: OK, as soon as it erupts, go for the dunk. Our sweet moves will be preserved for all eternity!

:[Moving along the rocky and declining ground, with lots of large loose slabs of stones, you reach a few smaller loose boulders (5.3s) above which hangs a coin ('''#165'''). It is just more than one jump up (two fast clicks up will take it).]

:[After this coin the ground continues to drop, and after 2.3s you pass a dead leafless tree just a little higher than you, then five to six larger boulders (one you have to jump) lying on two mounds, then two even larger boulders, one on top of the other, and then three small boulders before the end of all things. This took 8.4s to get here.]

:[When standing on the right side of the first of these last three boulders you are still in the center of the screen. But after this, where this boulders height increases slightly, you begin moving away from the center and towards the left edge of this part of the world.]

:[At the very end of the left side of the image are four coins ('''#166'''), ('''#167'''), ('''#168'''), and ('''#169''') and then a blonde haired woman with a hair bun looking right at you. (From here you could get back up to the duck at the crater top in 19.3s).]
::Woman: In the sky,
::Woman: beyond the mountain,
::Woman: I saw a starship.
:[She is thus the last person to try to direct you towards the Star Destroyer, should you have missed all the other hints so far… This last section only took 1m to pass.]

:[When moving back from the furthers left as fast as possible without hitting any obstacles you can come back to the return the coins at the terminal in the play area in about 1 minute and 51 seconds by holding down the right arrow key and keeping high enough to not hit any obstacles, before going under the monument at the base.]

:[Finally you can hand in all your 169 coins in the terminal which would then display the following message and make you feel like a wizard:]
::{| class="wikitable"
|style="background-color:black;"| <font color="yellow">'''You got 169 coins in 5000 seconds'''<br>Are you Gandalf?</font>
|}

Note: The [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/1/18/169_coins_transcript_way.PNG time given] is realistic when following this transcript.

{{DEFAULTSORT:1608}}
[[Category:Comic subpages]]

1608: Hoverboard/Transcript

2026-05-15T15:58:11Z

FaviFake:

{{TOC}}Below, you will find a '''complete transcript''' for [[1608: Hoverboard]]. This includes all text, but also a full description of all drawings as well as size and distances. To make text stand out clearly this has been indented twice to make it easy to spot if scrolling down.

The transcript will be based on what can be experienced by moving through the game without any cheating. It has been planned, (and details are mentioned), based on this [https://1101b.com/xkcd1608/ full drawing] that can be zoomed and navigated, including revealing secret passages and displaying coins. The transcript starts by describing the play area, taking all the coins there first, it may feel normal to move right in the reading direction at first.
*This means into the '''Star Wars area''' to the right.
**Following the line of sight for the people looking up, it will then be obvious to discover first the smaller Rebel Blockade Runner
**And after this following the bombs you reach up to the Imperial Star Destroyer.
**Having finished the total exploration of these two, you are now at the end of the Destroyer.
**Jumping through the air high above the ground you suddenly reach the end of this small world and drop down.
*From there you will then go back towards left along the ground.
*Passing through the play area on your way left you then enter the '''Lord of the Rings area''' on your way to the volcano – a representation of Mount Doom.
**The few items floating above the ground or hidden below ground is “discovered” on the way (however unlikely).
**Thus once ending at the left edge to the world, you have now seen it all.
Following this path '''the coins are numbered''' as you move along
*For instance when you take coin 19 it will look like this:
*''Moving back to the left you pick up the coin ('''#19''') at the tip of the canon''.
*The coins do not necessarily get a number the first time you see them, if they are behind some obstacle. They will first get a number when you actually take them!
*Coins will always be given individual numbers even if there is more than one in the same place. So it is possible to count from one coin to the next.
**The actual number of course only makes sense when following the course of the transcript.
**The transcript will take you in approximately the fastest path through all coins, but since you do not know where they are, you also go through all dead-ends even hose without any coins.
*The number of coins in each section of this transcript will be given at the start of each section.
'''Distances''' are given as the time you will need to use to get from one point to the other, when using the program as it is.
*(There can be problems from browser to browser of [[1608: Hoverboard#Bugs and errors|errors in the game]], that can make this timing useless).
*To the left and right this can be given as the amount of time you need to hold the left/right arrow down without hitting any obstructions before you reach a given point.
**Either moving along the ground or while jumping, the latter almost always the fastest approach, but not always.
**For small distances number of small steps can be used; especially when you cannot see yourself in some secret passage.
**Problem with this is that even small steps can be different length depending on how fast you press.
*Distances down can be given in fall time.
*Distances up are trickier to measure, as a full jump moves you upwards for about 0.55 seconds, before you fall down again. So often it is nice to also give the fall time afterwards.
**If you push faster you will move up faster. For instance by pushing at the right time you can get just high enough to “leave” the play area in just 6 jumps from the ground level outside the walls of the play area.
**This will take about 3.3 seconds. You will then fall back in 1.5 s.
**But if you push 12 times in a fast repeating pattern you will also be able to leave the play area, but in less than 2 seconds, but will still fall the same amount of time.
**Usually going up long distances (thought white empty space) you wish to do it fast, so upwards distances may be given in number of quick repeating pushed on the up arrow that is needed, but always also in the time it takes, as this often makes more sense, as you move different speed with different repetition speed.
**For smaller distances, especially when you can see anything to gauge you speed, you can use number of perfect jumps as an indicator of height.
Some time will be used to investigate the secret passages, and other dark spaces; especially the lava lake, but also the cotton passage and the hole in the monument.
*It will be easy to navigate past these tedious descriptions since the entire transcript is split into many sections, and these dark parts will have under sections, that you can thus skip from the end of the section above.
*But if you did not have a map, this was the only way to make sure you did not lose a coin in some hidden cave.
**The lava lake is the only place where such a hidden lair exists. As the other dark passages either takes you nowhere or somewhere you can get to without going through these secret passages. But without the lava lake you will be four coins short.
This transcript takes up about 63 pages in a word file (the code) more than 41.000 words (213k characters with space). This thus transcends even the [[980: Money/Transcript]] with more than 10 pages.

==Play area==
There are 17 coins in this section (no. 1-17), but they will not be taken until [[#Game start|Game start]] below.
:[This is the starting point. The first part of this transcript is the same as on the front page, but it is included for completeness:]

===The beginning===
:[Cueball is shown on a hoverboard in the center of the comic. Around him is a simple maze with 12 yellow coins. Another Cueball without hoverboard is shown standing on one of the platforms to the right. The bottom half of the window is black. Right of where Cueball stands is a ramp. Behind the ramp is a terminal. There is lots of space left of the maze, outside the maze. Text is only written in white below in the black area. The first part of the text is written below Cueball on hoverboard. Then there is an arrow pointing to the terminal and a label. Finally there is a line of text at the bottom of the black area.]

:[Under Cueball:]
::My new book,
::''Thing Explainer,''
::comes out today!
::To celebrate, here's
::a small game.

:[Under the arrow below the terminal.]
::Deposit
::coins here

:[At the bottom:]
::Use the arrow keys to move
:[This text disappears the first time you uses an arrow key, as you will below:]

====Investigating the maze====
:[When you begin the game by using the arrows you start to move the hoverboard Cueball around – he will from now on be “you”. You soon discover that there are five more gold coins in the maze and that it is higher. You also find out that you can deliver coins at the terminal. When you do the coins you have taken reappear, and the number of coins you have taken and the time will appear beneath you. Moving around in the maze you find that there is a spot on the right wall above the other Cueball from where you can see the entire maze. From here you describe what you see.]

:[To begin with you stood in the lower left corner of the maze on the floor, next to the left wall. Above you there is a coin. Above the coin is a ceiling. To the left of the coin is an opening out of the maze. To the right a wall going down, this makes this a kind of small shaft. To the right from the floor is a ramp going up. At the top is a coin. The ramp rests on a box on the floor. Behind the ramp and the box is the terminal where you deposit the coins. On the other side of the terminal is another box on top of which is a coin. Behind the box on the floor next to the right wall is a coin. The wall is thick here, but it ends a small jump above the floor. There is a hole in the wall to the right here, but although you could stand on this wall where the hole is, you cannot get out, as there is a small part of the wall (normal thickness), that goes a little further, and makes the hole to slim for you. Above this hole is the thick slab hanging in the air on which the other Cueball stands. There is a coin to his right and to the right of this yet another opening to the right of the maze. But once again this is too small (low) for you to pass through as the right wall continues up here. To the left of Cueball and a little down there is a line with a little higher edge to the left. The shelf is beneath another longer line going from above Cueball and to just above this little edge to the left. On the shelf lie three coins. There is a “soft” spot in the line above these three coins where you can jump through. This takes you up to either left or right part of the line, which is solid enough. There are two coins to the right and one to the left. To the left of this the wall creating the shaft above where you start reaches up to this height. Here is another shaft, along the left wall going down. There is a coin over this opening. The floor of this shaft is the ceiling above where you started. There is a hole in the maze to the left here as well. Above the coin is another thicker slab where you can stand. The wall to the left is only solid at the level of the coin beneath this slab. You can also jump out the maze to the left above the coin, beneath the slab. On top of this slab there is a coin. There is no wall on the left of this slab, so also here you can exit the maze (the forth exit to the left). To the right of you there are two curved lines forming brackets turned the wrong way like this:“) (“. The brackets are in the middle of the maze their center above the soft spot in the floor of the line beneath them. In the very middle of these two brackets there is a coin. There is also a coin above the top of each bracket. Just above these coins is the ceiling of the maze. Just left and right of the left and right coin there are two openings in the ceiling, from which you can exit the maze. To the right of the brackets is the right wall. Above the slab that Cueball is standing there is a triangular structure jutting out from the wall. Just beneath it is yet another hole in the maze wall to the right, but for the third time it is too small to get out. It is possible to stand on the wall just beneath this, which is what you are doing now, to see the entire maze in one go. Only thing is that to get here you had to take one coin, the one to the right on the line with the hole in the floor. Above this triangular item the wall continues a little while but then there is the first and only hole in the right wall big enough for you to use as an exit to the right. Just beneath this hole, above the triangle is the last coin.]

====Investigating the functionality====
:[When you start returning to the terminal to deposit coins, the ones you have found will be counted (and returned to their starting positions) and the time will be given. The message will be written in yellow at the bottom of the screen (in the black part). Below the score/time there will be an extra line with smaller text indicating a rating of your result. This rating is only based on the number of coins not the time it took. The text stays at the bottom of the screen for 3 seconds. If you move around while the yellow text is still there it will stay at the bottom of the screen. It can thus be moved into an entirely white area before it disappears.]

:[Below is a table with examples of what may be written depending on the number of coins. The time (and the amount when there is a range with similar rating) is just chosen at random (although in a realistic range). To get above 17 you of course have to leave the play area and come back again... Links to images from the number of coins. Times are realistic!]
::{| class="wikitable"
!# coins
!Text when depositing this number of coins
"X" is the number of coins collected
|-
|[[1608: Hoverboard/Screen-shots#0 coins|0 coins]]
|style="background-color:black;"| <font color="yellow">'''You got 0 coins in 1 second'''<br>You successfully avoided all the coins.</font>
|-
|[[1608: Hoverboard/Screen-shots#1 coin|1 coin]]
|style="background-color:black;"| <font color="yellow">'''You got a single coin in 1 second'''<br>It's a start.</font>
|-
|[[1608: Hoverboard/Screen-shots#2-4 coins|2-4 coins]]
|style="background-color:black;"| <font color="yellow">'''You got X coins in 3 seconds'''<br>Not bad!</font>
|-
|[[1608: Hoverboard/Screen-shots#5-9 coins|5-9 coins]]
|style="background-color:black;"| <font color="yellow">'''You got X coins in 12 seconds'''<br>Terrific!</font>
|-
|[[1608: Hoverboard/Screen-shots#10-16 coins|10-16 coins]]
|style="background-color:black;"| <font color="yellow">'''You got X coins in 10 seconds'''</font>
|-
|[[1608: Hoverboard/Screen-shots#17 coins|17 coins]]
|style="background-color:black;"| <font color="yellow">'''You got 17 coins in 15 seconds'''<br>You found all the coins! Great job!</font>
|-
|[[1608: Hoverboard/Screen-shots#18 coins|18-41 coins]]
|style="background-color:black;"| <font color="yellow">'''You got X coins in 430 seconds'''</font>
|-
|[[1608: Hoverboard/Screen-shots#42 coins|42 coins]]
|style="background-color:black;"| <font color="yellow">'''You got 42 coins in 460 seconds'''<br>No answers here.</font>
|-
|[[1608: Hoverboard/Screen-shots#More than 42 coins|43-168 coins]]
|style="background-color:black;"| <font color="yellow">'''You got X coins in 460 seconds'''</font>
|-
|[[1608: Hoverboard/Screen-shots#All 169 coins|All 169 coins]]
|style="background-color:black;"| <font color="yellow">'''You got 169 coins in 1457 seconds'''<br>Are you Gandalf?</font>
|}
:[The messages with more than 17 coins of course cannot be found before exiting and returning with coins from the outside. Notice that in Microsoft Explorer those without any extra message would display a message anyway: ''Undefined'']

:[Once you decide to leave the play area you have many options. Although there are 4 holes in the outer walls on each side and two on top, only 7 of these can be used to exit the maze. All four holes can be used as exits to the left. To the right the three lowest holes are not big enough to pass through, but the one at the top is the biggest of all 10 holes in the outer walls. The two last holes are in the roof, centered symmetrically between the middle and the outer edges.]

:[Once outside you find that the surroundings left and right are symmetrical. Two high walls rise above the top of the initial plat form games areas upper limit. On the other side of these walls you can see a flat surface, one jump height above the play area. Only difference between left and right inside the play area, is that there lies a rock to the left. Standing in the middle between walls and play area you can still see both. The walls cannot be seen from inside the play area, and when at the walls this of course also goes the other way so you cannot see the play area from here. However for the program the play area is anything within and below the walls. More precisely you first leave the play area if you pass over the middle part at the top of the walls, or if you make one jump from standing on top of the walls. You can go higher by almost a full jump (by jumping in the air right below the top) without leaving the area. From the ground it will take you six perfect jumps to reach the limit. Once you leave the area you get a flashing warning message in red letters at the bottom of the screen:]
::{| class="wikitable"
|style="background-color:black;"| <font color="red">'''Return to the play area'''</font>
|}

:[This message flashes three times over 1.2 seconds (the message only disappears for about 150 ms each time), then there is a pause for about 1.3 seconds and then this repeats for a total of 5 repetitions, a total of 15 flashes in just about 11.3 second seconds. The message will stop immediately if you re-enter the play area during this period. If you re-enter later it will flash once you leave again.]

:[There is nothing in the air above the play area, and from the center there is also nothing to see. But if you jump straight up from the top of the right wall (pushing the up arrow about 80-100 times) you will ascend right in front of the Star Destroyer. Which you of course is not aware of at this time.]

:[Peaking outside like this you realize there may be more to the game, and you will not be stopped by the red message. You thus decide to go back to the terminal to begin your exploration by taking the coins as fast as you can before moving outside.]

===Game start===
Here you get 17 coins coin no. 1-17.
:[Finally you are ready to begin the game standing at the terminal where you have just reset the timer and the score!]

:[You start by jumping left taking the coin ('''#1''') over the ramp, then you jump up and out the maze through the lower left exit getting a coin ('''#2'''), re-entering above and going up inside this shaft for a coin ('''#3'''), you go right to take the coin ('''#4''') under the left bracket, then going up left you take the coin ('''#5''') over the slab to the left, jumping up you take the coin ('''#6''') over the left bracket, let yourself fall in between to take the coin ('''#7''') between them and jump right up and right to take the coin ('''#8''') on the top of the right bracket. Falling down left you grab the coin ('''#9'''), continuing down the slope to the left to grab coin ('''#10''') and further left coin ('''#11'''). Dropping through the soft spot pushing further left you fall on the coin ('''#12''') to the left on this shelf then you move right taking the middle coin ('''#13''') and moving towards Cueball the right coin ('''#14'''), jumping up to Cueball you grab the coin ('''#15''') behind him, quickly drop down left again, going right, getting first the coin ('''#16''') on the box, then the coin ('''#17''') to the right at the wall, and quickly go back to the terminal in just 10s… Well this was not the plan so you do it once more, and remember to go out through the hole to the right and prepare to leave the play area with the red warning message blinking beneath you.]

==Going right into the Star Wars territory ==
In this main section you will find 131 coins, no. 18-148. There are no new coins until you reach the section [[#The Rebel Blockade Runner|The Rebel Blockade Runner]].
:[Once you leave the play area to the right over the wall you fall down to the fundament of the wall. This is a completely horizontal surface that stretches across the screen. But as soon as you move away from the wall you see the end of it. When the fundament ends there is drop of about one jump height and suddenly you are standing on an uneven ground with grass and small plants.]

:[Leaving the fundament behind the first you encounter is one more Cueball like the one in the play area. After him you reach two trees, the first taller than the second and around them eight small trees. You can pass under them, but only just for the small tree; because if you jump, you can also “climb” them, by landing in the treetops. This means you cannot pass through them above ground. You can stand on three branches on each tree; only the top branch on the tallest tree won’t hold you. You cannot stand on the smaller trees.]

:[After the last small tree you see Cueball standing with Megan. When you get close you see that they are standing at the edge of a cliff (about 1 seconds fall deep). They are looking upwards to the right and Megan points in the direction they are looking. It has taken about 40s in total to get here.]
::Megan: Wow.

:[If you follow her direction, starting with overlapping her on screen, and then keeping the right arrow down while pushing the up arrow fast repeatedly (about 100 times in about 18-19 seconds) you will just pass over the smaller of the two space ships – the Rebel Blockade Runner (without seeing it) and then hit the Star Destroyers bottom. Going a little back from where you hit it you will arrive at an entrance below that will take you to a room with a coin in front of some rubble that looks like a cave-in. This will be mentioned again later during the exploration of the Star Destroyer, just noting here where you would arrive. If you just let yourself fall back down again towards the left you would hit the Rebel Blockade Runner after 6 s. There are 3 more seconds to fall to the ground from the top of the Runner. If you went straight up from the Cliff top to the Star Destroyers bottom, (which is also going all the way there), it would take 8.6 s to fall back down to the cliff. This could indicate that Megan is actually pointing at the runner, as it's front is in the direction she is pointing, whereas the Destroyer even goes over their heads, with its tip just outside the wall of the play area.]

:[If you instead run over the edge of the cliff before starting to press the up arrow while keeping down the right arrow, then after about 30 repetitions and less than 6 seconds later the Rebel Blockade Runner will just show up in the lower right corner, and this thus starts the exploration of this, the smaller spaceship:]

===The Rebel Blockade Runner===
There are 3 coins on the Runner, no. 18-20.
:[Once you, in this way, notice the Runner, which is also known as a CR90 Corvette and if it is Princess Leia’s it is called Tantive IV, you will land on the front end of the space ship, just over the command bridge. On top of this there is a hatch open, allowing you to go inside. On the other side of the open hatch door is a Cueball looking down along the ship to the right. Once you enter the hatch you will be able to see the entire front of the space ship, and can thus see that this section of the ship is completely circular, and then connected to the rest of the ship to the right.]

:[The first room at the front is the command bridge. At the bridge is a woman with long black hair. She is not quite looking as a typical Megan. Maybe it is Danish - then it would be deliberately that she tries to annoy the woman she is talking too, who is standing behind her. It is Hairbun (or Princess Leia with her typical hairdo, with a bun on each side of her head.) The woman is lifting her hands in fists. Three small lines indicate that she is annoyed.]
::Long haired woman: Captain's log, stardate November 24th, 2015...
::Hairbun: ''Augh!'' No!

:[From the bridge the room below can be fully seen. It is a smaller room with Ponytail and Megan. Ponytail is holding a light saber above which floats a small sphere (the Jedi training device from a similar scene in the original Star Wars movie where Luke Skywalker practices while Ben Kenobi watches and Han Solo comments). Megan holds some kind of canon/gun and she stands in front of a black box with white text. Here is the first coin ('''#18''') discovered on this route outside the play area. So you have to go down there even though you can see it all from the bridge.]
::Megan: Good against remotes is one thing, but a ''true'' Jedi trains with a T-shirt cannon.
::Box: Shirts

:[When moving down through the central corridor of the space ship a small robot on wheels drive towards left. Then you reach a place where the corridor splits up with shaft up and down. If you pass the first shaft and stop under the next you can also see one more going down, and can see three persons:]

:[Just past the shaft going up is Ponytail walking to the right in the corridor while singing as indicated with two drawings of musical notes.]

:[Down the first shaft is Cueball, standing at a ledge with a fishing rod. He lowers the line down below the ship. When you go down to him you can see that two birds are circling the line, but above the hook. You have to fall down to see that there is something attached to the hook that floats about a 1 second drop below the ledge. It looks like a cracker, so maybe he does try to catch the birds. (To see this clearly you can float up right under the ledge and get stuck to the wall below this by pressing the right arrow down. This can keep you in place.) Below the ledge to the right is a canon jutting out beneath the space ship. Two wires stretching down below are attached to this canon with “normal” ship anchors. Where these wires come from will be discovered on the return trip from the far right edge.]

:[The shaft going up ends in a small room where a Cueball is pouring several small objects from a bucket into a black box. Above the box is a canon outside the ship (similar to the one below). It is not possible to see the tip of the canon when standing in the corridor. But if you jump you can see that there is a coin at the tip of the canon (this will be counted when taking it). It is not possible to get up to Cueball, the shaft is to slim. However, if you position yourself carefully right under the shaft you can enter the lowest part, so your hoverboard is all the way in. Then you can see the entire canon from inside. There is white text on the box:]
::Box: Bullets

:[Going down the second shat after Ponytail, you enter a new corridor going parallel with the one above to the right. From here you see a third anchor and wire attached to the bottom of the hull outside.]

:[Continuing along this shaft you enter a big room in the main of the ship. Moving to the center of this you can see the entire room. It is a dead end. Three guys are talking together. The first is Hairy the other two are Cueballs.]
:::First Cueball: The Death Star plans are ''not'' in the main computer.
::Second Cueball: Darn.
::Second Cueball: See, if we had found them in the main computer, that would be good news, since it would mean no one else had them.
::Second Cueball: But since we didn’t find them, we need to keep searching for anyone with a copy.
::Second Cueball: That all makes sense and I ''definitely'' understand how computers work.

:[Walking back up to the corridor with Ponytail and then continuing to the right you get to a broader end of the corridor where a hole seems to have been torn in the upper hull of the space ship. It has ragged edges. You can move to the top of the ship through it. Two Cueballs are standing there. The first one is looking into the hole. (You can see the text in the room below with the computer expert, but not the people).]
::First Cueball: So you just came down and made a hole in our ship without permission?
::Second Cueball: Yup
::First Cueball: Wow, Rude.

:[Moving back to the left you pick up the coin ('''#19''') at the tip of the canon. You can stand on top of the canon housing, but not on the actual canon.]

:[Going back to the right past the hole you find a huge parabolic antenna and to right of that two Cueballs looking up towards the Star Destroyer.]
::First Cueball: That thing is ''huge. Imperial''-class?
::Second Cueball: Yeah. Maybe a MK-1. Depends on whether this is the expanded universe or not.

:[Past them we find Ponytail with an arrow on her bow and Cueball who has just shoot an arrow from his bow. They are aiming at the Star Destroyer (which is much much higher up, than a bow can reach). This aggression is a response to the torpedoes crashing down on their ship from up above. One torpedo has just exploded in a large cloud making a dent in the hull, and another one is just hitting the hull of the space ship (presumably exploding in the next instant). Many more rains down from above. Standing just right of the explosion you can see four more in the air to the right.]
::Cueballs bow: Twang
::Torpedo: Boom

:[From here it is obvious to follow the torpedoes up to the Star Destroyer but first we will finish exploring the Runner. Moving up on top of the torpedo just hitting the hull we find two Cueballs to the right of this. The first is looking up and right towards the direction from where the torpedoes are coming. The other is looking at him. Apart from the two torpedoes that has already hit the hull there are now five (vs four before) other torpedoes visible (7 in all). These are the only ones visible when standing still on the hull. Five more can be seen with one jump.]
::First Cueball: Why are they still firing?
::Second Cueball: Oh, the turret operators pretty much do their own thing.
::Second Cueball: It's definitely a pain sometimes.

:[Further to the right you reach the end of the ship where Megan is holding on to Cueball who again is holding a long stick with a huge marshmallow out over the end. Maybe he is trying to roast it on the exhaust from the space ship.]

:[What may be three exhaust pipes are indicated at the back of the ship by two indentations, compared to the part furthest out. You can stand on these two ledges. Beneath the last of these, in front of the third “exhaust” is a coin ('''#20''').]

:[Below at the end of the spaceship there is something looking like a rudder from a normal ship. Going under the ship you find no further coins. There is a similar parabolic antenna mid ship below the computer wizard. You can fly all the way around the space ship in less than half a minute. (28 s). From the rear end of the space ship there is a 3.3 s drop down into the sea below where you can disappear beneath the surface. It takes about 6.3 s to get up again. After this, there is nothing more to do than follow the torpedoes up to the Star Destroyer. It takes about 3m to explorer the Runner.]

===The torpedo rain===
There are 2 coins going up the rain, no. 21-22.
:[The two torpedoes that hit the Runner you can walk through. These two will not be counted in when counting up from the Runner towards the Destroyer. Because all the other torpedoes you can stand on (and not fly through) so they are different.]

:[The torpedoes comes in showers. The first five (1-5) closest to the Runner are the ones that could be seen by standing on the hull. The next five (9-10) that you could see with one jump from the hull, are all five almost at the same height and real close together. The next five (11-15) are almost right above the second group of five. On top of the middle one of these (the second highest) is a coin, in the same height as the highest of these. So after 15 torpedoes there is a coin ('''#21''').]

:[Above these you need to go further to the right. Standing on the lowest of these you can only see four new torpedoes (16-19). Straight above the two last is a little more than a full jump to two more (20-21). From there it is quite a distance to the right to the next one a little jump higher. There is one more right above but a little left (22-23).]

:[Above this there are two more torpedoes close together (24-25) and on this, the 25th torpedo, we find Beret Guy sitting astride the torpedo holding on to it like it was a horse, a clear reference to the movie Dr. Strange love. He is shouting:]
::Beret Guy: Horsey!

:[Jumping to stand on the next torpedo (26) to the right you can no longer see any of the previous torpedoes. But three more can be seen above (27-29). And three more are above these (30-32). Above these are four (33-36) in the same height (still further and further to the left on average). There are three more (37-39) straight over the last of these. But the next large group of torpedoes are all lower than the highest of those. If you stand on the torpedo in the middle of this group, you can just see all 11 of these (40-50), and not those from before. There are five below and to the left of your torpedo and five to the right and slightly higher.]

:[Further right and a little up is one more torpedo (51) and then right behind this there are two torpedoes (52-53) that are crashing into each other. You can still stand on both of them, but not where the explosion goes:]
::Torpedoes: Boom

:[Above the explosion are four (54-57) more torpedoes in a group. The next group is stretched out, but if you stand on one of the last to the right, but in the middle height wise, you can see them all 11 (58-68). Six below to the left, then the one you are standing on and four above, not far left of right. Above these to the left are three more (69-71), followed by five (72-76) more almost in a straight line just slightly higher but somewhat further right.]

:[These are followed by a group of three (77-79) to the right, but slightly lower. Above and between the first two is a coin ('''#22'''). Four more (80-83) follows up and right. Then a stretched out group of seven torpedoes (84-90) follows ,mainly up and somewhat further right. Standing on the middle one (three on each side) you can only see these seven. This is the last one before you will see the bottom of the Star Destroyer.]

:[When reaching the next group of torpedoes more than one jump height higher, you are not likely to reach this without seeing the bottom hull of the Star Destroyer. However, when standing on the first torpedo you cannot see it. But just a little above and you will. It is possible to land on this without the hull entering in to the top part of the image. But without trying to avoid this it is unlikely. So now you know from where the torpedo’s emerges. Already from the next torpedo you cannot avoid seeing the hull. The group of torpedoes can all be seen if standing on one of the two in the center of the group. There are ten (91-100), four on each side of the two in the middle right on top of each other.]

:[At the end of the torpedo stream we see the last two (101-102) that have just emerged from a cannon beneath the Star Destroyer. There is of course no way you will know for sure that it is such a ship. But if you have realized that it is the Rebel Blockade Runner below you might have a good idea.]

:[Inside the Star Destroyer behind the canon Megan has turned away from it and speaks to Cueball. Behind them is a coin. But since you cannot enter the room from here, this will first be counted later. At that point this section of the Destroyer will be transcribed again, but here is what she says:]
::Megan: We have no photon torpedoes, so I'm firing regular ones

:[In total, about 102 torpedoes are still in the air (counting the two exploding in the air, but not the one hitting and the one exploding on the space ship below); so 104 torpedoes have been fired from the canon. It takes about 50s to get up this way.]

===The Star Destroyer===
There are 104 coins connected in some way to the Star Destroyer, no. 23-126. Several of these are on the outside, above, below or at the rear, and one of them quite a distance below, but clearly a part of the Destroyer experience.
:[After reaching the Star Destroyer via the torpedo rain (in less than 5 minutes), it may seem obvious to enter the first entrance to the Destroyer you can find by going left or right from here (especially since you can see a coin in the room you just found, but could not enter). If you continue right (for 8s) you get to an entrance, where you come around a section protruding and then at the top of the small room you enter there is a coin. Going left instead you find an entrance (after about 9s) where Cueball is leaning over the ledge he is standing on and a guy with flat black hair is standing behind him. Both are wearing backpacks, which probably should resemble parachutes. So they look like they are about to jump. In the description below of the Star Destroyer you will begin the exploration at the front of the ship and move back as systematically as possible. And thus the coin will not be counted now, and the two places will be mentioned in the transcript later. There are three more entrances after this before you reach the front of the Destroyer (it will take about 49s from the torpedo canon, 40 of these from the first possible entrance). You will pass a single coin underneath the hull on the way. But the top and bottom of the ship will be investigated during the trip down the ship from left to right, bow to stern. So also this coin will be counted later.]

:[If you go straight up from the right wall in the play area you will arrive right in front of the Star Destroyer where there are two entrances. It takes about 100 fast clicks and 20 seconds to get to the top (you can see the ship after 17s will be able to land on the first ledge after 18s). The other way down, if you step off the Star Destroyers front end, you will land on the edge of the wall (outside the play area, where the red message would have flashed). It takes exactly 9s to fall this distance. From here our exploration of the Destroyer will begin.]

====The front end of the Star Destroyer====
There are 17 coins in this section of the Star Destroyer Star Destroyer, no. 23-39.
:[Starting at the very top of the front there is a coin ('''#23'''). The front end protrudes a little over the entrance to the ship right below. You go in through this corridor and on your way to the first room (3.6s) you pass over a shaft which is going down.]

:[The corridor ends in a dead end with a rather big room. Entering the room you have to step up on the edge of a ball pit that is filled with playpen balls. When you move into it, you disappear below the ball so only your head protrudes. A jump will almost take you all the way to the ceiling. In the pen you see Cueball throwing playpen balls into the air. Six balls are in the air, two of them with lines indicating their movement. Further right is the head of Megan and there is also a fish that jumps out of the pit to the right.]

:[Going back you go down the shaft you passed before (1.1s). At the bottom is a coin ('''#24'''). Right above the bottom there is a corridor to the right. But you first go back left (2.3s). This will take you to the front of the ship to a ledge just above the bottom of the hull. A Cueball is standing here looking out. Going up (1.5s) from there you will get to the entrance you first used to go into the ship. So you move back right to go down the corridor to the right that began right above the last coin.]

:[Going down this corridor you pass a shaft going up (6.5s) and one going down (10s) before you reach a room with a swimming pool (11s). The pool is rather deep and you can go into the black water. When standing still on the bottom a single jump will not take you above the surface. Only a fifth out into the water is there a higher level of the floor. A jump from here will take your head up above the surface, at least where the waves are low. Ponytail is jumping into the water from the ledge where you enter. Cueball is threading water a third out in the pool and Megan is swimming with only her head showing close to the middle. At the top right corner of the room is a coin ('''#25'''). From the bottom of the pool you can see there is a coin under the hull of the ship, in an indentation compared to the rest of the hull. You will have to go and get that later.]

:[Going back to the shaft you drop out of the bottom if the ship in just 1s. You wait with going after the coin to the right later and move back up. Moving to the right you go up the shaft you passed before (less than 1s).]

:[To the left is a large dead-end room with four persons. There are two Cueballs. The one to the right is pointing at a Piñata shaped like a horse. Behind him stands Megan and Hairy. Hairy has his hand on Megan’s shoulder and he holds a stick to hit the Piñata with. On the other side of the Piñata to the left stands another Cueball with a light saber in front of him pointing it a little down. He speaks.]
::Cueball: No, I got this.

:[Moving out of the room to the right down the corridor you pass two shafts going up. When passing the first (3s) you collect a coin ('''#26''') and after two thirds of the distance between the two shafts there is one more coin (9s) in the corridor ('''#27'''), and you pass the 2nd shaft after 11s. Then you reach a shaft going down (15s). A hairy guy is looking down this shaft. You decide to go down this way. After 1.5s you would drop out the bottom of the ship. But already after less than 1s you reach a corridor to the left. Going in there you find a coin ('''#28''') in front of what looks like rubles at the end of a mine shaft that has caved in.]

:[Now you decide to move under the ship to pick up the coin you saw in the pool. So you go down and left. After 7s you get the coin ('''#29''') as you have seen it in a small indentation on the hull. You continue along the bottom passing an entrance more after 4 s, but this was the one you fell out of last time. So you continue to the front of the ship but find nothing more interesting except that the ship’s hull bulges out a little in a shorter section. There were no more coins here. You decide to move to the top of the ship to see if there is anything hidden there. (This took 25s).]

:[Moving right on the top you see that in general the ship becomes higher (thicker). There is also a protrusion here, almost on top of the one below. After 10s you pass the shaft going down that you had seen from inside. After 14s there is coin ('''#30''') where the hull increases in a small step and after 18s you reach the other shaft going down. There is also a coin ('''#31''') on the left edge of this shaft. You go down this shat (1s) and also go back and check the other shaft (also 1s deep). There is nothing more here. So you go back to the shaft where you fell out of the ship.]

:[From there the corridor goes straight for a long time. First after 10s do you reach a shaft going down, and right after this is a dead-end square room with 3 coins ('''#32'''), ('''#33''') and ('''#34'''), one in each of the three corners away from the entrance.]

:[Falling down the shaft outside (1.3s), you end up in a corridor going right. After 6s you pass a shaft going down and then right after one going up. After 8s you reach a longer room. At the entrance is a Cueball who holds up his hand, palm facing you. When you stand in front of him you cannot see the end of the room. He speaks to you:]
::Cueball: You shall not not pass!

:[You thus do as you are told and pass and inside the room you find a coin ('''#35''') in the far corner. The room is long enough that you cannot see the guardian when you take the coin.]

:[Going back you first drop into the shaft going down (1s). You end up on a thin ledge over the bottom of the ship. From here you move back along the ships bottom, to make sure you did not miss any coins. You do not find anything interesting before you reach the entrance (15s) you fell through the last time you went out (the one with the man looking down). So you go back and take the shaft going up.]

:[After 1s you pass a corridor to the right, but continue up to the top (3.3s). Here you hit a ledge sticking out over the exit. But you can exit to the left. Above this ledge there is a coin ('''#36'''). To make sure you have not missed anything on the roof you go back left to the last entry on the roof. After 4.5s you find 3 coins in a row ('''#37'''), ('''#38''') and ('''#39'''). But then there is nothing before you reach the entrance (18s) you went down through last time you went up on the roof. This ends the front part of the Destroyer.]

====The rotary in the Star Destroyer====
There are 16 coins in this section of the Star Destroyer, no. 40-55.
:[Going back over the roof you go into the ship at the same entrance where you came up. And then take the corridor to the right (2s down). 1.7s down the corridor is a shaft up (1.6s) to a rectangular dead-end room. There are coins ('''#40''') and ('''#41''') on the floor on each side of the shaft coming up in the middle. Dropping down again (1.1s) you move further right reaching a shaft down after 3.3s. On the other side is a coin ('''#42'''). Going back now you would get a special rating (see under [[#Investigating the functionality|play area]]). But if you wish to do so, then do not go down this shaft, as there is a coin ('''#43''') halfway down before you reach (1.3s) a corridor at the bottom of the ship. This goes left and comes out on a thin ledge with an opening in the bottom where Cueball is leaning over the ledge and a guy with flat black hair is standing behind him. Both are wearing backpacks, which probably should resemble parachutes. So they look like they are about to jump. You do jump to follow the bottom of the ship back left to the previous entry (4s). There are no new coins or any interesting stuff. So you return the same way.]

:[Going back up the shaft behind the exit (2s) you then continue down the corridor to the right. After 5.5s you reach a steep rise. On the way you could see some rooms above you. At the bottom of this is a coin ('''#44'''). The rise (1.5s) takes you to a kind of round-about with four exits. In the center of the round-about, there is a room that you can enter just above the entrance where you arrived. Inside there is a kid with flat black hair, a potted plant, growing higher than him and behind them a coin ('''#45'''). The room is a full jump high. When you stand at the coin and jump you will during this jump see that the round-about do form a complete circle around this square dead-end room. There are two exits down and two up. The one you came in from is almost straight down and left. The next one above it, is similarly almost straight up and left. The 3rd when moving clockwise round is mainly going right, but rising steadily, and the fourth and last is almost going straight down, but a little to the right. You will go through them clockwise.]

:[Going up the upper left exit you reach a corridor going left in 2.5s. A Cueball is standing on the downslope trying to keep his balance.]
::Cueball: Ugh, rotaries.
:[Typically the term rotary is used for large scale circular junctions between expressways or controlled-access highways, so this makes sense.]

:[Moving down the corridor you pass a shaft (2s) going up with a coin ('''#46''') just inside, you grab this and go to the end of the corridor (3s in total). Here is a shaft going up and down. Going up (0.5s) you reach a quite large dead-end room, which is completely empty. Going back down (1.5s) takes you to a new corridor going left and right.]

:[Going left for 2s you stand next to Megan who talks to Cueball while they walk towards the end of this dead-end room, where a coin ('''#47''') is situated on top of a box with an inclined top. You can stand on top of the box. There is a white lid on top. On the box is white text:]
::Box: Ice cream
::Megan: Prediction: Seconds before you die, you will remember these words.

:[Going back right past the shaft you came down through you reach a smaller room with a raised plateau in the center. On top of this stand a family of four. First there is a short kid with lots of black hair. Then what at first looks like a girl, but turns out to be a woman, with a hairdo not typically seen in xkcd, blonde but short hair, with a little wisp sticking out front. She seems to wear a miniskirt. Then a taller person, could have been a man but it also turns out that this is a woman, with a square black afro-like hair-do and big glasses. Behind her is a woman with very long and big blond hair. The afro haired woman holds up her left hand and above it floats a coin ('''#48'''). This can be recognized as the family from the Steven Universe tv-series. The boy being Steven. The first woman with least hair is Pearl. The high afro woman in the middle Garnet and. The woman with big blond hair is Amethyst. The three woman are what is called crystal gems and are aliens. Steven is half alien. See later when Darth Vader him self references them.]

:[Going back up the shaft to the left (1.5s) you then move up the shaft where there where a coin in the entrance when you first pass it. (1.7s). This takes you up to the top of the ship. You move down to the previous entrance (8s) but find noting interesting here. So you go back and down again (1.4s) and back to the round-about (2.8s).]

:[Moving out of the third exit that only rises a little before turning into a corridor going straight right. At the start of the straight corridor Cueball is racing along the corridor on a bike. You pass a shaft going down (4s) and then enter a large dead-end room after 5.5s. The room is the largest rectangular room in the ship. It is 3.5s long and 3 full jumps high (giving a 1s drop from the top). Once you enter you see Megan on a skate board inside a hamster ball. She is driving up the side near you while the ball is obviously rolling toward you to the left. Going past Megan you see two long lines going up. At the very top of the screen you just see a coin ('''#49'''). Jumping up to take it (at least two jump) you find out the lines are two very tall stilts and on top of these stands a Cueball like guy (although maybe he has a little black hair). It is possible to stand still on the right wall so you can view the scene without falling/jumping. There is nothing else in the room. Both are speaking:]
::Megan: ''AaaaAaaa''
:: Guy: I can't leave.

:[Going back to the round-about (waiting with the shaft going down) you go down the last exit down right. It almost immediately turns to go straight down and on you way down you pass a T shaped Tetris piece with the short part pointing right. It is shown that it is falling with three move lines above it. You reach a corridor going right in 1.7s. You can see a shaft going down just a little further right.]

:[Going down this shaft (0.8s) you reach the small room above the canon that fired all the torpedoes from the torpedo rain. The canon protrudes below the ship and you can see two torpedoes outside. Behind the inner part of the canon (where you can stand on top) is Megan who has turned away from it and speaks to Cueball. Behind them is a coin ('''#50''').]
::Megan: We have no photon torpedoes, so I'm firing regular ones

:[Going back up (0.8s) you continue down the corridor to the right past a small robot on wheels that moves to the left. It looks like it is made of two identical small robots (both with wheels) on top of each other – each one looking much like the one in the Runner. When you reach the end of this corridor (3.8s) you enter a shaft going up and down. There is a coin ('''#51''') just before the shaft.]

:[Going down (0.5s) takes you to a corridor going right and 2s down this corridor, is a small room with a coin ('''#52''') under the ceiling. Further down the corridor continues for 1s and then you fall out of the bottom of the ship. Going back along the bottom of the hull you pass the torpedo canon after 8s and then reach the entrance with the guys in parachutes in 17s. There were no coins, but you did see at least 10 more torpedoes (12 in all) while going there.]

:[Going back again and to the shaft going up you move all the way up this shaft. After 1.7s you pass a corridor going right. After 3.6s you reach a corridor going right and left. You soon realize that you have been here before as the hamsterbal/stilt room is right and the round-about is left. You go back down again (2s) and enter the corridor to the right.]

:[After 2s you enter a dome shaped room in which sits a large octopus. It has a large head and it is possible to see the ending of four arms on each sides. The arms twist together. There are two coins ('''#53''') and ('''#54'''), one on each side of the monster, on top of the arms that reaches farthest out. You can stand on the octopus. The corridor continues out of this room to the right.]

:[Moving to the right you pass a shaft going up (3.8s) and then enter a rectangular dead-end room with a ceiling that are bulging somewhat down. In the middle of the room is a black box with two horns poking up from each side pointing towards each other. You can stand on the box but walk through the horns. Between the horns there is a coin ('''#55''').]

:[Going back to the shaft going up you go up passing a corridor going right (3.2s) before reaching the top of the ship (5s). You go back to the last entrance (15s) the one close to the round-about, but find nothing except a smaller step down right after you began this trip (1.8s). So you go back up to go down the shaft again (1s) to enter the corridor to the right. This ends the rotary section of the Destroyer.]

====The cotton trap in the Star Destroyer====
There are 25 coins in this section of the Star Destroyer, no. 56-80.
:[This is one of the longest corridors without any other paths to take. After 10s you find a coin ('''#56''') and after 19 you reach a shaft going up. The corridor ends in a dead end after 20.5s. Going back and up the shaft you reach a corridor going left and right in 2s.]

:[Going left (2.5s) you end up at a car in a dead-end room. On its hood lays a relaxed Cueball. The room is two jumps high. You cannot stand on the car.]

:[Going right from the car room you first pass the shaft down (3.6s) from where you came, then comes another shaft going down (9s), right after this a shaft going up (10s) and just past that (10.5s) Hairbun and Cueball are standing with a coin ('''#57''') in front of Cueball's head. They are looking at a part of the corridor where ceiling and floor move toward each other (up and down respectively) three times. Already at the first truncation the space is too small for you to pass through. On the other side of these three truncations there is yet a coin. This will first be counted when you can take it. Hairbun is talking:]
::Hairbun: Ah, yes. Corridor peristalsis.

:[Wishing to go after this coin you start by going up the shaft right behind the two and end up (1s) in a corridor going left and right. Going right leads to a dead-end square room with a coin ('''#58''') under the ceiling. Going back left you pass first the shaft going down, then another going up (2s) and then you end up (3.5s) in a very small room also with a coin ('''#59''') under the ceiling.]

:[Going back (1.5s) to the shaft leading up (0.8s) to the top of the ship you start going right to look for that coin after the peristalsis. The hull of the ship takes two larger steps up and then after 5s you reach a place where the hulls height increase so much you cannot see the top even with one jump. But there is a corridor going in at the base and you enter a small room with a coin ('''#60''') at the ceiling. Continuing on (for 1.3s and 2.5s) you find two more similar rooms each with a coin ('''#61''') and ('''#62''') at the ceiling. Between the two last room is a shaft going down. Cueball is leaning out on the left side of the shaft looking down.]

:[The shaft leads into a twisted shaft, that while going down first goes left, then right and while turning back left again Ponytail is sliding down with her head first and facing down towards the bottom of this section of the shaft with lines indicating her movement. Here lies a coin ('''#63'''). After the coin the shaft begins to climb up to the left, only to turn down again. On this downwards part of the shaft Cueball is flying down while yelling, also with lines showing his movement. Then the shaft turn right, then straight down, then almost completely right and then it ends up going straight down the last part until you end up in a corridor going left and right. The entire trip took about 7s if you did not pause. Seeing that this small intestine like structure is so close to the peristalsis makes it quite clear that this should look like the ships digestion system…]
::Cueball: Wheee!

:[Going back left you finally (5.2s) find the coin ('''#64''') on the other side of the part of the corridor that was truncated. From here you can see Cueball (but not Hairbun or her text). But you would also from here be able to see the coin that you could not reach if you had come this way first. As on the other side you cannot pass through the first truncation on this side.]

:[Going back right passing under the small intestine you reach a shaft (7.8s) up to a room just above the corridor. Even from the corridor you can see the two coins. One jump will take you inside this rectangular dead-end room which is just above one jump high. At the right end of the room is two protrusions from the wall, that look a like the buffer stops that are at the end of a train track to stop a train (but turned 90 degrees one above the other). In front of each of these are coins ('''#65''') and ('''#66''').]

:[Continuing down the corridor to the right you find (2s) a coin ('''#67''') and then a shaft up after 4.8s. The corridor continues, but since you have left several unexplored parts behind you going after the peristalsis coin, you decide to go up and see if you can make your way back.]

:[Going up the shaft (2.3s) you reach a corridor going right. At the start of this there is a coin ('''#68'''). After 1.6s down this there is another shaft up. The corridor continues but for the same reason as before you go up (1s) first. You end up in a corridor going left. To the right is a dead end with a mining party of two Cueballs. One is hacking away at the end of the tunnel with a pickaxe. The other is moving a cart away with the ruble he gets loose. They are thus in the process of building a new corridor. Above the Cueball with the pickaxe the corridor is somewhat higher than normal. Here is a coin ('''#69''')].

:[Going left (2.5s) takes you to a shaft going up. Going up here you get to the top of the ship again (1.5s). And then begins to move back left. After 3s you reach a step down, at the foot of which is a canon. At the front of the canon there is a coin ('''#70'''). After a total of 9s you reach the edge, where you entered this section at the foot. The ledge is hanging a little out over the wall below. It takes 1.1s to fall down.]

:[You move back down two steps and reaches the entry where you came up after 3.3s. But realizing that you never have moved back over the top from here, you move further down the left. You reach another steep step down (15.5s), and on top is yet a coin ('''#71'''). The drop is 1s and at the bottom is a coin ('''#72'''). Since there was a small ledge over the edge of the wall above, you do not hit the coin but have to go a step back right. It takes 8s more before you reach the entrance that will take you down to the corridor going to the octopus and the box with horns. There were no more coins.]

:[Going back over the top of the ship to the entry you came up from the time before, where there were two rooms with a coin on each side of the shaft takes 20s. Your plan now to investigate what is down the shaft just before the peristalsis. It takes 3.5s to get there.]

:[Dropping all the way the bottom of this shaft you first pass a corridor to the left (1.8s), then one to the right (2.2s) (where you see a coin) and finally (3.5s) you get a coin ('''#73''') sitting inside the shaft before you are all the way down (4s) to a corridor going left and right. Just at the end of the shaft, and visible when you stand in the corridor below, is Ponytail flying up through the shaft with her arms stretched out in front of her. A line below her indicates that she is rising.]

:[Going left you reach a large room (6s) opening up to the bottom of the ship in the entire left side. The floor is only a thin ledge. In the right side of the room where you enter there is a car. A coin ('''#74''') is hanging over the car. You cannot stand on the car. When standing behind the car you cannot see the end of the room or the people in it. But as soon as you take the coin you see text and moving forward you see that Megan is standing at the edge of a ledge over the bottom of the ship looking down while talking to a blonde girl with hair bun.]
::Megan: Is this ship designed to fly in the atmosphere like this?
::Blonde girl with hair bun: Whatever. Who cares it’s probably fine.

:[From here you go back along the bottom of the hull to make sure that there is no coins here. Nothing new is discovered before you reach the previous entrance (16s). This is the one right below the octopus. After that you return to Megan and the blonde girl.]

:[Going back from the car under the shaft you reach (9s) a hole in the corridor floor with sharp spikes at the bottom. The hole is covered with sticks, like a trap. But you can fall into it. You cannot stand on top of the spikes. On the other side stand Cueball and a boy with black hair. Cueball throws some small things on top of the cover while telling the boy something:]
::Cueball: ...And we cover it with leaves so no one sees it.

:[Moving further down the corridor you reach a large room (3s). When you enter the room there is a step down (a Cueballs height). When you have just entered nothing can be seen in this room, and it is so high that you cannot see the ceiling. Moving forward it looks like a dead-end room. A little past the middle Cueball is standing looking at a big machine, it may be a huge spark gap consisting of two “simple-house” shaped electrodes, the bottom pointing its tip up the other pointing down. The two tips point directly at each other with a distance of a Cueballs height between them. You can stand there even though the two electrodes are connected with an electrical current streaming from one to the other. It could also look a little like the power source at the Death Stars’ center in Return of the Jedi? White text has been written on both electrodes. The bottom electrode is connected to the ground through a single thick wire. The top one is held in place by a large arm jutting out from the wall. It is thicker on top of the electrode and from here several wires connected down to the arm and another wire goes from the arm into the wall to the right above where the arm itself is connected to the wall. Behind the electrodes under the arm there is a coin ('''#75'''). You can only enter to get the coin through the gap between the electrodes.]
::Electrode bottom: JS
::Electrode top: JS

:[Going back out to Cueball you stand on top of him jumping up. The room is more than 3 full jumps high. The fourth jump takes you into a shaft in the ceiling (This makes it the highest room so far, and it is the highest rectangular room). It takes two more jumps to reach the top of this shaft, but it is a dead-end (though see later below about [[#Inside the cotton pit in the Star Destroyer|the cotton entry]]). There is a coin ('''#76''') at the top of the shaft, which you will just reach in 6 full jumps (3s). If you press repeatedly you get there in 2s. The drop takes 1.4s. If you go straight up as described you will fail to see the other wall of the room to the left. At the top of this wall another Cueball is hanging on to the wall just about a Cueballs height below the ceiling. To see him while standing still it is possible to stand on the wall by pressing the left arrow in. Cueball asks you to not tell about him:]
::Cueball: Shh.

:[Since this seemed to be a dead-end room you walk back the way you came to the shaft going up (7s) and then going up (4s) to the corridor going left. At the entrance was the coin ('''#77''') you saw when passing down earlier.]

:[Going down this corridor to the left you enter (7s) one of the bigger rooms (3 jumps high). In here Cueball and Megan are also using hoverboards, and they are even doing acrobatics with Cueball’s board pointing directly to the left with him standing parallel to the floor, as he is in the process of doing some kind of loop, as shown by the two lines trailing him. Megan is standing more erect, but she is lifting the board so it is in a 45 degree angle to the floor, and she has also just taken a swing as shown by her two lines to indicate this. Above Megan’s head and in the same height as Cueball’s head there is a coin ('''#78'''). The room is big enough that when standing under Megan you cannot see any of the walls or the ceiling. But the corridor continues to the left of the room.]

:[Moving from the center of the room down this corridor you reach (4s) a shaft going up and down. You can see the top where there is another corridor going left and right. To the right you can see a room right above you. You go up and right in here but this smaller dead-end room is empty. Then you move to the left along the corridor over the shaft and end up (4s) in another empty but larger dead-end room. So you move back (3s) and drop down the shaft (1.5s) into another large but completely empty dead-end room. Two jumps high and almost 3s wide. So without gaining anything even experiences after the hoverboard room you go back to the shaft from where you entered this section (15s).]

:[Going up the shaft (1.6s) takes you to a yet unexplored corridor to the right. Going down this corridor you pass a coin ('''#79''') in the corridor after 2s. Then after 5s you reach a point where the corridor expands mainly in a steep downward slope. At the top of the slope stands Ponytail looking left towards you, and she warns you:]
::Ponytail: Watch out for the cotton. It's a trap for someone, I think.

:[Moving past her and jumping across the room (3.7s) you find a coin ('''#80''') at the other side of the room just above the floor. But when you drop to the floor you fall for another 0.6s. You are now hidden beneath some surface. A jump makes you come up out of the floor, which must be made of cotton. From here you can see another room to the right with a coin and some text. But you have not picked it up yet. If you move right you just move out of the cotton up into the room. To go there immediately you can jump straight to [[#The cave inside the Star Destroyer|the cave section]]. Beneath here the cotton pit will be investigated in detail, but there are no coins, and you end up going out to the right, by just moving right from inside the pit.]

=====Inside the cotton pit in the Star Destroyer=====
There are no coins in this section.
:[The floor down in the cotton must slope upwards. Going back to Ponytail you jump straight out to see how long it takes to fall from here. From the ceiling there is 1s drop. From there you can walk right back up to the left. So the floor also slopes up here. Maybe it is deeper in the middle? You try to float to the ceiling in the middle of the room and drop down here. Suddenly you fall for 1.6s. And you can suddenly see another shaft to the left close to where you must be. Trying to walk left up the slope makes you rise at first, but then you drop down a little and suddenly you appear into this shaft and then falls down to the Cueball that looked at the huge spark gap. So it was not a dead-end room after all, but the exit corridor was hidden at the top of the shaft with black cotton. As you have seen this room you go back up into the cotton. This also proves that although there were a secret passage to the spark room, it was not necessary to find this passage to see that room.]

:[When entering the cotton from the spark gap room shaft, so you can still see the left part of yourself, you try to move slowly forward, by just pushing the right arrow one time and then repeating. After 8 presses, just moving forward, as expected you fall a little down. There must be a step down here. If you just jump over, you can then walk back up to through the cotton to Ponytail. This will take 6s the first 3s below the surface. If you instead of jumping over the corridor to the left (to the spark gap room) continue to the right you will continue to go lower for eight more presses of the right arrow. From this deepest point it takes more than 6 full jumps to breach to surface and you won’t even reach the ceiling in 9 jumps making the room one of the deepest except for the two largest rooms. But of course you can only see 1/3 of this space. You can get out be pressing rapidly in 2.3s and reaching the ceiling in 3.2s.]

:[Continuing to the right from the very bottom of the cotton shaft for 30 more presses you will continue to rise up, but then the rise decreases as you again can see the coin in the shaft to the right in the frame. You will find that until the 30th press you would be able to jump. But not anymore as you are now in another corridor. Although this is still rising a little for the next 10 presses as you go more and more right. Finally on the 10th press you would arrive in the corridor with the coin, through yet another secret passage under the cotton. But you do not go through yet and wait with taking this coin until the next section when you have finished this investigation of the cotton pit. If you just keep the right arrow down it will still take almost 6s. By jumping you can make it faster, but if you jumped too high you could overshoot the corridor and end up above moving out of the cotton above. If you are just outside the corridor and jump and push once to the right it will make you land above the corridor. And then you can walk up out of the cotton to the right with about four more presses. It is actually possible to walk seven more steps up and out so you stand on the wall more than a Cueballs height above the cotton. In this was you are able to find a spot to stand on the wall just above the cotton, thus making it seem like the floor holds you.]

:[From the investigation above it is now clear that the cotton pit is rather deep. It is at least twice as deep as the room above the cotton. The bottom of the cotton pit is curving up in both directions so it is rounded. Although the walls seem rather steep you can climb them without jumping. To the left there is a corridor going to the spark gap room. This corridor is 8 presses of the arrow key long. Then you fall into the shaft down the room. The corridor is not a very long distance above the bottom of the cotton pit. You can jump above it and then walk out. On the other side you have to walk much longer up before you reach the corridor going right (30 presses). Then you enter the right corridor which continues to climb rather than going straight. And 10 more presses and you are out. If you jump above this you can also walk up out of the cotton even getting some distance above it standing on the wall.]

====The cave inside the Star Destroyer====
There are 3 coins in this section of the Star Destroyer, no. 81-83.
:[Going back into the secret passage to the right you claim the coin ('''#81''') at the entrance to this corridor, and you now see the trap Ponytail was talking about. Four evil looking hammers smashing together from floor and ceiling with fitting jaws in between them. The first is open, the second has just smashed together, the third are fully open and the fourth has also just smashed together just opening again. Every time they hit together there is a loud sound.]
::Hammers left: Chomp Chomp
::Hammer right: Chomp

:[You run quickly by them without harm only (after 3s) to fall into a pit with flames at the bottom. You stand in the flames. But you can just jump out again; the pit is just more than one jump deep.]

:[Having gone past all these secret passageways and traps you finally after 3.6s more find out what the fuss was all about as you enter the largest room in the ship and suddenly find yourself in a meadow with trees and a small lake. When you just enter, the roof, now looking cave like, rises quickly above you to four full jumps height, and it continues to rise above this. The grass appears on the ground as soon as you are in. This cavern is huge enough that it at first seems you are back on the ground with grass, trees a small gazebo (a pavilion structure) and several animals and relaxing people. But the cave does have a ceiling and there is a pit going upwards from the center and a corridor going further on the other side.]

:[Once you move into this garden you see a tree standing on the edge of a small hill at the bottom of which is a small lake with typical lake plants on the banks on each side. Going through the lake you sink into the water so only the top of your head shows out in the middle. After the lake there is a large rock, more than one jump high – you have to jump to get up. On top of this lies a puma like cat looking right, with Cueball lying right in front of it also on the rock. After that there is a small gazebo with four columns visible. (It is likely that they cover the four other since such a gazebo typically have eight). A coin ('''#82''') is inside the gazebo. You can walk through the gazebo, but you can also jump on top and stand on it. Behind the gazebo stands Cueball who looks to the right at Ponytail and tells her something:]
::Cueball: I know it seems weird, but every Star Destroyer has one of these rooms.
::Cueball: Say what you will about Palpatine's politics, but he's a staunch supporter of the imperial parks and the Coruscant Audubon society.

:[So this is Palpatine's park. After this there is a little hill with a small tree and then comes a Cueball with bow and arrows walking left towards you. Behind him is a deer with antlers and later three insects flying over the high grass. And then the cave ceiling comes down to the ground level again as the cave ends and a new corridor goes right. The last short part of the cave is completely level with the corridor but still with grass until just before the cave turns into the corridor. It takes 11s to move across the cave flying over any obstacles, but at least 13 along the ground as you get stuck about three times in each direction.]

:[At this point you realize you have to check the ceiling of the cave as well. You start from the right end moving up along the cave wall. 1.6s up you find a shelf in the cave wall, with a little ledge jutting out. Black Hat is sitting there head down, arms on his knees, snoring:]
::Black Hat: Zzz

:[From the sleeping man’s ledge you can see a yellow lamp a little further up and to the left. The yellow light is of course a coin ('''#83'''), but it is here part of the scenery as it has attracted a swarm of 12 buzzing insects (point like in the drawing). Once you take the coin the stick that “held” the lamp now looks like the remains of a broken (exploded) light bulb. A 13th insect was hidden under the lamp to the left.]
::Insects: ''Bzzzzz''

:[Continuing to the left you reach the shaft going up in about 5s. Going down close to the other side takes about 6s because you hit the wall. Doing this you should be unlucky not to notice the three birds that fly right over the deepest part of the lake. When standing there it still takes three full jumps to reach high enough to see them in the frame, and five jumps to reach the birds (2s up and 1.4s down). There are four more jumps to the ceiling. If you go up along the ceiling from the left entrance it is likely that you can go so close to the wall that you fail to see them. Going back up to the shaft it’s actually possible to find a foothold inside it just above the cave to the left. If you fall down into the park from there, a 2s drop, you land on the puma on the rock. The shaft is just a little left of the center of the cave compared to the entrances. The center of the cave is just left of the gazebo. The tallest parts of the cave, which is not part of the shaft, are two protrusions up in the ceiling left and right of the shaft. As the ground level is higher after the rock to the right, and you sink into the lake at the left, the tallest distance is from the right part of the lake, under one of these protrusions. Here there are more than 9 jumps to the ceiling and it takes 3.2s to get up as fast as possible and then 2s to fall down. This is the same as in the cotton room. As it will turn out you can get to the other two entries from other directions, so again – failing to realize there was a secret entry through the cotton would not cheat you from seeing either of the rooms connected through the cotton pit. But this entrance to the most peaceful room of the Destroyer, through the pit and the traps is the most thrilling… Of course you do not know this yet, if following this path through the Destroyer. You now leave the cave and this section. It took 1m 30s to look through the cave.]

====Around and above the cave inside the Star Destroyer====
There are 12 coins in this section of the Star Destroyer, no. 84-95.
:[You leave the cave through the corridor to the right. Just before you leave the grass behind and enter the corridor you can see a man with spiky black hair walking left toward you. Moving right you pass under a shaft going up (1.7s) then reach a steep incline (3s) that you climb in 1.2s. Then you reach a small pit in the floor (0.5s later) where a Cueball looking up seems to be trapped at the bottom. There seems to be a bridge/lid on top. You can fall through it though (<0.5s). A single jump makes you hit the ceiling above the corridor. Moving further along (0.5s) there is a domed ceiling (less than a jump high). At the top of the dome there is a small black square protruding. It is some kind of alarm which is going off:]
::Alarm: …Beep…
::Alarm: …Beep…
::Alarm: …Beep…

:[After the alarm you get to the end of the corridor (1s) where a shaft is leading up. The trip through this corridor can be taken in less than 9s. From the bottom of the corridor you can see a coin in the next corridor above. Jumping up, just a little higher than a single jump, you grab the coin ('''#84''') that lies to the left in front of three boxes, one on top of the other two in a small pyramid. You can jump on top of the first, but cannot pass the second on top. But it is also a dead-end.]

:[Going right from there you pass yet another domed ceiling (2s) and then enter a large room (4s) also with walls curving up (though not a complete dome). From the lowest part to the highest part there are almost two jumps and it takes 2.7s to pass through. But since there is a raised pedestal in the middle of the room with three steps there is nowhere you can jump twice without hitting the ceiling. Before the central part of the pedestal on the first step to the left is Cueball. He is talking to a giant ant queen sitting on the central part of the pedestal If you jump over her, one jump is just enough to pass over her if you keep down the arrow key and jump from within her antennas, which you can walk through. The rest of her you can stand on. She is facing Cueball:]
::Cueball: What's up?
::Ant queen: The usual. Poopin' out ants.
::Cueball: Eww.

:[After the queen ant there is a yet another domed but dead-end room, with a coin ('''#85'''). Since there are 169 coins this coin takes you past halfway through the collection.]

:[Going back to the shaft up right after leaving the cave (16s) you go up with the missing exploration of the shaft going up from the cave in mind. So you will first go left if there are corridors in both directions. Going up 3.8s you reach a corridor to the left. Moving down here you enter a room (2.3s) with a chandelier with six light bulbs three on each side of the chain holding it to the ceiling. Above and on each side of the chain there are coins ('''#86''') and ('''#87'''). You need more than one jump to get up on the chandelier. You can stand on the arm with the bulb. But walk through the bulbs and the chain.]

:[Going back and up the shaft you pass a corridor (6s) to the right, but as you are looking for a way back left you continue and after 7s (from the chandelier room) you enter a corridor to the left. After 3s you reach a large room, the corridor comes in at the top of the room with a little ledge hanging out over the edge. The room is not deeper than you can just see the floor from up there. Below the ledge Hairy is playing a piano (three separate drawings of different notes flows up from the piano). You can stand on the piano, but not on the chair. Before you move further into the room you can just see a girl dancing at the far left of the frame. When you jump into the room you see that it is Cueball who is spinning Megan around on the dance floor, with her flowing dress billowing around her. Lines indicate she is spinning rather fast. This room is above the large cave. It is 2 jumps high and it takes 2.3s to move from the top of the piano to the corridor that leaves the room in floor height at the left.]

:[Continuing down the corridor to the left for 10s you end up under a shaft going up. As you have a feeling you are past the cave you go up this shaft and find the mining party you discovered after finding the way around the peristalsis corridor. You thus go back down again (1s) but remember that you came here from a corridor below where you never went to the right. You thus continue to the left for 1.8s and drop down the shaft at the end of this corridor (1.8s). The corridor below goes both ways as you knew, and you now go right away from the peristalsis corridor.]

:[After 5s you reach a shaft going down, and right on the other side is a dead-end with a coin. ('''#88'''). You drop down the shaft (0.5s) into a corridor going left and right, but you can see the left is another dead end but with a coin ('''#89'''). Going right you reach (3s) a shaft up. You can see the corridor above going right and see that it leads to an opening. This opening fills the space on the other side of the wall you are standing up against. This space is higher than the screen and you cannot see if it is just a shaft from here. Going up 0.7s and right you can see it is a very wide shaft. It is twice as wide as usual. When you jump up into it you see a room above with coins. Going up there (1.2s) you enter at the center of a small rectangular room with two shelves in it, one on each side of the room. There are coins ('''#90''') and ('''#91''') on each shelf and also coins ('''#92''') and ('''#93''') in each of the two rooms below each shelf.]

:[Dropping down from the top shelve you fall past the corridor to the left (1s) and after 2s you enter the cave from the shaft and land on the rock (3.2s) with the puma. So you found the entry through the cave roof. It takes 6s to go all the way up again. This is not the tallest drop so far (there was a shaft going past the normal entry to the cotton room that was much deeper.) But it is so far the longest drop that will make you end up in a room rather than a corridor. You have no proven you can get into the cave without using the cotton entry – the two other exits are not dead-ends!]

:[Since you were not finished with the shaft going up between the cave and the ant queen room you go out of the cave to the right (8s) and up the shaft. Since you still wish to make sure you have seen everything to the right you go all the way up past corridors to the left both after 7s and 9s. You hit the top of the shaft in 9.7s where a corridor goes to the left. This makes it the deepest shaft so far, clear evidence that the Destroyer becomes thicker and thicker.]

:[Going left (3.6s) you reach a stair case (34 steps) leading up to the top of the ship. There is a small fence (breast height) to the right protecting people going left from falling down the stairs from the wrong side. You cannot walk through it. It takes about 2.5s to get up the stair (1.8s down). On the way up you pass a slinky falling between steps 18-19 from the top. It makes a sound that is written along the stairs above:]
::Slinky: Slink slink slink

:[Back on the top you go back left to ensure you haven’t missed a coin. Going left you pass a step (two Cueball heights) down (1.8s) then pass (3s) a group of kids playing basketball. Cueball, Ponytail and Megan are standing just behind the basketball board with hoop looking to the left (you can stand on the hoop itself. The rest of the board you can walk/jump through). They have no ball. This is because another Cueball kid has dropped the ball and he is now running after it (you pass him after 4.7s), but it runs away from him on the loooong downslope, and it is already 0.8s ahead of him. Passing this scene you find (8.6s from the stair) a coin ('''#94''') and after 10.5s you reach the shaft going down to the corridor that goes to the mining party.]

:[From here you go back up to the stair (15s) and down to the deep shaft. The shaft is almost 5s deep. But you only go down to the corridor going right, which can be seen from the top shaft where you are standing.]

:[You move right for 2.7s then you enter a large dead-end room that takes 2s to traverse and is more than one jump high. The people in the room are hanging down from the ceiling. (Or rather standing there). This being a spaceship with artificial gravity, this may actually not be so strange... The first person you see is a Cueball who walks towards the left (just past the middle of the room) away from four other standing in two groups of two. The first group consists of a Megan and a Ponytail and almost at the right end of the room stands another Megan holding something and another Cueball holding a wine glass. Both hair and wine stays as if they were the ones standing on the floor. After these there is a coin ('''#95''') in the upper right corner. This ends this section of the Destroyer where you have used about 5m 20s.]

====The Prince of Persia maze inside the Star Destroyer====
There are 4 coins in this section of the Star Destroyer, no. 96-99.
:[Dropping back down the long shaft you fall 1.6s and then enter the next corridor going right. This is the last unexplored from this shaft. Moving right for 2.5 s you pass a coin ('''#96''') and after 5s the corridor stops at a shaft going up. You can see a room above with a thin ledge that you can go above and another drop to the right and a corridor going right.]

:[Jumping up (more than one jump) you find yourself in a rather large maze with levels that are hard to pass and tight pits hard to ascend. Three coins are positioned in the maze (counted when described below) so you have to move a certain route to get them. There are also five Cueballs and several traps/pits with spikes. It should be almost a complete depiction of Level 1 of the computer game ''Prince of Persia''. There are three coins in this maze all on the top level (no 97-99). Below a very detailed description of this maze will be given, and here the three coins are numbered. But if you just wish to go through taking the coins and continuing to the other side you can jump straight to the [[#The room with a glitch floor in the Star Destroyer|Glitch floor section]].]

=====The details of the maze inside the Star Destroyer=====
There are 3 coins in the maze, no. 97-99.
:[When you get up into the maze you stand beneath a thin ledge that goes above the entry shaft and almost to the next wall, or rather a construction hanging in the air (or from a wall). There is just enough space to jump up through the gap or move right and fall a step down where a corridor leads away. When standing under this gap you can see the following: Above the gap there is another thin ledge, so you have to push fast to get up on the first ledge. This ledge is a continuation of the top of the construction which then continues to the right. At the end there is a wall up. On the other side there is a broad shaft down. But at the bottom it tightens to only half the width between the construction, which becomes wider at the bottom, and another straight wall. It is though possible to get up and down there, without too much difficulty. Above the second ledge there is a third floating in the air. It stops before the wall on top of the construction so you can jump up there. A Cueball is jumping of this ledge to the left. Across from his jump on the left wall is a step in the wall above the first ledge. And above this step there are three small ledges. You can stand on all the ledges and steps described. If you jump up to the ledge of the jumping Cueball you see another square construction, with a smaller step to the right. Above it there is a corridor where a Cueball is standing looking left with a coin ('''#97''') in front of him. This is the highest level of corridors. It is above the top ledge to the left. Moving right there is a step and then you step of this square and down to a ledge forming a corridor to the right. This was the first section going right.]

:[Moving down this ledge you find it has a small hole in the center although it continues. Going down this hole and moving right in the corridor below you can place yourself so you can only just see the edge of the first section described before. From her you can see both top and bottom of this second section. At the end of the thin ledge you came down through is a black rectangle. You can jump up and continue right on this corridor. To the right it widens out to twice normal height. In continues after the rectangle, but on a thin ledge. Below this, there is another corridor with a thin ledge as floor. On this floor there is a coin at the edge of this section. You cannot take it yet. Below are three more ledges like this and then the floor. You are standing on another larger rectangular structure, with a smaller rectangle at the top left. In the middle of this is a thin shaft down to a small square room. It is difficult to position yourself correctly to go up or down this shaft. The lowest level corridor from the left ends here going into the middle of this room’s wall. This was the second section going right.]

:[Moving further along on the middle path, you move under the middle of the five ledges, it turns out to be just a short ledge not connected to anything else. You cannot get up to the coin yet. The ledge you are on stops and you can go down to the ledge below. Or you can jump up to yet another black structure. Jumping over the first part of this (a small rectangle) you can fall down to a corridor on the same level again, this covers the rest of this structure which is also a rectangle with the long side down. It is just connected to the small part at the top left edge. Standing behind this you can see the entire 3rd section with the coin now in the left part of the screen. The ledge you could jump down to on the left, is a dead end. But you can jump into a shaft to the right of the structure. But a thin ledge going over half the shaft again makes this a small hole, although the shaft below is normal width. To the right of the shaft there is no new rooms in sight. The shaft becomes even wider in the last half, where a corridor goes back left. At the end of this corridor there is four sharp spikes protruding out of the floor. Above them is a shaft up below the ledge you could not get under. Here are two steps up, but you cannot step directly up from the middle step as a thin ledge also hangs out over the end of the top floor, you can jump up though, but it is dead end. Above at the coin level you can jump up to another ledge above it (making it 7 different levels down (6 ledges) over the edge of this new ledge.) That ledge continues on to a long rectangular structure. In the middle of this there is a Cueball looking left with a sword pointing down. To get the coin you need to get back left and up and then get the coin ('''#98''') and run past him. This ends the third section going right.]

:[After Cueball the corridor continues a while but then there is a shaft down, again with a thin ledge going out over the hole. Beneath the first ledge is another ledge halfway across the shaft and at the bottom of this a ledge coming out the other way. This is a short corridor going left. The ledge has a hole a third way down, but on the other side of the hole is a coin ('''#99'''). That end is a dead end. Below the hole is a longer corridor. To the left it ends in a ledge going almost out over the shaft going down from the 3rd section. The corridor from the left goes under this ledge and hits a wall which is the floor of the one you are now standing on. A little part of that way from the hole you came down through is a shaft into a tiny room with four sharp spikes. When standing in this you can see this entire section, except the ceiling of the top floor. The corridor continues right and takes a step down. On the top corridor where you came down the corridor continues right after the hole. Here is again a structure with a small square on top of the end of a rectangular structure twice the length. After that it becomes even deeper. On this step down before it becomes deeper stands a Cueball looking right. This ends the 4th section.]

:[The maze comes to an end here. Where Cueball is standing there is a ledge coming out above that only leads to a dead end corridor. Going under the ledge there is a thin hole down to another corridor going right. Here is a shaft that again is made thinner because a ledge comes out from the step that is on the wall to the right. Under this shaft is a long corridor. To the left it connects with the corridor coming from the lower corridor from the right. Going right you are about to exit the maze. To guard the exit is another Cueball with a sword half raised for fight. This ends the 5th section and the maze.]

:[Leaving from the last shaft past Cueball takes you to the exit of the maze in 2s. It is a small rectangular room, with a last ledge coming out over the entrance corridor to the left; the last remnant of the maze. A shaft goes up in the ceiling. It would take about 21s to enter the maze in one end, grab the three coins and get to the exit in the other end (either way). If you did not need to grab coins you can pass through the maze in 14s. It takes about 2m 45s to move everywhere in them maze.]

====The room with a glitch floor in the Star Destroyer====
There are 9 coins in this section of the Star Destroyer, no. 100-108, including the one floating 1.5s below the Destroyer.
:[Going up the shaft for 1.5s you reach a corridor to the right. You try this before going further up. Less than 2s later you reach a shaft going down. This turns out to be the deepest shaft, and longest possible fall inside the Destroyer. You jump in and pass (2s) a coin ('''#100'''), then (3.8s) you pass Cueball and a Megan who is holding on to each other to prevent them from falling further down by holding on to each other and pressing their feet to each side of the pit:]
::Cueball: Okay
::Cueball: We can figure this out.
:[A shaft leads off to the left (5s) and first after 6s you reach the end of the fall when the pit ends in a room. It will take 13s to get up again. This is not only the longest fall possible inside the Destroyer. As it ends up in a room, it beat that record held by the cave.]

:[Going back up (2s) to the corridor to the left to explore the direction back first, you move down this corridor for almost 18s before you reach a shaft going down. From here you can see a room on the other side of the shaft and another corridor going off left just down the shaft which continues further down. This makes this the longest corridor where nothing happens.]

:[Jumping over the shaft you enter a small dead-end room with a coin ('''#101''') From here you can see that he corridor going left below goes into a room. Jumping down the shaft passing the corridor you end up (1.1s) in another dead-end room twice the size of the previous and with two coins ('''#102''') and ('''#103'''), one just left and one further away right compared to the shafts entry.]

:[Going back up (1s) you continue down the corridor to the left for 1.7s and enter a big room that opens up down down down. It takes 5s to follow the curving wall down to the bottom. Here is a black warning sign with white text. On top of the sign there is a coin ('''#104'''). The “!” at the top is black but it is put inside a circle of white at the top of the triangular sign:]
::!
::Caution:
::Glitchfloor.
:[After the sign there is a typical "wet floor" sign pointing towards right (and you), also with an exclamation mark, this time inside a white triangle. A few meters away to the left is another identical "wet floor" sign but pointing the other way.]
::!
::!
:[Cueball is standing on the other side of this second sign looking left. Something must be wrong with the floor. And you find out what they mean by glitchfloor when you step out on to the glitch between the two glitchfloor warning signs. The floor does not support you in an area between these signs and you fall straight down. In you surprise you forget to jump up for just a short time, and suddenly after about 1.5s you fall through a coin ('''#105''') than hang suspended a fairly long distance under the ship. You could easily have jumped up again before seeing the coin. Maybe there could be other coins like this under other exits? Having seen the coin you decide to fall further down. But there are no more coins before you hit the ground in some grassy hills. It took 6s to fall down. But you did get a coin. If you had only wished to get the coin it would have taken you almost 4s to get down there and up again (2s up). Getting back up from the ground takes almost 13s and then continuing inside the room you find that it takes more than 3s to hit the ceiling of this very big room. (16s rise in total.) The room is almost 10 jumps high from the bottom and it takes 3.2s to get from there to the ceiling (2s down) making it as high as the cave room. But it takes just short of 9s to pass through it if you jump through the air at the top where it is widest, compared to 11s in the cave, so this is only the 2nd largest room in the Destroyer. So it is a large room! But there is nothing above the floor. The entry and exit in each side are at the top, and then the glitch exit at the bottom is the only interesting feature of this completely inverted dome room. It is actually placed almost directly beneath the cave, the center of the cave above the left exit of this room. So two identical height domes with their flat part close to each other. This makes for an almost circular structure inside the ship. Because the room is so large it will take some time to go up and down to make sure there is nothing else in the air, like the birds in the cave. But there is nothing! Passing down the curved walls from the right going left low over the walls/floor and then up the other side you will after 2.3s pass through the rest of the ships bottom hull, then after 5s you pass the glitch, and after 10s the floor again goes inside the rest of the hull. Finally after about 13s you are up and ready to move down the corridor to the left. It means that for about 8s you move fairly vertical in a downwards pointing dome that protrudes out from the belly of the space ship. The five other seconds are mainly horizontal up and down the end of the half circle. It is a big feature on the ship’s hull. By far the largest seen so far.]

:[Moving out of the dome room to the left you move down the corridor for 8s before reaching a shaft going up and down. Above you can see it expands into another corridor going both ways. Going up here and right you enter a large empty dead-end room.]

:[Going out of the room to the left passing over the shaft you reach (3s) a spiral structure, where the corridor continues around in an inwards spiral taking two turns before you end up in the middle. It took about 12s to reach here from the other room, and then back out you end up at the shaft in about 23s. There was nothing in the spiral.]

:[Dropping down the shaft you exit the space ship below in 1.4s. Since you haven’t been over the hull to the left from here you go back along the hull to look for coins. Already after 4s there is a small protrusion in the ship’s hull and just before this there is a coin ('''#106''') and after this (6s) there is another coin ('''#107'''). From there it takes in total 21s to reach the ledge where Megan wonders if the ship is designed to fly in the atmosphere. Going back from here you realize you have investigated the part of the ship after the glitchfloor, but not the hull between the exit you came from and the glitch. So you go back from there to the glitch and enter the ship through there. It takes 32s (12s from the entry you came out of before.)]

:[You now go back from the glitch to the longest shaft and goes down to the room you once drooped into without exploring. It takes about 30s. After 6s you have to change corridors through the small shaft and then go back through the very long corridor that is quite uneven. Finally you drop the 1.3s down.]

:[You find yourself in a large room (2.5 jump high and 2.3s wide) with a giant light bulb. The bulb lies in the middle of the room and you can stand on it. If you stand on the black screw base to the right you cannot see either ceiling or the walls in of the room. The filament is visible in the bulb to the left. When you are standing on the highest point of the bulb you can see both ceiling with shaft and the left wall.]

:[Exiting the bulb room through a corridor to the right you enter a shaft (2.3s) going up and down. Going up first you enter a dead-end room in 1.6s. It is rather large (>2 jump high and wider) but empty except for Hairbun who is telling something to a guy with flat black hair:]
::Hairbun: Use a proposition instead of a preposition if you need something to end a sentence with, baby.

:[Going down the shaft you exit the ship at the bottom in about 2s. Just before you exit you get a coin ('''#108'''). By standing on the wall inside the shaft (possible) where the coin was you can see that the coin was obviously falling down the shaft as there are drawn moving lines to where it hit the wall with a bouncing sound, and to where it was when you grabbed it:]
::Coin: Bounce

:[After your experience in the glitch room with a coin under the ship you take the fall all the way down, but there is no more coins. You end up on a small pedestal just higher than Cueball in 6.2s. Going back up takes 13.3s. Once more you find that you need to check for coins under the ship’s hull and move back towards the glitch floor again. After 7s you pass Megan who hangs on to the hull below. Since you have nothing to stand on it is difficult to get a real good look at her. She is fidgeting trying to hold on with both arms:]
::Megan Hmm.

:[Continuing down left under the hull you find another small protrusion (13s to 15s) but this time there are not coins. After 17s you pass a small canon and then after 26s you enter through the glitch. Remembering the pain of going back from the glitch you go back along the hull. This ends this section.]

====The bridge of the Star Destroyer====
There are 15 coins in this section of the Star Destroyer, no. 109-123.
:[Entering from below the ship you know that there are several shafts above you (where you have explored the first couple of corridors and rooms going off. It would thus be interesting to see how long it will take to get up to the top of this increase, i.e. up and through the bulb room, up the very long shaft and then up the shaft above the maze and then on? It takes about 26s. First 4s to get to the bulb room, leaving up the long shaft from 6s to 18s, then into and up the shaft above the maze, into new territory and after 23 passing a room to the left with coins (for pick-up later) and then after 25s a corridor going left and finally 26s you enter a large room where you from the ceiling are able to see the top of the ship’s hull just a jumps height away. You have thus moved from under the ship to the top, in the tallest end of the ship.]

:[The dead-end room at the top of these deep shaft is 1.5 jumps high and 1.5s wide. In the room a guy with a small black hat (or weird hair) is walking right while talking to the emperor (Palpatine with the cave park) who walk in front of him (or glide as he is in a black cloak). They are looking at a box on legs with two wires coming in from the floor behind the leg closest to the emperor and two other wires going out the other side of the box. At least one bird is inside it. Behind the box on a pedestal is a chair facing the box. The chair is up against the right wall. You can stand both on the box and on the chair. From there you can see a step down in the top of the outer hull. This is the first time you have seen the hull decrease in height while going right. Indicating we are close to the end of the ship, where obviously the more important people are located!]
::Guy: My emperor...
::Guy: We all share in your newfound enthusiasm for birdwatching.
::Guy: But normally one watches them in the wild, rather than drugging and imprisoning them in a house of stairs.
::Emperor: ''Silence.''
::Bird: Chirp
::Bird: Chirp

:[Going back down the shaft taking the corridor to the left you reach (4s) a low ceilinged room where Cueball, talking to Megan behind him to the right, is pointing towards five black boxes with large white dollar signs and there are also three smaller bags with similar but smaller dollar signs. Before the first bag, on the step of the first box, above and between the two top boxes, behind the two bags on the top left box, and on the two steps down formed by the last two boxes are six coins ('''#109'''), ('''#110'''), ('''#111'''), ('''#112'''), ('''#113''') and ('''#114'''). You can stand on the boxes not the bags.]
::Bags: $ $ $
::Boxes: $ $ $ $ $
::Cueball: Aha! Darth Vader's secret gold bullion reserves! We'll be rich!
::Megan: I'm not sure this is canon.

:[It takes 3s to pass from the entrance of the money room to the shaft behind the small corridor exiting the room to the left. Going all the way up passing two corridors to the left you end up (3s) in a short corridor going into a large room to the left. Jumping into the middle you realize this is a circular room, with a coin ('''#115''') in the middle, which takes 1.3s to reach, and then you reach the other side of the room (on a diameter) in 2.6s total. A circle with this diameter is just above 5 jumps high, and it takes 1.7s to get up and 1.4s to fall down again. Apart from the entrance corridor, the inner room is a perfect circle. Apart from about a jump above the entrance and then 3s move to the left, where this circle is connected to the rest of the hull, the rest is entirely outside the hull, with a rather thin wall (maybe made of glass). At the very top of this outer circle there is a flat area. Apart from there it is also perfectly circular outside. So although it is not as big a room as the glitchfloor room, this outside feature is much more pronounced. It turns out it is used as a "Globe of death" but not for motorcycles (maybe low gravity makes this possible). In this globe one Megan rides on her bicycle at the top left her head pointing down. She is going down the left side with four speeding lines behind her. Ponytail is almost at the bottom racing on an ostrich towards right with a lance and coming the other way towards Ponytail is another Megan also racing on a bike but with another lance. Both of them are having four speed lines after them indicating the extreme speed they will soon meet with. It is a dead-end and you leave the way you came.]

:[Leaving the Globe of Death going down the shaft to the corridor below to the left you enter (2.3s) a very small dead-end room where Cueball is sitting on the floor just inside the entrance. There are three square boxes on the floor one behind the other, with too little space between them for you to go down between them. Ponytail is sitting on the first box looking down on Cueball.]

:[Going back to the shaft and dropping to the next corridor to the left (1s) you enter a large dead-end room (4s) that turns out to be the bridge of the Destroyer. It is almost 2 jumps high and 1.9s wide. From the top right you can see the bottom of the Globe above, and top left you see people standing outside at an antenna. Outside the room is outside the ship, and the ship’s hull is vertical here! You will go there later. Farthest right at a big window stands Cueball looking out while having his hands on the control board standing as a small black trapeze-like structure in front of the window (you can stand on it). Behind him to the right in the middle of the room (closer to the corridor where you entered) is Darth Wader (helmet and all) with his hand lifted talking to Hairy. It is clear that Darth Vader breathes heavily as this is written in bobbles with breaking frames, before each sentence:]
::Darth Vader: ''Breathe''
::Darth Vader: But Steven's ''mother'' is a crystal gem,
::Darth Vader: ''Breathe'')
::Darth Vader: so he's half- Are you getting all this?
::Hairy: Yes, my Lord!
:[Darth Vader is referencing the Steven Universe tv-series. Steven and his family is on board the ship, you have meat them earlier!]

:[Leaving the room along the corridor going down the shaft to the right you end up in a corridor going back left under the bridge. Here you enter (10s) a dead-end room of just more than one jump height and 1.5s long. In this room two Cueballs are walking left towards the end of the room, which is also a window out of the elevated ship hull with the bridge and globe. Behind them at the end of the room to the left is a coin ('''#116'''). The front Cueball turns and talks to the taller Cueball behind:]
::Cueball: The fault, dear Tarkin, is not in our star destroyers, but in ourselves.

:[Leaving Tarkin’s room going up the shaft and through the money room you go down the shaft under the emperors room and into the next corridor left where you enter the small room with two coins ('''#117''') and ('''#118''') that you saw coming up. They are placed on top of each other in the middle of the room.]

:[On the other side of the small coins room is a shaft going up and down. Going down (1s) and left in the corridor (3s in all) takes you to a medium seized dead-end room (1 jump high and 1.7s wide). Hairbun is pointing left while talking to Ponytail. They are standing in front of a system of gas containers with several pipes going out from them (one from each of the 8 containers). All the pipes are connected to a larger box at the left end. This box is connected with a thick socket to the wall close to the floor and also a wire comes out from the wall and splits in two before connecting higher up with the box. You can stand on all this and there is a coin ('''#119''') at the farthest end of the room.]
::Hairbun: In the event of a fire on one of the decks, this system will seal it off and pump in pure oxygen.
::Ponytail: Wait, ''Oxygen?'' Not a fire suppressant like-
::Hairbun: Ugh, ''boring''.

:[From there you go back to the shaft (3.3s) up this shaft (1.7s) and down the corridor to the left reaching a ledge in 11s total. Ponytail stands at the end of this corridor where a ledge hangs out over a drop. She stands behind a small fence, (you can stand on this), throwing out a paper plane above it. A line indicates the planes curving path. A coin ('''#120''') is floating right over the plane. Above the ledge is a ceiling. The wall that the corridor came out off is going down in a steep incline to the left. The incline also continues above the corridor up to the ceiling, just less than one jump above. When you grab the coin there is a drop down of 1.4s.]

:[Down from Ponytails ledge you jump up again to the ceiling and a little further out you realize that you must now be beneath the bridge, and thus you are now outside on the hull. It was thus not a large room inside the ship, but a part that is actually outside but under an overhang. You do see a coin up along the wall up to the bridge. But since it is a long time since you have been outside, you will go down along the hull to see if there are any coins down to the last place you entered the ship from the top.]

:[Going down the hull you find a coin ('''#121''') after 2.5s. Then you pass (9s) a cowboy sitting with two reins holding on to the ship like he is riding it as a horse:]
::Cowboy: Giddyayup!
:[Then you get another coin ('''#122''') after 15s and after 19s you reach the entrance with the stair and the slinky. You can now move back and up along the bridge section of the hull.]

:[Going back not having to look for coins and also only going to the bridge and not under this to Ponytail only takes about 12s if you keep high enough to see the bottom of the bridge. If you are below there is 2s rise up to the bottom and at the front edge there is the coin ('''#123''') you saw before going your way down the hull.]

:[Going up you pass both Tarkin’s room (1s higher) then Darth Vader on the bridge (1s higher again) and then finally 2s after you land on top of the roof of the bridge. Both the rooms you passed could be viewed from the outside (all text etc). (Did you came another way here, you would see a coin in Tarkins room, that you then had to find your way too). On top of the bridge was the scene you could also see when jumping to the ceiling inside on the bridge: It is also just outside, below and to the left, of the globe. Cueball is looking at Megan fixing a parabolic disc for satellite TV. The disk sits on a tall slim box with two wires going in and out of it from top to bottom.]
::Megan: Such a pain adjusting his thing every time we move

:[Moving to the right you can stand under the Globe where Ponytail comes down on an ostrich. You cannot see Megan coming the other way. Now you jump up to the top of the Globe (5s) where you can see the Megan on the inside top of the Globe. Here is the flat piece of the circle. You cannot know it yet, but standing here you are standing on the highest piece of black in the entire comic! One other floating rock comes close, but this wins by a nose. This ends this section, where you have used 4 30s.]

====The back end of the Star Destroyer====
There are 3 coins in this section of the Star Destroyer, no. 124-126.
:[Jumping down from the globe to the right you hit a flat piece of the hull beneath the globe (2s) then jump down a large step to hit a large crocodile lying here looking right (you cannot stand on top of it), then you pass (7s) the scene with the emperor and his bird. But you cannot see the last two lines of the guy (and thus neither of the persons), although you can see a little of the rooms floor as you after 9s pass another step down (the one visible from inside that room), so you can see the bird chirp and part off the box and chair; annoying if you had not seen it from inside first. Finally after 13s you reach what might be the end of the ship. There is a steep decline, although it still slopes towards the right. So you are not at the very back yet.]

:[Going out over the edge you fall down this long steep decline. After 1.7s you grab a coin ('''#124''') and after 5s you pass a very small shelf into the back of the Destroyer. At this point the slope right stops and the ship begin to slope left in under the upper part of the ship. The shelf is big enough for you and there is a coin ('''#125''').]

:[Continuing down following the left slope inwards you fall for 2s and then the slope turns outwards again to the right but the decline continues. Right where the slopes change there is a corridor going left into the ship, but it only takes 1.8s to reach the end of the small room you enter. It is just little more than a jump high, dead-end and empty.]

:[Going out again and dropping down right again the slope stops already after 0.7s to be replaced by a sheer drop. After 2.8s (total) the ship slopes inward quite a lot, but then slopes just as much out for a total of a 1s drop. At the bottom of this drop is a less steep shelf on which Cueball is sitting and he has just dropped his sandwich which now will plunge out over the edge of the ship. Just in front of his bouncing sandwich (shown bouncing with a line) is a coin ('''#126'''). You will soon find out that this was the last coin connected with the Star Destroyer.]
::Cueball: My sandwich!
:[Dropping from Cueballs shelf you land on yet another shelf 1.6s below. On this piece of the backside of the ship, the ship is still sloping to the right. Right beneath this shelf the ship goes a very little further out, (you could stand there). This is the farthest right you can get while standing on the Destroyer. You can see that the hull seems to go back left just below at the bottom of the screen. On the shelf a Megan is leaning up against the ship’s hull to the left while another Megan stands close to the edge looking slightly down and right. She is the one talking:]
::Megan: I want synesthesia so bad I can ''taste'' it.
:[Since this is further out right than Cueball and his sandwich just above it is not unlikely that Megan will get the sandwich in the head (maybe knocking her off.)]

:[Your final job on the exploration of the Destroyer is to jump of the back end to go back under the hull to the last entry (7s) which is the one where there were a bouncing coin. Seeing this and not finding anymore coins you go back to the back-end of the ship]

:[Standing on the back-end of the Destroyer at the very top it will take 11.5s to fall/move to the bottom, (you cannot fall straight the whole way due to the incline to begin with.) It takes 21s to get back up again. From the end of the ship where Megan is standing looking down it takes 6 seconds to fall down to the ground, although you end up standing on a floating piece of grass and earth right below the ships end. This seems to have been ripped out of the ground and is floating several meters above the hole it has left in the ground. You can stand in the hole. If you jump you hit the earth underneath the floating piece. You can get up in top from down the hole in just one jump. You will then hit the side and can move left/right up on top. Maybe this small piece of floating land has a relation to the floating rock that hangs on the left side of the play area? You can get back up to the bottom of the Destroyer again in 13s (70-80 repeating presses of up arrow). If you jump of the ship from the top while pressing the right arrow key repeatedly after you leave the edge of the ship you will hit the ground in about 19s right around where White Hat lays in so tall grass you only sees his head. From there it only takes 26s over the ground and then a final jump to reach the right end of this world. The rest of the description of the right part of the world will be the one at ground level, and it will start from the end going back. It will only be a few items you would have seen going there, but if you jumped through the air from the star destroyer you could get there without seeing anything. Going up from the top of the nest at the end of the world while keeping the left arrow down will make you hit the Star Destroyer on the last up sloping part of the back-end. A few seconds later (33s in total) you would reach the top. Jumping out from the ship while keeping the right arrow pressed and then jumping every time the hoverboard turns down for 33s will take you to the end of the world in a height somewhat above the Star Destroyer. You can see when you reach the end even in the air, as Cueball suddenly moves from center screen to the right edge. Dropping from there (20s if done like described!) will take you down at the far side and leave you behind the nest with egg coins. So you can start from here without having seen anything of the ground. This ends the tour of the Star Destroyer. This last section took 1m 40s to explorer but only because you went to the ground and up again.]

===Back along the ground from the right edge===
There are 22 coins back along the ground to the play area, no. 127-148. The first ten comes in the first subsection here below.
:[From the end of the Star Destroyer it is assumes you continue in about the same height until the end of the world. When you reach this you will suddenly move away from the center of the screen and move to the right edge of the screen (27s). Here you will then drop down. In case you wish to go here directly from the play area over the top of the Destroyer (without bothering about coins up there) you can get here in about 3½ minute. The last 12s will be the final drop along the right edge of this world. When you jump of the upper end of the Destroyer it will still take you more than 30s to reach the end. Passing over the top of the Destroyer alone takes about 2m 20s.]

====The nest at the end of the world====
There are 10 coins in the nest, no. 127-136.
:[Falling down along the edge you suddenly see several coins just left of where you are dropping, but you drop to the ground before reacting. Standing at this very far right edge, in the grass, the ground rises steadily to the left. Just a short distance to the left is a small foundation, rising a little above the ground. Even on the left side there is still a very little drop to the rising ground. In the middle of the foundation is a tall pole. Obviously the coins will be on top. Grass is growing around the bottom of the pole, even though the foundation is devoid of grass over the rest of its surface. Jumping up to investigate the top of this pole you find that it is more than four jumps high when standing at the edge of this world. From here it takes 1.4s to reach the end of the pole and 1.6s to pass the last coin. It takes 1s to fall down again from the top of the coins (0.8s from the top of the pole). Standing at the pole you reach the top in 1.2s and fall down in 1.1s. It is only 3.5 jumps to hit the bottom of the platform at the top of the pole. This platform turns out to be a nest (like a stork nest). If you are careful you can manage to land on the very right edge of the nest without hitting any of the coins (not possible to the left). In the nest there are three large eggs sticking out above the straw forming the nest. The middle egg lies behind the other two. Above the eggs are ten coins in rows of 3, 2, 3 and 2 from below. This is the most coins collected in one place in the entire game. The 6 in Darth Vader’s bullion takes 2nd place. The nest is so wide that if you jump off to the right from here (1.3s) you will miss the foundation below. (From the left you just hit the foundation, but this cannot be tested before some coins have been taken). On the left side you can “stand” on the pole high enough up to see all coins. When you finally take the coins by falling down in the middle of the nest from above you will only grab half of them – five coins ('''#127'''), ('''#128'''), ('''#129'''), ('''#130'''), and ('''#131''') - not getting those outer ones in the two rows with three and also missing one of the coins in the 2nd row as they are wider apart than the top 2 (and you cannot center precisely in the middle). The last five coins ('''#132'''), ('''#133'''), ('''#134'''), ('''#135'''), and ('''#136''') you can take in one more jump (up left down right for instance). Now you are standing in the nest on top of the eggs. Dropping down left takes 1.1s (because you hit the foundation). You cannot get into the nest again from here in much less than 1.7s as you will overshoot. Just testing you go up in the air pushing the up arrow for 30s without finding anything (130 presses). It takes 14s to drop down again. The nest takes about 30s to explore before you move on to the left.]

====Going back left over the pyramid====
There are 4 coins in this section, no. 137-140.
:[Jumping of the nest and moving steadily to the left, jumping high to make sure you notice anything in the air you reach (15s) a floating Cueball that looks kind of distorted. He is indicated to drift right on the wind with a small line. He seems longer than a normal Cueball. (See for instance the Monday forecast in [[1245: 10-Day Forecast]] for something similar). The grass is quite high here going up to your hands.]

:[Moving left you pass (5s) a small lollipop like flower in the grass (from here the ground stop rising and starts falling again to the left). Then after 1s more a coin ('''#137''') hangs a jumps height over the ground.]

:[2s further left you pass White Hat looking left sitting in grass so high that only his head is showing. In front of him is small turf of grass so high it’s top is over his head. When you stand behind it (you cannot stand on it) the grass reaches your neck.]

:[Going left again you pass (2s) a small stone that will make you jump when you pass it and then you reach (2s more) the piece of earth with grass that floats a jump above the ground, and over the hole it has left in the ground. Right above the Star Destroyer begins (or ends).]

:[Going left (2.5s) you meet a Medusa-like woman facing left. She seems to have at least 10 long lines going out of her head. Some of them may have something at the end that could be a snake's head, but that is not clear. She walks left with both her hands out, like a zombie or like grabbing you (had you been going towards her).]

:[Going left for 3s you reach the pedestal, above which you will meet an entrance to the ship with the bouncing coin (you went down here during the exploration above).]

:[Jumping along to the left, with the ground just in sight you see two birds after 8s, and because you are jumping you also notice the coin above. The coin cannot be seen from below. The birds are one jump above the ground. Your head just reaches - and passes through - the birds in one jump, without getting above their upper part. You will only see the coin if you are jumping while the birds are on the screen. The coin ('''#138''') is 3 jumps above the ground, double the distance above the birds than they are above the ground. If you continue up you will reach the Destroyer just left of where Megan hangs on below. (It takes 85 clicks on the up arrow to get there, and 6.5s to fall down).]

:[After 2.5s you reach a small pile of stones. A smaller stone is at the base in the grass, then the largest stone right above. The 3rd stone is smaller, the 4th is the second largest and at the top one or maybe two small stones. You cannot walk through it, but stand on top. It looks a little like a small Christmas tree with snow. But the shape indicates that it is stones. This might be an “arrow” pointing up. But there is no interesting feature in the bottom of the hull above here.]

:[Then after 2.6s the ground rises in a step that is just over a Cueballs height. The ground had been falling steadily since the lollipop. Then 1s later you reach a Cueball-like kid looking left and singing, as indicated with two drawings of double notes. The kid is clearly smaller than you. Right above him (to the left) is the small canon protruding below the Star Destroyer. It takes 14.4s to reach the bottom of the hull (60 repeated presses or up arrow) and then 6.6s to drop down.]

:[Continuing left over this flat plateau you reach (1.8s) a small cliff. It is almost vertical and one jump will just take you up to where grass again begins to grow out over the edge. It is though not more vertical than that you can hover up over it without jumping. This will take 1.2s though.]

:[Continuing along the hilly ground above the cliff you reach (1s) a black hat resting on a stick in the ground. You are sadly a few inches too high to be able to turn into Black Hat by standing under the hat. It will be inside your Cueball head.]

:[One more second to the left Ponytail comes walking right towards you. She is followed by a small black bird flapping its wing (indicated with four small lines). It is right behind her head. There is nothing special above on the Destroyer].

:[Going left 3.7s you reach a coin ('''#139''') just above the ground. When you take it you fall into a small hole in the grass so low that the top of the grass reaches your neck. Above here is the dome with the glitchfloor. But the entrance is further left, outside this frames field of view, as will be clear, since you did not see this coin when dropping to the ground after finding the coin below the glitchfloor. The entrance to that floor is 2.2s further left, on top of the first of two small mounds you reach here. If you go up from here you would reach that coin in 10s (it has already taken in this transcript) and then enter through the glitch in 13.2s. Dropping down takes 6s.]

:[After 3s going left you reach a plateau with three T like platforms with grass on top. The first from the left is the highest. Standing beneath at the base you hit the top of the T in 1.5 jumps. It takes two full jump to reach up on the bar of the T. You are not up yet, but from there you can hover up by moving left. (0.9s up 0.8s down). This first T’s left bar is just hanging out over the next lower T. This second T is low enough that you can easily walk under the high T. One jump can take you up again. From the ground between the two, one jump can also just get you up standing on the edge of the T bar of the second T. The last T is the same height as the second, but they are further apart (1.4s between bases). The base is twice as wide as the other two. Megan is standing on top of the right part of this T-bar looking down and right. There is nothing beneath the T’s. It takes 4s to just pass over them. There are no interesting features above on the Destroyer.]

:[After the T’s there is a plateau rising taking two steps (of one Cueball height each) and then rising some more. Four seconds from the T’s you reach a cliff (0.6s down) that falls lower than the ground level at the T’s. Going 1.5s from there (or one jump from the base) you are standing just at the end of a small decline after passing a little hill. This is right under the exit in the ship above just to the right of the spiral corridor. It takes 15.5s to get up (70 presses of up arrow) and then 6.5s down.]

:[Jumping of the cliff and passing the uneven ground nothing happens for 15s although the ground becomes grass less. Like sand maybe. That would make sense since what you have reached is the incline of a tall pyramid. It takes 4s to reach the summit and here is a coin ('''#140'''). Going up from the top you reach the bottom of the ship in 13.3s. You hit just below a room where there is a car, and just 4s left will take you to the entrance where Megan is standing on a ledge wondering if the ship can fly in an atmosphere. Dropping down from here will take 7.2s and you will land on the downslope of the Pyramid. Going back up to the top from there takes 3s. Going down again left takes 3.7s.]

:[Ponytail is standing on the left side of the pyramid facing those coming from the left. She is pointing up the pyramid while giving a protip:]
::Ponytail: Protip:
::Ponytail: Don't stop climbing just because you reach the top.
::Ponytail: ☑ Show tips on startup
:[She thus indicates that she is giving you a tip, at the startup of your climb up the hill. This could indicate that she tries to tell you that there is something above if you keep climbing in the direction of the pyramid – i.e. up to the right. If you find the rhythm that makes you jump while moving left so you just jump when about to hit the pyramid, and then keep up this rhythm, you will need 48 jumps before you in 23s reach the bottom of the Destroyer just after the shaft going up to the spiral. You may miss it if you jump too slowly. If you instead climb as fast as possible while keeping the right bottom down, (rising faster than the pyramid, but though slow enough to see the tip before moving above the pyramid), you end up close to where there are two coins close to each other under the hull, not visible from inside the ship. This is still close to being under the spiral, but the entrance from before is further along the hull. It takes more than 7 seconds to fall down again from there. This protip is yet an indication that there is something above, just like the one who looks up at the beginning and says ''Wow'', or the wires from the ground up to the runner from where you can follow the bombs up to the Destroyer. There are at least 2-3 more of these indications on the left side of the play area. This ends this section, which you passed in 2m 45s.]

====Past cemetery and weeding through the forest====
There are 2 coins in this section, no. 141-142.
:[Going left 2.5s from the pyramid you reach a huge foot (cut of at the ankle, toes pointing left) standing on a pedestal. You cannot stand on it, but you can disappear completely behind it the two places where is touches the pedestal. A jump will easily make you clear the top of the foot, but it is at least two Cueballs' height from ground to top. Two Cueballs are looking at an inscription on a plaque at the front of the pedestal (which in itself is almost a Cueball's height high).]
::Cueball: It says "Yo, future dirtbags! Check out my huge foot!"

:[Continuing left you reach (4s) a cemetery which it takes 2s to pass through. It consists of 7 gravestones that are fenced in behind two robes/chains that are held up by ten poles. There is a stone between each of the seven “rooms” made by the eight poles that are not at either end. Five of the stones are very similar, with same height and rounded top. They do not reach higher than Cueballs neck. The third stone from the right is rectangular, with a smaller rectangle on the top, and it is standing on a pedestal. It reaches up to the middle of Cueballs head. The second stone from the left is also on a pedestal, and reaches the same height, but it is a wider rectangle with the same width all the way. Between the first two stones from the left are a blonde girl with long hair and Megan who points to the second stone.]
::Megan: They're inscribed with our family motto, "Cur ego committitur dictar latinae," which means "Why did I just start speaking Latin?"

:[Further left (3s) Cueball and Ponytail are having a picnic. She is sitting on a small rock to the left facing Cueball who is sitting on the ground to the right. They have a small basket and two canteens and Ponytail has something in her hands. A little further (1s) to the left, with her backs turned to them, Megan is sitting on a larger rock. You can stand on this rock. Just past this rock is a large but low stone slab, but this you can walk behind.]

:[About 2s further left you find a wedding. Cueball with a tie and Megan in a wedding dressed (although she is a black bride), are standing at a small stage. Behind them to the right is a pole with a stick at the top. The pole is decorated with a plant going from the ground and up. A female priest with black hair and a book in one hand is pointing towards and talking to the audience sitting in chairs in front of the stage to the left. There are five people. The first has a cap on backwards. Then another Cueball, Ponytail, a person with black hair and Hairy.]
::Priest: And if any here can give cause why these two should not be wed,
::Priest: The Great Jabba the Hutt will now listen to your pleas.
:[Just to the right of the wedding stage is an entrance up above to the Destroyer. It takes 17s to get up there. The entrance takes you to a small room. Going left through corridor you soon reach the room with the torpedo canon and Megan explaining the lack of photon torpedoes. The drop down again takes 8.2s.]

:[Left of the wedding guests there are four small trees, and then a single large tree (1.7s from the stage). You can stand on three of the branches, but it is also possible to walk under. After the three a large stone lies on the ground, you can stand on it. Then you pass 11 small trees/bushes, the last six standing so close some of them join together. Only the last two of these are as high as Cueball. It takes 3.3s to pass from the large tree over these small ones. After the last you reach another large tree, which turns out to be part of a larger collection of trees. You can pass through this forest in about 6s. Just below the first of the large trees is yet another small tree. You can stand on the two branches going left and right on the large tree. You can pass under/through all the trees in the forest. Between the first and the second large tree, there is a shrubbery, then a smaller tree, but twice Cueballs height (right above this is the torpedo canon in the Destroyer); then follows three small trees and then the second large tree. On this tree you can only stand on the left branch. On the way to the third tree you pass two small trees, a shrubbery, three trees, a dead three (only a branch sticking out of the ground no foliage) and another shrubbery. On the third large tree you can also only stand on the left branch. The fourth tree is close by, the two trees crowns grow together. Beneath between them are a shrubbery and then a smaller tree, though clearly higher than Cueball. In this fourth three you can only stand on the right branch. But although the two trees are close by each other and their solid branches are pointing towards each other you can still fall down between them as these do not touch. In the center of this fourth trees crown, right over the stem lies a coin ('''#141'''). This was the last of the big trees, but the forest continues with 8 small threes, two of these just higher than Cueball, and then one last tree that are just less than a jump high. More small trees follow, but this feels like the end of this little forest. If you only walked past these last trees along the ground you would miss the coin hanging in the air right above the last tree of the forest. But if you jump while moving through (or jump off from the last tall tree) you will see it. On the other hand if you came from the right and first jumped when close to the coin in the tree crown, it is likely that you would miss it. But now you jump up to get the coin ('''#142'''). Two jumps are just not enough to reach it. But if you jumped left out of the tree crown you could reach it with two jumps. This ends this section, which took 1m 8s to pass.]

====Crossing the ocean====
There are 3 coins in this section, no. 143-145.
:[Leaving the forest to the left you still pass four small trees and then you reach (3.7s) Ponytail who is flying above the ground by flapping violently with her arms (it looks like she has three arms on each side and there are two small movement lines on each side of her arms). Beneath her on a small mound lies a coin ('''#143'''), you cannot stand on the mound. Her flapping makes sounds. They are written with three flaps above her, two on each side of the top of her head, and two more on each side of her arms.]
::Ponytails arms: Flap Flap Flap Flap Flap Flap Flap
:[Straight above Ponytail is a torpedo (15.2s). If you had not taken it already there would be a coin above and to the right of this torpedo, and there is another torpedo just below and right of this coin. You can get between these two torpedoes and on up to the Destroyer in 2.7s. Just to the left where you come up is the ledge where Cueball and another guy are preparing to jump out with parachutes. If you jump back down from here you will fall through a gap in the torpedo rain and reach the ground in 8.5s, just 1.3s left of Ponytail.]

:[Going left, there are no more trees. Also there is not much grass. After 4.2s you reach some kind of ruin. It seems like the building has sunk in to the ground to the left so the floors, ceiling and any other lines of the building are sloping down towards left. The fundament has risen out of the ground to the right. You can stand on this. The ceiling to the left has even broken and half of it has fallen down on the floor below, which again is a ceiling of the room below. You can stand on this floor, but not on the broken ceiling. On top right of the broken ceiling, the part that still holds up, is a small room to the very front right. The front of this room and the larger room below it has thin columns at the front right. Above the small room is a structure held up above the ceiling by two thicker columns. It goes only over the part of the roof that has not fallen down; you can stand on this structure. The largest room in the building is to the left under the floor below the broken ceiling. A wall to the right separates it from the lower of the two front rooms. There are two lines going along the entire length of this room, you can stand on the lower of these lines. Inside the room on the ground stands Megan looking right. There is grass on the ground inside the ruin. On the very top of the ruin on the right edge of the structure on the ceiling sits Cueball, legs over the edge to the right, with a guitar playing and singing. (Two drawing of notes are shown near him and lines from the guitar indicate it is playing). In the smallest room below Cueball is a coin ('''#144'''). Because of all the parts you can stand on, you have to jump the correct place when coming from the left to hit the opening in to this room. But if you jump over Cueball and down on the ceiling you can always walk right back to take it. You cannot just walk through the house, as you have to jump to get into the room with Megan due to the line you can walk on.]
::Cueball singing:
:::Spider-man
::::Spider-plan
:::Spider-canal
::::Spider-Panama
:::Gates let in
::::Spider boats
:::Flood the locks
::::Spiders float
:::''Look out!''
:::Spiders in both oceans.
:[If you go up right after the ruin you will pass (13s) just right of the two torpedoes hitting each other exploding in midair, and the hit a group of torpedoes above this. Passing around these you can (in 19s total) reach a ledge with an entry into the Destroyer. This ledge is just across from the ledge with the two parachuting guys on it. If you just walk of this (really just) you will just pass through the torpedoes after 2.7s and hit the ruin to the left of Megan in 8.5s.]

:[Then after this to the left is a rock outcrop an then an ocean/large lake. You will sink in when you enter into it. But it is not very deep. It takes 7.8s to jump over the ocean. When walking through it, it already becomes so deep that you are not visible when standing still after 2.5s. And moving along the sea bed you will have to move 4.3s to get to so shallow water that you again are visible. Moving along the seabed it takes longer (8.5s) to pass the ocean because you makes several small jumps on the uneven bottom. Every time you jump like this you breach the surface. Before reaching the first place from the right where the seas is so deep you cannot be seen, (after a particular deep wave), there have already been four small wave tops where you cannot be seen, but then the deep wave will reveal the top of your head. A little less than halfway across the ocean (3.6s along the sea bed) is a “rouge” wave rising above the sea talking to a Cueball swimming in the sea to the right of the wave. The wave is thin and high (more than a full jump from the sea bottom high. Your head gets above it, but not the hoverboard. It first bends a little to the left from a broader base, then turns to go straight up, then beds almost horizontally to the right, makes a bend upwards and finally bends downward to finish in a thin spike from which drops are falling off. This spike “looks” down on Cueball and the waves speak emerges from here. There are some similarities to the scene from the movie ''The Abyss'' when a water plume rises up inside the submarine and moves along the corridors. On top of the highest point of the wave there is a coin ('''#145'''). You can just reach it with a single jump.]
::Wave: I know rogue waves seem implausible, but we're a straightforward consequence of the equations of fluid dynamics.
::Cueball: ...But you can talk?
::Wave: The equations are really complicated.
:[Going up from the wave you will hit a torpedo, but passing left of this you will reach the bottom of the Destroyer in about 19s. There is nothing here except a step in the hull. Falling down again takes 8.6s.]

:[From the wave it takes 5s to walk out of the sea to the left. A last wave crashed on the beach where Megan stands. She rates the seas with stars, that are shown beneath her text. Megan gives it 2½ stars out of five (2½ black 2½ white stars – so the below transcription is not quite correct as there exist no symbol for half a star).]
::Megan: This is an OK sea.
::Megan:★★☆☆☆
:[Going up from Megan you are now under the Rebel Blockade Runner and hits the bottom of this ships hull in 4.3s. Going left you reach the end in 2.7s and can get to the top (2.7s) where Megan and Cueball roasts a marshmallow. It has taken 9.7s to get up here this way. Falling down in to the ocean takes 3.4s and you can walk back to Megan in 2.9s. This ends this section, which took 1m 45s to pass.]

====Back over the dunes to the play area====
There are 3 coins in this section, no. 146-148.
:[There is grass right after Megan, but then going left there is something looking like dunes with no grass on them. It will take 7.4s to pass over the dune section if jumping. It makes sense to have dunes under the Runner that is now above, because, in the first Star Wars movie, this runner is flying over the desert planet Tatooine. There are no entries in the Runner above the desert. Walking across the dunes takes you up to small peak in the first dune which then rises to a somewhat higher second dune. At the bottom of this to the left is a coin ('''#146'''). After this comes the third dune which is the highest of the dunes. It takes 1.8s to climb it and 0.8s to get down the other side. At the bottom there is a coin ('''#147'''). From here the dunes becomes smaller and smaller. After the fourth dune Ponytail is standing on the top of the fifth dune looking right towards you. After her follows two small dunes, the sixth and the seventh. On top of the seventh dune there is a coin ('''#148'''). Three tiny dunes (eight, nine and ten) follows and then the ground becomes more rocky. The dune sea has ended. It takes 8.8s if you walk over it (either way) instead of jumping. If you walk you will reach the highest dune in 4s and Ponytail in 7s.]

:[After the dunes you go over rocky ground almost without any plant life. After 1.2s and 2.1s repectively there are two wires going up in the air (towards the Runner), and if you continue for a total of 6.8s you reach a third wire. The first wire you reach to the right is held on to by a Cueball. A small girl with black hair in a bun is stepping on the end of this wire. The next wire is held on to by Hairy and a Cueball, Hairy to the right, Cueball to the left of the wire. The third wire somewhat longer to the left, is held on to by Megan and Cueball, they both lean back to the left, pushing against a small rock outcrop. You can stand on this. If you jump up along this wire you will see the second wire after 4s and after 7s you will reach the bottom of the Runner. Just to the left of where this wire and the second wire are attached, to one of the ships canons with what looks like anchors for ships, is where Cueball stands on a ledge with his fishing rod. The third wires connect with the space ship 1.8s longer to the right directly at the bottom of the hull, also with an anchor at the end. Dropping down along this wire you see Megan climbing up (1s down) and you reach the ground in 2.4s just left of Ponytail in the dunes. It will take 3.4s to get back up to Megan and 5s to reach the hull from there. To make sure not to miss anything you also follow the middle wire all the way up but there is nothing here.]

:[Going on left you pass a large boulder and then reach (4s) the cliff on top of which Cueball and Megan stands pointing towards the space ships. This was where the exploration of the space ships to the right began. And this thus concludes the trip on the right side of the play area.]

:[Jumping left from here you reach the right wall of the play area in just 9.5s and 2s later you are back on top of the starting maze. You are now ready to continue to the left side of the play area. So do not yet go to the terminal to deliver your 148 coins but continue on to pick up the remaining coins on the other side. This ends the entire right side of the world. The last part took 1m 10s to pass.]

==Going left into the Lord of the Rings territory==
There are 21 coins left of the play area, no. 149-169. The first will appear at the [[#Floating rock|Floating rock]].
:[Leaving the play area to the left from the left wall you end up on a similar base as the one to the right. Where this ends there is a drop of one jumps height. Moving along over uneven ground without grass takes you to a stair of seven steps, which takes you up to a foundation of a tall wall (5s from the play area wall).]

===Washington monument===
There are zero coins in this section.
:[At the bottom of the wall there is a black sign on top of a pole. On the sign there is a white arrow pointing to the left at the base of the wall. You cannot stand on top of the sign. When standing where the sign is, you can see the top of your arms at the height of the arrow. It may look like you can see through the white arrow. But it could also just be that you are standing in front of the sign.]

:[Ignoring the arrow you begin jumping up. After 2.6s you pass what looks like a fault line in the wall. It is already now clear that the wall is not going straight up but that it is leaning to the left. As you go straight up, the wall “moves” away from you. But after 9.1s, before it moves all the way out of the frame you reach the top of the wall. Just before reaching the top you see that the wall becomes so thin at the top that you can see the other side. And at the very top is a white triangle as the tip of this obelisk like tower.]

:[Two ropes are teetered to the very top, and on the right side hangs White Hat with a bundle of rope behind him and on the left side hangs Cueball with a similar bundle. Cueballs heads is just at the lower edge of the white tip. He is holding on to his rope with both hands. White Hat is a little below the white tip. He is only holding on to the rope with one hand, while his body is turned away from the tip to the right as he is both looking and pointing up and right.]
::Cueball: Look at that- solid aluminum!
::Cueball: We´re gonna be rich!
::White Hat: Uh, what the heck is ''that?!''
:[White Hat has seen the destroyer. If you jump up from the top of the obelisk while keeping the right arrow down you will hit the tip of the destroyer (10s) just where a Cueball is standing at the lowest ledge of the front of the Destroyer. Moving down again by keeping the left arrow pressed down, you will and just at the stair up to the obelisk. From the top of the obelisk it takes 4.7s to fall back down again from the top to the arrow sign.]

:[Testing if it makes any sense to have the arrow at the bottom, you press up against the wall of the obelisk only to find that you can walk right through the base of the obelisk. At the bottom of the left side of the obelisk is Megan standing with Cueball who is looking up along the obelisk.]
::Cueball: Honestly, it doesn't even look that much like Washington.
:[This then tells us that this should represent the Washington Monument, or not since is does not look like Washington, but that might just be the surroundings.]

:[It also turns out that you can get inside the monument higher up. There is nothing in there, but the room is investigated in detail in the section below. You can go straight to the next section on the [[#Floating rock|Floating rock]]. It took 1m 17s to investigate the monument.]

====Inside the Washington monument====
There are zero coins in this section.
:[Going back through the tunnel you test what will happen if you jump over the entry to this tunnel at the bottom of the monument, and keep the arrow pointing left. It turn out you will be able to climb the steep incline, though very slowly. It will now take you 8s to reach the fault line (2.6s by jumping straight up). You continue towards the top, but long before you reach the top (after 18s in total) you will suddenly disappear in to the monument. And then suddenly you are dropping down inside – this will be experienced like this: The sides of the monument, now centered on the screen become wider while you fall until you stop after 1.8s. You are standing inside the monument right above the fault line. You are standing in a wide shaft. If you move from side to side, by just tapping the arrows you can tap 10-15 times before you hit the other wall depending on how quickly you release. It takes about 0.5s to move from one side to the other. You can see yourself move in some of the cracks along the fault line; especially to the right. You can thus also see that you are not able to move from wall side to wall side; but only in the middle. The hole thus takes up half the width of the monument at the fault line. As it is almost a completely straight shaft, it takes up relatively more space the higher up you go. There are small protrusions on the wall. For instance if you stand over the fault line next to either wall, you cannot jump as something protrudes above your head. You are also able to stand on either wall at particular heights. For instance if you jump up near the right wall and press towards it, you will be able to stand on the wall here. You can even move up the wall a bit further by pressing right, but will always fall back to the same spot on the wall. Similar there is such a protrusion on the left wall, but here you have to jump about 6 full jumps before you press in. There are several spots on either wall where you can stand still by pressing towards it, but will fall when releasing. On the right wall you can also stand right beneath the exit. That is about 7 jumps up. From here you can jump out left and then back to get into the exit corridor. When you are just entering the hidden passage in the upper third part of the monument and you are just standing with most of your hoverboard outside, it will take about 7 taps of the left arrow before you fall down in the shaft inside (1.8s drop). It takes 9 full jumps to get up to the exit corridor. When leaving the corridor you jump just above and continue to climb up by pressing left. 11s later you are on the top.]

:[You then drop down on the left side (also takes 4.7s). You also try to climb up the monument from the left, by pressing right arrow. Here there are no other tunnels than the one at the bottom, you have to jump. Here you also reach the fault line in about 8s (same height at the base), and then a total of 30s to reach the tip, fitting with the 18s and 11s plus one jumps head start from the exit corridor. Basically you could check out the inside in less than 15s…]

===Floating rock===
There are 2 coins around the rock, no. 149-150.
:[Thinking, (or knowing something), that the white arrow at the bottom showed you a hidden entrance, then you muse that maybe the white tip of this monument also points to something in the sky. A giant arrow! At the top White Hat pointed you to the Star Destroyer. So just to test this you try to jump straight up from where you now stand at the foot of the monument. After 9.1s you pass the tip and after 18s you have pushed 100 times without seeing anything, you continue to 150 presses in 28s and decide to stop at 200 presses, but after 35s you suddenly see something and 1.5s later (36.7s in total) you reach the top of a floating rock after almost 190 presses. If you went straight down again it would take 11.3s before you passed the tip of the monument and you would first hit the foundation after 15.8s.]

:[This floating rock is very close to being in the same height as the very top of the Star Destroyers Globe of Death at the top of the bridge; just a tiny bit lower. But, where there are several people who point you towards the Destroyer, and wires going to the Rebel Blockade Runner from the ground and then torpedoes to the Destroyer, there is nothing to guide you here except the needle of the Washington Monument. If you instead of jumping up from the left base had jumped up from the right, you would not have seen this rock. And even if you jumped up from the tip of the monument, making more sense, you could almost miss the rock, as you would pass by that, but you would just be able to see the girl who has just base jumped from the top of this rock, and might just miss her, if you were beginning to lose your attention after more than 30s. So this is definitely designed to be overlooked. And most people will only know about it from maps made be people who knows how to read the source code or at least knows how to extract all possible images. It is more than three times as high up as the height of the monument below it (9s high for the monument vs 30s high to reach the top of the rock.)]

:[Standing at the right edge of this floating rock you see Megan just running over the edge and Ponytail, who has already jumped, diving just below the edge of the rock, already about her own length away from the edge, her body parallel to the ground below. Luckily both of them seem to be wearing a backpack, hopefully with a parachute inside; a very special form of base jumping. This rock has some similarities to the small piece of earth that has been ripped out of the ground back at the end of the Star Destroyer. It could be the same force that has caused both. There are some similarities to the movie Avatar with the planet Pandora’s floating rocks.]

:[Running on top of the floating rock it just looks like the ground down below. There is grass, but not a lot. After 7s you reach a rock lying on top of this floating rock. It has a step to the right before reaching its full height, each step about two Cueballs height. You can easily jump to the top with two jumps. But on the step there is a coin ('''#149'''). Continuing on you reach the end of the floating rock to the left in 3.4s, then you drop down until you have to jump up and right to stay under the rock (2.5s) and after a total of 9s from you left the rock on top you are under the very bottom. Less than 2s further along the bottom of the rock on the way up again there is a coin ('''#150'''). About 4s later you are back on top. It took 15s from the rock on top. You can take the entire trip around the rock in about 22s. The surface of the rock is the same on either side of the rock on top. When going under the rock is turn out that the bottom is made up of a lot of loose boulders, which somehow seems to stick with the rest of the rock.]

:[Apart from just over the edge on both sides, where you can easily see a foot hold to stand on, there is also a rock below about halfway from the left edge and to the very bottom, where you can stand. Down to the bottom from the left here are about five larger boulders and many small ones. The second of these you can land on to get a better view of the bottom. The lowest boulder is much larger than the others and it seem to be stuck better in place. But it is possible to see a small hole at the “top” of this boulder, so also this one is quite loose. After this bottom boulder there is the second largest boulder to the right. Just after that is where the coin below was. One larger boulder follows, but then the rest is much smaller. Towards the right top, there is again a ledge you can stand on, where you can just see Ponytail, but not Megan. And then there is a ledge just below where Megan is running off the rock.]

:[If you jump out to the right from the rock, to where you can just see the whole of Ponytail but nothing else of the rock and drops straight down from here, you will land on the tip of the monument in 11.8s. Jumping straight back up you will (135 presses later) see Ponytail entering the frame to the left after 27s, and can from there reach the rock in 1.7s. If you keep the right arrow down while leaving the edge of the island to the right you will fall (16.7s) just at the first tree on the right side, right after the first Cueball on the right side after the play area wall. This is probably the longest drop possible, as the ground here is the lowest you can reach, and you cannot jump straight down to the ground from the Star Destroyers highest point. If you fall straight down over the edge to the left you will end up (16.4s) in front of Megan in a hamster ball; more about this later. You land right in a very small tree, the first after the large tree to the left of the hamster ball. Getting back up takes 180 presses and 36.4s. If you leave the left edge of the rock while keeping the left arrow down you will (15.2s) end up just left of two girls running towards each other just left of the well; more about this later. To end this all you jump down to the left of the Washington Monument to really start the exploration of the left side of this world. It took only 30s to go around the rock, but more than 1m 20s with the up and down time included.]

===On the road to the volcano===
There are 4 coins on this road, no. 151-154.
:[Continuing to the left of the monument, you reach grassy ground, and you find (2s) a tall flagpole with a uniform black flag at the top blowing left. On top of the truck there is a sitting duck. You can stand on the top of the flag and on the truck. You can hide behind the rest of the flag when jumping from below. Jumping up from the flag pole will take you up beneath the floating island (34.5s) just right of the coin under the island (but you already have taken this coin). If you went around the island from here to collect the next coin on top and then drop down (15.9s) you would end up 7s to the left of the flag pole, and you would not have missed any coins.]

:[Going left you reach (2.4s) Beret Guy who is walking to the right following a small flying insect that flutters along as indicated with a dotted line.]

:[One jump further ahead Cueball, looking right, is talking to Ponytail.]
::Cueball: If loving you is wrong, I don't want to.

:[A little more than a jump to the left you find a little girl with a hair bun standing behind a giant ten pin bowling pin setup. The front pin is towards the left, and she almost touches one of the four in the last row. She is only half as tall as the pins, and you can almost hide among them except your head that reaches up to the slim neck would always reveal your position.]

:[Less than 3s to the left (after passing 8 small trees or bushes and a couple of bare trees sticking out of the grass) you see a black haired girl (Megan-like but again just a girl). Her hair is flowing wild around her head because she is inside a human sized hamster ball that comes bouncing towards the right (shown with bouncing lines behind the ball and three move lines right next to the left side of the ball). She will soon hit the pins with this “bowling ball”. This is the second hamster ball seen in this comic. The first time it was the adult Megan on a skate board inside the ball. At this point you pass out under the rock island above.]

:[Behind the girl is a big tree, the top of the tree crown extends over the hamster ball. You can stand on the big branch going right. Only the main branch, and only until before the last part with leafs. You can thus easily walk below through the trunk.]

:[After the tree the ground rises, and become grass less and after less than 2s there is a steep cliff. From the ground beneath the tree it would take 5 full jumps to reach the first large outcrop. Standing right beneath the cliff, where there is a small mound, it would still take just a little more than three jumps to this outcrop (a 1s drop high). About two jumps above the ground (before the small mound) there is a smaller fissure beneath the outcrop. Just below this Ponytail is crawling up. You can stand on the ledge above her, and move deep in, but not all the way to the back of this small ledge. It becomes too tight. There you are standing on top of a small dead tree/bush. Above on the outcrop at the edge of this part of the cliff stands Cueball pointing to the right and a little up. He is talking to a child version of Ponytail (the child of Ponytail below?)]
::Cueball: Everything the light touches is our kingdom.
::Girl: What's with the shadowy place over there?
::Cueball: That is beyond our borders.
::Girl: No, I mean what object casts a shadow over a whole region?
::Cueball: Oh, that's god. He lives over there.
:[If you keep going right of the cliff while clicking up arrow for 34s (which would take you to the height of the floating rock) you find noting. If you drop you will (after 8s) hit the hull of the Star Destroyer. This is 11s to the right from the tip. If you drop of the tip while keeping to the left you will (in 9.6s) hit the bottom of the monument (above the entrance through at the bottom). If you had stopped going right and up after 24s you would have dropped to the tip of the destroyer in only 3s. But in no way can it be said that Cueball points you directly too either rock island or Destroyer. But the discussion indicates that something large, casting a shadow over an entire land is up in the air – that would most likely be the Destroyer, which you also get close to. You are nowhere near the island. It could of course also just be meant as a joke on the shadow mentioned in The Lion King.]

:[Jumping left behind them makes you land on a small ledge on the next part of the cliff. One more jump from here and you are almost up (can walk up the last incline), where grassy ground begins again. From here it will take 3s to get back to the tree. Standing in the tree you could get up here in 3.4s. Just when the grass begins there is a little tree, low enough that you can easily jump to the top (about two Cueballs high). You can walk under it, but you can also stand on most of the leafs. Behind the three is some rubbles and a small mound. You can walk on the mound but through the rubble. At the end of the mound is a tree stump, which you cannot stand on top of.]

:[A jump left from the stump takes you on top of a small building where Cueball is sitting on top looking to the right. Inside the building sits a girl with ponytail and a black cap on. There is a coin inside the room with the girl. The building is almost square, but on the side pointing left, is the room with girl and coin. It looks like a store with a large window panel with smaller square windows, probably there is nine in 3x3. But the last two at the bottom to the right is obscured (partly and completely) by the desk behind which the girl is standing. On top of the building behind Cueball is a small raised plateau on the roof. You cannot get directly down to the coin, as it turns out that this is gas station, and the top of the stand with gas, goes so close to the store with the girl, that you cannot drop down. Standing on the left end of this T-shaped stand you can see the entire vies of this gas station. It turns out that there is an X-wing Starfighter parked to the left of the T-stand and Megan standing to the right of this is attempting to pull the gas handle from the stand to her X-wing to refuel it. It seems that the hose is either to short, or that Megan is finished and on her way back after filling the fighter up. There are two gas outlets, one on each side of the stand. You can stand above these beneath the T-shape. You can also stand on top of the fighter, but also walk under it. To get the coin you either have to go all the way over the fighter and back beneath it and beneath the top of the gas outlet. Or you can jump from the T-stand down on the fighter, then jump over the edge of the wings (the s-foils) and get on top of the outlets beneath the T-stand and then jump down in front of the store. Either way, this was one of the more difficult coins to get to, after seeing it, but finally you can walk into the store and collect the coin ('''#151'''). It was the first you found along the ground on the left. You cannot walk through the desk in the shop, but if you press right against it, you can “climb” it hitting the roof before you can go over it.]

:[Once again there is a hidden part of the image. Standing on the wing above Megan, as far to the left you can on this right wing, and if you then make 8 full jumps (or go up fast for 2.4s) you discover two birds that are tied together with a string, and on that string there hangs a coin ('''#152'''). This may be a reference to the two swallows that could carry a coconut if they had it on a string from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. There is no way you will notice this coin even if you jump high over the ground. It will be by testing many places (or knowing). And even going up for 30s in every place would not make you find the rock island!]

:[One jump left of the middle of the X-wing you can land on top of a black stop sign. You can also walk beneath it. While in the gas station the ground had been flat, but now it is again grassy from here.]

:[Going left from the sign (2.4s) you pass a hole in the ground and a few paces behind it is Cueball looking towards the hole. It looks like a well with the typical roof over and stones set in the side the first few meters down. You can stand on the top stones sticking out over the top of the ground, but not on the roof.]

:[You drop in to the well and at the bottom (2.4s) there is a coin ('''#153''') just above the water level, and in the water, going to the top of her legs is a girl with long black hair. You are taller than the girl, so the water doesn’t reach your crotch. The girl speaks and the text is written in white in the black earth to the right side]
::Girl: I'm not a ghost. I just like wells.
:[Ghosts are often associated with wells. The well is almost 12 jumps deep and it takes 3.9s to get up fast. The wells sides are so uneven that if you do not jump from the right spot you will hit the sides on the way up. To be sure to fall to the bottom at once you should fall through the tip of the roof. This will also work out if you just step of the stone walls on either side. At the bottom you will land to the left of the center, so you can see the girl without covering her, when you land. This is also where the coin where. Jumping up from the girl will soon make you hit the walls. Same if you get just a little closer to the left side. If you walk to the left you will walk just out of the water to stand a little up the wall. It is possible to find a foothold so it looks like you are hovering just above the water level. Jumping down from there you can jump straight out. There are ten places you can stand on the wall to the right between bottom and stones at the top, and 17 to the left. Even up in the stone setting at the top you can stand inside one place to the right and two to the left. It is possible to jump longer left than this well by just keeping the left arrow pushed when leaving the rock island in the sky to the left. So in principle you can increase the fall height by about 2.5s if you could just hit this well (it is about 12.2s left in free fall, but it is hard to hit). This may be the longest possible free fall from one structure before standing still at about 18s).]

:[Continuing left from the well the landscape generally rises and the grassy ground is uneven with rocks/stones protruding out from the grass. You reach (2.3s) two girls that are playing. A girl with ponytail runs to the left, jumping of a protruding stone towards a long haired girl with a bun, who holds out her arms towards the other girl. The bun girl stands on a slab of stone. They are clearly children, much lower than you.]

:[Just left of the girls there is a small rise in the ground (two Cueballs heights), and after this the ground rises for a bit before dropping back down toward a small pond. It takes 7s to jump from the girls to the pond. On this small mound there is several small trees. Four to begin with, then a large stone is protruding, then follows 17 more, most of them lower or the same height as Cueball, only one of them clearly higher than you. You cannot stand on any of them. After the last of these 21 trees the ground drops in two small and one large step in between (no grass on the slopes down).]

:[Even if you jumped over the ground, but still with the ground visible at all time, you would fail to realize that there is something floating above you. But if you jump straight up from the highest tree, so this just disappears, you notice something in the air, just to the right of this tree. Five jumps above the ground you can land on what turns out to be a space capsule. Jumping up and around it you find that it looks like one of the space capsules that were used to get the astronauts from the Moon landings back to Earth. It is being lowered through the atmosphere by three large parachutes holding on to the capsule with a total of 17 lines. It seems like the one to the left only has 5 lines, with 6 to the other two, but as the parachutes overlap, and are completely black, it can be discussed which lines belong to which parachute. You can walk on top of the parachutes as well as on the topside of the triangular space capsule. You can walk through the lines. Standing on top of the capsule there is a little more than two jumps up to the bottom of the parachutes. You can also stand on the open hatch of the capsule to the left beneath which Cueball looks out of the capsule while holding his smart phone out to get a signal. He is talking to a guy inside the capsule who replies:]
::Cueball: Yes! My phone has a signal.
::Voice from inside: How many new likes did we get during reentry?
::Cueball: I'm checking!
:[On top of the central of the three parachutes sits a bird (chicken like) looking right and it is thinking, as indicated with a wavy bobble above it:]
::Bird thinking: I don't remember laying these but ''wow'' they're already flying. Gonna be awesome when they hatch.
:[There is a 1.8s drop down the parachutes to the right, and if you go up again (from the fifth small tree after the protruding stone) it takes 1.7s to reach the bottom of the capsule, and 2.8s to reach the top. It takes 1.7s to drop down to the left (as the ground rises below the parachutes). Jumping up again (from just left of the tallest tree) you reach the bottom of the capsule in 1.5s and can reach the top of the parachutes in 2.5s. From the top of the capsule it takes 1.4s to drop either way.]

:[From the top of the capsule it takes 3.6s to reach the small pond. You can sink into the water, but it never goes above your belly. On each side of the pond there are typical water plants of the species Typha. Dividing the pond into three equal distances, there is plants on the first and last distance, and water with just a little grass sticking out in the middle. Walking through the pond takes about 2s.]

:[Just where the bank of the pond stops rising (less than 1s) you reach Miss Lenhart (maybe it is Miss Lenhart?) pointing on the ground towards left. A girl with black hair and a boy with standing hair are standing behind her to the right. It is clear from the conversation that the woman is the girl's mom. But she is a full head lower than Cueball, but the kids are even lower.]
::Mom: Check out this one weird bug, discovered by a local mom.
::Girl: Oh my God, mom, stop saying everything like that.

:[The grassy ground is replaced (1.3s) with bare rocky ground, with lots of loose ruble. Continuing 2.8s left from the mom, you reach a small girl (with Megan-like hair) where the ground is rising. She is holding a line going up into the air towards the right. Jumping up, you see that she is holding a kite, and at the end of the kite’s tail there is a coin ('''#154'''). The kite’s tale/coin is just above where the ground turns from grass to rocky. The coin is just a little more than two jumps above the ground. You would not spot the coin while on the ground, but the line for the kite, would always reveal the coin. One jump anywhere between the mom and the kite girl (while going left) would reveal the coin. There is 1s up and down to the coin.]

:[Right after the girl there are more rubble and large boulder, and then the earth starts to emit smoke, and this ends the road to the volcano, you can now start the climb after this section, which you passed in 2m 30s.]

===Climbing the volcano===
There are 2 coins on this climb, no. 155-156.
:[Jumping left from the kite girl for 2.6s takes you past about 11 small clouds of steam, none higher than a jump above ground. Then you reach a plume of smoke coming out of the ground, almost like a geyser. As is clear from the text this is vapor. Cueball is standing just right of this plume looking at it, while Megan walks left on the rubble just on the left side of the plume.]
::Cueball: The Earth is vaping.

:[Left of Megan is a rock jutting out towards the right, that you have to jump to pass. Behind it is a smaller vapor vent. In total there are five vents and it takes 3.2s to pass from the one with Cueball to the last. The first is also the largest and the one with most details/structures. The one after the rock and the last are smaller than the two in between them, those two are almost as high as the first. There is a general tendency that the clouds/vapor venting drifts toward right. After the first vent there are three small clouds before the small vent. Three more before the third vent (these are the two closest vents). Then six before the fourth vent, several of these are larger than the ones before and there is also a cloud above this vent. The longest distance between vents are from the fourth to the fifth and last (1.4s) and between these are five large clouds (also the largest of them all) as well as 13 very small. On the ground there are small rubbles all along the way.]

:[After the steaming rock the ground begins to rise more steadily and you pass two larger rocks and one much larger, before the ground rises up to a small rock plateau (3.2s) where Megan sits and reads for two children, a boy with hair standing out wild and a child with black wavy hair.]
::Megan: "The time has come" the Walrus said, and put on a Sauron's ring...

:[Two jumps ahead (1.8s) on a steep rise up the mountain side is Cueball standing, looking down. Between him and Megan, there was first a cliff behind Megan’s rock and then a steady rise with loose boulders on the way up to Cueball.]
:[A jump further up, (almost vertical now), Ponytail is climbing, towards a very small tree. One more jump above her, is a small ledge in the cliff. Where this ends is a steep rise, about one jump high. Cueball is climbing up with Megan behind him. He looks down on her as she speaks:]
::Megan: This is currently a V2, but it becomes a V7 if the volcano erupts.

:[One more jump above the top of this small cliff is a burning tree stomp, smoke from it is drifting right.]

:[Two jumps ahead from the burning tree you end up standing on the lower part of a very large rock which is lying so you can see a hole beneath it. It’s surface is very jagged. On the left side small rubbles has collected between the rock and where the mountain side rises again. There is also lots of smaller rubble on the ground in the hole beneath the rock. Cueball is standing on top of the rock with Megan to the left. She holds up some kind of device looking left while Cueball is looking almost straight up away from her to the right. Walking up the rock, you can see that Cueball is looking at a coin ('''#155'''). Standing with Cueball it is just inside the frame where he looks. You can’t see it before at this height. It is just two jumps above the top of the rock.]

:[One further jump to the left from beneath the coin takes you between two Cueballs who are climbing the mountain. Between these two places is a lower level after the rock. When the mountain reaches the level of the top of the rock, there is a small vent with vapor coming out and drifting right. The Cueball to the left is up walking left away from the Cueball to the right, who is climbing up a small rise, with hands on the ground. He talks:]
::Right Cueball: If I don't make it back...
::Right Cueball: ...Tell my wife...
::Right Cueball: ...Where I am...
::Right Cueball: ...And why you left me there...

:[Two more jumps above these two the part with many rubbles is replaced with a smooth steady rise of the mountain side. It would take about 11s to jump from the last of the group of vents to this place. The first 3s to get to Megan telling stories, then after 5s you reach Cueball looking down, and then before 7s you would pass Ponytail, then Cueball and Megan and the burning tree. After about 9s you reach the rock with Megan and Cueball and in less than 10s you pass the last two Cueballs and then the steep incline.]

:[It is possible to just “walk” up the incline, and if you did it would take 18.6s to reach the top. On the way you will pass the following:]

:[After 4.8s up the rise you pass Ponytail who comes racing down on her bike:]
::Ponytail: 114 mph!
::Ponytail: Suck it, previous downhill volcano record-holder!

:[Further up (8.9s) there is a small step in the mountain side, and on the step there is a coin ('''#156''') and past this (12.3s) Megan comes sliding down the slope on an old fashioned snow sleigh. It turns out she was halfway between the coin step and the next step (15.3s), where there is a little drop (and some loose boulders) before the rise continues towards the top which you almost reaches in 18s, but then there is a small rise before you reach the very top (18.6s) of this right mountain slope. Moving down again to the right only takes 7.4s and it goes even faster if you jump up as this only takes 7s. If you try to jump down it will take longer as you cannot see where you are and have to pause to fall down to the slope.]

:[If you jumped of the edge of the mountain side to the right, you could just noticed something entering into the frame at the top right. This is thus something you are most likely to spot on the way back from the far left. If you run off the edge and jumps three times while keeping the arrow to the right, you can land on these new objects. You have now landed on the body of one of two great eagles in the sky. You can stand on any part of their bodies, except their wings. If you drop down between them you land (1.5s) just beneath Megan on the sleigh. Jumping up from her would make you hit the left eagle in 2.3s or in 7 full jumps. If you drop of the right eagle to the right, you will fall just so far down the mountain side that you cannot see Megan from there. This drop will take 2s, and it will take 3.4s to come back up or 11 full jumps. The eagles are flying left towards the mountain. If you stand on the head of the right eagle, which is slightly higher up than the left eagle, you can float to the other eagles body by just keeping the left arrow pressed. If you jump right from the head of the left eagle, you will land on the right eagle. The shape of the left eagle’s upper wing, is big enough that you can hide completely in its shade. The eagles are talking:]
::Left eagle: Tolkien said Frodo left the cloak somewhere over here.
::Right eagle: Can't ''he'' just fix it?
::Left eagle: He doesn't want to rewrite that chapter.

:[Left of the eagles and just left of the top of the sharp incline, there is a lava pool. Then there is a small rise to a plateau and on the other side of this is yet another smaller lava pool. This second pool lies about one Cueball height above the first. The first pool has two large bubbles sticking out. It also has a small black hammer like thing that juts out in the middle, and from that fumes comes off in four lines. There are also three vapor plumes and small dots of lava floating above it. The left lake has three smaller bubbles and also three plumes. Between the two pools stands a girl with a hair bun and a Megan-like girl, both much smaller than you.]
::Girl with hair bun: Let's play a game where the lava is the floor of a house.

:[You can jump over the first lava pool to the girls. It takes 1.8s to pass over both pools. After this you reach the edge of the crater of the volcano in 1.8s. This ends this section, which you passed in 1m 26s.]

===The crater of the volcano===
There are 7 coins inside the crater, no. 157-163. Three of these in this section (no 157-159) and four of these (no 160-163) is under the lava in the sub section [[#The cave beneath the lava|The cave beneath the lava]].
:[Moving left from the girls at the lava pool, the ground takes two steps down and then after 1.8s you are at the edge of the volcano crater. Cueball stands behind Megan who again stands on the very edge of the crater and throws in 16 items (rings).]
::Megan: One of these is probably a ring of power or whatever.

:[The crater falls down very steep. If you move left over the edge, enough (but not too much) you can land just above the lava at the bottom of the crater in 2.5s As the crater is not vertical you can stand on almost any part of it, but you cannot just walk out again as you would hit a small protrusion about half way up (5.5s walk from the lava floor). On top of this small protrusion on the inside crater is a small plant. Above this you can also only rise for less than 1s before hitting an obstacle. But above this again you can walk all the way up in 5s. But you have to jump at least one long jump to get out right. If you wish to “walk” down hitting the side it would take almost 10s.]

:[No matter how you drop in to the crater you will notice the two drones flying above the right side of the lava floor, each having four rotors and some device suspended beneath their main body. When standing just above the lava you cannot see them. But you can see one of them and the text from the side of the crater. You can stand on them. From the bottom edge it is possible to jump up and stand on the lower right drone in three jumps. The other drone is little further left. Just below this drone (but still above the right drone) is a coin ('''#157'''). You can stand on both drones, and thus not drop down on the coin from above. But if you walk off the right drone keeping left you will get it. Dropping of the drones you fall into the lava (1.2s) and becomes fully emerged. It takes 1.3s to get back up to them again.]
::Right drone: Remember: There's no such thing as good volcano footage taken by a quadcopter that survived.

:[At the bottom of the crater is a huge pool of lava. It takes 13.4s to jump from side to side. About 2/3 of the way over you pass over (9.4s) a small rock island protruding out of the lava pool. Just when the lava pool begins to the right there is a very large bubble. 35 clouds of vapor hang over the lava before the island. There are also 8 other small bubbles and several very small as well as sparks above the lava or jumping out of the lava, as well as a few small plumes coming out of the lava. On the other side of the island there is an even larger bubble than the one to begin with and five other larger bubbles. There are four plumes and about 24 clouds, some of which are rather small. And then there are other sparks and bubbles above the lava just like on the right side.]

:[On the rocky island outcrop two thirds of the way across the lava lake is a Cueball looking into the lava to the right. He is looking down at a horse standing in the lava. Maybe it is trying to get back out.]
::Cueball: Artex!

:[On the center of the rock, which is so small you can jump over it in one jump, stands a wizard with a stick. It looks very much like Gandalf. He looks to the left.]

:[Another Cueball is walking towards the lava to the left with Megan behind him.]
::Megan: If you breathe out through you nose a little as you jump in, it can keep you from getting lava in you nasal passages.

:[On the other (left) side of the lava pool the mountain rises steeply out of the lava pool (but you could walk up this steep slope). Two jumps above the lava surface there is a hole in the side of the crater. The hole goes down and extends into a small cave. In here, on a tall pile of coins or other treasures sits Megan counting her hoard. There are also two bags with white dollar signs on. At the bottom just inside the cave is a coin ('''#158''') and behind Megan is yet another coin ('''#159''').]
::Megan: Gooooold!
::Megan: Goold!
::Bags: $ $

:[As on the right side you also cannot walk out, even from above the cave. If you try to walk up you as much as possible from the lava floor, you will have to jump four times, and it will take about 12s. You can get up fast in about 4.5s and drop down to the lava again in 2.4s. On the very top of the crater, just a jumps way from the last protrusion below the very edge sits another duck on top of a step up to the very top of this side of the crater. This ends the crater part. You can jump from the duck back to Megan on the other side in 17s, they are exactly at the same height. If you go down into the crater and jumps above the vapors and then up as steep as possible when you reach the other side the trip takes 19s.]

===The cave beneath the lava===
There are 4 coins under the lava, no. 160-163.
:[But so far you have refrained from touching the lava, just out of normal precaution. But finally you go back to the island in the middle, and try to go rescue the horse by going in to the lava lake to the right from the rock island.]

:[You enter the lava and immediately fall below the surface before passing the end of the horse. The ground beneath the lava keeps descending. Just below one of the larger bubbles you fall so far down, that everything becomes black. You keep going right for some time, but nothing seems to happen. So you try to move back out to the left. Suddenly you see a white room, that is not the surface of the lava lake. As you move further left you see that this room connects to a shaft that is now to the left of where you must be hidden. As you move further left this shaft comes full into view. And it sees to widen further out below your level. Continuing to push left you move up again towards the room above you and finally by just going left you reach above the surface of the lava, just right of where the shaft goes down to your left.]

:[You are inside the caves below the lava. Standing just on the edge of the shaft to the left, you can see you are in a large cave where there also seems to be a shaft up to the right. The cave is more than a jump high at the edge of the shaft to the left. You can jump over the lava pool in the middle of the room to get to the right side. The ceiling is dropping towards this end, so here a jump will make you hit the ceiling. You go up the shaft to the right.]

:[The shaft you go up in, is by no means straight up, and when you reach the top (it may easily take 2s to get around the outcroppings) you reach a ledge that comes out from the right wall in a room above the shaft. To get into the room you have to go left to get around this ledge. Standing on the ledge to the right you see a smaller dead-end cave than the one beneath (less than a jump high and 1.5s wide), and on the left side of the shaft in the main part of the cave Cueball is standing looking down at you while holding out his hands towards the right (and you). Behind Cueball the cave drops a little and there are two coins ('''#160''') and ('''#161''').]
::Cueball: What news of the world above? Please, tell me- what's hot and viral? ''What's trending on Twitter?!!''

:[Dropping down from Cueball into the first cave (2.1s) you jump over to the other shaft and go down this left shaft. Again this shaft is not even, and after hitting a ledge where you have to go right to continue down, you end up on the floor (2.7s) of a much larger cave, landing on top of a coin ('''#162'''). It take some skill to get up in about 4s due to the shafts is twisting. There are plenty of places on both sides of this shaft (and also in the previous shafts) where you can stand still.]
:[When standing on the floor on the left side of this huge cave you can just see two Cueballs talking to the right. Moving towards them reveals more. In the middle of this cave there lies a flat rock on the floor. Standing on this you can see the whole scene. The two Cueballs (now to the left) are standing in front of two empty desks. The left Cueball is talking to the right Cueball. Behind the empty desks are one more desk behind which a guy with black hair is sitting. Behind these three desk to the far right in this cave is a raised platform – it is like a small tower with two levels each with a cross holding it together. On top of this contraption is a chair in which another hairy guy is pointing out at the two Cueballs standing up. He speaks as well, but there is no line between him and his text, which floats quite far in front of him over the guy at the desk.]
::Left Cueball: I always assumed Elon Musk's volcano lair would be like... Tropical. And ...Well, ''pleasant''.
::Elon Musk in the high chair: Back to your desks, swine!

:[Standing on the stone there are four jumps to the ceiling. But it is even higher over the two Cueballs, where it almost takes five jumps to reach the ceiling. It takes 1.5s to get up and 1.2s to fall down again.]

:[Behind the raised chair, the ceiling comes to a low point, less than two jumps high. But then behind the ceiling goes up again, only to reveal a shaft going up. And when you stand near the right wall of the large cave you can see that this shaft goes up, then right and then down, just as jagged and unregularly as the other two shafts in this lava cave. There are 3 jumps to the top. From there it takes about 2s to get down (if you avoid all the ledges on the way down that you could get stuck on).]

:[At the bottom of this deepest dead-end cave, to the right of where the shaft enters through the ceiling, stands Ponytail and Hairbun looking at an antenna hanging down from the ceiling in the right part of this small cave. Both of them hold a string that goes to the ground behind them. The antenna has a thick central piece connecting it to the ceiling. About two thirds down of this piece, that becomes a little thinner on the way down, is a broad piece going perpendicular on the main part, to each side. Below this the central part continues but much thinner, and two more pieces is connected with this central part, just as the one above, but these two becomes shorter and shorter compared with the top part. The third and lowest part is the smallest and it ends the antenna. You can stand on the top part of these three parts parallel with the floor. To the left of the central piece above the one you can stand on, is a coin ('''#163'''). The room is 1.5s wide, as much on each side of the shaft. At its highest point, away from the shaft, it is one jump high.]
::Ponytail: So ''this'' is where it is.

:[There is nothing else down here, but now you have to see if you can get out again. It takes about 10s to get back to where you came in through the lava. It can be rather difficult to get out again. But to make sure you come out you move into the lava and to the right. Then just as the cave is about to disappear to the left you jump up as high as you can. Then push a little right while continuing to push up and do this for a little while and then eventually you will get out. There is nothing else to see below the lava. But you can easily get stuck, and thus the next section will try to describe what you can find out about the lava lake by testing it from end to end. But if you have had enough you will now move out of the crater to the left, ([[#At the end of all things|go straight there]]).]

====Into the lava lake====
There are no coins in the section.
:[Beneath the lava… Going in the lava from the right, you step in next to the first cloud just above the surface. You do not disappear beneath the lava here, just to the middle and your head is in the cloud. Moving on your head begins to disappear and just before reaching the largest bubble on this side your head is gone. Just around here the bottom is descending. If you stand so you jump through the right part of the bubble you jump high enough to see the drones. A step to the middle of the bubble and you can’t see them with a jump and one more step and you reach even less above the surface in a jump. Then there seems to be a plateau here reaching until just before the big cloud reaching under the high cloud. Jumping on this will take you close to the high cloud. Then there is a downslope, and while you move under the cloud with the “arm” at the top to the right, you go from jumping clearly higher than that, to just breaching the surface at its left tail. The bottom keeps falling down, and already before reaching under the next small cloud, before a really long cloud begins, you will not breach the surface in one jump. But two jumps will take you above that cloud. The bottom falls very steep here, and already before the end of this small cloud, you only just reach the bottom of it with two jumps. Continuing left you soon lose sight of the surface. This happens just before you reach a small bubble on the surface beneath the middle of the long cloud. Just before this two jumps takes you to the low cloud.]

:[Now when standing at the bottom you cannot see the surface. But you can jump down a given point from above. Just left of the long cloud you need two perfect jumps to just breach the surface with the top of your head. Further just before the spark jumping out of the surface you need three jumps to get out. In three jumps you can reach above the level of the small cloud to the right above the long cloud. But if you fall down right through the spark, you do not fall deeper than that you again can see the surface from where you stand. So there seems to be a cliff going up down below. Two jumps is need to get out, but then you get almost as high as with three jumps before. Stepping right you fall down as expected. Walking left into the cliff and jumping makes nothing happen. But if you walk a little back again and jump you just see the surface, but then hit something and fall back. Maybe there is a small protrusion on the cliff. Walking left and jumping makes nothing happen. But if you try for several small steps then suddenly you will jump up again. You just found out that there is something floating in the lava that you can stand on, but also walk beneath. It begins just where the lava spark jumps out to the right, and ends just before the small vapor plume comes out under two small clouds. When you fall down from the floating thing, you can jump up just through this plume. It seems like the floating thing bends down a little towards the left, so you jump less high out in two jumps than from the middle. If you just fall off the left side of this floater, then you can walk back in 10 small pushes of the arrow and jump up on the right side. The bottom has continued to decline under the floater and from just falling off on the left you can only just get the hover board above the surface in three jumps.]

:[After the floater you continue left. Moving above the surface and falling down through a small bubble between clouds reveals a deeper part. It now takes five jump what before took three. This deep space seems to be a hole because it is not so deep just to the right, and while it is the same depth for a short distance, then already before reaching the next cloud it is clearly a jump less deep, and suddenly when reaching the middle of the next large cloud (with a trail pointing right at the bottom) you do not drop low enough to not see the surface. Actually you are here so high that a jump will take you head just above the surface. Dropping down from there to the right again it takes three jumps to get up. At the small spark right of the cloud you need four jumps to breach the surface, though taking you over the cloud, but at the center of the previous cloud it take five jump to just get halfway out. Going right from here at the bottom a little you still jump out in five. Going a little further out, you do not jump out. Pushing right at the bottom of the hole obviously takes you under some overhang. Pushing back left one time makes no difference, but twice is enough that you can jump out again. Testing you find out that it is not the floater that overhangs, because then you should be able to walk under it to the right. So the deep hole can trap you under an overhang to the right. It turns out the same can happen if you move towards the left at the bottom of the hole. Then you cannot jump out, but one step right and you can get out five jump; or in 1.5s if you wish to go fast. So this small hole is not the way into the underground lair, but could trap and frustrate you if you get stuck on either end.]

:[Getting back out of the hole you jump up to the high level just to the left of this deep hole. This begins just under the middle of the tail cloud. As you found out just by moving off this cliff to the right, you are three full jumps from breaching the surface with your head. At the spark after the cloud it is 4 jumps to get all out and over the plume further right it is bottom with five jumps. So there is some outcrop between the bottom of the hole and the top of the cliff. If you just step of the cliff to the right and try to step into it from the left, you cannot jump out. But you are higher up, because now a single jump will make you see he surface, but jumping twice will not take you much higher. Maybe it is an outcrop? But when you go further left and jump you continue to hit something, but you can see the surface and see that you still move left. Finally you can jump to the surface again. So this is another floater. But this floats so high that you can see you head when you jump from the top, and see the surface when you jump up under it. It begins just to the left of the center of the cloud with the tail to the right and ends just on the other side of the large bubble. Under the bubble you can jump so your head almost coincides with this when at the highest. Then the floaters top drops a little, as you can still stand on it, just before you fall down again, but here on the edge you cannot see your head when jumping. Two jumps take you all the way out though. Going left takes you to the bottom where there are three jumps to just get you all out (just at the left end of the cloud above the large bubble). In two jumps from the bottom you can land on the floater. It takes about 8 steps to move over or under the floater.]

:[Continuing left from the floater the bottom stays the same height (three jumps to get just all out) while moving under the next two clouds. Reaching the third cloud it becomes deeper again, and at the next large bubble on the surface it takes three jumps to just get your head above the bubble. And just after the next cloud after the one over the bubble, it takes three perfect jumps to just see the top of your head breach the surface. Under the middle of the two clouds on top of each other it takes four jumps to get well clear, but three is nowhere near enough. At the left edge of the bottom of these two clouds, it takes four perfect jumps to get all out. And suddenly between this cloud and the next high one, where there are some sparks above the lava you cannot even reach the surface with 6 jumps. But just a step to the right you can with six jumps, where you just breach the surface with your head. This must be the cave entrance. Below the small high cloud left of the spark the depth is the same, but under the center of the next cloud it take seven jumps to just get your torso out of the lava. Just before to the right of that cloud seven jumps would take you above that cloud. At the end of that cloud to the left, seven jumps will just breach the surface. Under the small bubble under the next cloud it takes eight jumps to just get all out. And at the edge of that cloud it suddenly takes 11 jumps to get out, though to above the left tail of that cloud. In between this and the next cloud, where there are some spark it is 13 jumps out. But in the middle of the next cloud it suddenly only takes 5 jumps to get above that cloud (4 not enough to get out though). Just right of that cloud it is five to get out. Going down right again through the spark floating highest through the back of your head makes you go deepest. It takes 14 jumps to breach the surface, getting just entirely above the top spark. It takes 4.5s to get out fast from there. Going left from there it only takes 1.5s before you can see the underground cave and 5.3s before you stand inside. It is clear from you entrance that you go down and then up again to get in. But how does this big and deep hole look like?]

:[The deep hole with the entrance. Starting from inside the cave you jump into the lava. Your head just pops up. One step further you are gone, but can jump all the way out. It goes steep. Next small step you can only see the head in a jump. One more step and you cannot get up in one jump. Three more steps and two jumps only just take you all the way out. This is at the center of the lava pool in that cave. From here the floor levels out, and two jumps take you just out. Then you reach under the overhang where the lava pool ends. Going under the overhang you find that the lava is still more than one jump high but you hit the ceiling fast when jumping a second time. To begin with the ceiling come lover, but still more than one jump, and the floor also falls a little. But then the floor can be seen to rise by the cave above. Also the ceiling begins to rise, so the second jump is longer to hit. Already before the edge of the lava pool is gone to the left, you can jump two jumps without hitting; but not three. Then you reach the very edge where you can still see the shaft. It is still two jumps high. One step further out you can still see some of the shaft when jumping. No difference. From now you are walking blind. You know there is a point where you can jump straight out. But nothing happens if you just go a few steps right and try to jump. It only took 14-16 steps to get to where you could see the shaft when going from this drop point. But that must have been downhill. It takes 23-25 small steps from where you can see the shaft to reach the place where you can go all the way up (in 4.5s). If you are shorter back you can only expect that there is some outcrop above you. If you move along from this spot for a few seconds to the right, and then try to jump out, nothing happens. One step back and you get out the same place. It seems it is very hard to get out directly any other places than this one. But the fastest way out seem to be just getting below the out crop from the cave, and then jumping up while first keeping to the right and then to the left. It can be done in about 10-12s.]

:[It is possible to go left out of the deep hole, as long as you are above and left of this deepest part; that is where you could end by falling down through the right edge of the clouds, just left of the two sparks above each other between clouds. From there you can walk out of the lava pool towards the island and break the surface at the horse in just 5.6s. There is a part of the deep hole that slopes a lot around here. You can jump up in five jumps at the clouds right edge, and then you can find a spot between the cloud and the sparks that takes 8 jumps just right. Jumping up and down like this you may lose your foot hold at the side of that wall and suddenly find yourself at the bottom. In that case going left takes you to the cave. But as long as you stay out of the deepest pit you can walk out left. Going right from the right side of the hole will not take you out as you will get trapped in the smaller hole. But it would not be too hard to get out. Moving left the depth quickly decreases; four jumps at the left edge of the same small cloud (against five at the right end); at the small bubble before the next cloud, three jumps to just breach surface; at the spark in the air under next larger cloud, three jumps to reach this spark; at the next spark under next lower cloud, three jumps to get totally above this cloud. And suddenly at the right edge of the next flash like cloud, you are so high that you can see the surface. Actually this is just the place where a step right will take you so low you cannot see the surface. Two jumps will take you all out. Now you can see how the bottom rises steadily. Just after the sparks in the air before the next cloud you reach a spot where you can jump once and breach the surface. At the larger spark exploding between three clouds, you can almost jump all the way out. Doing so becomes possible beneath the small low cloud after that spark. Finally you reach under the horse, but not until you reach the middle of the horse does your head breach the surface while standing. There is a quite steep rise just before the rock island.]

:[On the other side of the rock island you follow Cueballs lead into the lava lake. You are able to stand just above the lava. Then there is a quite steep descend and just four small steps out you are completely below the surface. This is just after the first cloud near the surface. If you jump you reach the top of the text. At the large bubble after the next low cloud you reach the bottom of the top line. After the next cloud, just before there is a small vent out of the lava, you can just jump completely out of the lava. One step more on top of the vent you only get halfway out, and two more steps and you cannot breach the surface in one jump under the small bubble after the vent. At the next vent after the next cloud you still get all the way out in two jumps (above this low vent). Under the largest of all the bubbles under the next cloud you almost get completely out in two jumps. At the vent after this bubble two jumps just takes most of your head above the surface. At the spark under the start of the next cloud you need three jumps to breach the surface, but you then jump into the higher cloud above the low cloud. At the end of the low cloud you still need three jumps, but gets even higher out. The bottom of the lake begins to rise again.]

:[The bottom is rising on this part, and when the next cloud begins, you can just breach the surface with two jumps. This is already possible at the small spark between the clouds. At the end of the cloud your head is almost out in two jumps. At the start of the next longer cloud your head reaches up to the cloud. Just left of this point the bottom is now so high up that you can see the surface when standing on the bottom. But two steps left and the bottom falls again. Still just possible to see the surface from the point just before the cloud makes a sway up. When under the spark under this long cloud you cannot see the surface, but still get your head out in two jumps. This stays the same when moving to the larger bubble at the end of the long cloud and the bottom stays at this depth under the high cloud next. At the end of the high cloud there are three jumps to get out, but then still reaching almost over this high lying cloud. But at the end of this cloud the bottom drops away, and it now takes four jumps to reach the same height (and thus four to breach the surface).]

:[You have found something deep here. Going further left to just before the next cloud the depth is the same. But just a small step left dropping down through the edge of this larger cloud and you land on the bottom so you can see clearly above the surface – two jumps to get all out. It is possible to step a little back right and drop just a little down, but still just see the surface. One step more and you drop two jumps height down. Moving left from this edge (away from the cliff to the right) will take you right out of the lava lake, going up a steep incline, and you get out of the lava in 2sfrom there and would reach the treasure cave with Megan in 4.3s. Already at the left edge of the last big cloud you can breach the surface in on jump. Just before the last vent you can jump all the way out. And just after the last big bubble your head breaches the surface. One step and your body is out and two more steps and you stand on dry ground clear above the surface.]

:[Only thing missing is to explorer the deep hole for any caves down below. You quickly find out that the hole is a slim shaft, as one step to the left or two to the right makes it impossible to jump out. There are just two places where it is possible to jump out/fall down, between the edges of the two clouds above, and you can hardly be between them, so there are only two or three positions. If you go right from the right most part of the hole, you cannot jump up. If you back you can. If you go twice you need to go twice back. But no matter if you keep the right arrow down for some time, you will never need more than three steps back to jump out. So there is an outcrop over the shaft when going right and it doesn’t lead anywhere. If you go left one or two times from the left edge, you also cannot go up, but you can go back in the same amount of steps. But if you go three times left, you cannot just go back. Here you might panic, with your 163 coins trapped beneath the lava. But if you try to jump up left and right for some time you should be able to get out. You decide to try again. Going in from the left and making three small steps left, you cannot go out again after going three rights. But if you then go three back left and jump a few times and go three rights then you can jump out, so there is a deeper drop where you can get under another outcrop to the right. Of course you may easily get trapped beneath one of the other outcroppings. But no matter what; if you keep the left mouse down for a while after going into this hole (reaching some deeper dead-end part to the left), and then push up arrow while keeping right arrow down, then you will breach the surface in 1.8s (so it is deeper than the other “dead-end” hole to the right of the cave entrance, with an even slimmer entrance and more details below to get trapped in). In this way you breach the surface two clouds to the right of the shaft. There is nothing hidden down there except a slim shaft that can trick you into believing you cannot get out again. Having found all this out you proceed to the end of all things on the left side of the crater. It only took about 5m to check all this out inside and in the crater.]

===At the end of all things===
There are 6 coins after the volcano, no. 164-169, including the very last.
:[After the duck at the top of the crater there is about 2.8s before you begin to go down on the other side of the volcano. After the slab of stone the duck is sitting on, there is a sharp decline, but then a small rise again, on top of which stands a small slim tree, maybe dead. After this small protrusion, there is one more indentation and then you are at the outer edge.]

:[Moving down the slope for 2s you pass an old(?) Cueball with a walking stick who is walking up the volcanos left side.]

:[Further 2s down you find another basketball hoop, pointing right, this time with a coin ('''#164''') on top. Ponytail, standing beneath the hoop is talking to Megan, who stands with the basketball, looking right towards the volcano.]
::Ponytail: OK, as soon as it erupts, go for the dunk. Our sweet moves will be preserved for all eternity!

:[Moving along the rocky and declining ground, with lots of large loose slabs of stones, you reach a few smaller loose boulders (5.3s) above which hangs a coin ('''#165'''). It is just more than one jump up (two fast clicks up will take it).]

:[After this coin the ground continues to drop, and after 2.3s you pass a dead leafless tree just a little higher than you, then five to six larger boulders (one you have to jump) lying on two mounds, then two even larger boulders, one on top of the other, and then three small boulders before the end of all things. This took 8.4s to get here.]

:[When standing on the right side of the first of these last three boulders you are still in the center of the screen. But after this, where this boulders height increases slightly, you begin moving away from the center and towards the left edge of this part of the world.]

:[At the very end of the left side of the image are four coins ('''#166'''), ('''#167'''), ('''#168'''), and ('''#169''') and then a blonde haired woman with a hair bun looking right at you. (From here you could get back up to the duck at the crater top in 19.3s).]
::Woman: In the sky,
::Woman: beyond the mountain,
::Woman: I saw a starship.
:[She is thus the last person to try to direct you towards the Star Destroyer, should you have missed all the other hints so far… This last section only took 1m to pass.]

:[When moving back from the furthers left as fast as possible without hitting any obstacles you can come back to the return the coins at the terminal in the play area in about 1 minute and 51 seconds by holding down the right arrow key and keeping high enough to not hit any obstacles, before going under the monument at the base.]

:[Finally you can hand in all your 169 coins in the terminal which would then display the following message and make you feel like a wizard:]
::{| class="wikitable"
|style="background-color:black;"| <font color="yellow">'''You got 169 coins in 5000 seconds'''<br>Are you Gandalf?</font>
|}

Note: The [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/1/18/169_coins_transcript_way.PNG time given] is realistic when following this transcript.

{{DEFAULTSORT:1608}}
[[Category:Comic subpages]]

1052: Every Major's Terrible

2026-05-15T15:58:05Z

FaviFake:

{{comic
| number = 1052
| date = May 7, 2012
| title = Every Major's Terrible
| before = [[#Explanation|↓ Skip to explanation ↓]]
| image = every_majors_terrible.png
| titletext = Someday I'll be the first to get a Ph. D in 'Undeclared'.
}}
Clicking on the image on [https://xkcd.com xkcd.com] links to a now-unavailable [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhaEjgnmy3c YouTube video of the original song]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20150401183305/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhaEjgnmy3c Here is an Archive.org link to the video.]

==Explanation==
[[Randall]] has written a song called ''Every Major's Terrible'' and this comic illustrates the song. In this song the term {{w|Major (academic)|Major}} refers to the US version of an academic major. The point of the song is that it makes no sense to pick any major since they are all terrible!

The header notes that the song is written to the tune of the satirical {{w|Major-General's Song}} from {{w|Gilbert and Sullivan's}} 1879 comic opera ''{{w|The Pirates of Penzance}}''. The song satirizes the idea of the "modern" educated British Army officer of the latter 19th century. {{w|Major general}} is a military rank in the United Kingdom and many other countries. The meter in the Major-General's Song is {{w|iambic octameter}}, which means that in each line there are eight iambs, where an iamb is two syllables in an unstressed-stressed pattern. Therefore, each line contains 16 syllables.

The panels show Randall's rewritten lyrics to the song. Below each of the three verses are described in detail (go to [[#Verse 1|Verse 1]], [[#Verse 2|Verse 2]] or [[#Verse 3|Verse 3]]). Each verse ends with "Just put me down as 'Undecided' - Every Major's Terrible", which gives the song its name — and "Major's Terrible" is similar enough to "Major General", the corresponding lyrics in the original version, to serve as a callback. The last line of the first verse in each song goes as follows:
*Original: I am the very model of a modern Major-General
*Randall's: Just put me down as undecided- every major's terrible

The lyrics are commonly rewritten, the most famous rewrite likely being {{w|The Elements (song)}} by {{w|Tom Lehrer}} which is also mentioned below the main header. This song is also [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcS3NOQnsQM available on-line].

His last suggestion, "{{w|Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious}}", from ''{{w|Mary Poppins}}'', is another fast-paced patter-song with a somewhat similar tune, though it doesn't fit quite so well, and the match falls apart at the end of the fourth line, when the "Um-diddly"s start up — still, it's better than nothing.

There are at least two performances of this xkcd song online where the transcription is shown to make it easier to understand the text:
*A video with each major acted out by the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seGpYa8UO0E SFU Choir - Every Major's Terrible].
*A solo with piano: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRexBMPeRTo Every Major's Terrible' by Ben Miller].
**See also this article [http://www.uproxx.com/gammasquad/2012/08/ben-miller-xkcd-every-majors-terrible/ Xkcd's 'Every Major's Terrible' Is Now A Real Song].

Regarding the title text: "Undeclared" is sometimes called "General Studies". Most U.S. universities will not let you get a degree in this, let alone an advanced degree such as a {{w|Ph.D.}} Also, it should probably be noted that this song refers to U.S.-like university systems, in other countries, one will study little to nothing outside your major, making it more-or-less impossible to be undecided as to major.

It should also be noted that the title text fits the cadence of the first line of the song, possibly teasing a fourth verse. As to what that consists of, only Randall knows.

===Verse 1===
;Panel 1, ''Philosophy's just math sans rigor, sense, and practicality'': [[Cueball]] is posing as {{w|Rodin}}'s {{w|The Thinker}}, a common symbol for {{w|philosophy}}. The equation in the background (two plus light bulb equals sailboat) is nonsense, hence "{{w|math}} sans rigor, sense or practicality" ([http://www.thefreedictionary.com/sans sans] meaning without).

;Panel 2, ''And math's just physics unconstrained by precepts of reality.'': A cannon is firing. However, instead of going in the normal parabolic arc (a precept of reality and thus {{w|physics}}), the cannonball splits and splits again, so that it looks like a {{w|bifurcation diagram}} from {{w|chaos theory}}. The dashed line indicates the cannonball's trajectory, which bifurcates twice, although the sum of the momentums of the four resulting (1/4 sized?) cannonballs is presumably mathematically identical to the original.

;Panel 3, ''A business major's just a thing you get so you can graduate'': {{w|Business education|Business}} is the most common major, often seen as a practical choice applicable to a wide variety of careers, or, as the comic illustrates, preferred by those who just want an easy way to graduate. Cueball gets his diploma and runs away from the dean on the podium while shedding both his robe and his {{w|square academic cap}} (or Mortarboard).

;Panel 4, ''And chemistry's for stamp collectors high on methylacetate.'': Stamp collecting refers to the [https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ernest_Rutherford famous quote] by {{w|Ernest Rutherford}}, "All science is either physics or stamp collecting." {{w|Methyl acetate}} is a solvent that for instance can be used to remove stamps from their envelope (although water will do the same). The stamps in the background form the {{W|periodic table}} of the chemical elements. And since {{w|chemistry}} is not physics, according to the quote, {{w|chemists}} must be stamp collectors. [[Ponytail]] is depicted wearing goggles, holding an {{w|Erlenmeyer flask}}, and dizzy from being high on methylacetate.

;Panels 5 and 6, ''Why anyone who wants a job would study lit's a mystery'', ''Unless their only other choice were something like art history.'': These lines, both sung by Cueball, refer to subjects where a majority of graduates will end up unemployed or eventually working in a field outside their majors. Topics such as {{w|Literature}} or {{w|Art History}} are often and historically said to be in this category — although from [http://www.studentsreview.com/unemployment_by_major.php3?sort=Rate actual statistics], it is clear that there are far worse majors these days.

;Panels 7 and 8, ''A BA in communications guarantees that you'll achieve'', ''A little less than if you'd learned to underwater basket-weave'': Here Cueball first has a major in {{w|Communication studies|Communications}} and next he is seen underwater with a basket. {{w|Underwater basket weaving}} is a commonly used metaphor for any college major that is easy and/or worthless. "Communications" is a major chosen by people interested in news broadcasting or other media. Note that, if following the original music exactly, the line "A little less than if you'd learned to underwater basket-weave." will be repeated three times by the chorus after these panels.

;Panel 9, ''I'd rather eat a Fowler's toad than major in biology,'': We see Cueball holding a frog out in front of him while taking his hand to his head (in disgust?). A {{w|Fowler's toad}} is a relatively common toad in the eastern US, and a stereotype of studying {{w|biology}} is a frog {{w|dissection}}, which is likely part of the reference, albeit oblique. Fowler's Toad emits a {{w|Bufo_fowleri#Behavior|noxious secretion}} that [http://www.nwf.org/wildlife/wildlife-library/amphibians-reptiles-and-fish/toads.aspx irritates skin] and thus probably also the mucous membranes in the mouth. It would thus be rather painful to eat, making it very bad for Cueball to major in biology since he would rather eat such a toad.

;Panel 10, ''And social psych is worse than either psych ''or'' sociology.'': {{w|Social psychology}} is compared to {{w|sociology}} (study of humans in society) and {{w|psychology}} (study of human minds). Psychology is represented by a {{w|serial killer}} with a chainsaw, and sociology is represented by a {{w|zombie}}. These are to the left of [[Megan]]. To her right is a zombie serial killer with chainsaw. She is standing between them undecided as to take one, the other or both. They are all terrible options...

;Panels 11 and 12, ''The thought of picking any one of these is too unbearable,'' ''Just put me down as "Undecided"—Every major's terrible.'': End of the first verse where Cueball tells his academic advisor that he is undecided as every major's terrible. He even throws away his {{w|study guide}}. Every verse ends with some variation of this couplet, and in the original tune, each of these couplets are repeated by the chorus afterwards.
:''Unbearable'' and ''terrible'' rhyme for people who have the {{w|English-language vowel changes before historic /r/#Mary–marry–merry merger|Mary-merry merger}}.

===Verse 2===
;Panel 13, ''Now, if you can't prognosticate, that's OK in seismology,'':[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/prognosticate Prognosticate] means "to predict". This refers to the inability of {{w|seismology}} to reliably predict catastrophic {{w|earthquake}}s, even after centuries of extensive research. The panel shows {{w|Seismic wave|seismic waves}} from a {{w|seismograph}}. The seismograph chart has four traces and about halfway across one trace begins oscillating vigorously indicating an earthquake. Five months after this comic was published several seismologists in Italy were [http://www.nature.com/news/italian-court-finds-seismologists-guilty-of-manslaughter-1.11640 convicted of crimes] that effectively stemmed from an inability to predict an earthquake. This does not go down well for the message of this panel... Their conviction was [http://www.nature.com/news/italian-seismologists-cleared-of-manslaughter-1.16313 overturned on appeal] in 2014.

;Panel 14, ''But if your hindsight's weak as well, you'd best stick to theology.'': The bearded [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/theologist theologist] represents {{w|Theology}} by stating the formal logic proposition shown in the illustration: "X ∴ ∃X". This says "I can describe this thing called X, therefore X exists". (However, it might not be syntactically correct, since "X" is not a formula, and there are no free variable(s) after the ∃.) This is what Anselm’s {{w|ontological argument}} for God boils down to. Briefly, it asks you to imagine the best possible entity, which, by definition, would be God. A God which exists in both reality and imagination would (according to Anselm) be greater than one who exists in merely the latter. Therefore, this proposition concludes that God exists. The argument has many fatal flaws, and has been largely rejected even by theists. (See [[1505: Ontological Argument]].) The same can be said for any of the so-called proofs of God that have been developed over the past several thousand years, making Theology decidedly non-rigorous.

;Panel 15, ''CS will make each day a quest to find a missing close-paren.'': "CS" is short for "{{w|Computer Science}}." Most programming languages use parentheses as part of their syntax, and often have multiply-nested parenthetical expressions. This is especially true of {{w|Lisp (programming language)|Lisp}}. It is often difficult for a programmer to determine where the unbalanced parenthesis begins or ends when the code and parentheses are not properly formatted and indented. In the panel there is one more left "(" parenthesis (13) than right ")" or ''close-paren'' (12). Unpaired parentheses were also discussed in comic [[859]].

;Panel 16, ''Virology will guarantee you'll never get a hug again.'': {{w|Virology}} is the study of {{w|infectious diseases}}. The green symbol above the central figure is the {{w|Hazard_symbol#Biohazard_sign|biohazard symbol}}, implying that people who study infectious diseases, and are therefore located near them at some points in time, will be shunned like the plague, because they're probably carrying it. Thus no hugs to Megan as three Cueballs and Ponytail lean back away from her.

;Panel 17, ''I.T. prepares you for a life of fighting with PCs nonstop.'': "I.T." is short for "{{w|Information Technology}}", a degree for people who maintain computer systems. If there is a need for an I.T. position (in which I.T. professionals are employed) there are computers which need fixing — hence the I.T. Professional is always fixing (or fighting) computers, which may or may not have been[https://web.archive.org/web/20220225163355/https://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=19980506 "broken"] by [[:Category:Cueball's computer problems|certain users]]. In the panel Megan, wielding an axe, is in a real fight with a PC.

;Panel 18, ''As Pratchett said, "Geography's just physics slowed with trees on top."'': This is a slightly amended quote from {{w|Discworld}} author {{w|Terry Pratchett}}, from his book "{{w|Feet of Clay (novel)|Feet of Clay}}". The actual quote is "{{w|Geography}} is just physics slowed down, with a couple of trees stuck in it." But the meaning is the same, that physics also describes geography - a similar quote to the one about physics vs. stamp collections mentioned under panel 4.

;Panel 19, ''Though physics seems to promise you a Richard Feynman-like career,'': {{w|Richard Feynman}} was a 20th-century {{w|Nobel Prize|Nobel}}-laureate {{w|physicist}} known for his great sense of humor, including being photographed for one of his books while holding a {{w|bongo drum}}. Here he is depicted with the drum and with both a blond woman and Megan looking admiringly upon him. Feynman made physics seem cool, and many a young fan might choose the subject in the hope of obtaining a Feynman-like career. This is, however, very unlikely for most people as is also shown in the next panel.

;Panel 20, ''The wiki page for "Physics major" redirects to "Engineer."'': A redirect on Wikipedia is a page which immediately sends the visitor to a different page. This implies that the title of the first is either a synonym or a sub-topic of the second. Physics majors usually learn to code, and the standard joke is that they invariably get hired as {{w|computer programmers}} after graduation, but here in this comic they get hired as {{w|engineers}}. This relates back to the previous panel, as it is here shown that most of those that major in physics end up as engineers and not like Feynman. The Wikipedia page physics major didn't actually exist when this comic was published. It was created the same day, but as a [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Physics_major&redirect=no redirect] to {{w|physics education}}. It is such a redirect page that is shown in the panel. In the subsequent days, there were dozens of instances of people changing it to redirect to engineer, usually reverted within minutes. The redirect page was ''fully protected'' and locked for editing. As with the underwater basket-weaving line in the first verse, after the soloist sings this, the line would be repeated three times by the chorus.

;Panels 21 and 22, ''They say to study history or find yourself repeating it,'' ''But all that it prepares you for is forty years of teaching it.'': This uses a version of a quote by {{w|George Santayana}} (although often attributed to others as well), ''Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it'' as a reason to study {{w|history}} — only to be followed by an indication that by studying history as a major, you will only be prepared to become a history teacher, and you will then spend the rest of your life teaching history. The first panel shows a flow chart that will lead you to repeat your sad past if you cannot remember it, and only move on to happier times if you can. In the next panel we see a [[Hairbun]] as a history teacher, with glasses and her gray hair tied up in a bun, standing in front of a green {{w|blackboard}} with three important years for her current history class.

:One connection between these years could be pivotal points in Jewish history concerning the formation of nationality: the Nurenberg Laws of 1935 removing citizenship from Jews in Germany, Israel's claims on Jerusalem, and the UN Security Council's condemnation of the treatment of Palestines by Israel.

:A more lighthearted connection, more in line with the message of learning from history, is the collapse of three notable communications towers: the wooden radio tower in Langenberg in 1935 (by tornado), a TV mast at Emley Moor in 1969 (due to ice build-up), and the Warsaw radio mast in 1991 (due to construction errors). This demonstrates various attempts and failures to learn from engineering mistakes from the past, connecting this with the earlier mentioning of physicists becoming engineers, and perhaps not taking real-world practical considerations into account (such as storms or ice build-up).

:Of course, in practice, with a narrow enough subject, there are likely to be many more examples fitting these three years. The two examples above were from general world history.

;Panels 23 and 24, ''I recognize my four-year plan's at this point not repairable,'' ''But put me down as "Undecided"—Every major's terrible.'': End of the second verse where Cueball again talks to his academic advisor saying that he is undecided. In the last of the two panel he says almost the same as at the end of the first verse. In the first, however, he mentioned his "four-year plan" which is the list of all the courses a student plans to include in their degree program. If you change majors every semester, or do not decide on one until too late, this list gets really difficult to turn into any one degree. Again these lines would be repeated by the chorus afterwards.

===Verse 3===
;Panel 25, ''Astronomers all cringe when they hear "supermoon" or "zodiac".'': {{w|Supermoon}} is a term invented by {{w|astrologers}} in the 1970s, with no significance in {{w|astronomy}} other than being the co-occurrence of orbital {{w|perigee}} and full-moon. But it comes up often in the press, linked to supernatural behavior. That also Randall dislikes seems realistic and he also "mocked" the term soon after in [[1080: Visual Field]] and then finally confirmed what he thought about the term directly when he published [[1394: Superm*n]]. This was the first comic referencing supermoon, here is [[:Category:Supermoon|a list]] of all such comics. The {{w|zodiac}} is the circular band in the sky containing the apparent path of the sun, moon and planets. Most often when people talk about it, they're referring to {{w|astrology}} and {{w|horoscopes}} and other pseudo-scientific notions which often lead to conversations which are frustrating to astronomers, like the bald, bearded one ({{w|Phil Plait}}?) from the panel.

;Panel 26, ''Agronomy's a no-go; I'm a huge agorophobiac.'': {{w|Agronomy}} is the science of farming, while {{w|agoraphobia}} is the fear of wide open spaces. Fields, where most farming happens, are wide open spaces. In the panel an anxious Cueball is standing near a fence on an open field with a tractor. Presumably he may be OK inside the tractor, but once he gets outside he becomes anxious.

;Panel 27, ''I'm too ophiophobic to consider herpetology,'': {{w|Herpetology}} is the study of {{w|reptiles}} and {{w|amphibians}}, while {{w|ophiophobia}} is the fear of {{w|snakes}} (a reptile). The panel shows sweating Cueball holding his hands to his mouth while looking at a green snake asking for his love? It is possible that Cueball is afraid of the snake, who is harmless and just wants to be friends.

;Panel 28, ''And I can't stomach any part of gastroenterology.'': As the pun suggests, {{w|gastroenterology}} is the study of the human digestive system and the image shows the human {{w|stomach}}. To [http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/cannot+stomach not be able to stomach something] means you can't stand or tolerate this thing.

;Panel 29, ''While pre-med gives you twitchy-eyed obsession with your GPA,'': {{w|Pre-med}} (pre-medical) is a major chosen by students hoping to go on to {{w|medical school}} to study {{w|medicine}} and eventually become {{w|Doctor of Medicine|doctors}}. Medical school is extremely competitive and usually requires a very high undergraduate {{w|GPA}} for prospective students. Hence we see a pre-med student holding all his grades.

;Panel 30, <tt>a poetry degree bespeaks bewildering naïveté.</tt>: The text is in all lower-case, a different font and strangely laid out compared to the text in all the other panels. All-lower-case and "free" layout are both associated with 20th century "{{w|Modernist}}" {{w|poetry}}, especially the works of {{w|E. E. Cummings}}. Ponytail is actually reciting this line of the song.

;Panels 31 and 32, ''TV's behind the rush into forensic criminology'', ''(Or so claims meta-academic epidemiology).'': This refers to how {{w|forensic}}-{{w|criminology}} shows, specifically {{w|CSI: Miami}} (Crime Scene Investigation: Miami) as shown on the TV screen in both panels, often dramatize, exaggerate or otherwise confuse the science behind forensics; this gives people unrealistically glamorous views of the career, thus encouraging them to join it. {{w|Epidemiology}} is the study of causes and effects of events and trends. We see a pipe smoking epidemiologist standing with Ponytail and watching CSI - presumably making wild claims on cause and effect based only on what they see on TV. This is, again, the point where the chorus joins in three times, as in the previous two verses.

;Panels 33 and 34, ''By dubbing econ "dismal science" adherents exaggerate;'' ''The "dismal"'s fine - it's "science" where they patently prevaricate.'': "Econ" is short for "{{w|economics}}". {{w|Thomas Carlyle}} declared economics "{{w|the dismal science}}" in the {{w|Victorian era}} as a derogatory alternative name. {{w|Economists}} often claim that economics is a {{w|science}} like any other; however, as the predictive powers of all economic theories are exceedingly weak compared to those of any science, this is disputed by those outside the field at times. It is of course also disputed by this song, in which Cueball "clearly" (see below) states that economics should not call itself a science - that is the ''dismal science'' is not derogatory enough for him.
*The above sentences can be tricky to understand due to the combination of vocabulary used and atypical word order (the former is in object-subject-verb). Here is some help in understanding them:
**[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dub Dubbing] something means ''giving it a nickname''.
**[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dismal Dismal] science means (in this context) ''the disappointingly inadequate science''.
**[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/adherent Adherents] means ''supporters''.
**[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/patently Patently] means ''in a clear and unambiguous manner''
**[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/prevaricate Prevaricate] means to ''evade the truth''.
*Using these meanings of the words the two sentences can be re-written as:
**The people who give economics the nickname "the inadequate science" are exaggerating how bad it is;
**The "inadequate" part is fine - it's "science" where they clearly are evading the truth.
:That is, Cueball is saying that "inadequate science" is too nice of a term for economics, he thinks it's not even science at all.

;Panel 35, ''In terms of choices, I'd say only Sophie's was comparable.''
;Panel 36, ''Just put me down as "Undecided"—Every major's terrible!'': End of the third verse, with yet another variant on the closing couplet. Choosing a major is compared to {{w|Sophie's Choice}}, which is any {{w|dilemma}} where choosing one cherished person or thing over the other will result in the death or destruction of the other, derived from the theme of the {{w|Sophie's Choice (novel)|novel}} of the same name, which has also been turned into a {{w|Sophie's Choice (film)|romantic drama film}}. So Cueball tells the academic advisor that choosing any of the majors over any other is as horrible as to have to choose which cherished person should die to save the other. Although in his case, it is the other way around, since he thinks all choices suck. Again these lines would be repeated by the chorus.

==Transcript==

:[The entire comic is a 4 by 9 grid. Left-justified headings above the 36 panels:]
:<big><big>Every Major's Terrible</big></big>
:to the tune of Gilbert & Sullivan's
:<big>Modern Major-General Song</big>
:(Which you may know from Tom Lehrer's ''Elements''.
:If not, just hum ''Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious''.)

:[To make it easier to read the lyrics, the lyrics text is double indented. If no one says the line it is just written after the description. Unless otherwise stated, the text is inside the frame of the panel above the drawing. If any other text is present it will be written after the lyrics.]

:[Panel 1: Cueball sitting with his chin on fist on a square, gray rock. Next to him is a mathematical expression "2 + a picture of yellow glowing light bulb = picture of Cueball in sailboat on a blue sea".]
::Philosophy's just math sans rigor, sense, and practicality
:Expression: 2+[lightbulb]=[sailboat]

:[Panel 2: A black and brown cannon standing on a green hill fires and a dashed line indicates the cannonball's trajectory. The line splits in two twice ending up at 4 cannonballs.]
::And math's just physics unconstrained by precepts of reality.

:[Panel 3: A student in robes and square academic cap receives a diploma from a dean on a brown podium, while Cueball, diploma in hand, runs away on the green lawn, arms in the air, shedding both robe and cap.]
::A business major's just a thing you get so you can graduate

:[Panel 4: Ponytail wearing goggles and holding a flask with the periodic table in the background. Three stars and circle lines around her head indicates that she is dizzy.]
::And chemistry's for stamp collectors high on methylacetate.

:[Panel 5: Cueball holds up his hands questioningly, in a shrugging pose.]
::Cueball: Why anyone who wants a job would study lit's a mystery

:[Panel 6: Cueball holding his chin.]
::Cueball: Unless their only other choice were something like art history.

:[Panel 7: The text is above this panels frame, which is only about two third of the other frames. In the frame is a close-up of Cueball as a graduate wearing yellow embroidered robe and yellow tasseled mortarboard.]
::A BA in communications guarantees that you'll achieve

:[Panel 8: The text is above this panels frame, which is only about two third of the other frames. In the frame is the same Cueball graduate, only now he is submerged in blue water. A wicker basket flows to the left, where air bubbles escape from Cueball. To the right are two black fish.]
::A little less than if you'd learned to underwater basket-weave

:[Panel 9: Cueball holding a gray frog at arm's length.]
::Cueball: I'd rather eat a Fowler's toad than major in biology,
:Frog: Ribbit

:[Panel 10: Megan indicating to the left a scruffy individual and an individual holding a chainsaw, and to the right a single scruffy individual holding a chainsaw.]
::Megan: And social psych is worse than either psych or sociology.

:[Panel 11: Cueball stands in front of a brown desk holding a gray course catalog. Behind the desk sits a man with glasses and hair at the back of his head. He sits on his gray office chair. There is a stack of papers on the desk.]
::Cueball: The thought of picking any one of these is too unbearable.

:[Panel 12: Same picture as panel 11, only now Cueball tosses the course catalog over his shoulder.]
::Cueball: Just put me down as "Undecided"—Every major's terrible.

:[Panel 13: The text is above this panels frame, which is only about two third of the other frames. In the frame is a seismograph chart with four traces; about halfway across one trace begins oscillating vigorously.]
::Now, if you can't prognosticate, that's OK in seismology,

:[Panel 14: A bearded man with white hair states a formula with his left arm lifted.]
::But if your hindsight's weak as well, you'd best stick to theology.
:Bearded man: X ∴ ∃X

:[Panel 15: Two lines with gray parenthesis.]
::CS will make each day a quest to find a missing close-paren.
:(((()((((()(
:))))())())())

:[Panel 16: Megan with a green biohazard symbol floating above her head stands alone; to the left and right three Cueball-like guys and Ponytail shun her.]
::Virology will guarantee you'll never get a hug again.

:[Panel 17: Megan running at a PC on a brown table at the left of the frame, with a brown and black axe raised over her head.]
::I.T. prepares you for a life of fighting with PCs nonstop.

:[Panel 18: The frame is a little smaller than the other frames. Above the frame is the first part of the text. In the frame is an image of a bearded man with glasses who says the rest of the text. ]
::As Pratchett said,
::Pratchett: "Geography's just physics slowed with trees on top."

:[Panel 19: A man with black hair plays on brown bongo drums while Miss Lenhart and Megan lean into the frame and look at him from left and right respectively.]
::Though physics seems to promise you a Richard Feynman-like career,

:[Panel 20: The text is above this panels frame, which is only about two third of the other frames. In the frame is screenshot of a wiki redirect page. Below the title is the normal text for such a page. This is unreadable though, although it is possible to imagine it is possible to read the first line which would say: ''From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia''. But not the other line which would be ''Redirect page''. Below this line is an arrow down to the page the redirect points to. This is written in blue underlined letters.]
::The wiki page for "Physics major" redirects to "Engineer."
:Wiki page:
::Physics major
::<font color="blue"> Engineer</font>

:[Panel 21: Flowchart: a gray-brown box with a sad face chains to a decision diamond reading simply "?"; the "yes" branch leads to a yellow happy-face box while the "no" branch loops back to the initial sad face.]
::They say to study history or find yourself repeating it,
:Flow chart:
::?
::No
::Yes

:[Panel 22: The text is above this panels frame, which is only about two third of the other frames. In the frame is Hairbun as a teacher with boxy spectacles and a bun in front of a green chalkboard with three years in white. She is holding a rod and using it to point at the board.]
::But all that it prepares you for is forty years of teaching it.
:Chalkboard:
::1935
::1969
::1991

:[Panel 23: Cueball at his adviser's desk again as in panel 12, but now without any catalog and holding his arms down.]
::Cueball: I recognize my four-year plan's at this point not repairable,

:[Panel 24: Same as panel 23 except Cueball has raised a first and the adviser has his hand to his mouth.]
::Cueball: But put me down as "Undecided"—Every major's terrible.

:[Panel 25: Image of a bald man with beard and glasses. He raised both hands one as a fist the other pointing up. There are lines out from his head to the left and lightning lines out from his head to the right.]
::Astronomers all cringe when they hear "supermoon" or "zodiac".

:[Panel 26: Silhouette of Cueball, agitated, in an open field near a fence and a tractor.]
::Agronomy's a no-go; I'm a huge agorophobiac.

:[Panel 27: Cueball looking aghast at a green snake on the ground, both hands at his mouth and sweat jumping from his head. The snake is "saying" a red heart with a black question mark next to it.]
::I'm too ophiophobic to consider herpetology,
:Snake: <font color="red"> ♥ </font>?

:[Panel 28: Anatomical image of a stomach in pink and red.]
::And I can't stomach any part of gastroenterology.

:[Panel 29: A man with wild hair, glasses askew, clutching folders and papers (green, blue and white), and dropping several.]
:Man:
::While pre-med gives you twitchy-eyed obsession with your GPA,

:[Panel 30: Ponytail reciting poetry; her poem is this panel's line, in a lighter, lower-case font.]
::Ponytail: <tt>a poetry degree bespeaks bewildering naïveté.</tt>

:[Panel 31: The text is above this panels frame, which is only about two third of the other frames. The frame is a TV screen with the ''CSI: Miami'' logo, CSI in yellow.]
::TV's behind the rush into forensic criminology
:TV screen:
::'''<font color="yellow"> CSI:</font> '''
::'''Miami'''

:[Panel 32: A balding man wearing glasses and holding a smoking pipe together with Ponytail holding a notebook watch a wall-mounted flat-screen TV on which the ''CSI: Miami'' logo from the previous panel is showing.]
::(Or so claims meta-academic epidemiology).
:TV screen:
::<font color="yellow"> CSI:</font>
::Miami

:[Panel 33: Cueball is talking with his left arm raised, palm up.]
::Cueball: By dubbing econ "dismal science" adherents exaggerate;

:[Panel 34: Close-up on Cueball with right arm up and one finger in the air.]
::Cueball: The "dismal"'s fine—it's "science" where they patently prevaricate.

:[Panel 35: As panel 23 with Cueball at his adviser's desk once more though with both hands held out in front of him. The adviser is holding his hand to the side of his head.]
::Cueball:In terms of choices, I'd say only Sophie's was comparable.

:[Panel 36: Same as panel 35 except that Cueball makes a final dramatic flair spreading both arms out.]
::Cueball:Just put me down as "Undecided"—Every major's terrible!

==Trivia==
In August of 2018, the comic was made to link to [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhaEjgnmy3c a video], which no longer exists due to the owner's account being terminated by YouTube.

{{comic discussion}}

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2765: Escape Speed/Transcript

2026-05-15T15:57:57Z

FaviFake:

{{TOC}}Below, you will find the full transcript of the comic [[2765: Escape Speed]].

===Overview===

:[An interactive comic featuring a large world with many planets and objects, navigable by a small round spaceship with a big round window and two landing legs which extend automatically when it touches any surface with its bottom part. The spaceship is affected by the gravity of the planets and objects and controllable by arrow keys. The up arrow activates the main engine, adding forward speed; the down arrow activates reverse (bow) thrusters. Left and right arrows activate thrusters which rotate the spaceship. The spaceship features a "radar" - grey dots around it. The placement of the dots around indicate directions to nearby planets; the size and shade of gray indicate distance. The playing field is a viewport into space, the spaceship is always in the center and the viewport scrolls as the spaceship moves through space - the player sees only a very small part of the overall game world. Orientation is a bit difficult, exacerbated by the fact that the view automatically rotates according to the local gradient of gravity, such that the "down" direction (gradient vector) is always towards the bottom of screen. The world features collectable items (small gray circles) and powerups (grey hollow stars). Sometimes these are collocated, i.e. a gray circle appears in the hollow center of a gray star; however this is not fully consistent, some hollow stars also indicate an item to be collected. When the spaceship flies close to a circle or a star, the mark disappears, and a message is shown in the lower part of the viewport. After picking up most items, their names are added to the "You've found" list below the playing field; unless you are viewing a mobile-device version, where the playing area is optimized to full-screen. Some collectable items display a message only and do not add an item to the list. The player can return to the starting position (keeping all powerups and items) by clicking the "Home" button in the bottom right of the playing field.]

===Starting Planet===

:[A tiny grassy planet with a few trees and bushes and four items. A planet is so tiny that it can be seen whole in the game's viewport. This is where the player starts or returns after clicking the "Home" button. Initially the navigation is difficult because of low initial engine thrust and strong gravity of the Origin planet nearby affecting movement. There's an item right up from the starting position (shows a message only and is not reflected in the "You've found" list)]
:Wheeee!

:[Other features of the planet, as they are encountered by carefully moving just above the planet's surface in the clockwise direction are:]

:[A tree, about twice as high as the spaceship]

:[An item low in the grass]
:You found a cool bug!

:[A small tree and a larger tree to the right, with an item up its branches]
:You found a pretty leaf!

:[A tree sapling]

:[Beret Guy pointing his arm up. From that position the surface of the Origin planet can be seen above.]
:Beret Guy: WOW!

:[A large tree]

:[Cueball and Megan standing together.]

:[A small tree]

:[Another item just off the surface]
:You found a rock with neat stripes!

:[A small tree]

===Origin===

:[The planet has vegetation and features many people, landscape objects and items, and it has a shaft through the center. To get there, just launch off the starting planet and let the gravity pull the spaceship towards Origin. The planet is hard to leave without any powerups unless one uses the shaft to gain more momentum by thrusting while moving through the center. The features of the planet include (clockwise from the point closest to the starting planet):]

:[A billboard]
:Welcome to Origin! ''You can never leave™''

:[A rollercoaster with a duck sitting on it. At the middle of it there's a (hidden) entrance to the shaft. There's an item above.]
:Be careful; this roller coaster can be disorienting! ''(message only)''

:[A billboard to the right of the rollercoaster]
:Caution: Long vertical drop

:[A spider figure; going straight up from there you can reach the Giant Spider planet]

:[A radio telescope; going up you can reach Voyager 2]
:Receiving transmission

:[Cueball and White Hat]
:White Hat: I bet the voyager spacecraft could teach you a thing or two about speed. Of course, you'd have to catch up to them first...

:[A cell tower with 5G antennas and the satellite from xkcd comic 1992: Safety sat on top. There's an item next to it.]
:You found a 5G seagull

:[A tyrannosaurus, Ponytail and Cueball standing next to a St. Louis Arch-shaped hole in the ground. Launching from where the T-Rex stands, you can reach the Jurassic Park planet.]

:[A miniature of the Andal planet, marking the direction to it.]

:[A pyramid with a soccer ball on top; leads to the Space Soccer Game planet]

:[Ponytail sitting on top of a pyramid, Megan standing at the base of it]
:Ponytail: If you want a better spaceship, you need to visit another planet.
:Megan: But if I want to visit another planet, I need a better spaceship!

:[A pyramid with Saturn on top; leads to the Saturn]

:[Cueball and White Hat]
:Cueball: I can't believe the Air and Space Museum's new exhibit has a real black hole!
:White Hat: Is that... safe?
:Cueball: It's OK, they've got a protective case around it.

:[A few clouds]

:[A recess in the ground with a monument shaped as Earth continents in a hyperelliptical projection. Launching from there you can reach Projection of Earth. Hairy is standing next to it.]
:Hairy: Even if you did find a crack in the crystal sphere, there's no way you'd be able to escape its gravitational pull. You'd need some kind of a hyperdrive for that.

:[A spaceship from xkcd comic 2630: Shuttle Skeleton. Going up from there you can reach Shuttle Skeleton planet.]

:[St. Louis Arch. There's a hidden entrance to the tunnel under it; launching from the tunnel you can reach the Hollow planet. An intelligible sign is posted next to it. When the spaceship passes near the sign, a message appears:]
:The St. Louis arch is also known as the gateway to space.

:[To the right of the Arch Ponytail stands with three kids looking like Hairy, Megan and Cueball.]
:Ponytail: The St. Louis Arch is also known as the gateway to space.

:[A miniature of the Roche Lobe Earth, marking the direction to it]

:[A small building and a strange tower with a spiked orb on top. launching from the top of the tower you can reach the Round Planet. There are two items next to it, one close to the tower top, another one hidden at the base on the right side.]
:You found an orb wren!
:You found 11 squares packed into a larger square!

:[Hairbun and another person; launching from there you can reach the What if? planet]
:Hairbun: Boston? That's in North America, on the Subway planet. It's straight up from the secret glade, you can't miss it.

:[A grassy area with two items]
:You found a tumbleweed!
:You found a marsh wren!

:[A quintet of hairy and bearded people playing and singing]
:It's more than a feeling
:More than a feeling

:[An item high off the surface right to the band]
:You found a tiny meteorite! ''(message only)''

:[Another item higher off (reachable only after you visit another planet and find engine powerup)]
:You found a single grain of salt!

:[A spiral on a pedestal; going straight up from there leads you to the Uzumaki aka the Spiral planet]

:[A radiotelescope; going up you can reach Voyager 1]
:Receiving transmission

:[Cueball and Megan]
:Megan: It's like my astronomy teacher always said: "Shoot for the Moon -- even if you miss, you might make a crack in the crystal sphere that imprisons us all in this universe."

:[An item clockwise from Megan]
:You found a holographic Charizard business card

:[A patch of trees and bushes]
:A bush: SHHH.

:[An item between two lower trees next to the talking bush; launching from there you can reach the Subway planet.]
:You found a secret glade

:[Another item hidden up a large tree next to the secret glade]
:You found a normal-looking leaf!

:[In the center of the planet there's a round hollow with an item in the exact middle]
:Welcome to liminal space ''(message only)''

:[Next to the hollow there's a cave with another item]
:You found a DVD of The Core (2003)!

:[In the cave there's Megan, her hair flying around her head in microgravity]
:Megan: The Oberth effect states that firing thrusters deeper in a gravity well adds more kinetic energy.

:[Applying the above hint from Megan, you can launch high above the St. Luis Arch to reach a star-shaped powerup (subtracts 1.5 from thrust recovery time)]
:Nice flying! Your tanks recharge faster now.

:[Launching like that you can reach the Hollow planet]

===Hollow Planet===

:[The planet is just a crust with a few holes through which you can fall into the center. Near the center, Ponytail and White Hat fly in microgravity.]
:White Hat: It's weird how a hollow shell doesn't exert gravitational force on objects inside it.
:Ponytail: Oh, so '''that's''' why we don't feel a pull from the crystal sphere.

:[Next to White Hat and Ponytail there's a powerup (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:You found a sixth Lagrange point! Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:[On the surface of the Hollow planet there's a bunch of signs with arrows pointing up and the names of the planets which lay in the direction. These are (clockwise):]
:Origin and Subway
:Earth (compromise projection)
:Round planet
:Exit
:Uzumaki

:[There's a powerup between "Round planet" and "Exit" signs]
:You found a glass of heavy water! Your engine gets a bit more powerful.

===Round Planet===

:[A perfectly round planet, somewhat smaller than the Origin, without any vegetation but with some architecture and people on it. You can reach it by following a sign on the Hollow planet or by launching from the Origin planet from the tower with an orb on top. Its features are (clockwise):]

:[The Great Wall of China]

:[Two small figures of Megan and Cueball on the Great Wall]
:Cueball: The Great Wall of China is the only human-made structure you can see space from.

:[A few stones with an item and powerup above them (-0.75 to thrust recovery time)]
:You found a sensible cheese platter. Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.

:[The Stonehenge with an item between megaliths and Cueball standing next to it]
:You found a swatch pop-out wristwatch!

:[Hairbun walking on absurdly high stilts]

:[Three spaceships flying just above the surface. The leading one transmits a message:]
:Rogue group, use your harpoons and tow cables! Go for the legs!

:[A powerup just above the middle ship]
:Your engine gets a bit more powerful.

:[A volleyball net. Cueball is jumping in the air to hit a volleyball on the right side of the net while Ponytail is juggling three bowling pins on the left side.]

:[An airplane towing a long, narrow banner with a message printed across, not along it]
:Does<br/>any<br/>one<br/>know<br/>how<br/>to<br/>get<br/>this<br/>thing<br/>to<br/>print<br/>in<br/>land<br/>scape<br/>mode?

:[Beret Guy climbing a 5G tower with some fruit hanging off the antennas. Cueball is standing next to it.]

:[A small volcano cone]

:[Huge gallows with a large flag on a pole hanging on it. The pole of the flag is twisted into a shape partly resembling an infinity sign; the loose end of the pole pierces the flag. A relatively large Cueball figure stands next to it.]

===Uzumaki===

:[A large spiral overgrown with grass and some other vegetation. It has very weak gravity. To get there launch from the sign on the Hollow Planet or from spiral monument on Origin. Features (clockwise):]

:[The outside of the spiral]

:[An item and a powerup (-0.75 to thrust recovery time)]
:You found a single caffeine molecule! Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.

:[A single tree]

:[A pack of three birds flying]

:[A group of stones in an area free of vegetation]

:[The "entrance" to the spiral with an item, displaying a message only]
:EXIT ONLY

:[The inside of the spiral]

:[Cueball running]

:[An item]
:You found a festive but somehow unnerving holiday card from Junji Ito!

:[A bush]

:[An item]
:You found a podcast episode!

:[Another item]
:You found a friendly bee!

:[A dead bush]

:[An item]
:You found an ink cartridge!

:[A free-roaming Roomba]
:Roomba: WHIRRR

:[An item just above Roomba]
:'You're going the wrong way!' ''(message only)''

:[Another item]
:You found a spiral-cut diamond!

:[Still another item]
:You found a golden radio tuned to 1.618 MHz!

:[Beret Guy standing]
:Beret Guy: I like spirals!

:[An item]
:You found a burrito!

:[Another item]
:You found a cool pair of shoes with flames on the side!

:[Still another item]
:You found a scroll lock key!

:[A small tree]

:[An item]
:You found a primordial black hole!

:[An item and a powerup right at the center of the spiral (+2.5 to thrust duration)]
:You found a tree-filled grove and a nice spot for quiet contemplation Your thrusters are significantly more efficient now.

:[The center of the spiral is a dead end - one needs to fly all the way back out or just hit the Home button]

===Guitar Ship===

:[A planet shaped like a guitar seen in perspective looking from the bottom of the body, with a dome on the back side. The planet lies close to Uzumaki, one can reach it by observing the spaceship's radar. Within the dome, there's the Boston skyline. Just over the dome there's an item.]
:You found a guitar pick!

:[When the Boston planet is uncloaked, orange line subway token appears near the guitar's neck]
:Orange line deactivated!

===Spacetime Soccer Field===

:[A tiny planet with a smooth surface and a distorted soccer field marked around it. You can get there by launching from the pyramid with a soccer ball on top, located on the Origin. The goals and goal area lines are on the opposite sides of the planet (let's say, to the east and west), distorted into curved trapezoids. The touch lines (side lines) are sections of hyperbolas with the vertices closest to the planet at the north and south poles, extending symmetrically to some distance from the planet. There is no goal line; in this geometry it should be the extended axis. What seems to be penalty lines but drawn incorrectly to join the side lines instead of going back to the goal line, are sections of an ellipse. The halfway line appears twice joining the four ends of hyperbolic side lines, together with two halves of the center circle. The field utilizes the concept from xkcd comic 2705: Spacetime soccer, but inversed: the gravity well is located at both goals, not in the center. Hairy, Megan, Cueball and Ponytail are playing, flying in space around the planet. Ponytail has just kicked a ball.]

:[The goal has a powerup inside (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLL!!! Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:[The other goal also has a powerup]
:GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLL!!! Your engine gets a bit more powerful.

:[Another powerup lies at a pole of the planet (+0.5 to launch speed)]
:You've found a sunspot. Your launch speed has increased.

:[Still another power up lies at the center spot on one of the copies of the half-way line (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:You found the 3 million point line. Your thrusters are more efficient now.

===Saturn===

:[A planet with rings, and a soccer ball inside; one of the ball's white hexagons is surfacing in the north pole area. You can reach it by launching from a Saturn-topped pyramid on Origin. There's an item at the equator, below the rings.]
:You found a really cool data point!

:[A powerup is located at the south pole]
:You found a block of scandium! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[Another powerup at middle latitudes of the northern hemisphere]
:You found a pair of platonic solids, not quite touching! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

===Andal===

:[A small rocky and grassy planet. To get there launch from a monument on Origin, featuring a round shape with a small "T" on top. Features (clockwise):]

:[A T-shaped tower with a powerup on top (-0.75 to thrust recovery time)]
:What a nice place for a ship to sit! Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.

:[Two fantasy animals: one looks like a centaur, the other as a horse-headed centaur. Both have sickle-shaped blades at the ends of their tails. There's a powerup above them. (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:You found two Andalites, one canonical! Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:[A powerup in a small recess in the ground]
:You found baby shoes (and baby)! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[Cueball and Megan facing each other]
:Megan: The M.I.T. cloaking device only affects the electroweak and nuclear forces. Gravity is the odd one out, as usual.

:[A powerup next to Megan (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:You found a friend. Your thrusters are more efficient now.

===Projection of Earth===

:[A huge distorted map of all land masses of Earth, freely floating in space like asteroids. You can get there by following the sign on the hollow planet or the Earth map monument on Origin. You can navigate the spaceship within the spaces where oceans and seas would be. There are several items and powerups.]

:[An item and a powerup at the North Sea]
:You found the Principality of Sealand! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[An item in the northern Atlantic Ocean]
:You found the Heart of the Ocean! It was drifting around in space.

:[When the Boston planet is uncloaked, red line subway token appears next to Boston, Massachusetts]
:Red line deactivated!

:[An item off the West African coastline]
:You found a whale shark!

:[An item and a powerup next to Rhode Island]
:You found a Rhode Island the size of an ant! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[A power up off the southern Australian coast]
:You found an icosahedral d10. Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[An item by the Alexander Island of Antarctica]
:You found some microbial life!

:[An item on the Western coast of Myanmar near the Strait of Malacca]
:You found some tin from the Pantai Remis mine!

:[An item next to the Celebes Island of Indonesia]
:You found a sparkling gem!

:[An item near the Kamchatka peninsula in Eastern Russia]
:You found a piece of pumice floating in space!

===Voyager 1===

:[The Voyager 1 space probe. You can reach it by launching from a radio telescope next to the spiral monument on Origin. There's an item and a powerup next to its dish antenna.]
:You found Voyager 1! Some of its great speed rubs off on you. Your engine thrust has increased significantly.

===Voyager 2===

:[The Voyager 2 space probe. You can reach it by launching from a radio telescope next to the spider monument on Origin. There's an item and a powerup next to its dish antenna.]
:You found Voyager 2! Some of its great speed rubs off on you. Your engine thrust has increased significantly.

===SafetySat===

:[The cube satellite from xkcd comic 1992: SafetySat. There's an item in front of its laser pointers.]
:You found a first of its kind

:[A powerup next to software-defined radio (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:[A powerup next to crude oil tank (+0.5 to launch speed)]
:The more refined oil had a dinner engagement. Your launch speed has increased.

===Shuttle Skeleton===

:[A small planet shaped like a spaceship from xkcd comic 2630: Shuttle Skeleton. You can get there by launching from like-shaped monument on Origin or in northwestern direction from Alaska on Compromise Projection of Earth.]

:[A powerup next to the left-hand engine (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:A little upgrade works wonders on fuel efficiency. Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:[An item at the tip of the ship's bow]
:You found a piece of space shuttle food!

:[By launching straight from the engines of the Skeleton Shuttle you can find a lone item in the void of space, where the hidden Boston planet is. You can try finding it by observing the radar, because the hidden planet still has gravity. Once you've visited Shuttle skeleton, it is a good chance to get it, or it will be inside the Boston planet once it is de-cloaked].
:You found a strangely heavy subway token!

===Giant Spider===

:[A giant spider floating in space. You can get there by launching from the spider figure on Origin. Eight people are standing on the tips of the spider's legs: Hairbun of fourth left leg, Hairy on third left one, White Hat on second left, Cueball on front left, Megan on front right leg, another Cueball on second right one, Beret Guy on third right and Black Hat on the fourth right leg.]

:[There's an item next to the tip of the spider's abdomen.]
:You found a spider-silk scarf!

:[The spider holds a powerup in its pincers]
:You found a friendly jumping spider. Your engine gets a little more powerful.

===Diffraction Spikes Star===

:[A very spiky star shaped like the one from xkcd comic 2762: Diffraction Spikes]

:[An item at the tip of a long spike]
:You found a hydrogen ion!

:[An item at the tip of a short spike]
:You found a piece of coronium! Wait, no, iron.

===Roche Lobe Earth===

:[This is a small, distorted, drop-shaped Earth with oceans and continents of the northern hemisphere. There's the Moon close by. The distortion looks like if the Moon's tidal forces are pulling northern Atlantic Ocean really hard. The planet can be reached by launching from the like-shaped statue on Origin.]

:[Cueball is standing on the surface roughly about the place of the southern U.S.A. There's an item off the California coastline.]
:You found a curious Humboldt squid!

:[Another item lies off the Japan coast]
:You found a bathyscaphe at the Marianas Trench!

:[When the Boston planet has been uncloaked, the green line subway token appears on the East Coast of U.S.A., where the city of Boston is located]
:Green line deactivated!

:[There's an item on the far side of the Moon]
:You found a wayward Roomba full of moondust!

===Dark Matter Planet===

:[A small, irregular planet with a black center (normal planets have white centers) and an inscription "DARK MATTER" inside, repeated three times. On its surface there are two squirrels and Hairbun.]
:Hairbun: I found it!

:[There's a powerup anti-clockwise from Hairbun]
:You found a delicate music box. Your engine is a little more powerful now.

===Jurassic Park Planet===

:[A big planet with weak gravity, a lot of grass, and many dinosaur figures, some repeating a few times. You can get there by launching form a dinosaur statue on Origin. At one place on the surface Hairy and Megan are being greeted by dr John Hammond.]
:Welcome... to Jurassic Park

:[There are several powerups and items, going clockwise from the visitors:]

:[A powerup (-0.75 to thrust recovery time)]
:But what if gravity doesn't actually exist? Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.

:[Another powerup]
:Today is a good day I think for space exploration. Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[An item]
:You found a tiny pteranodon!

:[Another item]
:You found a baby hedgehog!

===Comet 67P===

:[A small, potato-shaped body. You can get there by launching form the rollercoaster on Origin. Features (clockwise):]

:[Remains of a crashed spacecraft, presumably Rosetta, with an item and a powerup (+0.5 to launch speed)]
:You found The Long Now Foundation's nickel paperweight containing an archive of every published Animorphs book! Your launch speed has increased.

:[Hairbun standing]

:[A small three-legged spacecraft, presumably Philae]
:Philae: BEEP BOOP

:[Cueball standing next to a smoke machine. There's a powerup to the left.]
:You found a broken smoke machine. Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[Another Cueball and a powerup (-0.75 to thrust recovery time)]
:Some people believe that when the Earth appears in the sky, it's a harbinger of doom. Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.

:[A powerup next to a signpost]
:Anyone for Scrabble later? Your engine gets a little more powerful.

: Warning: There is a small, lander-sized depression at the base of the left side of the point where the two parts meet. If you make the mistake of landing there, you cannot get out. If you do not land, your shield will keep you from hitting the ground, and you can thrust yourself out.

===What If? Planet===

:[A huge, round planet with many bodies of water. You can get there by launching from the left part of Stonehenge on the Round Planet. Some scenes from the book "what if? 2" and the xkcd comic 2712: Gravity appear here. Features (clockwise):]

:[A flagpole with a powerup on the flag]
:You captured the flag! You decide to leave it there, but it's yours. Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[A cave in the ground. Inside it there's Beret Guy, two rabbits, and a powerup.]
:You found a DNA base pair! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[Two stones with sails attached, sliding on the ground towards Ponytail and Megan]

:[Black Hat with a bow, shooting an arrow upwards towards a spy satellite. There's a powerup just above it.]
:You found an eye in the sky

:[A lake with an eel swimming in it]

:[An item in the grass]
:You found a smooth green snake! It curls up in your hand and naps.

:[A small erupting volcano]

:[White Hat and Cueball standing, another person charging them with a sword held above head. Cueball is holding a small object in his left hand, the arm stretched towards the attacker.]

:[Baby Hairbun running towards baby Megan. Megan is making a kicking move like in a soccer game, but there's no ball drawn.]

:[A person with a wide-rimmed hat driving a tractor. The ground strangely sticks to its wheels.]

:[Megan and Cueball on a shore of a shallow body of water, Cueball is poking a stick into the water which strangely sticks to it. Some creature is flying over the water. There's a powerup at the bottom (+0.4 to thrust duration).]
:You found a sunken treasure. Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:[Cueball standing on the other side of the water, taking hits from some objects falling from above.]
:PLINK
:Cueball: OW!
:PLINK
:Cueball: OW!

:[A person (Hairy?) sitting on a large heap of bananas, Cueball standing aside.]

:[Megan standing on a brim of a small valley, Ryan standing in the valley with a small animal by his feet.]
:Megan: Hi Ryan!

:[There's an item over Ryan]
:You found an asterisk. It doesn’t seem to refer to anything.

:[A dugout. Cueball and Megan are standing there. Cueball holds a spade. There's a powerup above (+0.5 to launch speed).]
:The Yellowstone Super What? Your launch speed has increased.

:[A river, a waterfall and a lake below the falls. On the top of the waterfall Cueball faces two persons with police hats on. There's a fat hose labelled "Niagara water" leading from the waterfall into a building labelled "LHC". Someone in the building shouts:]
:Someone: ''HEY''

:[There's an item next to the LHC building]
:You found a large hadron!

:[A body of rippled strangely-behaving water, like it was a solid. Two people in a sailboat. To the right there's a gap in the water from which a huge UFO-shaped rock has been ejected, with two people on it. Further right Megan is standing at the bottom of a shaft in the water, next to some water plant.]

:[A few clouds and Cueball standing. The largest cloud, a cumulonimbus, features a powerup.]
:Nutritional Facts - Serving Size: 1 Cloud, Total Calories: 0. Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[Megan sitting on a rectangular block, another block standing upright, a few stones.]

:[White Hat walking along Hairbun, holding a rectangular object in her hand.]

:[A patch of trees with two items]
:You found a secret leaf!
:You found a stick!

:[A small Cueball figure]

:[A tower crane lowering a comet, on a place with two dinosaurs. An item below the crane's beam.]
:You found a sterile neutrino!

:[Knit Cap observing an object moving at supersonic speed next to him.]
:BOOM

:[There's an item to the left of Knit Cap]
:You found a pair of squirrel goggles!

:[Danish standing in a swimming pool, Cueball on the brim. There's a powerup in the pool.]
:You found a steam calliope! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[A large figure of Cueball]

===Subway Planet===

:[A huge planet with a subway system connecting places named after U.S. cities, similar to the one from the xkcd comic 1196: Subways. In the area where Boston should be according to that system, there is a giant round hole with rugged sides consisting of a lot of broken planks. You can get there by taking off from the secret glade on Origin planet. There's a black hole inside, off the center, in the Washingon, D.C. area. There are many people and features both on the surface and within subway tunnels.]

:[On the surface of the planet, clockwise from the Boston hole, there are:]

:[Megan and Cueball standing on the edge of the Boston hole. Cueball is leaning forward, looking down.]
:Cueball: Where's Boston?
:Megan: I think M.I.T. kids took it.

:[Three consecutive entrances to tunnels leading to New Yourk City area, a tunnel leading a little below surface and back up, another three entrances; Cueball standing next to the middle one. There's a power up just a bit into the third entrance (+0.5 to launch speed).]
:You found a hot dog. Your launch speed has increased.

:[Cueball and Danish walking]
:Cueball: Why did those M.I.T. kids keep talking about Morgantown?
:Danish: They're just transit enthusiasts, I guess.
:Cueball: But Morgantown is tiny. It can't possibly have a subway, can it?
:Danish: Not exactly...

:[Hairy and White Hat standing]
:Hairy: A lot of people don't realize that North America only has one subway system; each city's metro is just one part of the network.

:[A sequence of seven tunnel entrances leading to Monterrey area. There's a warning message just below the surface:]
:Warning! Air and Space Museum black hole ahead!
:Turn back while you still have enough engine thrust!
:[The above message repeats many times within the maze of subway tunnels]

:[A powerup next to the second entrance (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:You found a bottle of Coke Absolute Zero! Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:["Mexico City" label just below the surface, an entrance to a tunnel leading to Atlanta and a warning message about the black hole, Ponytail]
:Ponytail: Welcome to the Subway Planet, home of all North America's metro systems!

:[Ponytail and Cueball. Cueball is holding a four-wheeled suitcase.]
:Ponytail: Boston? No, that's on the other side of the planet. Or used to be, anyway.

:[Ponytail and Megan walking]
:Ponytail: My favorite thing about visiting Origin is all the pointing sculptures. They make it so easy to navigate!

:[Two tunnel entrances leading to Los Angeles. A "San Francisco" label next to them. Cueball and Megan standing on opposite sides of the first entrance.]
:Cueball: If you're looking for someone to track down those M.I.T. kid, you could try asking CalTech.
:Megan: But we're in San Francisco; Isn't CalTech in Pasadena?
:Cueball: Yeah, it's down there somewhere.

:[Ponytail jumping across a tunnel entrance]
:Ponytail: Vancouver!

:[A "Vancouver" label and another tunnel entrance. Cueball and Ponytail are looking up.]
:Cueball: Huh, I never noticed that crack in the crystal sphere before.

:[An entrance to a tunnel leading to Toronto]

:[A "Montreal" label and two tunnel entrances.]

:[The left edge of the Boston hole. Next to the right edge, there's a powerup (-0.75 to thrust recovery time).]
:You get the feeling you're not in Kansas anymore. Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.

:[Features inside the metro system, in no particular order:]

:[Knit Cap in Montreal]
:Knit Cap: Bienvenue à Montréal!

:[Miss Lenhart and Megan at the bottom of the Boston hole]
:Miss Lenhart: I hear M.I.T. kids were working on a cloaking device. Boston could be anywhere.

:[An item in a short dead-end line near the right side of the Boston hole:]
:You found a Cybiko® wireless handheld computer for teens (2000)!

:[A power up down the tunnels of New York City (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:You found a brightly-lit billboard. Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:[An item in a dead-end tunnel in NYC]
:You found a handful of quantum foam!

:[An item somewhere in NYC]
:You found a normal-sized apple!

:[Down in NYC: another copy of the black hole warning message and a powerup next to it]
:You found a friendly cat! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[Mexico, Cueball sitting on a ledge, Megan standing below]
:Megan: You'd need some powerful thrusters to make it down there and back.

:[In Monterrey, Megan is using her smartphone to look up the subway scheme in xkcd.com/1196]

:[An item and a powerup in a short dead-end tunnel near Miami]
:You found a beige electron! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[An item in a dead-end tunnel in Toronto]
:You found a relativistic bowling ball!

:[An item and a power-up further down from Toronto]
:You found $30 in Yahoo! cash! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[A powerup down in San Francisco]
:The next stop is Interplanetary Terminal G. Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[Down in Los Angeles there's a rectangular chamber connected to a tunnel. Megan is standing at the entrance to it, Hairbun and Cueball are inside]
:Megan: Welcome to CalTech!
:Hairbun: The M.I.T. cloaking device control? It's in Morgantown, WV.
:Cueball: Figures.

:[A small distance left and down from the chamber Jills is standing in the tunnel]
:Jill: Stop! This line goes to D.C.! Ever since the Air and Space Museum put in the black hole exhibit, it's been difficult to return without enough engine thrust.

:[A powerup in a tunnel between Los Angeles and Philadelphia (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:There is no parking in the white zone. Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:[A powerup in a long straight dead-end tunnel near Philadelphia]
:You feel accomplished. Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[Down in Philadelphia, Cueball sitting on a slope]
:Cueball: Morgantown? You could get there via Philly and Baltimore, but that would take you near the Museum. Might be safer to take the red line from Atlanta.

:[Further down from Philadelphia, close to Washington, D.C., Cueball is barely balancing himself on a slope of a tunnel leading to the black hole.]

:[An item in a tunnel in Washington, close to the black hole]
:Transfer here for Mornington Crescent ''(message only)''

:[At the center of Washington there's the black hole pictured as a dark circle with shiny rings around it. It is impossible to escape it without the Hyperdrive. If caught there, hit the Home button].

:[A sign in the tunnel leading from Washington to Morgantown]
:WV

:[Further along the tunnel Cueball is sitting at a subway station (a round chamber a bit wider than the tunnel) at a strange angle to the surface, affected by black hole gravity]
:Cueball: Welcome to Morgantown!

:[A gray circle with a letter "T"]
:MIT Cloaking Device deactivated! Boston detected.
:[Grey line appears, leading out of the tunnels exiting the Subway Planet interior near Mexico City. The line end with an arrow and a label "To Boston". A similar line appears on the Origin Planet, leading from the bush sayin SHHH, then through the shaft, and up the St. Louis arch. It ends with a similar arrow and label.]

:[Megan standing at a strange angle at the next station]
:Megan: Welcome to Morgantown!

:[Further along the tunnel Megan is sitting]
:Megan: I think I'm stuck. I can't even see the black hole from here!

:[Cueball sitting further along the Morgantown tunnel, where it joins another tunnel]
:Cueball: Where does that line go?

===Boston Planet===

:[A big, perfectly round planet with a subway system. It is invisible until the player finds uncloaking device switch near Morgantown on the Subway Planet. Initially, all underground tunnels are blocked by huge round rocks with the letter "T" at the entrances and smaller round rocks down the tunnels. To unblock the tunnels, player needs to find subway tokens scattered in the universe; they appear only after the Boston planet is uncloaked. Subway stations on the surface and inside are marked with Boston district names. There are two trees and several people on the surface of the planet, described below (clockwise):]

:[Two large trees growing at both sides of a tunnel entrance of the orange line, labelled "Oak Grove"]

:[Cueball standing next to the entrance of the blue line, labelled "Wonderland"]
:Cueball: There's a token to open each T line. The blue line token is right here in Boston.

:[The blue line token is located just above the entrance]
:Blue line deactivated!

:[White Hat and Ponytail are standing on the other side of the blue line entrance]
:White Hat: Welcome to Wonderland!

:[Red line tunnel entrance labelled "Braintree". Cueball and Megan are standing next to it]
:Cueball: Transfer here to Skinflower and Bonevine.

:[Entrance to the second red line branch labelled "Mattapan"]

:[Cueball standing next to green line branch entrance labelled "Riverside"]
:Cueball: I can't believe the green line goes all the way to Los Angeles.

:[Entrances to another two branches of the green line labelled "Cleveland Circle" and "Boston College". Some way from the Boston College Megan and Ponytail are talking."
:Megan: Boston is a lot of places. It's on the East Coast of North America, but it's also on the surface of the Earth.
:Ponytail: And on some playlists.
:Megan: And of course it's right here!

:[Cueball at the entrance of another green line branch labelled "Medford/Tufts"]
:Cueball: I can't believe the green line extension is finally open.

:[There are several people down the Boston Subway tunnels. Down the blue line tunnel, Cueball is walking.]
:Cueball: The red line token? It's in Boston.

:[Another Cueball further down]
:Cueball: The green line token is in Boston, too.

:[Still another Cueball, climbing]
:Cueball: The orange line token is also in Boston.

:[Cueball again, close to intersection with the orange line]
:Cueball: There are a lot of Bostons in this universe.

:[In the redline tunnel, down from Braintree, Cueball and Megan are walking]
:Cueball: You know, the locals actually pronounce it "Quinchy"

:[Following the red line past the center, the tunnel arrives at the M.I.T. Megan is standing there.]
:Megan: The hyperdrive works pretty well, but use it carefully. Try not to fly into walls at full speed.

:[There's a powerup in front of Megan]
:Welcome to MIT! You acquired a hyperdrive! Your engine thrust has increased significantly.

:[Somwhere between the Boston planet and the Round Planet, in empty space, there's a powerup. You can reach it by launching off Boston a bit to the right from Wonderland.]
:You found a handful of the quantum foam that makes up the fabric of space! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

===Crystal Sphere===

:[All the "planets" described above lie within a huge ring called the Crystal Sphere. You can get there by flying in any direction, provided that you don't hit any planet. The interior edge of the Sphere is almost perfectly smooth, but has a few dents and cracks. At a point closest to the Subway Planet, there's a large crack leading all the way to the outside. At the entrance to the crack, on both sides, there are two items.]
:Left lane must turn left ''(message only)''
:Right lane must turn right ''(message only)''

:[Along the interior edge there are a few objects (clockwise from the large crack):]

:[An item and a powerup]
:You found the gold crown Archimedes stole! Your engine thrust has increased significantly.

:[An item]
:You found a necklace of element samples whose symbols spell out your name (note: hopefully you are not named 'Katherine' or 'Brandon')!

:[An item and a powerup]
:A significant boost to the engines for a curious pilot. Your engine thrust has increased significantly.

:[The walls off the large crack in the Crystal Sphere are rugged, looking like a rumble of broken wooden planks. Some distance from the entrance there's a powerup (+0.5 to launch speed).]
:There is a way out. Your launch speed has increased.

:[From around the location of the "way out" powerup, gravity is increasing significantly. It is difficult to get out of the sphere unless one has collected almost all powerups from the locations inside the sphere. Even though, moving on the outer surface is difficult. There's an arch around the outer exit of the crack consisting of repeating words "THE END". There's an item on the outer surface, quite far anticlockwise from the crack.]
:You found the platinum cylinder formerly used to define the kilogram!

===Star Destroyer===

:[A gigantic starship; it could have barely fit within the Crystal Sphere. It is located out of the Sphere, right up from the crack, but it can't be reached without the Hyperdrive. It has many corridors and chambers inside, and a lot of people, objects and other features both inside and outside of it. The gravity of the Sphere is still strong around here, but the starship has its own center of gravity; the "down" direction generally points towards the ventral part of the starship, but not quite, making orientation somewhat difficult as the surfaces supposed to be level seem to tilt to the left near the stern and to the right near the bow of the starship.]

:[On the outside of the starship, going anti-clockwise starting from the top of the starship's bridge, featuring a large spherical dome, there are:]

:[A large crocodile resting on top of the bridge, aft of the dome]

:[On a ledge just below the dome, Cueball and Megan are standing next to a dish antenna, Megan is manipulating it]
:Megan: Such a pain adjusting this thing every time we move.

:[There's an item just over the antenna's support pole]
:You found an unread email. Better leave it unread.

:[Below a forward-protruding section of the starship's bridge, Ponytail has launched a paper plane from a small balcony. The balcony is an entrance (#1) into the Star Destroyer's huge network of corridors.]

:[Below, on the flat upper surface of the starship, some distance fore from the bridge's base, a figure with a wide-rimmed hat crouches, holding reins in both hands]
:Cowboy: Giddyayup!

:[A rectangular block protruding from the surface. An entrance (#2) with stairs, protected be a handrail.]

:[A ledge over a small drop on the surface of the starship. A basketball hoop on a pole, Cueball, Ponytail and Megan standing next to it watching a smaller Cueball chasing a basketball bouncing down the sloped surface. A powerup not far fore of the basketball (-0.75 to thrust recovery time).]
:You found a perpetual motion fidget spinner! Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.

:[An entrance shaft (#3). A ledge over a small diagonal drop, a cannon turret at the base of the drop.]

:[A thick ledge over a large drop on the surface. An entrance (#4) to a tunnel. Another two big drops without ledges. A shallow entry shaft (#5).]

:[A large drop with a short rounded ledge. A shaft (#6) some way fore, a small drop. Another shaft (#7) some distance away. Still fore, a small drop with a ledge, an entrance (#8) to a shaft below the ledge.]

:[Another shaft (#9), a slightly protruding, long block just next to the #9 shaft, still another shaft (#10), another block. Some distance from there there's the flat bow of the starship.]

:[At the bow, there are two entrances (#11 and #12) leading into the starship. Cueball stands next to entrance #12.]

:[Along the Star Destroyer's underbelly, fore to aft, there is a long protruding block, an entrance to a shaft (#13), a short recess in the surface, a long recess with a shaft (#14), another quite long recess with ledges on both sides. Both ledges have entrances to shafts: #15 (fore) and #16 (aft). Hairy and Cueball are standing on the ledge leading to the #16 shaft, with parachutes strapped to their backs. Cueball is preparing to jump.]

:[Aft from the two paratroopers there's a turret firing a lot of torpedoes. Going down along the torpedoes path one can reach the Corellian Corvette.]

:[Still aft, there's a large uneven recess in the starship's underbelly, with ledges leading to tunnel entrances on both sides (#17 and #18). On the aft ledge, there is a car. On the edge, Megan and Ponytail stand, looking down at the Corellian Corvette.]
:Megan: Is this ship designed to fly in the atmosphere like this?
:Ponytail: Whatever. Who cares. It's probably fine.

:[Aft of the ledge with a car, there are several rugged dents and cracks in the starship's lower surface and some debris hanging off one of the dents. Further aft, there's still another rectangular protruding block and a shaft (#19). Still further, a spherical dome protrudes partly from the underbelly. There's a hidden entrance (#20) slightly off the bottom of the dome.]

:[Not far from there, there's a small gun turret and another protruding block. Some distance aft from the block, Megan is hanging off the surface.]
:Megan: Hmm.

:[Still aft, there's the last shaft entrance (#21) leading into the network of shafts, tunnels and chambers inside the starship. Some distance from there the wide stern of the starship begins.]

:[Near the bottom of the stern, on a ledge, there are two Megan-like figures, one leaning against the stern wall, another standing at the edge.]
:Megan: I want synesthesia so bad I can ''taste'' it.

:[Some distance up the stern, Cueball sitting on a sloped ledge has dropped a sandwich. It bounces down the slope.]
:Cueball: My sandwich!

:[At the middle of the starship's stern, there's a short dead-end corridor leading to a small chamber; this is the only chamber not connected to the chambers and tunnels inside. There's an item inside.]
:You found two goats and a new car!

:[The interior of the Star Destroyer contains a vast maze of tunnels, shafts, and chambers. Starting for the bow and going roughly fore-to-aft, there are:]

:[The tunnel starting at the starship's bow next to entrance #11 is joined by a shaft with the tunnel leading from #12. The #11 tunnel ends in a chamber with a ball pit. Cueball and Megan are playing in it. A fish jumps over the surface.]

:[A little up the shaft joining tunnels #11 and #12 there's an aft-going tunnel, with two branches, first a shaft going up, then another shaft going down to the entrance #13. The tunnel ends with a large chamber containing a swimming pool. Cueball and Megan are swimming in it. Ponytail has just jumped from the edge of it.]

:[The shaft going up from the swimming pool tunnel leads to another tunnel. A short way along it towards the bow there's a chamber with a donkey-shaped piñata hanging on a rope attached to the ceiling. To the right Cueball, Megan and Hairy are standing together, Hairy holding a stick in his hand. To the left there's another Cueball with a lightsabre.]
:Cueball: No, I got this.

:[Along the tunnel leading aft from the piñata chamber, there are another three shafts leading up to entrances #10 and #9 and down to #14. At the edge of the latter shaft Hairy stands, looking down. Some way down that shaft there's a short tunnel leading towards the bow of the starship, ending with a rumble of stones.]

:[Going further away from the piñata there's another shaft leading down and a chamber with an item to the right of the shaft.]
:You found a lymphocyte!

:[Down the shaft next to the lymphocyte chamber there's an aft-leading tunnel, connecting to shafts leading down to entrance #15 and up to #8; the tunnel leads to an empty chamber. Cueball is standing at the gateway to the chamber with his arm outstretched.]
:Cueball: You shall not not pass!

:[A little up the #8 shaft there's another tunnel leading aft. A short way along, there's a shaft leading up to an empty chamber. A little farther, a down shaft leads to entrance #16. Still farther, the tunnel slopes up then joins a circular tunnel around a chamber in which Barrel Boy stands next to a potted plant.]

:[There's an item and a powerup next to the plant (+0.4 to thrust duration).]
:You found a vintage Juicero juicer! Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:[There are four exits leading away from the circular tunnel. The one up and left off the center leads to an upwards-sloping tunnel, Cueball stands on the sloped bottom.]
:Cueball: Ugh, rotaries.

:[Just past Cueball, the tunnel levels up and leads in the direction of the bow of the starship. Some way along, there's an upwards shaft leading to the entrance #7, and another shaft leading up to an empty chamber and down to a short tunnel. To the right there's a chamber with a group of strange people standing on a podium: a curly-haired kid, a woman in a short skirt wearing a strange cap or haircut, looking up, a person sporting flat-top Afro hairstyle holding up the left arm, and a girl with very long hair. To the left there's a chamber with an ice cream freezer next to the back wall. Cueball and Megan are walking towards it.]
:Megan: Prediction: seconds before you die, you will remember these words.

:[Down from the circular tunnel there's a shaft with a falling Tetris T-block in it. The shaft turns into an aft-leading tunnel. Just a little off the turn, there's a down shaft leading into the control room of the torpedo launcher. Cueball and Megan are in the room.]
:Megan: We have no photon torpedoes, so I'm firing regular ones.

:[Up the shaft from the control room and aft along the tunnel there are two small Roomba-like devices, one riding on the top of another. The tunnel ends with a shaft leading up and down. A little down that shaft there's a short tunnel leading aft through a small empty chamber to the entrance #17. The upwards part of the shaft joins the fourth tunnel leading off the circular tunnel.]

:[The start of the fourth pathway leading away from the circular tunnel is located aft and a little up off the center. The tunnel slopes up shortly, then levels up. Cueball is riding a bicycle towards the stern of the starship. The tunnel joins a shaft leading down towards entrance #17 and leads some way farther aft to a large chamber. Megan is riding a skateboard inside a rolling hamster ball.]
:Megan: AAAaAAaaa

:[There's an item right in the middle of the hamster ball]
:You found an out-of-control trolley!

:[Next to Megan in a hamster ball, Cueball is walking on really high stilts.]
:Cueball: I can't leave.

:[Halfway up the shaft leading to entrance #17 there's another tunnel leading aft through a domed chamber with a huge cephalopod. Further along there's a shaft leading up to entrance #6. The tunnel ends in a chamber featuring a rectangular shape with two horns on top.]

:[Halfway down the #6 shaft an empty tunnel leads aft till a dead end. Just short of the dead-end there's a short upwards shaft leading to another tunnel. To the left from here a car is parked in a chamber. Cueball is sitting on the car's bonnet, leaning against the windshield.]

:[To the right, the tunnel reaches a long downward shaft leading in the general direction of the entrance #18, going almost all the way down to the bottom of the ship near the place where the outer surface has some dents, cracks and hanging debris. About halfway down that shaft there are two tunnels, one leading aft, and, a little lower, another one going towards the bow of the starship; it passes through a chamber in which Cueball and Megan are flying on hoverboards, then follows to another short shaft going down to an empty chamber and up to a short tunnel ending with small empty chambers on both ends. The tunnel leading aft from from halfway the long downwards shaft ends, its bottom sloping down, with a funnel-shaped chamber.]

:[Right at the beginning of the slope going into the funnel chamber Ponytail stands]
:Ponytail: Watch out for the cotton. It's a trap for someone, I think.

:[The funnel-shaped chamber is partly hidden (or filled with "cotton"); the player's ship can fly to the bottom of the chamber through what appears to be solid inside of the starship. The funnel has round bottom and two exits, one near the bottom leading left and another leading right from a place halfway up from the bottom.]

:[The exit in the aft wall of the funnel chamber leads to a tunnel with four sets of dual mechanized toothed blades extending from the floor and the ceiling, the first one half open, another just closed, the third one fully open, and the fourth almost closed.]
:Blades: CHOMP CHOMP CHOMP.

:[A little further aft the tunnel there's a slightly wider section with a pit at the middle; at the bottom of the pit there's a grill and a fire burning on it. Still further aft the tunnel opens into the Imperial Park Chamber, described later.]

:[Near the bottom of the long downwards shaft, Ponytail is flying up the shaft. From there a tunnel leads left to the entrance #18. A small distance right from there, there's a spiked pit in the floor of the tunnel, covered with sticks. Cueball and Barrel Boy are standing next to it, Cueball pouring something over the sticks.]
:Cueball: ...and we cover it with leaves so no one sees it.

:[The tunnel leads farther aft to a large chamber with a seemingly dead-end shaft leading up from the ceiling and then a little right through a hidden passage to the bottom part of the funnel-shaped chamber. In the large chamber there's a strange device with two fat, pointy electrodes labelled "JS" generating an electrical arc between them. Cueball is standing nearby, observing. Another Cueball is climbing the smooth surface of the wall opposite the machine.]
:Cueball: Shh.

:[Going a little to the right along the tunnel from the upper end of the long shaft from entrance #18, there's short upwards shaft leading into a short tunnel with two small empty chambers on both ends and another short shaft to the entrance #5. Right next, the tunnel develops inexplicable waves on its floor and ceiling. Cueball and Jill are observing the phenomenon.]
:Jill: Ah, yes, corridor peristalsis.

:[Aft from the peristaltic tunnel, there's a twisty passage leading up. Ponytail and Cueball slide down it like a waterpark tube.]
:Cueball: Wheee!

:[At the top of the twisty passage, another Cueball stands, slouching and looking down. From there, a short tunnel leads right to a small empty chamber and left, through another two small empty chambers, to the entrance #4.]

:[From the bottom of the twisty passage, the tunnel leads further aft. There's a very short shaft going up to a chamber with what seems like two buttons on the aft wall. Going further aft, the tunnel branches up and goes further right, down, right again, up and right until it reaches a shaft, a bit wider than all others, going up to a chamber with two ledges, and down, through its ceiling, into the Imperial Park Chamber.]

:[The up branch leads to another horizontal tunnel going aft, and the second up branch. This one leads to a short tunnel in the aft part of which two Cueballs are busy excavating: one hitting the rugged tunnel face with a pick, another pushing away a trolley full of material. The right part leads to an upwards shaft and the entrance #3.]

:[From the second up branch, the tunnel leads aft to a big chamber in which Hairy is playing a piano and Cueball is dancing with Megan; Megan is spinning. At the upper right part of the chamber there's a cantilevered ledge and an item right beneath it.]
:You found a glass slipper with a glass foot in it!

:[Next to the ledge, a tunnel leads aft to a long vertical shaft. Up that shaft, there's a tunnel leading aft to a chamber in which some people throw a party standing on the ceiling. Cueball with a conical drink glass stands next to Megan with a tumbler in her hand. Ponytail and Danish stand together. Another Cueball is walking away.]

:[Upwards from the tunnel leading to the party room, the shaft turns into a tunnel towards the bow of the starship and ends with a flight of stairs going up to entrance #2. Down the stairs a spring is "walking" down.]
:SLINK SLINK SLINK

:[Down the shaft, starting from the dancing room level, a tunnel leads aft to a maze of passages and ledges recreating the first level of the original ''Prince of Persia'' game. There are two places with spikes, but not all spiked locations are recreated. Cueball stands in the place where the original gameplay starts. Two Cueball-like figures with swords stand in the places where guards are present in the game. Another two Cueballs are there, one standing, another jumping off a ledge. Two items are located within the maze:]
:You found a premium subscription to food.net!
:You found a cluster of data points!

:[Still down the shaft, a fore-leading tunnel ends in a chamber with a chandelier hanging on a chain from the ceiling, sporting six bare lightbulbs.]

:[The lower end of the shaft ends with a tunnel leading left and right. To the left, Hairy is walking towards the entrance to the Imperial Park Chamber. To the right the tunnel goes some distance aft and up a short slope. Just right of the slope, there's a pit covered with a cantilevered ledge. Cueball is standing in the pit, looking up.]

:[A bit further down the tunnel a small dome opens up, with a alarm device in the center.]
:...BEEP... ...BEEP... ...BEEP...

:[A little aft, there's a short shaft leading up to a tunnel leading left to a dead end with three large boxes stacked and right to three domed chambers, two small ones, and a bigger middle one. In the bigger chamber a huge ant lies on a three-layered platform, Cueball standing in front of it on the second layer.]
:Cueball: What's up?
:Ant: The usual. Poopin' out ants.
:Cueball: Eww.

:[The Imperial Park Chamber is the largest one within the Star Destroyer. It is dome-shaped, but with irregular, rough ceiling and floor. It lies approximately in the middle of the thickest, aft section of the starship. It can be reached from three directions by the entrances described above: on the top of its dome, on the left side going from the funnel-shaped chamber and on the right going from the giant ant chamber. The floor is covered with grass and small plants. Going from the left entry you can see:]

:[A tree growing on a bank of a shallow pool, partly overgrown with plants. A flock of three birds flying high above the pool. A large boulder, on top of it there lies a jaguar, Cueball reclining next to it. To the right of the boulder there's a small garden rotunda on four pillars with an item inside.]
:You found a helium-238 nucleus!

:[Next to the rotunda Ponytail and Cueball are talking:]
:Cueball: I know it seems weird, but every star destroyer has one of these rooms. Say what you will about Palpatine's politics, but he's a staunch supporter of the Imperial Parks and the Coruscant Audubon Society.

:[Going further aft along the Imperial Park Chamber, you can see a small tree with tiny leaves, Cueball walking with a bow and a quiver full of arrows, a male deer, and a small bush around which three bees are flying.]

:[In a recess in the right wall of the dome above a figure with a wide-brimmed hat sleeps, sitting with its back to the wall.]
:ZZZ

:[A little higher there's a bees nest hanging off the ceiling:]
:Bzzzzz

:[From the rightmost chamber of the ''Price of Persia'' maze, a shaft leads up towards the bridge of the ship. About halfway up a short tunnel opens in the direction of the bow, leading through a tiny chamber to another shaft going up and fore to balcony at the entrance #1 and down and fore to a chamber with a machine with eight cylinders connected to it by hoses. Hairbun points at it, explaining its purpose to Ponytail:]
:Hairbun: In the event of a fire on one of the decks, this system will seal it off and pump in pure oxygen.
:Ponytail: Wait, ''oxygen''? Not a fire suppressant like --
:Hairbun: Ugh, ''boring''.

:[The shaft leading up to the bridge ends in the Emperor's chamber, featuring a throne on a pedestal and an rectangular machine in front of it. Cueball is talking with the Emperor.]
:Cueball: My Emperor... We all share in your newfound enthusiasm for birdwatching. But normally one watches them in the wild, rather then drugging and imprisoning them in a house of stairs.
:Emperor: ''Silence''.
:Bird in the machine: Chirp chirp.

:[A little down the shaft from the Emperor's chamber a tunnel goes left through a chamber with a stack of five boxes and three sacks, all marked with dollar signs. Megan and Cueball stand next to the stack, Cueball exclaims:]
:Cueball: Aha! Darth Vaders' secret gold bullion reserves! We'll be rich!
:Megan: I'm not sure this is canon.

:[Still a little left the tunnel connects to a shaft leading up and down. Down and left, a chamber opens in the front part of the starship's bridge with a window looking over the ship's upper surface. Cueball and Tarkin are walking towards the window. Cueball looks back at Tarkin following him.]
:Cueball: The fault, dear Tarkin, is not in our star destroyers, but in ourselves.

:[Up the shaft going from the treasure room, another tunnel leads left to the starship's control room with a large window. Cueball is touching some controls at the console. Behind him, Darth Vader and Hairy are talking:]
:Darth Vader: (breathe) But all murderbot really wants is watch ''Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon'', (breathe) which is a soap -- are you getting all this?
:Hairy: Yes, my lord!

:[Still up that shaft a short tunnel leads right to a chamber with three boxes, Ponytail is sitting on one of the boxes, Cueball is sitting on the floor next to her.]

:[Further up the shaft ends in a perfectly round chamber on the very top of the starship's bridge. On the top left inner wall of the chamber, nearly upside down, Megan is riding a bicycle. Near the bottom of the chamber, Megan and Ponytail are jousting, Megan riding a bicycle, Ponytail - an ostrich.]

:[Down the shaft leading down from the Emperor's chamber, close to the entry to the ''Prince of Persia'' maze, there a short tunnel leading aft to another long downwards shaft. About halfway down, Cueball and Mega are holding one another by their arms, clinging to opposite sides of the shaft.]
:Cueball: Okay. We can figure this out.

:[The shaft ends in a big chamber with a gigantic lightbulb and a powerup.]
:You found a Bursa of Fabricius!

:[From the lightbulb chamber a short tunnel leads aft to a shaft. Up that shaft there's a chamber in which Cueball and Jill are standing face to face.]
:Jill: Use a proposition instead of a preposition if you need something to end a sentence with, baby.

:[The shaft goes down to the entrance #21. Close to the entrance, some small objects hits the wall of the shaft.]
:BOUNCE

:[The shaft leading down to the chamber with the lightbulb, branches to the right close to that chamber; the tunnel goes quite a way towards the bow of the ship and ends with a small empty chamber. Right before that, a short shaft goes on to another empty chamber. Halfway down that shaft, a short tunnel goes left and enters a huge half-round chamber, the round bottom of it protruding partly below the starship's lower surface. Near the lowest point, Cueball stands next to two small warning sings looking like the ones often used in public to warn against slippery floor, and a larger triangular sign on a pole.]
:CAUTION: Glitchfloor

:[The small segment of the round chamber wall between the two small signs looks opaque, but in fact an be traversed by the player's ship, forming a hidden entrance (#20) into the Star Destroyer's interior.]

:[To the upper left of the half-round chamber there's a tunnel leading to a shaft going down to the entrance #19, and a short way up to a tunnel leading aft to an empty chamber and fore to a dead-end spiral-shaped tunnel.]

===Stream of torpedoes===

:[From the gun turret located at the bottom of the Star Destroyer in its middle-fore part, a lot of torpedoes are being fired. Following them down and left you can see:]

:[Two torpedoes colliding and causing an explosion]
:BOOM

:[Beret Guy riding one of the torpedoes]
:Beret Guy: Horsey!

:[The stream of torpedoes reaches the Corellian Corvette]

===Corellian Corvette===

:[A spaceship borrowed from the Star Wars universe. It is quite big, its length is larger than the diameter of the Origin planet, but smaller than Boston planet. It is found most easily by following a stream of torpedoes fired from the Star Destroyer. There are several people both inside and outside of it, standing on the upper surface. Gravity in the area is quite strong, coming from the huge Crystal Sphere. Starting clockwise from the stern you can find:]

:[Cueball standing on a ledge next to engine nozzle. Megan is pulling him by his arm as if trying to prevent him falling off. Cueball, leaning over the ledge, is holding a long stick with a huge marshmallow the size of his head on it, right over the center of the nozzle.]

:[On a ledge next to the ventral laser cannon turret Cueball is standing with a fishing rod, fishing line lowered into the space below, a square-shaped bait on the hook. Two birds are flying next to the bait.]

:[On the top of the round bow section of the starship, Cueaball is standing next to some device]

:[There's a rugged hole in upper side of the middle section of the starship, two Cueball figures stand next to it]
:Cueball 1: So you just came down and made a hole in our ship without permission?
:Cueball 2: Yup.
:Cueball 1: Wow, rude.

:[An item in the focal point of the dorsal comms dish]
:You found a serif!

:[Two Cueballs to the right of the dish, looking up]
:Cueball 1: That thing is ''huge''. ''Imperial''-class?
:Cueball 2: Yeah. Maybe a Mk-I. Depends on whether this is the expanded universe or not.

:[Ponytail and Cueball shooting bows towards a stream of torpedoes]
:''TWANG''

:[An explosion causing a shallow crater on thestarship's surface]
:BOOM

:[A bunch of torpedoes coming in diagonally from above. One torpedo half-buried itself in a dome-shaped side of the starship. Two Cueballs next to it.]
:Cueball 1: Why are they still firing?
:Cueball 2: Oh, the turret operators pretty much do their own thing. It's definitely a pain sometimes.

:[A large rectangular chamber in the middle section of the starship, close to comms dishes. Hairy, and two Cueballs talking.]
:Cueball 1: The Death Start plans are ''not'' in the main computer.
:Cueball 2: Darn. See, if we had found them in the main computer, that would be good news, since it would mean no one else had them. But since we didn't find them, we need to keep searching for anyone with a copy. That all makes sense and I ''definitely'' understand how computers work.

:[An item in a short dead-end section of a corridor leading fore from the big chamber]
:You found the Death Star plans!

:[In a parallel corridor just above, Ponytail is walking, singing]

:[In a small chamber just below the dorsal turret there's a container labelled "Bullets". Cueball is pouring small bullets into it from a bucket.]

:[Further down the corridor a small device is moving towards the bow of the starship.]

:[Danish standing next to a console on the upper deck of the bow section, Hairbun right behind, her fists clenched.]
:Danish: Captain's log, stardate April 3<sup>rd</sup>, 2023...
:Hairbun: ''Augh!'' No!

:[Right in the entrance to the upper deck chamber there's an item]
:You found a forged resume!

:[On the lower deck, Ponytail is holding a lightsabre. A small round object is floating next to her. To the right, Megan stands next to a open container labelled "Shirts", holding a strange device.]
:Megan: Good against remotes is one thing, but a ''true'' Jedi trains with a T-shirt cannon.

===Click and Drag Planet===

:[The planet is huge, larger than any other in the game world, but smaller than the Star Destroyer. It is located outside the Crystal Sphere roughly opposite the Star Destroyer. It is mostly round, with many landscape features and scenes partly copied from the xkcd comic 1110: Click and Drag, but arrayed in a circular, instead of linear shape. What's missing in comparison to the Click and Drag comic, is a few of the scenes, some textual content like dialogues (leaving persons intact), the underground parts, upper parts of the very high objects, and objects high above the surface in the 1110 comic -- please see its transcript for details. The planet features a few items and powerups.]

:[A powerup over a hotdog-shaped car in the parking lot right of Burj Khalifa (+0.5 to launch speed)]
:The vehicle below gives you a boost. Your launch speed has increased.

:[A powerup above Cueball saying ''We should turn back']
:'We should turn back'. Your engine gets a bit more powerful.

:[An item below a giant jellyfish]
:You found an ant the size of Rhode Island!

:[An item and a powerup between huge wind turbines (+2 to launch speed)]
:You found a trisected angle! Your launch speed has greatly increased.

:[An item and a powerup next to a humpback whale (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:You found an expert at underwater ropes. Your thrusters are more efficient now.]

:[An item on a flat-top structure left of a water tower]
:You found a pin with 17 angels dancing on it!

{{DEFAULTSORT:2765}}
[[Category:Comic subpages]]

explain xkcd:Community portal/Proposals

2026-05-10T19:35:31Z

FaviFake: /* Multiple Blondies, Merge Blondie/Lenhart */

<noinclude>{{Community links}}

{|-
|valign="top" width="100%"|[[File:Crystal Clear app ktip.png|left|120px]] <big><big><b>Proposals</b></big></big>

<i>Place for ideas and suggestions to improve the wiki's design and organization on general issues can be<br>incubated for later submission for consensus discussion. Be sure to check whether your proposal has already been submitted. </i>{{AddNewSection|Page=Explain XKCD:Community portal/Proposals|Text=<small>(+post)</small>}}
|}</noinclude>

==ARCHIVED DISCUSSIONS==
<div class="plainlinks" style="background:#edf6ff; border:1px solid #a7d7f9; margin:1em auto 1em auto; width:100%; font-size: 120%; padding: 0.5ex; text-align: center;">Most of the discussions on this page have been archived. The archive is available at '''[[explain xkcd talk:Community portal/Proposals]]'''.</div>

== Removing unnecessary 3-comic categories? ==

I count eight categories on explainxkcd that satisfy the following properties: 1. They have only three comics in them. 2. They aren't really a comic series; they just feature or reference a comic theme. 3. They aren't Featuring some person or character. In short, they seem to have no real reason to exist. (They're [[:Category:Spice_Girls|t]][[:Category:Wind_turbine|h]]e[[:Category:Ender%27s_Game|s]]o[[:Category:FernGully|n]][[:Category:Giraffes|e]]s.) So my proposal: remove them. -[[User:Account|Account]] ([[User talk:Account|talk]]) 20:37, 9 November 2019 (UTC)
:In addition, there are [[:Category:Sketches|t]][[:Category:BSD|h]][[:Category:Emacs|i]][[:Category:Identity_Theft|r]][[:Category:Katamari_Damacy|t]][[:Category:Super_Bowl|e]][[:Category:The_Matrix|e]][[:Category:Tournament_bracket|n]][[:Category:Traffic_light| ]][[:Category:Trebuchet|m]][[:Category:Wingsuit|o]][[:Category:Euler_diagrams|r]][[:Category:Pedantic|e]] four-comic categories that also seem rather in need of deletion.
:: Shouldn't the community at least have some time to expand on these categories, in case they're currently incomplete? For example, [[:Category:The Matrix]] is on your list and now contains 7 strips, and [[:Category:Tournament bracket]] got its 5th entry after your post. Even if they're not, a theme category can save some typing in the search box (and is probably also cheaper in terms of server resources than all the searches it'll eliminate). [[User:Promethean|Promethean]] ([[User talk:Promethean|talk]]) 22:43, 21 November 2019 (UTC)
:::So what do you think the limit should be for categories? Should we create a category when two comics mention the same topic? Three? --[[User:Account|Account]] ([[User talk:Account|talk]]) 16:28, 22 November 2019 (UTC)
::::Three seems reasonable to me, and I could see a case being made for two. Categories aren't expensive. [[User:Promethean|Promethean]] ([[User talk:Promethean|talk]]) 00:17, 23 November 2019 (UTC)

::::Three is only good when it's a series. If it's not a series, it should be 5 or 6 comics. We have too many categories. [[User:YZ100]] 23:07, 6 May 2026 (UTC)

== New transcript ==

The transcripts in the comic pages are quite inconsistent, especially in the brackets where you have to describe what happens in the panels. If I understand correctly, the transcripts are for people to copy the text in the comic without having to type them out. If that's the case, then I think propose a new transcript. This transcript should have the comic with the words erased, and then the copy-pasteable words on top of that. Such a transcript would have no room for error, which would let anyone contribute to a seamless transcript.
:The aim of the transcript is to provide a text-only version of the comic that would allow someone who is visually impaired to use a text-to-speech converter to understand the comic and also in a machine readable format for searching (see the [[explain_xkcd:Editor_FAQ#What_is_the_format_of_the_transcript_section?|Editor FAQ]]). Anything using mark-up, images or anything other than plain text will interfere with this and so should be avoided in the transcript. [[User:A(l)Chemist|AlChemist]] ([[User talk:A(l)Chemist|talk]]) 18:22, 23 November 2019 (UTC)User_talk:DollarStoreBa'al

== Add title text and heading to transcript section ==

It has always bothered me that the transcript did not include the title text since it contributes so much to the humor of the comics. Also, it looks to me like the comic heading is sometimes included as part of the transcript and sometimes left out. I checked the previous proposals and did not see any discussion of these issues. Please consider having a policy going forward of including the heading and the title text within the transcript. [[User:Rtanenbaum|Rtanenbaum]] ([[User talk:Rtanenbaum|talk]]) 22:43, 1 January 2020 (UTC)
:To my understanding (and also others, see discussion directly above) one of the main points of the transcript is to make the comics searchable, the other is, to make it readable when images are not an option. In both cases the comic's name and the title text mentioned above and below the image should be sufficient. I personally think this convention is fine. [[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 08:28, 2 January 2020 (UTC)

::Pardon me -- (and, '''<big>''thanks'' for your patience</big>''') -- if this is too off-topic (/slash "boring") or [[wikt:TMI|TMI]] (see {{w|Information overload#Web accuracy}} e.g.), '''...OR''' if this should have been posted elsewhere ...instead of here.

::IMHO the term '''"title text"''' is a misnomer. I think the term is used to refer to the little (or, '''BIG!''') pop-up -- (kinda like what is sometimes called a <code>"tooltip"</code>, but ... aren't those usually pretty '''small?''') -- that appears when one "hovers" his mouse [pointer] over an XKCD cartoon. ...at least, according to '''the "Talk:" page section''' [[Template talk:comic#The template field called .22titletext.22]] which was added almost 3 years ago. I think that calling it a <code>"BONUS text"</code> would be even better than calling it a "caption". However, [to me], '''either one''' of those terms would make sense ''WAY'' more than calling it a '''"title text"''' ... for reasons which are stated in the [Template] "Talk:" page section mentioned (and ... '''LINKED TO''') above.<br/>'''<big>Any Comments? . . ''' *** Thanks! *** for listening!</big> --[[User:Mike Schwartz|Mike Schwartz]] ([[User talk:Mike Schwartz|talk]]) 08:57, 7 April 2020 (UTC)

:::Hi Mike, I see your point, and yes, something like "bonus text" might be a bit more descriptive. But FWIW, I think the reason it's called "title text" is because that's the text that appears in the <code>[https://www.w3schools.com/tags/att_global_title.asp title]</code> attribute of the HTML <code>[https://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_img.asp <img>]</code> tag of the comic's image on the xkcd.com site. For example, at https://xkcd.com/2364/, the code for the comic image looks like this:
<pre>
<img src="//imgs.xkcd.com/comics/parity_conservation.png"
title="Bloody Mary is made of antimatter. It explains so much."
alt="Parity Conservation"
srcset="//imgs.xkcd.com/comics/parity_conservation_2x.png 2x">
</pre>
:::In there, you can see the title text as <code>title="Bloody Mary is made of antimatter. It explains so much."</code> See [[title text|here]] for more explanation about that, and some discussions about it [[explain xkcd:Community portal/Miscellaneous#Common mistake|here]]. – [[User:Yfmcpxpj|Yfmcpxpj]] ([[User talk:Yfmcpxpj|talk]]) 03:11, 29 September 2020 (UTC)
::: While the current layout suits the first purpose (ease of search), I would argue that having the "title text" come before in the page layout, and in a completely different section, makes it fail the second (accessibility). Often the contents of the title text are a continuation of the humour in the strip, so it's about as useful as having the explanation ahead of the transcript as far as accessibility is concerned. My suggestion on this matter is to either a) move the transcript to the top of the content, maybe within a collapse section or b) not claim it for accessibility.
::: As for the secondary topic, I've seen it called "Author Text" before, as it is text by the author and most people won't care what the element attribute is named. [[Special:Contributions/64.114.211.89|64.114.211.89]] 06:55, 18 November 2025 (UTC)

== Wikipedia links. ==

I think the links to Wikipedia should have symbols, so it's not confusing which ones lead to other comic pages.

== It's time to remove the HTTPS lock icon ==

Explainxkcd should do the same thing that browser makers have done: treat HTTPS as the modern standard, and mark HTTP as the deviation instead.

Here are appropriate replacement icons:
* https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Unlock_Icon_Red_(32_bit).png
* https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Unlock_Icon_Red_(4_bit).gif
- [[User:Frankie|Frankie]] ([[User talk:Frankie|talk]]) 12:49, 16 May 2020 (UTC)

== New page for Randall's regular column in the New York Times ==
Randall Munroe has been writing and illustrating a monthly science column in the New York Times. I suggest a page in this Wiki, indexing those columns. For some reason the New York Times itself does not provide such an index. If they ever do add one, we would still have a topic article here, similar to the one we have for the What If blog, that could link to their index. --[[User:JohnB|JohnB]] ([[User talk:JohnB|talk]]) 00:47, 11 June 2020 (UTC)
------
=== New York Times column: Good Question ===

'''Good Question''' is a more-or-less monthly column written and illustrated by '''[[Randall|Randall Munroe]]''' in the '''[https://www.nytimes.com/section/science Science section of the New York Times]''', beginning in November 2019. The columns give serious answers to science questions, in Munroe's inimitable style.

The New York Times website ordinarily requires registration, and its content is always protected by copyright. Most particularly it is ''not'' under [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/ Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License] the way [[xkcd]] is. The good news: anyone can register for a free digital subscription to the New York Times, with access to 'recent' Science articles among some others, but outside of that only five articles per month. See [https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/info/help/freesearch.html Free Articles].

Unlike for many of their other regular columnists, the New York Times does not provide a clickable link either on the byline '''Randall Munroe''' or on the column title '''Good Question'''. The following tables are intended to correct that omission.

{| class="wikitable"
|+ New York Times columns ''by'' Randall Munroe
! Column !! Headline !! Byline !! Date
|-
! SCIENCE
| [https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/13/science/what-makes-a-red-sky-at-night-and-at-morning.html What Makes a Red Sky at Night (and at Morning)]
| Randall Munroe
| Aug. 13, 2019
|-
! GOOD QUESTION
| [https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/12/science/randall-munroe-moon.html If I Touched the Moon, What Would It Feel Like?]
| Randall Munroe
| Nov. 12, 2019
|-
! GOOD QUESTION
| [https://nytimes.com/2019/12/10/science/earth-size-mass.html Is Earth Getting Bigger Over Time?]
| Randall Munroe
| Dec. 10, 2019
|-
! GOOD QUESTION
| [https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/21/science/human-running-speed-quadruped.html How Fast Can a Human Run?]
| Randall Munroe
| Jan. 21, 2020 / Feb. 7, 2020
|-
! GOOD QUESTION
| [https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/17/science/worst-odor-smell-thioacetone.html What’s the World’s Worst Smell?]
| Randall Munroe
| Feb. 17, 2020 / Feb. 26, 2020
|-
! GOOD QUESTION
| [https://nytimes.com/2020/03/10/science/question-randall-munroe-bobsled-gravity.html What if Galileo Had Dropped Bobsleds From the Tower of Pisa?]
| Randall Munroe
| March 10, 2020
|-
! GOOD QUESTION
| [https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/07/science/pulsar-xkcd-munroe-stars.html How’s the View From a Spinning Star?]
| Randall Munroe
| April 7, 2020
|-
! GOOD QUESTION
| [https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/11/science/traffic-barrier-rice-krispies.html What’s the Sweetest, Crispiest Way to Stay Safe in a Car Crash?]
| Randall Munroe
| May 11, 2020
|-
! GOOD QUESTION
| [https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/09/science/randall-munroe-question-eggs.html Can You Boil an Egg Too Long?]
| Randall Munroe
| June 9, 2020
|-
! GOOD QUESTION
| [https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/07/science/neutrinos-snowball-randall-munroe.html Could You Make a Snowball of Neutrinos?]
| Randall Munroe
| July 7, 2020
|}

{| class="wikitable"
|+ New York Times columns ''about'' Randall Munroe
! Column !! Headline !! Byline !! Date
|-
! LINK BY LINK
| [https://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/26/business/media/26link.html This Is Funny Only if You Know Unix]
| Noam Cohen
| May 26, 2008
|-
! BITS
| [https://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/03/14/techs-favorite-cartoonist-enters-mainstream-publishing/ Tech’s Favorite Cartoonist Enters Mainstream Publishing]
| Noam Cohen
| March 14, 2014
|-
! SCIENCE
| [https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/04/science/randall-munroe-the-creator-of-xkcd-explains-complexity-through-absurdity.html He’s Glad You Asked]
| Kenneth Chang
| Nov. 3, 2014
|-
! BOOKS
| [https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/24/books/randall-munroe-explains-it-all-for-us.html Randall Munroe Explains It All for Us]
| Alexandra Alter
| Nov. 23, 2015
|-
! SCIENCE
| [https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/22/science/randall-munroe-xkcd-science-textbook.html Randall Munroe, XKCD Creator, Goes Back to High School]
| Kenneth Chang
| March 21, 2016
|-
! SCIENCE
| [https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/03/18/science/document-Munroepages.html Randall Munroe of ‘XKCD’ Explains the Human Body, Elevators and the Saturn 5]
| (Actual pages from '''{{w|Thing_Explainer|Thing Explainer}}''')
| March 21, 2016
|}
------

: Looks goods to me, you should probably make that an article of its own, maybe [[New York Times: Good Question]]? --[[User:SlashMe|SlashMe]] ([[User talk:SlashMe|talk]]) 22:58, 10 July 2020 (UTC)

: {{notice|I went and added the page, here: [[New York Times: Good Question]] --[[User:JohnB|JohnB]] ([[User talk:JohnB|talk]]) 02:42, 11 July 2020 (UTC)}}

== Bring back the {{rw}} template! please ==

Can someone restore the <nowiki>{{rw}}</nowiki> template? I insist on its existence. I further assure that it will be of much use. It was deleted by an admin. <span> — [[User:Sqrt-1|The <b>𝗦𝗾𝗿𝘁-𝟭</b>]] <sup>[[User talk:Sqrt-1|<span style="color: blue">talk</span>]] [[Special:Contributions/Sqrt-1|<span style="color: blue">stalk</span>]]</sup></span> 06:10, 29 September 2020 (UTC)
:nm, did it myself.<span> — [[User:Sqrt-1|The <b>𝗦𝗾𝗿𝘁-𝟭</b>]] <sup>[[User talk:Sqrt-1|<span style="color: blue">talk</span>]] [[Special:Contributions/Sqrt-1|<span style="color: blue">stalk</span>]]</sup></span> 04:15, 1 October 2020 (UTC)

== Link to high-resolution images? ==

The wiki includes the "standard" resolution images, but would it be worth adding a link to the higher-resolution image on each page? It appears that this could be automated in at least a strong majority of cases: if the standard image is ''xyzzy.png'', the hi-res one is ''xyzzy'''_2x'''.png'' . [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 22:10, 1 October 2020 (UTC)
:Please stop adding this to the explanations. This is not needed. [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:56, 6 October 2020 (UTC)
::The high-resolution image was quite useful in parsing the "Amelia's Farm Fresh Cookies" comic. I'm not convinced that the hi-res images are commonly known. I've been reading xkcd for about 7 years and hadn't heard about them until I stumbled across a mention of them in one of the Discussions here. What is the harm in having a one-line ''link'' here? -- not, I emphasize, the actual image, which would take up a great deal of space. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 17:00, 7 October 2020 (UTC)
:::I didn't know about the high-resolution images either. While it might be a bit repetitive to add a full sentence to every comic's explanation, I agree that having ''some'' easy way to link to the hi-res image on xkcd.com could be handy. For example, maybe a "hi-res" or "2x" button before the "Next >" button above the comic in [[Template:comic]]? That's a bit extreme, but I added an example template, derived from the existing [[Template:comic]], to demonstrate how that could work:
:::* Template: [[User:Yfmcpxpj/Template:comic 2x test]]
:::* Demo: [[User:Yfmcpxpj/Sandbox#2x comic template test]]
:::With those changes to the template, for all comics as of [[1084]] the "2x" button would automatically appear. (No need to go back and change all comics.) This assumes the images hosted on explainxkcd generally have the same filename as on xkcd.com, but there are optional parameters to override the filename or omit the "2x" button altogether for specific exceptions. I'm not suggesting we actually go ahead and implement this; but if there was enough interest, an admin would be needed anyway, to make the changes within [[Template:comic]], which is currently protected. – [[User:Yfmcpxpj|Yfmcpxpj]] ([[User talk:Yfmcpxpj|talk]]) 23:25, 11 October 2020 (UTC)
::::FWIW, I like this. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 20:25, 12 October 2020 (UTC)
:::::My proposal is that a bot should add it automatically to the description of each comic image when available so that it does not take up space anywhere and is easily accessible.<span> — [[User:Sqrt-1|The <b>𝗦𝗾𝗿𝘁-𝟭</b>]] <sup>[[User talk:Sqrt-1|<span style="color: blue">talk</span>]] [[Special:Contributions/Sqrt-1|<span style="color: blue">stalk</span>]]</sup></span> 13:49, 8 February 2021 (UTC)

== Proposal to replace the top section with this... ==

I have come up with a new design for the top section of all community portals...
It’s located here... https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=explain_xkcd:Sandbox&oldid=199882 <span> — [[User:Sqrt-1|The <b>𝗦𝗾𝗿𝘁-𝟭</b>]] <sup>[[User talk:Sqrt-1|<span style="color: blue">talk</span>]] [[Special:Contributions/Sqrt-1|<span style="color: blue">stalk</span>]]</sup></span> 14:15, 15 October 2020 (UTC)
<hr/>
{|-
|valign="top" width="80%"|[[File:Crystal Clear app ktip.png|left|120px]] <big><big><b>Proposals</b></big></big>

<i>Ideas to improve the wiki's design and organization can be added here.</i> {{AddNewSection|Page=Explain XKCD:Community portal/Proposals|Text=<small>(+post)</small>}}

|valign="top" xalign="right" width="100%"|[[File:Crystal Clear app package settings blue.png|50px|link=https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Technical]][[File:Crystal Clear teamwork.png|50px|link=https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Coordination]][[File:Mop.svg|50px|link=https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Admin_requests]][[File:Internet-group-chat.svg|50px|link=https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Miscellaneous]]
|}

== I made a template for welcoming new users. ==

{{Welcome}}
<hr/>
Any ideas? Suggestions? Objections?<span> — [[User:Sqrt-1|The <b>𝗦𝗾𝗿𝘁-𝟭</b>]] <sup>[[User talk:Sqrt-1|<span style="color: blue">talk</span>]] [[Special:Contributions/Sqrt-1|<span style="color: blue">stalk</span>]]</sup></span> 16:35, 13 December 2020 (UTC)
: this is now in at the top of the Main Page --[[User:Jeff|<b><font color="orange">Jeff</font></b>]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 16:38, 5 February 2021 (UTC)
::Why? This looks like a template intended for (newly created) UserPages. And it replaces interesting data from the frontpage with something not useful for casual visitors (or even non-casual lurkers). I'd undo this change in an instant if I had authority to do so. ((The template looks good, to clarify, just obviously not intended to be in that location.)) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.76.154|141.101.76.154]] 01:36, 6 February 2021 (UTC)
:::[[User: Jeff|Jeff]] is the owner of explainxkcd you dingus. <span style="text-shadow:0 0 7px black">[[User:Beanie|<span style="font-size:11pt;color:#dddddd">Beanie</span>]]</span> <sup><span style="text-shadow:0 0 4px #000000">[[User talk:Beanie|<span style="font-size:8pt;color:#dddddd">talk</span>]]</span></sup> 13:46, 18 June 2021 (UTC)

== comic groups ==

i think we should have a tech problems list of comics ( as there are quite a few)
:We already have a category for it. [[:Category:Cueball_Computer_Problems]].<span> — [[User:Sqrt-1|The <b>𝗦𝗾𝗿𝘁-𝟭</b>]] <sup>[[User talk:Sqrt-1|<span style="color: blue">talk</span>]] [[Special:Contributions/Sqrt-1|<span style="color: blue">stalk</span>]]</sup></span> 13:44, 8 February 2021 (UTC)

== Archiving interactive comics? ==

Has the possibility of archiving interactive comics been discussed? Of course, users can view them on the original website, but it’d be nice to have a working backup of sorts, especially considering some of the interactive comics haven’t aged too well in terms of compatibility or support (e.g. Umwelt displays a blank page for me.)

It probably wouldn’t be possible to do so directly from mediawiki, but I’d be happy to experiment with cloning a few of them on another server, or as simple PHP pages that could be embedded, if it would help. Most of the interactive comics appear to be implemented mostly in client side JS anyways, so replicating them shouldn’t be too bad.

[[User:Tague|Tague]] ([[User talk:Tague|talk]]) 13:12, 29 April 2021 (UTC)

== Replace head shots of characters in the wiki with these new and high quality head shots! ==

https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/n2u28r/i_took_head_shots_of_the_reccuring_characters_and/

These are not only upscaled, but are all squares and have all the features of the characters.<span> — [[User:Sqrt-1|The <b>𝗦𝗾𝗿𝘁-𝟭</b>]] <sup>[[User talk:Sqrt-1|<span style="color: blue">talk</span>]] [[Special:Contributions/Sqrt-1|<span style="color: blue">stalk</span>]]</sup></span> 03:33, 2 May 2021 (UTC)
:I think you should do it (because higher quality = better) :] <span style="text-shadow:0 0 7px black">[[User:Beanie|<span style="font-size:11pt;color:#dddddd">Beanie</span>]]</span> <sup><span style="text-shadow:0 0 4px #000000">[[User talk:Beanie|<span style="font-size:8pt;color:#dddddd">talk</span>]]</span></sup> 13:42, 18 June 2021 (UTC)
::There seemed to be no objections, so I went ahead and did it.<span> — [[User:Sqrt-1|The <b>𝗦𝗾𝗿𝘁-𝟭</b>]] <sup>[[User talk:Sqrt-1|<span style="color: blue">talk</span>]] [[Special:Contributions/Sqrt-1|<span style="color: blue">stalk</span>]]</sup></span> 12:40, 21 November 2021 (UTC)

== Cleaning up [[Special:WantedTemplates|Special: Wanted Templates]] ==

I decided to take a look at the list of wanted templates. Imagine my surprise when I see that a lot of the templates wanted were mis-capitalizations or misspellings of existing templates. I hereby request permission to create redirect pages for some of the most popular errors.
I intend to do five, wait a week, and do another five as to not spam the wiki. I will not begin for a week, at which point I will only proceed if nobody has said no OR a moderator has said yes. May I proceed? [[User talk:Quillathe Siannodel|<sup>{)|(}</sup>]][[User:Quillathe_Siannodel|Quill]][[Special:Contributions/Quillathe_Siannodel|<sub>{)|(}</sub>]] 11:34, 15 May 2021 (UTC)

== Knit Cap ==
Sometimes Knit cap has long hair, sometimes short. Is Knit Cap meant to be a male character that sometimes has long hair, or is Knit Cap sometimes female? I want to clear this up before I finish editing [[1350: Lorenz]]. <span style="text-shadow:0 0 7px black">[[User:Beanie|<span style="font-size:11pt;color:#dddddd">Beanie</span>]]</span> <sup><span style="text-shadow:0 0 4px #000000">[[User talk:Beanie|<span style="font-size:8pt;color:#dddddd">talk</span>]]</span></sup> 13:40, 18 June 2021 (UTC)
:Hm, in the 'Enemy Pikachu used theft' scene in [[1350: Lorenz]], Knit Cap's hair looks merely slightly unkempt. From this, I will assume that Knit Cap just sometimes has long hair and is always male. <span style="text-shadow:0 0 6px black">[[User:Beanie|<span style="font-size:11pt;color:#dddddd">Beanie</span>]]</span> <sup><span style="text-shadow:0 0 3px #000000">[[User talk:Beanie|<span style="font-size:8pt;color:#dddddd">talk</span>]]</span></sup> 13:10, 21 June 2021 (UTC)
::Ok, the official transcripts say that Knit Cap is 'A guy in a knit cap'. I will take that to mean that Knit Cap is definitely male.
:::(Sorry for necroposting) Knit cap is shown to represent Randall's wife in the "X years" series, I assume that they are thusly female. {{unsigned|B for brain|15:07, 29 March 2026}}

== We still need to complete some explanations like this one: ==

I think should change the banner shown at the top of every page to show a comic that is still incomplete, like Hoverboard or something. [[User:Sure|Sure]] ([[User talk:Sure|talk]]) 21:32, 30 August 2021 (UTC)

== Update MediaWiki ==
explainxkcd is running MediaWiki 1.30.0, which reached end-of-life in June 2019. There are likely security issues because of this, so please update MediaWiki to the latest version (or LTS) using the instructions here https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Upgrading [[User:Cam1170|Cam1170]] ([[User talk:Cam1170|talk]]) 19:41, 26 September 2021 (UTC)
:It seems like the mysql is too outdated for the upgrade [[User:Starstar|Starstar]] ([[User talk:Starstar|talk]]) 17:37, 26 November 2021 (UTC)
::Upgrade MySQL then[[User:Aaron Liu|Aaron Liu]] ([[User talk:Aaron Liu|talk]]) 03:16, 20 July 2022 (UTC)
Does anybody know how to contact an admin for this? I have no clue. [[User:Cam1170|Cam1170]] ([[User talk:Cam1170|talk]]) 03:25, 13 December 2022 (UTC)

== Allow Users to Edit their own talk page if not auto confimed ==

I can edit this page, but I can't create my own talk page! [[User:Starstar|Starstar]] ([[User talk:Starstar|talk]]) 17:34, 26 November 2021 (UTC)

== Upgrade Icons ==

The icons look quite old fashion (the ones on the sidebar and the ones above the editing text area), could they be replaced? [[User:Starstar|Starstar]] ([[User talk:Starstar|talk]]) 23:07, 26 November 2021 (UTC)
:They probably could be, but changing icons the moment they're not absolutely cutting-edge just means using new icons that are as easily edged-out (as tastes change yet again), meanwhile annoying those who prefered the first set and rather wouldn't see a revolving door of ever-evolving aesthetics.
:If I had a vote, I'd say keep the simple glyphs we're used to. If any are not totally obvious (perhaps some would not be, without the text captions) consider revising, but I think you'll get less agreement on what new images to use than that which would advocate the retention of the current ones.
:Alternately, it would definitely be on-theme to find Randall-drawn illustrations to replace them all. But the constraints of adapting (say) any particular stick-figure-world depiction of randonmess to ''meaningfully'' replace the current Random Page icon (at the same scale!) might be less than optimal.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.57|172.70.162.57]] 01:08, 27 November 2021 (UTC)

== Make searchbar not case-sensitive ==

The way the search bar is currently set, it only suggests comic links when what is being typed is capitalized ("Assigning Numbers" rather than "assigning numbers" for instance). Would be nice if we could make it not case-sensitive :D [[User:Char Latte49|Wielder of the Staple Gun]] ([[User talk:Char Latte49|talk]]) 02:48, 27 April 2022 (UTC)
:Good idea. [[User:Marethyu|⟨Winter is coming⟩ Marethyu]] ([[User talk:Marethyu|talk]]) 17:46, 5 May 2022 (UTC)

== Do not allow ordinary users to edit redirects that are just numbers ==

This overrides the default page you're sent to when you check a comic; e.g. recently a vandal edited the page entitled "2614" so it overrode the actual page, [[2614: 2]] on the main page.
:The problem would be when creating a new page and the overrides are needed... [[User:Marethyu|⟨Winter is coming⟩ Marethyu]] ([[User talk:Marethyu|talk]]) 17:48, 5 May 2022 (UTC)

== ExplainXKCD discord (or other platform)? ==

I'm just saying if we had instant messages, pings etc. there would be a lot faster reaction to vandals.
The community portal is hard to get attention from and comments are all very well and good but conversations on Discord could get very quick response, and people could request edits, organise page re-writing etc.
Idk if we can get "official" backing by anyone high up but we could make one anyways?
:The problem with platforms like Discord or others is that we can't guarantee that everyone has access to them; on the wiki, anyone can edit, while some people may not have access to discord or such. A possible solution would be having a sort of service built into the wiki, but not sure how that might be done. Besides, this is a wiki, not an xkcd chat site. This is a good idea, though. [[User:Marethyu|⟨Winter is coming⟩ Marethyu]] ([[User talk:Marethyu|talk]]) 17:43, 5 May 2022 (UTC)
::Anyone can create a discord account like anyone can create an account on this wiki. You don't even need a dedicated client/app as it can run in browser. Just like the wiki. Just my two cents. [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 11:28, 20 May 2022 (UTC)
:::Some user may not wish anyone to be able to contact them outside this wiki. You do not need an acount to edit this wiki... [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 17:14, 22 July 2022 (UTC)

== So, I got a question about transcripts. ==

A lot of comics show links (e.g.: all the ones with a drawing of wikipedia on it), and the transcripts don't really have a standard. In the transcript, should it be an actual link or just blue text or what? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.52|162.158.79.52]] 15:03, 2 June 2022 (UTC)Bumpf
:I'd say that if the linked thing (presuming it's a real linkable target!) is linked in the Explanation, it doesn't need to be (re)linked in the ostensibly flat-and-descriptive Transcript.
:And I know that some Transcripts are hypertext formatted to emulate the thing they are transcribed from (whether bolded, enbiggened, sub-/superscripted and and/or given the hue) but maybe ''primarily'' the "<code>[:Text that describes the text]</code>" should be explaining the details, in case the screen-reader (or text-searching algorithm grepping the Transcript text for "green text" or "superscript" instances can't quite work it out from the various style-tags that can be applied to that effect in so many an various ways.
:But this is IMO, I don't know if there's a specific policy about it, but it is how I've seen it vaguely applied... Not everywhere quite so consistently, though. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.128|172.70.91.128]] 20:28, 2 June 2022 (UTC)
::We try to keep links and explanations out of the transcript. The link and the explanation goes in the explanation section above. [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 17:12, 22 July 2022 (UTC)

== Use 2X Images ==

Apparently xkcd.com provides double-sized versions of almost every comic if you add '''_2x''' to the end of the image name. For instance,

https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/watches.png

https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/watches_2x.png

Since we are in 2022 and computers can load high-resolution images just fine, and they are easier to read, I propose that this website should use the provided double-sized images. Really, I think Randall ought to be doing this himself as well. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.18.107|172.68.18.107]] 12:22, 17 August 2022 (UTC)

:While I agree with using the higher quality images which are default on xkcd.com for many people, there has been [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Proposals#Link_to_high-resolution_images.3F discussion] about this issue already. At the moment, the consensus seems to be to continue using the 'standard' size to 'use less space,' and instead link to the higher quality image on the image page. —[[User:Theusaf|theusaf]] ([[User talk:Theusaf|talk]]) 14:35, 17 August 2022 (UTC)

::I think I may have mentioned it on that link (or similar), but often when the 2x image is used (or even an unwise too wide image/unbreakable-line-of-content) the explainxkcd site cannot sensibly handle it and it forces the default 'page width' of stuff into a zoomed out narrower column to the left (including the margin-line normally inset a dozen or so pixels in from the right) so that browser-window can display the whole of this wide element.
::While "saving space" does apply to server resources and viewer download bandwidth/quotas (e.g.[https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/unreliable_connection.png 53kb] vs [https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/unreliable_connection_2x.png 109kb]) may seem insignificant, screen-space can be badly hit by this.
::The motherlode xkcd site has code behind it to (usually?) serve the right image for the right displays, but explainxkcd isn't currently equipped to do the same choose-and-provide (which would need ''both'' images uploaded to it and a revised {{template|comic}} implementation, once we work out the method it could use). And I've never seen any case where the 'low quality' comic is conversely too small and narrow to appreciate (though occasionally the larger one reveals minor drawing details that have been obscured by the downscaling), just when the _2x one makes everything ''else'' too small.
::...this may not apply to everyone's browser implementation, but it definitely happens, and consistently, on my usual Chrome and/or Firefox on Windows and/or Android platforms (according to which system I happen to be on at the time). [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.147|172.70.162.147]] 21:20, 17 August 2022 (UTC)
:::ExplainXKCD actually does have the capability to do this. For example, see [[1079:_United_Shapes]]. It generates multiple images, automatically choosing one based on screen size (similar to how xkcd.com does it). The bot could use the `imagesize` parameter to keep the image within the page's width by using the 'standard' image size. This does add a button labeled "click to enlarge," but if that is annoying, the comic template can be modified to hide that button if specified.
:::Here is what it might look like:
:::{{cot}}
{{User:Theusaf/Template:comic_2x
| number = 2647
| date = July 18, 2022
| title = Capri Suns
| image = capri_suns_2x.png
| titletext = [As security is dragging me away] "Come on, at least I didn't make the mistake in the other direction!"
| imagesize = 315x317px
| noexpand = true
}}
{{cob}}
:::which is clearer than the original comic page and the same size. —[[User:Theusaf|theusaf]] ([[User talk:Theusaf|talk]]) 05:20, 18 August 2022 (UTC)
::::As specificaly implemented above, I certainly see no immediate problem (need to check across machines/devices), but I suspect that part of the mechanism here is the "imagesize = 315x317px", which seems like it would need (albeit by the page-create bot, algorithm8cally) to be tailored to the 'input' image, not always in this ratio). I'm not technically conversant with the nature of your back-end scripting and doubtless it's all possible (scripts can do almost anything... once you know that they (may) need to do them and rewritten them to catch all the contingencies ;) ), but I don't know know if that's something you've accounted for (e.g. test with a three/four-panel wide comic, or the Earth Temperature Timeline or whatever, and see if it can facilitate them all nicely). Not to mention that if theusafBOT goes offline, the manual-add instructions (as used prior to your replacing the prior functioning bot, for which I thank you) also need this extra step of user involvement to be done, whereas usually the fallback manual method needed little thought in this direction (or indeed however much carbon or silicon there is in the 'brain' involved) except for exceptional circumstances or those rare prior slip-ups by Randall.
::::I'm just going through the first obvious issue (to me), didn't mean to concentrate so many words on just this before even checking everything else! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.80|172.70.91.80]] 09:15, 18 August 2022 (UTC)
:::::Basically, on the backend, the bot will fetch both the small and the large images, and measure the size of the small image, which is what it will use for the <code>imagesize</code>. I have actually used this system in the past for this bot, but was told to revert it due to the "click comic to enlarge" text. As for if the bot goes offline, there is no problem with falling back to the small image, and if editors want to, I can also provide instructions for using the large image. I'm mostly just waiting to see what others think about this. Are there any other problems to consider? —[[User:Theusaf|theusaf]] ([[User talk:Theusaf|talk]]) 14:44, 18 August 2022 (UTC)

== I'm making an App that collects web comics ==

My original idea was to use the rss feed present on xkcd, and other webcomic websites, but now im starting to wonder if there was a way to make a better service, that allowed users to maybe look at older comics, and explanations and such as well, and thats how i happened to come across explainxkcd.com. The RSS Feed for this website, would be pretty helpful, if it were like reddit's but apparently, the rss feed is only maintained for the home page. I was wondering if you guys provided that data through an API or something? Also are there wikis for other famous comics like this one? Any other suggestions and ideas for the app are welcome 🙌🙌.

== Comics edited after their publication ==

many more comics have been changed than are in Category:Comics edited after their publication ! please add them (i already have done two i remember off the top of my head) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.134.223|172.70.134.223]] 12:56, 7 October 2022 (UTC)Bumpf

== What if 2 book page creation ==
What if 2 has come out, but I don't know which page is to be created. There is already a comic under the same name. [[User:ClassicalGames|ClassicalGames]] ([[User talk:ClassicalGames|talk]]) 08:54, 3 May 2023 (UTC)

== Default to 3 Section Headings for Each Explanation: Non-Obvious Info, Recap, and Background Trivia ==

This is a proposal that all new comic explanations should, by default, have 3 Sections:

'''I. Explanation of the Non-Obvious''' (an actual explanation of the non-obvious elements of the comic for the average reader who might not understand the references/joke/relevant science)

'''II. Full Recap'''

'''III. Background Trivia'''

Most of us can agree that Category I is where the value of this website shines.

But today, all 3 of these categories of explanation are typically merged together, making it hard to find the Category I nuggets of goodness.

If we make these 3 section headings the default on every comic explanation, then this default will helpfully nudge editors to put the juiciest stuff up top, and not to clutter that section up with fluff or trivia.

——

As an example, take the recent comic #2878 about Astronomer Happiness and Supernova distance.

The main thing a lay reader would want to know — the Category I information — is…

..That the shape of the graph is probably a clever reference to a Light Curve, a type of supernova graph

..why astronomers like it when a supernova is close, and what happens when it gets too close

Everything else in the (currently) very wordy explanation gets in the way of the lay reader finding out these two things. It’s a bunch of Category II and Category III info that makes it hard to tease out the Category I info. It’s not BAD information, but it’s sandpaper. It’s friction slowing down the average reader.

Obviously I could go in and edit this particular comic, and I often do this kind of edit, but I think this issue pops up for most explanations, so I think changing the standard default interface will help everyone put their contribution into the right section.

In sum, my proposal would elevate Category I info to the top of each explanation, so instead of full recaps, we get right into the explanation that is going to be most efficiently illuminating for the average, non-expert reader, answering the most common questions.

[[User:Laser813|Laser813]] ([[User talk:Laser813|talk]]) 10:50, 12 January 2024 (UTC)
:In general (if I get dibs on the edit, or think I can legitimately re-edit/rearrange), I do try to go for "hook, line, sinker" format (i.e. establish the basics, relate that to what the comic shows, move on to any relevent speculations/extrapolations), very like your setup. Though it is often ''much'' too complicated (multi-layered, cross-disciplinary, etc, so that maybe it has to be interwoven 'mini explanations' per tabulated item) so I'm not sure how easy it would be to enforce a strict structure. I think there's merit to the principle, though. Assuming we can all agree what each comic needs focus on (apply that problem to the following proposal too!), as I've occasionally inserted a sort of "first you need to know <subject>" into an established cold-start explanation ("you see <foo>" only for a later editor to consider it more an afterthought and shuffle it to later ("you see <foo>" ... "<foo> is part of <subject>"), or variations on such layouts. Especially as different people have different ideas as to what's obvious/can be keyword-wikilinked and what needs more waffle to properly enlighten readers.
:Also, prosaic variation is a good thing. Too formulaic and it could be (whilst accurate) considered too robotic, so some leaway should really always be allowed as we collectively bash together a community interpretation and elaboration. Within communal guidelines, clearly. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.203|172.69.194.203]] 15:53, 12 January 2024 (UTC)

== FAQ Style Editing should be the norm ==

Simply, we should experiment with more FAQ-style explanations.

We think of the top questions that the average reader might have about a comic, and we use those as bolded headers to explain the most curious/confusing/subtle/sciency parts of the comic.

The structure would be this (using a recent comic as an example)…

'''Q: Why did Randall use this shape of graph?'''
A: It’s likely a clever reference to a Light Curve, a similarly shaped graph in the study of supernovae that…

'''Q: Why do astronomers prefer it when supernovae are closer?'''
A: It makes it easier to glean information because…

[[User:Laser813|Laser813]] ([[User talk:Laser813|talk]]) 10:50, 12 January 2024 (UTC)

== sidebar revamp ==
I think that the sidebar looks plain and it should have a new design. It could be voted on by users [[User:Moderator|Moderator]] ([[User talk:Moderator|talk]]) 02:16, 5 February 2024 (UTC)
:In leiu of you telling us what you think would be better, my starting vote is that I'm perfectly happy with that 'plain'. If it has the links I might need, why does it need a reskin? Or, worse, a functional revamp which probably removes the easy to use bits I was using already.
:...could you do a mock-up screenshot (or render equivalents directly in markup) of before/after side by side, at least? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.120|172.69.194.120]] 03:11, 5 February 2024 (UTC)

My biggest problem is it doesn’t scroll down with you which can be a big pain [[User:Moderator|Moderator]] ([[User talk:Moderator|talk]]) 01:43, 6 February 2024 (UTC)
:Don't know about anyone else, but (when not on a desktop) I read this on a tablet, in landscape, with the effective window quite short (ratio of 1:2 with width, approaching 1:3.5 with already narrowed onscreen keyboard popped up) and if I'm scrolled to the top I see nothing beyond Browse Comics.
:If we assume separate scroll-control on the sidebar, setting Main Page at the top of browser pane gives What Links Here at the bottom. Now, I rarely use the next three links (or at least reach those pages using them), and separate scrolling wouldn't stop me even seeing the even lower Ad bit (but it ''would'' defeat the entire purpose of the Ad, in that position, whether or not I bother to notice it these days).
:So whatever missing about you propose, I'm betting it would impact me. Perhaps not negatively, but I've seen enough awful assumptions about my screen-area in the name of scroll-free design. Including the "give us permission (or not) to give you cookies" popovers where it appears the actual buttons to confirm (or deny, or go somewhere to review and customise, if they have that option) are beyond the bottom of my screen. I can temporarily rotate the screen, of course, but often I just back out and don't bother in those cases. I wouldn't be reticent to rotate this site, on occasion, but ''I'd really rather not have to'', if I can be so selfish and stick-in-the-mud, because websites just are not good to use (even temporarily) in narrow-portait mode. (What's worse is the websites that detect I'm on a mobile platform and redesign styles/placements on-the-fly to 'fit portrait view', assuming a vertical smartphone, ''regardless'' of my actual viewport orientation, etc.)
:So, please, a hard no from me. Notwithstanding that just as solidly "always browse in portrait" people might be overjoyed at changes that would give ''them'' a better site design. But that's a tricky circle to square (or letterbox!), and not what you were suggesting anyway (now we know what it is). I just want to plea that any changes be made with a very good idea of all the knock-on effects of 'improving' certain edge-cases, especially when it comes to yet other edge-cases. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.23|172.70.85.23]] 10:29, 6 February 2024 (UTC)
==New Logo and Banner Proposals==
:I have new logo and banner proposals for this site.
:They're made on Scratch, an all-ages block-based programming language, and are in the style of Right Click.
:Here they are!
:Logo proposal: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Logo_proposal_for_explain_xkcd.png
:Banner proposal: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Banner_proposal_for_explain_xkcd.png {{unsigned ip|172.69.71.37|01:54, 19 February 2024 (UTC)}}
::I can't see the xkcdicity of the logo, really. The banner is certainly flavourful in the right way (does it scale down well? ...is that what your use of Scratch is for, as opposed to standard static Photoshop/GIMP image editing?), but not sure it'll work better for the current top-left-of-page xkcd (with three xkcd figurses idling away, sat on the letters).
::Decent concept art for something else related, certainly. I could believe it was a Randall's-own interactive comic front-end of some kind (which would make sense of the "play button" that is the "►"-bit). Given that it's now in a programming system already, have you tried making a drag'n'click game of the idea of linking/looping the blue-trail, and animating the hanging-on characters? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.29|172.70.90.29]] 13:34, 19 February 2024 (UTC)
:::It's an arrow, not a play button. Get it right. {{unsigned ip|172.69.71.72|01:05, 20 February 2024 (UTC)}}
::::Hold your horses... I was just trying to find a good reason for the whatever-it-is triangle to be there (gave the example of a 'play' button in my speculated usefulness of it). And it isn't really obviously any more of an arrow (c.f. "→"), either. I like your(?) banner's use of xkcd-figures, just not sure where the logo exhibits any form of being xkcd-related, except by the literal reading of it.
::::Perhaps if it were "xkcd font" (i.e. artfully composited from actual samples of Randall's ALLCAPS comic-writing) then it wouldn't matter so much, but I just wouldn't say it was any more on-brand than the current logo/etc. This being intended as constructive criticism, I hope you understand. And there's more opinions than mine, so maybe I've indeed just missed some point that ''everyone else'' (especially named-users) have already realised. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.5|172.70.86.5]] 02:33, 20 February 2024 (UTC)

== Regarding precision in the Unexplained popup ==

Would it be possible to add an extra decimal point for the sake of precision? Currently, it shows that 0% of comics are unexplained, which is (as of 13:21 UTC on March 27, 2024) incorrect. It's a small thing, but it's rather annoying. {{unsigned ip|162.158.158.233|13:23, 27 March 2024 (UTC)}}
:With the current 2911 comics (give or take #404), 0.1% would be slightly under 3 comics. You'd need at least three before 0.1% appeared instead of the equally unuseful 0.0%.
:I'm of the "at least give everyone a week before you unilaterally declare it 'done'..." camp, so right now ''just'' the latest M/W/F comic incomplete would hover at a token 0.1%.
:(Actually, from two (0.06...% rounded up) to 4 (0.13...% rounded down. The good news is that it'll be almost seven years until two-rounded-up is insufficient, but also up to six-rounded-down is now "0.1%", if I've not goofed the carries/etc.)
:If going to the trouble of editing it to 1DP, make it 2DP with ''exactly'' the same editing effort..?
<blockquote>
<center>
<font size=5px>''Welcome to the '''explain [[xkcd]]''' wiki!''</font><br>
We have an explanation for all [[:Category:All comics|'''{{#expr:{{PAGESINCAT:All comics|R}}-1}}''' xkcd comics]],

and only {{PAGESINCAT:Incomplete explanations|R}}
({{#expr: {{PAGESINCAT:Incomplete explanations|R}} / {{LATESTCOMIC}} * 100 round 2}}%) [[:Category:Incomplete explanations|are incomplete]]. Help us finish them!
</center>
</blockquote>
:(As of time of posting, the above says "only 2 (0.07%)". From 0.0687049...% rounded up to 2DP.)
:Though given that we're only going to go into the future,{{Citation needed}} I suggest we can state the flat-out number. It's not now really going to be as scarily huge as it might have been, as the actual percentage becomes generally less significant.
:And, for niceness, give it a grammatically/factually agreeable form:
<blockquote>
;General form:
:<code><nowiki>... and {{#ifeq:  | 0 | no |  }} comic{{#ifeq:  | 1 | | s }} [[:Category:Incomplete explanations|{{#ifeq:  | 1 | is | are }} incomplete]]. ...</nowiki></code>
;Zero cases (hardcoded):
:... and {{#ifeq: 0 | 0 | no |  }} comic{{#ifeq: 0 | 1 | | s }} [[:Category:Incomplete explanations|{{#ifeq: 0 | 1 | is | are }} incomplete]]. ...
;One case (hardcoded):
:... and {{#ifeq: 1 | 0 | no | 1 }} comic{{#ifeq: 1 | 1 | | s }} [[:Category:Incomplete explanations|{{#ifeq: 1 | 1 | is | are }} incomplete]]. ...
;Multiple cases (hardcoded):
:... and {{#ifeq: 42 | 0 | no | 42 }} comic{{#ifeq: 42 | 1 | | s }} [[:Category:Incomplete explanations|{{#ifeq: 42 | 1 | is | are }} incomplete]]. ...
;Current cases (dynamic):
:... and {{#ifeq: {{PAGESINCAT:Incomplete explanations|R}} | 0 | none | {{PAGESINCAT:Incomplete explanations|R}} }} comic{{#ifeq: {{PAGESINCAT:Incomplete explanations|R}} | 1 | | s }} [[:Category:Incomplete explanations|{{#ifeq: {{PAGESINCAT:Incomplete explanations|R}} | 1 | is | are }} incomplete]]. ...
</blockquote>
:...easy to replicate to get "Help us finish them!" to change (upon a zero-test truth) to "But they all might be improvable!". Or change the :Cat:Link to not even be a link when zero, with alternate phrasing dodged over to in order to avoid "no comics are incomplete" in other ways.
:I wrote the above for minimal nesting of overlapping conditions. You might prefer just to go with <code><nowiki>{{#ifeq: <count> | 0 | <whole "zero cases" version> | {{#ifeq: <count> | 1 | <whole "single case" version> | <whole "plurality of cases" version> }} }}</nowiki></code> - both approaches involve repetitions, but maybe this other one can be given a ''degree'' of wikimarkup-readability within each case, to take pity on future editors. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.160.166|172.70.160.166]] 16:02, 27 March 2024 (UTC)

== Hear me out: What If? discussion page. ==

That's it. That's my idea. Go crazy, everyone. [[User:Psychoticpotato|Psychoticpotato]] ([[User talk:Psychoticpotato|talk]]) 14:05, 4 April 2024 (UTC)
:Yup, I've been thinking the same thing. I would like a page on each What If entry. [[User:Maplestrip|Maplestrip]] ([[User talk:Maplestrip|talk]]) 07:42, 8 April 2024 (UTC)
::I've thought about this, over the years. Having 'a page' (rather than the summary table, in the [[what if? (blog)|overview page]], etc) does sound more completist than what we currently have but I then tend to hit the main ontological problem...
::In the What-Ifs, Randall takes a 'simple' question and then ''explains'' the consequences. At length. A 'comic page' structure (starting with how we'd deal with the multiple midpoint images, so we would stray far from using the {{template|comic}} introduction) that followed the header(image,etc)/explanation/transcript/(trivia)/included-comments format would be silly and have many parts inappropriate. Remove the Transcript, for starters. ''Or'' need a mini-Transcript for each 'illustrative' image. (e.g. ":[Black Hat:] What if we tried more power?", several times.)
::Is there an actual need to ''explain Randall's explanation..''? Because that's the only thing 'we' can do. Which is rather silly, and seems like it would take a small (entertainingly rambling) essay and expand it into a large (pedantically rambling) one.
::Or else we just straight-copy the What-If over here as a 'backup'-blag? Allowable, but not exactly a USP, there'll be Internet Archive and personal copies, should things go bad at Randall's end. Not really a noble-cause.
::My suggestion, as to how to cover the remaining "explanation gap" and provide a useful 'service' that's worthwhile maintaining, is ''maybe'' two What If? (Blag) sub-pages:
::#A place to collate all inter-text images (and hover-/title-texts), and Transcript them, for easy searching.
::#*e.g. when you know you want to refer to the "bomb to the eyeball" one (internally or for something external) but think you might not realise where you need to go to (the supernova neutrinos one!) just by scrolling a bare comic list.
::#*Or you'd like to see, at a glance, how many different places the Black Hat Try More Power running joke occurs.
::#*Even if you don't want to open the page itself (160+ 'comics' with say 5 images each, is an 800ish-image page, less rationalising 'repeats' to a single entry), it should at least give you a search result for "dry waterfall" that points you in the direction of the "Niagra Straw" one (and maybe others?).
::#*I could see these being brief Image/Titletext/Transcript/(optional explanatory context), but not enough material to make them separate comic-style-pages in their own right, right?
::#Something of the same 'collation page mechanism' for all those superscript-popup-'footnote' bits. Though I admit I'm not entirely sure for what purpose except that it just ''seems'' like a good "collection page" to maintain. Perhaps to offer updated onward-links if any of the originals suffer link-rot? (But then, that fate can occur to all non-popupped links, so maybe I've chosen the wrong thing to highlight.)
::...the question is, what do you want from it. Bear in mind that if you can creae pages here then you can set up what ''you'' think you'd like to see (e.g. for What-If#1, for starters) then get the community to assess it. Do it as a sub-page to your Userspace, maybe, as proof-of-concept.
::Just because it's not been seen as necessary so far, doesn't mean it's not necessary. I've thought about it a lot (not thst I'm in a position to inplement anything), but I've only decided that I don't see a need for a straight copy (others' views may differ on that) and not enough reason to pester for ''my'' 'ideas' to be fulfilled. But I aint 'in charge' here, and happily so. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.100|172.69.194.100]] 11:29, 8 April 2024 (UTC)
:::You make a fair point. He did already explain in great detail what would happen if [x] scenario happened. It just seems like it would be nice to have a page exclusively for discussing all the ''What If'' articles. [[User:Psychoticpotato|Psychoticpotato]] ([[User talk:Psychoticpotato|talk]]) 20:49, 15 May 2024 (UTC)
::::People just need to make a draft or two and see what happens. Be sure to link a draft here if one is created, I would like to help on it. "I want to learn more and explore this scenario further" is a valid feeling to have. [[User:Maplestrip|Maplestrip]] ([[User talk:Maplestrip|talk]]) 07:34, 16 May 2024 (UTC)

== Randall-ify the Captcha ==

Let's have some fun: Is it feasible to replace the Captcha with something "xkcd-ish" like "click on Randall's work" with a mix of XKCD stuff and generic pictures. If not, how about a replacing it with a quiz like "which of the following IS [or IS NOT] xkcd character" with one obvious correct answer. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.26.75|172.68.26.75]] 16:11, 9 May 2024 (UTC)
:are YOU able to create a CAPTCHA from scratch? [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 15:59, 13 May 2024 (UTC)
::Choose any images that contain user-made CAPTCHAs from the following selection. [[User:Psychoticpotato|Psychoticpotato]] ([[User talk:Psychoticpotato|talk]]) 21:22, 13 May 2024 (UTC)
::We could also make captchas based on most of [[:Category:CAPTCHA|these]]. [[User:PDesbeginner|PDesbeginner]] ([[User talk:PDesbeginner|talk]]) 02:57, 11 September 2025 (UTC)

== Incomplete Tag Vote ==

I think each comic's discussion page should have a section to vote on whether the explanation is complete or not. How long do you think the voting period should be?[[User:PDesbeginner|PDesbeginner]] ([[User talk:PDesbeginner|talk]]) 03:42, 19 June 2024 (UTC)
:Rather than a voting period, I think it would be ideal if people could "vote" on the completeness of an article at any time. As I go through all the old pages, I come across lots of pages that feel a little bit incomplete. It would be nice if we had a measurement of completion that wasn't binary. [[User:Maplestrip|Maplestrip]] ([[User talk:Maplestrip|talk]]) 10:16, 19 June 2024 (UTC)
::Feel free to add the incomplete tag again. But don't forget to mention WHY (either in the tag or the discussion or both) you think it's incomplete. :) The tag is mainly there so you can have a list of "incomplete" comics. A comic is either on that list or it isn't. This is pretty much binary. As for voting: If I think an explanation is complete and it bothers me that it's flagged as not I generally juts make a comment in the discussion asking if someone has still something to add or actually knows WHY it's still incomplete. If there's no response after a few days I delete the tag. There's no need to make a voting out of this. And if somone strongly disagrees to you there's always the "Undo"-link ;) [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 11:09, 19 June 2024 (UTC)
:::Sometimes I just feel "this could use more detail," without specifically knowing what the detail would look like. This can be a problem when it's about explaining complicated science: the "completion" of a description of quantum mechanics that is readable by a novice, is very subjective. I am realizing the problem with the persistent voting idea tho: many people will vote something as "incomplete" but wouldn't come back to check on it later. [[User:Maplestrip|Maplestrip]] ([[User talk:Maplestrip|talk]]) 12:08, 19 June 2024 (UTC)
::::I'm more in the "less is more" camp. Most of my recent contributions to this wiki were deleting parts of bloated explanations: You don't need to explain quantum mechanics unless it's absolutely crucial for understanding the respective comic. Of course, if you are an expert in any given field, [[2501|it's hard to tell]] whether or not the current explanation is sufficient for a layperson and most contributors tend to write "too much". Which is totally fine. People like me take care of the "too much". ;) So, if you are an expert in quantum mechanics ignore "completed" comics about quantum mechanics. Surely you could contribute a lot to it but chances are high that most of it is unnecessary for the comic. Instead ask yourself if you need more information to understand that comic about biology. And if you do, add an incomplete and ask for that information ;) [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 12:31, 19 June 2024 (UTC)
:I've been here a long time, effectively back to when there were ''missing'' explanations (other than the "too new to have the barebones put in" ones, these days only seen when the current BOT is tardy or offline for some reason), and I've seen the Incomplete template change from the useful 'infill marker' to become a regular joke-tag of a similar nature to the Citation Needed. Yes, I agree that both of these (and the Because You're Dumb" tag) are perhaps a bit confusing for new users (like the one who badly edited out a link, just now, apparently thinking it was spam, because of the way it mentioned viagra), but I have grown to see them as community in-jokes (of various degrees of subtlety) that many people seem to appreciate under their current incarnations.
:We've recently removed the Main Page's more literal "there are # incomplete articles" announcement, which leaves the purpose of ''more accurately'' using the Incomplete tag a little less important. Apart from letting us dive into the (purported) list of Incomplete Explanations, one of the main ''serious'' purposes of the Incomplete tag is removed, leaving the now consistently employed purpose of doing a "Created by a THING OTHER THAN THE BOT" joke much more prominent.
:Really, all articles are potentially incomplete, still. Some more than others. Something big, like Hoverboard or Gravity, might truly have easter-eggs or subtle details as yet not properly commented upon, but there have been edits to ''double-digit'' comics recently which might be considered improvements. As such, there are really only two 'sensible' direct courses of action:
:#Completely remove the Incomplete tag, from use, as all pages are only ever as complete as the eye of any particular beholder, and the more recent pages are ''obviously'' incomplete by their being barely 15 minutes (or a day, or ''maybe'' a week) old. Or being so huge (or Time-like!) that they clearly still haven't been 'completely' documented. Maybe the BOT can add a Created By The Bot tag that gets wiped out by the first serious attempt at human editing, but if we wish to lose this part of our site culture so readily then why ever have it at all? A wikivote system is not really that accurate under these circumstances, for a number of reasons that I needn't explain, so go straight to assuming that any such 'vote' would pass, right from the off...
:#Embrace it for its THING OTHER THAN A BOT usage, alone. Don't be so eager to remove them just because you have no personal changes you'd wish to see. (Votes or not, there could always be another editor along in a minute who has, unlike the rest of you, picked up on an obscure visual pun rendered in what turns out to be hieroglyphs, or similar.) If we have to cull them (not a given!), then let it be an unstated rule (or a stated one?) that if there are more than (e.g.) half a dozen then the 'least amusing' may be removed by the first editor who wishes to express a critical opinion. Just the one at a time. No reinstating, no resurrection, no adding to old articles that never ever had a 'joke Incomplete' before, no entirely new joke (but you can refine what's there, to a degree), just a rolling (and not necessarily consecutive!) set of the "finest natjve explainxkcd wit". Or at least the least objectionable surviving examples of same.
:As a practical guide, the "reason why you think it is Incomplete element" could be entirely served by in-line tags (the "What?" and "Why?" and "Date?" things you might see elsewhere). Perhaps we could even do ''both'' things by instead having a "Complete" tag ''explicitly'' for BOT-REPLACEMENT-type tomfoolery (and tongue-in-cheekness about Completion, as we might currently be about Incometeness) from the off. That might confuse the newbods, of course. At least until it doesn't, and then they're not newbods anymore...
:The companion tag, for Incomplete Transcript, is presumably going to serve as it currently does (as a still serious hint as to actual Incompleteness), albeit that I've noticed a trend for the first editor of a brand new published comic to (possibly ''after'' doing the BOT-replacement joke, or after the editor who did ''only'' that) go straight in and enTranscript it (to varying degrees of accuracy and completion), whether or not they also then remove that specific tag-template at the same time. It seems that some people are more comfortable at providing a ''Transcript''ion-service than they are at establishing even the seed of an Explanation. (Or they only have enough time to do the latter, to the level of detail they wish to achieve in the moment open to them.)
:This is, of course, a cultural issue. All the above (from me) is just my own perception of practical aspects, notwithstanding those opinions already expressed before that (and elsewhere). I don't speak for everyone. And, as a perpetual IP, technically I should say that I don't speak for ''anyone'', either... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.160.140|172.70.160.140]] 14:21, 19 June 2024 (UTC)

::I like the idea of removing the Incomplete tag. What do you think? [[User:PDesbeginner|PDesbeginner]] ([[User talk:PDesbeginner|talk]]) 14:57, 19 June 2024 (UTC)
::I greatly approve of a <nowiki>{{what}}</nowiki> tag, as a Wikipedian that's actually really funny. I would want to keep the Incomplete tag, as I think it has purpose, even if it no longer represents a goal to achieve. I think this website will never reach 100.00% completeness and that is good, actually. [[User:Maplestrip|Maplestrip]] ([[User talk:Maplestrip|talk]]) 14:05, 26 June 2024 (UTC)
::Okay. If someone wants to they can just ignore the incomplete tags. [[User:PDesbeginner|PDesbeginner]] ([[User talk:PDesbeginner|talk]]) 14:37, 28 June 2024 (UTC)

== "As of <now>"... ==

What would be rather useful is an <code><nowiki>{{As of now}}</nowiki></code> template (or similar wording, and perhaps an "as of now"-cased alternative for use mid-sentence). There are many articles that will have words along the lines of "this has not yet happened, as of August 2024" or "this situation is continuing, as of August 2024". Every now and then, someone will come across one of these with an older date (perhaps only just out of date, perhaps years old) and [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1858:_4th_of_July&curid=20285&diff=348082&oldid=315524 edit it accordingly]. You could also seek them all out, deliberately, with a bit of effort in the search-bar.

(Note that "as of" does not ''always'' need updating, there are non-dated examples such as in [[1074: Moon Landing#Trivia]], static transcript versions, like [[1071: Exoplanets#Transcript]] and other instances where the text "as of", with or without a date, really does not need to be changed... but sometimes is anyway by a well-meaning passer-by.)

Sometimes, this can be done along with another useful edit/update/revision that is spotted, or is just one of the revisions that some other need for change conveniently allows. But it seems a bit vague to rely upon occasional attention. Instead the template will implement something like "<code><nowiki>As of {{Monthyear}}</nowiki></code>" (here having to use <code><nowiki>{{#time:F Y}}</nowiki></code>, ..."As of {{#time:F Y}}"...), though there's the possibility that a parameter-mediated switch can let it alternatively become a to-the-day-level format option (at which point you could even implement/calcuate something like {{template|Yesterday}} would be) or just to the year-level. (Or add {{template|As of this year}}, {{template|As of this month}} and {{template|As of this day}} separately.)

This would negate the need to ''just'' poke and prod any article that happened to 'need' updating every month (or year, or possible day). And to deal with the possibility that some of these cases might actually need to be edited because "as of" does ''not'' now apply, include within it a {{:Category:As of}} membership, letting anyone who is interested keep an eye on these aggregated 'As of's, ready to jump in there and change it to some straight up "Up until <fixed date>" equivalent should any one of them actually no longer apply.

...obviously, I can't even begin to create the template page required, but I'd be happy to work on the exact wikimedia code required if anyone thinks it needs anything but the most basic transcluded formatting and doesn't know how. Open to discussion, and I'll tag on more if I happen to see that discussion developing. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.186|172.70.162.186]] 18:04, 4 August 2024 (UTC)
:As an addendum/change to my above suggestion, considering a simpler {{template|as of}} (and {{template|As of}}) which does ''no'' automagical continuous updating (just gives the "as of" literal on its own), but still guarantees "Category:As of" membership, so that it doesn't actively give wrong (new) date+circumstance relationships in the likes of [[1047: Approximations]]. In that, the several mentions of populations can safely stay as old years until someone rewrites the proposed value and assessment as well, but it still could be a task to pursue every new year after checking the Cat for likely comics needing a quick check'n'edit.

== “Grammar Bot” ==
I’m working on a python based bot written with the Pywiki library that aims to use the replace.py scripts to fix simple grammatical mistakes, e.g. correcting Citation needed placements, cleaning up extra spaces, etc. I will be posting the code in a few weeks after I finish it (I’m a bit busy at the moment with school and orchestra) so the entire community can view it. Any thoughts on the idea? Thanks. [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 21:05, 5 September 2024 (UTC)
:First thoughts are that there are going to be so many exceptions. I definitely agree with the idea of {{template|Citation needed}}s being made consistent (if only it weren't sometimes complicated{{Citation needed}}), as well as that of mysterious extra spaces. But that's not really grammatical. Punctuation, in the first case. I fear a full (or even fragmentary) grammar-checker is going to be complicated and give many false positives.
:At least at first, perhaps have it ''report'' what it thinks it has found. You may discover definite times that it isn't necessary and it would indeed create new errors.
:At the very least, run it with two checklists: One to do an automatic replace.py and one to just report. Start with the first list empty. Introduce potential ones to the latter, review all the reports carefully, ''then'' move any sensible-looking ones to former.
:And have it not fighting other bots (particularly theusafBOT), perhaps selected users (e.g. the likes of Kynde, and of course yourself) or indeed itself (if it makes a change that might inadvertently trigger another 'check') by excluding such changes for a recheck/rechange. Keep a record of what it changed, so that if anybody reverts/recorrects something that seems to have gone wrong it doesn't force it 'wrong' again. At the simplest, give a whole page a decent time-out and/or number of subsequent limits before it ''considers'' a new change. Implement from the start the option of a 'whitelist' (of pages it can ignore) or 'blacklist' (of rules it shouldn't apply, or at least actively apply, to a given page), so you can quickly manually add a throttle-down by simple config-file rather than have to add in a code-kludge when something obviously (in hindsight!) needs correcting about the way it works. And also maybe throttle it to have no more than one bot-edit per hour (while starting from scratch) to not swamp the system and give the rest of us time to assess any errors it has made (and its successes!) - you can unstick that throttle later, when you consider it tested with all its backlog of microcorrections.
:...there are a few other guidelines I would suggest, but the cautiousness already present in the above approaches might mean that they are left as not so important. Just consider what ''could'' go wrong before unleashing it on our world.
:And all power to your elbow, it is of course something we all might have considered (I know I have... not that I have the login for it, but what really stopped me was knowing how badly I could mess it up by getting just one detail wrong if I tried it).
:Among changes/alerts I would have it make would be cases of {{template|cn}}, {{template|citation needed}}, etc, instead of the 'main' template. Plus []-links to either wikipedia pages (most of them should be {{template|w}}-templated) or explainxkcd.com pages (most of them should be [[]]ed), although there are even then some exceptions. It'd also be nice if it can identify all Talk (and Community Portal) contributions that were not signed (more complex, as some may be after the fact, or have been after several years and further editings). I know how I'd do all this, or think I do (only upon starting to do it can I be sure I've actually theorised it correctly!), but I mention this mostly to point out how ''you'' might want to cautiously implement ''your'' ideas. HTH. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.15|172.70.86.15]] 00:07, 6 September 2024 (UTC)
::you have made plenty of wonderful points that I clearly have not thought about-quite the critical oversight on my part. Is anyone interested in collaborating? I don’t think that my skills are good enough to satisfy all of those points. [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 01:06, 6 September 2024 (UTC)
:::hello? Anybody? Please help… [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 17:38, 9 September 2024 (UTC)
::::I believe this would be a great idea and also an incredibly complicated feat. Randall is no stranger to using weird punctuation in comics or misspelled words. I think it would be neat if it weren't automated and just reported errors it found so we could manually fix them, which would make its development much easier, but at that point it's very similar to a series of search queries for misspelled words, which we can already do. I have no coding skills so I'm not going to be of help. [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 17:33, 7 November 2024 (UTC)
;Update
I have found a solution to fix most grammatical mistakes, I just need to make sure that it doesn’t correct character names like “Cueball”, not edit war with other bots, come up with a system to log the edits it makes so that it doesn’t revert again, and fix Citation needed templates. I already know how to make sure that it asks me before editing, so I want to create an account to test it out. Does anybody have ideas on what to name the bot? I don’t want to call it 42.book.addictBOT, since the username would be a bit clunky. ToriBOT could work, but I’m also open to any other names. Feel free to reply to this or reply to me on my talk page! '''[[User:42.book.addict|<span style="font-family:Cormorant Garamond;font-size:9pt;color:#db97bf">42.book.addict</span>]]<sup>[[User talk:42.book.addict|<span style="font-family:Cormorant Garamond;font-size:6pt;color:#97b6db">Talk to me!</span>]]</sup>''' 20:30, 29 November 2024 (UTC)

== "dark mode" ==
add dark mode [[User:CalibansCreations|'''<span style="color:#ff0000;">Caliban</span>''']] ([[User talk:CalibansCreations|talk]]) 09:54, 18 November 2024 (UTC)
:See [[User:Certified nqh/common.css]] or copy/paste my old [[User:42.book.addict/common.css|common.css]] page history into your common.css page: -42.book.addict [[Special:Contributions/172.69.134.208|172.69.134.208]] 16:10, 18 November 2024 (UTC)
::ha, thx tori, nqh's common.css works like a charm :) [[User:CalibansCreations|'''<span style="color:#ff0000;">Caliban</span>''']] ([[User talk:CalibansCreations|talk]]) 08:51, 21 November 2024 (UTC)

== reddit ==
Add reddit- Anonymous {{unsigned ip|172.71.214.80|08:31, 21 November 2024 (UTC)}}
:You probably need to explain what you mean by that. Add reddit discussions to here? Add this site to reddit? Add some simple link to one from the other? Something else? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.163|172.70.162.163]] 13:02, 21 November 2024 (UTC)
::>Add some simple link to one from the other?
::I have no idea what they meant either, but I hadn't thought of this! I could see the addition of a simple link to the comic template, like "https://reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/{{PAGETITLE}" or "https://reddit.com/r/xkcd/search/?q={{PAGETITLE}"
::I don't partecipate much in the r/xkcd subreddit, so i'm not sure if they have structured post titles or even if they posted all the comics, or if it's automated, but I think this could be cool! Some people will likely come from Reddit, so it would be a straightforward way for them to go back. Thoughts? {{unsigned|FaviFake|16:55, 11 January 2025 (UTC)}}

== viewer ==
i propose to add random page to comic viewer {{unsigned ip|172.71.150.14|00:17, 25 February 2025 (UTC)}}
:There's already a "Random Page" link.
:If you mean (it's ambiguous!) a "Random Comic Page" link, then I'm not sure it's needed. There are so many "Comic pages" that it's a fairly good chance that you'll land on one of them for any given click, much more chance within two clicks. The likelihood of not getting a comic within ''three'' clicks will be tiny. Another way to do it is to just use the xkcd.com "Random" button, then (whichever comic you land on, which will be any but [[404]]), change the "xkcd.com" bit of the URL to "expxkcd.com" and... you end up here.
:If none of that really does what you want (especially if you mean something completely different from what I read it as), some more explanation would probably be appreciated. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.164|172.69.79.164]] 01:02, 25 February 2025 (UTC)
:If you want to make sure to land on all comics, you can go to "Special pages" on the sidebar, scroll down to "Random page in category", and enter "All comics". As far as I'm aware, there isn't really a way to automate this, so you have to keep inputting it manually. [[User:Firestar233|guess who]] ([[User talk:Firestar233|if you desire conversing]] | [[Special:Contributions/Firestar233|what i have done]]) 06:38, 25 February 2025 (UTC)
::I think they meant a button on the {{tl|comic}} template. Would it be technically possible to make it such that it works exacly like the one on the official site? --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 17:47, 25 February 2025 (UTC)
:::It ''should'' be a matter of using [[Special:RandomInCategory/All Comics]], I think, but doesn't seem to work when I try that exact attempt. Perhaps mediawiki or the mediawiki extension is not updated enough, or else I'm getting my wikisyntax slightly wrong.
:::Functionally, though, where the website has its Random button, we have our "go to the xkcd.com original", so more thought is needed before we just "add a button". If we do, we want it where the 'mothership' website does, but we still ought to have our details-and-link-to-original given, and I like it as a (faux) button.
::: Perhaps the {{template|comic}}, where it currently has header 'buttons':
[|<<] [Prev] [#9876 (Grune 32, 2525)] [Next] [>>|]
::: Needs to be changed to maybe:
[ #9876 (Grune 32, 2525) ]
[|<<] [Prev] [Random] [Next] [>>|]
:::...or equivalent. Haven't checked, but if it's a one-line table, can be easily made into a two-line one with colspan=3 (or 5?) in the right bit. If it's just centred, then it should come out Ok, in a simple way. But I'm not too keen on that change, really, and you'd need to actually have the Random->Comic link working first, ''anyway''. So I'm giving you my opinions and (slightly lacking) knowledge, in case that can at least make for the better outcome than either nothing (though not sure that's bad!) or some half-hearted ideas from elsewhere. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.116|172.70.86.116]] 21:52, 25 February 2025 (UTC)
:::: Unless someone can figure out the requests made by the random in category, a workaround could be to use a (pseudo)random number generator (mediawiki has a [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Template:Random_number template] on their website) to get a random number in the range of 1 - {{template|LATESTCOMIC}} and put in a link to that comic number using <nowiki>[[number]]</nowiki>.
:::: Note: There already is a "Random" template, but it was just using random page and was blanked by the person who made it [[User:Firestar233|guess who]] ([[User talk:Firestar233|if you desire conversing]] | [[Special:Contributions/Firestar233|what i have done]]) 03:50, 26 February 2025 (UTC)

:::::{{Done|Done!!!}}  I tried that wikimedia templaete but couldn't figure out how to make it work. I did it using Special:Random, hoping there aren't too many non-comic pages. Check [[{{LATESTCOMIC}}]] for an example of how it looks and works. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 16:02, 23 April 2025 (UTC)

::::::thanks! (i hav an account now) [[User:Bb777|me, hi]] ([[User talk:Bb777|talk]]) 22:30, 25 April 2025 (UTC)

:::::::No problem! There's also a special custom-designed navbar for the original comics: try clicking the "|<" button! (It's not complete yet, but i'm slowly finishing it!) --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 22:36, 25 April 2025 (UTC)

== Contentious Topics Template ==

I propose that we create a unified template to slap on contentious and possibly controversial comics, with a warning similar to the one I (and a couple other people added on) wrote in [[3073: Tariffs]]. Now, since I don’t know how to create a template and don’t understand how they work, this is my request for help. If you are available to help write it or have any tips for me, please contact me either in this thread or on my [[User talk:42.book.addict|talk page]]. Thanks! '''[[User:42.book.addict|<span style="font-family:Cormorant Garamond;font-size:9pt;color:pink">42.book.addict</span>]]<sup>[[User talk:42.book.addict|<span style="font-family:Cormorant Garamond;font-size:6pt;color:#B1E4E3">Talk to me!</span>]]</sup>''' 18:01, 16 April 2025 (UTC)
:Hey, I just wanted to ask why you think a new template is needed. {{tl|notice2}} and {{tl|notice}} seem pretty solid. How would a new template differ from them? Btw, I switched the template in [[Talk:3073: Tariffs]] from {{tl|notice}} to {{tl|notice2}} so it's more like a warning, feel free to revert it if you prefer {{tl|notice}}. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 16:56, 17 April 2025 (UTC)
::I read the idea (which I'm not too enamoured with, but wouldn't argue against either) as being to create a <code><nowiki>{{contentious}}</nowiki></code>-like template in its own right that (perhaps by using {{template|notice2}} within it) had a standard "This comic, and its explanation, covers a particularly contentious subject. Take even more care than usual when adding to or editing this Explanation/Talk Page" (or similar) text with it.
::It would probably also have the ability to add further (or alternate) info, by standard template parameters, in case you want to personalise it to the ''exact''nature of the contention.
::But, my reasons why I didn't volunteer my ideas immediately are:
::*It paints targets. Anybody who wants to can look at all "pages using the Contentious template" and then troll-bomb them ''specifically''
::*Looking at the Tariffs-comic warning, that's ''huge'', and catering for that with a "standard text + additional notes" would be awkward... if you really believe it should be so huge in the first place,
::*Just by being so obviously available, there'd be creep. "Hey, this comic talks disparagingly about Newton's belief in alchemy... Surely that needs a warning too!", or start off with "Well, nobody's warning about our attitude to the US Senate in this comic, so I can be disparaging" which then practically forces another contentious-tagging (''possibly'' useful, but maybe in making a bolt for the barn door only ''after'' the horse has already made its own bolt through it) as it gets toned-down/-back again.
::And, though I also imagined the Tariff comic ''would'' get some push-back (there was some minor bits, but we seem to have kept it mature enough, IMO), it seems to be quiet. Can't say for sure it would have been without the warning it now has, but it survived ok before that was added. Hence why I'm ''meh'' about the very proposal. Hard cases make hard laws, and hard situations may prompt hard solutions. But I'm dubious about the actual case for the need. (As you say, we have 'freeform' notice+notice2, and I haven't seen proof even that was necessary as it was used.)
::But it would be trivial to implement, give or take some fine-tuning. I'll say that as a positive for the idea. Even if we never really use it as much as we could. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.216.83|162.158.216.83]] 20:35, 17 April 2025 (UTC)
:::Agreed. Maybe it's a good thing that we have to craft one for each comic we want to tag; this makes sure only actually contentious comics get tagged. An upside to having a specific template is that we wouldn't need to type <nowiki><noinclude></nowiki> every time, to avoid it displaying on the transcluded talk page.--[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 21:00, 17 April 2025 (UTC)
::::mm. all of these are good points. now that i think about it, copy-pasting old warnings and tweaking them as needed is probably better than creating a new template. '''[[User:42.book.addict|<span style="font-family:Cormorant Garamond;font-size:9pt;color:pink">42.book.addict</span>]]<sup>[[User talk:42.book.addict|<span style="font-family:Cormorant Garamond;font-size:6pt;color:#B1E4E3">Talk to me!</span>]]</sup>''' 16:45, 18 April 2025 (UTC)

==Proposal for template page==
I was thinking that making a template page with instructions about what should and should not be included in which sections would make it easier for new editors to help. I have no idea how I would do this, though.[[User:BobcatInABox|BobcatInABox]] ([[User talk:BobcatInABox|talk]]) 11:49, 4 May 2025 (UTC)
:Which particular template? Many templates ''do'' contain instructions (from basic to rather thorough), and some common ones are also gone into in the FAQ page. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.245|172.70.91.245]] 20:25, 4 May 2025 (UTC)

== The newest stuff goes at top ==

I’ve been thinking the newest comments should go at top and replies are under the chose comment with a colon or more. Because every time someone makes a comment but not replying to you, you still get a message. So you only get notifications when someone replies to you. And the always get notifications not related to you is kind of annoying. [[User:Aprilfoolsupdate!|Aprilfoolsupdate!]] ([[User talk:Aprilfoolsupdate!|talk]]) 04:30, 15 May 2025 (UTC)
:(Ah, so you found it, before I even wrote my directions down on how to get here.)
:Not sure this helps.
:Firstly: Top-posting is <s>the work of the Devil... burn it! Burn it all!</s> very hard to read.
::A: Because it's in totally the wrong order.
::Q: Why is Top Posting bad?
:(Yes, I know you want top-posting ''threads'' but retain bottom-posting ''thread replies'', but can you even imagine the chaos involved with people not properly realising what's top- and what's bottom-posted. Or inter-posted into an existing hierarchy? Not with this 'flatfile' structure, anyway.)
:Secondly: Does this count for headers (like <code>== The newest stuff goes at top ==</code>)? For 'no-colon' starter comments under a Discussion header? For both?
:Thirdly: what are we doing with all the past ''pages and pages'' of things that are (more or less..) consistently chronological and bottom-posted? To make new additions work, someone (and probably ''before'' the first commentator who wants to add a brand new one-line witicism to the top of any multi-year-idle page) has to go into every Discussion page (and more?) to reshuffle it all by whatever Top(ish)-Post Criteria are adopted.
:Fourthly: It wouldn't even change how frequently you get notifications. (Actually, it might make it worse, as inveterate bottom-posters have to be 'corrected' by the followers of the 'new rule', as well as for any actually idle pages that get redone as part of the "thirdly" point.) But I don't think Notifications are clever enough to imagine that a new section ''above'' what you previously wrote doesn't possibly interest your registered "watch and notify" intent upon any given page.
:I have a Fifthly and Sixthly, too, but I assume I've made my general opinion quite clear. (And I noted that this is not the only Community Portal edit you made, just before arriving here. Will check the other in a moment.) [[Special:Contributions/172.68.229.142|172.68.229.142]] 06:19, 15 May 2025 (UTC)
::Never mind. I don’t even need to read the whole thing to know it is complicated. To many words {{unsigned|Aprilfoolsupdate|07:54, 15 May 2025 (UTC)}}

:::Short version: It's complicated, confusing and troublesome to change to. <u>And won't even solve your problem.</u> [[Special:Contributions/172.70.160.197|172.70.160.197]] 12:22, 15 May 2025 (UTC)

:::Agree with this message but disagree with the proposal. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 09:28, 18 May 2025 (UTC)

== By the Numbers ==

Greetings all,

So we all know that Randall numbers each XKCD comic with an ordinal number in a simple ascending sequence. I have become exceedingly intrigued by the particular properties of numbers now, especially their factors and primes. The most recent prime-numbered comic is [[3109]] and we'll soon see another one with [[3119]]. Does Randall ascribe any meaning or humor to the numbers that happen to appear as the posts play out? He certainly celebrates special dates! As a math-humor-based comic, there certainly must be jokes or surprises hidden therein. I'm not sure I've noticed any yet, though. [[386]] is certainly notorious, though doesn't seem to have a direct sort of Intel connection. [[42]] is unremarkable.

I once read a novel with an autistic protagonist, and each chapter was assigned a prime number. I will henceforth be on the lookout for interesting numerical happenstance as Randall continues to post! Anyone else? [[User:Elizium23|Elizium23]] ([[User talk:Elizium23|talk]]) 08:56, 12 July 2025 (UTC)

== Misc pages ==
I would like to propose the creation of an additional category for "miscellaneous pages" that aren't really comics, and which generally have a URL slug that's an English word or phrase instead of a number. This includes xkcd.com/YES and xkcd.com/NO, both of which currently have articles. It also includes these ones:

::''[Note by User:FaviFake: I organised this section and moved the links below]''

...and others as they are found or recovered. If only we could access the forum thread mentioned on the YES and NO pages! I was able to find a link to the thread here, but it's inaccessible. A
It's the one labeled "Hidden pages on xkcd": [https://web.archive.org/web/20170927200737/http://forums.xkcd.com/viewforum.php?f=2&sid=973b8a1dcd0a727a9177aa757108d4f6&start=250]. I was able to find the pages above via Reddit: [https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/gixd96/what_are_all_the_hidden_pages_on_xkcd_that_you/] [https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/35whzf/what/] --[[User:Rumbling7145|Rumbling7145]] ([[User talk:Rumbling7145|talk]]) 00:16, 11 March 2025 (UTC)

Update: I got into the forum page! [https://web.archive.org/web/20151206001238/http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=110093] We can now add these pages to the list:
[[User:Rumbling7145|Rumbling7145]] ([[User talk:Rumbling7145|talk]]) 23:37, 11 March 2025 (UTC)
<span id="List of pages"></span>
===Pages===
* http://xkcd.com/yes {{Done|Created: [[YES]]}}
** http://xkcd.com/no {{Done|Created: [[NO]]}}

* http://xkcd.com/nakedpictures {{Done|Created: [[nakedpictures]]}}

* http://xkcd.com/spiral {{Done|Created: [[spiral]]}}
**Likely a reference to [[1488: Flowcharts]] (Which links to Spiral) and [[2322: ISO Paper Size Golden Spiral]], spirals above images of people and things

* http://xkcd.com/burlap {{Done|Created: [[Burlap]]}}

* http://xkcd.com/simplewriter {{Done|Created: [[Simple Writer]]}}
**Tool to Write Like [[Up Goer Five]] and [[Thing Explainer]]

* http://xkcd.com/tree_prank
**This is so funny

* http://xkcd.com/blue_eyes.html {{Done|Existing: [[Blue Eyes]]}}
** http://xkcd.com/solution.html, the solution to the problem (also found on [[Blue Eyes]]

* http://xkcd.com/morphs ([https://web.archive.org/web/20130313175333/http://xkcd.com:80/morphs/ archive only] — [https://web.archive.org/web/20060219184352/http://www.xkcd.com:80/morphs/ earlier version with more text])
**"Using several pieces of imaging software, including Photoshop and an image morphing program, I make composite photos of people."

* http://xkcd.com/chesscoaster
**"People playing chess on roller coasters, inspired by this comic:" image

* http://xkcd.com/kite
**"These are pictures I took by hanging cameras from kites, a hobby I've played with on and off over the years"

*https://xkcd.com/kite/kite_trick.jpg

* http://xkcd.com/dot {{Done|Created: [[dot]]}}

* http://xkcd.com/election ([https://web.archive.org/web/20141014075718/http://xkcd.com/election/ archive only])
**Used by randall for tracking elections, "it's the fastest analysis of the state of the race minute-by-minute".

* http://xkcd.com/event {{Done|Created: [[event]]}} (I still don't quite get it)
**There's an image on this site that a web browser fails to load, but when downloaded, Windows Photo Viewer can view the image.

* http://xkcd.com/now (redirect to [[1335: Now]])

* http://xkcd.com/plus {{Done|Created: [[plus]]}}

* http://xkcd.com/sub ([https://web.archive.org/web/20130111054027/http://xkcd.com/sub/ archive only]) — "The Sub Project", a long explanation of how Randall and others build submarines?

* http://xkcd.com/temp ([https://web.archive.org/web/20061219193846/http://www.xkcd.com/temp/ archive only])
**This is super interesting! It lists other sub-directories. [https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.xkcd.com/temp/* These are the ones that survived in the archive]:
**http://xkcd.com/temp/email.txt ([https://web.archive.org/web/20100305065807/http://xkcd.com/temp/email.txt archive only]) — Seems to be an email exchange between Randall and someone else?
**http://xkcd.com:80/temp/euphoria.txt ([https://web.archive.org/web/20160401222138id_/http://xkcd.com:80/temp/euphoria.txt archive only]) — This says "<Sphere> Ok, that last Randall who said 'to clarify' was actually Randall, but pretty much none of the others were. Also no Sphere after this gets linked in chat a second time is actually Randall either. Randall is probably not there."
**https://xkcd.com/temp/evidenceofidentity.txt ([https://web.archive.org/web/20201118232320/https://xkcd.com/temp/evidenceofidentity.txt archive only]) — "[Randall] Hello to everyone who waited in line to say hi to me on my How To book tour and specifically mentioned this chat!<br>[Sierra] Hello mr. probably not the real Randall :D [...]"
***The rest are all images:
**http://www.xkcd.com/temp/humor/baby_mop.jpg ([https://web.archive.org/web/20070127045748/http://www.xkcd.com:80/temp/humor/baby_mop.jpg archive only])
**http://www.xkcd.com/temp/humor/darthswingset.jpg ([https://web.archive.org/web/20070127045624/http://www.xkcd.com:80/temp/humor/darthswingset.jpg archive only])
**http://www.xkcd.com/temp/humor/deb6d13b50a581304bac385c463b09c1.jpg ([https://web.archive.org/web/20070225103228/http://www.xkcd.com:80/temp/humor/deb6d13b50a581304bac385c463b09c1.jpg archive only])
**http://www.xkcd.com/temp/humor/Hacker%20Grave.jpg ([https://web.archive.org/web/20070213182708/http://www.xkcd.com:80/temp/humor/Hacker%20Grave.jpg archive only])
**http://www.xkcd.com/temp/humor/hotornot.jpg ([https://web.archive.org/web/20061219194445/http://www.xkcd.com:80/temp/humor/hotornot.jpg archive only])
**http://www.xkcd.com/temp/humor/how_rumors_start_office.jpg ([https://web.archive.org/web/20070111000437/http://www.xkcd.com:80/temp/humor/how_rumors_start_office.jpg archive only])
**http://www.xkcd.com/temp/humor/owned.jpg ([https://web.archive.org/web/20070228031547/http://www.xkcd.com:80/temp/humor/owned.jpg archive only])
**http://www.xkcd.com/temp/humor/shark.jpg ([https://web.archive.org/web/20061214082834/http://www.xkcd.com:80/temp/humor/shark.jpg archive only])
**http://www.xkcd.com/temp/humor/you_cannot_pass.jpg ([https://web.archive.org/web/20070323001005/http://www.xkcd.com:80/temp/humor/you_cannot_pass.jpg archive only])

* http://xkcd.com/test ([https://web.archive.org/web/20170510061033/https://xkcd.com/test/ archive only])
**This appears identical to the regular xkcd.com homepage, it returns a 404 as of today

* http://xkcd.com/time (redirect to comic [[1190: Time]])

* http://xkcd.com/twitter (redirect to https://x.com/xkcd)

* http://xkcd.com/cyborg.txt
**Interesting script. According to [https://blog.xkcd.com/2008/05/20/gps-cyborg-implant/ an old blag article], it is "a short Python script that uses a USB GPS device under Linux to help with navigation. It doesn’t have maps or anything — it just gives distances and, while you’re moving, the direction to the destination (as in 'two o’clock'). It prints this info on the terminal and speaks it using speech synthesis."

* http://xkcd.com/channel.html ([https://web.archive.org/web/20141011002528/https://xkcd.com/channel.html archive only])
**I have no idea what this it. It's full of gibberish and Chinese text.

* http://xkcd.com/channel.txt ([https://web.archive.org/web/20141014083026/http://xkcd.com/channel.txt archive only])
** Same as above, but it downloads the file to the PC.

* http://xkcd.com/me.txt ([https://web.archive.org/web/20141014101900/http://xkcd.com:80/me.txt archive only])
**Only says "I am not in 1110.n01se.net anymore". [https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/5tqrew/xkcd_secret_page/ Learn more in this Reddit thread], in this [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvLxOVYeo5w YouTube video of how it used to work], and in the [https://github.com/n01se/1110 GitHub for 1110.n01se.net]. I'm assuming Randall wanted to say that anyone who tries to impersonate him in the future isn't him?

* http://xkcd.com/why.txt ([https://web.archive.org/web/20180729163548/https://xkcd.com/why.txt archive only])
**Contains 33 THOUSAND "why" questions. May be related to [[1256: Questions]]? Very interesting!

* http://xkcd.com/bitcoin {{Done|Existing: [[Bitcoin address]]}}
**There's also this one, which we have dissected on the page [[Bitcoin address]] (very interesting read!)

* http://holistic.xkcd.com ([https://web.archive.org/web/20160304031258/http://holistic.xkcd.com/ archive only])
**"The XKCD Holistic Browser. Because we are all one. Type a web address and you'll be taken to one typed by someone else."

* https://aram.xkcd.com ([https://web.archive.org/web/20110816163403/http://aram.xkcd.com/ archive only])
**"This page is regenerated every day and may be NSFW. It shows a random result from a Google image search for IMG_????.jpg plus a random caption:" Seems it stopped working completely after a few years and got stuck one image&caption. Aram inspired [[Black Hat]], see his page for more.

* https://xkcd.com/verizon/ {{Done|Created: [[verizon]]}}

* http://mail.xkcd.com ([https://web.archive.org/web/20120321204721/http://mail.xkcd.com/ archive only])
**Seems Randall set it up but never used it.

* https://xkcd.com/personal
**There was a /personal folder on xkcd, but it's been entirely wiped https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://xkcd.com/personal/*

*https://xkcd.com/ngram-charts/ {{Done|Created: [[ngram charts]]}}
**Still online, but the images are missing even in [https://web.archive.org/web/20120225171410/http://xkcd.com:80/ngram-charts the archive]. "Some of the interesting charts I've come across while using Google Books ngrams (which analyzes the frequency of word use in their scanned books corpus over time)"

* https://xkcd.com/color/rgb/
** https://xkcd.com/color/rgb.txt

* http://68.57.186.221:8080/ ([https://web.archive.org/web/20041024201125/http://68.57.186.221:8080/ archive only])
** xkcd.com redirected to this at some points during 2004, this capture is from October 24th of 2004 specifically.

* https://throw.xkcd.com (only available [https://web.archive.org/web/20200919232527/throw.xkcd.com/ in the archive])
**This was likely hacked, see [https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/iw9jsg/throwxkcdcom/ this Reddit thread]: ''"I emailed the xkcd.com webmaster, it was a testing URL he forgot to shut down. It's fixed now."''

* https://c.xkcd.com
**This is mostly all for comics with dynamic content. There are many subpages, see [https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/j54lx3/does_anyone_know_what_cxkcdcom_is/ this reddit thread].
**https://c.xkcd.com/xb/feed
**http://c.xkcd.com/random/comic (redirects to random comic)
**https://c.xkcd.com/graph/1
**[https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/j54lx3/does_anyone_know_what_cxkcdcom_is/ There are others].

* https://static.xkcd.com/ (404, not in archive. [http://web.archive.org/web/*/https://static.xkcd.com/* archived subpages])
** http://static.xkcd.com/bl.png ([http://web.archive.org/web/20070912213845/http://static.xkcd.com/bl.png archive only])
** http://static.xkcd.com/br.png ([http://web.archive.org/web/20070912213841/http://static.xkcd.com/br.png archive only])
** http://static.xkcd.com/favicon.ico ([http://web.archive.org/web/20071208203917/http://static.xkcd.com/favicon.ico archive only])
** http://static.xkcd.com/general.css ([http://web.archive.org/web/20071208203917/http://static.xkcd.com/general.css archive only])
** http://static.xkcd.com/ieonly.css ([http://web.archive.org/web/20070911163429/http://static.xkcd.com/ieonly.css archive only])
** http://static.xkcd.com/ml.png ([http://web.archive.org/web/20070912213838/http://static.xkcd.com/ml.png archive only])
** http://static.xkcd.com/mr.png ([http://web.archive.org/web/20070912213832/http://static.xkcd.com/mr.png archive only])
** http://static.xkcd.com/tl.png ([http://web.archive.org/web/20070912213828/http://static.xkcd.com/tl.png archive only])
** http://static.xkcd.com/tr.png ([http://web.archive.org/web/20070912213835/http://static.xkcd.com/tr.png archive only])
** http://www.static.xkcd.com/robots.txt ([http://web.archive.org/web/20070501000000*/http://www.static.xkcd.com/robots.txt archive only])
** https://almamater.xkcd.com/ ([http://web.archive.org/web/20130402215109/https://almamater.xkcd.com/ archive only])
:: https://almamater.xkcd.com/ ([http://web.archive.org/web/20150209005631/https://almamater.xkcd.com/ archive only])
:: and errors out: https://almamater.xkcd.com/ ([http://web.archive.org/web/20160528035956/https://almamater.xkcd.com/ archive only, errors out])
*** http://almamater.xkcd.com/best.csv ([http://web.archive.org/web/20130511122543/http://almamater.xkcd.com/best.csv archive only])
***See comic [[1193: Externalities]]
{{misc page}}
You can monitor the pages that are using this template (so the brand new webpage explanations) by going to [[Special:WhatLinksHere/Template:misc_page]]

===How should we treat them?===
This is great! I think we should first create an article for each of them, and after we have a few articles then we can start to figure out a good name for the category and answer some questions, like:

*Should we add a new parameter to the template for these non-comics? To do that, we would have to ask an admin to edit the {{tl|comic}} template to allow us to do that. We can ask Kynde, no big deal.

*Some pages, like [[Blue Eyes]] and [[Bitcoin address]] are already in other categories, like [[:Category:Extra comics]] and [[:Category:Design of xkcd.com]]. Should we use the existing categories, or add a new one? How do we distinguish between, for example, [[Blue Eyes]], [[Bitcoin address]], and [[YES]], which are all in theory "misc pages".

*Where should the new category be categorised?

*What title should we give for explanations of pages that don't have a name, like xkcd.com/dot? That one is just titled "xkcd.com/dot", unlike pages like Blue Eyes and [[YES]]. Would it become "dot", "Dot", something else? Should we keep it coherent or base ourselves solely on the rendered title on the official site?

I love the idea! I currently don't have time, but I will create these pages eventually. If anyone else wants to chime in, please do! --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 16:11, 11 March 2025 (UTC)

:"Unnumbered publications", or similar, could cover ''anything'' that wasn't xkcd.com/<digits>. Wouldn't cover replacements ([[2642: No One Was Hurt]] was originally 2642, for example), but that's a different class from deliberately off-series items. Also, given that often they are entirely non-image (the Yes and No), or straight text and multi-image (as per Blue Eyes, or other articles with a WhatIf-ish feel to them), I think calling them "comic"s is stretching the term.
:Though "miscellaneous pages" sort of covers this, I've a feeling that there's at least one... 'entity'... that is built upon multiple actual 'pages', but the list of candidates above doesn't contain any that look like they're what I'm vaguely thinking of. (Neither was it anything like the xkcd survey, or other interactive (numbered) comics, but maybe I'll bring it back to mind sooner rather than later.)
:As to the use of {{template|comic}}, I think we could spring to a (modified, 'inspired-by') template specifically for all these no-number/off-sequence explanation headers. Either explicit "prev=" and "next=" (per comic, ''could'' get quite mixed up if not kept uncontradictory) or a "position=" which could help maintain a list (and, from that, an auto-generated first/prev/next/last 'page ring') without having to subvert expectations of fitting in with the normal [[Template:LATESTCOMIC]] system.
:With the Comic template already equipped to deal with "no-number 'comics'", there wouldn't (in the first instance) be much work needed to "decomic" the new copy, with the exact method of resequencing (if desired) as a parallel series being the biggest question. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.49|172.70.85.49]] 17:20, 11 March 2025 (UTC)

::I'm not sure what the last sentenc means, but I like the idea of a new template! However, I don't think we should call the category "Unnumbered publications". Isn't that just [[:Category:Extra comics]] but without comics [[Disappearing Sunday Update]] and [[No One Was Hurt]]? We should establish a criterion to add pages to this category and then figure out a name i think. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 15:42, 12 March 2025 (UTC)

On this subject, is there any reason why it's [[YES]] and [[NO]] (currently the valid links) rather than [[Yes]] and [[No]] / [[yes]] and [[no]] (currently invalid links)? And I don't mean "why aren't there redirects?", which I don't even think is the right way of resolving this, but what was the thinking? (Which then didn't result in [[DOT]], etc, so there's ''definitely'' some inconsistency, one way or another.) [[Special:Contributions/172.68.205.92|172.68.205.92]] 21:54, 17 March 2025 (UTC)

:I don't see inconsistencies. The name of the browser tab for the yes page is "YES" by Randall, same for NO. Instead, the page for [[dot]] is called "xkcd.com/dot/". We could use that, but that's likely not what Randall intended and might have been a coding oversight. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 16:01, 18 March 2025 (UTC)

I've created the {{tl|misc page}} template for these pages and removed the incomplete template until we reach consensus on what to do with them. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 14:40, 11 May 2025 (UTC)

Ahem, I'd like to remind everyone that they can feel free to comment on the best way to manage these. Or if they should be included in the wiki at all. [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 21:38, 17 August 2025 (UTC)

What if we just create a subcategory for These. It is xkcd so it should belong here. Should not be in the random queue but something like a button to get to these. {{unsigned ip|216.125.50.226|16:51, 18 March 2026 (UTC)}}

=== New page "Spiral" ===

I found a new page at [http://xkcd.com/spiral xkcd/spiral]. what should I do? Thanks!
This is my first post, sorry it's not formatted correctly. -- [[Special:Contributions/73.169.159.188|73.169.159.188]] 00:27, 12 October 2025‎

: Welcome. Good find! Any suggestions? -- [[User:Dtgriscom|Dtgriscom]] ([[User talk:Dtgriscom|talk]]) 01:47, 12 October 2025 (UTC)
::I've moved this over to Coordination and uploaded all images on spiral. I'll be making the page soon. '''[[User:42.book.addict|<span style="font-family:Cormorant Garamond;font-size:9pt;color:#3a795e">42.book.addict</span>]]<sup>[[User talk:42.book.addict|<span style="font-family:Cormorant Garamond;font-size:6pt;color:#ce5f15">Talk to me!</span>]]</sup>''' 05:04, 12 October 2025 (UTC)
:::Moving to correct location where we're discussing these pages. More discussion about how we should treat them is welcome! [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 18:00, 13 October 2025 (UTC)

=== [[:Category:Extra pages]] ===
I've created a category called Extra pages for all of these pages. '''[[User:42.book.addict|<span style="font-family:Cormorant Garamond;font-size:9pt;color:#3a795e">42.book.addict</span>]]<sup>[[User talk:42.book.addict|<span style="font-family:Cormorant Garamond;font-size:6pt;color:#ce5f15">Talk to me!</span>]]</sup>''' 03:14, 5 November 2025 (UTC)
:So, right now we have "Category:Extra pages" ''and'' "Category:Extra comics". Some ''are'' unnumbered comics (plus at least one "was a number, then replaced") and some are 'merely' pages (with possible a fuzzy line between for 'pages' that show images-that-aren't-comics), perhaps we should be consistent between which are which, and how they relate to 'standard' numbered comics.
:For example, being an Extra Comics was (officially, but you could also manually add it) initiated by the "extra=yes" param to {{template|comic}}. This also (theoretically, problems with the randomness backend aside) adds them to the Random Comics link-choice, ''without'' adding them to the Comic List numbers (such that it states "we have #### comics", where #### should not be different from the latest comic number, as recently established).
:Perhaps:
:*Make the comic template accept "extra=comic" or "extra=page", instead of "extra=yes".
:**Perhaps "extra=yes" 'remains' to default to one or the other? ...nah, just make sure all the current "=yes" ones are assigned beforehand.
:**"extra=no" just defaults back to behaviour without any "extra=" at all, of course, pretty much as currently.
:*Each of these new distinctions assigns to the 'Extra' category that fits it, but keeps it out of the All (numbered) Comics list, as being not numbered (and some not being 'comics')
:*Either ''just'' keep Extra Comics feeding to the Random Comic list (All Comics+Extra Comics, as we've painstakingly set it up to do, recently) or ''also'' include Extra Pages (it being AC+EC+EP in the Special:Random target list/whatever). TBD, depends upon whether you like a strictly "non-comic page" potentially popping up as a 'treat' for people.
:...that's all a ''little'' extra work. Some of which I could probably do right now (though maybe some pages are Protected against my input, haven't checked), but I think this needs discussion before doing any actual refining of the current setup.
:Might have been better to have proposed and discussed the Extra Pages details before starting that, too, but I'm happy to use this setup as a stepping stone given that it's been done already. [[Special:Contributions/82.132.244.89|82.132.244.89]] 14:20, 5 November 2025 (UTC)

=== Update on ngrams ===

The images on the ngrams page appear to be generated dynamically. The original URLs are broken, but can be restored by changing "/chart" to "/graph". This doesn't fix the HTML page, but it does render each of the 58 URLs accessible - see below.

All graphs default to a corpus from 2009. Note that some graphs, such as the one noted "cherry picking" below, look very different using a more recent corpus.

* http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=President+Lincoln%2CPresident+Roosevelt%2CPresident+Kennedy%2CPresident+Johnson%2CPresident+Nixon%2CPresident+Reagan%2CPresident+Bush&year_start=1780&year_end=2008&corpus=5&smoothing=3
* http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=fuck&year_start=1700&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=3
* http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=the+Great+War%2Cthe+World+War%2CWorld+War+I&year_start=1900&year_end=2000&corpus=0&smoothing=2
* http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=christian%2Cchristianity&year_start=1700&year_end=2000&corpus=0&smoothing=3
* http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=aliens%2C+predators&year_start=1750&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=1
* http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=explosion+in+popularity&year_start=1900&year_end=2000&corpus=0&smoothing=3
* http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=blue+line&year_start=1960&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=3
* http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=upward+trend&year_start=1960&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=3
* http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=gay%2Clesbian%2Cbisexual&year_start=1940&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=3
* http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Leviticus+18%2Cturn+the+other+cheek&year_start=1960&year_end=2000&corpus=5&smoothing=3 (cherry-picking)
* http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=vegetarian&year_start=1750&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=1
* http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=drunk&year_start=1750&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=1
* http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=television%2C+tuberculosis&year_start=1750&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=1
* http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=love%2Chope%2Cfaith%2C+sex&year_start=1750&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=1
* http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=hope&year_start=1700&year_end=2008&corpus=6&smoothing=1
* http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=entomology%2Cetymology&year_start=1900&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=3
* http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=carriage%2Ccar%2Cautomobile&year_start=1700&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=3
* http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=irregardless%2Cregardlessly%2Cunregarding&year_start=1800&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=3
* http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=a+bird+in+the+hand%2Clive+by+the+sword%2Clook+before+you+leap%2Ca+penny+saved&year_start=1780&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=3
* http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=war&year_start=1700&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=3
* http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Muslim%2CMoslem%2CMoslim%2CMussulman%2C+Moslam&year_start=1700&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=3
* http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Empire%2C+empire&year_start=1700&year_end=2008&corpus=6&smoothing=1
* http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=decline%2Cprogress&year_start=1700&year_end=2008&corpus=6&smoothing=1
* http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=progress&year_start=1700&year_end=2008&corpus=6&smoothing=1
* http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=war&year_start=1700&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=1
* http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Rapture&year_start=1700&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=3
* http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=history%2Cpast%2Cfuture&year_start=1700&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=3
* http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Star+Wars%2C+Star+Trek&year_start=1950&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=0
* http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Jesus+Christ&year_start=1720&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=3
* http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=President&year_start=1780&year_end=2008&corpus=5&smoothing=3
* http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=tyranny&year_start=1700&year_end=2000&corpus=0&smoothing=3
* http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=power+to+the+people&year_start=1700&year_end=2000&corpus=0&smoothing=3
* http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=flag&year_start=1700&year_end=2008&corpus=4&smoothing=3
* http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=end+of+the+world&year_start=1700&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=3
* http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Bible+study&year_start=1800&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=3
* http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=God+bless+America&year_start=1800&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=3
* http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=merry+Christmas%2Chappy+holidays&year_start=1960&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=3
* http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Space&year_start=1700&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=1
* http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=old+fashioned&year_start=1750&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=1
* http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=sword%2C+gun&year_start=1700&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=1
* http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=pirate&year_start=1700&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=1
* http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Ayn+Rand&year_start=1700&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=3
* http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Marx&year_start=1700&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=3
* http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Marx%2C+Marxy%2C+Marxist%2C+Marxiest&year_start=1850&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=0
* http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=communism%2Ccommunist%2Csocialist&year_start=1830&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=1
* http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Russia%2C+USSR&year_start=1700&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=0
* http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=savior%2CSavior&year_start=1720&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=3
* http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=trend&year_start=1700&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=3
* http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=girly&year_start=1900&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=3
* http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=restroom%2C+bathroom%2C+toilet&year_start=1700&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=3
* http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=pursuit+of+happiness&year_start=1700&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=3
* http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=telechart%2Ctelephone%2Ctelegram%2Ctelevision%2Cradio%2Cinternet&year_start=1840&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=3
* http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=king&year_start=1700&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=3
* http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=science&year_start=1700&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=3
* http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=decade&year_start=1780&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=3
* http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=thousand&year_start=1700&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=3
* http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=hundred%2Cthousand%2Cmillion%2Cbillion%2Ctrillion&year_start=1700&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=3
* http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=jillion%2Czillion%2Cbazillion%2Ckazillion&year_start=1900&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=3

[[User:Rumbling7145|Rumbling7145]] ([[User talk:Rumbling7145|talk]]) 16:14, 10 March 2026 (UTC)

==Visual Editor?==
I, being a nerd in high school, edit on more than just this wiki. For example, I edit on Wikipedia. On Wikipedia, the default editing mode is a visual editor, which automatically converts your wikitext into the final product in real time. It's useful on many levels, and would save all of us a lot of time (I've spent at least 2 hours total fixing broken wikitext). I feel that using this tool would increase overall productivity in the wiki, and probably lessen the amount of people who are intimidated when attempting to edit, allowing more people to join and contribute to the community. --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al |<span style="font-family:Atomic Age;font-size:12pt;color:red;">DollarStoreBa'al</span>]]<sup>[[User talk:DollarStoreBa'al |'''''Converse''''']]</sup>[[Special:Contributions/DollarStoreBa'al|'''''My life choices''''']] 22:43, 7 August 2025 (UTC)

:Good luck telling that to jeff! --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 12:22, 8 August 2025 (UTC)

::Ugh. Well, he's gotta come back eventually, right? He's paying for the domain, after all. --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al |<span style="font-family:Atomic Age;font-size:12pt;color:red;">DollarStoreBa'al</span>]]<sup>[[User talk:DollarStoreBa'al |'''''Converse''''']]</sup>[[Special:Contributions/DollarStoreBa'al|'''''My life choices''''']] 16:43, 8 August 2025 (UTC)

:::Or maybe he just forgot and we actually don't want him to come back. Who knows! --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 16:45, 11 August 2025 (UTC)

::::Name one person who wants Jeff to just not come back. Either way, I want him back, and I suggested this just in case. This would also be really cool for me, as I joined after jeff's last known user page edit in 2018. --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al |<span style="font-family:Atomic Age;font-size:12pt;color:red;">DollarStoreBa'al</span>]]<sup>[[User talk:DollarStoreBa'al |'''''Converse''''']]</sup>[[Special:Contributions/DollarStoreBa'al|'''''My life choices''''']] 23:31, 14 August 2025 (UTC)

:::::Jeez that was a joke. Ofc I want him back lol. [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 20:09, 15 August 2025 (UTC)

::::::still no response from Jeff or any of his friends on: Reddit, X/Twitter; GitHub; Bluesky; Mastodon; and email. Oh, and I asked some person on YouTube with the username lcarsos (as in the other 'crat on here) but I think that he deleted my comment on his video (multiple times). (just a little fyi) '''[[User:42.book.addict|<span style="font-family:Cormorant Garamond;font-size:9pt;color:pink">42.book.addict</span>]]<sup>[[User talk:42.book.addict|<span style="font-family:Cormorant Garamond;font-size:6pt;color:#B1E4E3">Talk to me!</span>]]</sup>''' 18:17, 19 August 2025 (UTC)

:::::::Does he even remember this? Maybe they all got struck by lightning at the same time while calling someone who just sneezed and saying 'bless you'. --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="color:#023020">DollarStoreBa'al</span>]]<sup>[[User_talk:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="color:#000080">'''''converse'''''</span>]]</sup> 16:28, 29 August 2025 (UTC)

==Unicode emoji support==
This suggestion was made in response to the discussion above. I was completely unable to realize that FaviFake was joking. I feel that Unicode emojis would drastically improve the wiki and allow for more detailed conveyance of thoughts and feelings, and prevent catastrophic misunderstandings not unlike the one above. Other people have insulted me due to the fact that I was unable to convey enough emotion. --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al |<span style="font-family:Atomic Age;font-size:12pt;color:red;">DollarStoreBa'al</span>]]<sup>[[User talk:DollarStoreBa'al |'''''Converse''''']]</sup>[[Special:Contributions/DollarStoreBa'al|'''''My life choices''''']] 17:18, 19 August 2025 (UTC)
:Text-only media, like this, always has the issue of not being understood, but if someone forgets (or consciously declines) to put a "/s" or ";)" in there, they'll probably also not add an emoji.
:Of course, one person's very dry humour might go so far over the head of another person that not even a strong hint helps, whereas another's sense of fun might be so obvious that gilding the lilly even sends the ''wrong'' message about it. [[Special:Contributions/92.23.2.228|92.23.2.228]] 20:03, 19 August 2025 (UTC)
: I don't understand your suggestion. 😕 The site appears to allow such emojis to be included; I just copied and pasted. There's also the HTML entity option, e.g. <code>&#128533;</code>. 😕 Or are you asking that the site include code to make it easier to insert emojis? [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 16:57, 29 August 2025 (UTC)

== Custom User-based Signature Template ==

DollarStoreBa'al and I came up with a pretty interesting idea: a template called "sig" that can hold the signatures of other users. This is to allow users to have signatures longer than 255 characters, which is the hard limit set by MediaWiki. To call the template, we can use <nowiki>{{sig|User:XYZ}}</nowiki> and encode the template with wikitext so that each user's signature can be pasted in without confusion. To make things even easier, users can adjust their signatures in Preferences to call this template so that the 4 tildes (<nowiki>~~~~</nowiki>) can still be employed. If enough positive feedback is received, I would love to work on it with the community. If anybody is interested in helping out, please mention it! The template could also function as a signature museum, where you can view other user's custom signatures and get inspiration. '''[[User:42.book.addict|<span style="font-family:Cormorant Garamond;font-size:9pt;color:pink">42.book.addict</span>]]<sup>[[User talk:42.book.addict|<span style="font-family:Cormorant Garamond;font-size:6pt;color:#B1E4E3">Talk to me!</span>]]</sup>''' 16:50, 29 August 2025 (UTC)
:Update. I have found another solution. By creating a sig page, you can call <nowiki>{{User:XYZ/sig}}</nowiki>, which enables you to literally copy-paste whatever's in that page into another page. This was first discovered, I believe, by [[User:Omega/sig|User:Omega]]. I don't believe we need the template anymore, but the signature museum would still be cool! '''[[User:42.book.addict|<span style="font:9pt Cormorant Garamond"><span style="color:#89CFF0">4</span><span style="color:#FFB7CE">2</span><span style="color:#D3D3D3">.</span><span style="color:#FFB7CE">b</span><span style="color:#89CFF0">o</span><span style="color:#89CFF0">o</span><span style="color:#FFB7CE">k</span><span style="color:#D3D3D3">.</span><span style="color:#FFB7CE">a</span><span style="color:#89CFF0">d</span><span style="color:#89CFF0">d</span><span style="color:#FFB7CE">i</span><span style="color:#D3D3D3">c</span><span style="color:#FFB7CE">t</span></span>]]<sup>[[User talk:42.book.addict|<span style="font:6pt Cormorant Garamond"><span style="color:#89CFF0">T</span><span style="color:#FFB7CE">a</span><span style="color:#D3D3D3">l</span><span style="color:#FFB7CE">k</span><span style="color:#89CFF0"> </span><span style="color:#89CFF0">t</span><span style="color:#FFB7CE">o</span><span style="color:#D3D3D3"> </span><span style="color:#FFB7CE">m</span><span style="color:#89CFF0">e</span><span style="color:#89CFF0">!</span></span>]]</sup>''' 19:10, 29 August 2025 (UTC)
::Not quite sure what it will do. Seems to me that for instance you and [[User:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="color:#023020">DollarStoreBa'al</span>]]<sup>[[User_talk:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="color:#000080">'''''converse'''''</span>]]</sup> already have very advanced signatures (using Dollar's here as another example). My own preferences would be a normal signature, where it is easy to see who has made the comment and where the links takes me... But since you can already make this complicated signatures anyway, I'm not as such opposed to the idea. Am I correct in assuming I need to do something in order for this to be possible as the only active admin at the moment? As I will not come by here regularly, then let me know when there has been some relevant activity. Not just a reply to these questions here. But once some other than you two has chimed in. Else I might forget to come back to look! (I wrote this and then had an edit conflict with 42. So maybe this is not relevant anymore? But I will post it now none the less. But this was as a reply to the first proposal) [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 19:16, 29 August 2025 (UTC)
:::Hi Kynde. Yes, I believe that we don't need your assistance anymore. The need for a template is erased by the existence of /sig pages, and we can create a museum by ourselves. Thanks for trying and chiming in, though! '''[[User:42.book.addict|<span style="font:9pt Cormorant Garamond"><span style="color:#89CFF0">4</span><span style="color:#FFB7CE">2</span><span style="color:#D3D3D3">.</span><span style="color:#FFB7CE">b</span><span style="color:#89CFF0">o</span><span style="color:#89CFF0">o</span><span style="color:#FFB7CE">k</span><span style="color:#D3D3D3">.</span><span style="color:#FFB7CE">a</span><span style="color:#89CFF0">d</span><span style="color:#89CFF0">d</span><span style="color:#FFB7CE">i</span><span style="color:#D3D3D3">c</span><span style="color:#FFB7CE">t</span></span>]]<sup>[[User talk:42.book.addict|<span style="font:6pt Cormorant Garamond"><span style="color:#89CFF0">T</span><span style="color:#FFB7CE">a</span><span style="color:#D3D3D3">l</span><span style="color:#FFB7CE">k</span><span style="color:#89CFF0"> </span><span style="color:#89CFF0">t</span><span style="color:#FFB7CE">o</span><span style="color:#D3D3D3"> </span><span style="color:#FFB7CE">m</span><span style="color:#89CFF0">e</span><span style="color:#89CFF0">!</span></span>]]</sup>''' 19:18, 29 August 2025 (UTC)
::::I do believe the template would work fine... that way it wouldn't show the full wikitext of the signature. --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="color:#023020">DollarStoreBa'al</span>]]<sup>[[User_talk:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="color:#000080">'''''converse'''''</span>]]</sup> 19:46, 29 August 2025 (UTC)
bad bad bad bad idea, the sig character limit is 255 for a reason, see {{w|WP:SIGLENGTH}}.

a sig template is an even worse idea, because every instance of it will call #ifexist, an [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:$wgExpensiveParserFunctionLimit expensive parser function]. these make a page take even longer to load, which this wiki definitely does not need. also, expensive fucntions are capped at 500, so you're making a maximum of 500 signatures (not counting other templates). [[user:lett‪herebedarklight|raeb]] 04:50, 30 August 2025 (UTC)
:As well as the WP:SIGLENGTH bit, if anybody actually cares about the precedent set by 'mother Wikipedia' then various other dos-and-don'ts from {{w|Wikipedia:Signatures}} might well apply to some extant personal signatures, from the "don't make it look like it's not your signature" through to being inconsiderate of the colour-blind and those otherwise vision-limited.
:It also gives some nice demonstrations of what ''can'' be done (within reason). Though I still say that just because you can do something doesn't mean that you should. "Looks complicated, codes simply" would be my suggestion. Elegance of spirit, not a bloomin' juggernaut, if you're inclined to take my advice at all. You can still use personally distinctive signatures, and probably should. (Though, quite possibly, by the middle of next week, half the latest Talk comments are going to have orange-background. Don't care about that possibility, as much as I's like having vaguely recognisable namepage and timestamp bits to it that don't take effort to discern properly ''either'' when rendered ''or'' in raw code.) I have simple tastes, perhaps more than others... [[Special:Contributions/82.132.247.193|82.132.247.193]] 05:45, 30 August 2025 (UTC)
:Fully agree with raeb here, the last thing we need is more server load.
:*If you transclude them, then there's the server load and maximum transclusion problem.
:*If you substitute the template each time, the issue of hard-to-parse editing views gets worse. It's already annoying having to mentally "remove" your html codes when adding a comment, and we also don't have the VE, which would hide the code. [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 13:52, 31 August 2025 (UTC)
::I got edit conflicted, dangit. Anyway, both your complaints are either invalid or could easily be solved. The #ifexist limit could easily be bypassed if we simply delete the signatures of people who haven't contributed in, say, 6 months. The wikitext complaint is also invalid. Using the template as a signature would simply show <nowiki>{{User:XYZ/Sig}}</nowiki>, '''not the wikitext required to display the signature.''' Sincerely, --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="color:#023020">DollarStoreBa'al</span>]]<sup>[[User_talk:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="color:#000080">'''''converse'''''</span>]]</sup> 14:14, 3 September 2025 (UTC)
:::Hi
simply delete the signatures of people who haven't contributed in, say, 6 months
:::''What?!''
:::Also, my 1st point wasn't mainly about #ifexist but about server load. It's as if you were adding the amount of code roughly equivalent to {{tl|incomplete}} to every single page you commented on, multiple times on the same page. This absolutely causes a ton of unnecessary server load. Imagine adding {{tl|incomplete}} hundreds of times to dozens and dozens of talk pages across the entire wiki. The software needs to keep all of them up-to-date. [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 16:47, 3 September 2025 (UTC)
::::What's wrong with deleting signatures? They can just make a new one, and 6 months seems like a good cutoff for 'they aren't coming back.' I know Tori was away for more than 6 months, she's an exception. The server load is an issue though. Maybe we need to wait for that until Jeff is able to fix the current server issues. --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="color:#023020">DollarStoreBa'al</span>]]<sup>[[User_talk:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="color:#000080">'''''converse'''''</span>]]</sup> 17:26, 3 September 2025 (UTC)
:::::I randomly drop in every 6–12 months, for what it's worth. [[User:Maplestrip|Maplestrip]] ([[User talk:Maplestrip|talk]]) 13:52, 5 September 2025 (UTC)
:::Why penalize people who only occasionally contribute? What does it buy us? -- [[User:Dtgriscom|Dtgriscom]] ([[User talk:Dtgriscom|talk]]) 17:49, 3 September 2025 (UTC)
::::DSB, the Template is a horrible idea, ok? I slept on it and after further reflection, it really doesn't add much. People can always subst in signatures through <nowki>{{_}}</nowki>, and it'll also strain the server way too much. There's also a reason why sigs are capped at 255 characters-it'll become impossible to read talk pages if everyone had hulking 1000+ character sigs (like the one that I created). Please stop fixating so much on this specific idea. Also, it is quite rude to penalize people who only occasionally edit (and I don't want to be a special case or something like that-please stop treating me as some godly figure who is better than everyone else.) '''[[User:42.book.addict|<span style="font-family:Cormorant Garamond;font-size:9pt;color:pink">42.book.addict</span>]]<sup>[[User talk:42.book.addict|<span style="font-family:Cormorant Garamond;font-size:6pt;color:#B1E4E3">Talk to me!</span>]]</sup>''' 19:02, 3 September 2025 (UTC)
:::::Yeah, you're right. The 255 character limit stands. Thread over, back to explaining. --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="color:#023020">DollarStoreBa'al</span>]]<sup>[[User_talk:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="color:#000080">'''''converse'''''</span>]]</sup> 14:46, 4 September 2025 (UTC)

== Explain XKCD Discord/Social Media Server? ==

I was experiencing Cloudflare errors in the past 24 hours that had prevented me from accessing this website. It's working now, but I'm worried that something else would happen again. Would anybody be interested in organizing a group chat/server or something of the like outside of Explain XKCD? I would personally love if it was on Discord, as it's easy to use, convenient, is built great, and I use it often. If anybody else has suggestions, I'd be open to hear them! '''[[User:42.book.addict|<span style="font-family:Cormorant Garamond;font-size:9pt;color:#3a795e">42.book.addict</span>]]<sup>[[User talk:42.book.addict|<span style="font-family:Cormorant Garamond;font-size:6pt;color:#ce5f15">Talk to me!</span>]]</sup>''' 20:24, 12 September 2025 (UTC)
:Me too. It greatly worried me. If you want, I can set up a discord server. Personally, I prefer discord as it's very simple and has a clean interface. Again, only if you're interested. --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="color:#023020">DollarStoreBa'al</span>]]<sup>[[User_talk:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="color:#000080">converse</span>]]</sup> 15:38, 15 September 2025 (UTC)
::[https://discord.com/invite/zGEVanBBAx Here you go!] '''[[User:42.book.addict|<span style="font-family:Cormorant Garamond;font-size:9pt;color:#3a795e">42.book.addict</span>]]<sup>[[User talk:42.book.addict|<span style="font-family:Cormorant Garamond;font-size:6pt;color:#ce5f15">Talk to me!</span>]]</sup>''' 00:38, 16 September 2025 (UTC)
:::NICE! I wonder if we should message Kynde and see if he'll add it to the global messages. The more people, the better. --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="color:#023020">DollarStoreBa'al</span>]]<sup>[[User_talk:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="color:#000080">converse</span>]]</sup> 01:17, 16 September 2025 (UTC)
:::I didn't want to influence your original choice, but it would have been nice if you'd have chosen something less 'commercial', as a platform. Hope it helps, just don't forget about everyone else! [[Special:Contributions/82.132.238.131|82.132.238.131]] 09:07, 16 September 2025 (UTC)
::::Discord is free. I feel it should be easy for everybody to join, even if they didn't already have discord. --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="color:#023020">DollarStoreBa'al</span>]]<sup>[[User_talk:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="color:#000080">converse</span>]]</sup> 12:53, 16 September 2025 (UTC)
:::::"Freemium" would be a better description, with all the Nitro-mandating stuff. But I already deleted my more specific past observations about all that. And see no point in resurrecting my original Discord presence as you probably can do more chatting about the rest of us without too many random strangers like me turning up, whatever the other IP-onlies decide to do. ;) [[Special:Contributions/82.132.246.82|82.132.246.82]] 17:18, 17 September 2025 (UTC)

===Updating the global message board===
::''Moved from [[User_talk:Kynde#Updating_the_global_message_board]]'' [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 19:40, 16 September 2025 (UTC)

I am excited to announce that explainxkcd now has a discord server! I was wondering if you could add it to the global message board (idk what it's called, actually. The one with the incomplete explanations message.) to include the discord invite link? The more people who join, the better, just in case cloudflare decides to have those issues again. --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="color:#023020">DollarStoreBa'al</span>]]<sup>[[User_talk:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="color:#000080">converse</span>]]</sup> 13:01, 16 September 2025 (UTC)
:Hi. you did not include the link? Also I would like to know if other frequent editors think this is a great idea? Not all who edit here wish to be contactable on other platforms. I do understand where you wish the message to be though, and if this is a good idea we can put it there. I'm not certain what other people thinks though? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:12, 16 September 2025 (UTC)
::I, for one, think it's a good idea. It's managed by Tori, so it's in very good hands. The only thing I'm afraid of is that discussions may not take place here, but I don't think that's enough of a reason not to promote it.
::The link is at [[User:42.book.addict]], in the second notice. I think we should say something like
In case this site goes down, we have created a Discord server as an emergency form of communication. (link)
::We aren't "excited to announce" a backup form of communication. Discussions must be public, not on external sites. This is merely a backup. I think it can then be removed from the sitenotice after a month or less, and mentioned on another page somewhere else, discretely. [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 15:23, 16 September 2025 (UTC)
:::Thanks for chiming in FaviFake. Can you find a good place for this, because I would like to link to a local page from the sitenotice. I do realize that people will have to go to this discord before problems arises, but I guess that is the way it ism and that wont change no matter how we announce it. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 15:49, 16 September 2025 (UTC)
::::But 42 does intend for this to be used as "a fun place to connect with each other". Leaving it discrete would make it impossible for this to happen, because people won't see it. Also, for the record, FaviFake, 42 and I were. Multiple people. Me and her. That's how the English language works. --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="color:#023020">DollarStoreBa'al</span>]]<sup>[[User_talk:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="color:#000080">converse</span>]]</sup> 16:41, 16 September 2025 (UTC)
:::::Yes you two are the ones who wishes for it and FaviFake was the first to chime in. Don't patronize me please! --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 16:44, 16 September 2025 (UTC)
:::::I have no idea what you're saying regarding the "English language", but please refrain from saying... whatever that was.
But 42 does intend for this to be used as "a fun place to connect with each other"
:::::Could you stop talking on behalf of 42? I believe you've been asked many times not to do that. You can either tell us what '''you''' think, or let others speak for themselves. 42 isn't a goddess and is able to engage in this conversation without someone "defending" her opinions.
:::::I'll create [[explain xkcd:Discord]] but need to think more about how this is supposed to be pitched. I do not want people to be incentivised to use a private, inaccessible discord server to, for example, talk about the newest comic. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 19:32, 16 September 2025 (UTC)
:::::I moved this discussions back here because it's relevant to the entire wiki, not just Kynde' talk.
:::::''Moved from [[User_talk:Kynde#Updating_the_global_message_board]]'' [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 19:40, 16 September 2025 (UTC)
::::::Sorry, I was just trying to simultaneously defend both of our opinions and state the facts. Also, thank you to FaviFake for moving this conversation to the proposals. This seems to be happening with Kynde's talk page a lot recently. (that being twice, but I've never seen it happen before, soo...) --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="color:#023020">DollarStoreBa'al</span>]]<sup>[[User_talk:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="color:#000080">converse</span>]]</sup> 20:02, 16 September 2025 (UTC)
:Hi, it's me. The "global message board" DSB was referencing to is the [[MediaWiki:Sitenotice|site notice]]. If Kynde could add it in the format that FaviFake said, that would be great! Also, I had thought that the server ''could'' be a fun place for us to bond/talk, but that can obviously be conducted in DMs. FaviFake's reasoning for having all conversations on-site makes perfect sense to me. '''[[User:42.book.addict|<span style="font-family:Cormorant Garamond;font-size:9pt;color:#3a795e">42.book.addict</span>]]<sup>[[User talk:42.book.addict|<span style="font-family:Cormorant Garamond;font-size:6pt;color:#ce5f15">Talk to me!</span>]]</sup>''' 20:35, 16 September 2025 (UTC)
::So THAT'S what it's called! I am one of today's lucky 10,000. --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="color:#023020">DollarStoreBa'al</span>]]<sup>[[User_talk:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="color:#000080">converse</span>]]</sup> 23:35, 16 September 2025 (UTC)
:::I'm not sure if I'm wrong or not, but I think of the discord as 2 things:
*A backup form of communication
*An informal place to hang out with fellow readers and editors.

Again, please correct me if I'm wrong. --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="color:#023020">DollarStoreBa'al</span>]]<sup>[[User_talk:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="color:#000080">converse</span>]]</sup> 15:23, 18 September 2025 (UTC)

==Dark theme?==
I saw a post about this in the archives that went unanswered, so I'll ask it here: Why doesn't the wiki have a dark theme? I feel it would be very useful for those who don't want to be blinded by editing. Wikipedia's got one, and it looks great! --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="color:#023020">DollarStoreBa'al</span>]]<sup>[[User_talk:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="color:#000080">converse</span>]]</sup> 15:27, 18 September 2025 (UTC)
:Dark mode IS a thing. You need to create a common.css page to use it though. Copy paste in this to get dark mode (make sure to hit "Show preview" to test it out before you save!):

<code><nowiki> /* NQH's totally cool and amazingly radical dark mode */
/* Licensed CC0-1.0, no rights reserved. */

/* Sets everything to dark background. */
body * {background-color: #111 !important; color: #DDD !important;}
div.mw-body, div.mw-body * {background-color: #222 !important;}

/* Vector */

.mw-wiki-logo {background-color: #00000000 !important; filter: invert(100%);}

/* Monobook */

div#column-one > div#p-cactions > div.pBody > ul > li > a {background-color: #222 !important;}

/* Modern */

div#mw_header, div#mw_header h1#firstHeading {background-color: #000 !important;}
div#mw_content {background-color: #222 !important;}

/* Cologne blue */

/* Diff. */
td.diff-context, td.diff-context * {color: #777 !important; border-color: #333 !important;}
td.diff-deletedline {border-color: #F33 !important;}
td.diff-addedline {border-color: #3F3 !important;}
del.diffchange-inline {color: #F55 !important;}
ins.diffchange-inline {color: #5F5 !important;}

/* Numbers in history view. */
span.mw-plusminus-pos {color: #5F5 !important;}
span.mw-plusminus-neg {color: #F55 !important;}
strong.mw-plusminus-pos {color: #0F0 !important; font-size: 1.2em;}
strong.mw-plusminus-pos {color: #0F0 !important; font-size: 1.2em;}

/* Links. */
a[href$="redlink=1"] {color: #F00 !important; text-decoration: line-through !important;}
a:not([href$="redlink=1"]) {color: #88F !important;}
a:visited:not([href$="redlink=1"]) {color: #AAF !important;}
a:hover:not([href$="redlink=1"]) {color: #AAF !important; text-decoration: underline !important; font-weight: bold !important;}
a:active:not([href$="redlink=1"]) {color: #FFF !important; text-decoration: underline !important; font-weight: bold !important;} </nowiki></code>

--'''[[User:42.book.addict|<span style="font-family:Cormorant Garamond;font-size:9pt;color:#3a795e">42.book.addict</span>]]<sup>[[User talk:42.book.addict|<span style="font-family:Cormorant Garamond;font-size:6pt;color:#ce5f15">Talk to me!</span>]]</sup>''' 19:01, 18 September 2025 (UTC)

::In response to DSB, in your userpage... The links being white... Which links? See the "/* Links. */" section. The various links are #F00 (red, the invalid ones), #88F (light blue), #AAF (lighter blue), or #FFF (white). If you don't like them, change them.
::The other things can probably be fixed if we know exactly what you're getting and what you actually expect. Also a good idea to check for typos/miscopying, via basic troubleshooting. [[Special:Contributions/82.132.246.204|82.132.246.204]] 22:43, 18 September 2025 (UTC)
:::I got edit-conflicted with... seemingly no change. Anyway, I found a better version which I now use. It's much cleaner and looks like it belongs. Only issue is that the sidebar templates have inverted colors? But very minor. --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="color:#023020">DollarStoreBa'al</span>]]<sup>[[User_talk:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="color:#000080">converse</span>]]</sup> 01:24, 19 September 2025 (UTC)
:::CODE!!!<code><nowiki>/* WikimediaUI Dark Mode
*
* Wikimedia Design Team 2019-2021
* Original authors:
* - Volker E. – [[User:Volker_E._(WMF)]]
* - Alex Hollender
* - MusikAnimal
* - Carolyn Li-Madeo
* - Jdlrobson
*
* Original at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Volker_E._(WMF)/dark-mode.css
* Version for Gadget CSS skin override usage only.
* Basically removed of all interaction element styles and
* set to `html` instead of JS injected `.client-dark-mode` class.
*
* Last updated: 2021-04-20
*
*/

/** To prevent 'jumping' effect within #p-personal in Vector/Monobook. Overrides [[MediaWiki:Gadget-dark-mode-toggle-pagestyles.css]] **/
body.skin-vector-legacy :not(#pt-darkmode) + #pt-watchlist::before,
body.skin-monobook :not(#pt-darkmode) + #pt-watchlist::before {
content: "Light mode";
}

@media screen {

/* set height for monobook and timeless, because the filter in FF needs dimensions to get it to apply */
html {
height: 100%;
}

/* Filter needs to reside on `html`, see https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T221425#5153917 */
html,
/* All other selectors have `filter` double-applied to turn back to “normal” by inheritance */
html img:not( .mw-invert ),
html video:not( .mw-invert ),
html ogvjs:not( .mw-invert ),
html svg:not( .mw-invert ),
html iframe:not( .mw-invert ),
html .mw-no-invert,
html .cdx-no-invert,
html td .diffchange,
html .wvui-typeahead-suggestion__thumbnail,
html .skin-minerva .mw-notification-visible .mw-notification-content,
html .oo-ui-searchWidget-results .oo-ui-iconElement-icon,
html .list-thumb,
/* Extensions */
html .media-viewer .image img,
html .media-viewer .mw-file-description img {
filter: invert( 1 ) hue-rotate( 180deg );
}

/* Reset overrides, needed where double application above isn't working. */
/* Vector modern */
html .skin-vector .mw-logo-wordmark,
html .skin-vector .mw-logo-tagline,
html .skin-timeless .mw-wiki-title > img,
html .wvui-icon svg,
html .mw-ext-score img,
html .skin-invert img,
html .skin-invert-image img,
html .mw-hiero-table img {
filter: none;
}

/* Backgrounds */
html table,
html table.ambox-content,
html table.toccolours,
html .mw-notification,
html .mwe-popups,
html .infobox,
html .toc,
html .thumbinner,
html figure[typeof~='mw:File/Thumb'],
html figure[typeof~='mw:File/Frame'],
html figure[typeof~='mw:File/Thumb'] > figcaption,
html figure[typeof~='mw:File/Frame'] > figcaption,
html .wikitable,
html .cbnnr-main,
html .cx-callout,
html .overlay.media-viewer,
html #simpleSearch,
html #simpleSearch #searchInput,
html #siteNotice #centralNotice .cnotice {
background-color: #ddd;
}

/* Borders */
html body,
html h1,
html h2,
html h3,
html h4,
html h5,
html h6,
html table.ambox-content,
html table.toccolours,
html .mw-notification,
html .infobox,
html .toc,
html .thumbinner,
html figure[typeof~='mw:File/Thumb'],
html figure[typeof~='mw:File/Frame'],
html figure[typeof~='mw:File/Thumb'] > figcaption,
html figure[typeof~='mw:File/Frame'] > figcaption,
html #mw-head,
html #mw-panel,
/* Vector 2022 uses a transparent border for margin collapsing
(T312822) so don't apply this rule there */
.skin-vector-legacy #content.mw-body,
html #simpleSearch,
html #simpleSearch #searchInput,
html #siteNotice #centralNotice .cnotice {
border-color: #cdcbc8;
}

/* Links */
/* Links: normal */
html a,
html .vector-menu-tabs li a,
/* Backwards compatible VectorTabs, deprecated in MW v1.35. */
html .vectorTabs li a,
html .toctogglelabel,
html .mw-parser-output a.external,
html .mw-parser-output a.extiw,
html .mw-parser-output a.extiw:active,
html #mw-panel .portal .body li a {
/* color: #69f; Proposal below for level AA conformance, see also https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T233266
`#36c` is transformed by :root `filter` to be closer to chosen `#69f`. */
color: #36c;
}

/* Links: visited */
html a:visited,
html .mw-parser-output a.extiw:visited,
html #mw-panel .portal .body li a:visited {
/* color: #709bbd; Proposal below uses to-be-standardized color from https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T213778 */
color: #6b4ba1;
}

/* Links: red */
html a.new,
html .vector-menu-tabs li.new a,
html .vectorTabs li.new a {
color: #ff6e6e;
}

/* ::: Special Element Treatments ::: */
/* Image thumbnails */
html .thumbimage,
html figure[typeof~='mw:File/Thumb'] > :not(figcaption) .mw-file-element,
html figure[typeof~='mw:File/Frame'] > :not(figcaption) .mw-file-element {
border: 0;
}

/* Content image (thumbnail) SVGs */
/* `*not( .mbox-image )` exception doesn't work for unclear reasons */
html .image img[ src*='svg' ],
html .mw-file-description img[ src*='svg' ],
html img[ src*='Wiktionary-logo'] {
background-color: #fff;
border-radius: 1px;
}

/* Dealing with false positives from selector above */
html .mw-echo-ui-notificationItemWidget-icon img[ src*='svg' ],
html .mbox-image .image img[ src*='svg' ],
html .mbox-image .mw-file-description img[ src*='svg' ],
/* Emoji generated by [[Template:Emoji]] */
html .emoji .image img,
html .emoji .mw-file-description img,
/* Vote symbols on Talk pages */
html .image img[ alt^="Symbol" ],
html .mw-file-description img[ alt^="Symbol" ] {
background-color: transparent;
}

/* Page previews */
html .mwe-popups {
box-shadow: 0 30px 90px -20px rgba( 0, 0, 0, 0.3 ), 0 0 1px #000;
}

html .mwe-popups.flipped-y:after,
html .mwe-popups.flipped-x-y:after {
border-top: 11px solid #ddd;
}

html .mwe-popups.mwe-popups-no-image-pointer:after {
border-bottom: 11px solid #ddd;
}

/* Contributions menu */
html .cx-callout-1:after {
border-bottom-color: #ddd;
}

/* Mobile Wikipedia logo mobile header */
html .branding-box img {
filter: brightness( 0 );
}

}

@-moz-document url-prefix() {
body {
background: #000;
}
}

@-moz-document url-prefix() {
@supports (overflow-clip-margin: 1px) {
body {
background: #fff;
}
}
}
</nowiki></code>
--'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="color:#023020">DollarStoreBa'al</span>]]<sup>[[User_talk:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="color:#000080">converse</span>]]</sup> 13:27, 19 September 2025 (UTC)

==Page Creation site notice for new accounts==
Many, many, '''''many''''' new people come around and ask other users about how to create their own user pages. Personally, I think we could stop the confusion by coding a different type of 'you do not have permission to create this page' error for new accounts, which would look something like this:

'To create new pages, your account must be at least a week old and have 50 edits. You can search for this page title in other pages, or search the related logs, but you do not have permission to create this page.'

Just a thought, in case admins can do that without Jeff's involvement. --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="color:#023020">DollarStoreBa'al</span>]]<sup>[[User_talk:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="color:#000080">converse</span>]]</sup> 20:02, 30 September 2025 (UTC)

: I'd {{template|Actual citation needed}} on the "many"s, unless you're aware of off-site discussions about this one. It's actually pretty infrequent, so I feel you must be counting over several years, having found a number of historic examples dotted around on pages such as this. That said, it ''is'' currently as much an FAQ as anything else ([[explain xkcd:Editor FAQ#Why can't I create my user page and upload images?|as actually mentioned there]], for anyone who bothers to read it). And we do sometimes get a new-users, the ones freshly post-validated to create pages merrily 'helping out' all those they think need their help in that regard.
: Can I suggest that we do not have the exact number of edits so prominantly, though. Within the last day, as a matter of fact, we seem to have had someone making many useless edits (mostly of the form of adding extra spaces into seemingly random places within seemingly random articles), possibly in order to have created a new page of their own. And that's ''really'' not to the spirit of things. Inviting, or at least suggestively hinting, the possibility of near-vandalism (hopefully not ''actual'' vandalism) for the impatient who just see it as a 'target' to try to reach. And the truly and genuinely eager to contribute can easily have clocked up that number of edits to existing pages ''with no edit-tallying motive'' by the time the mandatory week has also expired.
: The caveat, I know, is that saying "a week and ''a certain number of edits''", aluded to but unspecified, will have the some of the same uselessly-editing people chasing an arbitrarily high edit-tally in order to be 'ready' for the week finishing. But that kind of person is already of the wrong initial mindset. And people desperate to create new pages with perhaps little more than a week of having, in ''most other respects'', full editing rights (which is only marginally more than IPs like me have, as there only a few key places that I am prevented from editing) tend to find themselves likely to be contributing to the Category: Pages to Delete list (perhaps courtesy of more established editors).
: On balance, perhaps the page you mention should instead briefly contain a link to the existing FAQ section, via link text explaining that there ''are'' reasons, but "see here" for details, or similar non-specific wording. Anyone who hasn't read the FAQ could benefit from being aware that it exists. And if anything ever changes (rise or fall of the time or tally limits, even removal or addition of specific criteria), the FAQ will probably be sooner updated with the new details before anyone thinks to edit the 'error page' again (a particular page that long-established users will have rarely, if ever, seen). Assuming, of course, even that anyone can edit that level of page content right now. [[Special:Contributions/82.132.184.204|82.132.184.204]] 23:08, 30 September 2025 (UTC)
::I don’t have time to read ip's comment but i definitely think the number shouldn't be so public, and i don’t see a need. i would support a small editnoce for letting users know they have to vaguely contribute more. [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 16:17, 1 October 2025 (UTC)

== Some suggestions surrounding the use of the {{template|unsigned}} and {{template|unsigned ip}} templates. ==

;Where I just reference the {{template|unsigned}} template, there should also be an obvious extension of the same principle to the {{template|unsigned ip}} one as well.)

These are some interelated proposals, that could be implemented singly/incrementally (as desired and agreed upon). But might deserve doing in 'one go', at least the agreed upon elements. I'm just putting each bit into different subsections for isolated discussion (or ignoring) of the specific merits/otherwise of each. [[Special:Contributions/2.98.65.8|2.98.65.8]] 21:33, 20 October 2025 (UTC)
;TD;DR;s added, if you don't like the author's original verbosity. [[Special:Contributions/82.132.244.30|82.132.244.30]] 19:07, 12 November 2025 (UTC)

===Aesthetic/semantic change===
Issue: Not often, but sometimes, comments that are 'unsigned'-tagged (with the words "please sign your comments with <nowiki>~~~~</nowiki>") invokes retrospective use of <nowiki>~~~~</nowiki> by those who take the words at face value. This ''can'' result in a (previously) 'unsigned' message having a later timestamp than its replies, or later 'top level' messages more immediately signed by their editors.

The more 'proper' way to replace an {{template|unsigned}} tag, for those that want to, would be to copy-paste a valid signature of the same type and replace the username(/IP) and datestamp as already (usually!) given in that initial pester-tag. But this is by no means made obvious in the above message.

Proposal: Wording to be changed to something like "in future, please sign your comments with <nowiki>~~~~</nowiki>", or "this comment should have been signed with <nowiki>~~~~</nowiki>". Or other wording, to be agreed upon, to make as snappy as the original ("was not signed with <nowiki>~~~~</nowiki>"). The aim is to omit the implicit request to anachrnistically sign, however.

Overall effect: Any change to the template(s) will transclude to what would probably be an overwhelming majority of Talk pages (at a guess), plus other 'discussion' pages like these Portal ones. But there's no change in functionality or any individual page-updating, just the slightly different text when viewing in future.
*Note1: the {{template|unsigned}} template already takes a (rarely used) third parameter, which overwrites the "please sign..." message (i.e. <code><nowiki>{{unsigned|<username>|<timestamp>|<alternate message>}}</nowiki></code>, and it'd still be overwritten exactly the same wherever that has been applied.
*Note2: it also would not rewrite the text given of any originally "subst:"ed version of the template, but that's a completely different issue.

Justification: The need may be slight, but it's also a trivial tweak to implement (or even to trial) with a marginal but maybe useful long-term gain. But we'll need a proper discussion of what wording to move to, or else that it's not necessary. [[Special:Contributions/2.98.65.8|2.98.65.8]] 21:33, 20 October 2025 (UTC)

: Case in point {{diff|389535|the few edits that led up to here}}. Didn't really 'spoil' any actual chronology but shows how easily it is obeyed wrongly. [[Special:Contributions/2.98.65.8|2.98.65.8]] 18:04, 24 October 2025 (UTC)

;TL;DR;:Change the text from "please sign your comments with <nowiki>~~~~</nowiki>", slightly. [[Special:Contributions/82.132.244.30|82.132.244.30]] 19:07, 12 November 2025 (UTC)

===Additional templates to complement 'unsigned' ones===
Issue: Retrospective 'honest faking' of previously missing signatures is mildly awkward, as mentioned above. It's easy to get wrong, even easier to just not bother at all with it. (Either leave 'unsigned' or create the issue from the prior item.

Proposal: Complement the template usage <nowiki>{{</nowiki>''un''<nowiki>signed|<username>|<timestamp>}}</nowiki> with one that is <nowiki>{{</nowiki>''retro''<nowiki>signed|<username>|<timestamp>}}</nowiki>. Take the same parameters (except the 'alternate pester text') but return just the effective <nowiki>~~~~</nowiki>-style format, now no longer with the 'please sign...'-type appended message.

There are a number of possible uses for this:

#''user1'' forgets to sign; ''user2'' spots this, invokes {{template|unsigned}} to it; ''user1'' '''acknowledges''' their goof, by simply changing the template-invocation of "unsigned" to "retrosigned" and the rendered page is left neater (any "whoops, my bad!" apologies can be given in the edit-comments, as unused third-parameter, etc, if they wish),
#''user1'' forgets to sign; ''user1'', themself, spots this (before anyone else) and applies this as easily as they would apply a {{template|unsigned}}. Slightly easier than 'honest faking' that involves the valid copypaste-method (again, with "whoops!, my bad!" opportunities, should they feel like it),
#''user1'' forgets to sign; ''user2'' spots this; knows that it's an oversight by a regular contributor who just slipped up, and there's no reason to make it a 'pester message'; so ''user2'' just goes straight to using Template:retrosigned, and doesn't bother with the 'pestering' or 'blaming' implications inherent in Template:unsigned),
#''user1'' forgot to sign ''...a decade ago or more!''; We know that (for example) User:Jeff is unlikely to benefit from being reminded/pestered/shamed, so it just seems better to let the more recent editor 'retrosign' any such example that gets discovered,
#or possibly, '''with care, ''and honesty'':''' someone, as ''newusername'', wishes to associate themselves with comments made by ''oldusername'', or even any given ''ip-address'' contrinution they previously used; that's something I wouldn't do myself, but I could see the appeal.
*Note1: my method (and that of others?) to edit in an 'unsigned'-tag is to copy the header info from the appropriate diff page's column, paste that text (containing datestamp and ID of contributor, together with some other textual cruft) as unsigned-tag parameters, rearrange edit ("timestamp" then "userid", with a few extra characters, becomes "|userid|timestamp" parameters), the same method would entirely work with the retrosigned version too.
**This, however, does not contain the "(UTC)" timezone info that <nowiki>~~~~</nowiki> would give by default, so a similarly direct retroactive 'fake' will also lack this. Eagle-eyed readers might pick up on this. Which isn't an issue that concerns me. (One could always manually append " (UTC)" to the second-param, or after the template itself, even if I don't think it worth the bother.)
*Note2: It doesn't reproduce the appearance of anyone's custom signature, if they had one that should have been invoked. But also a trivial differemce, having resolved the whole issue of "no longer being unsigned".
**Should anyone ''really'' care to reproduce a custom/non-standard signature, they can still do so (on their behalf or someone else's). This is just the quick and easy

Justification: The idea is to allow for the 'tidying up' of the front-facing pages with less convoluted and more honest back-end edits. I don't expect, or want, anyone to retrospectively convert historic 'unsigned' tags just for the sake of it, but it adds a tool to the kit of anyone who is already prepared to 'correct' these things (their own, or others) in any given page-source.

I'd potentially use it for long-standing editor's lapses (the "Template:retrosigned" version), to feel less guilty about apparently nagging them about it. Or upon myself (the "Template:retrosigned ip" version), if I slipped up, to feel less guilty for going back in and 'honestly faking' what I had forgotten to sign, but (as noted above) there are several other applicable uses. [[Special:Contributions/2.98.65.8|2.98.65.8]] 21:33, 20 October 2025 (UTC)

;TL;DR;:Let there be "retrosigned" and "retrosigned ip" to be used where {{template|unsigned}} and {{template|unsigned ip}} are not (any longer) what is needed somewhere. [[Special:Contributions/82.132.244.30|82.132.244.30]] 19:07, 12 November 2025 (UTC)

===Tracking parameter underutilisation===
Issue: Early implementation, and sometimes more recent, of the {{template|unsigned}} template may use its most basic <code><nowiki>{{unsigned}}</nowiki></code> form with ''no parameters given''. This gives an 'error', of sorts, due to having no official check-and-fallback upon not being given the username parameter. The error is visual only, and ''may'' have been allowed/forced to happen as a way to force its correction (though, at least until recently, it sees not to have done this as much as it should have).

Other times, perhaps immediately after the first parameter (contributor name) started to be routinely added, <code><nowiki>{{unsigned|username}}</nowiki></code> is used ''without the timestamp parameter'' that we now mostly take for granted.

(While the current third parameter, the 'alternate "pease..." text' is entirely an optional and a mostly unused feature, future changes may require/encourage further elements (perhaps 'named parameters') and leave our default "unsigned|username|timestamp" format lacking.)

I've been known to update any discovered 'bare bones'-unsigned formats, if I find any in pages I edit. Someone else seems to have adopted it as a task of its own, recently. This relies upon spotting the non-standard (or at least non-modern) usages.

Additionally, there ''is'' the in getting the rather ugly <code> <small> -- [[User:{{{1}}}|{{{1}}}]] ([[User talk:{{{1}}}|talk]]) <span style="color:grey; white-space:nowrap;">''(please sign your comments with <nowiki>~~</nowiki>~~)''</span></small></code> 'error' for all no-param versions that exist.

Proposal: Firstly, just implement the 'catch' code upon the (lack of) first parameter. Make it 'fail cleanly', or at least less 'errorlike'. This is trivial to implement (i.e. <code><nowiki>{{{1|}}}</nowiki></code> instead of <code><nowiki>{{{1}}}</nowiki></code>). (I'd do that right now, if I could.)

Secondly, within the 'failover' half of the 'non-parameter' parsing, give it a Category: membership.

I have several possible suggestions for the style of Category membership:
# If the 'userID' isn't given, perhaps "Category:Unsigned no-UserID", if the 'timestamp' isn't given, "Category:Unsigned no-timestamp", and any others.
#* Note: the system could be extended to other templates, such as "Category:Incomplete no-reason" or perhaps "Category:Comic no-image", but that's not officially part of this suggestion.
# More simply, just have "Category:Unsigned-error", without specifying. (Or even "Category:Template-error" for far more generalised use.)
# Differently specific, use the category re-indexing (something like <code><nowiki>[[Category:Template-error|blah]]</nowiki></code>) for handy grouping-with-differentiation

Obviously, the appropriate category-page needs to be there to show any (and all) invocations. Similar to the [[:Category:Incomplete explanations]] one, etc, it would invite action to ''remove'' membership as examples are sorted.

Justification: This is a solution for 'meta-problems', really. Which 'category membership' option is used would define how much additional editing(/correcting) this might prompt for historic problems, as well as identifying improperly added new template-invocations. But it might be good to know exactly how wide or narrow a scope people might wish to apply to this, before going ahead and creating many new 'error' categories... one even just the single catch-all one. [[Special:Contributions/2.98.65.8|2.98.65.8]] 21:33, 20 October 2025 (UTC)
;TL;DR;:Make it easier to find 'incompletely implemented' templates (initially the Unsigned ones), so they can be fixed by anyone who would like to. [[Special:Contributions/82.132.244.30|82.132.244.30]] 19:07, 12 November 2025 (UTC)
----
This looks AI-generated. [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 18:36, 12 November 2025 (UTC)
:Really? Unless AIs are doing 'accidentally on purpose' typos, I think it just looks like someone with more ideas trying to burst out onto the page than they can easily (and accurately) summarise. And I'm also that type of person, so I can ''easily'' relate. There, but for the grace of <s>God</s> any-unspecific-generalised-universal-force-of-non-deterministic-fate goes I! [[Special:Contributions/82.132.245.237|82.132.245.237]] 18:50, 12 November 2025 (UTC)
:Added a "''Too Long; Didn't Read;''" summary to each, as I understand the intents. ;) Now I'm wondering if there are any other things I might do that for! [[Special:Contributions/82.132.244.30|82.132.244.30]] 19:07, 12 November 2025 (UTC)

==Banning the phrase "WhatsApp"==
I've noticed that lately, much of our vandalism has come out of scamvertisements asking you to contact the scammers on WhatsApp. As I don't believe Randall has ever actually used WhatsApp, and as such it is unneeded, I feel we should just prevent any edits containing the word 'WhatsApp' from going through if the edit removes more than 90% of the page's byte count (let's be honest, nobody is going to delete that much from a page). --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="color:#023020">DollarStoreBa'al</span>]]<sup>[[User_talk:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="color:#000080">converse</span>]]</sup> 17:37, 29 October 2025 (UTC)
:The standard protection is to have [[user:theusaf]] to refine/expand what theusafBOT reacts to. Which it seems they occasionally do.
:I don't know whether they're paying attention, but I'd hope they'd pick up on such things. Given that it's the Feedback/etc comics that regularly get spammed like this, I'd hope they'd at least try to see what someone else reverted in leiu, and adapt accordingly, when they get the time.
:I don't know the various sets of exact criteria in use (some seem generally obvious enough, key patterns and keywords involved) and I think something to at least start with "blanked page and replaced with ...", on specific sets of pages, as an edit comment could be a good predictor with minimal false-positives. But I wouldn't want to explicitly suggest that (or your idea), lest the more attentive spammers made a trivial change to their future edit plans to by-pass it.
:...though I frankly think those responsible in this case don't care/think ''too'' much about it, it's more for all the other things I'd rather leave trivially unguessable how to get round. [[Special:Contributions/82.132.244.138|82.132.244.138]] 18:30, 29 October 2025 (UTC)
::I'll look into this. —[[User:Theusaf|theusaf]] ([[User talk:Theusaf|talk]]) 22:34, 6 November 2025 (UTC)
:::Hey look, an admin that isn't Kynde! That's... actually the first time I've seen an admin that isn't Kynde in person. Cool! <span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 16px;">--'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="color:#E3C6BE">DollarStoreBa'al</span>]]<sup>[[User Talk:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="color:#CC9A8B">Converse</span>]]</sup></span> 17:15, 7 November 2025 (UTC)
::::Yeah, I'm not super active in the discussions, but I occasionally edit and check that by bot is still working and not destroying anything. The whatsapp check has been added. —[[User:Theusaf|theusaf]] ([[User talk:Theusaf|talk]]) 05:00, 13 November 2025 (UTC)
:::::*SKIBIDI-POP PA-DOOP TA-DA TAAAA!!!!* <span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 16px;">--'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="color:#E3C6BE">DollarStoreBa'al</span>]]<sup>[[User Talk:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="color:#CC9A8B">Converse</span>]]</sup></span> 14:48, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

==Adblock popup==
This wiki uses ads as a way to make money and keep the website up, and many people use adblockers (the absolute state of YT ads is insane). So, why don't we add one of those AdBlock popups that they have on some sites? Maybe the message could be:

{{Header text|So, about that AdBlock...<br>

explain xkcd uses ads to keep our server online. Please consider turning off your AdBlock so we can continue providing quality explanations. Thanks!}}

This would be an optional thing and easily closable, but it could provide at least a bit of extra revenue. Maybe we could also make a 'thank you' screen for people who do actually turn off their adblocker (it would only pop up once, after they turn off the AdBlock):

{{Header text|Thank you for turning off your adblocker!

Sincerely, the explain xkcd community.}}

What do you guys think? --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="color:#023020">DollarStoreBa'al</span>]]<sup>[[User_talk:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="color:#000080">converse</span>]]</sup> 15:58, 30 October 2025 (UTC)

Adblockers often also can block anti-adblock popups, but sure, go ahead. I guess you could also ask for donations to run the site. Same caveat applies. - an adblock user. [[User:None|None]] ([[User talk:None|talk]]) 20:47, 14 December 2025 (UTC)

== categories template ==

Hear me out: I've been doing a lot of category adding to mostly files that are uncategorized (BTW, we have a 11,000-12,000 backlog of pages-any help (or maybe a bot!) would be greatly appreciated). I think that we should make a template called Category or "cat" so that we can add categories faster. Of course, HotCat exists, but it only renders when there are already existing categories. For all the uncategorized files/pages, we would have to manually add it in. My strategy currently is moving my mouse to the edit button, clicking it, hit return to make a whitespace (for organization), hitting CTRL-V, moving my mouse to the "Save changes" button, and clicking it. And that's only for the really repetitive ones, like the comic images or Hoverboard or Time. Does anybody have any thoughts/objections to this? Of course, we would still need to edit, but it would be a lot easier than typing out <nowiki>[[Category:___]]</nowiki> IMHO. Additionally, I've studied up a bit of template code (Lua) and I've sort of fleshed out some code. I don't really know if it works, but if there's anybody more experienced feel free to look through it! I've included Pages to delete (ptd) and Helper comic images (hci) as examples. <br>

<code><nowiki>
{{#ifeq:{{{1}}}|ptd|
[[Category:Pages to delete]]
}}

{{#ifeq:{{{1}}}|hci|
{{#if:{{{2|}}}
| [[Category:Helper comic images ({{{2}}})]]
| [[Category:Helper comic images]]
}}
}}
</nowiki></code>

Thanks, --'''[[User:42.book.addict|<span style="font-family:Cormorant Garamond;font-size:9pt;color:#3a795e">42.book.addict</span>]]<sup>[[User talk:42.book.addict|<span style="font-family:Cormorant Garamond;font-size:6pt;color:#ce5f15">Talk to me!</span>]]</sup>''' 10:17, 3 December 2025 (UTC)
:That's actually a good idea! So, it would be: <code><nowiki>{{cat|Helper comic images (1190)}}</nowiki></code>? That would be quite convenient. <span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 16px;">--'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="color:#FF0000">DollarStoreBa'al</span>]]<sup>[[User Talk:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="color:#00873E">Converse</span>]]</sup></span> 20:53, 4 December 2025 (UTC)
::As written, I read it as...
::If "ptd" in the first spot, i.e. <code><nowiki>{{cat|ptd}}</nowiki></code>, that would give the Pages To Delete category.
::If "hci" in the first spot, i.e. <code><nowiki>{{cat|hci}}</nowiki></code>, then it would instead Helper Comic Images
::If "hci" in the first spot and a number in the second, i.e. <code><nowiki>{{cat|hci|1234}}</nowiki></code>, then it would instead give you Helper Comic Images (1234).
::There are maybe a few minor issues with it, as written. I'd use <code><nowiki>{{{1|}}}</nowiki></code>, for starters, and nest it so that any non-specified (including blank) param would give out an obvious mis-use error result. And you'd probably end up having <code><nowiki>{{cat|<whatever>}}</nowiki></code> sitting in your paste buffer (or would <code><nowiki>{{subst:cat|<whatever>}}</nowiki></code> be better?) exactly the same as you'd have had the basic Category, anyway.
::But I really wouldn't know where it sits in the [[1205: Is It Worth the Time?]] scale... Almost a "death by supernova neutrinos" issue, I suspect... ;) [[Special:Contributions/78.144.255.82|78.144.255.82]] 21:37, 4 December 2025 (UTC)
: I would use a switch instead of an if, like
:<code><nowiki><includeonly>[[Category:{{subst:#switch:{{{1}}}
| ptd = Pages to delete
| hci = Helper comic images {{subst:#if: {{{2|}}} | ({{{2}}}) }}
| {{{1|}}}
}}]]</includeonly></nowiki></code>
: It should be used with <nowiki>{{subst:</nowiki> because otherwise the category won't be able to be removed normally, but it technically works without it. The substs before the ifs make the resulting wikitext nicer, as otherwise when the overall template is used with <nowiki>{{subst:</nowiki>, it inserts the if statements directly. Consequently, it must be enclosed in includeonly's to prevent the substitution from occurring when the template is saved. It will also default to inserting the category with the name of the first argument, but it is longer to type using the template like this (<nowiki>{{subst:cat|All comics}}</nowiki>) than just typing the category directly (<nowiki>[[Category:All comics]]</nowiki>).
:If having an obvious error message is desired, you could replace the default case (the <code><nowiki>{{{1|}}}</nowiki></code>) with something like <code><nowiki>]] Invalid argument for [[Template:cat</nowiki></code>. [[User:Firestar233|guess who]] ([[User talk:Firestar233|if you desire conversing]] | [[Special:Contributions/Firestar233|what i have done]]) 05:02, 16 December 2025 (UTC)
All fo this sounds good! I don't have the time to look into this but Firestar233 is incredible with templates so i trust their code will work! [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 18:41, 17 December 2025 (UTC)

== New Character Proposal for Kid Cueballs ==

I'm somewhat new to editing, though I've been using this wiki for some time now. And I've noticed that with comics such as 3178, whenever a kid is represented by Cueball the transcript says "a Cueball like kid" which is long and slightly annoying to read. So I propose giving the kid a name that's shorter and easier to use but still let's the reader know that a kid is being represented by Cueball: Kidball.

Thoughts? -- [[User:MikeTheNewGuy|MikeTheNewGuy]] ([[User talk:MikeTheNewGuy|talk]]) 13:25, 17 January 2026‎ (UTC)
: Hi, Mike; welcome to ExplainXKCD. BTW, I added your signature to your comment.
: But, on-topic: this sounds like an interesting idea. But, in your mind, is this "Kidball" always the same kid, rather than a type of kid? Would you expect that if you see "Kidball" in a new comic he'll behave the same way? If not, then I wouldn't add this name. -- [[User:Dtgriscom|Dtgriscom]] ([[User talk:Dtgriscom|talk]]) 13:32, 17 January 2026 (UTC)
::Thanks for adding my signature, I’m gonna have to remember to do that.
::What I had in mind with Kidball was that most of the time he’s the same kid (since most of the time he only appears in Miss Lenhart’s class, at least that’s where he’s been the majority of the times I’ve seen him), but is occasionally used to represent someone else; in the same way that Cueball appears to be the same person most of the time, but Randall occasionally uses him to represent someone else. And using “Kidball” in the explanations/transcripts might be more efficient than “a Cueball like kid”.
::And yes, if I saw him in a new comic, I would expect him to more or less behave the same way, unless it’s clear that he’s representing someone else.[[User:MikeTheNewGuy|MikeTheNewGuy]] ([[User talk:MikeTheNewGuy|talk]]) 18:04, 17 January 2026 (UTC)
::I'm not sure; let's see what others think. -- [[User:Dtgriscom|Dtgriscom]] ([[User talk:Dtgriscom|talk]]) 18:11, 17 January 2026 (UTC)
:::I do think that he can and should be named, as he's very similar to [[Jill]], even if she has more personality than him. And Kidball is an amazing name! [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 18:01, 23 January 2026 (UTC)
::::I concur. '''[[User:42.book.addict|<span style="font-family:Cormorant Garamond;font-size:9pt;color:#A9C6CA">42.book.addict</span>]]<sup>[[User talk:42.book.addict|<span style="font-family:Cormorant Garamond;font-size:6pt;color:#516874">Talk to me!</span>]]</sup>''' 21:57, 23 January 2026 (UTC)
:::::Me too. I'm not trusting myself with the actual page creation, so somebody else will need to create it. (sorry, just don't want to mess things up) <span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 16px;">--'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="color:#023020">DollarStoreBa'al</span>]][[User Talk:DollarStoreBa'al|<sup><span style="color:#000080">Converse</span></sup>]]'''''</span> 22:51, 28 January 2026 (UTC)
::::I've made them. See [[Kidball]] and [[:Category:Comics featuring Kidball]]. I've also changed the header of this thread for more clarity. '''[[User:42.book.addict|<span style="font-family:Cormorant Garamond;font-size:9pt;color:#A9C6CA">42.book.addict</span>]]<sup>[[User talk:42.book.addict|<span style="font-family:Cormorant Garamond;font-size:6pt;color:#516874">Talk to me!</span>]]</sup>''' 01:40, 1 February 2026 (UTC)
:::::Thanks! Anyone up for populating it? [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 08:14, 1 February 2026 (UTC)
::::::I'll try to see if I can find the time (and motivation) to do so this week. '''[[User:42.book.addict|<span style="font-family:Cormorant Garamond;font-size:9pt;color:#A9C6CA">42.book.addict</span>]]<sup>[[User talk:42.book.addict|<span style="font-family:Cormorant Garamond;font-size:6pt;color:#516874">Talk to me!</span>]]</sup>''' 03:07, 2 February 2026 (UTC)
::::::I just went through [[:Category:Comics featuring children]] and added about 9 to [[:Category:Comics featuring Kidball]]. We're getting there! [[User:Maxcodes|Maxcodes]] ([[User talk:Maxcodes|talk]]) 14:34, 15 February 2026 (UTC)
:::Should comics with multiple Kidballs be placed in [[:Category:Multiple Cueballs]], or should a new category be created? [[User:Maxcodes|Maxcodes]] ([[User talk:Maxcodes|talk]]) 12:37, 15 February 2026 (UTC)
:::: (First, I made it markup as a "visible category link", as you intended, rather than the invisible category membership that normally happens, hope you don't mind.)
:::: A further question is if a comic was Multiple Cueballs, by dint of having a Cueball ''and'' a now-IDed-as-Kidball, is it still Multiple Cueballs? [[Special:Contributions/82.132.239.239|82.132.239.239]] 13:26, 15 February 2026 (UTC)

:::: We've only just got to the point where we're naming this character Kidball; I'd say don't complicate the situation just yet. Too many categories makes the categories less useful. -- [[User:Dtgriscom|Dtgriscom]] ([[User talk:Dtgriscom|talk]]) 13:52, 15 February 2026 (UTC)
:::: Children are rarely alone, normally being with other children and/or with one or one-or-more adults. So [[:Category:Comics featuring children]] covers Multiple Kidballs.
:::: I'd say that Multiple Cueballs is a notable 'common strangeness' that I think it's useful to continue note, for various reasons, but multiple non-Cueball characters (e.g. how [[1000]] has it, in-extremis) aren't worth all the various different character-specific 'multiple' categories. (And, yes, an adult Cueball and a Kidball should not be "Multiple Cueballs".) [[Special:Contributions/81.179.199.253|81.179.199.253]] 18:29, 15 February 2026 (UTC)
:::::Agreed. Multiple Cueballs is usually for unusual cases where there isn't a different main character other than cueball. A bald kid and a bald adult are two different people. [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 16:52, 16 February 2026 (UTC)
== Bring back mboxes! ==

[https://mediawiki.org/wiki/Template:Mbox Mboxes] (do read that link) are message boxes that prompt editors to edit.
They say things such as, "'''Please help expand this page.'''"
However, they aren't on this wiki!

So, there are a few different templates resembling mboxes:
* {{template|notice}},
* {{template|notice2}},
* {{template|incomplete}}, and
* {{template|incomplete transcript}}
are just a few I've seen.

I just don't think this is the way! Also, I checked {{template|ambox}} and it said it was deleted. However, the proposal archive
isn't working and I can't check the reason. So I can't see why we aren't using them!

Here are a few arguments for mboxes:
* Mboxes can be different types, such as a notice or an alert, or even an incomplete notice, with a <code>type</code> attribute.
* Mboxes are <abbr title="Don't Repeat Yourself">DRY</abbr>, they're reusable.
* Mboxes are used on Wikipedia, and other sites I'm sure, so using them here will make it more comfortable for new editors coming from other sites such as Wikipedia.
* Using mboxes will make styling all alerts easier. (OK YES I ADMIT IT I WANT MY USER STYLES)

So why aren't we using them? I'm thinking that if this topic gets enough support, we can bring mboxes back, and
start transitioning old alerts to mbox variants.

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk. [[User:Maxcodes|Maxcodes]] ([[User talk:Maxcodes|talk]]) 14:38, 16 February 2026 (UTC)
:The discussion, as you said, is in the archive: [[explain_xkcd_talk:Community_portal/Proposals#Notice_templates]]. [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 16:58, 16 February 2026 (UTC)

== Transcripts ==

ATTENTION!

THIS:

Blah blah '''BLAH'''
''BLAH blah blah''
Wordssss…………

(Fill in blahs with your own words! Choose your own adventure fun!)

Is not a transcript!

I’ve had the impression that transcripts were for blind people (well, not ''just'' blind people) and making transcripts like the one above is only making things harder for people who may read aloud for blind people. Use things like [bold text] or [italics] or [comic in red text].

Idk wh6 I wrote this it just been bothering me. {{unsigned ip|2600:4040:52f7:9a00:cdb5:8d4d:4a6c:9917|16:58, 24 February 2026 (UTC)}}
:I've always wondered who the transcripts are even for. Since both the comics and the transcripts are in the same medium, those who are blind wouldn't be able to see the transcript. I guess they could have it read to them, but it's still confusing. As far as I know, it's just a thing that very early editors used to do, and the tradition stuck. What's the reasoning behind the transcripts? --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="color:#3c2004">DollarStoreBa'al</span>]]<sup>[[User Talk:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="color:#1E0F00">Converse</span>]]</sup> (BLM)''''' 14:22, 2 March 2026 (UTC)
::There exists the {{w|screen reader}}, which (at least until you start to trust AI, and there ''are'' undoubtely some good AI ATs out there that do this, these days, but are trained more to help with RL situations, like "what items are on the shop shelf I'm currently standing in front of?", not stick-figures and line-art...) can't do anything useful with the non-meta contents of an image but will happily speak out a transcript.
::It probably also helps, even if you don't need it spoken out for you, if you have a hankering of searching for a particular comic and you know some written words in it that might not ''necessarily'' be quoted verbatim in the Explanation. The text being all there in the Transcript section means you can get this site (or perhaps your caching search-engine of choice) to find it, without even relying on someone having decided to quote it directly elsewhere (which is often not good and/or necessary for an Explanation/Discussion/Trivia section contribution).
::If you're ''really'' lucky, you can even search for [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?search=%22office+chair%22&title=Special%3ASearch&go=Go some random visual thing], as long as it's been mentioned, without relying upon it havng already had a thoroughly populated Category... That relies upon any useful example having the same exact wording in the Transcript (and/or Explanation), but it's better than if you don't have any Transcripts at all.
::There are other useful things, a bit less obvious. Yet perhaps you could argue the presence of the Transcript may not actually be that vital... I don't know if anyone here ''does'' even use a screen-reader (but is still interested in webcomics ...a very visual medium). And there are probably other ways to get the other other advantages of the Transcript. Perhaps we could just make sure ''everything'' currently Transcripted is added to the Explanation (though that seems wasteful, and might make the Explanation far ''less'' useful/readable, having to fight past the obligatory in-depth explanation of whether Cueball's arm is raised in a particular panel or not...). But currently the Transcript exists, for those that need (or like) it, and also anybody who doesn't can just ignore it.
::And unless you're going to fold ''all'' Transcripts into the rest of the Explanation, it seems rather strange to just stop creating them. Honestly, it's probably half the fun for some people. And even another 'First!'-brag for users to bag, without being actually so crass as to edit anything just to say "First!" ;) [[Special:Contributions/81.179.199.253|81.179.199.253]] 19:58, 2 March 2026 (UTC)
:::I still do think that the people who need a screen reader would be interested in webcomics, although there probably exists a small population of people who are. Also, screen readers do not necessarily need to use AI in anything except for the voice. --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="color:#023020">DollarStoreBa'al</span>]]<sup>[[User Talk:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="color:#09ff00">Converse</span>]]</sup> 20:09, 2 March 2026 (UTC)
::::Not sure if you're agreeing with me or not there. You may have missed a "not" or something in there somewhere. And screen-readers don't need ''any'' AI (as we would currently expect it), although doubtless the last few years development of LLM/GenerativeAIs has probably improved them from 'dumb phonology' (with quirks that users would have to get use to) to actually saying things more eloquently and even correctly voice non-homophonic homographs correctly...
::::But, anyway, there's the other reasons for a Transcript, even if I don't know if anyone does bother to use SRs. [[Special:Contributions/81.179.199.253|81.179.199.253]] 20:45, 2 March 2026 (UTC)
:::::I did, indeed, accidentally miss a 'not'. I DON'T think that those who need screen readers would be interested in webcomics. --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="color:#023020">DollarStoreBa'al</span>]]<sup>[[User Talk:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="color:#09ff00">Converse</span>]]</sup> 20:55, 2 March 2026 (UTC)
::::::You'd be surprised. Just take a look at this discussion: https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Miscellaneous#Sightless_readers_offended_by_the_.22It.27s_.27cause_you.27re_dumb.22_tagline. [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 13:00, 9 April 2026 (UTC)
:::::::...I stand corrected. Also, [[2134: Too Much Talking|I have an opinion]] about that discussion after reading it. --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="color:#023020">DollarStoreBa'al</span>]]<sup>[[User Talk:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="color:#09ff00">Converse</span>]]</sup> 13:57, 9 April 2026 (UTC)

==New search algorithm?==
I was searching for a specific comic based on some words from the transcript. I was looking for [[2134: Too Much Talking]] and was searching "new opinions". INSTEAD of getting only results which had the phrase "new opinions", I got every comic which had the word 'new' or 'opinion' ANYWHERE in its explanation or transcript. I got over 100 hits and had to go through each preview individually, which was quite annoying and took far too long. I think there should be a function or option that you could turn on which makes it so, when you search "new opinions", it only displays pages with the search term and doesn't display anything which only contains a part of it. This happens every time I try to search. --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="color:#023020">DollarStoreBa'al</span>]]<sup>[[User Talk:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="color:#09ff00">Converse</span>]]</sup> 14:04, 9 April 2026 (UTC)
:You probably searched for (quote)<code>new opinions</code>(unquote), but you'll find that you'll get exactly what you wanted from (quote)<code>"new opinions"</code>(unquote) ''with'' the literal quotes.
:Like I did, by ending up on the page https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?search=%22new+opinions%22&title=Special%3ASearch&go=Go just now.
:Note that searches just for (quote)<code>new</code>(unquote) ''or'' just for (quote)<code>opinions</code>(unquote) return many (thousands!) of matches. (quote)<code>new opinions</code>(unquote) 'only' seems to return 42 examples (now including this page?). This would include examples of "opinion new" ordering or even totally separate uses like if any a phrase like "...relying upon old opinions, rather than new facts..." was used. An ''actual'' example, is the following search-result snippet:
::..., with no real bearing on most peoples' lives, a lot of people have strong '''opinions''' on the topic. One on side, people argue that planets should have a consiste ...with such debates, to the point of damaging their relationship, is nothing '''new''' for this couple.
:I don't know how we'd even update/change the search-algorithm.
:And, note, it'd annoy those who are already used to what subtle ways there are to be either more or less finicky in a desired search. Searching for mention of "dog leads"? The (unquoted) search for "dog lead" might be better to find "he has a dog on a lead" without (normally) getting pages that say something like "a heavy element, like lead". A quoted-search, or an assumption that the user would have wanted a quoted-search, would miss the first example.
:There may be various other tricks and tips to search-formatting. The use of "+" before a particular term used to (on Google) force that as a required match, when it might have included "does not include..." on a page that contains every other word, just not that one. But this site doesn't seem to have the full (traditional) Google-Fu behaviour, that also included things like (quote)<code>-dog lead</code>(unquote) that could get you (mostly) the metal or connecting cable references to lead without so.much of the additional pet-restraint homonym, but then the Google algorithm has also changed so much over the years (Natural Language Processing and even more AI-based methods, rather than a more obvious codified 'markup' to one's search terms where it was the user's initial knowledge that more limited the search, intentinally or otherwise). [[Special:Contributions/82.132.238.115|82.132.238.115]] 16:53, 9 April 2026 (UTC)

== Excessive verbosity ==

Should we have a category and community portal link to it for explanations which are considered excessively verbose to the point of deteriorating their usefulness to the readers? [[Special:Contributions/2603:800C:1200:596A:A08E:FCB1:F968:D433|2603:800C:1200:596A:A08E:FCB1:F968:D433]] 20:18, 15 April 2026 (UTC)
:Define excessive. (Also: Define insufficient.) [[Special:Contributions/81.179.199.253|81.179.199.253]] 21:09, 15 April 2026 (UTC)
::He never even said "insufficient". He said that making a whole essay as a response (I'll link some examples below) is a waste of time because all the text is overwhelming and it becomes harder to pick out the important parts. By the way, he may be referring to you, as you tend to make very long responses (read: not necessarily a bad thing).<br>
::Some examples:
::*[https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:3231:_Lightning&curid=30046&diff=410387&oldid=410386 this edit by 81.179.199.253]
::*[https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:3232:_Countdown_Standard&curid=30051&diff=410328&oldid=410327 this edit by 81.179.199.253]
::*[https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:3231:_Lightning&curid=30046&diff=410157&oldid=410141 this edit by 82.132.238.12]
::--'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="font-family:Times; color:#023020">DollarStoreBa'al</span>]]<sup>[[User_talk:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="font-family:Times; color:#000080">'''''converse'''''</span>]]</sup> 21:18, 15 April 2026 (UTC)
:::Indeed. "Insufficient" was was seaid by me (IPv4), not IPv6. The point being that I'm not sure what amount of paring down would satisfy them, and what amount would be problematic to them.
:::If some information is there but looks superfluous to someone, they might remove it. If the information is not there but seems necessary, some other person might add it. And everyone has different ideas.
:::And in the two editing examples (and the example that wasn't me), they aren't even Explanation additions, which I'm sure (but will happily be corrected on) wasn't what the suggestion was about. Also, I make no apologies for being verbose enough to encopass a complicated issue, when I think it merits it, especially in Talk. There's also occasion to cut down/rationalise things (in Explanations), especially when multiple editors have added a concept here, an example there, a caveat at the end, etc, which might be best rewritten from scratch.
:::Face it, we who seek to "explain xkcd" have many things to say, whether we we're Nerd Sniped or just happen to think of something interesting but unmentioned. And those who wish xkcd to be explained may have many questions (even if they {{diff|410158|don't say what they are}}. Perhaps I personally err more on maintaining a verbosity (that can be skipped over by the impatient reader) rather than risk being too laconic (and leave out something that others would want/need to be said).
:::I consciously ''tried'' to convey all of what I've just said by just five words, you'll notice. Maybe ten words would have been better? [[Special:Contributions/81.179.199.253|81.179.199.253]] 00:10, 16 April 2026 (UTC)
::I did actually define it, plain as day! Excessive verbosity is "excessively verbose to the point of deteriorating [an explanation's] usefulness to the readers."
::Please I know this has been something of a pattern for years now, and I don't know who all is involved or how many, of course, but could you please try showing some restraint? For example, when you're typing a long paragraph and you're not 100% sure it would make the explanation clearer or more helpful in some concrete way, would you please consider posting it on the talk page and asking others whether they think it should be added, or at least ask others for help with brevity? [[Special:Contributions/2603:800C:1200:596A:FDFE:A728:80A:5859|2603:800C:1200:596A:FDFE:A728:80A:5859]] 01:00, 17 April 2026 (UTC)
:::They do have a point, IPv4. Many of your comments exceed 1,000 bytes in length, and most go above 500.<br>
:::1)''"If some information is there but looks superfluous to someone, they might remove it."'' Most people are probably going to be encouraged ''not'' to edit other people's comments (see [[User talk:42.book.addict#Editing other people's words?|here]])<br>
:::2)''"In the two editing examples, they aren't even explanation additions..."'' That's precisely the point. Large additions to explanations are fine, if it all relates to the comic in some way. Large talk page replies, however, are much harder to navigate.<br>
:::3)''"Perhaps I personally err on maintaining a verbosity (that can be skipped over by the impatient reader) rather than risk being too laconic (and leave out something that others would want/need to be said)."'' The issue is that all the important things are sprinkled throughout your explanation and '''can't''' be skipped. <br>
:::If you do insist on being as verbose as you are, perhaps it would be a good idea to add a TL;DR? Just a thought.--'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="font-family:Times; color:#023020">DollarStoreBa'al</span>]]<sup>[[User_talk:DollarStoreBa'al|<span style="font-family:Times; color:#000080">'''''converse'''''</span>]]</sup> 13:19, 17 April 2026 (UTC)
::::Ahoy there, from IPv4-land, again. I think you're misreading something. You're talking about Talk: comments being overlong. I'm not sure anyone else is.
::::The OP says "...for '''explanations''' which are considered excessively verbose..." (my emphasis added). Only in the more recent "...would you please consider posting it on the talk page and..." suggestion is OP mentioning Talk:, and that's as a suggestion of doing that ''instead'' of being wordy in the Explanation.
::::I also disagree that my two highlighted additions ({{diff|410387|this}} and {{diff|410328|this}}) are overlong. Not as short as they could be, but only significantly so by not saying things I wanted to say. Whether I not I should have, is another matter.
::::Not much more to add, that hasn't already been mentioned. So I won't. Have a nice day! [[Special:Contributions/81.179.199.253|81.179.199.253]] 18:41, 17 April 2026 (UTC)
:::((Hi, I'm not the above IPv4, but I am someone you used as an example. And I could respond to DSB's comments (that edit-conflicted with me writing the following), as I think they are arguments directed against me too, but that would add ''another half hour or more of writing, down-editing, reviewing, adding back in things that I should ''not'' have edited out, etc. So, instead, I'm just prepending this little blurb. But it seems like I'm of a like mind/''modus operandi'' as the other protagonist here. Though was reluctant to jump in to comment on this 'suggestion' right from the start. But here I am now. Sorry!))
:::No, sorry. You're still being subjective there, as already said by someone else. If people add more information, it's generally because they think that such information is missing. Or responding to comments (or interpretations) from others who hadn't already 'got it'.
:::I absolutely don't mind if my attempts to explain something are re-edited to be less wordy than I might have left them, though. That's the nature of wiki-editing. And, if someone removes or wrongly paraphrases something (of mine, or anyone else), I reserve the right to go back and make it correct once more.
:::The exception is with Talk comments:
:::#Other than totally removing something that totally violates site policy, you do ''not'' remove or edit someone else's Talk contribution, beyond any peripheral formatting (e.g. adding a missing signature, correcting a clear indentation misalignment or, with very great care, making it more readable as far as newlines, bulletpoints, tabulation, etc, if the OA cocked that up) and ''never'' change the substantive text... even for spelling.
:::#Things written in Talk are not part of the Explanation and should not be assumed to be read by anyone reading the Explanation.
:::#They also need not be as 'perfect' as one might try to write in an Explanation, be they either more jokey, full of spelling/grammar errors. This is not the "voice of the site, for we are legion", but individually attributable (more or less) voices that may display confusion, authoritativeness, malapropriate terminology, the desire to say "FIRST!" and/or complaints about everyone else doing any or all the the other things.
:::#Should someone ''happen'' to make a cogent point in Talk, it almost never is suitable to just copypaste their exact words (less the signature - if there was any!) into the main Explanation (or even within the 'incomplete'-notification. If they thought it was ready for the Explanation, they'd have written it there, and probably used a different phrase (I write from experience, here!)
:::#And there is very little reason to go through the collaborative editing process on Talk, with multiple versions (and critiques) of the 'concept' text being left for everyone to see all the false starts and mis-steps and the like. When the ''very idea'' of the main Wiki page is that it's a collaborative editing place that gets refined to the best result it can be (or, maybe, just one of the 'least worst' ones), without all the messy re-versioning details on show (but still there in the History, for the curious).
:::(And I note that DSB highlit one of ''my'' Talk contributions, above, as an example of overloquaciousness... Strangely, one that {{diff|410161|looked somewhat appreciated}}, unless that was actually intended as sarcasm, but lacked sufficient markup to reveal that as its purpose. Yes, it was significantly longer than the first response (which I think was good, as far as it went), but I thought that *maybe* a few more details wouldn't go amiss. In leiu of possible further questions that might have occured without.)
:::So, no. I reject your request to 'discuss things in Talk, i advance' any time I think I might not be adding a perfectly cromulant smattering of knowledge. I know that I will never write laconicallg enough to please every reader, especially without making it so streamlined that someone else will have to request (or fulfill) further expansion to it.
:::"Should we have a category"? Maybe. What are you thinking? Some template-led thing, used either like the {{template|Actual citation needed}} or {{template|incomplete}} ones, or somewhere betwixt the two, in application/functionality? What if some adds an <code><nowiki>{{Excessive verbosity}}</nowiki></code> tag and someone disagrees enough to remove it again? Are we back to arguing it out in Talk (like we do already), and/or whole paragraphs being pre-emptively removed (like is done already), or are we supposed to stop doing that and instead populate the tag with 'reason=' information?
:::Not entirely sure what the "community portal link to it" is about, though. Adding a way to get to [[explain xkcd:Community portal/Proposals#Excessive verbosity|this section]]? Or adding a link to each tagged example ''from'' this section?
:::The observation, in several ways, needs further explanation and elaboration (totally unintended, but I ''just'' realised how ironic that is!). Can I (and my fellow word-technicians, such as the prior responder) possibly shave off a word or two? Probably. But I personally try (amongst other editing issues) to address inconsistencies and gaps in information that I see have not yet been addressed. If someone wants to improve on what I add, within a comic page, then they can. Better something there, imperfect, than just lacking because of the possibility of some arbitrary word-/paragraph-limit being breached due to my 'interference'. [[Special:Contributions/82.132.236.33|82.132.236.33]] 14:44, 17 April 2026 (UTC)

I created [[[[:Category:Excessive verbosity]]]] and mentioned it at the end of [[explain xkcd:Community portal]]. I have a plan to fill it with initially the 20-30 worst offending explanations using AI, but I need to run some experiments first. [[User:Liv2splain|Liv2splain]] ([[User talk:Liv2splain|talk]]) 08:59, 18 April 2026 (UTC)
:What actual criteria will assess the issue of "worst offending", can I ask? I ask this seriously, but I might as well tell you that I predict that you won't have a cogent answer. Especially if you're going for the same enumeration as that graph that was created. [[Special:Contributions/81.179.199.253|81.179.199.253]] 20:55, 18 April 2026 (UTC)
::Whether the text is too verbose to serve the readers as a copyedit for brevity could. (By the way, did you know in the year 1600 the typical English written sentence had about 50 words?) [[User:Liv2splain|Liv2splain]] ([[User talk:Liv2splain|talk]]) 04:55, 23 April 2026 (UTC)
:::Poking my nose back in... Is the valuation then based upon something like "we asked 100 readers to rank the readability, and used IRV to produce the community-accepted order of best to worst"? Or "nominate your fifty worst examples, and the ones with most votes get looked at", Either of those would be awkward to organise properly.
:::Or are we asking an AI (multiple times, and/or multiple AIs) to do this ranking, knowing that AIs are ineffably tied to their training data in ways that can be unpredictably spurious. (As an example, it could mark down anything written by an IP, having identified that as a key indicator, if given the option. Like the cases of AIs 'learning' to diagnosing illnesses based upon the presence of a measuring scale in a diagnostic photograph, or a certain type of acute medicine hospital name in the past treatment records.) What would it make of the sentence "Colourless green dreams sleep furiously", and would it know if it is even a contextually apt statement or not, for any given usage?
:::The 50 words thing is interesting, if ''that's'' the key to your suggestion, but hardly a good scale for multiple reasons. Case in point: your first sentence is 16 words. It is brief. It also took me a while to realise it wasn't an accidentally unfinished "Whether <foo> could <bar>" enquiry, and a couple of other garden-path mis-steps, before realising its grammatic intent.
:::Counting words isn't enough. Short sentences more readable? (Or it is non-linear.) Correct horse battery staple! Must be grammatical, naturally. Not comic joke call-back. But what about punctuation? Commas in right places. Semi-colons: good or bad? Is this paragraph readable? All statements, four words. It is fun writing. But not easy, regardless. Fluid reading remains uncertain. Seems stilted to me. Sesquipedalian loquaciousness preponderantly undisallowed. You get the idea..?
:::The truth is that there's no easy (non-subjective) measure of readability, and whatever you do use to measure it may have little connection to understandability, practical meaning or actual accuracy/relevence, and attempts to enhance any or all of the latter may ''require'' some loss of mere 'brevity'. This is not to say that I consider my own contributions unimprovable, just that they (should) say what I intend them to say, and to the extent I intend to say them. [[Special:Contributions/82.132.238.56|82.132.238.56]] 10:16, 23 April 2026 (UTC)

Why not simply use the incomplete tag? My main contribution to this wiki in the last months was to cut down explanations to the point. If I stumble upon an explanation that I feel is too bloated but I don't have the time or energy to do it myself at that moment I add the incomplete tag, mention that the explanation needs to be shortened and done. Oftentimes I do it then myself some time later and remove the tag again. I don't see the point of a new category. Speaking of bloating up stuff... ;) [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 08:53, 23 April 2026 (UTC)
:I agree, for what it's worth. [[Special:Contributions/82.132.238.56|82.132.238.56]] 10:16, 23 April 2026 (UTC)
:Agreed. It should simply say which part of the explanation needs works, and what exactly it needs. [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 12:26, 25 April 2026 (UTC)

== possible new "superheroes" category ==

i don't edit this wiki very often, but i recently decided to make a "superheroes" category since i was surprised we didn't have one already. i've been going thru the archives and adding comics, but today i noticed a bunch of the edits were reverted by one person with the reason "no such category". do i need to do something to get the category approved or were the reversions incorrect? [[Special:Contributions/216.145.71.130|216.145.71.130]] 21:03, 29 April 2026 (UTC)
:As the reverter, I'm suggesting that the way this is normally done is to notice the need and suggest that it is created, listing (at least some of) the cases.
:While anyone with page-creation capabilities (not you, and not me) can "unredlink" the category, it'd be useful to make sure it's not just being created because of one person's vague moment of inspiration.
:Not to say that you're unjustified, in this case, just that you hadn't gone any way to ''try'' to justify it. And it's better to do that. (The old phrase "better to ask forgiveness than permission" isn't really applicable here.) I'll happily help repopulate the new category, if and when it is decided to get created. Just it was being done the wrong way round.
:Someone else {{diff|411372|mentioned}} that its name might need rethinking, and that's one of the aspects. Yes, it can be renamed, but still much better to be right to start with.
:So I think it should be open to discussion... enough to convince someone else to make it a valid category, ''then'' start adding them back in again.
:If I've picked them all up, BTW, I think the following are your candidates:
:*[[273: Electromagnetic Spectrum]] - (just copied from below, not sure without checking... maybe Superman?)
:*[[663: Sagan-Man‎‎]] - "Sagan-Man", as per title
:*[[700: Complexion‎‎]] - Batman
:*[[980: Money‎‎]] - Batman mentioned
:*[[1004: Batman‎‎]] - natch
:*[[1010: Etymology-Man‎‎]] - "Etymology-Man", of course/
:*[[1012: Wrong Superhero‎‎]] - and again
:**[[:Category:Etymology-Man‎‎]] - and his own category (of just two appearances...)
:*[[1384: Krypton‎‎]] - Superman
:*[[1394: Superm*n‎‎]] -sprt-of Superman
:*[[1415: Ballooning]] - Spiderman
:*[[1434: Where Do Birds Go]] - Superman
:*(Feel free to edit in any more, anybody!)
:...so, along with any other finds, if it looks like we need [[:Category:Comics containing superheroes]] (or similar) then your existing work hasn't gone to waste. [[Special:Contributions/81.179.199.253|81.179.199.253]] 21:42, 29 April 2026 (UTC)
::for archiving's sake, there's also [[273: Electromagnetic Spectrum]], [[1415: Ballooning]], and [[1434: Where Do Birds Go]].
::it would be nice to have character pages for specific superheroes like superman and batman (and, evidently, etymology-man), but "superheroes" in general is a topic, not a character. as for the name, it's in line with categories like [[:Category:Aliens]], [[:Category:Demons]], and [[:Category:Sysadmins]] which are plural and don't start with "comics featuring". we do have [[:Category:Comics featuring children]], but it seems like an oddball to me (maybe because it's more of a meta-category for the characters page than one intended for casual browsing? dunno.)
::should we continue discussing this here, on the character page talk, or somewhere else? i must admit i don't understand the organization. [[Special:Contributions/216.145.71.130|216.145.71.130]] 22:09, 29 April 2026 (UTC)
:::The wiki can be a bit inconsistent, because it's been going for a while and not everyone has gone with the same 'house style' (which may have changed over time, too). We have [[:Category:Comics with babies]], for example, and also [[:Category:Comics with cursed items]]. While there are various "Category:Comics featuring <named characters, both real and fictional>", which would have more suited Etymology Man and could (if we so wish) serve for Batman, Superman, etc, individually.
:::I'm actually fairly ambivalent, but I think that it should at least have other voices agree on which way it all goes. Saves too much after-the-fact 'corrections'. But you don't want to be talking just to me about this, so I'll shut up now, and await some of the 'big hitter' accounts to weigh it all up. It doesn't need to be done right now. A couple more hours, at least... ;)[[Special:Contributions/81.179.199.253|81.179.199.253]] 22:40, 29 April 2026 (UTC)
:no response about where to talk about this yet, so i'm just going to loop the other comment in here. changing the name to be more indicative as well. [[Special:Contributions/64.189.140.8|64.189.140.8]] 07:20, 1 May 2026 (UTC)
:Sounds like a nice category to me. [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 09:22, 1 May 2026 (UTC)
:Seems quite relevant to me. Don't really see an issue with using the category name "superheroes" [[User:42.book.addict|<span style="font:11pt Cormorant Garamond"><span style="color:#4A86A6">tor</span><span style="color:#C0728D">i :3</span></span>]]<sup>[[User talk:42.book.addict|<span style="font:8pt Cormorant Garamond"><span style="color:#7E7E7E">talk </span><span style="color:#C0728D">to </span><span style="color:#4A86A6">me!</span></span>]]</sup> 16:31, 1 May 2026 (UTC)
:here's the remaining ones i picked up:
:*[[1648: Famous Duos]] - batman and robin
:*[[1792: Bird/Plane/Superman]]
:*[[1848: Glacial Erratic]] - superman (title text)
:*[[1904: Research Risks]] - supervillains in general
:*[[1970: Name Dominoes]] - superman and batman (slightly up-right from the center)
:*[[2230: Versus Bracket]] - batman vs. superman and justice league vs. teen titans
:*[[2367: Masks]] - batman, spiderman, and mysterio (possibly scarecrow as well, no idea what his lore is)
:*[[2396: Wonder Woman 1984]]
:*[[3146: Fantastic Four]]
:[[Special:Contributions/151.141.68.154|151.141.68.154]] 19:21, 1 May 2026 (UTC)
::since there's been no further comments i went ahead and remade the category. if anyone with permissions can un-redlink it that'd be nice. [[Special:Contributions/64.189.140.61|64.189.140.61]] 00:49, 6 May 2026 (UTC)
:::You ''didn't'' "remake the category" because, as you say, they're redlinked until someone has sufficient reason to unredlink them. That's not the way we do things here, as explained, or else anyone could do something like [[:Category:64.189.140.61 likes creating categories]] and expect it to be created without any consideration of need.
:::I'm not opposed to the category, in principle, but the only reason I'm ''not'' (re-)reverting all those pre-emptive new redlinks is because it's too much effort right now. Which is ''not'' the best reason for failing to uphold such practical standards. Well intentioned as you are (and I don't know why nobody else supported you by instating it 'properly'), ''some'' here may see your approach as akin to vandalism. [[Special:Contributions/82.132.237.108|82.132.237.108]] 10:28, 6 May 2026 (UTC)
::: I, unlike OP, have done quite a bit more ''preparatory'' work for the potential category.
::: See all the following edits:
::: *{{diff|411888|663: Sagan-Man}}, {{diff|411889|700: Complexion}}, {{diff|411890|980: Money}}, {{diff|411891|1004: Batman}}, {{diff|411892|1010: Etymology-Man}}, {{diff|411893|1012: Wrong Superhero}}, {{diff|411894|1384: Krypton}}, {{diff|411895|1394: Superm*n}}, {{diff|411896|1415: Ballooning}}, {{diff|411897|1434: Where Do Birds Go}}, {{diff|411898|1648: Famous Duos}}, {{diff|411899|1792: Bird/Plane/Superman}}, {{diff|411900|1848: Glacial Erratic}}, {{diff|411901|1904: Research Risks}}, {{diff|411902|1970: Name Dominoes}}, {{diff|411903|2230: Versus Bracket}}, {{diff|411904|2367: Masks}}, {{diff|411905|2396: Wonder Woman 1984}}, {{diff|411907|3146: Fantastic Four}} and {{diff|411908|Category:Etymology-Man}}
::: Note that I have done three things:
:::#Chosen the [[:Category:Comics featuring Superheroes]] variation, to match (among other more individually-aimed ones) the category name used in [[:Category:Comics featuring major characters‏‎]], [[:Category:Comics featuring minor characters‏‎]], [[:Category:Comics featuring politicians]] and [[:Category:Comics featuring real people‏‎]]. Consider this my official and reasoned suggestion for what the Category should be named. Subject to any further discussion on this matter (before implementation).
:::#* Yes, there are other inconsistencies to this. But then I'd also argue that [[:Category:Etymology-Man]] really should have echoed the standard that resulted in [[:Category:Comics featuring Kidball]], too, as well the same (more historically or not) for Knit Cap, Cueball, Little Bobby Tables, etc.
:::#I've added a 'category sort index' word, for grouping in the eventual automatic category listing. This is an optional extra, and I used "multiple" for those comics that weren't (easily) just one individual Superhero, but listed those that were involved in the next thing I did. If you prefer normal comic (or category) name-order, you could remove this pipe-option. Or, ideally, cut'n'paste it into any post-category comment just for editor referencing.
:::#I have (where it seemed necessary, which is most of the time) added an apprioriate editor-'comment' after the category. Because I can't use HTML comments ''within'' HTML comments, I've rendered these with "(!-- .. --)" surrounds, which need fixing to use </> instead once the current commented-proposal surround is removed.
:::#*Note, im particular one of them... [[1904: Research Risks]], I think it was... where the comment made was that I don't think it qualified for Superhero, as it only references the concept of a Supervillain.
:::i.e. each (commented) placeholder should be easy to make into whatever (uncommented) implementation is agreed upon.
::: Now, ''please'', OP and everyone else, do not just revert (or otherwise apply) a currently non-existent category 'in the hope' that it's correct and someone with an account will just unredlink it for you as a 'done deal'. Even if I were an account-holder (of suitable, no onerous, vintage) I would not just 'make it happen' without at least some proper discussion. Can't speak for what named-users might do, off their own backs, naturally. My opinion (informed or otherwise) doesn't have any particular weight, and it's still possible I can't persuade anyone (who matters) to adopt all of my own suggestions. [[Special:Contributions/81.179.199.253|81.179.199.253]] 20:03, 6 May 2026 (UTC)
::::two account-holders said they approved of the idea. if this isn't proper discussion, what do you want me to do?
::::also, aside from flukes like [[:Category:Comics with cursed items]] (which should be changed imo), the "comics featuring" name is just to avoid clashing with character pages: for instance, we named it [[:Category:Comics featuring real people]] because [[:Category:Real people]] was taken. "Superheroes" isn't taken; we don't have any character pages for superheroes in the first place. [[:Category:Etymology-Man]] is a [[:Category:Miniseries|miniseries]] category, not a character category. (it has the same comics as a character category would have, granted, but it's not treated like one in any way -- hence the name!) [[Special:Contributions/64.189.140.56|64.189.140.56]] 04:13, 7 May 2026 (UTC)
::::Speaking for myself, I respect both Favi and tori's opinions, and I'm even (generally) in favour of this category. But nobody who ''can'' make it so that it isn't redlinking (simple enough... by now, even you could have done it, entirely on your own) has done so.
::::My (and others', it looks like) point has always been that it has for a long time been a fairly matter of fact process to announce "hey, I think ''this, this and this'' should be made to have ''that'' Category", some minor discussion occur, refinements/additions considered, then it gets done. If it doesn't, it's because of lack of buy-in and nobody was convinced.
::::Some things still might get done far too hastily/improperly (various Category inconsistencies are 'obvious') and the Pages To Delete tags get rolled out (where page-renaming isn't sufficient), but Deletions are even rarer than Renames (in part because of the rights required to do so), and both are outweighed by the creation of instances of what might just be considered as 'personal pet project pages' by some. That way lies indefinite expansion and random 'forgotten' stubs left all over the place, so if I have one personally overriding attitude to this whole thing, it's that of caution. I'd rather remove a redlink (otyer than abset User and User Talk ones in signatures) than let it temptingly sit there inviting the next near-newbie to create it 'because they can' (as demonstrably happens with the User/User Talk ones, anyway), regardless
::::(I haven't yet even decided upon my ''own username'' that I might use, after maybe more than a decade contributing here, which probably tells you more about me than anything else. Can't speak for others still posting via IP, like yourself.)
::::This is not me 'pulling rank', I must add. I have no 'rank' to pull, by my own decision. I'm just a random IP (as are you/any others not named yet) who just tries to do my best to do what limited things I can do to make this site operate smoothly. It was supposed to be a simple explanation of the established community convention that has tended to work well enough, and was never supposed to become 'IP-vs-IP combat', and I really hope still isn't, despite our clearly conflicting drives on how to reach the same sort of 'final' ideal (minor details varying). And I've had my own fair share of "wouldn't it be nice to have <some feature>?" not going anywhere, which I live with because this isn't 'my' site but a community one. (A strange community, naturally, but one of the better ones, out of all those I dabble in.)
::::That's the long-winded reply only here to try to explain (my, at least) previous long-winded replies. I'll leave the whole "Comics featuring" stuff undiscussed (save that, by consistency, yes, if Etymology-Man had enough appearances to merit a character page, some rearranging probably wouldn't go amiss to do the same as "Cueball"!="... featuring Cueball", etc). It's not a full on "[[386: Duty Calls]]"-type scenario, but I thought it worth a 'quick' last note as to where I'm coming from. It wasn't supposed to be this long! Sorry for wasting everyone's time, though. Even the like-minded ones? [[Special:Contributions/82.132.237.17|82.132.237.17]] 14:49, 7 May 2026 (UTC)

== Multiple Blondies, Merge Blondie/Lenhart ==

[[Blondie]] can be three different people: the [[Blondie|generic Blondie]], [[Miss Lenhart]], and [[Mrs. Roberts]] (who only appeared in the [[1337 series]] and [[327: Exploits of a Mom]]). My proposal is to change Blondie's name to Miss Lenhart, but separate Mrs. Roberts and Blondie, as they are different people. Merging Miss Lenhart and Blondie would be similar to how [[Cutie]] and [[Megan]] were merged after Megan was named a few times. [[User:YZ100]] 00:57, 6 May 2026 (UTC)
:Sounds good! I don't see why we'd need to keep using our own name when Randall has given her a different name. [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 14:53, 9 May 2026 (UTC)
::Hmmm... not a lot of thought put in here, before the mass rejig actually happened. The same person who is explicitly a Math(s) teacher in some comics is also explicitly ''not'' into mathematics in [[1985: Meteorologist|at least one other]] (and instead has a Linguistics degree under her belt). Wish I'd said something, now, but I was already involved in the above discussion and didn't want to cause any more fuss than I had to. Oh well. Done now. (Or at least the 'easy' bit, but I suspect the other page-merging will be happening soon enough.) [[Special:Contributions/81.179.199.253|81.179.199.253]] 16:54, 9 May 2026 (UTC)
:::Well, that comic is particular because Blondie is used a news anchor. Iirc, Randall almost always uses either Cueball or Blondie to portray news anchors, and that comic had two news anchors so he had to use both. And even before the merger, the [[Miss Lenhart]] page said: "[https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Miss_Lenhart&oldid=409753 She may or may not represent the same character from comic to comic]". I'll add that fun fact to the page though. [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 19:35, 10 May 2026 (UTC)

Miss Lenhart

2026-05-10T19:35:13Z

FaviFake: /* Math teacher */ fun fact

{{Infobox character
| image = Blondie.png
| imagesize = 200px
| caption = '
| first_appearance = [[59: Graduation]]
}}

<noinclude>:''For a list of comics, see [[:Category:Comics featuring Miss Lenhart|Comics featuring Miss Lenhart]].''</noinclude>

'''Miss Lenhart''' is a [[stick figure]] character in [[xkcd]]. She is most often used as a math teacher and a [[:Category:News anchor|news anchor]], but is often featured in the background of other comics when Randall needs additional characters. Like most other xkcd characters, she does not necessarily represent the same character from comic to comic. She is distinguished by her long blonde hair. In [[1817: Incognito Mode]], her hair is significantly more detailed.

==Roles==

Miss Lenhart is mainly just another woman that [[Randall]] can use when he wishes to give a woman a specific characteristic so to set her aside from the more commonly used women [[Megan]] and [[Ponytail]]. The hacker [[Mrs. Roberts]] is another [[:Category:Minor characters|minor characters]] who has the same appearance as Miss Lenhart.

===Math teacher===
[[File:Miss lenhart.png|thumb|200px|Miss Lenhart as a math teacher]]
Miss Lenhart is the go-to character when [[Randall]] needs a teacher. There are several cases where Miss Lenhart is described as a math teacher. Her name is used in this context in her first comic [[135: Substitute]], and she is both named and drawn in [[1050: Forgot Algebra]] as a math teacher. She is also teaching mathematics in [[263: Certainty]], [[622: Haiku Proof]], [[1724: Proofs]], and [[2605: Taylor Series]].

Her career appears to closely follow the trajectory of a public-school math teacher at either the middle or high school level as teachers become subject specific at that point. Teacher's lounges and substitutes are also features of the North American secondary school system. In [[1519: Venus]] and [[803: Airfoil]] she is seen teaching two non-math science related classes, which is something else that happens in American schools due to a general shortage of qualified STEM teachers.

In [[1519: Venus]], it is confirmed that Miss Lenhart is one month away from retirement (which is shown to result in taking her teaching duties less seriously. Being forced to teach outside her subject matter expertise (Earth/Environmental Science instead of Math) may have factored into her decision, but regardless, public sector teachers in the United States generally still earn pensions and are able to retire earlier than other workers.

After [[1519: Venus]], we see Miss Lenhart transition to college level material such as [[2028: Complex Numbers]], [[2545: Bayes%27 Theorem]], [[2560: Confounding Variables]] and [[2283: Exa-Exabyte]]. If she did in fact retire early from public secondary school education, it would be possible for her to supplement her pension as an adjunct professor teaching college level science and math courses at a community or state institution of higher education, despite teaching grammar in [[3229: Grammar]].

In some early comics, such as [[435: Purity]] and [[599: Apocalypse]], Miss Lenhart is portrayed as a mathematician. However, in [[1985: Meteorologist]] she is explicitly ''not'' into mathematics and instead has a Linguistics degree under her belt.

===News anchor===
[[File:Miss Lenhart as a news anchor.png|thumb|200px|Miss Lenhart as a news anchor]]
[[Cueball]] and Miss Lenhart are the most used character for presenting news reports in the role of a news anchor, but [[:Category:News anchor|Cueball is used more often than her]].

===Mother===
Miss Lenhart appears to be the wife of a Cueball-like character in [[275: Thoughts]]. In [[416: Zealous Autoconfig]] and [[342: 1337: Part 2]], both Miss Lenhart and Mrs. Roberts are portrayed as mothers with at least two children. Miss Lenhart is also depicted as a mother in a few other comics, such as:
*[[200: Bill Nye]], with two boys.
*[[275: Thoughts]], having a daughter.
*[[946: Family Decals]], left family wagon with three children, two boys and a girl.
*[[1608: Hoverboard]], [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/ae/1608_0970x1077y_Kite_and_weird_bug.png next to the volcano] where she is with her daughter. The boy might be the daughter's friend or her brother.

==Name==
Miss Lenhart is a minor character in xkcd, but has had several appearances without ever being named in general. In fact, she has only been named twice where she is actually drawn. The first time she's named is in her second appearance, [[135: Substitute]]. The first time she is both drawn and mentioned by name is in [[499: Scantron]], and the only other time (so far by comic 1731) is in [[1050: Forgot Algebra]]. But her name was used before for a not-shown teacher in [[135: Substitute]], which is why it makes sense to call the math teacher in [[263: Certainty]] Miss Lenhart. That would thus make it the first time she appeared as a character in a comic.

Her family name is again the only thing used in [[416: Zealous Autoconfig]], although there it does not directly say that she is a teacher. While school is mentioned, it is for her children. Thus, the name is first connected directly to the blonde teacher in her fifth "appearance" after she was also drawn in [[442: xkcd Loves the Discovery Channel]].

Later, her name is used again without her being present, except on the phone in [[704: Principle of Explosion]]. Here, she is Mrs. Lenhart. It is possible that this character is the mother of Miss Lenhart. Or, because she here obviously has a son, she may have been married after she was originally named Miss. This is the second time she has been mentioned to be a mother. Both Miss Lenhart and one of the other named Miss Lenhart-like character [[Mrs. Roberts]] is shown to be a mother. In [[2808: Daytime Firefly]], the off-screen character of "{{w|Ms.}} Lenhart" is mentioned in the title text (in an imagined conversation with a male teacher) who could be this main character, if not just one or other of her relatives.

Her name is mentioned in total six times. So, the other comics with Miss Lenhart refer to a teacher with her appearance, just like [[Megan]] only has been named a few times but is still used to describe the general dark-haired woman. However, Miss Lenhart must have long blonde hair, so a teacher with her hair in a ponytail, like in [[982: Set Theory]], is not Miss Lenhart but [[Ponytail]], even though the teaching method reminds of the one in [[1724: Proofs]] with Miss Lenhart.
{{navbox-characters}}
[[Category:Characters]]
[[Category:Minor characters]]

Miss Lenhart

2026-05-09T16:11:16Z

FaviFake:

{{Infobox character
| image = Blondie.png
| imagesize = 200px
| caption = '
| first_appearance = [[59: Graduation]]
}}

<noinclude>:''For a list of comics, see [[:Category:Comics featuring Miss Lenhart|Comics featuring Miss Lenhart]].''</noinclude>

'''Miss Lenhart''' is a [[stick figure]] character in [[xkcd]]. She is most often used as a math teacher and a [[:Category:News anchor|news anchor]], but is often featured in the background of other comics when Randall needs additional characters. Like most other xkcd characters, she does not necessarily represent the same character from comic to comic. She is distinguished by her long blonde hair. In [[1817: Incognito Mode]], her hair is significantly more detailed.

==Roles==

Miss Lenhart is mainly just another woman that [[Randall]] can use when he wishes to give a woman a specific characteristic so to set her aside from the more commonly used women [[Megan]] and [[Ponytail]]. The hacker [[Mrs. Roberts]] is another [[:Category:Minor characters|minor characters]] who has the same appearance as Miss Lenhart.

===Math teacher===
[[File:Miss lenhart.png|thumb|200px|Miss Lenhart as a math teacher]]
Miss Lenhart is the go-to character when [[Randall]] needs a teacher. There are several cases where Miss Lenhart is described as a math teacher. Her name is used in this context in her first comic [[135: Substitute]], and she is both named and drawn in [[1050: Forgot Algebra]] as a math teacher. She is also teaching mathematics in [[263: Certainty]], [[622: Haiku Proof]], [[1724: Proofs]], and [[2605: Taylor Series]].

Her career appears to closely follow the trajectory of a public-school math teacher at either the middle or high school level as teachers become subject specific at that point. Teacher's lounges and substitutes are also features of the North American secondary school system. In [[1519: Venus]] and [[803: Airfoil]] she is seen teaching two non-math science related classes, which is something else that happens in American schools due to a general shortage of qualified STEM teachers.

In [[1519: Venus]], it is confirmed that Miss Lenhart is one month away from retirement (which is shown to result in taking her teaching duties less seriously. Being forced to teach outside her subject matter expertise (Earth/Environmental Science instead of Math) may have factored into her decision, but regardless, public sector teachers in the United States generally still earn pensions and are able to retire earlier than other workers.

After [[1519: Venus]], we see Miss Lenhart transition to college level material such as [[2028: Complex Numbers]], [[2545: Bayes%27 Theorem]], [[2560: Confounding Variables]] and [[2283: Exa-Exabyte]]. If she did in fact retire early from public secondary school education, it would be possible for her to supplement her pension as an adjunct professor teaching college level science and math courses at a community or state institution of higher education, despite teaching grammar in [[3229: Grammar]].

In some early comics, such as [[435: Purity]] and [[599: Apocalypse]], Miss Lenhart is portrayed as a mathematician.

===News anchor===
[[File:Miss Lenhart as a news anchor.png|thumb|200px|Miss Lenhart as a news anchor]]
[[Cueball]] and Miss Lenhart are the most used character for presenting news reports in the role of a news anchor, but [[:Category:News anchor|Cueball is used more often than her]].

===Mother===
Miss Lenhart appears to be the wife of a Cueball-like character in [[275: Thoughts]]. In [[416: Zealous Autoconfig]] and [[342: 1337: Part 2]], both Miss Lenhart and Mrs. Roberts are portrayed as mothers with at least two children. Miss Lenhart is also depicted as a mother in a few other comics, such as:
*[[200: Bill Nye]], with two boys.
*[[275: Thoughts]], having a daughter.
*[[946: Family Decals]], left family wagon with three children, two boys and a girl.
*[[1608: Hoverboard]], [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/ae/1608_0970x1077y_Kite_and_weird_bug.png next to the volcano] where she is with her daughter. The boy might be the daughter's friend or her brother.

==Name==
Miss Lenhart is a minor character in xkcd, but has had several appearances without ever being named in general. In fact, she has only been named twice where she is actually drawn. The first time she's named is in her second appearance, [[135: Substitute]]. The first time she is both drawn and mentioned by name is in [[499: Scantron]], and the only other time (so far by comic 1731) is in [[1050: Forgot Algebra]]. But her name was used before for a not-shown teacher in [[135: Substitute]], which is why it makes sense to call the math teacher in [[263: Certainty]] Miss Lenhart. That would thus make it the first time she appeared as a character in a comic.

Her family name is again the only thing used in [[416: Zealous Autoconfig]], although there it does not directly say that she is a teacher. While school is mentioned, it is for her children. Thus, the name is first connected directly to the blonde teacher in her fifth "appearance" after she was also drawn in [[442: xkcd Loves the Discovery Channel]].

Later, her name is used again without her being present, except on the phone in [[704: Principle of Explosion]]. Here, she is Mrs. Lenhart. It is possible that this character is the mother of Miss Lenhart. Or, because she here obviously has a son, she may have been married after she was originally named Miss. This is the second time she has been mentioned to be a mother. Both Miss Lenhart and one of the other named Miss Lenhart-like character [[Mrs. Roberts]] is shown to be a mother. In [[2808: Daytime Firefly]], the off-screen character of "{{w|Ms.}} Lenhart" is mentioned in the title text (in an imagined conversation with a male teacher) who could be this main character, if not just one or other of her relatives.

Her name is mentioned in total six times. So, the other comics with Miss Lenhart refer to a teacher with her appearance, just like [[Megan]] only has been named a few times but is still used to describe the general dark-haired woman. However, Miss Lenhart must have long blonde hair, so a teacher with her hair in a ponytail, like in [[982: Set Theory]], is not Miss Lenhart but [[Ponytail]], even though the teaching method reminds of the one in [[1724: Proofs]] with Miss Lenhart.
{{navbox-characters}}
[[Category:Characters]]
[[Category:Minor characters]]

Miss Lenhart

2026-05-09T16:10:21Z

FaviFake:

{{Infobox character
| image = Blondie.png
| imagesize = 200px
| caption = '
| first_appearance = [[59: Graduation]]
}}

<noinclude>:''For a list of comics, see [[:Category:Comics featuring Miss Lenhart|Comics featuring Miss Lenhart]].''</noinclude>

'''Miss Lenhart''' is a [[stick figure]] character in [[xkcd]]. She is most often used as a math teacher and a [[:Category:News anchor|news anchor]], but is often featured in the background of other comics when Randall needs additional characters. Like most other xkcd characters, she does not necessarily represent the same character from comic to comic. She is distinguished by her long blonde hair. In [[1817: Incognito Mode]], her hair is significantly more detailed.

==Roles==

Miss Lenhart is mainly just another woman that [[Randall]] can use when he wishes to give a woman a specific characteristic so to set her aside from the more commonly used women [[Megan]] and [[Ponytail]]. The hacker [[Mrs. Roberts]] is another [[:Category:Minor characters|minor characters]] who has the same appearance as Miss Lenhart.

===Math teacher===
[[File:Miss lenhart.png|thumb|200px|Miss Lenhart as a math teacher]]
Miss Lenhart is the go-to character when [[Randall]] needs a teacher. There are several cases where Miss Lenhart is described as a math teacher. Her name is used in this context in her first comic [[135: Substitute]], and she is both named and drawn in [[1050: Forgot Algebra]] as a math teacher. She is also teaching mathematics in [[263: Certainty]], [[622: Haiku Proof]], [[1724: Proofs]], and [[2605: Taylor Series]].

Her career appears to closely follow the trajectory of a public-school math teacher at either the middle or high school level as teachers become subject specific at that point. Teacher's lounges and substitutes are also features of the North American secondary school system. In [[1519: Venus]] and [[803: Airfoil]] she is seen teaching two non-math science related classes, which is something else that happens in American schools due to a general shortage of qualified STEM teachers.

In [[1519: Venus]], it is confirmed that Miss Lenhart is one month away from retirement (which is shown to result in taking her teaching duties less seriously. Being forced to teach outside her subject matter expertise (Earth/Environmental Science instead of Math) may have factored into her decision, but regardless, public sector teachers in the United States generally still earn pensions and are able to retire earlier than other workers.

After [[1519: Venus]], we see Miss Lenhart transition to college level material such as [[2028: Complex Numbers]], [[2545: Bayes%27 Theorem]], [[2560: Confounding Variables]] and [[2283: Exa-Exabyte]]. If she did in fact retire early from public secondary school education, it would be possible for her to supplement her pension as an adjunct professor teaching college level science and math courses at a community or state institution of higher education, despite teaching grammar in [[3229: Grammar]].

In some early comics, such as [[435: Purity]] and [[599: Apocalypse]], Miss Lenhart is portrayed as a mathematician.

===News anchor===
[[File:Miss Lenhart as a news anchor.png|thumb|200px|Miss Lenhart as a news anchor]]
[[Cueball]] and Miss Lenhart are the most used character for presenting news reports in the role of a news anchor, but [[:Category:News anchor|Cueball is used more often than her]].

===Mother===
Blondie appears to be the wife of a Cueball-like character in [[275: Thoughts]]. In [[416: Zealous Autoconfig]] and [[342: 1337: Part 2]], both Miss Lenhart and Mrs. Roberts are portrayed as mothers with at least two children. Miss Lenhart is also depicted as a mother in a few other comics, such as:
*[[200: Bill Nye]], with two boys.
*[[275: Thoughts]], having a daughter.
*[[946: Family Decals]], left family wagon with three children, two boys and a girl.
*[[1608: Hoverboard]], [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/ae/1608_0970x1077y_Kite_and_weird_bug.png next to the volcano] where she is with her daughter. The boy might be the daughter's friend or her brother.

==Name==
Miss Lenhart is a minor character in xkcd, but has had several appearances without ever being named in general. In fact, she has only been named twice where she actually appears. The first time she's named is in her second appearance, [[135: Substitute]]. The first time she is both drawn and mentioned by name is in [[499: Scantron]], and the only other time (so far by comic 1731) is in [[1050: Forgot Algebra]]. But her name was used before for a not-shown teacher in [[135: Substitute]], which is why it makes sense to call the math teacher in [[263: Certainty]] Miss Lenhart. That would thus make it the first time she appeared as a character in a comic.

Her family name is again the only thing used in [[416: Zealous Autoconfig]], although there it does not directly say that she is a teacher. While school is mentioned, it is for her children. Thus, the name is first connected directly to the blonde teacher in her fifth "appearance" after she was also drawn in [[442: xkcd Loves the Discovery Channel]].

Later, her name is used again without her being present, except on the phone in [[704: Principle of Explosion]]. Here, she is Mrs. Lenhart. It is possible that this character is the mother of Miss Lenhart. Or, because she here obviously has a son, she may have been married after she was originally named Miss. This is the second time she has been mentioned to be a mother. Both Blondie and one of the other named Blondie-like characters [[Mrs. Roberts]] are shown to be mothers. In [[2808: Daytime Firefly]], the off-screen character of "{{w|Ms.}} Lenhart" is mentioned in the title text (in an imagined conversation with a male teacher) who could be this main character, if not just one or other of her relatives.

Her name is mentioned in total six times. So, the other comics with Miss Lenhart refer to a teacher with her appearance, just like [[Megan]] only has been named a few times but is still used to describe the general dark-haired woman. However, Miss Lenhart must have long blonde hair, so a teacher with her hair in a ponytail, like in [[982: Set Theory]], is not Miss Lenhart but [[Ponytail]], even though the teaching method reminds of the one in [[1724: Proofs]] with Miss Lenhart.
{{navbox-characters}}
[[Category:Characters]]
[[Category:Minor characters]]

Miss Lenhart

2026-05-09T16:09:04Z

FaviFake: unnecessary

{{Infobox character
| image = Blondie.png
| imagesize = 200px
| caption = '
| first_appearance = [[59: Graduation]]
}}

<noinclude>:''For a list of comics, see [[:Category:Comics featuring Miss Lenhart|Comics featuring Miss Lenhart]].''
:''For the generic Miss Lenhart, see [[Blondie]].''</noinclude>

'''Miss Lenhart''' is a [[stick figure]] character in [[xkcd]]. She is most often used as a math teacher and a [[:Category:News anchor|news anchor]], but is often featured in the background of other comics when Randall needs additional characters. Like most other xkcd characters, she does not necessarily represent the same character from comic to comic. She is distinguished by her long blonde hair. In [[1817: Incognito Mode]], her hair is significantly more detailed.

==Roles==

Miss Lenhart is mainly just another woman that [[Randall]] can use when he wishes to give a woman a specific characteristic so to set her aside from the more commonly used women [[Megan]] and [[Ponytail]]. The hacker [[Mrs. Roberts]] is another [[:Category:Minor characters|minor characters]] who has the same appearance as Miss Lenhart.

===Math teacher===
[[File:Miss lenhart.png|thumb|200px|Miss Lenhart as a math teacher]]
Miss Lenhart is the go-to character when [[Randall]] needs a teacher. There are several cases where Miss Lenhart is described as a math teacher. Her name is used in this context in her first comic [[135: Substitute]], and she is both named and drawn in [[1050: Forgot Algebra]] as a math teacher. She is also teaching mathematics in [[263: Certainty]], [[622: Haiku Proof]], [[1724: Proofs]], and [[2605: Taylor Series]].

Her career appears to closely follow the trajectory of a public-school math teacher at either the middle or high school level as teachers become subject specific at that point. Teacher's lounges and substitutes are also features of the North American secondary school system. In [[1519: Venus]] and [[803: Airfoil]] she is seen teaching two non-math science related classes, which is something else that happens in American schools due to a general shortage of qualified STEM teachers.

In [[1519: Venus]], it is confirmed that Miss Lenhart is one month away from retirement (which is shown to result in taking her teaching duties less seriously. Being forced to teach outside her subject matter expertise (Earth/Environmental Science instead of Math) may have factored into her decision, but regardless, public sector teachers in the United States generally still earn pensions and are able to retire earlier than other workers.

After [[1519: Venus]], we see Miss Lenhart transition to college level material such as [[2028: Complex Numbers]], [[2545: Bayes%27 Theorem]], [[2560: Confounding Variables]] and [[2283: Exa-Exabyte]]. If she did in fact retire early from public secondary school education, it would be possible for her to supplement her pension as an adjunct professor teaching college level science and math courses at a community or state institution of higher education, despite teaching grammar in [[3229: Grammar]].

In some early comics, such as [[435: Purity]] and [[599: Apocalypse]], a mathematician looking like Blondie could possibly be a representation of Miss Lenhart. But so far, they have not been included, as Miss Lenhart as Blondie is not clearly depicted as a teacher (or with name) in these comics.

===News anchor===
[[File:Miss Lenhart as a news anchor.png|thumb|200px|Miss Lenhart as a news anchor]]
[[Cueball]] and Miss Lenhart are the most used character for presenting news reports in the role of a news anchor, but [[:Category:News anchor|Cueball is used more often than her]].

===Mother===
Blondie appears to be the wife of a Cueball-like character in [[275: Thoughts]]. In [[416: Zealous Autoconfig]] and [[342: 1337: Part 2]], both Miss Lenhart and Mrs. Roberts are portrayed as mothers with at least two children. Miss Lenhart is also depicted as a mother in a few other comics, such as:
*[[200: Bill Nye]], with two boys.
*[[275: Thoughts]], having a daughter.
*[[946: Family Decals]], left family wagon with three children, two boys and a girl.
*[[1608: Hoverboard]], [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/ae/1608_0970x1077y_Kite_and_weird_bug.png next to the volcano] where she is with her daughter. The boy might be the daughter's friend or her brother.

==Name==
Miss Lenhart is a minor character in xkcd, but has had several appearances without ever being named in general. In fact, she has only been named twice where she actually appears. The first time she's named is in her second appearance, [[135: Substitute]]. The first time she is both drawn and mentioned by name is in [[499: Scantron]], and the only other time (so far by comic 1731) is in [[1050: Forgot Algebra]]. But her name was used before for a not-shown teacher in [[135: Substitute]], which is why it makes sense to call the math teacher in [[263: Certainty]] Miss Lenhart. That would thus make it the first time she appeared as a character in a comic.

Her family name is again the only thing used in [[416: Zealous Autoconfig]], although there it does not directly say that she is a teacher. While school is mentioned, it is for her children. Thus, the name is first connected directly to the blonde teacher in her fifth "appearance" after she was also drawn in [[442: xkcd Loves the Discovery Channel]].

Later, her name is used again without her being present, except on the phone in [[704: Principle of Explosion]]. Here, she is Mrs. Lenhart. It is possible that this character is the mother of Miss Lenhart. Or, because she here obviously has a son, she may have been married after she was originally named Miss. This is the second time she has been mentioned to be a mother. Both Blondie and one of the other named Blondie-like characters [[Mrs. Roberts]] are shown to be mothers. In [[2808: Daytime Firefly]], the off-screen character of "{{w|Ms.}} Lenhart" is mentioned in the title text (in an imagined conversation with a male teacher) who could be this main character, if not just one or other of her relatives.

Her name is mentioned in total six times. So, the other comics with Miss Lenhart refer to a teacher with her appearance, just like [[Megan]] only has been named a few times but is still used to describe the general dark-haired woman. However, Miss Lenhart must have long blonde hair, so a teacher with her hair in a ponytail, like in [[982: Set Theory]], is not Miss Lenhart but [[Ponytail]], even though the teaching method reminds of the one in [[1724: Proofs]] with Miss Lenhart.
{{navbox-characters}}
[[Category:Characters]]
[[Category:Minor characters]]

Miss Lenhart

2026-05-09T16:08:45Z

FaviFake: fix

{{Infobox character
| image = Blondie.png
| imagesize = 200px
| caption = '
| first_appearance = [[59: Graduation]]
}}

<noinclude>:''For a list of comics, see [[:Category:Comics featuring Miss Lenhart|Comics featuring Miss Lenhart]].''
:''For the generic Miss Lenhart, see [[Blondie]].''</noinclude>

'''Miss Lenhart''' is a [[stick figure]] character in [[xkcd]]. She is most often used as a math teacher and a [[:Category:News anchor|news anchor]], but is often featured in the background of other comics when Randall needs additional characters. Like most other xkcd characters, she does not necessarily represent the same character from comic to comic.

==Appearance==
She is distinguished by her long blonde hair. In [[1817: Incognito Mode]], her hair is significantly more detailed.

==Roles==

Miss Lenhart is mainly just another woman that [[Randall]] can use when he wishes to give a woman a specific characteristic so to set her aside from the more commonly used women [[Megan]] and [[Ponytail]]. The hacker [[Mrs. Roberts]] is another [[:Category:Minor characters|minor characters]] who has the same appearance as Miss Lenhart.

===Math teacher===
[[File:Miss lenhart.png|thumb|200px|Miss Lenhart as a math teacher]]
Miss Lenhart is the go-to character when [[Randall]] needs a teacher. There are several cases where Miss Lenhart is described as a math teacher. Her name is used in this context in her first comic [[135: Substitute]], and she is both named and drawn in [[1050: Forgot Algebra]] as a math teacher. She is also teaching mathematics in [[263: Certainty]], [[622: Haiku Proof]], [[1724: Proofs]], and [[2605: Taylor Series]].

Her career appears to closely follow the trajectory of a public-school math teacher at either the middle or high school level as teachers become subject specific at that point. Teacher's lounges and substitutes are also features of the North American secondary school system. In [[1519: Venus]] and [[803: Airfoil]] she is seen teaching two non-math science related classes, which is something else that happens in American schools due to a general shortage of qualified STEM teachers.

In [[1519: Venus]], it is confirmed that Miss Lenhart is one month away from retirement (which is shown to result in taking her teaching duties less seriously. Being forced to teach outside her subject matter expertise (Earth/Environmental Science instead of Math) may have factored into her decision, but regardless, public sector teachers in the United States generally still earn pensions and are able to retire earlier than other workers.

After [[1519: Venus]], we see Miss Lenhart transition to college level material such as [[2028: Complex Numbers]], [[2545: Bayes%27 Theorem]], [[2560: Confounding Variables]] and [[2283: Exa-Exabyte]]. If she did in fact retire early from public secondary school education, it would be possible for her to supplement her pension as an adjunct professor teaching college level science and math courses at a community or state institution of higher education, despite teaching grammar in [[3229: Grammar]].

In some early comics, such as [[435: Purity]] and [[599: Apocalypse]], a mathematician looking like Blondie could possibly be a representation of Miss Lenhart. But so far, they have not been included, as Miss Lenhart as Blondie is not clearly depicted as a teacher (or with name) in these comics.

===News anchor===
[[File:Miss Lenhart as a news anchor.png|thumb|200px|Miss Lenhart as a news anchor]]
[[Cueball]] and Miss Lenhart are the most used character for presenting news reports in the role of a news anchor, but [[:Category:News anchor|Cueball is used more often than her]].

===Mother===
Blondie appears to be the wife of a Cueball-like character in [[275: Thoughts]]. In [[416: Zealous Autoconfig]] and [[342: 1337: Part 2]], both Miss Lenhart and Mrs. Roberts are portrayed as mothers with at least two children. Miss Lenhart is also depicted as a mother in a few other comics, such as:
*[[200: Bill Nye]], with two boys.
*[[275: Thoughts]], having a daughter.
*[[946: Family Decals]], left family wagon with three children, two boys and a girl.
*[[1608: Hoverboard]], [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/ae/1608_0970x1077y_Kite_and_weird_bug.png next to the volcano] where she is with her daughter. The boy might be the daughter's friend or her brother.

==Name==
Miss Lenhart is a minor character in xkcd, but has had several appearances without ever being named in general. In fact, she has only been named twice where she actually appears. The first time she's named is in her second appearance, [[135: Substitute]]. The first time she is both drawn and mentioned by name is in [[499: Scantron]], and the only other time (so far by comic 1731) is in [[1050: Forgot Algebra]]. But her name was used before for a not-shown teacher in [[135: Substitute]], which is why it makes sense to call the math teacher in [[263: Certainty]] Miss Lenhart. That would thus make it the first time she appeared as a character in a comic.

Her family name is again the only thing used in [[416: Zealous Autoconfig]], although there it does not directly say that she is a teacher. While school is mentioned, it is for her children. Thus, the name is first connected directly to the blonde teacher in her fifth "appearance" after she was also drawn in [[442: xkcd Loves the Discovery Channel]].

Later, her name is used again without her being present, except on the phone in [[704: Principle of Explosion]]. Here, she is Mrs. Lenhart. It is possible that this character is the mother of Miss Lenhart. Or, because she here obviously has a son, she may have been married after she was originally named Miss. This is the second time she has been mentioned to be a mother. Both Blondie and one of the other named Blondie-like characters [[Mrs. Roberts]] are shown to be mothers. In [[2808: Daytime Firefly]], the off-screen character of "{{w|Ms.}} Lenhart" is mentioned in the title text (in an imagined conversation with a male teacher) who could be this main character, if not just one or other of her relatives.

Her name is mentioned in total six times. So, the other comics with Miss Lenhart refer to a teacher with her appearance, just like [[Megan]] only has been named a few times but is still used to describe the general dark-haired woman. However, Miss Lenhart must have long blonde hair, so a teacher with her hair in a ponytail, like in [[982: Set Theory]], is not Miss Lenhart but [[Ponytail]], even though the teaching method reminds of the one in [[1724: Proofs]] with Miss Lenhart.
{{navbox-characters}}
[[Category:Characters]]
[[Category:Minor characters]]

2569: Hypothesis Generation

2026-05-09T16:06:00Z

FaviFake:

{{comic
| number = 2569
| date = January 17, 2022
| title = Hypothesis Generation
| image = hypothesis_generation.png
| titletext = Frazzled scientists are requesting that everyone please stop generating hypotheses for a little bit while they work through the backlog.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Miss Lenhart]] is teaching a {{w|science}} class and starts by formulating the fact that to perform any science you need to generate a {{w|hypothesis}} in order to test it.

The front row student, [[Cueball]] (presumably the rest of the students in the class are off panel), is thus prompted to ask the salient question of how one finds an original hypothesis. By using a clever prompting question in reply, Miss Lenhart allows the student to discover the answer himself. In typical Miss Lenhart fashion she is a bit rude, interrupting him before he can even formulate his thoughts. But the idea that he even has gotten an idea to share is proof that he has made a hypothesis about how to generate a hypothesis. This does not, however, answer how he did it, but now he knows he can do it.

This approach may not have worked with less eager/capable students, so it highlights the strengths of both the student and the teacher - and that she had a good understanding of the student's ability to reason this out with just the barest of guidance. Or perhaps it is [[1856: Existence Proof|just]] [[1519: Venus|another]] [[2487: Danger Mnemonic|prank]] by [[Miss Lenhart]].

The key aspect being conveyed in this simple exchange is that one of the many good practices in science (no matter the aspect, though the specifics may change according to the precise field of study) is that one should first have an idea of what you can test and ''then'' perform the test to confirm (or rule out) your idea.

In the title text the joke is that it is thus very easy to make hypotheses and thus everyone makes them all the time, so there are numerous ones to test. And the now frazzled scientists that are trying to work their way through them request that everyone stop making new hypotheses until they have worked their way through the huge backlog of untested hypotheses already made.

==Transcript==
:[Miss Lenhart stands in front of a blackboard with various unreadable scribbles, gesturing towards it with a pointer.]
:Miss Lenhart: To do science, you generate a hypothesis, then test it.

:[Cueball is sitting at a desk, raising his hand.]
:Cueball: But how do you generate a hypothesis?

:[Miss Lenhart now stands in front of Cueball's desk, she is holding down the pointer and Cueball has his hands on his legs.]
:Miss Lenhart: Great question. How do '''''you''''' think you do it?
:Cueball: Well, maybe you -
:Miss Lenhart: And there you have it!

==Trivia==
This was the fourth comic to come out after the [[Countdown in header text]] started.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Miss Lenhart]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Science]]

Miss Lenhart

2026-05-09T16:05:05Z

FaviFake: given the proposal made at the community portal, i'm merging Blondie and Miss Lenhart, just like Cutie and Megan

{{Infobox character
| image = Blondie.png
| imagesize = 200px
| caption = '
| first_appearance = [[135: Substitute]]
}}

<noinclude>:''For a list of comics, see [[:Category:Comics featuring Miss Lenhart|Comics featuring Miss Lenhart]].''
:''For the generic Miss Lenhart, see [[Blondie]].''</noinclude>

'''Miss Lenhart''' is a [[stick figure]] character in [[xkcd]]. She is most often used as a math teacher and a [[:Category:News anchor|news anchor]], but is often featured in the background of other comics when Randall needs additional characters. Like most other xkcd characters, she does not necessarily represent the same character from comic to comic.

==Appearance==
She is distinguished by her long blonde hair. In [[1817: Incognito Mode]], her hair is significantly more detailed.

==Roles==

Miss Lenhart is mainly just another woman that [[Randall]] can use when he wishes to give a woman a specific characteristic so to set her aside from the more commonly used women [[Megan]] and [[Ponytail]]. The hacker [[Mrs. Roberts]] is another [[:Category:Minor characters|minor characters]] who has the same appearance as Miss Lenhart.

===Math teacher===
[[File:Miss lenhart.png|thumb|200px|Miss Lenhart as a math teacher]]
Miss Lenhart is the go-to character when [[Randall]] needs a teacher. There are several cases where Miss Lenhart is described as a math teacher. Her name is used in this context in her first comic [[135: Substitute]], and she is both named and drawn in [[1050: Forgot Algebra]] as a math teacher. She is also teaching mathematics in [[263: Certainty]], [[622: Haiku Proof]], [[1724: Proofs]], and [[2605: Taylor Series]].

Her career appears to closely follow the trajectory of a public-school math teacher at either the middle or high school level as teachers become subject specific at that point. Teacher's lounges and substitutes are also features of the North American secondary school system. In [[1519: Venus]] and [[803: Airfoil]] she is seen teaching two non-math science related classes, which is something else that happens in American schools due to a general shortage of qualified STEM teachers.

In [[1519: Venus]], it is confirmed that Miss Lenhart is one month away from retirement (which is shown to result in taking her teaching duties less seriously. Being forced to teach outside her subject matter expertise (Earth/Environmental Science instead of Math) may have factored into her decision, but regardless, public sector teachers in the United States generally still earn pensions and are able to retire earlier than other workers.

After [[1519: Venus]], we see Miss Lenhart transition to college level material such as [[2028: Complex Numbers]], [[2545: Bayes%27 Theorem]], [[2560: Confounding Variables]] and [[2283: Exa-Exabyte]]. If she did in fact retire early from public secondary school education, it would be possible for her to supplement her pension as an adjunct professor teaching college level science and math courses at a community or state institution of higher education, despite teaching grammar in [[3229: Grammar]].

In some early comics, such as [[435: Purity]] and [[599: Apocalypse]], a mathematician looking like Blondie could possibly be a representation of Miss Lenhart. But so far, they have not been included, as Miss Lenhart as Blondie is not clearly depicted as a teacher (or with name) in these comics.

===News anchor===
[[File:Miss Lenhart as a news anchor.png|thumb|200px|Miss Lenhart as a news anchor]]
[[Cueball]] and Miss Lenhart are the most used character for presenting news reports in the role of a news anchor, but [[:Category:News anchor|Cueball is used more often than her]].

===Mother===
Blondie appears to be the wife of a Cueball-like character in [[275: Thoughts]]. In [[416: Zealous Autoconfig]] and [[342: 1337: Part 2]], both Miss Lenhart and Mrs. Roberts are portrayed as mothers with at least two children. Miss Lenhart is also depicted as a mother in a few other comics, such as:
*[[200: Bill Nye]], with two boys.
*[[275: Thoughts]], having a daughter.
*[[946: Family Decals]], left family wagon with three children, two boys and a girl.
*[[1608: Hoverboard]], [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/ae/1608_0970x1077y_Kite_and_weird_bug.png next to the volcano] where she is with her daughter. The boy might be the daughter's friend or her brother.

==Name==
Miss Lenhart is a minor character in xkcd, but has had several appearances without ever being named in general. In fact, she has only been named twice where she actually appears. The first time she is both drawn and mentioned by name is in [[499: Scantron]], and the only other time (so far by comic 1731) is in [[1050: Forgot Algebra]]. But her name was used before for a not-shown teacher in [[135: Substitute]], which is why it makes sense to call the math teacher in [[263: Certainty]] Miss Lenhart. That would thus make it the first time she appeared as a character in a comic.

Her family name is again the only thing used in [[416: Zealous Autoconfig]], although there it does not directly say that she is a teacher. While school is mentioned, it is for her children. Thus, the name is first connected directly to the blonde teacher in her fifth "appearance" after she was also drawn in [[442: xkcd Loves the Discovery Channel]].

Later, her name is used again without her being present, except on the phone in [[704: Principle of Explosion]]. Here, she is Mrs. Lenhart. It is possible that this character is the mother of Miss Lenhart. Or, because she here obviously has a son, she may have been married after she was originally named Miss. This is the second time she has been mentioned to be a mother. Both Blondie and one of the other named Blondie-like characters [[Mrs. Roberts]] are shown to be mothers. In [[2808: Daytime Firefly]], the off-screen character of "{{w|Ms.}} Lenhart" is mentioned in the title text (in an imagined conversation with a male teacher) who could be this main character, if not just one or other of her relatives.

Her name is mentioned in total six times. So, the other comics with Miss Lenhart refer to a teacher with her appearance, just like [[Megan]] only has been named a few times but is still used to describe the general dark-haired woman. However, Miss Lenhart must have long blonde hair, so a teacher with her hair in a ponytail, like in [[982: Set Theory]], is not Miss Lenhart but [[Ponytail]], even though the teaching method reminds of the one in [[1724: Proofs]] with Miss Lenhart.
{{navbox-characters}}
[[Category:Characters]]
[[Category:Minor characters]]

Blondie

2026-05-09T16:04:54Z

FaviFake: given the proposal made at the community portal, i'm merging Blondie and Miss Lenhart, just like Cutie and Megan

#REDIRECT [[Miss Lenhart]]

File:Miss Lenhart as a news anchor.png

2026-05-09T16:02:50Z

FaviFake:

== Licensing ==
{{XKCD file derived}}

135: Substitute

2026-05-09T15:53:12Z

FaviFake: /* Trivia */

{{comic
| number = 135
| date = July 31, 2006
| title = Substitute
| image = substitute.png
| titletext = YOU THINK THIS IS FUNNY?
}}

==Explanation==
This comic refers to the film ''{{w|Jurassic Park (film)|Jurassic Park}}'', a 1993 movie based on the 1990 novel by {{w|Michael Crichton}}. The film centers around a billionaire who bought an island and opened a zoo or theme park for dinosaurs that he has cloned from DNA recovered from blood found in fossilized mosquitoes. After a computer programmer shuts down the security systems to steal embryos for a rival company, several of the creatures, among which are the {{w|velociraptor}}s subject of this comic, run loose and try to devour every human in the theme park.

Velociraptors (often shortened to "raptors") are a species of relatively small, carnivorous {{w|dinosaur}} that play a central role in the original film, as well as its sequels. In the film, packs of Velociraptors antagonize the main characters at various points, even entering buildings. According to newer researches, the Velociraptors in the film were erroneously based on the {{w|Utahraptor}} species of dinosaur. Unlike the movie, in which they are depicted as having a reptilian skin, both species of dinosaur in reality are theorized to have been feathered. The word "raptor" also refers to modern {{w|Bird of prey|birds of prey}}.

[[Randall Munroe|Randall]] is asked to substitute for [[Miss Lenhart]] in math class. The first page of the test he devises contains three questions, which have the recurring theme of humans running from said velociraptors. For the answers, see below. As Randall says in the comic: "This material is more vital than anything you've ever learned," the joke being that Randall is somehow fearful that such a thing could happen. Velociraptors, and in particular, the irrational fear of being attacked by them in the modern world, [[:Category:Velociraptors|appear several times]] in [[xkcd]]. This is the second such instance; the first is [[87: Velociraptors]].

Answers to the first two questions [http://fora.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=120&start=40 used to be found] on the forum board, until it was shut down. The link is now defunct, but there's an [https://web.archive.org/web/20150326152959/http://fora.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=120&start=40 archived version]:
*The first is 37.30 meters.
*If the raptors at each instant move towards the current position of the person, the second answer is 57.19 degrees to either side of the wounded raptor.
*If the raptors' trajectories are optimal for catching the person as quickly as possible, the second answer is 59.83 degrees to either side of the wounded raptor.

In the title text, Randall asks the kids whether they find this possibility humorous (and they rightfully should, considering that the chances of such a thing occurring are astronomically low).{{cn}}

==Transcript==
:[In a classroom, the board says "Math" on the top-left corner, and "Mr. Munroe" in the middle. A Cueball portrays Randall, standing in front of it, speaking to the class.]
:Randall: Miss Lenhart couldn't be here today, so she asked me to substitute.
:Randall: I've put out your tests. Please get started.

:[A Kidball student in the first row raises the exam paper and says:]
:Kidball: Mr. Munroe, Miss Lenhart never taught us this.

:Randall: That's because Miss Lenhart doesn't understand how important certain kinds of math are.
:Kidball: But this just looks--
:Randall: This material is more vital than anything you've ever learned
:Kidball: But--
:Randall: No buts.

:Randall: This is a matter of life and death.

:[Excerpt from the exam paper.]
:<tt>Name: _________</tt>

:[A stick figure is standing, hands over head. A velociraptor is running towards it.]

:<tt>1. The velociraptor spots you 40 meters away and attacks, accelerating at 4 m/s^2 to its top speed of 25 m/s. When it spots you, you begin to flee, quickly reaching your top speed of 6 m/s. How far can you get before you're caught and devoured?</tt>

:<tt>2. You're at the center of a 20m equilateral triangle with a raptor at each corner. The top raptor has a wounded leg and is limited to a top speed of 10 m/s.</tt>

:[A stick figure is shown in the above situation. The picture has a legend "<tt>(Not to scale).</tt>"]

:<tt>The raptors will run toward you. At what angle should you run to maximize the time you stay alive?</tt>

:<tt>3. Raptors can open doors, but they are slowed by them. Using the floor plan on the next page, plot a route through the building, assuming raptors take 5 minutes to open the first door and halve the time for each subsequent door. Remember, raptors run at 10 m/s and they do not know fear.</tt>

==Trivia==
This is the second xkcd comic featuring [[Miss Lenhart]] and the first comic to give her a name, "Miss Lenhart".

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Miss Lenhart]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Randall Munroe]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Velociraptors]]
[[Category:Jurassic Park]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Kidball]]
[[Category:Comics with a Spanish translation]]

User:DollarStoreBa'al/WORKPAGE

2026-05-09T15:50:42Z

FaviFake: given the proposal made at the community portal, i'm merging Blondie and Miss Lenhart, just like Cutie and Megan

<big><big><big>IF YOU AREN'T DOLLARSTOREBA'AL, LEAVE NOW! IT'S A SURPRISE!!!</big></big></big>

<big><big><big><big>I MEAN IT!</big></big></big></big>

{{notice|<big><big><big><big>REMEMBER: ALWAYS PUT ON THE MOTIVATIONAL PLAYLIST BEFORE WORKING</big></big></big></big>}}
{{notice2|<big><big><big><big>ADD MORE SONGS TO THE PLAYLIST</big></big></big></big>}}
==Header Texts==
{| class="sortable wikitable"
! scope="col" data-sort-type="number" |Date & Comic
! scope="col" data-sort-type="text" |Header text
! scope="col" class="unsortable" |Explanation
!Purpose
|-
|Find Archive (3074)
[[3074: Push Notifications]]
|{{Header text|{{{1|Today's comic was created with [http://github.com/cotrone {{Header link|Kevin Controne]}}, [https://chromakode.com {{Header link|Max Goodhart]}},<br> [https://www.instagram.com/fading_interest/ {{Header link|Patrick]}}, [https://github.com/benley {{Header link|Benjamin Staffin]}}, [http://burningcandle.io/ {{Header link|Conor Stokes]}}, and [https://github.com/ayust {{Header link|Amber]}}.}}}}}
|This comic's header text gives credit to those who helped Randall create 2025's April Fools' Day comic. Each link takes you to the person's social media page, GitHub page, or personal website. At the time of writing (October 2025), this is the only comic to have a unique header text past comic #3000, meaning it's been over half a year since a comic has had a unique header.
|style="background-color: #db00d4;" | Credits
|-
|[https://web.archive.org/web/20240711000851/https://xkcd.com/ 2024-07-11]
[[2957: A Crossword Puzzle]]
|{{Header text|Today's comic accidentally inspired by <br>
[https://www.buttersafe.com/2011/02/17/crosswords/ {{Header link|this Buttersafe comic] {{Header text|from 2011!}}}}}}
|This comic's header mentions that it was 'accidentally inspired' by [https://www.buttersafe.com/2011/02/17/crosswords/ a Buttersafe comic]. It is assumed, but not confirmed, that the custom text was on the front page until the next comic, [[2958]], was published. The header text makes it clear that not only is he a fan of Buttersafe (as shown in the [[Design_of_xkcd.com#Comics_I_enjoy|Comics I enjoy]] section of [xkcd.com]), but he also did not know of the existence of this comic until after it was published. This is shown with the fact that [https://web.archive.org/web/20240711000851/https://xkcd.com/ it was not shown until the next day]. This text is permanently shown with this comic. As a special situation, this header text did not replace the current global header text, but was instead added below it at the time ([[#2024-05-15_-_Special_10th_anniversary_edition_of_WHAT_IF.3F|10th anniversary for what if?]])
|style="background-color: #db00d4;" | Credits
|-
|[https://web.archive.org/web/20240406163326/https://xkcd.com/ 2024-04-06]
[[2916: Machine]]
|{{Header text|Today's comic was created with [https://chromakode.com/ Max Goodhart],<br>
[https://github.com/spyhi Ed White], [https://twitter.com/uh_oh_thats_bad Alex Garcia], [https://twitter.com/cotrone Kevin Cotrone],<br>
[http://burningcandle.io/ Conor & Ami Stokes], [https://liranuna.com/ Liran Nuna], [https://www.instagram.com/fading_interest/ Patrick],<br>
[https://manishearth.github.io/ Manish Goregaokar],

[https://github.com/benley Benjamin Staffin], [https://github.com/ayust Amber], and [https://github.com/dyfrgi Michael Leuchtenburg] with physics by [https://rapier.rs/ Rapier].}}
| This comic's header text mentions the people who helped Randall put it together. It was on the front page from Saturday 6 April 2024 until [[2917: Types of Eclipse Photo]] came out on Monday 8 April 2024. The earliest archived version of the next comic is from the following Tuesday [http://web.archive.org/web/20240409060444/https://xkcd.com/ 9 April 2024]. It is assumed that the header text changed late on Monday 8 April 2024, despite the fact that Machine was still up at that time, as shown in [https://web.archive.org/web/20240408225854/https://xkcd.com/ this archive]. When [[2917: Types of Eclipse Photo]] was released, the front page had returned to the normal header.

As seen in the text, many people were involved. Some helped with two previous [[April Fools' Day comics|April Fools' Day comics]], but there are many more involved in this comic than anything which came before it. Clicking on each person takes you to a link of their Instagram, Twitter, or the homepage of their own website/blog. In the credits, it is seen that the physics for the comic used Rapier, the Fast 2D and 3D physics engine for the {{w|Rust (programming language)| Rust programming language}}. This header text was removed from the homepage on [https://web.archive.org/web/20240409010518/https://xkcd.com/2916/ 2022-04-09], but it stayed as a permanent header for this comic.
|style="background-color: #db00d4;" | Credits
|-
|[https://web.archive.org/web/20230420203744/https://xkcd.com/ 2023-04-20]
[[2765: Escape Speed]]
|{{Header text|{{{1|Today's comic was put together with help from [https://chromakode.com/ Max Goodhart],<br>
[https://www.instagram.com/fading_interest/ Patrick Clapp],<br>
[https://amberyu.st/ Amber], [https://twitter.com/cotrone Kevin], [https://twitter.com/bstaffin Benjamin Staffin], and [https://www.aiweirdness.com/ Janelle Shane].}}}}}
|This comic's header mentions and gives thanks to the people who helped Randall put the comic together. Despite the fact the comic was supposed to be a Wednesday release according to the archives, it was on the homepage from Thursday [https://web.archive.org/web/20230420203744/https://xkcd.com/ 2023-04-20] until Friday [https://web.archive.org/web/20230421082400/https://xkcd.com/ 2023-04-21], when the next comic ([[2766: Helium Reserve]]) was released and the page returned to its normal header. This header text remains as a permanent header text for this comic.

Clicking each name takes you to their Instagram/Twitter page or the homepage of their own website/blog. Most had helped with the two previous April Fools' day comic (see below).
|style="background-color: #db00d4;" | Credits
|-
|{{notice|FIND ARCHIVE HERE}}
[[2729: Planet Killer Comet Margarita]]
|{{Header text|Today's comic was drawn for Daniel Becker, based on<br>
[https://what-if.xkcd.com/162/ his winning question] submitted to the [https://xkcd.com/what-if-2 What If? 2 contest].
|This header celebrated the winner of Randall's What If? 2 Contest, being one Daniel Becker. It mentions that the comic was based off the winning question's entry into the What If? blog.
|style="background-color: #c97fa9;" |What If? Promotion
|-
|[https://web.archive.org/web/20220401210146/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-04-01]
[[2601: Instructions]]
|{{Header text|Today's comic was created with <br>
[https://twitter.com/fadinginterest Patrick], [https://twitter.com/Aiiane Amber], [https://twitter.com/chromakode @chromakode], [https://twitter.com/dyfrgi Michael], [https://twitter.com/wirehead2501 Kat],<br>
[https://twitter.com/xDirtyPunkx Conor], [https://twitter.com/zigdon @zigdon], and [https://twitter.com/bstaffin Benjamin Staffin].}}
|This comic's header mentions and gives thanks to the people who helped Randall put it together. It was on the front page from Friday [https://web.archive.org/web/20220401210146/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-04-01] until Tuesday [https://web.archive.org/web/20220405031003/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-04-05], when [[2602: Linguistics]] came out and the front page returned to its normal header.

Clicking on each of the names takes you to the person's Instagram/Twitter page. Five also helped with the previous April Fools' Day comic.

Because this header was only related to 2601, it was removed from the frontpage header, but it stayed up as a permanent header on this specific comic.
|style="background-color: #db00d4;" | Credits
|-
|[https://web.archive.org/web/20210401232108/https://xkcd.com/ 2021-04-01]
[[2445: Checkbox]]
|{{Header text|This comic was put together by <br>
[https://chromakode.com/ Max Goodhart], [https://twitter.com/fadinginterest Patrick], [https://twitter.com/Aiiane Amber], [https://twitter.com/bstaffin Benjamin Staffin], <br>
[https://twitter.com/cotrone Kevin Cotrone], [https://twitter.com/wirehead2501 Kat], and [https://twitter.com/dyfrgi Michael Leuchtenburg].}}
|This comic's header mentions and gives thanks to the people who helped put it together. It was on the front page from Thursday [https://web.archive.org/web/20210401232108/https://xkcd.com/ 2021-04-01] until [[2446: Spike Proteins]] released Monday [https://web.archive.org/web/20210405130031/http://xkcd.com/ 2021-04-05].

Each person has a link to their name, the first being a personal homepage, and the other six linking to their Twitter accounts. Five of these people also helped with the previous April Fools' Day comic.

Because this header is related only to this comic, it was removed from the front page and continued as a permanent header text for this comic.
|style="background-color: #db00d4" | Credits
|-
|[https://web.archive.org/web/20200404014814/http://xkcd.com/#-370,-277 2020-04-04]
[[2288: Collector's Edition]]
|{{Header text|Today's comic was put together by <br>
[https://chromakode.com/ Max Goodhart], [https://twitter.com/Aiiane Amber], [https://twitter.com/bstaffin Benjamin Staffin], [https://twitter.com/cotrone Kevin],<br>
[https://www.instagram.com/fading_interest/ @fading_interest], [https://twitter.com/wirehead2501 Kat], [https://twitter.com/zigdon @zigdon], and Christopher Night.}}
|This comic's header mentions and gives thanks to the people who helped Randall put it together. It was only on the front page for about 1 day, around the 3rd or [https://web.archive.org/web/20200404014814/http://xkcd.com/#-370,-277 4th of April] 2020, the day before [[2289: Scenario 4]] came out, and the header text returned to normal.

Each name credited has either a personal homepage or a Twitter profile, except for the last name, which isn't linked.

As this header text was only relevant to this comic, it was removed as the front page header and stayed as a permanent header to this comic.
|style="background-color: #db00d4" | Credits
|-
|[http://web.archive.org/web/20171214171157/https://xkcd.com/ 2017-12-14]
[[1928: Seven Years]]
|{{Header text| Becky Beaton, sister of fellow cartoonist Kate Beaton,<br>
has also been diagnosed with cancer.

You can support her treatment [https://www.youcaring.com/beckybeaton-1008390 here].}}
|This text was released as a response to the cancer diagnosis of Becky Beaton, the sister of {{w|Kate Beaton}}, the author of the webcomic [http://www.harkavagrant.com/ Hark! A Vagrant]. Although this is not on Randall's list of ''[[Design_of_xkcd.com#Comics_I_enjoy|Comics he enjoys]]'', he is clearly influenced by a cancer diagnosis among someone in his creative field.

Despite the fact that the support page was discontinued, this text continues to stay on this comic. Making this weirder is the fact that Randall has previously done something similar for another friend, Emily, but [[#2014-11-27_-_Help_Emily|that header]] was not made permanent.
|style="background-color: #7869ff" | Fundraiser
|-
|{{notice|ARCHIVES WOOO!!}}
[[1975: Right Click]]
|{{Header text|A number of people collaborated to build this comic, including<br>
[https://chromakode.com/ @chromakode], [https://twitter.com/aiiane/ Amber] [https://twitter.com/fadinginterest/ @fadinginterest]<br>
[https://twitter.com/wirehead2501/ Kat], [https://twitter.com/cotrone/ Kevin], and [https://90d.ca/ Stereo].
|This comic gave credit to the people that helped Randall put together that year's April Fools' Day comic. Most contributors mentioned in this text have also helped with other comics since then. Each link in the text took you to either the contributors' social media page or their own personal website.
|style="background-color: #db00d4" | Credits
|-
|[https://web.archive.org/web/20170428041338/https://xkcd.com/ 2017-04-28]
[[1830: ISS Solar Transit 2]]
|{{Header text|Previously:}} {{Header link|[[1828: ISS Solar Transit|ISS Solar Transit]]}}
|This header links back to [[1828: ISS Solar Transit]], a comic with the same joke setup released on the Monday of the same week
|style="background-color: #ffff00" | Trans-comic link
|-
|{{notice|ARCHIVES! ARCHIVES! ARCHIVES!}}
[[1738: Moon Shapes]]
|{{Header text|Thank you to Phil Plait for the correction on #4!}}
|This header gives credit to Phil Plait, who corrected a mistake in the comic and prompted Randall to update the comic after its release.
|style="background-color: #db00d4" | Credits
|-
|[http://web.archive.org/web/20161010215516/http://xkcd.com/1723/ 2016-10-10]
[[1723: Meteorite Identification]]
|{{Header text|Note: Jolyon, founder of [http://www.mindat.org/ mindat.org], made a similar chart way before me!}}
|This Header text gives credit to Joylon, founder of [http://www.mindat.org/ mindat.org], who made a very similar comic to this long before Randall. This Header text is permanently attached to this comic.
|style="background-color: #db00d4 | Credits
|-
|[https://web.archive.org/web/20160512102325/http://xkcd.com/ 2016-05-12]
[[1679: Substitutions 3]]
|{{notice|FInd the actual text, remember the 1}}
|This comic was the third installment of the ''Substitutions'' series. As he did the same with [[#Substitutions 2|the second]], the header text is very similar.

This header text is a permanent staple of this comic.
|style="background-color: #ffff00" | Trans-comic link
|-
|[http://web.archive.org/web/20161231231600/http://xkcd.com/1663/ 2016-04-04]
[[1663: Garden]]
|{{Header text|Protip: If you don't like how your garden is growing, you can click to prune it.<br>
You can copy the URL to share your garden. From other browsers, it will be view-only.}}
|This comic had a header text to help people use the comic when it came out. It was the global header text for some time, before it disappeared from the main header and remained as the header for Garden.
|style="background-color: #00c997" | Additional Information
|-
|[https://web.archive.org/web/20160104171722/http://xkcd.com/ 2016-01-04]
[[1625: Substitutions 2]]
|{{notice|Find the actual text, remember the 1}}
|This header text was used as a link to the previous installment of the ''substitutions'' series. When [[xkcd_Header_text#Substitutions_3|Substitutions 3]], Randall made a separate header text linking to Substitutions 1 and 2. It was on the main page while the comic was up, and continues as a header text for this comic.
|style="background-color: #ffff00" | Trans-comic link
|-
|{{notice|[F]AR[T]CHIVES}}
[[1446: Landing]]
|{{Header text|{{{1|A big thank-you to [https://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/ Emily Lakdawalla] for help and advice on this comic.}}}}}
|This header gives credit to Emily Lakdawalla, who helped Randall create the comic, which was a live comic-based recreation of the landing of Philae, a probe designed by the ESA to land on Comet {{w|67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko}}. It is assumed that Emily was the reason that Randall was able to get current information about the landing so quickly.
|style="background-color: #db00d4 | Credits
|-
|{{notice|notice|notice|notice|}}
[[1127: Congress]]
|{{Header text|You can get this comic as a [https://store.xkcd.com/products/congress-poster poster]!
|This header text is the only one to be a permanent header text promoting the store. At the time of writing (November 2025), the store is offline, meaning that this link doesn't work. This is the most recent comic-specific header text to promote the xkcd store.
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|[https://web.archive.org/web/20120709045709/http://xkcd.com:80/ 2012-07-09]
[[1079: United Shapes]]
|{{Header text|There's a larger version of this map<br>
[http://xkcd.com/1079/large/ here] (Colorado is [http://xkcd.com/1079/colorado/ here]).<br>
It's also available as a [https://web.archive.org/web/20120709045709/http://store.xkcd.com/xkcd/#StateMap poster].}}
|This header was only on July 9th, 2012, the day this comic came out. The day after, every page except the front page displayed [[xkcd_Header_text#2012-07-10_-_New:_what-if.xkcd.com|a different header]].

On the 13th of July, other pages had a new version of the header above. Later, 1079 gained a special combined header text, removing the part about Colorado and consolidating the unique header text into a single sentence. The new global header text, promoting the first installment of the What if? blog, was inserted below the unique text, creating a very unique combination header. Possibly due to a bug, the What if? announcement remains on the comic to this day, despite the fact that it was a normal global header, which changed for all other pages many years ago.
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|{{notice|Put me down as 'not excited'}}
[[1052: Every Major's Terrible]]
|{{Header text|Cool--someone's already taken a crack at [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gu1VhsNOwPU/ singing this]!
|This header text promoted an attempt at someone singing the comic, which was a parody of the {{w|Major-General's Song}}. It links to a YouTube video of the attempt. As seen from the text, this header was not up with the release of the comic, but instead came out later.
|style="background-color: #00c997" | Additional Information
|-
|[https://web.archive.org/web/20120425220409/http://xkcd.com:80/ 2012-04-25]
[[1047: Approximations]]
|{{Header text|{{{1|Lots of emails mention the physicist favorite, 1 year = pi x 10<sup>7</sup> seconds.<br>
75^4 is a hair more accurate, but it's hard to top 3,141,592's elegance.}}}}}
|This comic has a permanent header text stating that many people emailed Randall about a separate approximation for the amount of seconds in a year. However, because the earliest archive already shows this text, it is unlikely that Randall actually received these emails before changing the text.

This header text was unique to this comic from the start, as other comics contained the global header text at the time of 1047's release date.
|style="background-color: #00c997" | Additional Information
|-
|[https://web.archive.org/web/20120401151639/http://xkcd.com:80/ 2012-04-01]
[[1037: Umwelt]]
|{{Header text|You can get posters, prints, and t-shirts in the [https://store.xkcd.com/ xkcd store].}}
|This comic's header text promotes the xkcd store permanently. Despite the fact that the comic was on the front page, this was a comic-exclusive header from the very beginning, as other comics had the global header text on 1037's release date.
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|[https://web.archive.org/web/20120319130702/http://xkcd.com/ 2012-03-19]
[[1031: s/keyboard/leopard/]]
|{{Header text|A helpful reader has provided an [https://userscripts.org/scripts/show/128626 s/keyboard/leopard/ user script].}}
|In response to the joke of this comic, a reader created a browser extension that replaces each instance of the word 'keyboard' with the word 'leopard'. Randall appears to have gotten this script before its official release, as it was already on the header on the day the comic was released. While the link does not go anywhere useful any longer, an archived version of the link can be accessed [https://web.archive.org/web/20120321174019/http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/128626 here].

When [[1032: Networking]] came out on [https://web.archive.org/web/20120321205835/http://xkcd.com:80/ 2012-03-21], the header text had returned to how it was before.
|style="background-color: #00c997" | Additional Information
|-
|[https://web.archive.org/web/20111229043804/http://xkcd.com:80/ 2011-12-29]
[[996: Making Things Difficult]]
|{{Header text|Some context for the cancer comics:<br>
[https://blog.xkcd.com/2011/06/30/family-illness/ https://blog.xkcd.com/2011/06/30/family-illness/]}}
|This header text links to Randall's [[Blag]], providing context for the recent comics relating to cancer. Around that time, his then-fiancee was diagnosed with Stage three Breast Cancer, which resulted in more emotional comics relating to cancer, leaving many readers confused.
|style="background-color: #00c997" | Additional Information
|-
|[https://web.archive.org/web/20120404110059/http://xkcd.com:80/980 2012-04-04]
[[980: Money]]
|{{Header text|This one was fun (and exhausting) to make.<br>
There's a poster of it in the [https://store.xkcd.com/products/money-poster store]!}}
|This header text links to the store page for this comic, containing a large poster of the comic.
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|[https://web.archive.org/web/20111115231643/http://xkcd.com:80/ 2011-11-15]
[[977: Map Projections]]
|{{Header text|It turns out Monday was Steve Waterman's birthday.<br>
His [https://web.archive.org/web/20111118003418/http://www.watermanpolyhedron.com/ site] has posters of his map,<br>
plus maybe the world's only Winkel Tripel-critiquing poetry.}}
|This header text mentions the birthday of Steve Waterman, and links to the homepage of his website.
|style="background-color: #00c997" | Additional Information
|-
|{{notice|THEY'RE COMING TO TAKE ME AWAY, HA-HAAA, THEY'RE COMING TO TAKE ME AWAY!}}
[[931: Lanes]]
|{{Header text|[https://blog.xkcd.com/2011/06/30/family-illness/ Some context].}}
|This header text gave context to the comic, which was in relation to cancer. At that point, Randall's wife was battling {{w|Breast cancer}}, so cancer was a major part of Randall's life at that point in time.
|style="background-color: #00c997" | Additional Information
|-
|{{notice|HO-HO, HEE-HEE, HA-HA}}
[[920: YouTube Parties]]
|{{Header text|Oops! It seems I [https://blog.xkcd.com/2011/07/04/oops/ wasn't the first one] to do this joke.}}
|This header text, which is very similar to the header text for [[2957: A Crossword Puzzle]], admits that Randall was accidentally inspired by a different comic which had done the same joke earlier. The link in the text took you to a blag post admitting to the accidental plagiarism.
|style="background-color: #db00d4" | Credits
|-
|{{notice|weer}}
[[896: Marie Curie]]
|{{Header text|Today's comic might be familiar to a few dozen of you. :)<br>
P.S. [https://blog.xkcd.com/2011/05/08/michael-bays-scenario/ New blag post]!}}
|This header text served two purposes. One was to give a message to those who 'might be familar' with the comic. The second was to promote a new Blag post, titled ''Michael Bay's Scenario''.
|
|-
|{{notice|Boneless Chicken}}
[[870: Advertising]]
|{{Header text|Note: This comic's filename was originally 'advertising.png'. If you<br>
couldn't see it, that was just your AdBlock zealously protecting you.}}}
|This header text let readers know about an issue with the comic not showing up that some users were experiencing. The comic was, apparently, being shown by displaying a PNG of the comic, which people's AdBlockers were mistaking for an advertisement, preventing the comic from appearing.
|style="background-color: #00c997" | Additional Information
|-
|{{notice|8,866,550}}
[[865: Nanobots]]
|{{Header text|xkcd.com now has IPv6 connectivity. If [https://test-ipv6.com/ you] can't reach it, you or your<br>
ISP have [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPv6_brokenness_and_DNS_whitelisting/ misconfigured equipment]. Sadly, I now have no way to tell you.}}
|This comic's header lets readers know that xkcd supports IPv6 (Internet Protocol Version Six) connectivity, which assigns each device with an IP address and increases the amount of possible IP addresses to over 900 Undecillion. It also tells readers that if they are unable to access that connectivity, either they or their ISP haven't configured their equipment correctly. However, Randall admits he has no way to tell readers which end has the issue.
|style="background-color: #00c997" | Additional Information
|-
|2011-01-04
[[851: Na]]
|{{Header text|I can't ''believe'' I forgot Hey Jude.<br>
I don't get do-overs, but I couldn't resist making [https://xkcd.com/851_make_it_better/ a fixed version].}}
|This header text appeared after Randall made this comic, consisting of songs known for repeating the lyric 'na'. After realizing he forgot 'Hey Jude' by {{w|The Beatles}}, he made a separate version of the comic with 'Hey Jude' included. See more in the comic's [[851:_Na#Trivia|trivia section]].
|style="background-color: #00c997" | Additional Information
|-
|{{notice|Neenannerneenannerneenannerneenanner}}
[[826: Guest Week: Zach Weiner (SMBC)]]
|{{Header text|Guest week! Today's comic is contributed by [https://www.smbc-comics.com/ Zach Weiner].<br>
Five guest comics this week! XKCD should be back to normal after that.}}
|This header text was a reminder to readers about the ongoing Guest Week, this comic being the last one before returning to normal. This header lets leaders know about who contributed to the comic and when xkcd was expected to return to normal. For this comic, the contributor was {{w|Zach Weinersmith}}, author of the webcomic {{w|Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal}}.
|style="background-color: #db00d4" | Credits
|-
|{{notice|choking on your alibis}}
[[825: Guest Week: Jeffrey Rowland (Overcompensating)]]
|{{Header text|Guest week! Today's comic is contributed by [https://overcompensating.com/ Jeffrey Rowland].<br>
Five guest comics this week! XKCD should be back to normal after that.}}
|This header text was a reminder to readers about the ongoing Guest Week, this comic being the fourth one of five. It lets the readers know who contributed and when xkcd was expected to return to normal. For this comic, the contributor was {{w|Jeffrey Rowland}}, author of the webcomic [https://www.wigucomics.com/oc/index.php?/ Overcompensating].
|style="background-color: #db00d4" | Credits
|-
|{{notice|But it's just the price I pay!}}
[[824: Guest Week: Bill Amend (FoxTrot)]]
|{{Header text|Guest week! Today's comic is contributed by [https://foxtrot.com Bill Amend].<br>
Five guest comics this week! XKCD should be back to normal after that.}}
|This header text was a reminder to readers about the ongoing Guest Week, this comic being the third one of five. It lets readers know who contributed to that comic and when xkcd was expected to return to normal. For this comic, the contributor was {{w|Bill Amend}}, author of the webcomic {{w|FoxTrot}}.
|style="background-color: #db00d4" | Credits
|-
|{{notice|not nice}}
[[823: Guest Week: David Troupes (Buttercup Festival)]]
|{{Header text|Guest week! Today's comic is contributed by [http://www.buttercupfestival.com David Troupes].<br>
Five guest comics this week! XKCD should be back to normal after that.}}
|This header text was a reminder to readers about the ongoing Guest Week, this comic being the second one of five. It lets readers know who contributed to that comic and when xkcd was expected to return to normal. For this comic, the contributor was David Troupes, author of the webcomic {{w|Buttercup Festival}}.
|style="background-color: #db00d4" | Credits
|-
|{{notice|eciton}}
[[822: Guest Week: Jeph Jacques (Questionable Content)]]
|{{Header text|Guest week! Today's comic is contributed by [https://questionablecontent.net Jeph Jacques].<br>
Five guest comics this week! XKCD should be back to normal after that.}}
|This header text was to let readers know of Guest Week, this comic being the first of five guest comics. It lets readers know who contributed to that comic and when xkcd was expected to return to normal. For this comic, the contributor was {{w|Jeph Jacques}}, author of the webcomic {{w|Questionable Content}}.
|style="background-color: #db00d4" | Credits
|-
|{{notice|meweeeeeeewrr}}
[[802: Online Communities 2]]
|{{Header text|Full view [https://xkcd.com/802_large/ here], poster [https://store.xkcd.com/products/online-communities-poster here]. Note: While I was working on this,<br>
Ethan Bloch posted [https://web.archive.org/web/20120111133638/https://www.flowtown.com/blog/the-2010-social-networking-map his own update] of my {{xkcd|256|my 2007 map}}. Check it out, too!}}
|This header text served two purposes. One was to give a larger version of the comic and also promote its poster, which could be found in the xkcd store before it was shut down. The second is to promote the fact that one Ethan Bloch had created his own update of {{xkcd|256|comic 256}}. The link above now takes you to an archive link as the original site is now defunct.
|style="background-color: #00c997" | Additional Information
|-
|[https://web.archive.org/web/20100514072436/http://xkcd.com/ 2010-05-12]
[[739: Malamanteau]]
|{{Header text| At Wikipedia's request, I release this comic under a [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/us/ cc-by-sa] license.}}
|This comic's header text mentions that this specific comic is released under a Creative Commons 3.0 license. The link in the header text goes to the page regarding the Attribution Share-Alike 3.0 United States (CC BY-SA 3.0 US) license. Normally, xkcd is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 (CC BY-NC 2.5) license.

This comic's header didn't appear until between 2 and 4 months after it was published, with the earliest archive with the custom header text being from [https://web.archive.org/web/20100913003146/http://xkcd.com/739/ September 13th].
|style="background-color: #00c997" | Additional Information
|-
|{{notice|ow}}
[[681: Gravity Wells]]
|{{Header text|Click on the comic to view the full-size version}}
|This simple header text lets readers know that, if they want a full-size version, they can click on the comic to access it.
|style="background-color: #00c997" | Additional Information
|-
|{{notice|whuiae}}
[[657: Movie Narrative Charts]]
|{{Header text|This comic is also available as a poster [https://store.xkcd.com/collections/posters/products/movie-narrative-charts-poster here]!<br>
Click on today's comic to view the full-size version!}}
|This header text served two purposes. The first was to promote the fact that the comic could be acquired as a poster in the store before it was shut down. The second purpose was to let readers know that, if they wanted a larger version of the comic, they could access it by clicking on the comic.
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|{{notice|archive find}}
[[645: RPS]]
|{{Header text|Comic today's you confuses [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_Polish_notation here] click if.}}
|This header text was a parody of the comic, being written in {{w|Reverse Polish notation}}. In normal notation, it would be read as 'Click here if today's comic confuses you', with the word 'here' linking to the Wikipedia page for Reverse Polish notation.
|style="background-color: #00c997" | Additional Information
|-
|{{notice|skamteboard}}
[[580: The Race: Part 4]]
|{{Header text| For this week, xkcd will update once a day (through Friday).}}
|This header text let readers know that, for that week only, a new comic would be released every day instead of the normal Monday/Wednesday/Friday schedule due to the 'The Race' series of comics. This comic was the last comic in the series and was released on a Thursday.
|style="background-color: #63f2b0" | Comic Series
|-
|{{notice|skamteboard 2}}
[[579: The Race: Part 3]]
|{{Header text| For this week, xkcd will update once a day (through Friday).}}
|This header text let readers know that, for that week only, a new comic would be released every day instead of the normal Monday/Wednesday/Friday schedule due to the 'The Race' series of comics. This comic was the third comic in the series, and was released on the normal release date of Wednesday.
|style="background-color: #63f2b0" | Comic Series
|-
|{{notice|skamteboard 3}}
[[578: The Race: Part 2]]
|{{Header text| For this week, xkcd will update once a day (through Friday).}}
|This header text let readers know that, for that week only, a new comic would be released every day instead of the normal Monday/Wednesday/Friday schedule due to the 'The Race' series of comics. This comic was the second installment in the series, being released on a Tuesday. This comic was also where the '(through Friday)' portion of the header got added. It's possible that people got confused and assumed that Randall would release 7 comics over 7 days, when he would actually be only releasing comics every day until Friday.
|style="background-color: #63f2b0" | Comic Series
|-
|{{notice|skamteboard 4}}
[[577: The Race: Part 1]]
|{{Header text| For this week, xkcd will update once a day.}}
|This header text let readers know that, for that week only, a new comic would be released every day instead of the normal Monday/Wednesday/Friday schedule due to the 'The Race' series of comics. This comic was the first installment in the series, and was released on a Monday
|style="background-color: #63f2b0" | Comic Series
|-
|{{notice|Those is great pants!}}
[[563: Fermirotica]]
|{{Header text|There are xkcd prints available in the [https://store.xkcd.com/ store].<br>
[https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=sqrt(2%2F(pi*18000%2F(mi^2)*80%2Fyear*30+minutes) Example Google sex calculation]
|This header served two purposes. It promoted the fact that you could get xkcd prints in the xkcd store before it was shut down, and also gave an example of the content shown in the comic.
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|[https://web.archive.org/web/20081014232952/http://xkcd.com/ 2008-10-13]
[[488: Steal This Comic]]
|{{Header text|{{{1|Note: the [https://www.amazon.com/MP3-Music-Download/b?ie=UTF8&node=163856011 Amazon.com MP3 store] sells DRM-free music. Kudos.}}}}}
|This comic and header text was made as a complaint of Digital Rights Management, or {{w|DRM}}. The header text makes a proclamation that the Amazon MP3 store sells DRM-free music, telling his readers how to acquire music not affected by DRM.
|style="background-color: #00c997" | Additional Information
|-
|{{notice|You're doing it again}}
[[482: Height]]
|{{Header text|This comic is available as [https://store.xkcd.com/products/height-poster a poster print].}}
|This simple header served the purpose of advertising the fact that you could get this comic as a poster in the xkcd store, before it was shut down.
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|[https://web.archive.org/web/20080906103932/http://www.xkcd.com/ 2008-09-05]
[[472: House of Pancakes|472: <span style="color:blue">House</span> of Pancakes]]
|{{Header text|(Today's comic is a parody of [https://www.amazon.com/House-Leaves-Mark-Z-Danielewski/dp/0375703764 House of Leaves].)}}
|When this comic was the newest, it was shown on the front page of xkcd, as seen here the day after release on [https://web.archive.org/web/20080906103932/http://www.xkcd.com/ 2008-09-06]. However, this header was only on this comic, and the normal header returned to the front page after comic 473 was released.
|style="background-color: #db00d4" | Credits
|-
|{{notice|the right ones}}
[[442: xkcd Loves the Discovery Channel]]
|{{Header text|XKCD updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.<br>
See: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=at_f98qOGY0 Original Discovery Channel video]
|This header text serves to let the reader know of a video which they could watch, which contains the song that the comic is a parody of.
|style="background-color: #00c997" | Additional Information
|-
|{{notice|where is my Spanish rn}}
[[433: Journal 5]]
|{{Header text|XKCD updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.<br>
Previously: {{xkcd|374|Journal}}
|This header text let the reader know that this comic was part of the 'Journal' series, and encouraged them to go back to the first comic in order to see each installment of the series in order. This installment was the final one in the series.
|style="background-color: #63f2b0" | Comic Series
|-
|{{notice|Before the nouns}}
[[432: Journal 4]]
|{{Header text|XKCD updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.<br>
Previously: {{xkcd|374|Journal}}
|This header text let the reader know that this comic was part of the 'Journal' series, and encouraged them to go back to the first comic in order to see each installment of the series in order. This installment was the fourth one in the series of five.
|style="background-color: #63f2b0" | Comic Series
|-
|{{notice|This is let's write}}
[[426: Geohashing]]
|{{Header text|What is this about? See the [https://wiki.xkcd.com/geohashing/ wiki].}}
|This header text allowed the reader to do further research on the topic by linking to the official xkcd wiki, which was part of the long-defunct [[Forums]].
|style="background-color: #00c997" | Additional Information
|-
|{{notice|We will ever run out?}}
[[405: Journal 3]]
|{{Header text|XKCD updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.<br>
Previously: {{xkcd|377|Journal 2}}
|This header text let the reader know that this comic was part of the 'Journal' series. Unlike the other installments of the Journal series, this text linked to the previous installment rather than the first installment.
|style="background-color: #63f2b0" | Comic Series
|-
|{{notice|Es el diablo}]
[[343: 1337: Part 3]]
|{{Header text|For use on Wikipedia, I release this particular<br>
comic under a [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/us/ cc-by-sa] license.}}
|This header text served the purpose of letting readers know that Randall had specially released this comic under a CC BY-SA 3.0 license, allowing for the image to be uploaded to {{w|Wikipedia}}. Normally, Randall normally releases his comics under a CC BY-NC 2.5 license, which, at the time, was not allowed to be uploaded to Wikipedia.
|style="background-color: #00c997" | Additional Information
|}

{| class="sortable wikitable"
! Date & Comic
! scope="col" data-sort-type="text" style=max-width:4em |Header text
! scope="col" class="unsortable" |Explanation
! scope="col" data-sort-type="number" | Purpose
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20260401210255/https://xkcd.com/ 2026-04-16]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[3233: Make It Myself]])}}<br>until present
|{{Header text|xkcd updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.}}
|A return to the standard header text after a surprisingly long-lasting April Fools' redesign.
|style="background-color: #5c5c5c;" |Standard Header
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20260401210255/https://xkcd.com/ 2026-04-01]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[3227: Creation]])}}<br>until 2026-04-16
|{{Header text|We're pleased to announce a major update to xkcd,<br>
with new reading modes to enhance user experience.<br>
Select a mode via the menu below the comic.

Brought to you by our excellent design team:<br>
[https://github.com/ayust {{Header link|Amber]}}, [https://github.com/benley {{Header link|Benjamin Staffin]}}, and [https://github.com/cotrone {{Header link|Kevin]}}.}}
|This header text was to promote the newest April Fools' xkcd redesign. This was the first time that xkcd had had a major redesign in 16 years, when xkcd got its [[unixkcd]] redesign. Up until this point, all April Fools' events since then had only affected comics, with none affecting the CSS of the site itself. For 2026, the site finally got a redesign, with multiple different CSS styles being added to the site, including dark mode (which, among other things, flips the colors of all black-and-white comics), boat mode (which makes the page rock slightly, as if it were on a boat), greyscale mode (which converts all blacks to greys), grayscale mode (which converts all blacks to grays), and many others.
|style="background-color: #8c4271;" |April Fools' Redesign
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20260107215729/https://xkcd.com/3190/ 2026-01-07]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[3190: Tensegrity]])}}<br>until FIND.
|{{Header text|xkcd updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.}}
|A return to the standard header text. This was the first change in the header text in over a year, and the first time the header text went to the standard text after almost exactly 4 straight years of book promotions.
|style="background-color: #5c5c5c;" |Standard Header
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20241205201038/https://xkcd.com/ 2024-12-05]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[3020: Infinite Armada Chess]])}}<br>until FIND
|{{Header text|[https://xkcd.com/what-if/ Special 10th anniversary edition of WHAT IF?]—<br>
revised and annotated with brand-new illustrations<br>
and answers to important questions you never thought to ask—Out now.<br>
Order it [https://bit.ly/WhatIf10th here]!}}
|The only difference between this text and the previous global header text is the final hyphen. The first link goes to the page for the new what if? book on xkcd, with the other link going to the Harper Collins (the publisher) page for the book. This header was up for over a year, except for the one month when Randall [[#2024-10-16 - Promotion of Kamala Harris for president|endorsed Harris]] for president. This makes it the longest time that ever that the header text has been left unchanged.

Because the previous header texts as well as the [[Countdown in header text|Header text countdown]] all promoted some sort of what if? book, the header has been continuously used to promote what if? for nearly 4 years at the time of writing.
|style="background-color: #ff997d;" |Book promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20241116184702/https://xkcd.com/ 2024-11-16]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[3012: The Future of Orion]])}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20241204160618/https://xkcd.com/ 2024-12-04]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[3019: Advent Calendar Advent Calendar]])}}
|{{Header text|[https://xkcd.com/what-if/ Special 10th anniversary edition of WHAT IF?]—revised and<br>
annotated with brand-new illustrations and answers to important<br>
questions you never thought to ask—coming from November 2024. Preorder [https://bit.ly/WhatIf10th here]!}}
|The only difference between this header text and the next one was that during this time period, only preorders were available.
|style="background-color: #ff997d;" |Book promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20241017002108/https://xkcd.com/ 2024-10-17]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2999: Bad Map Projection: The United Stralia]])}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20241115181146/https://www.xkcd.com/ 2024-11-15]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[3012: The Future of Orion]])}}
|[[File:xkcd homepage strip harris for president.png|400x400px]]
|This header text was Randall's official endorsement of {{w|Kamala Harris}} for President during the {{w|2024 United States presidential election}}. He also posted the same image on his[https://x.com/xkcd/status/1853098106667114801 Twitter (formally X)] account and on his [https://bsky.app/profile/xkcd.com/post/3la2jku6ace2f Bluesky] account on November 3rd, two days before the election.

This text was up until November 11th, after the election had taken place and {{w|Donald Trump}} was declared the winner.
|style="background-color: #e875ff;" | Politics
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20240515200351/https://xkcd.com/ 2024-05-15]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2933: Elementary Physics Paths]])}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20241015192147/https://xkcd.com/ 2024-10-15]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2998: Ravioli-Shaped Objects]])}}
|{{Header text|[https://xkcd.com/what-if/ Special 10th anniversary edition of WHAT IF?]—revised and<br>
annotated with brand-new illustrations and answers to important<br>
questions you never thought to ask—coming from November 2024. Preorder [https://bit.ly/WhatIf10th here]!}}
|This text promotes the preorder of the 10th anniversary edition of the original what if? book. The first link goes to the page for the book on xkcd and the other link goes to the book's Harper Collins page (Harper Collins is the book's publisher). The same text was displayed after Randall's endorsement of Kamala Harris for president.
|style="background-color: #ff997d;" |Book promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20240320173158/https://xkcd.com/ 2024-03-20]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2909: Moon Landing Mission Profiles]])}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20240514034349/https://xkcd.com/ 2024-05-14]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2932: Driving PSA]])}}
|{{Header text|{{{1|[https://what-if.xkcd.com/ What If?] is on YouTube! The first video answers<br>
“[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LSyizrk8-0 What if we aimed Hubble at Earth?]” Follow the<br>
[https://www.youtube.com/@xkcd_whatif What If?] channel to be notified about new videos.}}}}}
|This header promotes the new what if? {{w|YouTube}} channel, in which Randall narrates a post on the what if? blog. At this point, the global header text had been promoting what if? for over two years.
|style="background-color: #f57451" |Channel promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20231129184009/https://xkcd.com/ 2023-11-29]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2861: X Value]])}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20240319134138/https://xkcd.com/ 2024-03-19]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2908: Moon Armor Index]])}}
|{{Header text|{{{1|[https://what-if.xkcd.com/ What If?] is now on YouTube!<br>
Check out the first video for the answer to<br>
“[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LSyizrk8-0 What if we aimed the Hubble Telescope at Earth?]”<br>
and follow [https://www.youtube.com/@xkcd_whatif xkcd’s What If? The Video Series channel] to be notified about each new video.}}}}}
|This header promotes the what if? YouTube channel, narrated by Randall. The first link goes to the what if? page on xkcd, and the other two go to the new YouTube channel. A small change occurred [https://web.archive.org/web/20240314113602/https://xkcd.com/ 2024-03-14], where the first two lines became one line, making the alignment worse. This new version only lasted five days before a change was made, replacing it with a different, although very similar, header text.
|style="background-color: #f57451" |Channel promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20230831200321/https://xkcd.com/ 2023-08-31]
<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2822: *@gmail.com]])}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20231128174224/https://xkcd.com/ 2023-11-28]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2860: Decay Modes]])}}
|{{Header text| What if? 2 is [https://xkcd.com/what-if-2/#UK now available] in paperback in the UK!}}
|This header text promotes the paperback version of what if? 2, notifying readers that it was available in the UK. The link goes to the page on xkcd about the what if? 2 book, and directing to the UK order link, where there was now an option to order a paperback copy.

An image was placed above the text, showing the front cover of the new book. Because this was not specifically related to what if? 2, it ended a streak of over 22 months where the header text was constantly promoting the book since the [[#2022-01-10_-_Standard_text_with_countdown|countdown]] began in January 2022.
|style="background-color: #ff997d;" |Book promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20230217185629/https://xkcd.com/ 2023-02-17]
<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2739: Data Quality]])}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20230830064414/https://xkcd.com/ 2023-08-30]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2821: Path Minimization]])}}
|[[File:Countdown in header text 0136.png|300x300px]]
|This header has no text, only an image of the front cover of the book.
|style="background-color: #ff997d;" |Book promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20220923182825/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-09-23]
<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2675: Pilot Priority List]])}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20230216181705/https://xkcd.com/ 2023-02-16]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2738: Omniknot]])}}
| [[File:what if? 2 bestseller.png|400x400px]] [[File:Countdown in header text 0136.png|200x200px]]
|This header consists of two images, with the one promoting the NYT bestseller list on the left.

This header somewhat obviously celebrates the fact that what if? 2, shortly after release, had claimed a spot on the New York Times bestseller list.
|style="background-color: #ff997d;" |Book promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20220913142432/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-09-13]
<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2672: What If? 2 Flowchart]])}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20220922150042/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-09-22]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2675: Pilot Priority List]])}}
| [[File:what if? 2 out now.png|400x400px]] [[File:Countdown in header text 0136.png|200x200px]]
|This header announces the release of Randall's what if? 2 book.

Each image is a link, which takes you to the book's page on the xkcd website.
|style="background-color: #ff997d;" |Book promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20220912125617/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-09-12]
<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2670: Interruption]])}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20220913134002/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-09-13]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2671: Rotation]])}}
|[[File:one day till what if? 2.png|400x400px]] [[File:Countdown in header text 0136.png|200x200px]]
|This header acts as a countdown for Randall's ''what if? 2'' book. This is a very similar header to what had come out just two days before, which instead displayed an image showing 3 days.

The {{w|Les Miserables}} song mentioned is ''One Day More'', which is a fitting title for a song stuck in his head.

Each image is a link, which takes you to the xkcd page for ''what if? 2''.
|style="background-color: #ff997d;" |Book promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20220911102450/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-09-11]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2670: Interruption]])}} until 2022-09-12 (during [[2670: Interruption]])
|[[File:3 days till what if? 2.png|400x400px]] [[File:Countdown in header text 0136.png|200x200px]]
|This header acts as a countdown for Randall's ''what if? 2'' book. This is a very similar header to the header showing one week. which came out 4 days beforehand, and the header showing one day, which came out just one day after this header released.

Each image is a link, both taking you to the xkcd page for the book.
|style="background-color: #ff997d;" |Book promotion
|-
|[https://web.archive.org/web/20220907211736/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-09-07]

From [https://web.archive.org/web/20220912125617/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-09-07]
<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2668: Artemis Quote]])}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20220910024549/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-09-10]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2670: Interruption]])}}
|[[File:1 week till what if? 2.png|400x400px]] [[File: Countdown in header text 0136.png|200x200px]]
|This header was the third straight header to feature a two-image design, where the countdown was on the left and the book's cover was on the right.

It promoted the soon-to-be-released ''what if? 2'' book, which had been heavily promoted for nearly two weeks up to that point.

Each image is a link, which takes you the xkcd page for the book.
|style="background-color: #ff997d;" |Book promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20220811055445/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-08-11]
<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2657: Complex Vowels]])}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20220816124823/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-08-16]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2659: Unreliable Connection]])}} and from [https://web.archive.org/web/20220827232205/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-08-27]
<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2664: Cloud Swirls]])}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20220906191403/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-09-06]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2668: Artemis Quote]])}}
|[[File:Preorder what if? 2 header.png|400x400px]] [[File: Countdown in header text 0136.png|200x200px]]
|This header text, which advertised the fact that preorders were open for ''what if? 2'', was the global header text for two different stints. Instead of this being the global header from August 11th until September 6th, it was interrupted for 9 days while Randall's book tour was ongoing.

The image to the left was a link, which took you to a [https://sites.prh.com/whatif2 what if? 2 contest]. In this contest, one contestant's question would be answered by Randall and included in the book.

The image to the right takes you to the book's dedicated page on xkcd.
|style="background-color: #ff997d;" |Book promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20220817161136/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-08-17]
<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2659: Unreliable Connection]])}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20220826202043/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-08-26]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2663: Tetherball Configurations]])}}
|[[File:what if? 2 book tour.png|400x400px]] [[File: Countdown in header text 0136.png|200x200px]]
|This header was the first header of several to consist of two distinct images, and the third straight to contain the image of the book's cover after the countdown ended.

It promotes a book tour that Randall was taking at the time, to promote ''what if? 2''. Clicking the image took you to the [https://xkcd.com/events/ events page] of xkcd. At the time, it showed you a calendar with each planned stop on the book tour marked, covering the US and London.

The image on the right takes you to ''what if? 2'''s dedicated page on xkcd.
|style="background-color: #ff997d;" |Book promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20220719153239/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-07-19]
<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2647: Capri Suns]])}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20220810034709/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-08-10]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2656: Scientific Field Prefixes]])}}
|{{Header text|Preorder What If? 2 (all US preorders eligible) and}} <br>{{Header link|[https://sites.prh.com/whatif2/ enter our contest]}}<br>{{Header text|for a chance to win a dedicated comic and What If blog post!}}[[File: Countdown in header text 0136.png|200x200px]]
|This header contains text which promotes what if? 2, which was recently made available to preorder at that time.

Clicking the link in the text takes you to a site which allowed users to compete to have their question, along with an answer, be put in the book. While this link is now defunct, you can access an archived version [https://web.archive.org/web/20220718171904/https://sites.prh.com/whatif2 here].

Clicking the image of the book's cover takes you to the book's dedicated page on xkcd.
|style="background-color: #ff997d;" |Book promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20220201000434/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-02-01]
<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2575: What If? 2]])}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20220718145816/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-07-18]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2646: Minkowski Space]])}}
|{{Header text|What If? 2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to <br>
Absurd Hypothetical Questions comes out 9/13.<br>
Preorder [https://xkcd.com/what-if-2/ here!]}} [[File: Countdown in header text 0136.png|200x200px]]
|This header text was the first header to promote ''what if? 2''. It promoted the fact that preorders were available, and that the book would come out 7 months later, on September 13th.

It also was the first of many headers promoting the book to consist of two parts, this one having some lines of text and an image of the book's cover.

This header's release coincided with multiple changes to the site, including a comic which also announced the new book and a change to the [[Design_of_xkcd.com#xkcd_links|xkcd links]] section of the site at the top-left corner. It now included links to books, and especially to this specific book.

The image of the book's cover, the link in the text, and the comic itself are all links to the book's dedicated xkcd page.
|style="background-color: #ff997d;" |Book promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20220110183238/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-10]
<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2565: Latency]])}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20220131124817/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-31]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2574: Autoresponder]])}}
|{{Header text|xkcd updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.}}

[[File: Countdown in header text full animation.gif|200x200px]]
|This header text was an image, which slowly zoomed out and moved to reveal a promotion for ''What if? 2'', along with the standard header text.

In the image, there was a countdown, which began reading '''20d 22h 0m''' and ticked down every minute until only ten minutes were left. At that point, the image began shaking, and the countdown began counting seconds until it reached zero, at which point the final frame, which showed a snapshot of the book's cover, was displayed for a few minutes before the header text updated and the next comic came out.

When viewing the archives, the countdown actually still functions, and follows the internal clock of the user's computer for 59 minutes.

For a full transcript and explanation of this header, see [[Countdown in header text]].
|style="background-color: #ff997d;" |Book promotion
|-
|[https://web.archive.org/web/20220108044654/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-08]
<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2565: Latency]])}}<br>until 2022-01-10<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2565: Latency]])}}
|{{Header text|xkcd updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.}}
|This header text was a return to the standard header text, which had not appeared as the global header since [[#2018-11-07 - Back to standard text|November 7th, 2018]], making this the longest period of time without the standard header text appearing even once.

As the [[#2022-01-10 - Standard text with countdown|countdown]] was added to it on the tenth, it was only the global header in this form for two days.
|style="background-color: #5c5c5c;" |Standard Header
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20211220211220/https://xkcd.com/ 2021-12-20]
<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2557: Immunity]])}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20220106100957/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-06]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2564: Sunshield]])}}
|{{Header text|For anyone trying to find What If? this year,<br>
it's in stock at [https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/what-if-serious-scientific-answers-to-absurd-hypothetical-questions-randall-munroe/1118864093 Barnes & Noble], [https://m.booksamillion.com/p/What-If/Randall-Munroe/9780544272996 Books-a-Million], and [https://bookshop.org/books/what-if-serious-scientific-answers-to-absurd-hypothetical-questions-9781483041827/9780544272996 Bookshop]}}
|This header text mentions the fact that, for anybody who wishes to purchase what if? for Christmas, it was in stock at multiple different book retailers. Each link is the corresponding store's link for ''[[What If? (book)|What If?]]''.
|style="background-color: #ff997d;" |Book promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20200604003700/https://xkcd.com/ 2020-06-03]
<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2315: Eventual Consistency]])}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20211219202204/https://xkcd.com/ 2021-12-19]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2556: Turing Complete]])}}
|[[File:BLM Header.png|200x200px]]
|This header promoted {{w|Black lives Matter}}, showing a single-panel comic with [[Cueball]] (possibly representing [[Randall]]), saying 'Black Lives Matter' with a grey box next to him reading '[https://www.joincampaignzero.org/ How To Help]'. However, instead of just this box being a link, the entire image is a link to joining Campaign Zero, a part of the BLM movement.

It came out shortly after the {{w|Killing of George Floyd}}, which sparked {{w|George Floyd protests|large protests in the US}} and received large amount of national and global media coverage. This header stayed for over 18 months, making this possibly the longest-staying header in xkcd history.
|style="background-color: #e875ff;" | Politics
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20200405042955/https://xkcd.com/ 2020-04-05]
<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2289: Scenario 4]])}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20200602213017/https://xkcd.com/ 2020-06-02]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2314: Carcinization]])}}
|''(no header text)''
|This was the first time that xkcd had gone without a header, especially for an extended period of time. After the previous header was removed, no header was inserted in its place, not even the standard go-to header. It stayed empty for almost two months, until the BLM header was inserted.
|style="background-color: #fffff1;" |No Header
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20200404014814/https://xkcd.com/ 2020-04-04]
<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2288: Collector's Edition]])}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20200405042955/https://xkcd.com/ 2020-04-05]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2289: Scenario 4]])}}
|{{Header text|Today's comic was put together by <br>
[https://chromakode.com/ Max Goodhart], [https://twitter.com/Aiiane Amber], [https://twitter.com/bstaffin Benjamin Staffin], [https://twitter.com/cotrone Kevin],<br>
[https://www.instagram.com/fading_interest/ @fading_interest], [https://twitter.com/wirehead2501 Kat], [https://twitter.com/zigdon @zigdon], and Christopher Night.}}
|This header text was only up for one day, and gives credit to those who put together the 2020 [[April Fools' Day comics|April Fools' Day comic]], which had taken two extra days to release due to 'technical reasons' (see the previous header). While this header was only up for one comic, and continues as a comic-specific header, this was a global header while the April Fools' comic was on the front page.

Oddly, when this header was removed after [[2289: Scenario 4]], no header came to replace it, leading to a 2-month period where there was no global header text at all.
|style="background-color: #db00d4;" | Credits
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20200402234828/https://xkcd.com/ 2020-04-02]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2287: Pathogen Resistance]])}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20200403012612/https://xkcd.com/ 2020-04-03]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2287: Pathogen Resistance]])}}
|{{Header text|Note: For technical reasons Wednesday's comic will be posted Thursday instead.}}<br>
{{Header text|Apologies for the delay!}}
|This header come directly before 2020's [[April Fools' Day comics|April Fools' Day comic]]. It apologized for the delay of the comic, stating that technical difficulties along with the overall complexity of the comic pushed its release date back one day, meaning the comic was posted on a Thursday instead of the usual Wednesday.

This comic was the first in over a year to not promote How To?, and was the first to not promote a book since [https://web.archive.org/web/20190206060904/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-02-06].

This delayed upload schedule created circumstances which made it so [[2287: Pathogen Resistance]] stayed two extra days on the front page, meaning the third comic of the week, [[2289: Scenario 4]], was uploaded [[2289:_Scenario_4#Trivia|on a Saturday]].
|style="background-color: #a4f095;" | Comic Delay
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20191122214439/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-11-22]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2232: Hotel Room Party]])}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20191201191025/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-12-01]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2235: Group Chat Rules]])}} and from [https://web.archive.org/web/20200116190038/https://xkcd.com/ 2020-01-16]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2255: Tattoo Ideas]])}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20200401221435/https://xkcd.com/ 2020-04-01]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2287: Pathogen Resistance]])}}
|[[File:How To Header.png|500x500px]]

{{Header text|{{{1|You can get it here:<br>
[https://www.amazon.com/How-Absurd-Scientific-Real-World-Problems/dp/0525537090/ Amazon], [https://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/2/trackingcode/PRH5522E62429 B&N], [https://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/6/trackingcode/penguinrandom IndieBound], [https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/how-to/id1451461524?mt=11 Apple], [https://www.audible.com/search?advsearchKeywords=How+To+Randall+Munroe&source_code=COMA0213WS031709&SID=PRHA9A5E24CFB--9780525635680 Audible], [https://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/23/trackingcode/PRH3D17167A3B Target]}}}}}
|This was the global header for two distinct stints, being interrupted by the Christmas promotion of the book. It was also the last header to promote How To, which had continuously been promoted in the global header text for over a year at that point.

It gives a quick promotion of the book in an image, followed by multiple links which take you to different websites where you can purchase the book.
|style="background-color: #ff997d;" |Book promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20191202223745/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-12-02]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2236: Is it Christmas?]])}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20200115155040/https://xkcd.com/ 2020-01-15]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2255: Tattoo Ideas]])}}
|[[File:How To Header 2.png|500x500px]]

{{Header text|{{{1|You can get it here:<br>
[https://www.amazon.com/How-Absurd-Scientific-Real-World-Problems/dp/0525537090/ Amazon], [https://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/2/trackingcode/PRH5522E62429 B&N], [https://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/6/trackingcode/penguinrandom IndieBound], [https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/how-to/id1451461524?mt=11 Apple], <br>
[https://www.audible.com/search?advsearchKeywords=How+To+Randall+Munroe&source_code=COMA0213WS031709&SID=PRHA9A5E24CFB--9780525635680 Audible], [https://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/23/trackingcode/PRH3D17167A3B Target]}}}}}
|This was the Christmas promotion of Randall's new book, How To. Despite the fact that it was solely meant to promote the book for the Christmas season, it remained up until January 16th.

This header was very similar to the previous header, with the only changes being made to the image.

Each link in the text takes you to each brand's respective page for the book.
|style="background-color: #ff997d;" |Book promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20191106204314/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-11-06]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2224: Software Updates]])}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20191122044456/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-11-22]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2231: the Time Before And After Land]])}}
|[[File:How To Header 3.png|400x400px]]

{{Header text|{{{1|[https://books.apple.com/us/audiobook/how-to-absurd-scientific-advice-for-common-real-world/id1475319694 Apple], [https://www.audiobooks.com/audiobook/how-to-absurd-scientific-advice-for-common-real-world-problems/369279 Audiobooks], [https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/How-To-Audiobook/1473680360?qid=1574679523&sr=1-1&pf_rd_p=c6e316b8-14da-418d-8f91-b3cad83c5183&pf_rd_r=DX3EZ14M14CFQPP9GHJY&ref=a_search_c3_lProduct_1_1 Audible], [https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Randall_Munroe_How_To?id=LzSGDwAAQBAJ Google Play], and [https://libro.fm/audiobooks/9780525635680 Libro.fm]}}}}}
|This header text was used to promote How To, which had come out a couple months beforehand. As always, clicking anywhere on the image takes you to the [https://www.penguinrandomhouseaudio.com/book/576760/how-to/ book's page on Penguin Random House], where you could find the audio sample.

Each of the links takes you to that brand's respective page for How To. This is also the latest header text to promote any sort of audio.
|style="background-color: #ff997d;" |Book promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20191002005854/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-10-02]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2210: College Athletes]])}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20191105164001/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-11-05]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2224: Software Updates]])}}
|[[File:How To Header 4.png]]

{{Header text|{{{1|[https://www.amazon.com/How-Absurd-Scientific-Real-World-Problems/dp/0525537090/ Amazon], [https://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/2/trackingcode/PRH5522E62429 B&N], [https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/how-to-randall-munroe/1130494832?ean=9780525686910#/ B&N Exclusive Edition], [https://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/6/trackingcode/penguinrandom IndieBound], [https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/how-to/id1451461524?mt=11 Apple], [https://www.audible.com/search?advsearchKeywords=How+To+Randall+Munroe&source_code=COMA0213WS031709&SID=PRHA9A5E24CFB--9780525635680 Audible], [https://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/23/trackingcode/PRH3D17167A3B Target]}}}}}

{{Header text|{{{1|I'll be at New York Comic Con! <br>
I'm giving [https://www.newyorkcomiccon.com/Explore/Panels/Panels-And-Screenings/#/event/how-todo-anything-with-randall-munroe-creator-of-xkcd a talk on Thursday], and on Friday <br>
[https://smbc-comics.com/ Zach Weinersmith] and I will be hosting [https://www.caveat.nyc/event/how-to--absurd-scientific-advice-for-common-real-world-problems-10-4-2019 an event at Caveat NYC].}}}}}
|This Header simultaneously promotes the book How To, with each of the links in the first part of the text going to the brand's respective pages for the book, and the fact that Randall would be going to the {{w|New York Comic Con}}, a multi-day comic book fan convention.

It states that Randall would be giving a presentation that Thursday at the Comic Con, and would also be hosting an event at Caveat NYC, an event venue on the island of Manhattan.

Over the course of this header's existence, small changes were made, but nothing major enough to be granted its own row.
|style="background-color: #ff997d;" |Book promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20190930234245/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-09-30]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2209: Fresh Pears]])}}<br>until 2019-10-02 ''(no archived version)''<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2210: College Athletes]])}}
|[[File:How To Header 5.png|500x500px]]

{{Header text|{{{1|Order: [https://www.amazon.com/How-Absurd-Scientific-Real-World-Problems/dp/0525537090/ Amazon], [https://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/2/trackingcode/PRH5522E62429 B&N], [https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/how-to-randall-munroe/1130494832?ean=9780525686910#/ B&N Exclusive Edition], [https://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/6/trackingcode/penguinrandom IndieBound], [https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/how-to/id1451461524?mt=11 Apple], [https://www.audible.com/search?advsearchKeywords=How+To+Randall+Munroe&source_code=COMA0213WS031709&SID=PRHA9A5E24CFB--9780525635680 Audible], [https://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/23/trackingcode/PRH3D17167A3B Target]}}}}}
|This header features [[Cueball]], representing [[Randall]], commenting on how How To, the book this header was promoting, was 'tons of fun' to write, and that it can be preordered by clicking a blue link. As always, there are no HTML image maps used, meaning that clicking anywhere on the image will take you to xkcd's dedicated page for the book.

Each link provided below the image takes you to each brand's page for the book.
|style="background-color: #ff997d;" |Book promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20190911053115/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-09-11]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2200: Unreachable State]])}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20190929223547/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-09-29]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2208: Drone Fishing]])}}
|[[File:How To Header 6.png|500x500px]]

{{Header text|{{{1|Order: [https://www.amazon.com/How-Absurd-Scientific-Real-World-Problems/dp/0525537090/ Amazon], [https://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/2/trackingcode/PRH5522E62429 B&N], [https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/how-to-randall-munroe/1130494832?ean=9780525686910#/ B&N Exclusive Edition], [https://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/6/trackingcode/penguinrandom IndieBound],[https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/how-to/id1451461524?mt=11 Apple], [https://www.audible.com/search?advsearchKeywords=How+To+Randall+Munroe&source_code=COMA0213WS031709&SID=PRHA9A5E24CFB--9780525635680 Audible]}}}}}
|This Header text was used to promote the fact that How To, which had been released just a few days prior. After the header promoting the book's release date was removed, this Header took its place. The image consists of an image of the book's cover, with some decoration around it, and text beneath it. This text provides links which go to the respective brand's page for the new book.

The image also states that {{w|Serena Williams}} and {{w|Chris Hadfield}} featured in the book, which they do. Serena Williams' presence in the book is also mentioned in the [[:Category:Book promotion|promotion comic]] [[2190: Serena Versus the Drones|''Serena Versus the Drones''.]]

Serena Williams is a retired professional tennis player and former world #1 on the {{w|Women's Tennis Association}}'s rankings. u

Chris Hadfield is a retired Canadian astronaut, singer, engineer, and former Royal Canadian Air Force fighter pilot. He served on two space shuttle missions and has spent five months as the commander of the {{w|International Space Station}}.
|style="background-color: #ff997d;" |Book promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20190904051509/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-09-04]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2198: Throw]])}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20190909211737/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-09-09]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2200: Unreachable State]])}}
|[[File:How To Header 7.png|500x500px]]

{{Header text|{{{1| Order: [https://www.amazon.com/How-Absurd-Scientific-Real-World-Problems/dp/0525537090/ Amazon],[https://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/2/trackingcode/PRH5522E62429 Barnes & Noble],[https://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/6/trackingcode/penguinrandom IndieBound],[https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/how-to/id1451461524?mt=11 Apple Books]}}}}}
|This header text celebrated the release date of How To.

The image consists of an image with two images of the book shown, with a drawing of [[Cueball]] riding two quadcopters up to change a lightbulb in a ceiling lamp, while two other characters are watching, one of whom is holding a ladder. Beneath the image are links to order to book from various sites, and clicking the image takes you to xkcd's dedicated page for the book.
|style="background-color: #ff997d;" |Book promotion
|-
|[https://web.archive.org/web/20190903051503/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-09-03]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2197: Game Show]])}}<br>
|[[File:How To Header 8.png|500x500px]]

{{Header text|{{{1| Order: [https://www.amazon.com/How-Absurd-Scientific-Real-World-Problems/dp/0525537090/ Amazon],[https://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/2/trackingcode/PRH5522E62429 Barnes & Noble],[https://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/6/trackingcode/penguinrandom IndieBound],[https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/how-to/id1451461524?mt=11 Apple Books]}}}}}
|This header text was a joke which Randall performed on his viewers on How To's release date, which is tailored so that an average xkcd reader would get it. It jokes that there are two different versions of the book for two differing calendar systems. The Gregorian calendar (the calendar we use today) replaced the Julian calendar because the latter had an issue, which caused an increasing discrepancy between the actual date and the weather associated with it. The Gregorian calendar is much more accurate in terms of the solar year.

Because of this increasing discrepancy, the date shown on the Julian calendar is 13 days (now 15) behind the date shown on the Gregorian Calendar.

This header was only up for a day, and it was changed to a more normal celebration the next day.
|style="background-color: #ff997d;" |Book promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20190827082224/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-08-27]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2194: How to Send a File]])}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20190902042108/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-09-02]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2197: Game Show]])}}
|{{Header text|{{{1|My new book, How To, comes out next week!}}}}}<br>
{{Header text|{{{1|Read an exclusive excerpt about transmission [https://blog.xkcd.com/2019/08/26/how-to-send-a-file/ here].}}}}}<br>
{{Header text|{{{1|[https://www.amazon.com/How-Absurd-Scientific-Real-World-Problems/dp/0525537090/ Amazon],[https://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/2/trackingcode/PRH5522E62429 Barnes & Noble],[https://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/6/trackingcode/penguinrandom IndieBound],[https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/how-to/id1451461524?mt=11 Apple Books]}}}}}
|This header simply promotes the new book How To, and the fact it was out in a week. Unlike the multiple headers promoting How To both before and after this one, it consists solely of a few lines of text. It provides links to the respective brand's page for the new book.

The second line also contains a link to one of his blog posts, which contains an excerpt from one of the chapters.

A later version of the header included these links, as well as a link to the book tour. The page now contained the winner of the book tour contest, {{w|Juneau, Alaska}}. Despite the fact that this wasn't a countdown, it stayed up until the book's release date on September 3rd.
|style="background-color: #ff997d;" |Book promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20190806052948/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-08-06]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2185: Cumulonimbus]])}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20190826062701/https://www.xkcd.com/ 2019-08-26]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2193: Well-Ordering Principle]])}}
|[[File:How To Header 9.png|500x500px]]

{{Header text|{{{1|Preorder ''How To'': [https://www.amazon.com/How-Absurd-Scientific-Real-World-Problems/dp/0525537090/ Amazon],[https://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/2/trackingcode/PRH5522E62429 Barnes & Noble],[https://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/6/trackingcode/penguinrandom IndieBound],[https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/how-to/id1451461524?mt=11 Apple Books]}}}}}
|This image promotes a contest which allows a US reader to win a sketch of themselves in his new book, How To, which would come out that September. It also contains a number of links which go to the respective brand's dedicated page for the book.

Clicking on the image takes you to a [https://blog.xkcd.com/2019/08/05/win-an-xkcd-sketch/ blag post] about the event, titled ''Win an xkcd sketch''.
|style="background-color: #ff997d;" |Book promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20190803222711/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-08-03]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2184: Unpopular Opinions]])}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20190806052948/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-08-06]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2185: Cumulonimbus]])}}
|[[File:How To Header 10.png|500x500px]]

{{Header text|{{{1|Preorder:[https://www.amazon.com/How-Absurd-Scientific-Real-World-Problems/dp/0525537090/ Amazon],[https://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/2/trackingcode/PRH5522E62429 Barnes & Noble],[https://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/6/trackingcode/penguinrandom IndieBound],[https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/how-to/id1451461524?mt=11 Apple Books]}}}}}
|This Header, like many of those which came both before and after it, promotes the new book How To, which was coming out in just under a month at the time. This image promotes said fact, with an image of the book's cover to the left of the text.

Below the image, there are four links, each taking you to the respective brand's page for the book, allowing you to preorder it.

Clicking on the image took you to a [https://blog.xkcd.com/2019/08/02/how-to-chapter-list-and-introduction/ blag post] titled ''How To Chapter List and Introduction'', which contained How To's table of contents and introduction.
|style="background-color: #ff997d;" |Book promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20190710165920/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-07-10]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2173: Trained a Neural Net]])}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20190714175710/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-07-14]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2175: Flag Interpretation]])}} and from [https://web.archive.org/web/20190723205152/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-07-23]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2179: NWS Warnings]])}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20190802192259/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-08-02]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2184: Unpopular Opinions]])}}
|[[File:How To Header 11.png|500x500px]]

{{Header text|{{{1|Preorder:[https://www.amazon.com/How-Absurd-Scientific-Real-World-Problems/dp/0525537090/ Amazon],[https://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/2/trackingcode/PRH5522E62429 Barnes & Noble],[https://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/6/trackingcode/penguinrandom IndieBound],[https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/how-to/id1451461524?mt=11 Apple Books]}}}}}
|This header text, like many which had come before and after it, promotes How To, a book which, at the time, would have been releasing in about 2 months. It had two distinctive stints as the header text, being interrupted by the promotion of his ComiCon appearance for about a week.

This header was the first header to include preorder links below the image, each taking you to a specific brand's page to preorder the book.
|style="background-color: #ff997d;" |Book promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20190715181016/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-07-15]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2176: How Hacking Works]])}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20190722192637/https://www.xkcd.com/ 2019-07-22]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2179: NWS Warnings]])}}
|{{Header text|{{{1|Going to San Diego Comic Con this week? I'll [https://blog.xkcd.com/2019/07/15/san-diego-comic-con/ see you there]!}}}}}
|This header text was a brief break from the [[How To]] promotion, instead promoting a talk which he would give at that year's San Diego Comic Con. During the Con, he gave a talk and appeared in some panels, before finally handing out signed copies of [[How To]] almost a month before its official release.
|style="background-color: #828282;" |Public Appearance
|-
|[https://web.archive.org/web/20190709162102/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-07-09]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2173: Trained a Neural Net]])}}<br>
|[[File:How To Header 11.png|500x500px]]
|This header was used solely to promote [[How To]], which would be coming out in 3 months at the time. It shows images of the book's cover, with miscellaneous drawings from How To scattered throughout the middle of the image, with text promoting the book. This header only stayed up for a day in this style, before adding a line of links showing where to preorder the book below the image.

Clicking on the image takes you to xkcd's dedicated page for the book.
|style="background-color: #ff997d;" |Book promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20190625190843/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-06-25]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2167: Motivated Reasoning Olympics]])}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20190708155517/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-07-08]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2172: Lunar Cycles]])}}
|[[File:How To Header 12.png|500x500px]]
|This simplistic header promoted a contest which allowed for the readers of xkcd to choose a town which the How To book tour would visit. Clicking on the image takes you to [https://blog.xkcd.com/2019/06/10/book-tour-announcement/ a blag post] outlining the contest details. Using only book titles, you were instructed to create a story, with the longest sentence improving your chances of winning. The image visualized what submissions may look like, with 15 people standing side by side, each holding a book. The eventual winner of this contest was {{w|Juneau, Alaska}}.

From left to right, the characters visualized in the image are [[Megan]], [[Cueball]], a man with blonde hair, [[Jill]], [[Miss Lenhart]], two [[Hairy]]s, [[White Hat]], a kid with curly hair, [[Hairbun]], Cueball, Megan, [[Knit Cap]], [[Ponytail]], and [[Beret Guy]].
|style="background-color: #ff997d;" |Book promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20190615100645/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-06-15]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2163: Chernobyl]]}}<br>until 2019-06-25<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2167: Motivated Reasoning Olympics]])}}
|[[File:How To Header 13.png|500x500px]]
|This header, similar to the previous one, promoted the How To book tour, which Randall would shortly be going on. The image is almost exactly the same as the previous one, with the only change being a link reading '[<font color="blue">Click here</font> for dates and tickets]'. While the reason for the change is not known, our best guess is that readers didn't realize that the image was a link, so Randall added this line for clarity.

The entire image, not just the blue text, is a link to a [https://blog.xkcd.com/2019/06/10/book-tour-announcement/ blag post] officially announcing the book tour, with all the cities and dates which Randall would visit listed out.
|style="background-color: #ff997d;" |Book promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20190611031920/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-06-11]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2161: An Apple a Day]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20190614094729/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-06-14]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2162: Literary Opinions]])}}
|[[File:How To Header 14.png|500x500px]]
|This header was the first to promote the [[How To]] book tour. It showed a map of the United States with dots representing the location of each city he would be visiting, with one dot outside the map indicating the city which would be chosen by readers. The list of cities is as follows:

*September 3rd
*[[How to]]
*{{w|Seattle}}
*{{w|Portland, Oregon|Portland}}
*{{w|San Francisco}}
*{{w|Santa Cruz, California|Santa Cruz}}
*{{w|Los Angeles}}
*{{w|Salt Lake City}}
*{{w|Kansas City metropolitan area|Kansas City}}
*{{w|Ann Arbor, Michigan|Ann Arbor}}
*{{w|Cincinnati}}
*{{w|Louisville, Kentucky|Louisville}}
*{{w|Cambridge, Massachusetts|Cambridge}}
*{{w|New York City|New York}}
*{{w|Washington, D.C.|D.C.}}
*{{w|Raleigh, North Carolina|Raleigh}}
*<font color="red">????? (Chosen by readers)</font>

The entire image links to a [https://blog.xkcd.com/2019/06/10/book-tour-announcement/ blag post] announcing the book tour and detailing the contest used to determine the reader-chosen city.
|style="background-color: #ff997d;" |Book promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20190206060904/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-02-06]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2107: Launch Risk]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20190422030324/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-04-22]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2139: Email Settings]])}} and from [https://web.archive.org/web/20190517103928/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-05-17]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2150: XKeyboarCD]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20190610055519/https://www.xkcd.com/ 2019-06-10]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2160: Ken Burns Theory]])}}
|[[File:How To Header 15.png|300x300px]]{{nowrap|{{Header text|{{{1|<big><big><b>HOW TO</b></big></big>

ABSURD SCIENTIFIC ANSWERS TO COMMON REAL-WORLD PROBLEMS

Available September 3, 2019.

Preorder: [https://www.amazon.com/How-Absurd-Scientific-Real-World-Problems/dp/0525537090/ Amazon],[https://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/2/trackingcode/PRH5522E62429 Barnes & Noble],[https://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/6/trackingcode/penguinrandom IndieBound],[https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/how-to/id1451461524?mt=11 Apple Books]}}}}}}}
|This complex header was the first to promote [[How To]]. It officially announced the book and provided links where a reader could preorder the book. It served two distinct stints, each lasting over a month, being interrupted by the promotion of the e-newsletter subscription promotion.
|style="background-color: #ff997d;" |Book promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20190423155458/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-04-23]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2140: Reinvent the Wheel]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20190516100403/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-05-16]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2150: XKeyboarCD]])}}
|{{Header text|{{{1|Still mourning the demise of Google Reader?<br>
You can sign up to get new comics delivered by email [https://xkcd.com/newsletter/ here].}}}}}
|This header interrupted the first header to promote How To in favor of promoting a subscription service which viewers could utilize as a way to be notified when a new comic was released. It mentions {{w|Google Reader}}, a popular RSS and Atom feed aggregator which had shut down on July 1st, 2013. He advertises the newsletter almost 6 years after the shutdown, using email.
|
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20181107144453/https://www.xkcd.com/ 2018-11-07]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2069: Wishlist]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20190205050302/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-02-05]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2107: Launch Risk]])}}
|{{Header text|{{{1|xkcd updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.}}}}}
|After a long period of sharing space with other headers during the ongoing 2018 Midterm Elections. After election day, the standard text came back, being the sole header for almost three months before Randall's announcement of [[How To]]. After the standard header text left, it wouldn't reappear for almost three years, the longest gap between standard texts at the time.
|style="background-color: #5c5c5c;" |Standard Header
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20181106122850/https://xkcd.com/ 2018-11-06]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2068: Election Night]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20181107144453/https://www.xkcd.com/ 2018-11-07]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2069: Wishlist]])}}
|[[File:Election Day Header but Better.png|500x500px]]
|This header text reminded xkcd readers to vote in the 2018 United States Midterm Elections. As these were highly contested, every vote counted. It gave a reminder about the fact that if the polls close while you're in line, the government must let you vote. It also provides links which give additional information about voting, where your local polling place is, and to see what was on the ballot.
|style="background-color: #e875ff;" | Politics
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20181103021059/https://xkcd.com/ 2018-11-02]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2067: Challengers]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20181105105855/https://xkcd.com/ 2018-11-05]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2067: Challengers]])}}
|{{Header text|{{{1|Find out where to vote: [https://www.vote.org/ vote.org].

See what's on your ballot: [https://www.ballotready.org/ BallotReady.org]}}}}}
|This header was very similar to the previous one, only adding a line below the first, taking you to a website which shows what would be on the reader's ballot before that year's election day on November 6th. It is part of a series of header texts related to the US 2018 Midterm Elections.
|style="background-color: #e875ff;" | Politics
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20181022120935/https://xkcd.com/ 2018-10-22]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2061: Tectonics Game]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20181103021059/https://xkcd.com/ 2018-11-02]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2067: Challengers]])}}
|{{Header text|{{{1|Check your registration and find your polling place at [https://www.vote.org/ vote.org].}}}}}
|This header text reminded readers to register to vote in the 2018 United States Midterm Elections. It links to vote.org, a website which allows the user to check their registrations and contains a map of polling places near your location.
|style="background-color: #e875ff;" | Politics
|-
|{{notice|<big><big>Look through the archives for specific dates</big></big>}}
|{{Header text|{{{1|xkcd updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.}}}}}
|The standard text. It returned for just a couple months, between a reminder for readers in New York to vote and for all readers to register for the main election day during the 2018 United States Midterm Elections.
|style="background-color: #5c5c5c;" |Standard Header
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20180913133544/https://xkcd.com/ 2018-09-13]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2045: Social Media Announcement]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20180914175605/https://xkcd.com/ 2018-09-14]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[2046: Trum-]])}}
|{{Header text|{{{1|xkcd updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.}}}}}

{{Header text|{{{1|NY votes today! Find your polling place [https://voterlookup.elections.ny.gov/ here]. (Zephyr Teachout for AG!)}}}}}
|This short-lived header text reminded readers who lived in New York to vote on that day, as it was the day New York voted in the 2018 United States Midterm Elections. The text links to a New York government website which allows the viewer to see which polling place was the closest to them.
|style="background-color: #e875ff;" | Politics
|-
|{{notice|<big><big>Look through the archives for specific dates</big></big>}}
|{{Header text|{{{1|xkcd updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.}}}}}
|The standard header text, this time returning for 10 months, from during December 2017 to September 2018. It stayed during the long break between Christmas and the day New York voted in the 2018 United States Midterm Elections.
|style="background-color: #5c5c5c;" |Standard Header
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20171126130857/https://xkcd.com/ 2017-11-26]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1920: Emoji Sports]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20171130150053/https://xkcd.com/ 2017-11-30]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1922: Interferometry]])}}
|{{Header text|{{{1|To anyone looking for Christmas gifts: Until Monday you can get $5 off<br>
[https://www.amazon.com/What-International-Scientific-Hypothetical-Questions/dp/0544456866 What If?] and [https://www.amazon.com/Thing-Explainer-Complicated-Stuff-Simple/dp/0544668251 Thing Explainer] on Amazon with coupon code GIFTBOOK17.

At Barnes & Noble, until Sunday you can get 20% off<br>
[https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/what-if-serious-scientific-answers-to-absurd-hypothetical-questions-randall-munroe/1118864093 What If?] and [https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/thing-explainer-randall-munroe/1121864432 Thing Explainer] using code GIVETHANKS.}}}}}
|This header text, like many others, only lasted a few days in between long stretches of standard headers. It promoted Christmas sales of [[What If?]] and [[Thing Explainer]], as well as providing a code to use on the Barnes & Noble page for the books.
|style="background-color: #ff997d;" |Book promotion
|-
|{{notice|<big><big>Look through the archives for specific dates</big></big>}}
|{{Header text|{{{1|xkcd updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.}}}}}
|{{notice|MIND THE GAP, PROLLY NOT ACTUALLY STANDARD HEADER}}
|style="background-color: #5c5c5c;" |Standard Header
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20170922232616/https://xkcd.com/ 2017-09-22]]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1893: Thread]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20171010045802/https://xkcd.com/ 2017-10-10]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1900: Jet Lag]])}}
|{{Header text|{{{1|I'll be visiting the UK next week!<br>
You can join me in London from September 30-October 2<br>
(at [https://live.newscientist.com/speakers/randall-munroe New Scientist Live], [https://www.rigb.org/whats-on/events-2017/october/public-lunchtime-talk--randall-munroe The Royal Institution],<br>
and [https://www.intelligencesquared.com/events/randall-munroe-on-making-complicated-stuff-simple/ Intelligence Squared]), then from October 3-6 in<br> [https://www.stpetersyork.org.uk/public_lectures/randall_munroe_thing_explainer York], [https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/thing-explaining-with-randall-munroe-tickets-37832289396 Edinburgh], [https://www.toppingbooks.co.uk/events/ely/randall-murray-thing-explainer/ Cambridge and Ely], [https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/randall-munroe-book-signing-thing-explainer-tickets-38041072873 Oxford], and [https://www.cheltenhamfestivals.com/literature/whats-on/2017/randall-munroe/ Cheltenham].}}}}}
|This header text was a promotion for public appearances around the UK between late September and early October. Each link goes to a site where you could purchase tickets to attend his appearances. Despite the fact that all of his appearances had already ended, the promotion continued until October 9th, when the header text returned back to standard.
|style="background-color: #828282;" |Public Appearance
|-
|{{notice|<big><big>Look through the archives for specific dates</big></big>}}
|{{Header text|{{{1|xkcd updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.}}}}}
|{{notice|MIND THE GAP, PROLLY NOT ACTUALLY STANDARD HEADER}}
|style="background-color: #5c5c5c;" |Standard Header
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20170731021227/https://www.xkcd.com/ 2017-07-31]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1869: Positive and Negative Reviews]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20170804152509/https://xkcd.com/ 2017-08-04]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1872: Backup Batteries]])}}
|[[File:Healthcare Thanks.png]]
|This header thanked readers for their efforts to stop 'The Skinny Repeal', a bill which would have repealed the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, in the Senate. In an unexpected twist, Republican senators John McCain, Susan Collins, and Lisa Murkowski all voted against the bill, as well as all democrats, leading the 100-member senate to veto the bill 51-49. John McCain voted 'no' just days after a brain cancer diagnosis, leading two other Republicans to do the same, vetoing the bill.

This act had an especially large effect on Randall, as this was during his wife's Breast Cancer treatment. Had the act been passed, it is possible that they would have lost their Healthcare coverage, saddling them with very large amounts of debt which they may not have been able to pay off.

The entire image is a link, which takes you to a New York Times article showing the final results of the vote, as well as how members of each party voted.
|style="background-color: #e875ff;" | Politics
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20170725103104/https://xkcd.com/ 2017-07-25]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1867: Physics Confession]]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20170730141019/https://www.xkcd.com/ 2017-07-30]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1870: Emoji Movie Reviews]])}}
|[[File:Call the Senate.png]]
|This header came just days before a Senate vote on the 'skinny repeal' act, which would have repealed major parts of the Affordable Care Act, which would have left millions of people without healthcare coverage. He asks his readers to contact their senators and ask them to vote 'no' on the bill. He provides a phone number to call, as well as recommending readers to contact their friends in multiple Republican states, whose senators were likely to vote 'yes' on the bill, and ask them to call as well.

Randall may have been motivated to do this because, at the time, his wife was going through cancer treatment. Had this bill been passed, it is possible their healthcare coverage would have been lost, leading them to attain large amounts of debt, and possibly forcing Randall to cease making comics.

This header was up until the Senate ultimately vetoed the bill 51-49, leading Randall to change the header to a 'thank you'.
|style="background-color: #e875ff;" | Politics
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20170122003124/https://xkcd.com/ 2017-01-21]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1788: Barge]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20170725103104/https://xkcd.com/ 2017-07-25]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1867: Physics Confession]])}}
|{{Header text|{{{1|There are [https://store.xkcd.com/collections/featured four new shirts] in [https://store.xkcd.com/ the xkcd store],}}}}}
{{Header text|{{{1|along with [https://store.xkcd.com/collections/posters posters] and [https://store.xkcd.com/collections/everything lots of other stuff]!}}}}}
|This long-lasting header text promoted shirts and posters which could be found at the xkcd store at the time. It maintained the sales pitch of the previous header, only removing the image promoting the shirts.
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20161128153015/https://xkcd.com 2016-11-28]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1765: Baby Post]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20170121114423/https://xkcd.com/ 2017-01-21]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1788: Barge]])}}
|[[File:New shirts header.png|500x500px]]

{{Header text|{{{1|There are [https://store.xkcd.com/collections/featured four new shirts] in [https://store.xkcd.com/ the xkcd store],

along with [https://store.xkcd.com/collections/posters posters] and [https://store.xkcd.com/collections/everything lots of other stuff]!}}}}}
|This header promoted a Christmas sale on merchandise which was available in the xkcd store at the time. Despite the Christmas sale ending, the header remained until January 21st. The entire image was a link to the xkcd store.
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20160423103108/https://xkcd.com/ 2016-04-23]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1671: Arcane Bullshit]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20161128093459/https://xkcd.com/ 2016-11-28]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1764: XKCDE]])}}
|{{:Header text}}
|The standard header returned for a long stint between late April and late November of 2016.
|style="background-color: #5c5c5c;" |Standard Header
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20160404185353/https://www.xkcd.com/#5dbfbb82-fc20-11e5-8001-42010a8e000d 2016-04-04]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1663: Garden]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20160423182630/https://xkcd.com:80/1663/ 2016-04-23]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1671: Arcane Bullshit]])}}
|{{Header text|{{{1|'''Protip''': If you don't like how your garden is growing, you can click to prune it.}}}}}

{{Header text|{{{1|You can copy the URL to share your garden. From other browsers, it will be view-only.}}}}}
|This header text stayed throughout most of April. It gave tips for the [[April Fools' Day comics|April Fools' Day comic]], which came out with the release of this header. The header text stayed until April 23rd, at which point it became a [[xkcd_Header_text#Garden|Comic-Specific Header]].
|style="background-color: #00c997" | Additional Information
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20160401204749/https://xkcd.com/ 2016-04-01]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1662: Jack and Jill]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20160404054612/https://xkcd.com/ 2016-04-04]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1662: Jack and Jill]]}}
|''First Version'':
{{Header text|The xkcd April 1st comic is currently experiencing technical difficulties.

Please stand by!}}

''Second Version'':
{{Header text|The xkcd April 1st comic is currently experiencing technical difficulties.}}

{{Header text|Status update: Please stand by.}}
{{Header text|Status update: This is fine. Everything is fine.}}
{{Header text|Status update: Everything is on fire.}}
{{Header text|Status update: Searching for calendar systems in which Saturday is April 1st.}}

''Third Version'':
{{Header text|The Friday xkcd comic is currently experiencing technical difficulties}}

{{Header text|[Editor's note: Everything is on fire] and has been delayed until Sunday night.}}
|Randall is making the best of a bad situation. Just before the release of that year's [[April Fools' Day comics|April Fools' Day comic]], it experienced technical difficulties forcing Randall to delay its release. The three headers changed in rapid succession while [[1662: Jack and Jill]] was still on the front page. Randall provides status updates on the comic, which quickly devolves into chaos before returning to a sense of false normalcy. This finalized header remained until the release of [[Garden]] on April 5th.
|style="background-color: #a4f095;" | Comic Delay
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20151213194534/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-12-13]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1615: Red Car]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20160401125621/https://xkcd.com/ 2016-04-01]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1662: Jack and Jill]]}}
|{{Header text|{{{1|Thing Explainer is available at:}}}}}
{{Header text|{{{1|[https://www.amazon.com/Thing-Explainer-Complicated-Stuff-Simple/dp/0544668251 Amazon], [https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/thing-explainer-randall-munroe/1121864432?ean=9780544668256#/ Barnes & Noble], [https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780544668256 Indie Bound], [https://www.hudsonbooksellers.com/thingexplainer Hudson]}}}}}
|This header was the final header to promote Thing Explainer, which had been continuously promoted for over 10 months at that point. It provided links to places where the book could be purchased, just in time for the Christmas season.
|style="background-color: #ff997d;" |Book promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20151205070539/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-12-05]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1612: Colds]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20151212133400/https://xkcd.com:80/ 2015-12-12]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1615: Red Car]]}}
|{{Header text|{{{1| Thing Explainer is available at: [https://www.amazon.com/Thing-Explainer-Complicated-Stuff-Simple/dp/0544668251 Amazon], [https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/thing-explainer-randall-munroe/1121864432?ean=9780544668256#/ Barnes & Noble], [https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780544668256 Indie Bound], [https://www.hudsonbooksellers.com/thingexplainer Hudson]}}}}}
{{Header text|{{{1|I'll be in [https://web.archive.org/web/20151211002159/https://www.andersonsbookshop.com/event/naperville-reads-randall-munroe Naperville, IL] and [https://web.archive.org/web/20151205205714/https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/indigo-exclusive-randall-munroe-tickets-18694384407 Toronto, ON] (with [https://qwantz.com/ Ryan North]!) next week.}}}}}
|This header text served two purposes. It gave links to order [[Thing Explainer]] (which makes sense. It was December, after all.), and also promoted public appearances he would be doing with Ryan North in Naperville, Illinois and Toronto, Ontario. This header continued the trend of promoting [[Thing Explainer]], which had been continually promoted since April.
|style="background-color: #ff997d;" |Book promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20151203234149/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-12-03]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1611: Baking Soda and Vinegar]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20151205070539/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-12-05]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1612: Colds]]}}
|[[File:TE images header.png]]
{{Header text|{{{1|Order: [https://www.amazon.com/Thing-Explainer-Complicated-Stuff-Simple/dp/0544668251 Amazon], [https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/thing-explainer-randall-munroe/1121864432?ean=9780544668256#/ Barnes & Noble], [https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780544668256 Indie Bound], [https://www.hudsonbooksellers.com/thingexplainer Hudson]}}}}}
|This header text contained a large image showcasing images from [[Thing Explainer]], as well as multiple links for where to get the book. This image holds the odd record of being the largest image to ever be put into the header text (it is resized here for space). The image gets even weirder by being a link to [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0544668251/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0544668251&linkCode=as2&tag=thekcs-20&linkId=S4XRZJJKSMHOWEQU Thing Explainer on Amazon], even though a link to buy the book on amazon was also provided beneath the image. The image was only provided for two days, before being replaced by a promotion for his public appearances with Ryan North.
|style="background-color: #ff997d;" |Book promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20151124201602/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-11-24]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1607: Supreme Court]]}}<br>until 2015-12-02<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1611: Baking Soda and Vinegar]]}}
|''First Version'':

[[File:TE out today.png]]
{{Header text|{{{1|Order: [https://www.amazon.com/Thing-Explainer-Complicated-Stuff-Simple/dp/0544668251 Amazon], [https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/thing-explainer-randall-munroe/1121864432?ean=9780544668256#/ Barnes & Noble], [https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780544668256 Indie Bound], [https://www.hudsonbooksellers.com/thingexplainer Hudson]}}}}}

''Second Version'':

[[File:TE out today.png]]
{{Header text|{{{1|I'm doing a [https://www.facebook.com/AndyWeirAuthor/ live Q&A;] at 2:30pm PT with The Martian author Andy Weir.}}}}}
|This header text served two purposes. For most of the time it was on the front page, it solely promoted [[Thing Explainer]], and provided links where you could purchase it. However, it was shortly changed to advertise his public appearances with Andy Weir, with the link in that text taking you to his Facebook page. Andy Weir is a science-fiction novelist. He is the author of 2014 novel ''{{w|The Martian (Weir novel)|The Martian}}'', and later was the author of 2021 novel ''{{w|Project Hail Mary}}''. Both books were later turned into major motion pictures. The image remained between the two texts, and it was a link to an [https://blog.xkcd.com/2015/05/13/new-book-thing-explainer/ old Blag post] announcing Thing Explainer. However, the promotion of the public appearance only lasted one day, and as such is not important enough overall to be split into it's own section.
|style="background-color: #ff997d;" |Book promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20151022200022/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-10-22]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1593: Play-By-Play]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20151124065108/https://xkcd.com:80/ 2015-11-24]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1608: Hoverboard]]}}
|{{Header text|{{{1|We've [https://slate.com/technology/2015/08/no-new-polio-in-africa-for-one-year-gates-epidemiologist-on-vaccines-and-surveillance.html almost eradicated polio]. For World Polio Day, I drew a comic}}}}}
{{Header text|{{{1|about the eradication efforts. You can see it on [https://www.gatesnotes.com/Health/XKCD-Marks-the-Spot Bill Gates's blog].}}}}}
----
{{Header text|{{{1|My [https://blog.xkcd.com/2015/05/13/new-book-thing-explainer/ new book] of complex diagrams and simple words comes out Nov 24th.}}}}}
|This header text promoted two things simultaneously, separated by a line. The top half of the header promoted a comic which Randall drew for Bill Gates' blog, celebrating the fact that {{w|Polio}} had almost been eradicated. The other header promoted [[Thing Explainer]], a book which had just released that year. The top half of the header linked to the blog post that Randall's Polio comic had appeared in, while the bottom half linked to a [[Blag]] post announcing Thing Explainer.
|style="background-color: #ff997d;" |Book promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20150923044724/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-09-23]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1580: Travel Ghost]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20151021164208/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-10-21]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1593: Play-By-Play]]}}
|{{Header text|{{{1|News: Announcing my Thing Explainer [https://blog.xkcd.com/2015/09/22/im-going-on-a-book-trip/ book trip]. Come say hi!}}}}}
{{Header text|{{{1|Other news: Announcing the Thing Explainer [https://blog.xkcd.com/2015/09/22/a-thing-explainer-word-checker/ word checker] tool!}}}}}
|This simplistic header promoted two things related to [[Thing Explainer]], which had released earlier that year. It promoted the Thing Explainer book tour and a tool which can help you "Write Like Up Goer Five and Thing Explainer", also known as [https://xkcd.com/simplewriter/ Simple Writer].
|style="background-color: #ff997d;" |Book promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20150906181550/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-09-06]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1573: Cyberintelligence]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20150919220105/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-09-22]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1579: Tech Loops]]}}
|[[File:TE out today.png]]
{{Header text|{{{1|Preorder: [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thing-Explainer-Randall-Munroe/dp/1473620910 Amazon.co.uk], [https://www.waterstones.com/book/thing-explainer/9781473620919 Waterstones]}}}}}
|This header was very similar to previous headers promoting [[Thing Explainer]]. The only change which occurred between the last header and this header was the addition of a line of text containing links, where you could preorder the book.
|style="background-color: #ff997d;" |Book promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20150606084120/https://www.xkcd.com/ 2015-06-06]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1534: Beer]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20150807181044/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-08-07]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1561: Water Phase Diagram]]}}
|[[File:TE out today.png]]
{{Header text|{{{1|Preorder: [https://www.amazon.com/Thing-Explainer-Complicated-Stuff-Simple/dp/0544668251 Amazon], [https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/thing-explainer-randall-munroe/1121864432?ean=9780544668256#/ Barnes & Noble], [https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780544668256 Indie Bound], [https://www.hudsonbooksellers.com/thingexplainer Hudson]}}}}}

{{Header text|{{{1|In other news, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygrdAvmr-MA Space Weird Thing] is delightful,<br>
and I feel surprisingly invested in [https://web.archive.org/web/20150720074919/https://twitter.com/xkcdbracket @xkcdbracket's] results.}}}}}
|This header text contained two sections, each talking about separate things. The upper portion of the header maintained the same promotion of [[Thing Explainer]] from the previous header, but added a couple new lines of text outlining 'other news' in his life. The first link goes to [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygrdAvmr-MA Space Weird Thing], a music video parody of {{w|David Bowie|David Bowie's}} [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYYRH4apXDo Space Oddity] music video using only the 1,000 most common words, inspired by [[1133: Up Goer Five]]. Along with this, there was another link which went to [https://web.archive.org/web/20150720074919/https://twitter.com/xkcdbracket @xkcdbracket] on Twitter. This was a large bracket inspired by [[1529: Bracket]], in which a Twitter user simulated a full bracket with each entry from the comic. After this, it returned to simply promoting the book.
|style="background-color: #ff997d;" |Book promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20150515060322/https://www.xkcd.com/ 2015-05-15]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1525: Emojic 8 Ball]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20150605082643/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-06-05]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1534: Beer]]}}
|[[File:TE out today.png]]
{{Header text|{{{1|Preorder: [https://www.amazon.com/Thing-Explainer-Complicated-Stuff-Simple/dp/0544668251 Amazon], [https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/thing-explainer-randall-munroe/1121864432?ean=9780544668256#/ Barnes & Noble], [https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780544668256 Indie Bound], [https://www.hudsonbooksellers.com/thingexplainer Hudson]}}}}}
|This header text, like the one that came before it, promoted the fact that preorders were open for [[Thing Explainer]], which had been announced with the previous header. The image linked to a [[Blag]] post titled ''[https://blog.xkcd.com/2015/05/13/new-book-thing-explainer/ New book: Thing Explainer]''. This header remained for just under a month before other news was added.
|style="background-color: #ff997d;" |Book promotion
|-
|[https://web.archive.org/web/20150514053623/https://www.xkcd.com/ 2015-05-14]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1524: Dimensions]]}}
|{{Header text|{{{1|New book: <i>[https://blog.xkcd.com/2015/05/13/new-book-thing-explainer/ Thing Explainer!]</i>}}}}}
|This header text announced [[Thing Explainer]], a book which uses only the 1,000 most common English words at the time to explain complicated things such as the {{w|Curiosity (rover)|Curiosity Rover}} and {{w|Washing machine|Washing machines}}. When the next comic released, the header text turned to promoting the book, including providing links where you could preorder it.
|style="background-color: #ff997d;" |Book promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20150211154103/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-02-11]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1485: Friendship]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20150512184622/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-05-12]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1523: Microdrones]]}}
|{{:Header text}}
|The standard header text returned for about three months, between his promotion of xkcd-themed {{w|Valentine's Day}} cards and the announcement of [[Thing Explainer]]
|style="background-color: #5c5c5c;" |Standard Header
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20150204051152/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-02-04]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1482: NowPlaying]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20150210005540/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-02-10]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1484: Apollo Speeches]]}}
|[[File:Valentine Cards.png]]
|This header was the last of the headers to promote {{w|Valentine's Day}} that year. It promoted the Valentine's Day cards which Randall had collaborated with other webcomic artists to create, and were first announced the month before. The promotion lasted until February 10th, at which point it was nearly impossible to ship cards out to customers by Valentine's Day.
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20150202092804/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-02-02]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1481: API]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20150203022036/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-02-03]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1481: API]]}}
|{{Header text|{{{1|Today is the last day to order the limited-run [https://web.archive.org/web/20150202092804/https://teespring.com/xkcdbinaryheart binary heart shirt]!}}}}}
|This header solely promoted the binary heart shirt, which was in the xkcd store at the time, just before that year's {{w|Valentine's Day}}. The header remained up until the day after the shirts were no longer available to order.
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20150129183442/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-01-29]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1479: Troubleshooting]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20150201015913/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-02-01]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1480: Super Bowl]]}}
|[[File:Valentine Cards.png]]{{nowrap|[[File:Binary shirt.png]]}}
|This header promoted both special store products that Randall had created for that year's {{w|Valentine's Day}}. He had partnered with other artists to create custom Valentine Cards, and had created a shirt which contained a heart made out of binary. This header lasted for only a few days until the header changed to promoting the last day you could order the shirts. The image promoting the shirt was a link to a https://web.archive.org/web/20150125080756/https://teespring.com/xkcdbinaryheart page] where you could purchase it.
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20150127161237/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-01-27]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1478: P-Values]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20150128172147/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-01-28]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1479: Troubleshooting]]}}
|{{Header text|I've teamed up with three other webcomic artists}}
{{Header text|{{{1|to make [https://web.archive.org/web/20150127161237/https://store.xkcd.com/products/webcomic-science-valentines a set of science-themed Valentine's Day cards]!}}}}}
|This short-lived header announced the fact that [[Randall]] had collaborated with 'other webcomic artists' to create Valentine's cards which could be purchased in the shop at the time. The link in the text took you to the card's page on the xkcd store.
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20150124110707/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-01-24]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1477: Star Wars]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20150126133139/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-01-26]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1478: P-Values]]}}
|{{Header text|For Valentine's Day, you can get a binary heart shirt}}
{{Header text|{{{1|(from {{xkcd|99|comic #99!}}) in [https://web.archive.org/web/20150125080756/https://teespring.com/xkcdbinaryheart a limited run on TeeSpring]}}}}}
|This header text was the first of many headers to promote the binary heart shirt which Randall released for that year's {{w|Valentine's Day}}. Instead of being on the xkcd store like one may assume, he actually used {{w|Teespring}}, a company that allows users to create and sell custom products, as the sales platform.
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20141222233233/https://xkcd.com/ 2014-12-22]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1463: Altitude]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20150123102318/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-01-23]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1476: Ceres]]}}
|{{Header text|{{{1|You can get xkcd shirts, prints, and posters in the [https://shop.xkcd.com/ store]!}}}}}
|This header, like many others at the time, promoted the xkcd store, which contained various xkcd-themed merchandise. The link in the text was a link to the store.
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20141217085320/https://www.xkcd.com/ 2014-12-17]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1461: Payloads]]}}<br>until 2014-12-18<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1461: Payloads]]}} and from [https://web.archive.org/web/20141219092349/https://www.xkcd.com/ 2014-12-19]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1462: Blind Trials]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20141221172450/https://www.xkcd.com/ 2014-12-21]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1462: Blind Trials]]}}
|[[File:Christmas Deadline Header.png]]
|This header served two distinct stints as a header, in between an Easter egg header that Randall had released in between them.

This header consisted of just one image, promoting the xkcd store while also reminding readers that that Friday was the last day things could be shipped by the 25th. The entire image was a link to the [https://store.xkcd.com/ xkcd store], not just the blue text in the image.
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20141218090650/https://www.xkcd.com/ 2014-12-18]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1461: Payloads]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20141216084107/https://xkcd.com/ 2014-12-19]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1461: Payloads]]}}
|[[File:Christmas Deadline Header 2.png]]
|This header was a more humorous version of the header which it both preceded and succeeded, possibly meant as an {{w|Easter egg (media)|Easter Egg}} for those who happened to visit the site at the time when it was up. It lasted only for a few hours, meaning that not many actually got to see it while it was up. It reminded the reader that, if they wished to get Christmas presents from the xkcd store, they needed to order them by that Friday in order for them to be shipped in time.
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20141203132024/https://www.xkcd.com/ 2014-12-03]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1455: Trolley Problem]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20141216084107/https://xkcd.com/ 2014-12-16]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1460: SMFW]]}}
|[[File:Christmas Store Header.png]]
|This header promoted the store during the Christmas season, with a touch of humor added in. The bobcat is a reference to [[325: A-Minus-Minus]]. The image was a link to the [https://store.xkcd.com/ xkcd store]
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20141129211604/https://xkcd.com/ 2014-11-29]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1453: fMRI]]}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20141202065133/https://xkcd.com/ 2014-12-02]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1454: Done]]}}
|{{Header text|Thank you for helping my friend Emily.}}
{{Header text|It means so much.}}
|Just two days after Randall posted a header text to raise money for Emily's cancer treatment, the goal was met and this header replaced the previous one for three days. This means that the thanks for meeting the goal was up for more time than the header notifying readers of the goal itself.
|style="background-color: #7869ff" | Fundraiser
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20141127005239/https://xkcd.com/ 2014-11-27]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1452: Jurassic World]]}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20141128070838/https://www.xkcd.com/ 2014-11-28]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1453: fMRI]]}}
|{{Header text|Hey all. My friend Emily—the economist who helped}}
{{Header text|me with my {{xkcd|980|money chart}}—has been fighting cancer. She's}}
{{Header text|{{{1|having a rough time and could use some [https://web.archive.org/web/20141128183414/https://www.gofundme.com/e07dqk help]. Thank you.}}}}}
|This header text was meant to raise money in order to help [[Randall]]'s friend Emily fight cancer. The text linked to a GoFundMe page for Emily. Oddly, Emily did not get a permanent header as Becky did on the [[#Seven_Years|Seven Years]] comic.
|style="background-color: #7869ff" | Fundraiser
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20141002211139/https://xkcd.com/ 2014-10-02]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1428: Move Fast and Break Things]]}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20141125234520/https://xkcd.com/ 2014-11-25]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1451: Background Screens]]}}
|[[File:What If? Bestseller.png]]
|This header consisted of an image promoting the fact that What If? Had become a New York Times bestseller, while also promoting the book at the same time. The header remained up for over a month, only being interrupted by Emily's cancer diagnosis. The image was a link to the book's dedicated page on xkcd.
|style="background-color: #ff997d;" |Book promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20140904150600/https://xkcd.com/ 2014-09-04]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1416: Pixels]]}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20141001130827/https://xkcd.com/ 2014-09-01]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1451: Background Screens]]}}
|[[File:What If? Out now.png]]
|This header text promoted the fact that What If?, which had released the day before this header came out, was available to order. The entire image was a link to the book's [https://whatif.xkcd.com/book/ dedicated page] on xkcd.
|style="background-color: #ff997d;" |Book promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20140902125802/https://xkcd.com/ 2014-09-02]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1415: Ballooning]]}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20140903134518/https://xkcd.com/ 2014-09-03]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1416: Pixels]]}}
|[[File:What If? Out Today.png]]
|This header kept the trend of simple images promoting What If?, with this one promoting the fact that the book was released that day. As this promoted only the release day, it was replaced by a more general promotion the day after. The entire image was a link to the book's [https://whatif.xkcd.com/book/ dedicated page] on xkcd.
|style="background-color: #ff997d;" |Book promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20140723180600/https://xkcd.com/ 2014-07-23]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1398: Snake Facts]]}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20140901113916/https://xkcd.com/ 2014-09-01]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1415: Ballooning]]}}
|[[File:What If? Book Tour.png]]
|This header text promoted the fact that Randall was going on a book tour for What If?, which was released that September. The image, like many others promoting the book, was a simple depiction of a celebrating Cueball with text to its right. The text in the image promoted the book, and asked the viewer to click on an apparent link in order to see a list of stops for the tour. However, by Randall's own admission, the entire image (not just the apparent link) was a link, as he had not figured out HTML imagemaps. The image was a link to [https://blog.xkcd.com/2014/07/22/what-if-book-tour/ a Blag post] announcing the book tour and outlining a list of stops.
|style="background-color: #ff997d;" |Book promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20140313070951/https://xkcd.com/ 2014-03-13]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1341: Types of Editors]]}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20140722142115/https://xkcd.com/ 2014-07-22]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1397: Luke]]}}
|[[File:What If? Announcement.png]]
|This header text was the first of many to promote What If?. This first one announced the fact that Randall was publishing a book cataloging entries from his What If? blog, which had been running continuously for multiple years at that point. The image was a link to [https://blog.xkcd.com/2014/03/12/what-if-i-wrote-a-book/ a Blag post] announcing the book.
|style="background-color: #ff997d;" |Book promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20140109190927/https://www.xkcd.com/ 2014-01-09]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1314: Photos]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20140312070248/https://xkcd.com/ 2014-03-12]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1340: Unique Date]]}}
|{{:Header text}}
|
|style="background-color: #5c5c5c;" |Standard Header
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20131221043417/https://www.xkcd.com/ 2013-12-21]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1306: Sigil Cycle]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20140108181520/https://www.xkcd.com/ 2014-01-08]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1314: Photos]]}}
|{{Header text|{{{1|The deadline for guaranteed Christmas shipping has passed,<br>
but if you order something from the [https://store.xkcd.com/ xkcd store], we'll get it to you as fast as possible!}}}}}
|This header text came out just four days before Christmas, when Randall would be unable to ship items ordered from the xkcd store by Christmas. He also reminds readers that they'd ship ASAP, but they wouldn't arrive by the 25th.
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20131206213503/https://xkcd.com/ 2013-12-06]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1300: Galilean Moons]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20131220005306/https://xkcd.com/ 2013-12-20]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1305: Undocumented Feature]]}}
|''(no header text)''
|For a couple weeks during early December of 2013, no header came to replace the previous Exoplanet Poster header. It is possible that there was an error with the intended header text, or that Randall simply forgot to put in a new one. This stopped when the xkcd store Christmas shipping deadline passed, and the header changed to let readers know of this fact.
|style="background-color: #fffff1;" |No Header
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20131202205326/http://xkcd.com/ 2013-12-02]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1298: Exoplanet Neighborhood]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20131206213503/https://xkcd.com/ 2013-12-06]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1300: Galilean Moons]]}}
|{{Header text|{{{1|You can get the Exoplanet Neighborhood comic as a [https://web.archive.org/web/20131202205326/http://store.xkcd.com/products/exoplanet-neighborhood-poster poster]!}}}}}
|Just after [[Exoplanet Neighborhoods]] came out, Randall updated the header to mention that you could get the comic as a poster in the store. This header lasted only four days, until the header turned empty.
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20130409170502/http://xkcd.com/ 2013-04-09]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1196: Subways]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20131201184250/http://www.xkcd.com/ 2013-12-01]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1297: Oort Cloud]]}}
|{{Header text|{{{1|You can get the Subways comic as a [https://web.archive.org/web/20130411022318/http://store-xkcd-com.myshopify.com/products/subways poster]!}}}}}
|This header, which lasted for almost exactly 100 Comics, promoted the fact that you could get [[1196: Subways]] as a poster in the xkcd store. The promotion lasted until early December, when it was replaced with a different store promotion for another comic, oddly promoting a comic poster as well.
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20121126235628/https://xkcd.com/1138/ 2012-11-26]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1138: Heatmap]])}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20130311073948/https://xkcd.com:80/1183/ 2013-03-11]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1183: Rose Petals]]}}, from [https://web.archive.org/web/20130320082716/http://xkcd.com/ 2013-03-20]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1188: Bonding]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20130401112845/http://xkcd.com/ 2013-04-01]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1193: Externalities]]}}, and from [https://web.archive.org/web/20130403180307/http://www.xkcd.com/ 2013-04-03]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1194: Stratigraphic Record]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20130408184914/http://xkcd.com/ 2013-04-08]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1196: Subways]]}}
|[[File:xkcd Store Paper Rip.png]]
|This header holds a record for the most distinct times it appeared as the header text, appearing three separate times. The content of the header was an image showing a torn piece of paper, with the tear revealing the words 'xkcd store' below it. Clicking on the image while it was up took you to the [https://store.xkcd.com/ xkcd store], which featured various xkcd-themed merchandise.
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|[https://web.archive.org/web/20130402122924/http://xkcd.com/ 2013-04-02]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1193: Externalities]])}}<br>
|{{Header text|{{{1|There were some surprise upsets in the [https://web.archive.org/web/20130402131103/http://almamater.xkcd.com/ Hash Breaking]!}}}}}
{{Header text|{{{1|KIT [https://web.archive.org/web/20130403114751/http://almamater.xkcd.com/best.csv leads] (389 bits wrong), followed by Columbia (391 bits wrong).}}}}}
|This header documented the challenge given to multiple prestigious colleges in [[1193: Externalities]]. Randall had created a challenge in which multiple Alma Maters were tasked to break a 1024-bit {{w|Skein (hash function)|Skein hash}} in the shortest time possible, with the college that had the least bits wrong at the end of the challenge winning. This header gave an update, stating that KIT (an Indian engineering college) in first place, with Colombia in second. He provided a link to the xkcd page where the results were being documented in real time. In the end, Carnegie Mellon University won, with 384 bits wrong of 1024.
|
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20130315162227/https://xkcd.com:80/ 2013-03-15]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1186: Bumblebees]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20130318072820/https://xkcd.com/ 2013-03-18]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1187: Aspect Ratio]]}}
|''(no header text)''
|After the previous header letting people know that [[1185: Ineffective Sorts]] was delayed, no header came to replace it for 3 days. This is one of only three times this has happened in xkcd's history
|style="background-color: #fffff1;" |No Header
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20130313133631/https://xkcd.com/ 2013-03-13]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1184: Circumference Formula]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20130313175306/https://xkcd.com:80/ 2013-03-13]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1185: Ineffective Sorts]]}}
|{{Header text|{{{1|The comic will be delayed until late morning EDT.}}}}}
|This simple header, which was up for less than a day, let readers know that the next comic ([[1185: Ineffective Sorts]]) was temporarily delayed. The delayed comic was quickly released and the header was replaced, oddly, with nothing.
|style="background-color: #a4f095;" | Comic Delay
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20121024082017/https://xkcd.com:80/ 2012-10-24]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1124: Law of Drama]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20121126035129/https://xkcd.com:80/ 2012-11-26]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1138: Heatmap]]}}
|{{:Header text}}
|
|style="background-color: #5c5c5c;" |Standard Header
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20121017232102/https://xkcd.com/1121/ 2012-10-17]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1122: Electoral Precedent]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20121023023404/https://xkcd.com/1121/ 2012-10-23]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1124: Law of Drama]]}}
|{{Header text|{{{1|New What-If article:}}}}}
{{Header text|{{{1|[https://what-if.xkcd.com/16/ What if lightning struck while you were ...]}}}}}
|This header was the last header to promote the release of a specific entry to the What If? blog. This entry acted like a short-answer section, but only for lightning-related questions. This promotion lasted for only a few days before it was replaced with the standard header. The link in the article took you to the blog entry.
|style="background-color: #c97fa9;" |What If? Promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20121010003837/https://xkcd.com/ 2012-10-10]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1118: Microsoft]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20121016055538/https://xkcd.com:80/ 2012-10-16]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1121: Identity]]}}
|{{Header text|New What-If article:}}
{{Header text|{{{1|[https://what-if.xkcd.com/15/ What if you set off a nuclear bomb in the Mariana Trench?].
|This header promoted a new release of the What If? Blog, this being Mariana Trench Explosion. The question in this entry was "What If you set off a nuclear bomb in the Mariana Trench?". The promotion lasted about a week before the next entry in the blog came out.
|style="background-color: #c97fa9;" |What If? Promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20121002231724/https://www.xkcd.com/ 2012-10-02]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1115: Sky]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20121008112434/https://xkcd.com/ 2012-10-08]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1118: Microsoft]]}}
|{{Header text|In this week's What-If article I [https://what-if.xkcd.com/14/ answer multiple reader questions].}}}}}
|This header text promotes the first short-answer entry of the What If? blog. It was up for a week, while it was the most recent blog entry. After that, it was replaced by a promotion for the next blog entry
|style="background-color: #c97fa9;" |What If? Promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20120926163111/https://xkcd.com/1108/ 2012-09-26]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1113: Killed in Action]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20121001080517/https://xkcd.com/ 2012-10-01]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1115: Sky]]}}
|{{Header text|New What-If article:}}
{{Header text|{{{1|[https://what-if.xkcd.com/13/ If everyone aimed a laser pointer at the Moon at once, would it change color?]}}}}}
|This header text, like many others around this time, promoted the latest entry to the What If? blog, this one being {{what if|13|Laser Pointer}}.
|style="background-color: #c97fa9;" |What If? Promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20120918143653/https://www.xkcd.com/1108/ 2012-09-18]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1109: Refrigerator]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20120925090123/https://xkcd.com:80/ 2012-09-25]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1112: Think Logically]]}}
|{{Header text|{{{1|what-if.xkcd.com: [https://what-if.xkcd.com/12/ What if all of a storm's water fell in a single raindrop?].}}}}}
|This header promoted the latest entry into the What If? blog, this one being {{what if|12|Raindrop}}. It stayed up until the next blog entry was released.
|style="background-color: #c97fa9;" |What If? Promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20120911150641/http://xkcd.com/ 2013-09-11]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1106: ADD]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20120917052827/http://xkcd.com:80/ 2013-09-17]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1109: Refrigerator]]}}
|{{Header text|{{{1|New what-if.xkcd.com article: [https://web.archive.org/web/20120911150641/http://what-if.xkcd.com/11/ Droppings]}}}}}
|This time, the header text promoted the new What If? blog entry, this time titled {{what if|11|Droppings}}. This header lasted until the next entry, {{what if|12|Raindrop}}.
|style="background-color: #c97fa9;" |What If? Promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20120905024720/http://xkcd.com:80/ 2013-09-05]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1103: Nine]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20120910011937/http://xkcd.com/ 2013-09-10]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1105: License Plate]]}}
|{{Header text|New what-if.xkcd.com article:}}
{{Header text|{{{1|[https://web.archive.org/web/20120905024720/http://what-if.xkcd.com/10/ What if we slid the Earth's surface around by 90 degrees?]}}}}}
|This header was part of a long series of headers at the time, coming out each week with each new What If? blog entry. This one promoted {{what if|10|Cassini}}.
|style="background-color: #c97fa9;" |What If? Promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20120830024447/http://xkcd.com:80/ 2013-08-30]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1101: Sketchiness]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20120903051700/http://xkcd.com:80/ 2013-09-03]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1103: Nine]]}}
|{{Header text|{{{1|New what-if.xkcd.com article:}}}}}
{{Header text|{{{1|[https://web.archive.org/web/20120830024447/http://what-if.xkcd.com/9/ What if everyone had a randomly-chosen soul mate?]}}}}}
|This header text was part of a series of headers promoting new entries to the What If? blog every week. For this week, it promoted {{what if|9|Soul Mates}}
|style="background-color: #c97fa9;" |What If? Promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20120822133458/http://www.xkcd.com/ 2013-08-22]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1098: Star Ratings]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20120828050938/http://xkcd.com:80/ 2013-08-28]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1100: Vows]]}}
|{{Header text|{{{1|New What-If article: [https://web.archive.org/web/20120822133458/http://what-if.xkcd.com/8/ What if everyone got together and jumped]}}}}}
{{Header text|{{{1|[https://web.archive.org/web/20120822133458/http://what-if.xkcd.com/8/ at the same time, but then realized nobody brought food?]}}}}}
|This header text was part of a series of headers which came out every week, each promoting the latest entry into the What If? blog. This week, the header promoted {{what if|8|Everybody Jump}}.
|style="background: #c97fa9;" |What If? Promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20120817085903/http://xkcd.com:80/ 2013-08-17]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1096: Clinically Studied Ingredient]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20120821113022/http://www.xkcd.com/ 2013-08-21]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1097: A Hypochondriac's Nightmare]]}}
|{{Header text|{{{1|[https://web.archive.org/web/20120802104809/http://what-if.xkcd.com/ what-if.xkcd.com]}}}}}
{{Header text|{{{1|This week: [https://web.archive.org/web/20120817085903/http://what-if.xkcd.com/7/ Is there enough energy to move all of humanity off-planet]?}}}}}
|This header text was part of a series of headers which came out every week, each promoting the latest entry into the What If? blog. This week, the header promoted {{what if|7|Everybody Out}}. This header, however, is unique from the others promoting the blog, as this is the last header to promote the website directly.
|style="background: #c97fa9;" |What If? Promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20120809045754/http://xkcd.com/ 2013-08-09]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1092: Michael Phelps]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20120814083615/http://xkcd.com:80/ 2013-08-14]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1094: Interview]]}}
|[[File:What If? Glass header.png]]
|This header text was part of a series of headers which came out every week, each promoting the latest entry into the What If? blog. However, for most of the week {{what if|6|Glass Half Empty}} was out, Randall used an image to promote the new entry rather than the traditional text. This is one of only two headers promoting the blog to use this format.
|style="background: #c97fa9;" |What If? Promotion
|-
|[https://web.archive.org/web/20120807142938/http://www.xkcd.com/ 2013-08-07]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1091: Curiosity]]}}<br>
|{{Header text|{{{1|New: [https://web.archive.org/web/20120802104809/http://what-if.xkcd.com/ what-if.xkcd.com]}}}}}
{{Header text|{{{1|[https://web.archive.org/web/20120807142938/http://what-if.xkcd.com/6/ This week]: What if a glass were actually half-empty?}}}}}
|This header text was part of a series of headers which came out every week, each promoting the latest entry into the What If? blog. However, this header is unique, as it only appeared for a single day before Randall replaced it with an image promoting the same article. This header text promoted {{what if|6|Glass Half Empty}}.
|style="background: #c97fa9;" |What If? Promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20120802104809/http://xkcd.com:80/ 2013-08-02]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1089: Internal Monologue]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20120805074212/http://xkcd.com/ 2013-08-05]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1090: Formal Languages]]}}
|{{Header text|{{{1|New: [https://web.archive.org/web/20120802104809/http://what-if.xkcd.com/ what-if.xkcd.com]}}}}}
{{Header text|{{{1|[https://web.archive.org/web/20120802104809/http://what-if.xkcd.com/5/ This week]: How long would humans last in a robot apocalypse?}}}}}
|This header text was part of a series of headers which came out every week, each promoting the latest entry into the What If? blog. For this week, the header promoted {{what if|5|Robot Apocalypse}}.
|style="background: #c97fa9;" |What If? Promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20120725085933/http://xkcd.com/ 2013-07-25]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1086: Eyelash Wish Log]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20120730122025/http://xkcd.com/ 2013-07-30]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1088: Five Years]]}}
|{{Header text|{{{1|New: [https://web.archive.org/web/20120725085933/http://what-if.xkcd.com/ what-if.xkcd.com]}}}}}
{{Header text|{{{1|[https://web.archive.org/web/20120725085933/http://what-if.xkcd.com/4/ This week]: What if you had a mole (unit) of moles (animals)?}}}}}
|This header text was part of a series of headers which came out every week, each promoting the latest entry into the What If? blog. For this week, the header promoted {{what if|4|A Mole of Moles}}, the fourth What If? blog entry.
|style="background: #c97fa9;" |What If? Promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20120718231719/http://www.xkcd.com/ 2013-07-18]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1083: Writing Styles]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20120723224537/http://xkcd.com/ 2013-07-23]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1085: ContextBot]]}}
|[[File:Yoda What If header.png]]
|This header was part of a series of headers which came out every week, each promoting the latest entry into the What If? blog. During the week where {{what if|3|Yoda}} was the most recent post, Randall decided to promote the new entry via an image rather than the typical text. This is one of only two headers promoting the blog to use an image rather than text.
|style="background: #c97fa9;" |What If? Promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20120710114846/https://xkcd.com/1078/ 2012-07-10]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1078: Knights]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20120714062857/https://xkcd.com/ 2012-07-14]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1081: Argument Victory]]}}
|''First version:''<br>
{{Header text|{{{1|New site: what-if.xkcd.com, where I abuse science to answer hypothetical questions.<br>
I'll answer a new question every Tuesday.}}}}}<br>
''Second version:''<br>
{{Header text|{{{1|New: [https://what-if.xkcd.com/1/ what-if.xkcd.com]: abusing science to answer hypothetical questions.}}}}}
{{Header text|{{{1|I'll answer a new reader question every Tuesday.}}}}}
|This header text came in two versions, each promoting the new What If? blog at [https://what-if.xkcd.com/ what-if.xkcd.com].<br>
The first version was only up for a day, and, oddly, appeared on each comic except for the front page. The website given in the text wasn't a link, which is presumably why Randall quickly changed the header into the second version.<br>
The second version of the text was the main version, and was up for a few days. This header does not have many changes from the previous header, only adding the link where the website was and separating the text into two lines. The website now linked to the first ever What If? blog entry, {{what if|1|Relativistic Baseball}}. For a time, this text also did not appear on the front page as it came out during [[1079: United Shapes]], which has its own [[xkcd_Header_text#United_Shapes|unique header text]]. Later, this text was incorporated into this comic's text, but it was never changed back. This means, if you {{xkcd|1079|go to the comic today}}, it still contains the second version of this header.
|style="background: #c97fa9;" |What If? Promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20120409190952/https://xkcd.com/1026/ 2012-04-09]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1040: Lakes and Oceans]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20120709004956/https://www.xkcd.com/ 2012-07-09]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1078: Knights]]}}
|{{:Header text}}
{{Header text|{{{1|You can get prints, posters, and t-shirts in the [https://store.xkcd.com/ store].}}}}}
|This simple header text combined the standard header text and the standard store promotion in one header. The link in the bottom row went to to the [https://store.xkcd.com/ xkcd store], which contained various xkcd-themed merchandise.
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20120405195956/https://www.xkcd.com/1021/ 2012-04-05]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1038: Fountain]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20120408200414/https://xkcd.com:80/ 2012-04-08]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1039: RuBisCO]]}}
|{{:Header text}}
|A return to the standard header text, if only for a few days before the store promotion was added.
|style="background-color: #5c5c5c;" |Standard Header
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20120328103319/https://xkcd.com/ 2012-03-28]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1035: Cadbury Eggs]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20120403164523/https://xkcd.com:80/1036/ 2012-04-03]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1036: Reviews]]}}
|{{Header text|{{{1|I'm [https://blog.xkcd.com/2012/03/22/im-visiting-cnu-on-april-4th/ visiting] Newport News, VA next week, where I'll be speaking at CNU, my old school.<br>
If you want to come, reserve a seat [https://web.archive.org/web/20120329214411/https://www.cnu.edu/pcs/xkcd/index.asp here]!}}}}}
|This promotion linked to a trip Randall was doing to {{w|Newport News, Virginia}}, where he would be giving a talk at his old school, {{w|Christopher Newport University}}. The first link in the text went to a [[Blag]] [https://blog.xkcd.com/2012/03/22/im-visiting-cnu-on-april-4th/ post] announcing his trip, while the second link took you to a website where you could purchase tickets (the link here goes to an archived version, as the link is no longer working).
|style="background-color: #828282;" |Public Appearance
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20120312185125/https://xkcd.com/ 2012-03-12]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1028: Communication]]}}<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20120326180811/https://xkcd.com// 2012-03-26]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1033: Formal Logic]]}}
|{{Header text|{{[1|New: [https://web.archive.org/web/20120318153220/https://holistic.xkcd.com/ holistic.xkcd.com], the least useful web navigation tool ever.}}}}}
|This header text promoted a web navigation tool which Randall had developed, called the xkcd Holistic Browser. As the name implies, when you typed a web address, you would instead be taken to a web address someone else had entered. For a time, this header text overlapped with [[1031: s/keyboard/leopard/]], which has its own [[xkcd_Header_text#Unique_header_text|unique header text]].
|Other promotion
|-
|From [http://web.archive.org/web/20120228183748/http://xkcd.com/ 2012-02-28]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1022: So It Has Come To This]]}}<br>until [http://web.archive.org/web/20120311135259/http://xkcd.com/ 2012-03-11]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1027: Pickup Artist]]}}
|{{Header text|{{{1|XKCD updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.<br>
Blag: Remember geohashing? [http://blog.xkcd.com/2012/02/27/geohashing-2/ Something pretty cool] happened Sunday.}}}}}
|This header text references geohashing, an activity which originated from [[426: Geohashing|another comic]] which Randall had published a few years earlier. Geohashing is an activity where an algorithm picks a pseudo-random point within a certain graticule each day. The people who partake in this activity (known as 'geohashers' or 'hashers') can then go to this spot, take a picture, and upload it to the [geohashing.site Geohashing wiki].

The blog post in the header text outlines a story relating to the globalhash, an extra challenge for geohashers in which just one point is chosen around the world. One day, the globalhash was within a mile of the south pole, and a geohasher reached out to personnel at the {{w|Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station}}. Personnel at the station completed the challenge and uploaded a photo to the wiki, completing the achievement.
|style="background-color: #ffffa1;" |Blag Post
|-
|From [http://web.archive.org/web/20111219230017/http://xkcd.com/ 2011-12-19]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[992: Mnemonics]]}}<br>until [http://web.archive.org/web/20120227161127/http://xkcd.com/ 2012-02-27]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[1022: So It Has Come To This]]}}
|{{Header text|XKCD updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.}}
|The standard header text returns once again, this time taking the place of the previous after the store was unable to ship things out in time for Christmas.
|style="background-color: #5c5c5c;" |Standard Header
|-
|From [http://web.archive.org/web/20111126194650/http://xkcd.com/ 2011-11-26]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[982: Set Theory]]}}<br>until [http://web.archive.org/web/20120227161127/http://xkcd.com/ 2012-02-27]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[991: Phantom Menace]]}}
|[[File:2011 Christmas Store Banner.png]]<br>
{{Header text|{{{1|shipping for Christmas}}}}}
|This header text utilized a small banner to notify readers that the xkcd store, at that point, could ship items out in time for christmas. Nothing more to say about this one.
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|From [http://web.archive.org/web/20111126194650/http://xkcd.com/ 2011-11-26]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[930: Days of the Week]]}}<br>until [http://web.archive.org/web/20120227161127/http://xkcd.com/ 2012-02-27]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[981: Porn Folder]]}}
|{{Header text|XKCD updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.}}
|A return to the standard header text.
|style="background-color: #5c5c5c;" |Standard Header
|-
|From [http://web.archive.org/web/20110702224031/http://xkcd.com/ 2011-07-02]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[919: Tween Bromance]]}})<br>until [http://web.archive.org/web/20110718225031/http://xkcd.com/ 2011-07-18]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[926: Time Vulture]]}})
|{{Header text|{{{1|New blog post:}}}}}{{nowrap|{{Header link|{{{1|[http://blog.xkcd.com/2011/06/30/family-illness/ Family Illness]}}}}}}}
|This header text promoted a blag post which is much more somber than most. It tells readers the context behind recent cancer-related comics. At this time, Megan, his then-fianceé (and now wife), was diagnosed with Stage III {{w|Breast cancer|Breast Cancer}}, which is extremely rare at her age of diagnosis. Obviously, the treatment and support of his fianceé took up much of his life, and he wanted to let his readers know of the ongoing situation. Despite the late diagnosis, Megan has since made a full recovery.
|style="background-color: #ffffa1;" |Blag Post
|-
|From [http://web.archive.org/web/20110520004343/http://xkcd.com/ 2011-05-20]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[900: Religions]]}}<br>until [http://web.archive.org/web/20110629072556/http://xkcd.com/ 2011-06-29]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[918: Google+]]}}
|{{Header text|XKCD updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.}}
|A return to the standard header text. Not really sure what to say here.
|style="background-color: #5c5c5c;" |Standard Header
|-
|From [http://web.archive.org/web/20110512173901/http://xkcd.com/ 2011-05-12]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[897: Elevator Inspection]]}})<br>until [http://web.archive.org/web/20110517072118/http://xkcd.com/ 2011-05-17]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[899: Number Line]]}})
|{{Header text|XKCD updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.}}
{{Header link|{{{1|[http://blog.xkcd.com/2011/05/08/michael-bays-scenario/ New blag post]}}}}}{{Header text|!}}
|This header text is a compilation of the standard header text and an advertisement for a new blag post, this one being 'Michael Bay's Scenario'. This blog post shows Randall's characteristic geekiness, detailing the basis for one of the panels in [[748: Worst-Case Scenario|an earlier comic]], being the pattern for how dams are operated when the {{w|Mississippi River}} floods.
|style="background-color: #ffffa1;" |Blag Post
|-
|From [http://web.archive.org/web/20110418155618/http://xkcd.com/ 2011-04-18]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[887: Future Timeline]]}})<br>until [http://web.archive.org/web/20110508055056/http://xkcd.com/ 2011-05-08]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[898: Number Line]]}})
|{{Header text|XKCD updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.}}
|A return to the standard header text.
|style="background-color: #5c5c5c;" |Standard Header
|-
|From [http://web.archive.org/web/20110405105448/http://xkcd.com/ 2011-04-05]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[881: Probability]]}})<br>until [http://web.archive.org/web/20110415092035/http://xkcd.com/ 2011-04-15]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[886: Craigslist Apartments]]}})
|{{Header text|{{{1|Miss XK3D? It's still up at [xk3d.xkcd.com xk3d.xkcd.com].<br>
(UNIXKCD, last year's April 1st redesign, is at [uni.xkcd.com uni.xkcd.com].)}}}}}
|This header text let readers know that there was still a way to access the April Fool's xkcd redesign for that year. In 2011, the redesign used a computer program to create a 3d effect on all comics up to [[880: Headache]]. It also reminded readers of the previous year's April Fools' redesign, that being [[Unixkcd]], which gave xkcd.com an interface similar to a terminal. The upper link no longer works, and has been replaced by [3d.xkcd.com 3d.xkcd.com].
|style="background-color: #8c4271;" |April Fools' Redesign
|-
|From [http://web.archive.org/web/20110401181154/http://xkcd.com/ 2011-04-01]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[880: Headache]]}})<br>until [http://web.archive.org/web/20110415092035/http://xkcd.com/ 2011-04-15]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[886: Craigslist Apartments]]}})
|{{Header text|{{{1|XKCD is now 3D! See [http://xkcd.com/xk3d/ here] for details!<br>
If 3D is too much for you, consider investing in a pair of [http://www.thinkgeek.com/interests/looflirpa/e8be/ these]!}}}}}
|This header text was unique to the 2011 April Fools' xkcd.com redesign. For 2011, the regesign used a computer program to convert every xkcd comic up until [[880: Headache]] to a 3d view by separating the comics into different layers. The upper link is completely broken and no longer exists. To see the xk3d interface, go to [3d.xkcd.com 3d.xkcd.com]. The lower link in the header text no longer works, instead taking you to a GameStop page dedicated to action figures and other collectibles.
|style="background-color: #8c4271;" |April Fools' Redesign
|-
|From [http://web.archive.org/web/20110320063005/http://xkcd.com/ 2011-03-20]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[874: Time Management]]}})<br>until [http://web.archive.org/web/20110331041143/http://xkcd.com/ 2011-03-31]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[879: Lamp]]}})
|{{Header text|{{{1|New blag post: a [http://blog.xkcd.com/2011/03/19/radiation-chart/ chart] comparing levels of radiation exposure.}}}}}
|{{notice|summarize the blag post here}}
|style="background-color: #ffffa1;" |Blag Post
|-
|From [http://web.archive.org/web/20110202074533/http://xkcd.com/ 2011-02-02]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[855: 1999]]}})<br>until [http://web.archive.org/web/20110318203241/http://xkcd.com/ 2011-03-18]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[874: Time Management]]}})
|{{Header text|{{{1|Protip: m.xkcd.com is a clean, mobile-friendly version of xkcd.com.<br>
Protip: There's a new full-text comic search box a bit down the page.}}}}}
|This header text served as a set of two 'pro tips' which Randall is providing for the readers, the second header straight to do so. While the first is the same as the previous header, the second is different. It correctly states that there is a search box in a lower section of the page, which most people would not see as it is not viewable unless you scroll down, which most won't do as they are just viewing the comic.
|style="background-color: #00c997" | Additional Information
|-
|From [http://web.archive.org/web/20110122183142/http://xkcd.com/ 2011-01-22]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[850: World According to Americans]]}})<br>until [http://web.archive.org/web/20110201050436/http://xkcd.com/ 2011-02-01]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[854: Learning to Cook]]}})
|{{Header text|{{{1|Protip: m.xkcd.com is a clean, mobile-friendly version of xkcd.com.<br>
Protip: Scripts can [http://xkcd.com/json.html fetch comics and metadata automatically].}}}}}
|This header text provides 'pro tips', or pieces of advice ('tips') coming from somebody more experienced with a certain subject ('pros'). In this case, the person more experienced with xkcd is Randall, the creator of the site, so it's questionable as to whether these would actually be 'pro tips'. The upper tip lets readers know about m.xkcd.com, a version of the site designed for mobile devices. Currently, it's used for older web browsers, and less so for mobile devices as technology and Randall's coding has evolved. The other tip allows readers to use a computer script to automatically fetch comics and the metadata (the technical information about each comic, such as the author and its resolution) for said comics.
|style="background-color: #00c997" | Additional Information
|-
|From [http://web.archive.org/web/20101221074545/http://xkcd.com/ 2010-12-21]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[836: Sickness]]}})<br>until [http://web.archive.org/web/20110120082139/http://xkcd.com/ 2011-01-20]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[849: Complex Conjugate]]}})
|{{Header text|XKCD updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday}}
|A return to the standard header text
|style="background-color: #5c5c5c;" |Standard Header
|-
|From [http://web.archive.org/web/20101210182242/http://xkcd.com/ 2010-12-10]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[832: Tic-Tac-Toe]]}})<br>until [http://web.archive.org/web/20101220074448/http://xkcd.com/ 2010-12-20]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[836: Sickness]]}})
|[[File:2010 Christmas Store Banner.png]]<br>
{{Header text|The xkcd store is now shipping for Christmas.}}
|This header text was a reminder for readers that the xkcd store could ship items in time for christmas. At the time, he was selling signed prints of many different comics, so it was important for readers to have this knowledge.
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|From [http://web.archive.org/web/20101202013145/http://xkcd.com/ 2010-12-02]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[828: Positive Attitudes]]}})<br>until [http://web.archive.org/web/20101207103208/http://xkcd.com/ 2010-12-07]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[831: Genetic Analysis]]}})
|{{Header text|{{{1|XKCD updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.<br>
You can order the [https://xkcd.com/802/ new communities map] poster [http://store.xkcd.com/ here].}}}}}
|This header text combined the regular, standard header text with a promotion for an item in the xkcd store. It was very similar to the previous, with the only difference being that instead of only being able to preorder the item, the item could be directly ordered. The item in question was a poster depicting [[802: Online Communities 2]].
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|From [http://web.archive.org/web/20101015082807/http://xkcd.com/ 2010-10-15]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[806: Tech Support]]}})<br>until [http://web.archive.org/web/20101201003913/http://xkcd.com/ 2010-12-01]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[828: Positive Attitude]]}})
|''First version:''<br>
{{Header text|{{{1|XKCD updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.<br>
There's a poster of the [https://xkcd.com/802/ updated communities map] for preorder in the [https://store.xkcd.com store]!}}}}}

''Second version:''<br>
{{Header text|{{{1|XKCD updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.<br>
You can preorder the [https://xkcd.com/802/ new communities map] poster [http://store.xkcd.com/ here].}}}}}
|This header text came in two versions, each having the exact same meaning but differing levels of conciseness. It let readers know that they could preorder a poster which depicted [[802: Online Communities 2]], a large comic which depicted the size of various online communities as a fantasy map. This header text debuted in October until early December, when it released just in time for Christmas.
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|From [http://web.archive.org/web/20100717133907/http://xkcd.com/ 2010-07-17]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[767: Temper]]}})<br>until [http://web.archive.org/web/20101012070848/http://xkcd.com/ 2010-10-12]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[804: Pumpkin Carving]]}})
|{{Header text|{{{1|XKCD updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.<br>
There are t-shirts, prints, posters, and other items in the [https://store.xkcd.com store]!}}}}}
|This was a very standard, copy-and-paste store promotion.
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|From [http://web.archive.org/web/20100630231626/http://xkcd.com/ 2010-06-30]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[760: Moria]]}})<br>until c. [http://web.archive.org/web/20100710152236/http://xkcd.com/ 2010-07-10]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[765: One Two]]}})
|{{Header text|XKCD updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday}}
|A return to the standard header text. This header was the last time that there was a prolonged gap in the archives, necessitating the 'c.' in the date field.
|style="background-color: #5c5c5c;" |Standard Header
|-
|From [http://web.archive.org/web/20100630231626/http://xkcd.com/ 2010-06-30]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[740: The Tell-Tale Beat]]}})<br>until c. [http://web.archive.org/web/20100710152236/http://xkcd.com/ 2010-07-10]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[756: Public Opinion]]}})
|{{Header text|{{{1|XKCD updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday<br>
There is a [http://store.xkcd.com/xkcd/#FlyingFerretTankTop tank top] in the [http://store.xkcd.com/ store]!}}}}}
|This header text was a very simple one, letting readers know that the xkcd store now contained a {{w|Sleeveless shirt|tank top}} (a shirt which does not contain sleeves) depicting the flying ferret from [[20: Ferret]].
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|Archived [http://web.archive.org/web/20100506032819/http://xkcd.com/ 2010-05-06] (during [[736: Cemetery]])
|{{Header text|XKCD updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.}}
{{Header text|{{{1|The {{Header link|[http://blag.xkcd.com/2010/05/03/color-survey-results/ color survey results]}} are up!}}}}}
|This header text references the color survey, which was also mentioned the previous month in a different header. The color survey was an online survey in which users were presented with a completely random color and asked to give it a name, in an attempt to better understand how different people perceive color and language.
|Other promotion
|-
|Archived [http://web.archive.org/web/20100427162424/http://xkcd.com/ 2010-04-27] (during [[732: HDTV]])
|{{Header text|XKCD updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.}}
|A return to the standard header text.
|style="background-color: #5c5c5c;" |Standard Header
|-
|From c. [http://web.archive.org/web/20100408053329/http://xkcd.com/ 2010-04-08]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[724: Hell]]}})<br>until c. [http://web.archive.org/web/20100410004545/http://xkcd.com/ 2010-04-10]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[725: Literally]]}})
|{{Header text|{{{1|If you liked the unixkcd interface, you can keep using it <span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: 800; font-size: 16px; width: 780px; line-height: 150%; color:#96A8C8" class="plainlinks">[xkcd.com/unixkcd here]</span>!<br>
My <span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: 800; font-size: 16px; width: 780px; line-height: 150%; color:#96A8C8" class="plainlinks">[http://aram.xkcd.com/color/ survey of color names]</span> is almost done! Want to help?}}}}}
|This was a very simple header, alerting readers to the fact that, if they enjoyed [[Unixkcd]], that year's April Fools' Day redesign, it could still be accessed. While the website in the text no longer works, it can be accessed at uni.xkcd.com. It also mentions Randall's 'survey of color names', which is a survey that Randall conducted where responders were given a completely random color and asked to name it, hoping to provide some insight into how people perceive color.
|style="background-color: #8c4271;" |April Fools' Redesign
|-
|From [http://web.archive.org/web/20100304093951/http://xkcd.com/ 2010-03-04]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[709: I am]]}})<br>until c. [http://web.archive.org/web/20100410004545/http://xkcd.com/ 2010-04-10]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[719: Brain Worms]]}})
|{{Header text|{{{1|There are <span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: 800; font-size: 16px; width: 780px; line-height: 150%; color:#96A8C8" class="plainlinks">[http://store.xkcd.com/xkcd/#SignedPrints new prints]</span> and <span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: 800; font-size: 16px; width: 780px; line-height: 150%; color:#96A8C8" class="plainlinks">[http://store.xkcd.com/xkcd/#SignedPrints posters]</span in the <span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: 800; font-size: 16px; width: 780px; line-height: 150%; color:#96A8C8" class="plainlinks">[http://store.xkcd.com/ store]</span>.<br>
I'm doing a <span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: 800; font-size: 16px; width: 780px; line-height: 150%; color:#96A8C8" class="plainlinks">[http://aram.xkcd.com/color/ Color name survey]</span>. Want to help?}}}}}
|This header text served two purposes. The top line was a very simple copy-paste advertisement for the Store, advertising signed prints of comics. Oddly, the links behind 'new prints' and 'posters' are exactly the same and would have taken you to the same place regardless of which one you clicked. The second line was an advertisement for the xkcd color name survey, where respondents were given a random color and asked to name it in an attempt to better understand how different people perceive colors and language.
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|From c. [http://web.archive.org/web/20100102003314/http://xkcd.com/ 2010-01-02]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[683: Science Montage]]}})<br>until c. [http://web.archive.org/web/20100215231756/http://xkcd.com/ 2010-02-15]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[702: Snow Tracking]]}})
|{{Header text|{{{1|XKCD updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday}}}}}
|A return to the standard header text.
|style="background-color: #5c5c5c;" |Standard Header
|-
|From c. [http://web.archive.org/web/20091202010210/http://xkcd.com/ 2009-12-02]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[669: Experiment]]}})<br>until c. [http://web.archive.org/web/20091225151809/http://xkcd.com/ 2009-12-25]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[680: December 25th]]}})
|[[File:2009 Christmas Store Banner.png]]<br>
{{Header text|The xkcd store - now shipping for Christmas delivery}}
|This simple header text served the purpose of alerting readers to the fact that the xkcd store could ship in time for Christmas, if anybody wanted to buy an xkcd-themed gift for somebody. However, the last time this text was archived was on Christmas Day, far after the store could have shipped anything in time for Christmas.
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|From [http://web.archive.org/web/20091027132448/http://xkcd.com/ 2009-09-25]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[641: Free]]}})<br>until c. [http://web.archive.org/web/20091115070508/http://xkcd.com/ 2009-11-15]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[662: iPhone or Droid]]}})
|{{Header text|{{{1|The first <span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: 800; font-size: 16px; width: 780px; line-height: 150%; color:#96A8C8" class="plainlinks">[http://store.xkcd.com/xkcd/?book#xkcdvolume0 xkcd book]</span> is now available in the <span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: 800; font-size: 16px; width: 780px; line-height: 150%; color:#96A8C8" class="plainlinks">[http://store.xkcd.com/ store]</span>!
|This was the final header text to promote [[xkcd: volume 0]], a compilation of some of the best xkcd comics up to that point, along with footnotes and <s>a mysterious cipher</s> other additions. This header text served two distinct stints, as it was interrupted for just a few hours on October 27th by xkcd's GeoCities memorial.
|style="background-color: #ff997d;" |Book promotion
|-
|[http://web.archive.org/web/20091027014324/http://xkcd.com/ 2009-10-27] (during [[654: Nachos]])
|<span style="font-family:'Comic Sans MS'; font-size:18px; color:red;">GeoCities is shutting down today. To commemorate this, xkcd.com has been redesigned."></span><sup>{{nowrap|[[File:Broken File Icon.png|25x25px]]}}</sup>
|For just a few hours on October 27th, 2009, xkcd was redesigned to be a chaotic mess in memory of {{w|GeoCities}}, replicating a stereotypical GeoCities site. GeoCities was a free web hosting service which, due to the very low barrier of entry, was known for children and teens hosting their own sites which looked similar to the redesign. This resulted in many pieces of broken code, which is replicated in the header text. Please note that the text had effects on it which cannot be replicated here, such as the image being in place of a superscript and the text containing a marquee effect.
|???
|-
|From c. [http://web.archive.org/web/20090918105905/http://xkcd.com/ 2009-09-18]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[641: Free]]}})<br>until [http://web.archive.org/web/20090923040934/http://xkcd.com/ 2009-09-23]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[662: iPhone or Droid]]}})
|’’’First Version:’’’<br>
{{Header text|{{{1|The first <span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: 800; font-size: 16px; width: 780px; line-height: 150%; color:#96A8C8" class="plainlinks">[http://store.xkcd.com/xkcd/?book#xkcdvolume0 xkcd book]</span> is now available in the <span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: 800; font-size: 16px; width: 780px; line-height: 150%; color:#96A8C8" class="plainlinks">[http://store.xkcd.com/ store]</span>!<br>
I'll be at <span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: 800; font-size: 16px; width: 780px; line-height: 150%; color:#96A8C8" class="plainlinks">[http://breadpig.com/blog/2009/09/08/xkcd-book-tour-announced/ release events]</span> this weekend in New York and the Bay Area.}}}}}

’’’Second Version:'''<br>
{{Header text|{{{1|The first <span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: 800; font-size: 16px; width: 780px; line-height: 150%; color:#96A8C8" class="plainlinks">[http://store.xkcd.com/xkcd/?book#xkcdvolume0 xkcd book]</span> is now available in the <span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: 800; font-size: 16px; width: 780px; line-height: 150%; color:#96A8C8" class="plainlinks">[http://store.xkcd.com/ store]</span>!<br>
I'll be at <span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: 800; font-size: 16px; width: 780px; line-height: 150%; color:#96A8C8" class="plainlinks">[http://breadpig.com/blog/2009/09/08/xkcd-book-tour-announced/ release events]</span> this weekend in the Bay Area.}}}}}
|This header text came in two versions, which are compiled here because the second came right after the first and told you the exact same thing. The first version let you know that [[xkcd: volume 0]], the first-ever xkcd book, had been released and could be purchased in the store when it was online. It also told you about the small book tour that Randall would be doing, with stops in New York City and the San Francisco Bay area. This version was last archived [http://web.archive.org/web/20090921130537/http://xkcd.com/ 2009-09-21]. The second version was exactly the same, except for the fact that Randall had apparently already gone to NYC, and was now presumably on his way to the Bay Area for that stop.
|style="background-color: #ff997d;" |Book promotion
|-
|Archived [http://web.archive.org/web/20090903095219/http://xkcd.com/ 2009-09-03]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[631: Anatomy Text]]}})
|{{Header text|Ever wanted {{Header link|[http://store.xkcd.com/xkcd/?tie#xkcdtie an xkcd tie]}}?}}
|This was a very simple store promotion, stating that you could now get an xkcd-themed necktie from the store. It depicted various characters doing actions they did in previous comics they were featured in. An image of the tie is included below.

[[File:xkcd tie.jpg|150x150px]]
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|Archived [http://web.archive.org/web/20090801182533/http://www.xkcd.com/ 2009-08-01<br>{{nowrap|(during [[617: Understocked]]}})
|{{Header text|I'll be at {{Header link|[http://connecticon.org/ Connecticon]}} this weekend.<br>
If you're in the area, come say hi!}}
|This simple header promoted the fact that Randall was planning on travelling to Connecticon. Connecticon is an annual fan convention which dabbles in "all things Pop-culture", and it regularly hosts celebrity guests and panels. It's named such because, since its founding, it has been based in Hartford, Connecticut. Randall was one of many webcomic-creating guests who were invited, but it seems he was attending as a guest and nothing more.
|style="background-color: #828282;" |Public Appearance
|-
|From [http://web.archive.org/web/20090317062350/http://xkcd.com/ 2009-03-17]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[556: Alternative Energy Revolution]]}})<br>until [http://web.archive.org/web/20090730084817/http://xkcd.com/ 2009-07-30]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[616: Lease]]}})
|{{Header text|XKCD updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.<br>
There are signed prints in the {{Header link|[http://web.archive.org/web/20090317062350if_/http://xkcd.com:80/store/ store]}}.}}
|This was a very simple header, being a simple combination of the standard header text and a copy-pasted store promotion. The 'signed prints' that Randall is referring to are printed-out versions of comics which were hand-signed by Randall and could be purchased in the store before it shut down.
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|From [http://web.archive.org/web/20090313220423/http://xkcd.com/ 2009-03-13]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[555: Two Mirrors]]}})<br>until [http://web.archive.org/web/20090314231453/xkcd.com/ 2009-03-14]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[555: Two Mirrors]]}})
|{{Header text|XKCD updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.}}
|A return to the standard header text.
|style="background-color: #5c5c5c;" |Standard Header
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20081218103735/https://xkcd.com/ 2008-12-18]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[518: Flow Charts]]}})<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20090311133423/https://xkcd.com/ 2009-03-11]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[554: Not Enough Work]]}})
|{{Header text|The {{Header link|[http://store.xkcd.com/ xkcd store]}} now has {{Header link|[http://store.xkcd.com/ signed prints]}}.}}
|This header text was a simple, copy-paste store promotion advertising signed print-outs of comics, which could be ordered in the store before it was shut down.
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|Archived [https://web.archive.org/web/20081216003547/https://xkcd.com/ 2008-12-16]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[517: Marshmallow Gun]]}})
|{{Header text|The {{Header link|[http://store.xkcd.com/ xkcd store]}} (now with {{Header link|[http://store.xkcd.com/ signed prints]}}!) is running smoothly,<br>
so we’ve extended the US Christmas order deadline to Tuesday.}}
|This header text was to let people know that apparently, it was not too late to order things and get them shipped in time for Christmas (with the obligatory advertisement for the signed comic print-outs, of course). This text was almost certainly up before it was archived, however, as the 'Tuesday' in question was the very day that it was added to archive.org. The wording is also a bit confusing, as it implies that either 1)they were expecting the store to NOT be running smoothly or 2)the store running smoothly at all is unexpected.
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|From c. [https://web.archive.org/web/20081202150349/https://xkcd.com/ 2008-12-02]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[511: Sleet]]}})<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20081211124445/https://xkcd.com/ 2008-12-11]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[515: No One Must Know]]}})
|[[File:2008 store banner.png]]<br>
{{Header text|{{Header link|[http://store.xkcd.com/ New merchandise in the store!]}} {{Header link|[http://store.xkcd.com/ Order]}} before the 12th to ensure<br>
US delivery before the 25th.}}
|This was the routine December header text at this point. It let readers know that there was not only new merch in the store, but also revealed the date you needed to order to have delivery guaranteed by the 25th. This date would later be extended to the 16th, but nobody knew about that at this point.
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|From c. [https://web.archive.org/web/20081002175315/https://xkcd.com/ 2008-10-02]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[483: Fiction Rule of Thumb]]}})<br>until c. [https://web.archive.org/web/20081125150337/https://xkcd.com/ 2008-11-25]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[508: Drapes]]}})
|[[File:2008 store banner.png]]<br>
{{Header text|{{Header link|[http://store.xkcd.com/ New merchandise in the store!]}} XKCD updates every Monday,<br>
Wednesday, and Friday.}}
|This rather oddly-formatted header text was a simple store promotion and standard header combo, letting people know that new merch had been added to the store. Randall was seemingly quite proud of all the new stuff that had been recently added to the shop, because the store had been advertised for over 4 straight months at this point and would continue to be promoted until 4 months later. This is the first, and seemingly only, time that the standard header text has been broken up into multiple lines.
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|From c. [https://web.archive.org/web/20080805184617/https://xkcd.com/ 2008-08-05]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[458: Regrets]]}})<br>until c. [https://web.archive.org/web/20080922225907/https://xkcd.com/ 2008-09-22]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[479: Tones]]}})
|[[File:2008 store banner.png]]<br>
{{Header text|{{Header link|[http://store.xkcd.com/ New merchandise in the store!]}} New {{Header link|[http://store.xkcd.com/ shirt and skirt]}} now shipping.}}
|This was the second header in a row to promote the store. This one promoted 'new merchandise', more specifically a shirt and a skirt, which were apparently shipping at the time.
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|Archived [https://web.archive.org/web/20080728075533/https://xkcd.com/ 2008-07-28]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[455: Hats]]}})
|{{Header text|New shirt and skirt in the {{Header link|[http://store.xkcd.com/ store]}}.}}
|This was a very simple header. It said that there had been new releases in the store, being a shirt and, rather unexpectedly, a skirt. No clue what would have been put on a skirt, but it existed.
|-
|From c. [https://web.archive.org/web/20080617035452/https://xkcd.com/ 2008-06-17]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[437: SUV]]}})<br>until c. [https://web.archive.org/web/20080703181835/https://xkcd.com/ 2008-07-03]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[444: Macgyver Gets Lazy]]}})
|{{Header text|XKCD updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.}}
|A return to the standard header text.
|style="background-color: #5c5c5c;" |Standard Header
|-
|From c. [https://web.archive.org/web/20080409062908/https://xkcd.com/ 2008-04-09]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[408: Overqualified]]}})<br>until c. [https://web.archive.org/web/20080430072916/https://xkcd.com/ 2008-04-30]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[417: The Man Who Fell Sideways]]}})
|{{Header text|The {{Header link|[http://store.xkcd.com/ store]}} is back.}}
|This rather ominous header text came after the store had apparently gone away for a few months. This was one of the shortest header texts ever, coming in at just four words and 15 characters.
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|Archived [https://web.archive.org/web/20080321072739/https://xkcd.com/ 2008-03-21]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[399: Travelling Salesman Problem]]}})
|{{Header text|XKCD is updated every monday, wednesday, and friday.<br>
The [http://store.xkcd.com/ {{Header link|store] {{Header text|is back.}}}}}}
|This rather ominous header text was an announcement of the reinstatement of the xkcd store, which had apparently gone away for some time between January 16th, 2008 (the last time the store had been promoted on the header text) and March 21st, 2008 (the only time this header text was archived). I find it funny that Randall successfully made it sound like the xkcd store was a supervillain from a children's cartoon or the antagonist in a bad 1970s sci-fi movie.
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|Archived [https://web.archive.org/web/20080218115842/https://xkcd.com/ 2008-02-18]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[385: How it Works]]}})
|{{Header text|XKCD updates every monday, wednesday, and friday.<br>
Blag: [http://blag.xkcd.com/2008/02/15/aliens/ {{Header link|Aliens] {{Header text|and [http://blag.xkcd.com/2008/02/15/the-laser-elevator/ {{Header link|laser elevators]{{Header text|.}}}}}}}}}}
|This header text was a very simple promotion of two recent Blag posts. 'Aliens' was a short rant about how poorly we were seaching for extraterrestrial life, and a prediction that the search for alien life would ramp up 'in a decade' (which, at the time of this post going up, would have been 2018). This obviously didn't end up panning out. The other one, laser elevators, is a rant about how bad {{w|Solar sail|Solar sails}} are, and shows a solution that a recent study had come up with, where a photon could be repeatedly bounced between a solar sail and a large reflective panel to create large amounts of energy. The post then goes farther off the rails, comparing physics to sex and then creating a theory where, using a Dyson sphere and a series of lasing cavities within it, a laser could be created and aimed at a star, creating an effective method for interstellar war. The post ends with a message to the aliens: the rather brash "FUCK YOU GUYS!"
|Other promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20080116055414/https://xkcd.com/ 2008-01-16]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[371: Compiler Complaint]]}})<br>until c. [https://web.archive.org/web/20080202114535/https://xkcd.com/ 2008-02-02]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[378: Real Programmers]]}})
|{{Header text|XKCD updates every monday, wednesday, and friday.}}
|A return to the standard header text.
|style="background-color: #5c5c5c;" |Standard Header
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20071212040227/https://xkcd.com/ 2007-12-12]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[355: Couple]]}})<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20080113050121/https://xkcd.com/ 2008-01-13]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[369: Dangers]]}})
|[[File:2007 store promo header.png]]<br>
[http://xkcd.com/store {{Header link|xkcd store]}}
|This was the traditional, annual store promotion, banner and all. However, unlike past future promotions, this header did not actually mention Christmas, it just kinda happened to be there during Christmas. It was clearly a Christmas promotion. And if that wasn't convincing enough, the actual name of the image in the header text is 'christmas_imglink'. However, 'christmas_imglink' stayed until mid-january, about 3 weeks after Christmas.
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20071125101002/https://xkcd.com/ 2007-11-25]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[348: Close to You]]}})<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20071209030605/https://xkcd.com/ 2007-12-09]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[354: Startling]]}})
|[[File:2007 store promo header.png]]
|This header was quite short-lived. It contained a single image which promoted the store. Because of this header's low uptime and the contents of the next header, it is quite possible that Randall simply forgot to include the actual link to the store, which is what the next header added.
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20071117155253/https://xkcd.com/ 2007-11-17]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[345: 1337: Part 5]]}})<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20071123133252/https://xkcd.com/ 2007-11-23]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[348: Close to You]]}})
|{{Header text|New shirt and hoodie for sale in the [http://xkcd.com/store/ {{Header link|store]{{Header text|!}}}}}}
|This header text was a very simple store promotion promoting a shirt and a hoodie, which was in the store at the time before it got shut down.
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20071112104631/https://xkcd.com/ 2007-11-12]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[341: 1337: Part 1
]]}})<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20071116040809/https://xkcd.com/ 2007-11-16]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[344: 1337: Part 4]]}})
|{{Header text|New shirt and hoodie for sale in the [http://xkcd.com/store/ {{Header link|store]}}!
There will be five comics this week, one each weekday!}}
|This header text combined the previous header text advertising the store with a notification about the 1337 Series, which was a 5-part comic series that Randall was creating at the time. Comics would release each weekday for that week, and Randall notified readers of this.
|style="background-color: #00c997" | Additional Information
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20071027094704/https://xkcd.com/ 2007-10-27]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[334: Wasteland]]}})<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20071111214505/https://xkcd.com/ 2007-11-11]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[340: Fight]]}})
|{{Header text|New shirt and hoodie for preorder in the [http://xkcd.com/store/ {{Header link|store]}}!}}
|This was a very simple header text, advertising a new shirt and a hoodie in the xkcd store. It was only up for a few days before the 1337 series notice was added.
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|Archived [https://web.archive.org/web/20071024131946/https://xkcd.com/ 2007-10-24]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[333: Getting Out of Hand]]}})
|''(no header text)''
|Randall, having put up the standard header text for a bit, forgot to put up the replacement text for the second time in a month. This was very short-lived, so it didn't affect too much. Presumably, Randall was trying to replace the previous standard header with the store promotion in the next one, but forgot to put in the new one, leaving the header text blank.
|style="background-color: #fffff1;" |No Header
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20071005115902/https://xkcd.com/ 2007-10-05]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[325: A-Minus-Minus]]}})<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20071023083642/https://xkcd.com/ 2007-10-23]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[332: Gyroscopes]]}})
|{{Header text|xkcd updates every monday, wednesday, and friday}}
|A return to the standard header text. This was the last time a version of the standard header without any capitalized letters was used, but a version with 'xkcd' all in lowercase did reemerge later.
|style="background-color: #5c5c5c;" |Standard Header
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20071004202736/https://xkcd.com/ 2007-10-04]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[324: Tapping]]}})<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20071004213008/https://xkcd.com/ 2007-10-04]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[324: Tapping]]}})
|''(no header text)''
|Randall forgets the text again! This is the second time in a month that he did this, as Randall had a bit of a habit of forgetting the header text when replacing them. This time, it was after the new forums promotion. Luckily, thos only happened for a few hours before Randall remembered.
|style="background-color: #fffff1;" |No Header
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20071002094941/https://xkcd.com/ 2007-10-02]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[323: Ballmer Peak]]}})<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20071003015205/https://xkcd.com/ 2007-10-03]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[324: Tapping]]}})
|{{Header text|You can use [http://forums3.xkcd.com/ {{Header link|forums3.xkcd.com]}} until DNS<br>
updates.
|This was a notification for readers that they could still use forums3, apparently an older version of the xkcd forums, until DNS (Domain Name System) updated. DNS, put ''very'' simply, is the process by which servers connect with websites. Presumably, the website didn't support the next DNS update and it wouldn't work post-update. Don't know why Randall couldn't just update the website, but okay.
|style="background-color: #00c997" | Additional Information
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20070917215531/https://xkcd.com/ 2007-09-17]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[317: That Lovin' Feelin']]}})<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20070926234657/https://xkcd.com/ 2007-09-26]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[321: Thighs]]}})
|''(no header text)''
|Randall once again forgets to put something else into the Header text field when he takes out the previous, leading to literally nothing being there.
|style="background-color: #fffff1;" |No Header
|-
|From c. [https://web.archive.org/web/20070809012909/http://www.xkcd.com/ 2007-08-09]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[300: Facebook]]}})<br>until c. [https://web.archive.org/web/20070904063904/https://xkcd.com/ 2007-09-04]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[311: Action Movies]]}})
|{{Header text|Reality-modifying stickers and a new shirt in the [https://xkcd.com/store {{Header link|store]}}!}}
|This was a simple store promotion. Why they are 'reality-modifying', I don't know, because the link takes you directly to the store and not an archive, so their appearance is unknown.
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|Archived [https://web.archive.org/web/20070610103907/http://www.xkcd.com/ 2007-06-10]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[274: With Apologies to The Who]]}}
|''(no header text)''
|Once again, the additional info provided for [[271: Powers of One]] is replaced by absolutely nothing. Great job, Randall. Phenomenal work.
|style="background-color: #fffff1;" |No Header
|-
|Archived [https://web.archive.org/web/20070602203916/http://www.xkcd.com/ 2007-06-02]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[271: Powers of One]]}}
|{{Header text|Background:{{w|Powers of ten|{{Header link|Powers of Ten}}}} on Wikipedia}}
|This was a very simple header giving context to the inspiration for the comic. While the current link takes you to a disambiguation page, the text took you [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Powers_of_Ten_(film_series)&oldid=133810607 here].
|style="background-color: #00c997" | Additional Information
|-
|Archived [https://web.archive.org/web/20070602203916/http://www.xkcd.com/ 2007-06-02]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[267: Choices: Part 4]]}}
|{{Header text|The [https://web.archive.org/web/20070524191621/http://xkcd.com/store/ {{Header link|Online Communities Map poster]}} is now shipping.<br>
This week, XKCD updates every weekday.}}
|While this header text was only archived during [[Choices: Part 4]], this header probably started during [[Choices: Part 1]], when the ''Choices'' comic series started. It also served as a store promotion, advertising a poster version of [[256: Online Communities]].
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|Archived [https://web.archive.org/web/20070519162137/http://www.xkcd.com/ 2007-05-19]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[263: Certainty]]}}
|''(no header text)''
|Randall once again forgets to replace the store promotion with anything and the field remains empty.
|style="background-color: #fffff1;" |No Header
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20070506050322/http://www.xkcd.com/ 2007-05-06]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[257: Code Talkers]]}})<br>until c. [https://web.archive.org/web/20070514171227/http://www.xkcd.com/ 2007-05-14]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[261: Regarding Mussolini]]}})
|{{Header text|You can preorder posters of the online communities map in the [https://web.archive.org/web/20070506050322/http://xkcd.com/store/ {{Header link|store]}}}}
|This header text served to promote the fact that you could preorder printed versions of [[256: Online Communites]]. However, there was a formatting error with this specific header. It was all only one line, and the line was so long that the word 'store' was actually obscured by the edge of the screen.
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|Archived [https://web.archive.org/web/20070503171452/http://www.xkcd.com/ 2007-05-03]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[256: Online Communities]]}}
|{{Header text|By popular demand: preorder a [https://web.archive.org/web/20070503171452/http://xkcd.com/store/ {{Header link|poster]}} of this map!}}
|This header text advertised a poster of the latest comic ([[256: Online Communities]]) that you could preorder in the xkcd store. However, as this is the only archive from when this comic was up, it is unclear whether there was any demand at all for the poster. It is entirely possible that Randall decided that he wanted to make a poster and used the 'popular demand' line as an excuse for creating it.
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20070324053307/http://www.xkcd.com/ 2007-03-24]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[239: Blagofaire]]}})<br>until c. [https://web.archive.org/web/20070406171936/http://www.xkcd.com/ 2007-04-06]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[245: Floor Tiles]]}})
|{{Header text|XKCD updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday}}
|A return to the standard header text.
|style="background-color: #5c5c5c;" |Standard Header
|-
|Archived [https://web.archive.org/web/20070321155442/http://www.xkcd.com/ 2007-03-21]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[238: Pet Peeve 114|238: Pet Peeve #114]]}}
|{{Header text|There are some good shirts in the [https://web.archive.org/web/20070316050820/http://xkcd.com/store/ {{Header link|store]}}.}}
|Randall yoinks the second line of the previous header text, advertising the new Blag post, and uses the header text to advertise the store once again. This time, instead of giving a description of the item like he usually does, he simply uses the vague term 'good shirts'. They aren't great, mind you, just good.
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|Archived [https://web.archive.org/web/20070316050820/http://www.xkcd.com/ 2007-03-16]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[236: Collecting Double-Takes]]}}
|{{Header text|There are some good shirts in the [https://web.archive.org/web/20070316050820/http://xkcd.com/store/ {{Header link|store]}}.<br>
[https://web.archive.org/web/20070316050820/http://blag.xkcd.com/ {{Header link|Lost: comic originals, sense of security.]}} (blag post)}}
|This header text served two purposes: To advertise the store, specifically the 'good shirts' that could be found within it, and a new Blag post. The Blag post was <big>SUMMARIZE THE BLAG POST HERE!</big>
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|From c. [https://web.archive.org/web/20070306005449/http://www.xkcd.com/ 2007-03-06]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[231: Cat Proximity]]}})<br>until [https://web.archive.org/web/20070314012824/http://www.xkcd.com/ 2007-03-14]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[234: Escape Artist]]}})
|{{Header text|<span style=”color:red”>New:</span> Map of the Internet [https://web.archive.org/web/20070306005449/http://xkcd.com/store/ {{Header link|poster print]}}<br>
<span style=”color:red”>New:</span> Two new shirts in the [https://web.archive.org/web/20070306005449/http://xkcd.com/store/ {{Header link|store]}}}}
|This was a simple store promotion, advertising a poster of [[195: Map of the Internet]] and two new shirts that you could purchase in the store. This was the last header text to use a red color.
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20070212145716/http://www.xkcd.com/ 2007-02-12]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[222: Small Talk]]}})<br>until c. [https://web.archive.org/web/20070227234312/http://www.xkcd.com/ 2007-02-27]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[228: Resonance]]}})
|{{Header text|XKCD updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.<br>
[https://web.archive.org/web/20070212145716/http://xkcd.com/store/ {{Header link|T-shirts]}} are restocked (for now) and shipping promptly!
|This header text served to advertise the xkcd store and its apparently quite popular t-shirts. Either Randall was having a hard time getting the shirts made, people were too rampant about the t-shirts for Randall to restock in time, or both.
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|Archived [https://web.archive.org/web/20070210042242/http://www.xkcd.com/ 2007-02-10]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[221: Random Number]]}}
|{{Header text|XKCD updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday}}
|A return to the standard header text.
|style="background-color: #5c5c5c;" |Standard Header
|-
|From c. [https://web.archive.org/web/20070202022802/http://www.xkcd.com/ 2007-02-02]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[217: e to the pi Minus pi]]}})<br>until c. [https://web.archive.org/web/20070204031035/http://www.xkcd.com/ 2007-02-04]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[218: Nintendo Surgeon]]}})
|{{Header text| New blag post:<br>
[https://web.archive.org/web/20070202022802/http://blag.xkcd.com/2007/01/29/washingtons-farewell-address-translated-into-the-vernacular/ {{Header link|Washington’s Farewell Address in everyday speech]}}.}}
|This header text promoted a new Blag post that Randall had recently released. It (mostly) does what it says on the tin: translating Washington's farewell address into modern terms. However, instead of being a fairly formal rendition and removing the very old terms, the message becomes very informal, using contractions such as 'y'all', 'sup' and 'wanna'.
|Other promotion
|-
|Archived [https://web.archive.org/web/20070124194143/http://www.xkcd.com/ 2007-01-24]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[214: The Problem with Wikipedia]]}}
|{{Header text|XKCD updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday}}
|A return to the standard header text
|style="background-color: #5c5c5c;" |Standard Header
|-
|Archived [https://web.archive.org/web/20070119080342/http://www.xkcd.com/ 2007-01-19]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[212: Brain]]}}
|{{Header text|I tried writing to [https://web.archive.org/web/20070119080342/http://www.zorb.com/ {{Header link|zorb]}} but I can’t convince them to send me one.}}
|ZORB is a company which produces experiences revolving around inflatable, human-sized hamster balls based in New Zealand. This header seems to have come out in line with [[211: Hamster Ball Heist]], which, along with [[152: Hamster Ball]], showcase Randall's apparent fascination with them and desire to acquire one. Randall, apparently before the comic had been published, had made an attempt to write to ZORB to see if he could acquire one of their balls, but he was unsuccessful. Based on the language of the line, it seems the process is actually ongoing, and he has actually gotten zorb to repeatedly respond to his inquiries.
|style="background-color: #00c997" | Additional Joke
|-
|From c. [https://web.archive.org/web/20061231002902/http://www.xkcd.com/ 2006-12-31]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[203: Hallucinations]]}})<br>until c. [https://web.archive.org/web/20070114100227/http://www.xkcd.com/ 2007-01-14]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[209: Kayak]]}})
|{{Header text|XKCD updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday}}
|A return to the standard header text. This was the first time that the standard header text occurred in this form, with 'xkcd' in all caps.
|style="background-color: #5c5c5c;" |Standard Header
|-
|Archived [https://web.archive.org/web/20061214130506/http://www.xkcd.com/ 2006-12-14]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[196: Command Line Fu]]}}
|{{Header text|Christmas orders are closed! They will finish shipping shortly!<br>
[https://web.archive.org/web/20061214130506/http://thefairest.info/ {{Header link|TheFairest]}} -[https://web.archive.org/web/20061214130506/http://thefunniest.info/ {{Header link|TheFunniest]}} - [https://web.archive.org/web/20061214130506/http://thecutest.info/ {{Header link|TheCutest]}}}}
|This text not only served to let readers know that you couldn't order from the store in time for Christmas, but also to promote three websites: "The Fairest", "The Funniest", and "The Cutest". Each website presented you with two different things, and viewers were tasked with picking what they thought was fairer, funnier, or cuter, in an attempt to sort every object by fairness, hilarity, and cuteness (great job, 'hilarity'. Why couldn't you be 'funniness' like the rest of them? Why do you have to be different?).
|style="background-color: #690007" | Website Promotion
|-
|Archived [https://web.archive.org/web/20061209222812/http://www.xkcd.com/ 2006-12-09]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[194: Penises]]}}
|{{notice|find the link for 'christmas orders'}}
{{Header text|<span style="color:red">The deadline for</span> Christmas orders <span style=”color:red”>is December 13th</span>.<br>
Supplies are limited; shirts are not guaranteed to stay in stock}}
|This header text was a notice that, if people wanted to order from the xkcd store and have their items shipped before Christmas, they had to order by December 13th. The (at least) 11-day shipping time implied here is abysmal. However, it appears that this is the first-ever year that the xkcd store went through Christmas, so it's fair enough to cut it some slack. Shipping times in future years would decrease.
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|Archived [https://web.archive.org/web/20061205054357/http://www.xkcd.com/ 2006-12-05]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[192: Working for Google]]}}
|{{Header text|New ‘Useless’ shirt available in the [https://web.archive.org/web/20061205054357/http://www.xkcd.com/store/ {{Header link|store]}}! (Supplies limited)<br>
<span style="color:red">The deadline for Christmas orders is December 13th</span>.}}
|This header text promoted a useless shirt that was available in the store, as well as giving the last day that people could order from the store and have it shipped in time for Christmas.

Despite the appearance of Randall claiming the new shirt is completely and utterly useless, it is actually referring to [[55: Useless]], the last xkcd comic to ever be posted to [[LiveJournal]].
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|Archived [https://web.archive.org/web/20061129035519/http://www.xkcd.com/ 2007-11-29]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[189: Exercise]]}}
|''(no header text)''
|Randall once again, being his forgetful 2007 self, forgets to put up a new header! Isn't that fun? This is fun. I'm having fun.
|style="background-color: #fffff1;" |No Header
|-
|Archived [https://web.archive.org/web/20061118050729/http://www.xkcd.com/ 2006-11-18]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[185: Wikifriends]]}}
|{{header text|[https://web.archive.org/web/20061118050729/http://thefairest.info/ TheFairest.info] - [https://web.archive.org/web/20061118050729/http://thefunniest.info/ TheFunniest.info] - Have voters, need submitters.<br>
(Content is user-submitted and may occasionally not be work-safe.)
|This header text promoted Randall's websites, The Fairest and The Funniest. These websites were a 'hot or not' style site where users were presented with two things and were tasked with picking which object was funnier (in the case of The Funniest) or fairer (in the case of The Fairest). According to the text, there were plenty of people voting on the things, but he needed people to submit things for people to vote on. It also provides a disclaimer that things may not always be work-safe, a vulnerability of all sites which rely on user-submitted input.
|style="background-color: #690007" | Website Promotion
|-
|Archived [https://web.archive.org/web/20061109002705/http://www.xkcd.com/ 2006-11-09]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[181: Interblag]]}}
|{{Header text|New toys: [https://web.archive.org/web/20061109002705/http://thefairest.info/ {{Header link|TheFairest.info]}} - [https://web.archive.org/web/20061109002705/http://thefunniest.info/ {{Header link|TheFunniest.info]}}}}
|This header text advertised Randall's new 'toys'. Instead of what you may suspect (xkcd-themed toys in the store), it is instead two new websites that Randall created, The Fairest and The Funniest. Both of these websites had users submit different things to a database. The users would then be presented with two random things from the database and were tasked with deciding which was funnier (on The Funniest) or fairer (on The Fairest).
|style="background-color: #690007" | Website Promotion
|-
|Archived [https://web.archive.org/web/20061013224954/http://www.xkcd.com/ 2006-10-13]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[170: Turn Back]]}}
|''(no header text)''
|Randall forgets! Again! This was a very, ''very'' common thing in the early days of xkcd.
|style="background-color: #fffff1;" |No Header
|-
|Archived [https://web.archive.org/web/20060901152617/http://www.xkcd.com/ 2006-09-01]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[151: Mario]]}}
|{{Header text|[https://web.archive.org/web/20060901152617/http://xkcd.com/store/ {{Header link|Store]}} has 2XL and 3XL shirts until preorder period ends.<br>
NEWS: [https://web.archive.org/web/20060901152617/http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?t=207 {{Header link|xkcd irc channel]}} (#xkcd on irc.foonetic.net)
|This rather unique header text served two purposes. The first was to promote the 2XL and 3XL shirts in the store. These are very rare and unique sizes, so it's probably deserving of a promotion. The other was to promote the official xkcd IRC channel. IRC was a very early form of social media. There is also another, apparently unofficial IRC on a separate website, but Randall didn't link it. This is quite strange, as it seems to be the only time that Randall had a website in the header text and didn't link it.
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|Archived [https://web.archive.org/web/20060829224233/http://www.xkcd.com/ 2006-08-29]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[149: Sandwich]]}}
|{{Header text|Two t-shirts in the [https://web.archive.org/web/20060829224233/http://xkcd.com/store/ {{Header link|store]}}! One sweet, one bitchin’.<br>
NEWS: Store has 2XL and 3XL shirts until preorder period ends.}}
|This header text advertised two new shirts which were available in the xkcd store, which Randall described as 'sweet' and 'bitchin'. It is unclear what exactly was meant with those adjectives, but it almost certainly was describing whatever print was on the shirt. It also advertised 2XL and 3XL shirts, which are fairly rare, and as such are probably worthy of being advertised.
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|Archived [https://web.archive.org/web/20060819122155/http://www.xkcd.com/ 2006-08-19]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[145: Parody Week: Dinosaur Comics]]}}
|{{Header text|Saturday is the last day to vote in the [https://web.archive.org/web/20060819122155/http://xkcd.com/date/ {{Header link|date contest]}}!<br>
[https://web.archive.org/web/20060819122155/http://qwantz.com/ {{Header link|Dinosaur Comics]}} tribute! Regular comics return Monday.}}
|While this header text was indeed a global header text, the specificity of the text to the comic it was paired with implies that there were four other global header texts, one for each parody comic. Sadly, there were no archived versions of these headers, so all of these headers, if they existed, are lost media.

The first line of the comic mentions the xkcd date contest.
|style="background-color: #00c997" | Additional Information
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20060812105656/http://www.xkcd.com/ 2006-08-12]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[140: Delicious]]}})<br>until c. [https://web.archive.org/web/20060813123244/http://www.xkcd.com/ 2006-08-13]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[140: Delicious]]}})
|{{Header text|'''NEWS''': Next week is Parody Week! New comic every weekday!}}
|This header text was a piece of news, specifically a notice about Parody Week, which would have a new comic released every weekday instead of the normal Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule.
|style="background-color: #00c997" | Additional Information
|-
|Archived [https://web.archive.org/web/20060810182227/http://www.xkcd.com/ 2006-08-10]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[139: I Have Owned Two Electric Skateboards]]}}
|{{Header text|'''NEWS:''' [https://web.archive.org/web/20060810182227/http://xkcd.com/store/ {{Header link|Signed prints]}} of many comics are available!<br>
Don’t forget to help vote in the [https://web.archive.org/web/20060810182227/http://xkcd.com/date/ {{Header link|awesome date project]}}!}}
|This header text mentions the 'awesome date project', which I can't seem to find any information on, and the fact that there were new signed comic prints in the xkcd store. This was a very simple header.
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|Archived [https://web.archive.org/web/20060721093301/http://www.xkcd.com/ 2006-07-21]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[131: Fans]]}}
|{{Header text|Comic updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.<br>
<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: 800; font-size: 14px; width: 780px; line-height: 150%;" class="plainlinks">SISTER PROJECT:</span> [https://web.archive.org/web/20060721093301/http://bestthing.info/ BestThing.info] - decide What’s Best!
|This rather odd header text contained a very early version of the standard header text, which didn't include 'xkcd' at all, but instead just referred to itself as 'comic'. It also served as a promotion for 'BestThing.info', which was an early predecessor of The Funniest, The Fairest, and The Cutest. It presented users with two random things, and users were tasked to pick which thing was 'best', in an attempt to find the best and worst things.
|style="background-color: #690007" | Website Promotion
|-
|Archived [https://web.archive.org/web/20060720090950/http://www.xkcd.com/ 2006-07-20]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[130: Julia Stiles]]}}
|{{Header text|<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: 800; font-size: 14px; width: 780px; line-height: 150%;" class="plainlinks"><big>'''NEWS:'''</big></span> I've unearthed the video referenced in today's comic!<br>
Check the news section of the forums to watch it.
|This header text confirmed that [[130: Julia Stiles]], the comic that the text refers to, was based on a video. Randall had found this video, but instead of linking it in the header text as he would have done in future headers, he instead linked it in the xkcd forums. As the forums are long-dead, it is unknown what video the comic was actually referencing.
|style="background-color: #00c997" | Additional Information
|-
|Archived [https://web.archive.org/web/20060714234405/http://www.xkcd.com:80/ 2006-07-14]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[128: dPain over dt]]}}
|{{Header text|<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: 800; font-size: 14px; width: 780px; line-height: 150%;" class="plainlinks"><big>NEWS:</big></span> Sunday is the last day to [https://web.archive.org/web/20060714234405/http://www.xkcd.com/store/ {{Header link|order t-shirts]}}!}}
|This header text served to promote the store and its t-shirts. Apparently, this was the first time the xkcd store was operational, and the t-shirts were part of a very limited run. As such, the last day to order them was just a few days from the publication of this header.
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|Archived [https://web.archive.org/web/20060710090528/http://www.xkcd.com:80/ 2006-07-10]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[126: Red Spiders Cometh]]}}
|{{Header text|<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: 800; font-size: 14px; width: 780px; line-height: 150%;" class="plainlinks"><big>'''NEWS:'''</big></span> One week left to [https://web.archive.org/web/20060710090528/http://www.xkcd.com/store/ {{Header link|order t-shirts]}}!}}
|This header text promotes the new t-shirts that could be found in the xkcd store at the time, and that there was a week left to order them before they were taken off the store.
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|From [https://web.archive.org/web/20060705031938/http://www.xkcd.com:80/ 2006-07-05]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[124: Blogofractal]]}})<br>until c. [https://web.archive.org/web/20060813123244/http://www.xkcd.com/ 2006-08-13]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[124: Blogofractal]]}})
|'''{{Header text|Get a t-shirt based on comic #23 in the [https://web.archive.org/web/20060705031938/http://www.xkcd.com/store/ {{Header link|store]}}!}}'''
|This was a very simple store-promoting header text, promoting a t-shirt based on [[23:T-shirts]]. Presumably it either contained the comic or some snarky remark.
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|Archived [https://web.archive.org/web/20060616004747/http://xkcd.com:80/ 2006-06-16]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[115: Meerkat]]}}
|<span style="font-family:Helvetica;">T-shirts shipped out Monday morning!</span>
Did you know we have active [https://web.archive.org/web/20060616004747/http://forums.xkcd.com/ forums]?
|This header text let readers know that the recently-promoted t-shirts, the first-ever shirts to be sold by Randall, were all shipped out, and would shortly arrive to the few customers that read xkcd in mid-2006. It also promoted the xkcd forums, an area where readers could communicate with each other about basically everything. Sadly, these forums have long since been stopped, so it is unknown what exactly was there.
|style="background-color: #00c997" | Additional Information
|-
|Archived [https://web.archive.org/web/20060612221916/http://www.xkcd.com:80/ 2006-06-12]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[114: Computational Linguists]]}}
|<span style="font-family:Helvetica;color:red">T-shirts shipped out Monday morning!</span>
|This header text is the first time that t-shirts are mentioned, and the first-ever archived promotion of the store in the header text. However, the text's content relies on the reader knowing that the t-shirts existed beforehand, implying that there had been previous headers advertising these tees. Sadly, none of these will ever be known.
|style="background-color: #ccffcc" | Store Promotion
|-
|From c. [https://web.archive.org/web/20060408214700/http://www.xkcd.com:80/ 2005-04-08]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[86: Digital Rights Management]]}})<br>until c. [https://web.archive.org/web/20060428065305/http://www.xkcd.com:80/ 2006-04-28]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[95: The Sierpinski Penis Game]]}})
|''(no header text)''
|This is the first-ever time that Randall forgot to replace the header text from last time and leaves it blank.
|style="background-color: #fffff1;" |No Header
|-
|From c. [https://web.archive.org/web/20051212080000/http://www.xkcd.com:80/ 2005-12-12]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[43: Red Spiders 2]]}})<br>until c. [https://web.archive.org/web/20060207154349/http://www.xkcd.com:80/ 2006-02-07]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[60: Super Bowl]]}})
|
{{TNR|{{{1|[https://web.archive.org/web/20051018051614/http://www.xkcd.com:80/kite/ Kite Flying] - Aerial Photography<br>
[https://web.archive.org/web/20051018051614/http://www.xkcd.com:80/sub/ The Sub Project] - On and off through high school I worked on ROVs.<br>
[https://web.archive.org/web/20051018051614/http://www.xkcd.com:80/blue_eyes.html Blue Eyes] - The hardest logic puzzle in the world<br>
I run the [https://web.archive.org/web/20051126094922/http://conservegravity.org/ American Society for the Conservation of Gravity]<br>
I also create [https://web.archive.org/web/20051212080000/http://www.xkcd.com:80/morphs/ composite images of faces] (available on commission)}}}}}
|This header text maintains the 'bio' format of the previous two, and mentions multiple elements of Randall's life at the time:<br>
'''Kite Flying''': This links to a site where Randall shows off his setup for taking photos from a kite, and shows off some photos he took of the Boston skyline with this setup.<br>
'''The Sub Project''': This was an old xkcd page which has long been taken down. It described an old project that Randall worked on in which he created remote-control autonomous submarines. The page got up to the Mk5 before being taken down, presumably sometime in the mid-2010s. The archive provided is identical to the final working archive.
'''[[Blue Eyes]]''': Blue Eyes was a logic puzzle uploaded to xkcd.com in 2004, self-described by Randall as 'The hardest logic puzzle in the world'. The puzzle describes a group of 201 immortal people stranded on an island: 100 with blue eyes, 100 with brown eyes, and a guru. They do not know their own eye color, and people who can deduce their own eye color will leave.The guru is allowed to say one thing to the others, and she says "I can see someone who has blue eyes". You now need to figure out who will leave, and when they will leave.<br>
'''American Society for the Conservation of Gravity''': The [https://www.conservegravity.org/ American Society for the Conservation of Gravity] (ASCG) is a hoax organization created by a group of CNU students, including Randall. Its website is a parody of various groups concerned with the conservation of the environment, by equating gravity to a resource which needs to be conserved. It contains multiple pages, including one which shows off a 'gravity detector' (in reality a rock), which reliably detects whether gravity is present in the area. This page shows off some photos of the gravity detector, in states of detecting and not detecting gravity. Randall is credited as the Vice Chairman and Site maintainer.<br>
'''Composite images of faces''': This page details a service that Randall provided, in which he utilized photoshop and an "image morphing program" to create composite images of people's faces. Composite images, as the name suggests, are images which are formed of multiple separate images. The final products shown by Randall on the page are actually quite skillful, although the earlier ones do have some serious artifacts.
|style="background-color: #00c997" | Additional Information
|}

===2005-11-26 - ASCG===
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20051126094922/http://xkcd.com:80/ 2005-11-26] (during [[Old Notebook]])
*More TNR
*The text:
**[https://web.archive.org/web/20051018051614/http://robowar.sourceforge.net/ Robowar] is back, with a good [https://web.archive.org/web/20051018051614/http://robowar.sourceforge.net/RoboWar5/ Windows port]
**[https://web.archive.org/web/20051018051614/http://www.xkcd.com:80/kite/ Kite Flying] - Aerial Photography
**[https://web.archive.org/web/20051018051614/http://www.xkcd.com:80/cnu_wireless/ CNU Wireless Map] - Informal survey of illegal CNU wireless networks
**[https://web.archive.org/web/20051018051614/http://www.xkcd.com:80/sub/ The Sub Project] - On and off through high school I worked on ROVs.
**[https://web.archive.org/web/20051018051614/http://www.xkcd.com:80/blue_eyes.html Blue Eyes] - The hardest logic puzzle in the world
**I also run the [https://web.archive.org/web/20051126094922/http://conservegravity.org/ American Society for the Conservation of Gravity]
*Only up one archive
|-
|From c.[https://web.archive.org/web/20051018051614/http://www.xkcd.com:80/ 2005-10-18]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[21: Kepler]]}}<br>until c.[https://web.archive.org/web/20051118091333/http://www.xkcd.com:80/ 2005-11-18]<br>{{nowrap|(during [[31: Barrel - Part 5]]}}
|{{TNR|{{{1|[https://web.archive.org/web/20051018051614/http://robowar.sourceforge.net/ Robowar] is back, with a good [https://web.archive.org/web/20051018051614/http://robowar.sourceforge.net/RoboWar5/ Windows port]}}}}}
{{TNR|{{{1|[https://web.archive.org/web/20051018051614/http://www.xkcd.com:80/kite/ Kite Flying] - Aerial Photography]}}}}}
{{TNR|{{{1|[https://web.archive.org/web/20051018051614/http://www.xkcd.com:80/cnu_wireless/ CNU Wireless Map] - Informal survey of illegal CNU wireless networks}}}}}
{{TNR|{{{1|[https://web.archive.org/web/20051018051614/http://www.xkcd.com:80/sub/ The Sub Project] - On and off through high school I worked on ROVs.}}}}}
{{TNR|{{{1|[https://web.archive.org/web/20051018051614/http://www.xkcd.com:80/blue_eyes.html Blue Eyes] - The hardest logic puzzle in the world}}}}}
{{TNR|{{{1|[https://web.archive.org/web/20051018051614/http://www.xkcd.com:80/tree_prank/ Tree Prank] - My roommate and I are kind of awful.}}}}}
|This header text was a very short bio of Randall. It detailed multiple different things going on in his life.

{{w|RoboWar}} is a strategy-based video game where one must code a virtual robot to eliminate all others and be the last one standing. The game hosted regular competitions until mid-2003, at which point the player base began to die out. Evidently, RoboWar made a temporary return in 2005, which Randall was celebrating. He also provided a link to the official version of the game which supported {{w|Windows (operating system)|Windows}}.

[[Blue Eyes]] is a logic puzzle uploaded to xkcd c.2004, advertised as 'the hardest logic puzzle in the world'.
===2005-10-18 - Basic Bio===
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20051018051614/http://www.xkcd.com:80/ 2005-10-18] (during [[Kepler]])
*This was in the Times New Roman font, idk why.
*The text:
**{{TNR|{{{1|[https://web.archive.org/web/20051018051614/http://robowar.sourceforge.net/ Robowar] is back, with a good [https://web.archive.org/web/20051018051614/http://robowar.sourceforge.net/RoboWar5/ Windows port]}}}}}
**{{TNR|{{{1|[https://web.archive.org/web/20051018051614/http://www.xkcd.com:80/kite/ Kite Flying] - Aerial Photography]}}}}}
**{{TNR|{{{1|[https://web.archive.org/web/20051018051614/http://www.xkcd.com:80/cnu_wireless/ CNU Wireless Map] - Informal survey of illegal CNU wireless networks}}}}}
**{{TNR|{{{1|[https://web.archive.org/web/20051018051614/http://www.xkcd.com:80/sub/ The Sub Project] - On and off through high school I worked on ROVs.}}}}}
**{{TNR|{{{1|[https://web.archive.org/web/20051018051614/http://www.xkcd.com:80/blue_eyes.html Blue Eyes] - The hardest logic puzzle in the world}}}}}
**{{TNR|{{{1|[https://web.archive.org/web/20051018051614/http://www.xkcd.com:80/tree_prank/ Tree Prank] - My roommate and I are kind of awful.}}}}}
*Ended [https://web.archive.org/web/20051118091333/http://www.xkcd.com:80/ 2005-11-18] (During [[Barrel - Part 5]])

2545: Bayes' Theorem

2026-05-09T15:50:05Z

FaviFake: given the proposal made at the community portal, i'm merging Blondie and Miss Lenhart, just like Cutie and Megan

{{comic
| number = 2545
| date = November 22, 2021
| title = Bayes' Theorem
| image = bayes_theorem.png
| titletext = <nowiki>P((B|A)|(A|B)) represents the probability that you'll mix up the order of the terms when using Bayesian notation.</nowiki>
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Bayes' theorem}} describes the probability of an event, given knowledge of conditions related to the event. It is typically used to update the probability that a starting condition occurred, given an outcome. This can reveal unintuitive results when the probability involved is very small. For example, when testing a large number of people for a rare disease, even a fairly accurate test will produce more false positives than the number of people actually afflicted with the disease, and hence a positive result is more likely to be false than true.
{| class="wikitable"
|| || Tested positive || Tested negative || Total
|-
|| Affected || 0.1% || 0.0% || 0.1%
|-
|| Unaffected || 0.9% || 99% || 99.9%
|-
|| Total || 1% || 99% || 100%
|}
For example, if a test has a 100% sensitivity (first line, all those affected receive a positive result) and a 99% specificity (second line, 1% of the unaffected also receive a positive result), the interpretation of a positive test depends on the prevalence of the disease in the population. In the example case, the prevalence is 0.1% (third column), so that when the test result is positive (1% of the tests, left column) the subject is actually unaffected nine times out of ten. Although this would be a very performant test, given the relative prevalences involved it will produce overwhelmingly false positives among all positive results. (But, in this example, all those told they are not in danger — almost a hundred times more individuals than test positive — are correctly notified.)

For this same example, the Bayesian formula gives :
::P( Affected | Positive ) = P( Positive | Affected ) * P( Affected ) / P( Positive ) = 100% * 0.1% / 1% = 10%
::and P( Unaffected | Positive ) = P( Positive | Unaffected ) * P( Unaffected ) / P( Positive ) = 0.9009% * 99.9% / 1% = 90%

In this comic, a teacher is presenting a problem which the students are supposed to use Bayes' theorem to solve. However, the off-panel student knows that they are studying Bayes' theorem, so they use that prior knowledge to guess the usual answer to such problems. The punch line is the caption - The student doesn't need to do the calculation because they're familiar with questions involving Bayes' theorem and how they often present the counterintuitive result to illustrate the importance of prevalence to the calculation.

The title text refers to the mathematical definition of Bayes' theorem: P(A | B) = P(B|A) * P(A) / P(B). Here, P(A|B) represents the probability of some event A occurring, given that B has occurred. This is often referred to as "the probability of A given B". It can be hard to remember if P(A|B) means probability of A given B, or if it's B given A, especially when talking about the probability of an earlier cause given a later effect. Randall's joke is based on this difficulty. Here P((B|A)|(A|B)) is meant to be read as the probability that you ''write'' (B|A) given that the correct expression is (A|B), which makes it the probability that you got the order of the notation mixed up.

==Transcript==
:[Miss Lenhart is pointing with a pointer, held in her right hand, to a white-board with tables, what looks like formulae and lots of other unreadable text. She looks toward her off-panel class, from where a voice replies to her question.]
:Miss Lenhart: Given these prevalences, is it likely that the test result is a false positive?
:Off-panel voice: Well, this chapter is on Bayes' Theorem, so yes.

:[Caption below the panel]:
:Sometimes, if you understand Bayes' Theorem well enough, you don't need it.

==Trivia==
*When this comic came out, the title text was only "P((B", and the comic itself linked to [https://xkcd.com/2545/A) A)] or [https://xkcd.com/A) A)] (depending on where the comic was viewed from) and the "Black Lives Matter" image in the header was replaced by "(A", but this was quickly corrected.
**See this [https://web.archive.org/web/20211122212442/https://xkcd.com/2545/ archived] version.
*It turns out that it is the notation that messes with the home page as it also messes with this wiki.
**In this [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2545:_Bayes%27_Theorem&oldid=221182 version] of this page, the [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2545%3A_Bayes%27_Theorem&type=revision&diff=221182&oldid=221181 correct title text] has been entered, but it still looked the same so everything from behind the first "|" fails to show.
**Now this has [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2545%3A_Bayes%27_Theorem&type=revision&diff=221183&oldid=221182 been fixed] using the <nowiki><nowiki></nowiki> format.
***Seems like [[Randall]] made an exploit on himself like [[Mrs. Roberts]] did in [[327: Exploits of a Mom]].
***This is extra funny since [[Miss Lenhart]] is also sometimes used for Mrs Roberts from this comic.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Miss Lenhart]]
[[Category:Statistics]]

Header text

2026-05-09T15:49:42Z

FaviFake: given the proposal made at the community portal, i'm merging Blondie and Miss Lenhart, just like Cutie and Megan

<noinclude>{{xkcd.com}}[[File:xkcd_header.png|thumb|right|250px|The [[Design of xkcd.com#Header section|Header section]] is one of the [[Design of xkcd.com|four main sections]] of the [https://xkcd.com xkcd.com] website.]]The '''header text''' is usually updated when [[Randall]] has news to share or wants to add information about a specific comic. The default header text states:

{{Header text|xkcd updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.}}<noinclude>

Usually, changes to the header text show up in all comics. However, for certain comics, its header text is changed permanently, which means that comic's page won't be affected by changes to the global header text like the rest of the comics. These are known as [[Category:Comics with custom header texts|comic-specific header texts]], and you can see the list of these headers [[#Comic-specific header text|here]].

Usually, the global header text is changed back to the default once the novelty of the news ends. Recently, the default header text has not been used for extended periods of time. The most recent header text change can be found at the top of the [[#Global header text|Global header text section]].

{{incomplete|Someone has created a full list of comic-specific header texts! We have only explained 28 so far, and '''28 are missing'''. [[Talk:Header_text#anc|The full list in on the Talk page!]]. (Also, if you have ''infinite'' spare time, please remove the bullet points on the page and use normal paragraphs.)}}

Use this list to quickly jump to a specific header text, or [[#Comic-specific header text|click here]] to jump to the most recent one.

__TOC__

==Comic-specific header text==
When editing the section, list the changes chronologically with the date of the web archive link and hyperlink each date. Include an internal link to the comic at the time of each change and describe the modifications with relevant information. Place the most recent changes at the top.

<span id="A Crossword Puzzle"></span>
===[[2957: A Crossword Puzzle]]===
*This comic's header mentions that it has been inspired by an old comic (by accident, i.e. originally Randall was not aware of his inspiration).
**The comic was released on Wednesday 2024-07-10, but the special header text was first added to the comic and thus on the front page from Thursday [https://web.archive.org/web/20240711100451/https://xkcd.com/ 2024-07-11]. It stayed there until the next comic came out, so it was still there on Friday morning on [https://web.archive.org/web/20240712141422/https://xkcd.com/ 2024-07-12].
***Once [[2958: Hatchery]] came out later that Friday, the front page header text changed back to that which was currently active on [https://web.archive.org/web/20240712224230/https://xkcd.com/ 2024-07-12].
*The extra new text was added below the currently active hader, and the addition was:
**Today's comic accidentally inspired by [https://www.buttersafe.com/2011/02/17/crosswords/ this Buttersafe comic] from 2011!
*It makes it clear that Randall did not wish to take credit for this old idea.
**Although it seems like he did not know where he got the idea from at first, when he posted it.
**Because the addition of this header text was not posted together with the comic, when it was released on Wednesday 2024-07-10 and it was still not there in the early morning of Thursday [https://web.archive.org/web/20240711000851/https://xkcd.com/ 2024-07-11].
**That he is a fan of Buttersafe is made clear at the bottom of the xkcd page where it is on Randall's list of the [[Design_of_xkcd.com#Comics_I_enjoy|Comics I enjoy]].
*As a special situation this special header did not replace the current header text, but was added below the active header text at the time [[#2024-05-15_-_Special_10th_anniversary_edition_of_WHAT_IF.3F_-_preorder|Special 10th anniversary edition of WHAT IF? - preorder]].
**This has not been the normal way to add comic-specific header text, even though it was something added later due to Randall realizing he had borrowed inspiration from another person.
**A similar situation happened with the comic [[1723: Meteorite Identification]], which got a similar change to the header text, as can be seen [[Header_text#1723:_Meteorite_Identification|here]]. But that did not incorporate this text into the current header text.
*Since this header was related only to explain the inspiration for this comic, it was removed from the frontpage header, when the next comic was released.
**But it stayed up as one of the permanent different headers on this comic, as seen here [https://web.archive.org/web/20240714152507/https://xkcd.com/2957/ 2022-07-14], two days after it stopped being on the front page.
**Randall never got around to fixing this, so it would only show the new line, so as of this edit it is still like that as can be seen in the most recent version saved [https://web.archive.org/web/20260408143657/https://xkcd.com/2957/ 2026-04-08].
*So the actual full permanent header text for this comic is now:
** [https://xkcd.com/what-if/ Special 10th anniversary edition of WHAT IF?]—revised and annotated with brand-new illustrations and answers to important questions you never thought to ask—coming from November 2024. Preorder [https://bit.ly/WhatIf10th here]!
**Today's comic accidentally inspired by [https://www.buttersafe.com/2011/02/17/crosswords/ this Buttersafe comic] from 2011!

<span id="Machine"></span>

===[[2916: Machine]]===
*This comic's header mentions the people who helped put it together.
**It was on the front page from Saturday [https://web.archive.org/web/20240406163326/https://xkcd.com/ 2024-04-06] (although it was supposed to have been a Friday release according to the xkcd archives) until the next comic to come out Monday 2024-04-08, but the earliest archived version of the next comic is from Tuesday [http://web.archive.org/web/20240409060444/https://xkcd.com/ 2024-04-09].
***It probably changed late on Monday the 8th, but Machine was still up late on [https://web.archive.org/web/20240408225854/https://xkcd.com/ 2024-04-08].
***It may be like previous years because this was an April fools' Day comic, and Randall wished it to stay on the front page longer?
**When [[2917: Types of Eclipse Photo]] was released the front page returned to normal header.
**The previous comic [[2915: Eclipse Clouds]] was still on the front page Saturday [https://web.archive.org/web/20240406053609/https://xkcd.com/ 2024-04-06]. So a very late Friday release...
*The text:
**Today's comic was created with [https://chromakode.com/ Max Goodhart], [https://github.com/spyhi Ed White], [https://twitter.com/uh_oh_thats_bad Alex Garcia], [https://twitter.com/cotrone Kevin Cotrone], [http://burningcandle.io/ Conor & Ami Stokes], [https://liranuna.com/ Liran Nuna], [https://www.instagram.com/fading_interest/ Patrick], [https://manishearth.github.io/ Manish Goregaokar], [https://github.com/benley Benjamin Staffin], [https://github.com/ayust Amber], and [https://github.com/dyfrgi Michael Leuchtenburg] with physics by [https://rapier.rs/ Rapier].
*It thanks those that helped Randall create that years [[April Fools' Day comics|April Fools' Day comic]].
**All have a link to their name, either to Instagram page or X or their own home pages. Some of them have also helped with the two previous [[April Fools' Day comics|April Fools' Day comic]], see below, but there are many more involved in this one than any of the previous.
**Also the Fast 2D and 3D physics engine for the Rust programming language, Rapier, is mentioned as standing for the physics of the comic.
*Since this header was related only to the Fools' comic, it was removed from the frontpage header, when the next comic was released.
**But it stayed up as one of the permanent different headers on this comic, as seen two days after it stopped being on the front page on [https://web.archive.org/web/20240409010518/https://xkcd.com/2916/ 2022-04-09].

<span id="Escape Speed"></span>
===[[2765: Escape Speed]]===
*This comic's header mentions the people who helped put it together.
**It was on the front page from Thursday [https://web.archive.org/web/20230420203744/https://xkcd.com/ 2023-04-20] (although it was supposed to have been a Wednesday release according to the xkcd archives) until Friday [https://web.archive.org/web/20230421082400/https://xkcd.com/ 2023-04-21], when the next new comic was released (very late, possibly because this was an April fools' Day comic, and Randall wished it to stay on the front page longer?)
***When [[2766: Helium Reserve]] was released the front page returned to normal header. This seems to have not happened until Saturday as the earliest archive is form [https://web.archive.org/web/20230422121650/https://xkcd.com/ 2023-04-22] with the new comic.
*The text:
**Today's comic was put together with help from [https://chromakode.com/ Max Goodhart], [https://www.instagram.com/fading_interest/ Patrick Clapp], [https://amberyu.st/ Amber], [https://twitter.com/cotrone Kevin], [https://twitter.com/bstaffin Benjamin Staffin], and [https://www.aiweirdness.com/ Janelle Shane].
*It thanks those that helped Randall create that years [[April Fools' Day comics|April Fools' Day comic]].
**All have a link to their name, either to Instagram page or Twitter or their own home pages. Most of them have also helped with the two previous April Fools' Day comic, see below.
*Since this header was related only to the Fools' comic, it was removed from the frontpage header, when the next comic was released.
**But it stayed up as one of the permanent different headers on this comic, as seen two days after it stopped being on the front page on [https://web.archive.org/web/20230423150206/https://xkcd.com/2765/ 2022-04-23].

<span id="Instructions"></span>
===[[2601: Instructions]]===
*This comic's header mentions the people who helped put it together.
**It was on the front page from Friday [https://web.archive.org/web/20220401210146/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-04-01] until Tuesday [https://web.archive.org/web/20220405031003/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-04-05], when the next new comic was released (very late, possibly because Instructions was an April fools' Day comic, and Randall wished it to stay on the front page longer?)
***When [[2602: Linguistics Degree]] was released the front page returned to normal header This seems to have not happened until Tuesday as the earliest archive is form [https://web.archive.org/web/20220405125644/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-04-05] with the new comic.
*The text:
**Today's comic was created with [https://twitter.com/fadinginterest Patrick], [https://twitter.com/Aiiane Amber], [https://twitter.com/chromakode @chromakode], [https://twitter.com/dyfrgi Michael], [https://twitter.com/wirehead2501 Kat], [https://twitter.com/xDirtyPunkx Conor], [https://twitter.com/zigdon @zigdon], and [https://twitter.com/bstaffin Benjamin Staffin].
*It thanks those that helped Randall create that years [[April Fools' Day comics|April Fools' Day comic]].
**All have a link to their name, the first with an Instagram page, the other seven with a link to their Twitter account. Five of those also helped with the previous April Fools' Day comic, see below.
*Since this header was related only to the Fools' comic, it was removed from the frontpage header, when the next comic was released.
**But it stayed up as one of the permanent different headers on this comic, as seen two days after it stopped being on the front page on [https://web.archive.org/web/20220406021357/https://xkcd.com/2601/ 2022-04-06].

<span id="Checkbox"></span>
===[[2445: Checkbox]]===
*This comic's header mentions the people who helped put it together.
**It was on the front page from Thursday [https://web.archive.org/web/20210401232108/https://xkcd.com/ 2021-04-01] until Monday [https://web.archive.org/web/20210405130031/http://xkcd.com/ 2021-04-05], until the new comic was released on Monday.
*The text:
**This comic was put together by [https://chromakode.com/ Max Goodhart], [https://twitter.com/fadinginterest Patrick], [https://twitter.com/Aiiane Amber], [https://twitter.com/bstaffin Benjamin Staffin], [https://twitter.com/cotrone Kevin Cotrone], [https://twitter.com/wirehead2501 Kat], and [https://twitter.com/dyfrgi Michael Leuchtenburg].
*It thanks those that helped Randall create that years [[April Fools' Day comics|April Fools' Day comic]].
**All have a link to their name, the first with a personal home page, the other six with a link to their Twitter account. Five of those also helped with the previous April Fools' Day comic, see below.
*Since this header was related only to the Fools' comic, it was removed from the front page header, when the next comic was released, here from the day after that release Tuesday [https://web.archive.org/web/20210406143023/http://xkcd.com/ 2021-04-06].
*But it stayed up as one of the permanent different headers on this comic, as seen two days later on [https://web.archive.org/web/20210407203547/https://xkcd.com/2445/ 2021-04-07].

<span id="Collector's Edition"></span>
===[[2288: Collector's Edition]]===
This comic's header mentions the people who helped put it together, and gives links to all of their Twitter profiles, except
Christopher Nights'. It was on the front page only for about a day around April 3rd and
[https://web.archive.org/web/20200404014814/http://xkcd.com/#-370,-277vApril 4th 2020].
The header text says:
<blockquote>
Today's comic was put together by [https://chromakode.com/ Max Goodhart], [https://twitter.com/Aiiane Amber],
[https://twitter.com/bstaffin Benjamin Staffin], [https://twitter.com/cotrone Kevin],
[https://www.instagram.com/fading_interest/ @fading_interest], [https://twitter.com/wirehead2501 Kat],
[https://twitter.com/zigdon @zigdon], and Christopher Night.
</blockquote>
The header text thanks those who helped Randall create the 2020 [[April Fools' Day comics|April Fools' Day comic]], which had taken
two extra days before it was released due to the complex nature of the comic.
Due to the delay, the next comic, [[2289: Scenario 4]], was released the day after the April Fool's comic, [[2289:_Scenario_4#Trivia|on a Saturday]].
Since this header was related only to the April Fools' comic, it was removed from the front page header when the next comic was released,
but it stayed up as a permanent header for this comic.

<span id=" Seven Years"></span>

===[[1928: Seven Years]]===
[http://web.archive.org/web/20171214171157/https://xkcd.com/ 2017-12-14]
It was released as a response to another cancer diagnosis, this is explained in the [[Design_of_xkcd.com#Header_text|Header text]] which has replaced the standard ''xkcd updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.'' The new one is this one, with the active link included:
The text (with link):
* Becky Beaton, sister of fellow cartoonist Kate Beaton, has also been diagnosed with cancer. You can support her treatment [https://www.youcaring.com/beckybeaton-1008390 here].
{{w|Kate Beaton}} is the creator of the web comic [http://www.harkavagrant.com/ Hark! A Vagrant].
* Although this comic is not one on Randall's list of ''[[Design_of_xkcd.com#Comics_I_enjoy|Comics I enjoy]]'', he is clearly much influenced by another cancer diagnosis among someone in his own creative field.below.
On [https://web.archive.org/web/20190817141450/https://www.xkcd.com/1928/ 2019-08-17], close to two years later, the message was still there and also [https://web.archive.org/web/20211226120634/https://xkcd.com/1928/ 2021-12-26] just past four years later.
* There was the possibility that it would be removed, when the support page was discontinued...
* But as that already happened before [http://web.archive.org/web/20181106124430/https://www.youcaring.com/beckybeaton-1008390 2018-11-06] it seems like it will be there to stay.
* Last archived version was from [http://web.archive.org/web/20180305022301/https://www.youcaring.com/beckybeaton-1008390 2018-03-05].
* Randall has previously done something similar for another friend, Emily, but [[#2014-11-27_-_Help_Emily|that header]] was not made permanent.

<span id="ISS Solar Transit 2"></span>

===[[1830: ISS Solar Transit 2]]===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20170428041338/https://xkcd.com/ 2017-04-28]
This header links back to [[1828: ISS Solar Transit]], a comic with the same joke setup released on the Monday of the same week

<span id="Meteorite Identification"></span>
===[[1723: Meteorite Identification]]===
Randall realized that his comic was almost a copy of some other person. And he has since then acknowledged this on the comics specific page see more [[1723: Meteorite Identification#Trivia|here]].
At the time of this post, in the newest saved version on the archive from [http://web.archive.org/web/20161010215516/http://xkcd.com/1723/ 2016-10-10] it is still there and says:
* Note: Jolyon, founder of [http://www.mindat.org/ mindat.org], made a similar chart way before me!

<span id="Substitutions 3"></span>
===[[1679: Substitutions 3]]===
This comic is the third installment of the [[:Category:Substitution]] series, and as Randall did with [[#Substitutions 2]],
the header text links to the previous comics in the series, and tells the user about Chrome Browser extensions for substitution.
The header text reads:
<blockquote>
(Previously: {{xkcd|1288|Substitutions}} and {{xkcd|1625|Substitutions 2}})<br />
Note: There are various [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/replacerator/gaajhenbcclienfnniphiiambbbninnp?hl=en browser extensions] for this.
</blockquote>
This header text was on the main page while the comic was on the main page, for instance on
[https://web.archive.org/web/20160512102325/http://xkcd.com/ 2016-05-12]. It remains on the comic page.

<span id=" Garden"></span>

===[[1663: Garden]]===
This comic had a header text to help people use the comic when it came out.
For some time this text was the main header text, but after a while is disappeared from the main header, but remained as the header for Garden.
* See more [[xkcd_Header_text#2016-04-04_-_Protip_on_Garden|below]] or on the Garden page [[Garden#Header_text_after_release|here]]
Today and as of the newest saved version on the archive from [http://web.archive.org/web/20161231231600/http://xkcd.com/1663/ 2016-12-31] it is still there and says:
* Protip: If you don't like how your garden is growing, you can click to prune it.
* You can copy the URL to share your garden. From other browsers, it will be view-only.

<span id="Substitutions 2"></span>
===[[1625: Substitutions 2]]===
This was the second installment of Substitutions and Randall links to the first and tells about browser extensions for this:
The text:
* (Previously: {{xkcd|1288|Substitutions}})
* Note: There are various [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/xkcd-substitutions/jkgogmboalmaijfgfhfepckdgjeopfhk?hl=en browser extensions] for this.
** He did the same when [[xkcd_Header_text#Substitutions_3|Substitutions 3]] came out, linking to the two previous.
It was on the main page while the comic was up, for instance here on [https://web.archive.org/web/20160104171722/http://xkcd.com/ 2016-01-04].

<span id="United Shapes"></span>
===[[1079: United Shapes]]===
The header text was unique for this comic on the day it came out:
[https://web.archive.org/web/20120709045709/http://xkcd.com:80/ 2012-07-09].
It read:
<blockquote>
There's a larger version of this map [http://xkcd.com/1079/large/ here] (Colorado is [http://xkcd.com/1079/colorado/ here]).<br />
It's also available as a [http://store.xkcd.com/xkcd/#StateMap poster].
</blockquote>
([https://web.archive.org/web/20120709045709/http://store.xkcd.com/xkcd/#StateMap Archived store link, 2012-07-22])

This header text only appeared with the comic, as on [https://web.archive.org/web/20120709004956/http://www.xkcd.com/ 2012-07-09],
at a time before this comic was released, the previous
[[xkcd_Header_text#2012-04-09 -_Standard_text_plus_store_link|promotion of the store]] header text was still on the main page.

As this comic was still on the main page the day after ([https://web.archive.org/web/20120710063424/http://xkcd.com/ 2012-07-10]),
a new [[Header_text#2012-07-10_-_New:_what-if.xkcd.com|header text promoting Randall's new <i>what if?</i> blog]]
was not shown on the main page.
The <i>what if?</i> promotion was added to this comic's header text the next day,
on [https://web.archive.org/web/20120711123734/http://xkcd.com:80/1079/ 2012-07-11].
However, the part about Colorado was lost in this edit. This is the version still shown on {{xkcd|1079}} today, including the
<i>what if?</i> promotion.
<blockquote>
There's a larger version of this map [http://xkcd.com/1079/large/ here]! It's also available as a
[https://store.xkcd.com/collections/posters/products/united-shapes-poster poster].<br />
New: [https://what-if.xkcd.com/1/ what-if.xkcd.com]: abusing science to answer hypothetical questions.<br />
I'll answer a new reader question every Tuesday.
</blockquote>
([https://web.archive.org/web/20121203164246/https://store.xkcd.com/collections/posters/products/united-shapes-poster Archived store link, 2012-12-03])

The <i>what if?</i> promotion links to the very first ''[[what if? (blog)|what if?]]'' article ''{{what if|1|Relativistic Baseball}}'' which was released on 2012-07-10, the day after this comic was released, but before the next comic [[1080: Visual Field]] was released on 2012-07-11.

There is no archived version of comic {{xkcd|1080}} while it was on the front page, so it is not possible to tell what the front page looked like on the 11th and 12th of July 2012. Most likely it was the <i>what if?</i> promotion.
* Maybe there was a time with the final version of the header text the front page, but seems like Randall put the new header text there by hand, and forgot to delete it after, so he probably first changed it when the new comic came out.
* Since the new header was important, promoting his new ''what if'' blog, Randall likely did not wish to have a recent page/the main page without it.
* But this makes it a special unique header, as a relic from the past header text is left together with the text that was supposed to be permanent. It should have been deleted when the link to ''what if'' 1 was removed.

<span id="Approximations"></span>

===[[1047: Approximations]]===
It has a permanent text saying that many people emailed Randall about another approximation for one year than the one given in the comic.
* As it was already there from the release day on [https://web.archive.org/web/20120425220409/http://xkcd.com:80/ 2012-04-25] it seems unlikely that he actually received those e-mails before changing the header text for this comic!
The unique text:
* Lots of emails mention the physicist favorite, 1 year = pi x 10<sup>7</sup> seconds.
* 75^4 is a hair more accurate, but it's hard to top 3,141,592's elegance.
There was a different header on other comics even while this comic was on the front page with the unique text. See [[#2012-04-09_-_Standard_text_plus_store_link|Plus store link]].

<span id="Umwelt"></span>
===[[1037: Umwelt]]===
It has a permanent promotion of the store already from the release day on [https://web.archive.org/web/20120401151639/http://xkcd.com:80/ 2012-04-01]:
The unique text:
* You can get posters, prints, and t-shirts in the [https://store.xkcd.com/ xkcd store].
It stayed on the front page while this comic was the most recent, so for instance also two days later on [https://web.archive.org/web/20120403223453/http://www.xkcd.com/ 2012-04-03]
* There was a different header on other comics even while this comic was on the front page with the unique text. See [[xkcd_Header_text#2012-03-28_-_Visiting_Newport_News|Visiting Newport News]].

<span id="s/keyboard/leopard/"></span>
===[[1031: s/keyboard/leopard/]]===
In response to the idea of having you browser replace keyboard with leopard a reader made a script that could do just that.
Randall seem to have gotten this script before release (or at least on the day of release) as it was already the header text on [https://web.archive.org/web/20120319130702/http://xkcd.com/ 2012-03-19] the day the comic was released.
The unique text is:
* A helpful reader has provided an [https://userscripts.org/scripts/show/128626 s/keyboard/leopard/ user script].
** The link does not go anywhere useful any longer, but here is the archived version of the link from two days after the release of the comic on [https://web.archive.org/web/20120321174019/http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/128626 2012-03-21]
It was never changed on the other comics so was only on the front while this comic was up until 2012-03-21
* Here also shown on the second day it was up on its own page on [https://web.archive.org/web/20120320143916/http://xkcd.com:80/1031/ 2012-03-20].
The next comic [[1032: Networking]] came out on [https://web.archive.org/web/20120321205835/http://xkcd.com:80/ 2012-03-21] and here the header text has returned to what it was before the leopard comic: [[xkcd_Header_text#2012-03-12_-_xkcd_Holistic_Browser|xkcd Holistic Browser]].
* Here are examples from dates around this showing it was not used on other pages:
** The last archived version of the front page from before the 19th was this version from [https://web.archive.org/web/20120317121834/http://xkcd.com:80/ 2012-03-17], but here is an example from [https://web.archive.org/web/20120318153256/http://xkcd.com:80/1030/ 2012-03-18] (from comic [[1030: Keyed]]), the day before leopard comic came out.
** Both on [https://web.archive.org/web/20120319174700/http://xkcd.com/1030/ 2012-03-19] (from comic [[1030: Keyed]]) and on [https://web.archive.org/web/20120320191039/http://xkcd.com:80/1012 2012-03-20] (from comic [[1012: Wrong Superhero]]) during the time leopard was up, the header text currently in used was still shown.

<span id="Making Things Difficult"></span>
===[[996: Making Things Difficult]]===
To give context to the comic about cancer, Randall links to a [[Blag]] post about his family's struggle with cancer.
The header text says:
<blockquote>
Some context for the cancer comics:
[https://blog.xkcd.com/2011/06/30/family-illness/ https://blog.xkcd.com/2011/06/30/family-illness/]
</blockquote>
This header text appears on the oldest stored version of the comic page from [https://web.archive.org/web/20111229043804/http://xkcd.com:80/ 2011-12-29] when it was on the main page.

<span id="Money"></span>
===[[980: Money]]===
Randall notes his thoughts about making it and makes a promotion of the poster.
The unique text:
* This one was fun (and exhausting) to make.
* There's a poster of it in the [https://store.xkcd.com/products/money-poster store]!
** It is both at the oldest stored version from [https://web.archive.org/web/20120404110059/http://xkcd.com:80/980 2012-04-04] and the newest at time of editing [https://web.archive.org/web/20220108132250/https://xkcd.com/980/ 2022-01-08].

<span id="Map Projections"></span>
===[[977: Map Projections]]===
Randall notes that a person had birthday on the release of this comic about maps, and this guy has maps on his homepage
The unique text:
* It turns out Monday was Steve Waterman's birthday. His [https://web.archive.org/web/20111118003418/http://www.watermanpolyhedron.com/ site] has posters of his map, plus maybe the world's only Winkel Tripel-critiquing poetry.
** The link goes to [http://www.watermanpolyhedron.com/ Waterman project] home page. Above the link goes to an archived version from around the time of release of the header text.
** It is at the oldest stored version with the comic on the front page on [https://web.archive.org/web/20111115231643/http://xkcd.com:80/ 2011-11-15].

<span id="Na"></span>
===[[851: Na]]===
After Randall released this comic, he realized he could have "made it better," and did so.
He changed the header text alert people to this, saying:
<blockquote>
I can't ''believe'' I forgot Hey Jude.
I don't get do-overs, but I couldn't resist making [https://xkcd.com/851_make_it_better/ a fixed version].
</blockquote>
See more about it in that comic's [[851:_Na#Trivia|trivia section]].

<span id="Malamanteau"></span>
===[[739: Malamanteau]]===
Randall notes that he has changed this comics license, so it can be used on Wikipedia.
The text:
* At Wikipedia's request, I release this comic under a [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/us/ cc-by-sa] license.
** The link is to the page regarding {{w|Creative Commons license}} in the US.
** Specifically for Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States (CC BY-SA 3.0 US)
*** Usually xkcd is [[Design_of_xkcd.com#License_and_copyright|shared under]] [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/ Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License]. This does not allow commercial use, But the 3.0 does.
When the comic came out it had the normal header text from that time, as seen here two days after release on [https://web.archive.org/web/20100514072436/http://xkcd.com/ 2010-05-14].
* First archived version with the unique text is from [https://web.archive.org/web/20100913003146/http://xkcd.com/739/ 2010-09-13], but the previous archived version of this comic is from [https://web.archive.org/web/20100713160533/http://xkcd.com:80/739/ 2010-07-13].
* So it happened somewhere in the two months in between. But at least it was not there the first two months after release, but there before four month after release.

<span id="The Race"></span>
===577–580: [[:Category:The Race|The Race]]: Parts 1–4===
[[:Category:The Race|The Race]] was a 5-comic series published daily over the duration of one week, Monday through Friday. On comics
[[577: The Race: Part 1]], [[578: The Race: Part 2]], [[579: The Race: Part 3]], and [[580: The Race: Part 4]], parts 1–4 of the
series, Randall announced to users that xkcd would update once a day over the course of that week.

The header text for 577, published on Monday of that week, reads:
<blockquote>
For this week, xkcd will update once a day.
</blockquote>
The header texts for 578, 579, and 580, published respectively on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, read:
<blockquote>
For this week, xkcd will update once a day (through Friday).
</blockquote>

On comic [[581: The Race: Part 5]], this header text does not appear, likely because it wouldn't be useful to inform people of daily
updates for a week at the end of the week.

<span id="Fermirotica"></span>
===[[563: Fermirotica]]===
The header text for this comic informs the reader of prints of this comic in the [[Store]], and gives an example sex calculation.
It reads:
<blockquote>
There are xkcd prints available in the [https://store.xkcd.com/ store].<br />
[https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=sqrt(2%2F(pi*18000%2F(mi^2)*80%2Fyear*30+minutes) Example Google sex calculation].
</blockquote>
The first link is a link to the [[Store|xkcd Store]], which, as of early February 2026, is closed for the time being. The second link is a
Google Search link for an example sex calculation with the formula in the comic, where
''P<sub>d</sub>'' = 18000/mi<sup>2</sup>,
''X<sub>F</sub>'' = 80/year, and
''X<sub>d</sub>'' = 30 minutes.
This calculation results in ''r'' equaling ~142 meters.

<span id="Steal This Comic"></span>
===[[488: Steal This Comic]]===
Comic 488 advocates against {{w|Digital rights management}}, or <abbr title="Digital rights management">DRM</abbr>. In the header text, Randall notes that Amazon sells
DRM-free music. It reads:
<blockquote>
Note: the [https://www.amazon.com/MP3-Music-Download/b?ie=UTF8&node=163856011 Amazon.com MP3 store] sells DRM-free music. Kudos.
</blockquote>
The header text links to Amazon MP3 music. Here is an archived version of the store from
[https://web.archive.org/web/20081001083843/http://www.amazon.com/MP3-Music-Download/b?ie=UTF8&node=163856011 2008-10-01],
two weeks prior to the release of the comic.
The header text was on the comic from the release day, here seen the day after on the first archived version from
[https://web.archive.org/web/20081014232952/http://xkcd.com/ 2008-10-14].

<span id="House of Pancakes"></span>
===[[472: House of Pancakes|472: <span style="color:blue">House</span> of Pancakes]]===
This comic's header notes its status as a parody:
* (Today's comic is a parody of [https://www.amazon.com/House-Leaves-Mark-Z-Danielewski/dp/0375703764 House of Leaves].)
Only on the days this comic was the newest was this header featured on the front page of xkcd for instance as seen here the day after release on [https://web.archive.org/web/20080906103932/http://www.xkcd.com/ 2008-09-06].
* But it was only on this comic. The commercial for his new t-shirt was on all the other pages, also on [https://web.archive.org/web/20080906103932/http://www.xkcd.com/ 2008-09-06] and presumably returned to the front page with the next comic. But there is a gap in the archive after this comic.

==Global header text==
When editing the section, list the changes chronologically with the date of the web archive link and hyperlink each date. Include an internal link to the newest comic at the time of each change and describe the modifications with relevant information. Position the last comic displaying the header text below the other data and place the most recent change at the top.

===2026-04-16 - Back to standard text===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20260401210255/https://xkcd.com/ 2026-04-16].
*[[3233: Make It Myself]] came out when the header changed.
* The text:
** xkcd updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
* With this, the reading-modes update was removed from all comics, except the one introducing it: [[3227: Creation]]

===2026-04-07 - Reading Modes===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20260401210255/https://xkcd.com/ 2026-04-01].
*[[3227: Creation]] was released as the 2026 [[April Fools' Day comics|April Fools' comic]], but the real April Fools' was a new feature, which was explained in the global header text.
* The text:
** We're pleased to announce a major update to xkcd, with new reading modes to enhance user experience. Select a mode via the menu below the comic.
**Brought to you by our excellent design team: [https://github.com/ayust Amber], [https://github.com/benley Benjamin Staffin], and [https://github.com/cotrone Kevin]
*For some time after the release of the April Fools' comic, both the header and feature were present on every page
**As of 2026-04-16 the feature is only available on [[3227: Creation]], and the header is - presumably mistakenly - shown on [https://web.archive.org/web/20260416120248/https://xkcd.com/3228/ 3228: Day Counter], instead of [https://web.archive.org/web/20260416120115/https://xkcd.com/3227/ 3227: Creation].

===2026-01-07 - Back to standard text===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20260107194433/https://xkcd.com/ 2026-01-07].
* [[3191: Superstition]] came out when the header changed.
* The text returned to the standard xkcd header:
** xkcd updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
* This was the first time since [[#2022-01-08_-_Back_to_standard_text|2022-01-08]] that the text had changed back to that, so exactly four years.
**Last time it only lasted a few days before the [[#2022-01-10_-_Standard_text_with_countdown|countdown]] started.
*It was also the first time since December 5th, 2024 that the header text had changed, a span of more than a year (13 months) making it by far the longest time the header text had been left unchanged.
* It was up until [https://web.archive.org/web/20260331171250/https://xkcd.com/ 2026-03-31] when [[3226: Home Solar]] was on the front page.
**Almost two months, a long stretch with the original title text in use!

===2024-12-05 - Special 10th anniversary edition of WHAT IF? - order===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20241205201038/https://xkcd.com/ 2024-12-05].
* [[3020: Infinite Armada Chess]] came out when the header changed.
* The text:
** [https://xkcd.com/what-if/ Special 10th anniversary edition of WHAT IF?]—revised and
** annotated with brand-new illustrations and answers to important
** questions you never thought to ask—Out now. Order it here! [https://bit.ly/WhatIf10th here]!
* The first link goes to the page for the what if? book on xkcd and the other link is to the HarperCollins page for the 10th anniversary edition of the book.
* Only difference in this header compared to the previous version is the last part after the final hypen.
* This header stayed up for exactly 13 months. See link at the bottom.
* With the [[#2024-05-15_-_Special_10th_anniversary_edition_of_WHAT_IF.3F_-_preorder|preorder]] version coming out in mid May 2024 the 10th anniversary edition ended up been in the header text almost 1 year and 7 month (except the month of [[#2024-10-16 - Promotion of Kamala Harris for president|endorsing Harris]]), thus it was on the header for 1.5 years in total.
* And before that what if? has been part of the header back to [[#2022-01-31 - What if? 2|2022-01-31]], when what if? 2 was announced.
* And three weeks before that the [[#2022-01-10 - Standard text with countdown|countdown]] for what if? 2 began. Of course there was no what if? word on that header as it was a surprise. But it turned out this was also a promotion for what if?
* And up until the day before the countdown (when there was one day with the old standard text) there was promotion for the first what if? book starting on [[#2021-12-20 - What If in stock|2021-12-20]].
** To sum it up, the header has been used to promote what if? continuously from December 2021 until at least the start of January 2026 (except one month with endorsing Harris and three weeks countdown that was for what if?) So more than 4 years in a row, only with a month for something political and the 3 weeks of countdown was also a promotion for what if?
* It was up until [https://web.archive.org/web/20260106150417/https://xkcd.com/3190/ 2026-01-06] when [[3190: Tensegrity]] was on the front page.
**It had then been up for more than 13 months in a row by a day. There had been no change to the header text at all during 2025.

===2024-11-16 - Special 10th anniversary edition of WHAT IF? - preorder===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20241116184702/https://xkcd.com/ 2024-11-16].
* [[3012: The Future of Orion]] was on the front page when the text changed.
* It returned to the exact same header text as before: [[#2024-05-15_-_Special_10th_anniversary_edition_of_WHAT_IF.3F_-_preorder|2024-05-15 - Special 10th anniversary edition of WHAT IF? - preorder]].
* It was up until [https://web.archive.org/web/20241204160618/https://xkcd.com/ 2024-12-04] when [[3019: Advent Calendar Advent Calendar]] was on the front page.
** The only change was that the last part after the last hyphen changed from when you had to preorder to now that you could order the book.

===2024-10-16 - Promotion of Kamala Harris for president===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20241017002108/https://xkcd.com/ 2024-10-17]
* For some reason the web archive failed to upload xkcd on the day it changed, but that it did change a day before can be seen in this other archive [https://web.archive.org/web/20241116184702/https://xkcd.com/ 2024-11-16].
* [[2999: Bad Map Projection: The United Stralia]] came out when this header was changed.
* Instead of text, it is a three part comic. In the first panel, [[Cueball]] (probably representing [[Randall]]) is shown walking, carrying a sign. In the second panel, he is seen hitting the sign with a hammer into the ground. In the third, Cueball is gone, and the front of the sign can be seen:
** <big>Harris for president</big>
* This is in reference to the 2024 presidential elections and shows that Randall endorses Harris.
* Randall posted the same image on his [https://x.com/xkcd/status/1853098106667114801 Twitter (formally X)] and [https://bsky.app/profile/xkcd.com/post/3la2jku6ace2f Bluesky] accounts on November 3rd, 2024, two days before the presidential election.
* It was up for a month until [https://web.archive.org/web/20241115181146/https://www.xkcd.com/ 2024-11-15] when [[3012: The Future of Orion]] was on the front page. It changed while that comic was still up back to the one from before.

===2024-05-15 - Special 10th anniversary edition of WHAT IF? - preorder===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20240515200351/https://xkcd.com/ 2024-05-15]
* [[2933: Elementary Physics Paths]] came out when the header changed.
* The text:
** [https://xkcd.com/what-if/ Special 10th anniversary edition of WHAT IF?]—revised and annotated with brand-new illustrations and answers to important questions you never thought to ask—coming from November 2024. Preorder [https://bit.ly/WhatIf10th here]!
* The first link goes to the page for the what if? book on xkcd and the other link is to the HarperCollins page for the 10th anniversary edition of the book.
* It was up until [https://web.archive.org/web/20241015192147/https://xkcd.com/ 2024-10-15] while [[2998: Ravioli-Shaped Objects]] was on the front page.
After a month of endorsing endorses Harris the heder text returned to this again, see [[#2024-11-16_-_Special_10th_anniversary_edition_of_WHAT_IF.3F_-_preorder|2024-110-16 - Special 10th anniversary edition of WHAT IF? -preorder]].

===2024-03-20 - What If? is on YouTube!===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20240320173158/https://xkcd.com/ 2024-03-20]
* [[2909: Moon Landing Mission Profiles]] came out when the header changed.
The only text version from the previous header was trimmed having some words removed taking it down from four to three lines (and solving the bad alignment that happened five days before at the end of the previous header text).
* The text:
** [https://what-if.xkcd.com/ What If?] is on YouTube! The first video answers
** “[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LSyizrk8-0 What if we aimed Hubble at Earth?]” Follow the
** [https://www.youtube.com/@xkcd_whatif What If?] channel to be notified about new videos.
* The first link goes to the what if? page on xkcd and the other two links are to the YouTube channel and to its very first video.
The promotion of the what if? franchise continues for the second year running. A few words were taken off as the YouTube channel was no longer new at this point.
This version ended on [https://web.archive.org/web/20240514034349/https://xkcd.com/ 2024-05-14], while [[2932: Driving PSA]] was on the front page. But the what if? promotion continued

===2023-11-29 - What If? is now on YouTube!===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20231129184009/https://xkcd.com/ 2023-11-29]
* [[2861: X Value]] came out when the header changed.
There was only text this time.
* The text:
** [https://what-if.xkcd.com/ What If?] is now on YouTube!
** Check out the first video for the answer to
** “[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LSyizrk8-0 What if we aimed the Hubble Telescope at Earth?]”
** and follow [https://www.youtube.com/@xkcd_whatif xkcd’s What If? The Video Series channel] to be notified about each new video.
* The links goes to the what if page on xkcd and the other two links is to the new YouTube channel with videos of some of the what if articles and to the very first video.
This is thus not a promotion of the what if? 2 book but still promotion of the what if? franchise.
A small change happened on [https://web.archive.org/web/20240314113602/https://xkcd.com/ 2024-03-14], as the first two lines became one line which made the alignment worse. So it seemed strange to do this. It looked like normal up until [https://web.archive.org/web/20240313113429/https://xkcd.com/ 2024-03-13]. But it only lasted five days before a change was made that made it into a new although very similar header text.
This version ended on [https://web.archive.org/web/20240319134138/https://xkcd.com/ 2024-03-19], while [[2908: Moon Armor Index]] was on the front page, but was replaced by a very similar what if? header.

===2023-08-31 - What if? 2 is now available in paperback in the UK!===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20230831200321/https://xkcd.com/ 2023-08-31]
* [[2822: *@gmail.com]] came out when the header changed.
* The image to the right stayed, but after more than a half year with no text, text was added to the left of the picture because the paper back was available in the UK.
** As opposed to the previous headers this was plain text and not a picture.
** The image is taken from the front cover of the new book, with red background, showing a passenger plane taking off with the wheels still down. On top of it a Tyrannosaurus Rex has begun eating its way into the plane. Below the plane is the book title in white text.
* The text:
** What if? 2 is [https://xkcd.com/what-if-2/#UK now available] in paperback in the UK!
** what if? 2
* The link goes to https://xkcd.com/what-if-2/#UK, the page on xkcd about the What if? 2 book, and directing to the UK order links where there now also it a paper back version.
This version was still up in the middle of November 2023 when this segment was updated.
This version ended on [https://web.archive.org/web/20231128174224/https://xkcd.com/ 2023-11-28], while [[2860: Decay Modes]] was on the front page, but was replaced by another What If? header.
* Although it was not specifically related to the new book. Thus it ended a more than 22 month long constant promotion of the book since the [[#2022-01-10_-_Standard_text_with_countdown|countdown]] began in January 2022.

===2023-02-17 - What if? 2 picture only===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20230217185629/https://xkcd.com/ 2023-02-17]
* [[2739: Data Quality]] came out when the header changed.
* For the first time in a very long time there is no real header text. Only the small red picture with the plane and the title of the what if? 2 book in the right section of the header. As it has been since [[#2022-01-10 - Standard text with countdown|the countdown]] stopped.
** The image is taken from the front cover of the new book, with red background, showing a passenger plane taking off with the wheels still down. On top of it a Tyrannosaurus Rex has begun eating its way into the plane. Below the plane is the book title in white text.
* The text:
** what if? 2
This version ended on [https://web.archive.org/web/20230830064414/https://xkcd.com/ 2023-08-30], while [[2821: Path Minimization]] was on the front page, but was replaced by another What If? 2 header.

===2022-09-23 - What if? 2 Instant New York Times Bestseller===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20220923182825/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-09-23]
* [[2675: Pilot Priority List]] was on the front page when the header changed.
** The header celebrates that the new what if? 2 book has become an instant New York Times bestseller.
* The header kept the same layout as the previous and thus still consist of two parts. With the right picture the window also used in [[#2022-01-10 - Standard text with countdown|the countdown]], but with the image that appeared in it after the count down ended.
** The image is taken from the front cover of the new book, with red background, showing a passenger plane taking off with the wheels still down. On top of it a Tyrannosaurus Rex has begun eating its way into the plane. Below the plane is the book title in white text.
* The new image to the left has a black border. To the left is still the picture of the new what if? 2 book. It has the same image as in the picture to the right, but showing the entire front of the book, with details of those looking up at the plane from the ground. The title and the author name can be read in white on the red book. There are also unreadable white text above the plane and below the author name. The spine of the book can also be seen, as the book is seen a bit from the side. Here are also unreadable white text. To the right of the book there are two lines of text, with the first line in very large bold letters.
* The text:
** what if? 2
** Randall Munroe
** What if? 2
** Instant New York Times bestseller.
** what if? 2
*** Both images are links that goes to a dedicated page on xkcd about [https://xkcd.com/what-if-2/ what if? 2: the book].
This version ended on [https://web.archive.org/web/20230216181705/https://xkcd.com/ 2023-02-16], while [[2738: Omniknot]] was on the front page, but was replaced by another What If? 2 header,

===2022-09-13 - What if? 2 is available now===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20220913142432/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-09-13]
* [[2672: What If? 2 Flowchart]] was released as the header changed, even though it was a Tuesday.
** The header and the comic celebrates the release of the new what if? 2 book, that came out on this day.
* The header kept the same layout as the previous and thus still consist of two parts. With the right picture the window also used in [[#2022-01-10 - Standard text with countdown|the countdown]], but with the image that appeared in it after the count down ended.
** The image is taken from the front cover of the new book, with red background, showing a passenger plane taking off with the wheels still down. On top of it a Tyrannosaurus Rex has begun eating its way into the plane. Below the plane is the book title in white text.
* The new image to the left has a black border. To the left is still the picture of the new what if? 2 book. It has the same image as in the picture to the right, but showing the entire front of the book, with details of those looking up at the plane from the ground. The title and the author name can be read in white on the red book. There are also unreadable white text above the plane and below the author name. The spine of the book can also be seen, as the book is seen a bit from the side. Here are also unreadable white text. To the right of the book there are two lines of text, with the first line in very large bold letters
* The text:
** what if? 2
** Randall Munroe
** What if? 2 is available now!
** what if? 2
*** Both images are links that goes to a dedicated page on xkcd about [https://xkcd.com/what-if-2/ what if? 2: the book].
This thus ended the pre-release promotion of the book, that began on [[#xkcd_Header_text#2022-01-31_-_What_if.3F_2|2022-01-31]], plus of course the three weeks of [[#2022-01-10 - Standard text with countdown|countdown]] before. For a sum total of 8 months and three days.
* It will be interesting to see how long before any reference to what if? 2 will disappear from the header text.
This version ended on [https://web.archive.org/web/20220922150042/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-09-22], but was replaced by another What If? 2 header, while [[2675: Pilot Priority List]] was on the front page.

===2022-09-12 - One day to What if? 2 comes out===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20220912125617/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-09-12]
* This was while [[2670: Interruption]] was still up.
* The header is the same layout as the previous and thus still consist of two parts. With the right picture the window also used in [[#2022-01-10 - Standard text with countdown|the countdown]], but with the image that appeared in it after the count down ended.
** The image is taken from the front cover of the new book, with red background, showing a passenger plane taking off with the wheels still down. On top of it a Tyrannosaurus Rex has begun eating its way into the plane. Below the plane is the book title in white text.
* The new image to the left has a black border. To the left is still the picture of the new what if? 2 book. It has the same image as in the picture to the right, but showing the entire front of the book, with details of those looking up at he plane from the ground. The title and the author name can be read in white on the red book. There are also unreadable white text above the plane and below the author name. The spine of the book can also be seen, as the book is seen a bit from the side. Here are also unreadable white text. To the right of the book there are three lines of text. With the first line written in large bold letters. This also has a footnote star. And the footnote is then written to the right in smaller font over five lines of text.
* The text:
** what if? 2
** Randall Munroe
** One dayuntil what if? 2 comes out!
** <nowiki></nowiki>I'm going to spend the day with that Les Mis song stuck in my head, aren't I.
** what if? 2
*** Both images are links that goes to a dedicated page on xkcd about [https://xkcd.com/what-if-2/ what if? 2: the book].
* The foot note refers to the [[2636: What If? 2 Countdown]]. For the date where the header changed 2022-09-12 it was ''F(99) where F(N) means sing all the verses of N Bottles of Beer On the wall followed by F(N-1)'' to release day.
** It is thus for certain this song Randall mentions will now be stuck in his head.
** Les mis song, referring to a song from the musical les miserables titled "One Day More", he now has stuck in his head.
* The header stayed the same until [https://web.archive.org/web/20220913134002/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-09-13].
** This was while [[2671: Rotation]] was still up, early on the release day of the new book.

===2022-09-12 - Three days to What if? 2 comes out===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20220911102450/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-09-11]
* This was while [[2670: Interruption]] was still up.
* The header is the same layout as the previous and thus still consist of two parts. With the right picture the window also used in [[#2022-01-10 - Standard text with countdown|the countdown]], but with the image that appeared in it after the count down ended.
** The image is taken from the front cover of the new book, with red background, showing a passenger plane taking off with the wheels still down. On top of it a Tyrannosaurus Rex has begun eating its way into the plane. Below the plane is the book title in white text.
* The new image to the left has a black border. To the left is still the picture of the new what if? 2 book. It has the same image as in the picture to the right, but showing the entire front of the book, with details of those looking up at he plane from the ground. The title and the author name can be read in white on the red book. There are also unreadable white text above the plane and below the author name. The spine of the book can also be seen, as the book is seen a bit from the side. Here are also unreadable white text. To the right of the book there are three lines of text. With the first line written in large bold letters. This also has a footnote star. And the footnote is then written to the right in smaller font over five lines of text.
* The text:
** what if? 2
** Randall Munroe
** Three daysuntil what if? 2 comes out!
** <nowiki></nowiki>Assuming it's still Saturday. I'm a static png image and can't perceive time.
** what if? 2
*** Both images are links that goes to a dedicated page on xkcd about [https://xkcd.com/what-if-2/ what if? 2: the book].
* The header only stayed the same for one day and [[2670: Interruption]] was still up when it changed to the next.

===2022-09-07 - Less than one week to What if? 2 comes out===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20220907211736/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-09-07]
* This was while [[2668: Artemis Quote]] was still up.
* The header still consist of two parts. With the right picture the window also used in [[#2022-01-10 - Standard text with countdown|the countdown]], but with the image that appeared in it after the count down ended.
** The image is taken from the front cover of the new book, with red background, showing a passenger plane taking off with the wheels still down. On top of it a Tyrannosaurus Rex has begun eating its way into the plane. Below the plane is the book title in white text.
* The new image to the left has a black border. To the left is still the picture of the new what if? 2 book. It has the same image as in the picture to the right, but showing the entire front of the book, with details of those looking up at he plane from the ground. The title and the author name can be read in white on the red book. There are also unreadable white text above the plane and below the author name. The spine of the book can also be seen, as the book is seen a bit from the side. Here are also unreadable white text. To the right of the book there are four lines of text. With the middle line written in large bold letters. This also has a footnote star. And the footnote is then written to the right in smaller font over four lines of text.
* The text:
** what if? 2
** Randall Munroe
** Less than one weekuntil what if? 2 comes out!
** <nowiki></nowiki>Oh no, now I have that song stuck in my head.
** what if? 2
*** Both images are links that goes to a dedicated page on xkcd about [https://xkcd.com/what-if-2/ what if? 2: the book].
* The foot note refers to the [[2636: What If? 2 Countdown]]. For the date where the header changed 2022-09-07 it was ''one pico-universe-lifetime'' to release day. But the next day 2022-09-08 it was ''The Baby Shark chorus for a family of 50,000 sharks''.
** It is thus for certain this song Randall mentions will now be stuck in his head.
* The header stayed the same until [https://web.archive.org/web/20220910024549/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-09-10].
** This was while [[2670: Interruption]] was up.

===2022-08-27 - Preorder What if? 2 - with image - again===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20220827232205/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-08-27]
* [[2664: Cloud Swirls]] came out when it changed.
* The header [[#2022-08-16 - Preorder What if? 2 - with image|changed back]] to the preorder image from the previous header, when Randall's book tour ended. See the link.
It ended on [https://web.archive.org/web/20220906191403/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-09-06].
* This was while [[2668: Artemis Quote]] was up.

===2022-08-17 - What if? 2 book tour===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20220817161136/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-08-17]
* [[2659: Unreliable Connection]] was out when it changed.
* The header still consist of two parts. With the right picture the window also used in [[#2022-01-10 - Standard text with countdown|the countdown]], but with the image that appeared in it after the count down ended.
** The image is taken from the front cover of the new book, with red background, showing a passenger plane taking off with the wheels still down. On top of it a Tyrannosaurus Rex has begun eating its way into the plane. Below the plane is the book title in white text.
* The new image to the left has a black border. Inside this there is text to the left. Then Cueball is seen flying by holding on to a single balloon (like in [[1110: Click and Drag]]). He flies over five mountain peaks with snow, with three clouds and three distant birds in front of him, as he drifts to the right, as shown with movements lines behind him. In front of him is a dark feature at the bottom of the frame. Above this is a blue square (like a button) with white text.
* The text:
** I'm going on a what if? 2 book tour!
** Click to see where
** what if? 2
*** The image to the left is a link to [https://xkcd.com/events/ randall munroe: events] page on xkcd. Which at the time showed the calendar with the planned stop for his book tour, which covered the US and London.
*** As always the link button in blue is not the only part of the image that is a link, as he just mentioned in the [[#2022-08-11 - Preorder What if? 2 - with image|previous header text]], and several times before...
*** The right image is a link that goes to a dedicated page on xkcd about [https://xkcd.com/what-if-2/ what if? 2: the book].
This header thus continues the promotion of the new book, which was at the time was only 27 days away (or [[2636:_What_If%3F_2_Countdown|6 dog months]]).
* It will be interesting to see how long it takes before promotion for the book disappears from the header. It may still take months.
The header stayed the same until [https://web.archive.org/web/20220826202043/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-08-26].
* This was while [[2663: Tetherball Configurations]] was up.

===2022-08-11 - Preorder What if? 2 - with image===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20220811055445/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-08-11]
* [[2657: Complex Vowels]] came out as it changed.
The message in the header was not really changed, but the meaning of the text from the previous header was now written in an image, although the text did change somewhat.
* The header thus still consist of two parts. To the left the new image with an picture of the book and text. And to the right the window also used in [[#2022-01-10 - Standard text with countdown|the countdown]], but with the image that appeared in it after the count down ended.
** The image is taken from the front cover of the new book, with red background, showing a passenger plane taking off with the wheels still down. On top of it a Tyrannosaurus Rex has begun eating its way into the plane. Below the plane is the book title in white text.
* The new image to the left has a black border. Inside this to the right is the new text. To the left is a picture of the new what if? 2 book. It has the same image as in the picture to the right, but showing the entire front of the book, with details of those looking up at he plane from the ground. The title and the author name can be read in white on the red book. There are also unreadable white text above the plane and below the author name. The spine of the book can also be seen, as the book is seen a bit from the side. Here are also unreadable white text.
* The text:
** what if? 2
** Randall Munroe
** Preorder what if? 2 and enter for a chance to win a comic inspired by your question! Click here to learn more. Or click wherever. This whole image is a link because html is hard.
** what if? 2
*** In the left image there is a blue link font on the word "here" in click here. However the entire left image is a link to the [https://sites.prh.com/whatif2 what if 2 contest]. As explained he did not only make the word a link because html is hard! This is something Randall [[xkcd_Header_text#2014-07-23_-_what_if.3F_book_tour|often comments on]].
**** The link in the text goes to a contest page that starts with the words:
**** [https://web.archive.org/web/20220718171904/https://sites.prh.com/whatif2 Want Randall Munroe to answer you What If? question?]
**** Here above the web archive version of the link, in case the link from the text goes dead in the future.
*** The right image is a link that goes to a dedicated page on xkcd about [https://xkcd.com/what-if-2/ what if? 2: the book].
* The header stayed the same until [https://web.archive.org/web/20220816124823/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-08-16].
** This was while [[2659: Unreliable Connection]] was up.

===2022-07-19 - Preorder What if? 2===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20220719153239/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-07-19]
* [[2647: Capri Suns]] came out as it changed.
The header looked a lot like the previous one, only part of the text changed.
* The header thus still consist of two part. To the left a line of text (split up, most likely over four lines for most users). And to the right the window also used in [[#2022-01-10 - Standard text with countdown|the countdown]], but with the image that appeared in it after the count down ended.
** The image is taken from the front cover of the new book, with red background, showing a passenger plane taking off with the wheels still down. On top of it a Tyrannosaurus Rex has begun eating its way into the plane. Below the plane is the book title in white text.
* The text:
** Preorder What If? 2 (all US preorders eligible) and [https://sites.prh.com/whatif2 enter our contest] for a chance to win a dedicated comic and What If blog post!
** what if? 2
*** The image is a link that goes to a dedicated page on xkcd about [https://xkcd.com/what-if-2/ what if? 2: the book].
** The link in the text goes to a contest page that starts with the words:
*** [https://web.archive.org/web/20220718171904/https://sites.prh.com/whatif2 Want Randall Munroe to answer you What If? question?]
*** Here above the web archive version of the link, in case the link from the text goes dead in the future.
* The header stayed the same until [https://web.archive.org/web/20220810034709/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-08-10].
** This was while [[2656: Scientific Field Prefixes]] was up.

===2022-01-31 - What if? 2===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20220201000434/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-02-01]
* [[2575: What If? 2]] came out as it changed, and then it [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/3/36/Countdown_in_header_text_page_when_what_if_comic_came_out.png looked like this] already on 2022-01-31. But there is no archived version from that day after the header changed.
** This was what [[#2022-01-10 - Standard text with countdown|the countdown]] had been counting down to.
** An announcement that Randall had written a sequel to the first ''[[What If? (book)|What If?]]'' book, based on his blog.
* The header consist of two part. To the left a line of text (split up, most likely over three lines for most users). And to the right the window also used in the countdown, but with the image that appeared in it after the count down ended.
** The image is taken from the front cover of the new book, with red background, showing a passenger plane taking off with the wheels still down. On top of it a Tyrannosaurus Rex has begun eating its way into the plane. Below the plan ia the book title in white text.
* The text:
** What If? 2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions comes out 9/13. Preorder [https://xkcd.com/what-if-2/ here!]
** What If? 2:
*** The link goes to a dedicated page on xkcd about what if? 2: the book. The image is also a link to this page.
*** The entire comic that came out along with the new header text is also a link to that page.
* At the same time the [[Design_of_xkcd.com#xkcd_links|xkcd links]] in the top left section of xkcd also changed to include links to books, and especially this new book.
It will be interesting to see how long this version of the promotion for the new books stays up. But most likely there will be promotion for the book until release, and then more after the release.
* The header stayed the same until [https://web.archive.org/web/20220718145816/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-07-18], for more than 5,5 month. This was while [[2646: Minkowski Space]] was up.
** The change was rather small, but part of the text changed. The promotion continued though.

===2022-01-10 - Standard text with countdown===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20220110183238/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-10].
* [[2565: Latency]] was still up when the [[Countdown in header text]] was added.
* The text was still the standard xkcd header: xkcd updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
* But a countdown was added. This was inserted in a rectangular box, placed at the end of the standard header text.
** In some browsers the box forces the last word "Friday" to jump down to the next line.
* Inside the box the following time was displayed in the version in the link:
** 20d 20h 27m
*** This clock will also count down every minute, although it will return to the time at the time of archive when reloaded!
*** While this was edited into this wiki the time had changed to 20d 19h 12m. So it was a very fresh download in the web archive, only about 1 hour old when it was updated to this wiki.
*** The minutes change without refreshing the page, and follows this editors computers clock exactly, so it will end at 59 minutes, not at a full hour.
** It looks like it started on [https://munvoseli.github.io/xkcd-countdown/ 01-10 17:00 UTC].
*** A calculation shows that this countdown will reach zero on Monday 2022-01-31 at 14:59 (2:59 PM) {{w|UTC}}.
*** This will be at 9:59 (9:59 AM) in [[Randall]]'s home town
**** The last ten minutes it switched to seconds for the last minute so it made the switch 15:00 UTC 10:00 in Boston!
*** From that it can be deduced that the count started at 20d 22h 0m
**** The first image on the archive thus came 1h 33m after the count began.
* At [https://web.archive.org/web/20220111153818/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-11] a diagonal black bar appeared in the lower left-hand corner of the countdown box.
** After that the [[Countdown in header text]] page was created and any further development on the count down will be mentioned on that page.
It was last up on [https://web.archive.org/web/20220131124817/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-31] when [[2574: Autoresponder]] was on the front page.
* This archived version was when the counter was at 0d 2h 11m, and the last normal frame was already up at this time.
** It stayed like this until the [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/1/17/Countdown_in_header_text_page_0_seconds.png counter ran out].
*** Then for a few minutes the final frame, that revealed that all this was a promotion for Randall's new book what if? 2 was up [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/4/48/Countdown_in_header_text_page_just_after_countdown.png while the Friday comic was still up].
*** Then when the new Monday comic came out with the promotion for what if? 2, the header changed.

===2022-01-08 - Back to standard text===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20220108044654/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-08].
* [[2565: Latency]] came out around the time the new header text appeared, on a Friday!
* The text returned to the standard xkcd header:
** xkcd updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
* This was the first time since [[#2018-11-07 - Back to standard text|2018-11-07]] that the text had changed back to that, and at that time it lasted until 2019-02-05.
** That is 1067 days (less than a month short of three years) without the standard text! (Can it be called standard anymore?)
* It was only left in the complete standard version until [https://web.archive.org/web/20220109030513/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-09] when Latency was still on the front page.
** Then the next day a [[#2022-01-10 - Standard text with countdown|countdown]] was added to it.
*** That was after the weekend on Monday but before the Monday comic came up.
*** So only during the weekend was it normal standard header text.

===2021-12-20 - What If in stock===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20211220211220/https://xkcd.com/ 2021-12-20].
* [[2557: Immunity]] came out around the time the new header text appeared.
* The text:
** For anyone trying to find What If? this year, it's in stock at [https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/what-if-serious-scientific-answers-to-absurd-hypothetical-questions-randall-munroe/1118864093 Barnes & Noble], [https://m.booksamillion.com/p/What-If/Randall-Munroe/9780544272996 Books-a-Million], and [https://bookshop.org/books/what-if-serious-scientific-answers-to-absurd-hypothetical-questions-9781483041827/9780544272996 Bookshop]
* Each store name is a link to the corresponding store's page for ''[[What If? (book)|What If?]]''.
It was last seen on [https://web.archive.org/web/20220106100957/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-06] when [[2564: Sunshield]] was up.

===2020-06-03 - Black Lives Matter===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20200604003700/https://xkcd.com/ 2020-06-03].
* [[2315: Eventual Consistency]] came out as a new header text was finally inserted after almost two months without one.
* Cueball is standing to the left and speaks a single line of text: "Black Lives Matter"
* To the right is a gray link button with text: "[https://www.joincampaignzero.org/ How To Help]."
* As always, the entire image (which is only below the xkcd logo) is a link
** The button is thus not needed, but it will also work when clicking the location of the button.
* The link goes to [https://www.joincampaignzero.org/ Join Campaign Zero].
** {{w|Black Lives Matter}} is a loose, grassroots, decentralized confederation of groups and individuals advocating for racial justice. It arose in 2013 after the acquittal of {{w|George Zimmerman}}, who took the life of {{w|Trayvon Martin}}.
** Randall's featuring Black Lives Matter came on the heels of the {{w|Killing of George Floyd}} on May 25th 2020, which had sparked {{w|George Floyd protests|protest in the US}}
** Floyd died while saying "{{w|I can't breathe}}," which was already used due to other Black men's killings, the first was from the {{w|Killing of Eric Garner}}, back in 2014.
It stayed like this until [https://web.archive.org/web/20200616114945/https://xkcd.com/ 2020-06-16] when [[2320: Millennium Problems]] was up.
* Then on [https://web.archive.org/web/20200617131438/https://xkcd.com/ 2020-06-17] the link changed to [https://blacklivesmatter.com/ Black Lives Matter]. [[2320: Millennium Problems]] was still on the front page on that day.
On April 1st 2021 the front page header changed to mention who made the April Fools' Day comic.
* But this was only for this comic [[#Checkbox|Checkbox]].
* The rest of the pages kept the BLM header and it returned to this on the front page once the next comic was released on April 5th. At that time it will have been up for 13 months, making it the longest header different from the standard header.
It was last up on [https://web.archive.org/web/20211219202204/https://xkcd.com/ 2021-12-19] when [[2556: Turing Complete]] was on the front page.
* At that time it had been up for 564 days or 1,5 year plus 16 days! This is most likely a record.

===2020-04-05 - Empty header===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20200405042955/https://xkcd.com/ 2020-04-05].
* [[2289: Scenario 4]] came out and the header belonging to the previous comic was removed.
* But no new header was inserted. Not even the go to [[#Header text|Header text]] about the release days of xkcd.
** Since the previous header was related only to the [[April Fools' Day comics|April Fools' Day comic]] [[2288: Collector's Edition]], and that had stopped the promotion of the [[How To]] book, after first experiencing problems with its release, it seems Randall forgot what he usually put in the header.
It stayed empty like this until [https://web.archive.org/web/20200602213017/https://xkcd.com/ 2020-06-02] when [[2314: Carcinization]] was on the front page.
* So almost two month without a header. This had not happened before.

===2020-04-04 - Put together by===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20200404014814/https://xkcd.com/ 2020-04-04].
* [[2288: Collector's Edition]] came out and the header changed.
* The text:
** Today's comic was put together by [https://chromakode.com/ Max Goodhart], [https://twitter.com/Aiiane Amber], [https://twitter.com/bstaffin Benjamin Staffin], [https://twitter.com/cotrone Kevin], [https://www.instagram.com/fading_interest/ @fading_interest], [https://twitter.com/wirehead2501 Kat], [https://twitter.com/zigdon @zigdon], and Christopher Night.
*** All names have links except the last.
* It thanks those that helped Randall create this years [[April Fools' Day comics|April Fools' Day comic]], which had taken two extra days before it was released due to the complex nature of the comic.
Due to the delay the next comic, [[2289: Scenario 4]], was released already the day after the Fool's comic, even though it was thus [[2289:_Scenario_4#Trivia|on a Saturday]]!
* Since this header was related only to the Fool's comic, it was thus removed from the general header, but it stayed up as [[#Collector.27s_Edition|one of]] the permanent [[#Unique_header_text|unique header texts]].
** However, when it was removed from the general header, the header was left empty.
** Unlike some other headers that stayed on a given comic, this one was on all comics for the duration of the time it stayed on the front page, see for instance the previous comic on [https://web.archive.org/web/20200403232031/https://xkcd.com/2287/ 2020-04-03].

===2020-04-02 - Technical Reasons===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20200402234828/https://xkcd.com/ 2020-04-02].
* [[2287: Pathogen Resistance]] was up when the header changed.
Randall turned out to, again, have problems with his complicated and interactive [[April Fools' Day comics|April Fools' Day comic]] for 2020.
* The text:
** Note: For technical reasons Wednesday's comic will be posted Thursday instead. Apologies for the delay!
This finally stopped the promotion of the [[How To]] book.
* It had then been part of the header for well over a year since [https://web.archive.org/web/20190206060904/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-02-06].
It stayed up a day longer than planed as the fool's comic, [[2288: Collector's Edition]] was first released on Friday, so the note was still up on [https://web.archive.org/web/20200403012612/https://xkcd.com/ 2020-04-03].
* [[2287: Pathogen Resistance]] thus stayed two extra day on the front page, and the third comic of that week, [[2289: Scenario 4]] was released already the day after the Fool's comic, even though it was thus [[2289:_Scenario_4#Trivia|on a Saturday]]!

===2020-01-16 - How To explores - again===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20200116190038/https://xkcd.com/ 2020-01-16].
* [[2255: Tattoo Ideas]] was still up when the header changed.
* The ongoing promotion of the book continued but here more than three weeks after Christmas the reference to Christmas was removed.
* The header then returned to the one from before Christmas:
** [[#2019-11-22 - How To explores|How To explores]] - see that for all other details.
It was last up on [https://web.archive.org/web/20200401221435/https://xkcd.com/ 2020-04-01] when [[2287: Pathogen Resistance]] was on the front page.
* It was the problems with [[April Fools' Day comics|April Fools' Day comic]] of 2020 that finally stopped the promotion of the [[How To]] book.
* It had then been part of the header for well over a year since [https://web.archive.org/web/20190206060904/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-02-06].

===2019-12-02 - Into Science===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20191202223745/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-12-02].
* [[2236: Is it Christmas?]] came out when the header changed. Fitting as the change is about Christmas list.
* Still promoting the new [[How To]] book, continuing to make the image a link to the [https://xkcd.com/how-to/ How To book] page on xkcd.
** The links below to order are the same as in the previous header.
** Actually most of the header stays the same with the same four images and the same layout. But the text above has changed completely and the two main text sections between the drawings has changed but only slightly. The description of the images is thus left out, see below. Only new thing is that there are now two red circles connected with a red arrow. The first circle is around the word How To at the end of the first text with the arrow going from that circle to the second circle drawn around the picture of the book.
* The text:
** Is there someone on you Christmas list who's into science? They might like my new book '''''How To'''''
** It explores ridiculous ideas for applying scientific research to everyday problems...
** ...And illustrates what would happen if you tried them.
** ''Boom''
** You can get it here:
** [https://www.amazon.com/How-Absurd-Scientific-Real-World-Problems/dp/0525537090/ Amazon], [https://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/2/trackingcode/PRH5522E62429 B&N], [https://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/6/trackingcode/penguinrandom IndieBound], [https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/how-to/id1451461524?mt=11 Apple], [https://www.audible.com/search?advsearchKeywords=How+To+Randall+Munroe&source_code=COMA0213WS031709&SID=PRHA9A5E24CFB--9780525635680 Audible], [https://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/23/trackingcode/PRH3D17167A3B Target]
It was last up on [https://web.archive.org/web/20200115155040/https://xkcd.com/ 2020-01-15] when [[2255: Tattoo Ideas]] was on the front page.

===2019-11-22 - How To explores===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20191122214439/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-11-22].
* [[2232: Hotel Room Party]] was up when the header changed. It most likely changed when the comic appeared. Earlier on that day it was the previous header over the previous comic.
* Still promoting the new [[How To]] book, here again making the image a link to the [https://xkcd.com/how-to/ How To book] page on xkcd, after it previously was a link to where to listen to the audio book.
** The links below to order returns to the same as in the header before the previous header with links to audio books, except that the link to an exclusive edition has been removed.
** The header consist of an image with text above five small drawings with two text parts in between them. To the left is the closed How To book which is black with a blue readable title, How To, and unreadable white text below this as well as below the unreadable blue author name, which are below the image. The image shows Cueball putting in a light-bulb with drones under each foot while Megan, holding a ladder, and White/Black Hat are looking up at him. To the right of the book is a drawing of Ponytail pole-vaulting with two black helium filled balloons. Next to her is the first text segment. Then after that is the drawing, seen before in the header text, of a truck towing a house up a steep hill. This truck goes above the second text segment, with Cueball somersaulting above the text. Furthest right, above and just right of the text is an explosion with the sound written inside. Below the header image is some black text and then the links to where to get it as regular blue link text.
* The text:
** My new book '''''How To''''' explores the science behind spacecraft heat shields, butterfly metabolisms, and land border surveys...
** ...By imagining ridiculous ideas for applying the research to you everyday life...
** ...And illustrating what would happen if you tried them.
** ''Boom''
** You can get it here:
** [https://www.amazon.com/How-Absurd-Scientific-Real-World-Problems/dp/0525537090/ Amazon], [https://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/2/trackingcode/PRH5522E62429 B&N], [https://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/6/trackingcode/penguinrandom IndieBound], [https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/how-to/id1451461524?mt=11 Apple], [https://www.audible.com/search?advsearchKeywords=How+To+Randall+Munroe&source_code=COMA0213WS031709&SID=PRHA9A5E24CFB--9780525635680 Audible], [https://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/23/trackingcode/PRH3D17167A3B Target]
It was last up on [https://web.archive.org/web/20191201191025/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-12-01] when [[2235: Group Chat Rules]] was on the front page.

===2019-11-06 - Audio clip===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20191106204314/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-11-06].
* [[2224: Software Updates]] was still up when the header changed, but the first archive version was first from after the next comic came out [[2225: Voting Referendum]].
* Still promoting the new [[How To]] book, here making the image a link to the How To book on Penguin Random House's audio book, where an audio clip read by Wil Wheaton can be sampled.
** The links below to order have now changed to those with audio books.
** The header consist of an image with text, with a "blue link", above the How To book that is being folded out from closed; to partially open; to opened up on two full pages; this takes three images. The closed book is the black book with a blue readable title, How To, and unreadable white text below this as well as below the unreadable blue author name, which are below the image. The image shows Cueball putting in a light-bulb with drones under each foot while Megan, holding a ladder, and White/Black Hat are looking up at him. The partly open book still has this cover partly visible, but unreadable, as well as come unreadable text in the open side. The open book shows two pages with lots of unreadable text and three figures (maybe one is a table). Next to the open book there is an arrow to the right pointing at an audio icon with three audio lines in front. Below the header image are the links as regular text.
* The text:
** You can <u>click here</u> to hear a clip from the audio version of '''''How To''''', read by Wil Wheaton.
** [https://books.apple.com/us/audiobook/how-to-absurd-scientific-advice-for-common-real-world/id1475319694 Apple], [https://www.audiobooks.com/audiobook/how-to-absurd-scientific-advice-for-common-real-world-problems/369279 Audiobooks], [https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/How-To-Audiobook/1473680360?qid=1574679523&sr=1-1&pf_rd_p=c6e316b8-14da-418d-8f91-b3cad83c5183&pf_rd_r=DX3EZ14M14CFQPP9GHJY&ref=a_search_c3_lProduct_1_1 Audible], [https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Randall_Munroe_How_To?id=LzSGDwAAQBAJ Google Play], and [https://libro.fm/audiobooks/9780525635680 Libro.fm]
* The entire image is a link to the [https://www.penguinrandomhouseaudio.com/book/576760/how-to/ How To book on Penguin Random House] page, where the audio clip can he played.
** As always it is the entire picture that is a link, and not only the blue underlined text that says click here!
It was last on the archive on [https://web.archive.org/web/20191122044456/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-11-22] when [[2231: the Time Before And After Land]] was on the front page. But it was most likely still up when [[2232: Hotel Room Party]] came out. But then changed during the next day.

===2019-10-02 - Horse vs football team===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20191002005854/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-10-02].
* [[2210: College Athletes]] was up when the header changed.
* Still promoting the new [[How To]] book, but seeing this is no longer close to the release day the focus has changed. This time the image seems to be from one of the How To explanations in the book.
** The links below to order are the same as the previous header.
** But new text is added after the links to promote two events with Randall in New York the two days after this header came up.
*** These links disappeared after a week leaving only the picture and the link to buy the book. See below.
** The header consist of an image with Cueball riding bareback on a horse. He comes from the left holding an American football. Running towards him from the right are eight American football players with helmets with three stars on the back of the helmet. Two of the players at the back are almost hidden by players in front of them. Beneath them is a line of text that belongs to the image, the period at the end of the sentence hangs in height with the center line of the last letter E... Then below the image follows the link and promotion of the NY events, these are written in regular.
* The text:
** My new book ''How To'' is out now! You can get it here.
** [https://www.amazon.com/How-Absurd-Scientific-Real-World-Problems/dp/0525537090/ Amazon], [https://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/2/trackingcode/PRH5522E62429 B&N], [https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/how-to-randall-munroe/1130494832?ean=9780525686910#/ B&N Exclusive Edition], [https://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/6/trackingcode/penguinrandom IndieBound], [https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/how-to/id1451461524?mt=11 Apple], [https://www.audible.com/search?advsearchKeywords=How+To+Randall+Munroe&source_code=COMA0213WS031709&SID=PRHA9A5E24CFB--9780525635680 Audible], [https://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/23/trackingcode/PRH3D17167A3B Target] I'll be at New York Comic Con! I'm giving [https://www.newyorkcomiccon.com/Explore/Panels/Panels-And-Screenings/#/event/how-todo-anything-with-randall-munroe-creator-of-xkcd a talk on Thursday], and on
** Friday [https://smbc-comics.com/ Zach Weinersmith] and I will be hosting [https://www.caveat.nyc/event/how-to--absurd-scientific-advice-for-common-real-world-problems-10-4-2019 an event at Caveat NYC].
* The image is a link to the [https://xkcd.com/how-to/ How To book page] on xkcd.
** The link to Target still seems to go the main page rather than to [https://intl.target.com/p/how-to-by-randall-munroe-hardcover/-/A-76508342 their How To book page]... Probably a still undiscovered error on Randall's part?
This header changed, but so slightly that the changes will only be mentioned here rather than in a new section:
* The first link was last active on [https://web.archive.org/web/20191004014438/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-10-04]
* Then the day after only the second link remained from [https://web.archive.org/web/20191005041539/https://www.xkcd.com/ 2019-10-05]. [[2211: Hours Before Departure]] came out when it changed.
** But the text of this link changed as it had been a continues text from one to the other link. Also it was not entirely on it's own line, thus not as with the first link whose text was directly connected to the line with the links to buy the book.
** The new text of that link was:
*** [https://smbc-comics.com/ Zach Weinersmith] and I will be hosting [https://www.caveat.nyc/event/how-to--absurd-scientific-advice-for-common-real-world-problems-10-4-2019 an event] Friday night at Caveat NYC!
*** The last link was the same, but now it only covered two words not the entire end of the sentence.
** This other link was last active on [https://web.archive.org/web/20191007042707/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-10-07].
* And then the last link was gone by [https://web.archive.org/web/20191008053609/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-10-08], when [[2212: Cell Phone Functions]] came out.
It ended on [https://web.archive.org/web/20191105164001/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-11-05] when [[2224: Software Updates]] was up.

===2019-09-30 - Tons of fun===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20190930234245/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-09-30].
* [[2209: Fresh Pears]] was up when the header changed.
* Still promoting the new [[How To]] book, but seeing this is no longer close to the release day the focus has changed to how much fun it was for Randall to write it and how proud he is of the result. Randall, as Cueball, is saying this in the new header image.
** The links below to order are the same, except a new has been added at the end.
** The header consist of an image with Cueball standing to the left of the book, shown as tall as he is. The book is opened up on two pages with lots of unreadable text as well as three drawings, only one of these, with a circle diagram, can clearly be seen. Cueball is speaking, and the text is above him and the book. Two words are blue with a line under as if they where a link. But as always the entire image is a link. Beneath the image is the links on where to order the book.
* The text:
** Writing my new book '''''How To''''' was tons of fun and I'm so proud of the result. It's out now-<u>Click Here</u> to order!
** Order: [https://www.amazon.com/How-Absurd-Scientific-Real-World-Problems/dp/0525537090/ Amazon], [https://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/2/trackingcode/PRH5522E62429 B&N], [https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/how-to-randall-munroe/1130494832?ean=9780525686910#/ B&N Exclusive Edition], [https://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/6/trackingcode/penguinrandom IndieBound], [https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/how-to/id1451461524?mt=11 Apple], [https://www.audible.com/search?advsearchKeywords=How+To+Randall+Munroe&source_code=COMA0213WS031709&SID=PRHA9A5E24CFB--9780525635680 Audible], [https://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/23/trackingcode/PRH3D17167A3B Target]
* The image is a link to the [https://xkcd.com/how-to/ How To book page] on xkcd.
** The new link to Target seems to go the main page rather than to [https://intl.target.com/p/how-to-by-randall-munroe-hardcover/-/A-76508342 their How To book page]... Probably an error on Randall's part.
It ended on October 2nd while [[2210: College Athletes]] where up. But there is no archived versions from the 1st of October and the one from the 2nd is with the next version. But the editor of this was making changes to the explanation of College Athletes before the next header change came along.

===2019-09-11 - How To available===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20190911053115/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-09-11].
* [[2200: Unreachable State]] was still up when the header changed.
* The release day part of the promotion was changed to telling that the new [[How To]] book was available. With teasers about what is in the book below the heading. On either side of the text a picture of the book is still shown. Also the links below changed, adding three new and removing one old.
** The header consist of an image with the book shown both left and right of some text. Both books have blue title and author name, and white unreadable title and white drawing of Cueball flying on two quadcopters to put in a light-bulb in a ceiling lamp, while White/Black? Hat is watching together with Megan, who is holding a ladder. Beneath the image is the links on where to order it.
** Between the two books are two sections of text above each other, the lover with smaller font.
* The text:
** How To is available now!
** Learn how to open bottles with nuclear weapons and how to be on time for meetings by altering the Earths rotation. The book also features advice from real-life experts including Chris Hadfield and Serena Williams.
** Order: [https://www.amazon.com/How-Absurd-Scientific-Real-World-Problems/dp/0525537090/ Amazon], [https://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/2/trackingcode/PRH5522E62429 B&N], [https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/how-to-randall-munroe/1130494832?ean=9780525686910#/ B&N Exclusive Edition], [https://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/6/trackingcode/penguinrandom IndieBound],[https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/how-to/id1451461524?mt=11 Apple], [https://www.audible.com/search?advsearchKeywords=How+To+Randall+Munroe&source_code=COMA0213WS031709&SID=PRHA9A5E24CFB--9780525635680 Audible]
* The image is a link to the [https://xkcd.com/how-to/ How To book page] on xkcd.
* {{w|Serena Williams}} is a famous tennis player who was also featured in one of the [[:Category:Book promotion|promotion comics]] for How To: [[2190: Serena Versus the Drones]]
* {{w|Chris Hadfield}} is a Canadian retired astronaut, engineer, and former Royal Canadian Air Force fighter pilot. The first Canadian to walk in space, Hadfield has flown two Space Shuttle missions and served as commander of the International Space Station.
** The new link to audible probably needs the user to be signed up, else it will go to the front page and ask yo to sign up. But from the archive the page can be seen [https://web.archive.org/web/20190923004816/https://www.audible.com/search?advsearchKeywords=How+To+Randall+Munroe&source_code=COMA0213WS031709&SID=PRHA9A5E24CFB--9780525635680 here].
Up till [https://web.archive.org/web/20190922143253/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-09-22] it looked like this.
* Then on [https://web.archive.org/web/20190923145251/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-09-23] and extra link was added after Audible:
** [https://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/23/trackingcode/PRH3D17167A3B Target].
* [[2205: Types of Approximation]] was up when this change occurred during a weekend.
It ended on [https://web.archive.org/web/20190929223547/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-09-29] when [[2208: Drone Fishing]] was up.

===2019-09-04 - Happy Release Day - bookstore===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20190904051509/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-09-04].
* [[2198: Throw]] was already up when the header changed slightly, as the text below Happy release day changed.
Most of the header stayed the same as the [[#2019-09-03 - Happy Release Day - calendar|day before]], but the reference to the Gregorian/Julian calendar was changed.
* The header consist of an image with the book shown both left and right of some text.Both books have blue title and author name, and white unreadable title and white drawing of Cueball flowing on two quadcopters to put in a light-bulb in a ceiling lamp, while White/Black? Hat is watching together with Megan comes who is holding a ladder. Beneath the image is the link on where to order it, now the preorder has been changed to order.
** Between the two books are two sections of text above each other, the lover with smaller font and in brackets.
* The text:
** Happy How To release day!
** Available wherever books are sold.
** (Mostly bookstores, I assume but you can always try your luck at Wendy's.)
* See below for any other details.
It ended on [https://web.archive.org/web/20190909211737/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-09-09] when [[2200: Unreachable State]] was up.

===2019-09-03 - Happy Release Day - calendar===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20190903051503/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-09-03]
* [[2197: Game Show]] was still up when the header changed, but it was for sure to coincide with [[2198: Throw]] which came out later on the release day while it still looked like in this version.
* Randall celebrated the release day of [[How To]], coming out the day the header changed.
** The comic is also a reference to a chapter in the book on how to throw things. A very complicated interactive comic where different persons or other living things can be chosen to throw dead or living things. The trow will then be shown below with distance measured in two units, normal and special. That is if the thrower can actually manage to throw the thing.
* The header consist of an image with the book shown both left and right of some text. The two black books have red stars around them, five on the outer side of the image and 6 on the inner, the stars are mirrored around left and right book. Both books have blue title and author name, and white unreadable title and white drawing of Cueball flying on two quadcopters to put in a light-bulb in a ceiling lamp, while White/Black? Hat is watching together with Megan, who is holding a ladder. Beneath the image is the link on where to order it, now the preorder has been changed to order.
** Between the two books are two sections of text above each other, the lover with smaller font and in brackets.
* The text:
** How To Randall Munroe
** Happy How To release day!
** (Gregorian calendar. The Julian edition doesn't come out for 13 more days.)
** How To Randall Munroe
** Order: [https://www.amazon.com/How-Absurd-Scientific-Real-World-Problems/dp/0525537090/ Amazon],[https://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/2/trackingcode/PRH5522E62429 Barnes & Noble],[https://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/6/trackingcode/penguinrandom IndieBound],[https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/how-to/id1451461524?mt=11 Apple Books]
* The image is a link to the [https://xkcd.com/how-to/ How To book page] on xkcd.
* Most of the world uses the {{w|Gregorian calendar}}, but before it was taken into use, the {{w|Julian calendar}} was in use.
** The Julian calendar does not take into account that every 100 years a leap year should be passed as in the Gregorian calendar, and thus it is at the moment 13 days behind, as it has has this many February 29th too many. Since there should actually be a leap year every 400 year, and the last of those was 2000, then it has been 13 days since 1900, and will stay like this until 2100 when it will become 14 days.
** The image is a link to the [https://xkcd.com/how-to/ How To book page] on xkcd.
* Already the next day the part of the header below happy release day about the Gregorian calendar changed. See [[#2019-09-04 - Happy Release Day - bookstore|above]].

===2019-08-27 - Out in a week===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20190827082224/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-08-27].
* [[2194: How to Send a File]] was up when the header changed.
* Randall continues to promote his new book, [[How To]], coming out a week from this header.
** It is only three lines of text
* The text:
** My new book, How To, comes out next week!
** Read an exclusive excerpt about transmission [https://blog.xkcd.com/2019/08/26/how-to-send-a-file/ here].
** [Four links in gray blue are given with the first words in black:] Preorder ''How To'': [https://www.amazon.com/How-Absurd-Scientific-Real-World-Problems/dp/0525537090/ Amazon],[https://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/2/trackingcode/PRH5522E62429 Barnes & Noble],[https://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/6/trackingcode/penguinrandom IndieBound],[https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/how-to/id1451461524?mt=11 Apple Books]
* Later [https://web.archive.org/web/20190827184229/https://xkcd.com/2194/ on the same day], (and here for the next day [https://web.archive.org/web/20190828095401/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-08-27] for the front page), more text and links where added, plus the order of the text was changed.
* The later text was:
** My new book, [https://xkcd.com/how-to/ How To], comes out in a week! ([https://blog.xkcd.com/2019/08/23/book-tour-and-contest-winner/ Book tour info])
** You can preorder it now to get a copy when it's released:
** [https://www.amazon.com/How-Absurd-Scientific-Real-World-Problems/dp/0525537090/ Amazon],[https://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/2/trackingcode/PRH5522E62429 Barnes & Noble],[https://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/6/trackingcode/penguinrandom IndieBound],[https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/how-to/id1451461524?mt=11 Apple Books]
** You can also read an exclusive excerpt about file transfers [https://blog.xkcd.com/2019/08/26/how-to-send-a-file/ here].
* The link to the book tour also include the winner of the [[#2019-06-25 - People with books|contest]] to get Randall to add "your" city to his book tour.
** The winner was {{w|Juneau, Alaska}}.
It ended on the release day 2019-09-03, so this was last on the page on [https://web.archive.org/web/20190902042108/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-09-02].

===2019-08-06 - Win a sketch===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20190806052948/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-08-06].
* [[2185: Cumulonimbus]] was up when the header changed.
** Most likely the header changed when that comic came out on 2019-08-05. But the previous header was also out during that day.
* Randall continues to promote his new book, [[How To]], now making a competition where you can win a stick figure sketch of yourself. (Although only for US residents!)
** The image shows Hairy, with a cat at his feet and Megan (or Danish?) with a samurai sword. They are standing with their backs towards each other, the cat on the left, Megan facing right with the sword towards the words.
** Below the drawing are links to places to preorder the book.
* The text:
** Want to win a sketch of yourself as a stick figure? [https://blog.xkcd.com/2019/08/05/win-an-xkcd-sketch/ Click here] to find out how!
** [Four links in gray blue are given with the first words in black:] Preorder ''How To'': [https://www.amazon.com/How-Absurd-Scientific-Real-World-Problems/dp/0525537090/ Amazon],[https://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/2/trackingcode/PRH5522E62429 Barnes & Noble],[https://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/6/trackingcode/penguinrandom IndieBound],[https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/how-to/id1451461524?mt=11 Apple Books]
*** The entire picture is a [https://blog.xkcd.com/2019/08/05/win-an-xkcd-sketch/ link] to a [[Blag]] post: ''Win an xkcd sketch''
*** That is even though only the click here part of the text is in blue, like a link.
*** Cause as he often has written: I still haven't figured out HTML imagemaps, most recently in the [[#2019-07-09 - Drawings from How To|2019-07-09]] header.
The header stayed like this until [https://web.archive.org/web/20190826062701/https://www.xkcd.com/ 2019-08-26] when [[2193: Well-Ordering Principle]] was up.

===2019-08-03 - First look inside===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20190803222711/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-08-03].
* [[2184: Unpopular Opinions]] was up when the header changed.
* Randall continues to promote his new book, [[How To]], now stating that it comes out next month.
** Set to be released on September 3rd 2019, this update was made exactly one month before.
** The image shows text to the left of three drawings of the book: First the closed book showing the black front cover with blue and white text and white drawings, then the book is partly opened, and finally it lays opened up showing two pages, with a readable heading on the right page.
** Below the drawing are links to places to preorder the book.
* The text:
** My new book comes out next month. Click here for a first look inside!
** [On the books front cover only two thins can be read:]
*** How To
*** Randal Munroe.
** [These two words can also partly be read on the opening book.]
** [Only the large heading can be read on the right page of the open book:]
*** How to Dig a Hole.
** [These two pages also became part of a special comic relased during the weekend when this header was up: [[Disappearing Sunday Update]].]
** [The [[Disappearing_Sunday_Update#Transcript|transcript of that comic]] describes the images in the open book.]
** [Four links in gray blue are given with the first word in black:] Preorder:[https://www.amazon.com/How-Absurd-Scientific-Real-World-Problems/dp/0525537090/ Amazon],[https://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/2/trackingcode/PRH5522E62429 Barnes & Noble],[https://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/6/trackingcode/penguinrandom IndieBound],[https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/how-to/id1451461524?mt=11 Apple Books]
*** The entire picture is a [https://blog.xkcd.com/2019/08/02/how-to-chapter-list-and-introduction/ link] to a [[Blag]] post: ''How To: Chapter list and introduction''.
It stayed up like this while the special [[Disappearing Sunday Update]] came out on Sunday 2019-08-04, and was there still on Monday [ https://web.archive.org/web/20190805050812/https://www.xkcd.com/ 2019-08-05], at least during the time that the Sudan Update was still up.
* When the next comic came out late that Monday, it probably disappeared along with the Disappearing comic, but the first update with the next header is from Tuesday [https://web.archive.org/web/20190806052948/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-08-06], but the Monday comic [[2185: Cumulonimbus]] was still on the front page at that time,.

===2019-07-23 - Back to previous header===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20190723205152/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-07-23].
* [[2179: NWS Warnings]] was up when the header changed.
It returned to the previous header from before the ComicCon header, see [[#2019-07-10 - Adding links|2019-07-10]]
It stayed up until [https://web.archive.org/web/20190802192259/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-08-02] while [[2184: Unpopular Opinions]] was up. The day after when it changed that comic was still up.

===2019-07-15 - ComiCon===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20190715181016/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-07-15].
* [[2176: How Hacking Works]] was up when the header changed.
Randall tells that he will be at ComicCon and links to his plans there.
* The text:
** Going to San Diego Comic Con this week? I'll [https://blog.xkcd.com/2019/07/15/san-diego-comic-con/ see you there]!
*** The link is to a [[Blag]] post about his plans for the ComicCon
* Randall appeared in a couple of panels, and gave a talk.
* Finally he also handed out signed copies of his new [[How To]] book more than a month before official release.
** So still promoting the book, also in this header...
It stayed up until [https://web.archive.org/web/20190722192637/https://www.xkcd.com/ 2019-07-22] the day after the ComiCon ended, while [[2178: Expiration Date High Score]] was up.
* Then it returned to the previous header from before the ComicCon announcement when [[2179: NWS Warnings]] came out.

===2019-07-10 - Adding links===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20190710165920/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-07-10].
* [[2173: Trained a Neural Net]] was still up when the header changed slightly from that fro the day before.
* Only change was that beneath the picture, see [[#2019-07-09 - Drawings from How To|2019-07-09]], there is now a list of four links to companies where the book can be preordered.
* The extra text:
** [Four links in gray blue are given with the first word in black:] Preorder:[https://www.amazon.com/How-Absurd-Scientific-Real-World-Problems/dp/0525537090/ Amazon],[https://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/2/trackingcode/PRH5522E62429 Barnes & Noble],[https://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/6/trackingcode/penguinrandom IndieBound],[https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/how-to/id1451461524?mt=11 Apple Books]
Note that the day after this change, [https://web.archive.org/web/20190711172451/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-07-11], a link to [[How To]] was added to the [[Design_of_xkcd.com#xkcd_links|links]] in the top left corner of xkcd.
The header stayed like this until [https://web.archive.org/web/20190714175710/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-07-14] when [[2175: Flag Interpretation]] was up. When it changed the day after [[2176: How Hacking Works]] was up.

===2019-07-09 - Drawings from How To===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20190709162102/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-07-09].
* [[2173: Trained a Neural Net]] was up when the header changed.
* Randall continues to promote his new book, [[How To]].
** The image shows a small picture of his book with text on either side.
** Below are what appears to be three drawings from the book. [[Ponytail]] pole vaultig with three baloons in one hand, then text, then a truck with a house behind it speeding fast up a hill then text and finally [[Cueball]] somersaulting towards an explosion.
** To the right there is a big blue button to click for preorder, with text below.
* The text:
** New book [Arrow points to book. Title can be read: How To]
** How To: Absurd Scientific Answers to Common Real-world Problems
** It's a guide to bad ways to do things...
** ...And what would happen if you tried them.
** ''Boom''
** Click here to preorder
** Or click anywhere. I still haven't figured out HTML imagemaps.
*** The entire picture is a [https://xkcd.com/how-to/ link] to the official [[How To]] page on xkcd: https://xkcd.com/how-to/
*** See [[1572: xkcd Survey]] where Randall mentions that he cannot make imagemaps.
It stayed up like this only for a day, then an extra line of links was added the day after while the same comic was still up, see [[#2019-07-10 - Adding links|2019-07-10]].
* But the general header stayed up first for five days, and then it returned again for 10 more days after a break to announce a [[#2019-07-15 - ComiCon|ComiCon visit]].
* So a total of 16 days with this drawing.

===2019-06-25 - People with books===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20190625190843/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-06-25].
* [[2167: Motivated Reasoning Olympics]] was up when the header changed.
* Randall continues to promote his new book, [[How To]], and his book tour.
** The image now shows 15 people standing side by side each holding a book up in front of them with unreadable titles.
** From left: [[Megan]], [[Cueball]], a man with blonde hair, [[Jill]], [[Miss Lenhart]], [[Hairy]], another Hairy, [[White Hat]], a kid with curly hair, [[Hairbun]], another Cueball, another Megan, a guy with a knit cap, [[Ponytail]], and [[Beret Guy]].
** Above them is a text message.
* The text:
** Want to bring me to your town for my '''''How To''''' book tour? Click to find out how to enter the challenge!
*** The entire picture is a [https://blog.xkcd.com/2019/06/10/book-tour-announcement/ link] to the official book tour announcement posted on the [[Blag]], with all cities and dates listed with details.
*** In the link it is explained how to enter a competition on how to bring Randall to your city.
*** Make a story using only book titles and get the books used to be held up by different individuals.
*** A longer sentence will improve your chances.
**** This is indeed what this header picture shows.
The header stayed like this until [https://web.archive.org/web/20190708155517/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-07-08] when [[2172: Lunar Cycles]] was up. When it changed the day after [[2173: Trained a Neural Net]] was up.

===2019-06-15 - Adding dates===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20190615100645/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-06-15]
* [[2163: Chernobyl]] was up when the header changed.
* Randall only made a small change to the one that had been up for four days at this time.
* The text only changed by adding a line below the first line:
** Announcing the '''''How To''''' book tour:
** [<font color="blue">Click here</font> for dates and tickets]
*** The rest of the header is exactly the same as on [[#2019-06-11 - Book tour|2019-06-11]], except everything is a bit smaller to make room in the same place for the extra line.
*** The link is not located on the blue part of the text and it was already there before this update.
*** Best guess is that not many clicked through and Randall then made it obvious that there was a link.
*** The entire picture is a [https://blog.xkcd.com/2019/06/10/book-tour-announcement/ link] to the official book tour announcement posted on the [[Blag]], with all cities and dates listed with details.
*** Randall has previously made it clear, in [[1572: xkcd Survey]], that he knows how to make an image a link, but not how to put the link only where he says to click. But it is easier to make a place for people to click than tell them this...
The header stayed like this until 2019-06-25, when it changed while [[2167: Motivated Reasoning Olympics]] was up. But this one was still up when that comic came out the day before [https://web.archive.org/web/20190624162740/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-06-24].

===2019-06-11 - Book tour===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20190611031920/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-06-11]
* [[2161: An Apple a Day]] was up when the header changed.
** '''Note''' when this change happened two new links was added to the [[Design_of_xkcd.com#xkcd_links|xkcd links]] section of xkcd.
* Randall changed the header text to announce the official book tour for his newest book ''[[How To]]'' to be released 3 months later.
* The text:
** Announcing the '''''How To''''' book tour:
** [Below this header is a map of the mainland USA with 14 labeled black dots indicates the 14 cities that the book tour will take Randall to. One red dot with five red question marks above is located beneath the map to the left, indicating a 15th city to be chosen in a contest. Above the map to the right is a small picture of the book with the blue title on the black cover. Above the book is the release date and with an arrow pointing down to the book.]
** September 3rd
** How to
** Seattle
** Portland
** San Francisco
** Santa Cruz
** Los Angeles
** Salt Lake City
** Kansas City
** Ann Arbor
** Cincinnati
** Louisville
** Cambridge
** New York
** D.C.
** Raleigh
** <font color="red">????? (Chosen by readers)</font>
** [The entire picture is a [https://blog.xkcd.com/2019/06/10/book-tour-announcement/ link] to the official book tour announcement posted on the [[Blag]], with all cities and dates listed with details.]
*** In the link it is explained how to enter a competition on how to bring Randall to your city.
*** Make a story using only book titles and get the books used to be held up by different individuals.
*** Only US cities can apply.
* The header only stayed exactly like this for three days, and was still up on [https://web.archive.org/web/20190614094729/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-06-14] when [[2162: Literary Opinions]] was on the front page.
** Then it changed slightly to indicate that the picture was a link which was not clear before. See above.

===2019-05-17 - Back to previous header===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20190517103928/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-05-17]:
* [[2150: XKeyboarCD]] was still up when the header changed.
It changed back to the exact same heading as before the one with Google reader here below.
* See [[#2019-02-06 - How to book|2019-02-06]] below for all details.
* It stayed up for more than three weeks and was still up on [https://web.archive.org/web/20190610055519/https://www.xkcd.com/ 2019-06-10], while [[2160: Ken Burns Theory]] was still up on the day the next comic [[2161: An Apple a Day]] was to be released (where the new header could be found at least the next day, but maybe from the release of that comic?). Then it changed to announce the book tour for his new book.

===2019-04-23 - Google Reader===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20190423155458/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-04-23]:
* [[2140: Reinvent the Wheel]] came out when it changed, ending a more than two and half month long [[#2019-02-06 - How to book|promotion]] of Randall's new book [[How To]].
* Randall changed the header text to ask if the reader still mourned the loss of {{w|Google Reader}} which closed on 2013-07-01, almost 6 years before this comic..
** He offers the possibility to sign up to receive the newest comic by e-mail.
* The comic may have relation to this, as some where using Google reader for different purposes when they closed it, without any chance of [https://www.google.com/reader/about/ getting your data out].
** The comic "Reinvent the Wheel" mentions that using external dependencies carry risks, such as Google closing down a feature. given the fact that the comic came out as the header changed it is probably not a coincidence.
* The text:
** Still mourning the demise of Google Reader? You can sign up to get new comics delivered by email [https://xkcd.com/newsletter/ here].
* The link is to https://xkcd.com/newsletter, where it is possible to submit your e-mail address and press a subscribe button.
** the following text is written above it:
** To receive the comic and news postings in your inbox, subscribe here.
* It stayed up for more than three weeks and was still up on [https://web.archive.org/web/20190516100403/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-05-16], when [[2150: XKeyboarCD]] was up. Then it changed back to the promotion of his new book.

===2019-02-06 - How to book===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20190206060904/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-02-06]:
* [[2107: Launch Risk]] was up at the time when it changed, having been up since Monday the 4th of February.
** Here it can be seen being on the front of xkcd on [https://web.archive.org/web/20190205050302/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-02-05], without the new text. This was also the last time the standard header text was used in several months.
** [[2108: Carbonated Beverage Language Map]] came up later on the day the header changed.
* Randall changed the header text to promote his newest book ''[[How To]]'' to be released 7 months later.
** He added an image of the book with large text next to it regarding the release and links on how to preorder it.
** There was no direct relation to the comics released at the time, except of course that he kind of launched his new book with all the risk it involves, while having a comic called launch risk up. It was though a very different and more real type of launch risk (of a human carrying space rocket) in the comic.
* The text:
** [The book is shown to the left as a black rectangle with large blue text and smaller gray text. On the book cover, in white drawings, are seen Megan with a ladder and either Black or White Hat (hard to say on black background). Both are looking up on Cueball who is floating in the air with a quadcopter beneath either leg, trying to plug in an electric light bulb in a naked lamp hanging down near him. It seems he has already removed the broken light bulb, as he has one in both hands. And now he tries to put in the new one. He could have let Megan use the ladder...]
** [The header in blue above it all:] How To.
** [Sub header in gray to the left of Cueball:] Absurd Scientific Answers to Common Real-world Problems
** [Author name in blue below the drawing:] Randall Munroe
** [Sub header to this below in gray:] Creator of xkcd
** [Sub header to this below in gray:] Author of what if? and Thing Explainer
** [Next to this book image are the following text:]
** [Large heading:] HOW TO
** [Normal size sub header:] Absurd Scientific Answers to Common Real-world Problems
** [In smaller gray font below:] Available September 3, 2019.
** [Four links in gray blue are given with the first word still in gray:] Preorder:[https://www.amazon.com/How-Absurd-Scientific-Real-World-Problems/dp/0525537090/ Amazon],[https://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/2/trackingcode/PRH5522E62429 Barnes & Noble],[https://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/6/trackingcode/penguinrandom IndieBound],[https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/how-to/id1451461524?mt=11 Apple Books]
* It stayed up for more than two and a half month and was still up on [https://web.archive.org/web/20190422030324/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-04-22], when [[2139: Email Settings]] was up. Then it finally changed to a new header without going back to the standard.

===2018-11-07 - Back to standard text===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20181107144453/https://www.xkcd.com/ 2018-11-07]
* The text returned to the standard xkcd header:
** xkcd updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
* It stayed like this until [[2107: Launch Risk]] was up on [https://web.archive.org/web/20190205050302/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-02-05], so two days less than three months.
** After this it did not return to the standard text for almost three years, but just short of a month before the third year without it, it returned on [[#2022-01-08 - Back to standard text|2022-01-08]].

===2018-11-06 - Election Day===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20181106122850/https://xkcd.com/ 2018-11-06]:
* [[2068: Election Night]] (on election day the day after this comic was released).
** It added a larger comic above the two links from the previous header. Those links of the previous header text was still up the day before [https://web.archive.org/web/20181105105855/https://xkcd.com/ 2018-11-05], when [[2067: Challengers]] was still up.
* Randall changed the xkcd header once more to try to make more people vote, and in this case help others to vote.
** Once again directly related to the new comic about election night.
* The text:
** [A line of altering blue and red stars, blue first and last of two rows of nine starts around of the heading:]
** Election Day!
** [Below Black Hat and Ponytail to the left and Megan to the right of Cueball is checking their smart phones. Cueball is addressing the reader:]
** Cueball: The biggest thing you can do th help is to check in with friends and family and make sure they know when and where they're voting.
** [Below these four characters there is the following text with two arrows pointing left and right. Both are turning up to text/links on either side of the four:]
** Use these links to answer questions
** [To the left:] Where and how to vote: [https://www.vote.org/ Vote-org]
** [To the right:] What's on your ballot: [https://www.ballotready.org/ BallotReady.org]
** [Below was the two links from the previous header:]
** Find out where to vote: [https://www.vote.org/ vote.org].
** See what's on your ballot: [https://www.ballotready.org/ BallotReady.org]
* It was only up one day and thus on ended the day after [https://web.archive.org/web/20181107144453/https://www.xkcd.com/ 2018-11-07] when the next comic [[2069: Wishlist]] came out.
** The text then returned to the standard xkcd header: xkcd updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
*** It stayed like this until [[2107: Launch Risk]] was up on [https://web.archive.org/web/20190205050302/https://xkcd.com/ 2019-02-05].

===2018-11-02 - Where to vote===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20181103021059/https://xkcd.com/ 2018-11-02]:
* [[2067: Challengers]] (on the Friday, it was released).
** It added another link to the previous header text. That text was still up the day before on Thursday [https://web.archive.org/web/20181102015102/https://xkcd.com/ 2018-11-01].
** That was while comic [[2066: Ballot Selfies]] was still up.
* Randall changed the xkcd header to let people know who is on their voting ballot, and as before there is also a link on how to register for voting.
** This is also directly related to the new comic that came out that day, about helping people to decide who to vote for, i.e. who is on their ballot.
* The text:
** Find out where to vote: [https://www.vote.org/ vote.org].
** See what's on your ballot: [https://www.ballotready.org/ BallotReady.org]
* This was done at this moment because the {{w|United States midterm election}} was held on {{w|United States elections, 2018|Tuesday, November 6, 2018}}, four days after the release of this comic.
* It was still up the day before the election day, [https://web.archive.org/web/20181105105855/https://xkcd.com/ 2018-11-05], and then it changed with the next comic.

===2018-10-22 - Register for voting===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20181022120935/https://xkcd.com/ 2018-10-22]:
* [[2061: Tectonics Game]] (on a Monday, the 3rd day after release of this Friday comic)
** The standard text was still up Sunday [https://web.archive.org/web/20181021141446/https://xkcd.com/ 2018-10-21].
** The comic [[2062: Barnard's Star]] was released later that day.
* Randall changed the xkcd header to try to get people to register for voting.
* The text:
** Check your registration and find your polling place at [https://www.vote.org/ vote.org].
* This was done at this moment because the {{w|United States midterm election}} was held on {{w|United States elections, 2018|Tuesday, November 6, 2018}}, about two weeks after the release of this comic.
** It is generally believed that many of those not voting would have chosen democrats on election day, and thus Randall has an interest in getting as many as possible to register, see [[1756: I'm With Her]] (apart from the fact that he also most likely thinks that it is important to use the right to vote).
* It ended on [https://web.archive.org/web/20181103021059/https://xkcd.com/ 2018-11-02], when [[2067: Challengers]] came out.
** It was still there while [[2066: Ballot Selfies]] was still up the day before on [https://web.archive.org/web/20181102015102/https://xkcd.com/ 2018-11-01].

===2018-09-13 - NY votes today===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20180913133544/https://xkcd.com/ 2018-09-13]
* [[2045: Social Media Announcement]] (the day after the release of the comic.)
** It was not up when the comic was released on [https://web.archive.org/web/20180912131437/https://xkcd.com/ 2018-09-12].
* It was a short lived reminder that NY votes today below the usual standard text.
* The text:
** xkcd updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
** NY votes today! Find your polling place [https://voterlookup.elections.ny.gov/ here]. (Zephyr Teachout for AG!)
* It ended with [[2046: Trum-]], the very next comic, on [https://web.archive.org/web/20180914175605/https://xkcd.com/ 2018-09-14], returning to the standard text.

===2017-11-26 - Christmas gifts===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20171126130857/https://xkcd.com/ 2017-11-26]
* [[1920: Emoji Sports]] had been up two days [https://web.archive.org/web/20171125125648/https://xkcd.com/ 2017-11-25] before the message changed from the normal version. But it changed the day before the next comic came up.
** It was changed to a commercial for Christmas shopping with a code for getting 5$ of the price with a codes for different online shops.
* The text:
** To anyone looking for Christmas gifts: Until Monday you can get $5 off
** [https://www.amazon.com/What-International-Scientific-Hypothetical-Questions/dp/0544456866 What If?] and [https://www.amazon.com/Thing-Explainer-Complicated-Stuff-Simple/dp/0544668251 Thing Explainer] on Amazon with coupon code GIFTBOOK17.
** At Barnes & Noble, until Sunday you can get 20% off [https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/what-if-serious-scientific-answers-to-absurd-hypothetical-questions-randall-munroe/1118864093 What If?] and [https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/thing-explainer-randall-munroe/1121864432 Thing Explainer] using code GIVETHANKS.
* It was only up a few days and ended with [[1922: Interferometry]] on [https://web.archive.org/web/20171130150053/https://xkcd.com/ 2017-11-30] where it returned to the standard text.
** But it was still up when the comic in between [[1921: The Moon and the Great Wall]] was up on [https://web.archive.org/web/20171129140033/https://xkcd.com/ 2017-11-29].

===2017-09-22 - Visiting the UK===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20170922232616/https://xkcd.com/ 2017-09-22]:
* [[1893: Thread]] (with its release).
** It was not up on the previous comic [[1892: USB Cables]], on the day they changed [https://web.archive.org/web/20170922025204/https://xkcd.com/ 2017-09-22].
* It was an announcement that Randall would visit the UK next week.
* The text:
** I'll be visiting the UK next week! You can join me in London from September 30-October 2 (at [https://live.newscientist.com/speakers/randall-munroe New Scientist Live], [https://www.rigb.org/whats-on/events-2017/october/public-lunchtime-talk--randall-munroe The Royal Institution], and [https://www.intelligencesquared.com/events/randall-munroe-on-making-complicated-stuff-simple/ Intelligence Squared]), then from October 3-6 in [https://www.stpetersyork.org.uk/public_lectures/randall_munroe_thing_explainer York], [https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/thing-explaining-with-randall-munroe-tickets-37832289396 Edinburgh], [https://www.toppingbooks.co.uk/events/ely/randall-murray-thing-explainer/ Cambridge and Ely], [https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/randall-munroe-book-signing-thing-explainer-tickets-38041072873 Oxford], and [https://www.cheltenhamfestivals.com/literature/whats-on/2017/randall-munroe/ Cheltenham].
* Ended with [[1900: Jet Lag]] on [https://web.archive.org/web/20171010045802/https://xkcd.com/ 2017-10-10] when the text returned to normal.
** But it was still up the day before with [[1899: Ears]] on [https://web.archive.org/web/20171009040109/https://xkcd.com/ 2017-10-09].

===2017-07-31 - Thank you===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20170731021227/https://www.xkcd.com/ 2017-07-31]:
* [[1869: Positive and Negative Reviews]] (3rd day after release of this Friday comic)
** The comic [[1870: Emoji Movie Reviews]] was released later that day.
** Megan is holding hand with Cueball and next to them is two words above each other: Thank you.
** The image is also a link.
*** The link goes to [https://web.archive.org/web/20170801042453/https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/07/25/us/politics/senate-votes-repeal-obamacare.html How Each Senator Voted on Obamacare Repeal Proposals], an article showing the senate votes. (here in an archived version).
* Ended with [[1872: Backup Batteries]] on [https://web.archive.org/web/20170804152509/https://xkcd.com/ 2017-08-04], but was still up when [[1871: Bun Alert]] was up on [https://web.archive.org/web/20170803124342/https://xkcd.com/ 2017-08-03].

===2017-07-25 - Vote against health care bill===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20170725103104/https://xkcd.com/ 2017-07-25]:
* [[1867: Physics Confession]] (2nd day after release of the comic, it was not up on the first day: [https://web.archive.org/web/20170724095252/https://xkcd.com/ 2017-07-24]).
* Randall modified the xkcd header to ask readers to support voting against Donald Trump's new health care bill.
** The header was replaced with an image which is available in an archived version [https://web.archive.org/web/20170726150959im_/https://imgs.xkcd.com/notes/call-senate.png here].
** The image is also a link (and you can click anywhere on it to go to the link that is mentioned).
*** The link goes to [https://web.archive.org/web/20170729003307/https://www.trumpcareten.org/daily TrumpCare Ten] (here in an archived version).
*** Randall has previously made it clear, in [[1572: xkcd Survey]], that he knows how to make an image a link, but not how to put the link only where he says to click.
** Transcript of the image:
*** [Megan is holding hand with Cueball next to three lines of large text, the same height as they are:]
*** Please tell your senators to vote against this health care bill. It will hurt people.
*** [After these three lines there is a phone number in a very large bold font with a line of text below:]
*** 202-224-3121
*** Or click here for more info
*** [Below the above is a gray line which is split in the middle with gray text, and below that four state names in white text inside black boxes:]
*** Know anyone in these states? Ask them to call, too.
*** Alaska Maine Nevada Ohio West Virginia
* Ended while [[1869: Positive and Negative Reviews]] was up on [https://web.archive.org/web/20170731164828/https://xkcd.com/ 2017-07-31], when it was replaced by a ''Thank you''.
** That comic came out already [https://web.archive.org/web/20170728124230/https://xkcd.com/ three days before] (Friday comic), but was still up on [https://web.archive.org/web/20170730141019/https://www.xkcd.com/ 2017-07-30]) when the message changed sometimes between Sunday 30th and Monday 31st (where [[1870: Emoji Movie Reviews]] was released).

===2017-01-21 - Update on previous===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20170122003124/https://xkcd.com/ 2017-01-21]:
* [[1788: Barge]]
* It came up almost a month after Christmas but did not really change the sales pitch of the previous. It just removed the link image with the large red text, see previous version below.
* The text:
** There are [https://store.xkcd.com/collections/featured four new shirts] in [https://store.xkcd.com/ the xkcd store],
** along with [https://store.xkcd.com/collections/posters posters] and [https://store.xkcd.com/collections/everything lots of other stuff]!
* Ended with [[1867: Physics Confession]] on [https://web.archive.org/web/20170725103104/https://xkcd.com/ 2017-07-25].
** That comic came up [https://web.archive.org/web/20170724095252/https://xkcd.com/ the day before] the above version of the header appeared.
** So the first day after release it was still the T-shirt commercial.
** And it did not return to the standard version in between.

===2016-11-28 - Christmas sale===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20161128153015/https://xkcd.com 2016-11-28]
* [[1765: Baby Post]]
* This came up in time for the Christmas sale of 2016.
* The text was
** There are [https://store.xkcd.com/collections/featured four new shirts] in [https://store.xkcd.com/ the xkcd store],
** along with [https://store.xkcd.com/collections/posters posters] and [https://store.xkcd.com/collections/everything lots of other stuff]!
** Above the text there was an image with two black t-shirts with white print on the chest. They were located at either end of a large red text written in the text type used in the comic. This text said New xkcd shirts.
** The entire image was a link to the [https://store.xkcd.com/ xkcd store].
* Ended with [[1788: Barge]] [https://web.archive.org/web/20170121114423/https://xkcd.com/ 2017-01-21]

===2016-04-23 - Back to standard text===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20160423103108/https://xkcd.com/ 2016-04-23]
* When [[1671: Arcane ]] came out (probably 2016-04-22, but no earlier archived versions exist) the text returned to the standard xkcd header:
** xkcd updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
* It stayed like this for more than 7 months until [[1764: XKCDE]] was up on [https://web.archive.org/web/20161128093459/https://xkcd.com/ 2016-11-28].

===2016-04-04 - Protip on Garden===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20160404185353/https://www.xkcd.com/#5dbfbb82-fc20-11e5-8001-42010a8e000d 2016-04-04]
* Because of the complexity of the [[April Fools' Day comics|April Fools' Day comic]] [[1663: Garden]], Randall needed to give people some advice, hence a [[:Category:Protip|protip]] was added.
** This came in several versions, not all managed to be documented in the archive. See more in the trivia for garden regarding the [[1663:_Garden#Header_text_after_release|Header text after release]].
* The header text became a protip with the following text (the first version not documented only had the first line):
** '''Protip''': If you don't like how your garden is growing, you can click to prune it.
** You can copy the URL to share your garden. From other browsers, it will be view-only.
* When the next comic, [[1664: Mycology]], was released two days later on [https://web.archive.org/web/20160406194653/https://xkcd.com/1664/ 2016-04-06], an extra line of text was added, due to the issues caused by Garden not being on the front page {{xkcd}} but only on the numbered page {{xkcd|1663}}.
** This change was first documented on the front page the day after on [https://web.archive.org/web/20160407010635/https://xkcd.com/ 2016-04-07]
** The change was of course also on and all the other comic and thus also on the Garden comic from [https://web.archive.org/web/20160406192530/https://xkcd.com/1663/ 2016-04-06].
* Text added below the other two lines:
** Note: If you're seeing today's comic in place of your garden, change the URL from xkcd.com/#<your code> to xkcd.com/1663/#<your code>.
*** This extra line was only there until next time the comic change, so last day was [https://web.archive.org/web/20160408145017/https://xkcd.com/ 2016-04-08].
* On [https://web.archive.org/web/20160408195958/https://xkcd.com/ 2016-04-08] when [[1665: City Talk Pages]] was released the extra line was removed leaving the two written first here above.
** This was also the case on the Garden comic (and all other comics) from [https://web.archive.org/web/20160408204740/https://xkcd.com:80/1663/ 2016-04-08].
* The Protip stayed in the main header text until [https://web.archive.org/web/20160422102754/https://xkcd.com/ 2016-04-22] when [[1670: Laws of Physics]] was up.
** But even though it disappeared from main header and thus from all other comic it stayed on the Garden comic, also on [https://web.archive.org/web/20160423182630/https://xkcd.com:80/1663/ 2016-04-23].
** And it has then turned out to become one of the permanent [[xkcd_Header_text#Garden|Unique header texts]].

===2016-04-04 - Back to standard text as Garden came up===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20160404123555/https://xkcd.com/ 2016-04-04]
* For a brief period of time, when [[1663: Garden]] was finally released, the Header text returned to the standard xkcd header:
** xkcd updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
* But this lasted less than 13 hours. (Time between the previous and next archived version is 13 hours and 7 minutes).
** As people needed guidance to the new complicated comic.

===2016-04-01 - April 1st comic - technical difficulties===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20160401204749/https://xkcd.com/ 2016-04-01]
* When Randall had problem releasing [[1663: Garden]] several [[1663:_Garden#April_Fools.27_header_text|April Fools' header text]] arrived in short succession while [[1662: Jack and Jill]] was still up.
* Each of these where simple text.
** The first from the link abve:
*** The xkcd April 1st comic is currently experiencing technical difficulties.
*** Please stand by!
** The next from [https://web.archive.org/web/20160402125723/https://xkcd.com:80/ 2016-04-02] at 12:57:
*** The xkcd April 1st comic is currently experiencing technical difficulties.
*** Status update: Please stand by.
*** Status update: This is fine. Everything is fine.
*** Status update: Everything is on fire.
*** Status update: Searching for calendar systems in which Saturday is April 1st.
** The next from [https://web.archive.org/web/20160402175822/https://www.xkcd.com 2016-04-02] at 17:58:
*** The Friday xkcd comic is currently experiencing technical difficulties
*** [Editor's note: Everything is on fire] and has been delayed until Sunday night.
* It stayed like the third version until [https://web.archive.org/web/20160404054612/https://xkcd.com/ 2016-04-04] three days after the April Fools' Day comic was supposed to come out, so Jack and Jill was up until it changed.
This was what was needed to stop more than 10 months of promotion of the [[Thing Explainer]] book, see below.

===2015-12-13 - Thing Explainer is available===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20151213194534/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-12-13]
* [[1615: Red Car]] was still up when the header changed.
** The change was that the promotion for where Randall was last week where removed and left only the promotion the book [[Thing Explainer]]:
* The text:
** Thing Explainer is available at: [https://www.amazon.com/Thing-Explainer-Complicated-Stuff-Simple/dp/0544668251 Amazon], [https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/thing-explainer-randall-munroe/1121864432?ean=9780544668256#/ Barnes & Noble], [https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780544668256 Indie Bound], [https://www.hudsonbooksellers.com/thingexplainer Hudson]
* It was last up on [https://web.archive.org/web/20160401125621/https://xkcd.com/ 2016-04-01] while [[1662: Jack and Jill]] was on the front page.
** This was the last time that Thing Explainer was [[:Category:Book promotion|promoted]] in the header text.
*** The first time was [[xkcd_Header_text#2015-05-14_-_New_book_Thing_Explainer|2015-05-14]], so it had been part of the header text for almost ten and a half month. That is a record!

===2015-12-05 - Thing Explainer is available and Next week===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20151205070539/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-12-05]
* [[1612: Colds]] was up when the header changed.
** This was also at this time the [[2015-11-24 - Pages from my new book Thing Explainer|previous header texts image] was moved below the comic.
* Randall goes back to a simple promotion of the book [[Thing Explainer]] listing where to boy it.'
** But he adds a line about where he will be next week, first to a book shop on Illinois and then later in Toronto, where the host was {{w|Ryan North}} from [https://qwantz.com/ Dinosaur comics], one of the [[Design_of_xkcd.com#Comics_I_enjoy|comics Randall enjoys]].
* The text:
** Thing Explainer is available at: [https://www.amazon.com/Thing-Explainer-Complicated-Stuff-Simple/dp/0544668251 Amazon], [https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/thing-explainer-randall-munroe/1121864432?ean=9780544668256#/ Barnes & Noble], [https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780544668256 Indie Bound], [https://www.hudsonbooksellers.com/thingexplainer Hudson]
** I'll be in [https://web.archive.org/web/20151211002159/https://www.andersonsbookshop.com/event/naperville-reads-randall-munroe Naperville, IL] and [https://web.archive.org/web/20151205205714/https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/indigo-exclusive-randall-munroe-tickets-18694384407 Toronto, ON] (with [https://qwantz.com/ Ryan North]!) next week.
* It was last up on [https://web.archive.org/web/20151212133400/https://xkcd.com:80/ 2015-12-12] while [[1615: Red Car]] was on the front page.

===2015-11-24 - Pages from my new book Thing Explainer===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20151203234149/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-12-03]
* [[1611: Baking Soda and Vinegar]] was still up when the header changed.
** This was a special one comic header text consisting of a large image with pages and excerpts from the book [[Thing Explainer]].
** The image was larger than most comics, and took away the focus of today's comic.
** So already two days after, when [[1612: Colds]] was released, the image was relegated to the being below the comic, but inside the [[Design_of_xkcd.com#Main_comic|main comic]] segment, thus not a part of the [[Design_of_xkcd.com#Bottom_segment|bottom segment]].
*** But it was displayed in the header for all comics, here [https://web.archive.org/web/20151204030024/https://xkcd.com/1609/ an example] from the comic released two comics before 1611, [[1609: Food Combinations]].
*** See more (and the image) [[Thing_Explainer#Promotion_at_the_xkcd_home_page|here]] on the page for Thing Explainer.
* Description of the image:
** At the top are shown four pages from the book. Two mainly blue, left and right, with white text and large images and between them two mainly white pages with blue text and smaller images. None of the text is readable, but the two blue pages pictures can be understood even in this size.
*** The first page is number 2 about an animal cell: ''Tiny bags of water you’re made of''. It shows a detailed drawing of a human cell, with text at the top, and then several labels with text beneath that have arrows pointing to different parts of the cell.
*** The second page is number 31 about the cockpit of an airplane: ''Stuff you touch to fly a sky boat''. It shows the inside of a cockpit with view out of the four windows, with lots of buttons in the ceiling, and blue screens and instruments at the bottom. Out the windows can be seen clouds and Cueball hanging from a balloon (a reference to [[1110: Click and Drag]]).
**** A zoom in on this page is shown beneath the four pages, see more below.
*** The third page is page 27. What is on this page is a bit difficult to see, as there are no big drawings with clear meaning. It is the second page in a two page section on Data centers, with the second page focusing on the Computer: ''Computer building''. The pictures shows the data racks, to the right, and the individual computer components put into these, to the top left, with the wiring shown below to the left. Lots of text with arrows to different parts.
*** The fourth page is page 23 about Trees: ''Tree''. It clearly shows the silhouette of a white tree on blue background. Several animal live on, in and beneath it. Cueball is standing on the ground. All the text are beneath labels that points to parts of the tree or the tree dwellers.
** In between the two time two pages there is a readable text, split over five lines, with two arrow at the top going from the corners of the text to the near corners of the white pages to either side. And below three arrows, with two pointing similarly as the two top arrows, but starting at the bottom of the text, and one arrow pointing straight down from the middle of the text to the large image below.
** Beneath all this is a large image which shows a zoom in on the left part of the cockpit from the second page above. The zoom is focused on the two front windows, but only the left is entirely in the picture, and the balloon hanging Cueball, cannot be seen in this part of the right window.
*** At this zoom level, most of the text van be read (that is labels written on things or having arrows pointing to them). Clouds can bee seen out of both windows and in the background a rocket launch with smoke plume below the rocket is visible. The horizon line is well defines across both windows. Some of the instruments can be seen below the windows with text written on them. And some blue areas, mainly screens can be seen.
** Beneath this picture is a line with links to where the book can be ordered, like the one from the previous header text.
* The text:
** Pages from my new book, ''Thing Explainer'': Complicated stuff in simple words.
** [Labels in the cockpit]:
*** Sky
*** Ground (This should be below the sky. If it's above the sky, you're either having a big problem or doing something ''really'' fun.)
*** Use this stuff to tell the sky boat to fly itself.
*** Fly
*** How fast it feels IAS 172
*** Direction HDG 240
*** Fall or rise
*** How high 2500
*** Fly
*** Helpful screen
*** Where the ground is
*** You are: Flying
*** Look here if there is a problem
** Below this image is a line of text with the first word in black and the other are four links to where to order the book:
*** Order: [https://www.amazon.com/Thing-Explainer-Complicated-Stuff-Simple/dp/0544668251 Amazon], [https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/thing-explainer-randall-munroe/1121864432?ean=9780544668256#/ Barnes & Noble], [https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780544668256 Indie Bound], [https://www.hudsonbooksellers.com/thingexplainer Hudson]
** The image is a link to [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0544668251/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0544668251&linkCode=as2&tag=thekcs-20&linkId=S4XRZJJKSMHOWEQU Thing Explainer on Amazon].
* It was only part of the header for two days until [https://web.archive.org/web/20151204050419/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-12-04].
** It was then moved below the comics as mentioned above from [https://web.archive.org/web/20151205070539/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-12-05] when the next comic [[1612: Colds]] came out.

===2015-11-24 - Thing Explainer is out today===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20151124201602/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-11-24]
* [[1607: Supreme Court]] was still up, but [[1608: Hoverboard]] most have come out close to the change.
** See both [https://web.archive.org/web/20151125001228/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-11-25 00:12] and [https://web.archive.org/web/20151125230753/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-11-25 23:07].
** Since this new "comic" was actually a {{w|browser game}} made to celebrate the release of Randall's new book, ''[[Thing Explainer]]'', which was released on the same day as this comic: Tuesday, November 24, 2015. The comic thus appeared on a Tuesday, replacing that week's normal Wednesday release to coincide with the release day.
** Hence it is a shame that there is no archived versions on the 24th showing Hoverboard on the front page. Even though the new version of the Header text is shown on the 24th, but on the previous comic.
* Cause all the header text is about is the release day of Thing Explainer!
** The top part is text with a line with large letters and a line below in brackets and using smaller letters. Below that there is a line dividing the text from the next part.
** Below follows the same header that was up as early as [[#2015-05-15 - Thing Explainer details|2015-05-15]] with the open book and three lines of text.
* The text:
** My new book, [https://blog.xkcd.com/2015/05/13/new-book-thing-explainer/ Thing Explainer], is out today!
** (If you're in NYC, you can also [https://web.archive.org/web/20150925015809/https://stores.barnesandnoble.com:80/author/11170358 come see me]!)
** A picture of the open book is shown with diagrams of a human cell on the left page and suspension bridges on the right. All held in blue nuances. And arrow goes from the first word of the text to the right to the book on the left. The text is also blue except the title of the book which is in red:
*** New book: Thing Explainer
*** Up Goer Five-style diagrams of things (explained in the ten-hundred most common words)
** Below this image is a line of text with the first word in black and the other are four links to where to order the book:
*** Order: [https://www.amazon.com/Thing-Explainer-Complicated-Stuff-Simple/dp/0544668251 Amazon], [https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/thing-explainer-randall-munroe/1121864432?ean=9780544668256#/ Barnes & Noble], [https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780544668256 Indie Bound], [https://www.hudsonbooksellers.com/thingexplainer Hudson]
** The image above the order line is a link to the [[Blag]] post [https://blog.xkcd.com/2015/05/13/new-book-thing-explainer/ New book: Thing Explainer].
* Already the day after [https://web.archive.org/web/20151125001228/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-11-25], when [[1608: Hoverboard]] was up, an extra line (a link) was added below the above. A line was separating it from the links above:
** [https://blog.xkcd.com/2015/11/24/a-puzzle-for-the-uk/ A puzzle for UK readers]
*** This was to a blag post with A puzzle for the UK because he could not go to UK in person. So this was a kind of bonus for those who could solve it. (We need an entry on that here on xkcd...)
* On [https://web.archive.org/web/20151127114432/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-11-27] is still looked like this but then when the next comic, [[1609: Food Combinations]], came out on [https://web.archive.org/web/20151128130851/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-11-28] the line about seeing him in New York was removed.
* The version with the puzzle, but without the New York line, was then up until [https://web.archive.org/web/20151201222148/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-12-01] when [[1610: Fire Ants]] was up.
* Then on [https://web.archive.org/web/20151202225254/https://www.xkcd.com/ 2015-12-02] the line with the puzzle at the bottom was changed to:
** I'm doing a [https://www.facebook.com/AndyWeirAuthor/ live Q&A;] at 2:30pm PT with The Martian author Andy Weir.
*** The link is to {{w|Andy Weir}}'s Facebook page. And the Q&A can likely not be seen anymore.
*** Randall has made no less than two comics about the movie {{w|The Martian (film)|The Martian}}, [[1536: The Martian]] and [[1585: Similarities]].
** It only lasted that day, and this became the last day with this header text, so it ended while [[1611: Baking Soda and Vinegar]] was up.

===2015-10-22 - World Polio Day===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20151022200022/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-10-22]
* [[1593: Play-By-Play]] was up when the header changed.
** Randall mentions World Polio Day and the comic he drew for Bill Gates' blog, [[XKCD Marks the Spot]].
** Although he still keeps mentioning the release date for [[Thing Explainer]].
* The text:
** We've [https://slate.com/technology/2015/08/no-new-polio-in-africa-for-one-year-gates-epidemiologist-on-vaccines-and-surveillance.html almost eradicated polio]. For World Polio Day, I drew a comic
** about the eradication efforts. You can see it on [https://www.gatesnotes.com/Health/XKCD-Marks-the-Spot Bill Gates's blog].
** My [https://blog.xkcd.com/2015/05/13/new-book-thing-explainer/ new book] of complex diagrams and simple words comes out Nov 24th.
*** The last line is split from the Polio announcement with a line.
* Was there until [[1607: Supreme Court]] was up on [https://web.archive.org/web/20151124065108/https://xkcd.com:80/ 2015-11-24].
** That was the day that the book was released, and when the next comic [[1608: Hoverboard]] came out, it was a celebration of the book.

===2015-09-23 - Book trip and tool===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20150923044724/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-09-23]:
* [[1580: Travel Ghost]] was up when the header changed.
** Announcing the book trip for the [[Thing Explainer]] book as well as linking to a Thing Explainer word checker tool! Two lines of text with links.
* The text:
** News: Announcing my Thing Explainer [https://blog.xkcd.com/2015/09/22/im-going-on-a-book-trip/ book trip]. Come say hi!
** Other news: Announcing the Thing Explainer [https://blog.xkcd.com/2015/09/22/a-thing-explainer-word-checker/ word checker] tool!
*** Both links are to the [[Blag]], the first a schedule for his book trip, and the second telling about Randall's new [https://xkcd.com/simplewriter/ Simple Writer] that could help you ''Write Like Up Goer Five and Thing Explainer''.
* Was there until [[1593: Play-By-Play]] was up on [https://web.archive.org/web/20151021164208/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-10-21].

===2015-09-06 - New links===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20150906181550/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-09-06]:
* [[1573: Cyberintelligence]] was still up when the header changed.
** The promotion of the book, [[Thing Explainer]], stayed the same with a picture above links to preorder it, but the links was reduced from four to two, the amazon link changed and a new company was added for the second link removing the other three.
** See [[#2015-05-15 - Thing Explainer details|2015-05-15]] below for all details on the image.
* The new link text:
** Preorder: [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thing-Explainer-Randall-Munroe/dp/1473620910 Amazon.co.uk}, [https://www.waterstones.com/book/thing-explainer/9781473620919 Waterstones]
* Was there until [[1579: Tech Loops]] was up on [https://web.archive.org/web/20150919220105/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-09-22].

===2015-08-09 - Back to previous header===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20150809230825/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-08-09]:
* [[1561: Water Phase Diagram]] was still up when the header changed.
** It changed back to the exact same heading as before the one with other news here below.
*** See [[#2015-05-15 - Thing Explainer details|2015-05-15]] below for all details.
* Stayed like this until [[1573: Cyberintelligence]] was out on [https://web.archive.org/web/20150905154014/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-09-05], but the only change was that the links to preorder changed from four to only two.

===2015-06-06 - Other news===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20150606084120/https://www.xkcd.com/ 2015-06-06]
* Changed while [[1534: Beer]] was still up.
** This was just adding some "Other news", but leaving the promotion of [[Thing Explainer]] unchanged as in the [[#2015-05-15 - Thing Explainer details|previous header]], but adding two news stories in text below the link to preorder.
* The new text:
** In other news, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygrdAvmr-MA Space Weird Thing] is delightful, and I feel surprisingly invested in [https://web.archive.org/web/20150720074919/https://twitter.com/xkcdbracket @xkcdbracket's] results.
*** The link to Space Weird Thing is a YouTube video with a simple words version of {{w|David Bowie|David Bowie's}} [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYYRH4apXDo Space Oddity] music video, using only the top then hundred words. The creators contributes the idea to the [[1133: Up Goer Five]] diagram which also inspired the book Thing Explainer, also promoted in this header text.
*** The other link is referring to [[1529: Bracket]] released 12 days before this update, as a twitter user made a survey going through all the brackets all the way to a winner was found. Seems Randall became interested in who won. See more on the comics page.
* Was there until [[1561: Water Phase Diagram]] was up on [https://web.archive.org/web/20150807181044/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-08-07]. Then it returned back to the previous header with only the promotion of the book.

===2015-05-15 - Thing Explainer details===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20150515060322/https://www.xkcd.com/ 2015-05-15]
* [[1525: Emojic 8 Ball]]
* This was a more detailed promotion for Randall's new book: [[Thing Explainer]] to be published in November 2015, more than half a year after the announcement, compared to the previous change which was just a line and a link.
* The text:
** A picture of the open book is shown with diagrams of a human cell on the left page and suspension bridges on the right. All held in blue nuances. And arrow goes from the first word of the text to the right to the book on the left. The text is also blue except the title of the book which is in red:
*** New book: Thing Explainer
*** Up Goer Five-style diagrams of things (explained in the then hundred most common words)
** Below this image is a line of text with the first word in black and the other are four links to where to preorder the book:
*** Preorder: [https://www.amazon.com/Thing-Explainer-Complicated-Stuff-Simple/dp/0544668251 Amazon], [https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/thing-explainer-randall-munroe/1121864432?ean=9780544668256#/ Barnes & Noble], [https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780544668256 Indie Bound], [https://www.hudsonbooksellers.com/thingexplainer Hudson]
** The image above the preorder line is a link to the [[Blag]] post [https://blog.xkcd.com/2015/05/13/new-book-thing-explainer/ New book: Thing Explainer].
* Changed while [[1534: Beer]] was up on [https://web.archive.org/web/20150605082643/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-06-05], but only to add other information. The main promotion of the book stayed the same.

===2015-05-14 - New book Thing Explainer===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20150514053623/https://www.xkcd.com/ 2015-05-14]
* [[1524: Dimensions]] was up.
** A single line announced the new [[Thing Explainer]] book, with link to the [[Blag]] post from the day before.
* The text:
** New book: [https://blog.xkcd.com/2015/05/13/new-book-thing-explainer/ Thing Explainer!]
The [[:Category:Book promotion|promotion of the book]] stayed up with some changes for [[xkcd_Header_text#2015-12-13_-_Thing_Explainer_is_available|more than 10 month]] first stopping when Randall had [[xkcd_Header_text#2016-04-01_-_The_xkcd_April_1st_comic_is_currently_experiencing_technical_difficulties|problems with his April Fools' Day comic]] in 2016... It is a record length.
* The first came already the day after so this short announcement was only up on this day and ended with the next comic. See above.
* See more details on the promotion of the book on the Thing Explainer page [[Thing_Explainer#Promotion_at_the_xkcd_home_page|here]].

===2015-02-11 - Back to standard text===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20150211154103/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-02-11]
* When [[1485: Friendship]] came out the text returned to the standard xkcd header:
** xkcd updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
* It stayed like this until [[1523: Microdrones]] was up on [https://web.archive.org/web/20150512184622/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-05-12], so just a day more than three months.

===2015-02-04 - Valentine cards only===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20150204051152/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-02-04]
* [[1482: NowPlaying]] came out as it changed.
** After the last day of ordering t-shirt had passed it changed back to the picture with the Valentine cards from the previous header, but without the t-shirt picture.
** See that [[#2015-01-29 - Valentine cards and shirt|header change]], but only the first picture described.
* Ended while [[1484: Apollo Speeches]] was up on [https://web.archive.org/web/20150210005540/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-02-10].

===2015-02-02 - Last day shirt===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20150202092804/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-02-02]
* [[1481: API]] came out as it changed.
** Just letting people know it is the last chance to order the binary t-shirt.
** There was just a line of text:
* The text was:
** Today is the last day to order the limited-run [https://web.archive.org/web/20150202092804/https://teespring.com/xkcdbinaryheart binary heart shirt]!
** The last words is link to the shirt in the shop.
* Ended before the next comic was up, but still the day after, when it was too late to order: [https://web.archive.org/web/20150203022036/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-02-03].

===2015-01-29 - Valentine cards and shirt===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20150129183442/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-01-29]
* [[1479: Troubleshooting]] was up when it changed.
** It was to tell about both the two previous updates in the same header- Both about the collaboration to make science themed Valentine's Day cards and his new Valentine t-shirt.
** There where two pictures, with a promotion of the two products and a link to them in the shop.
** On the left was text about the cards with a small drawing to the right of the text showing the four cards.
*** An ant talking to an aphids; Earth rotating about the sun but locked so one side melts; an ant with a fungus growing from it's head with a heart, and a Velociraptor skeleton where the last bit of the tail is put on by a person. The text on the cards are unreadable, but they can be seen via the link.
** The text (in three lines) was:
*** Webcomic science Valentine card collaboration
*** The [https://web.archive.org/web/20150127161237/https://store.xkcd.com/products/webcomic-science-valentines link to the cards] from the picture.
** The picture on the left shows binary numbers 0 and 1 in white on a black background. The middle of the three lines of those have message in red text.
** The text:
*** 0 1 0 1 0 Binary heart 1 1 1
*** 1 1 1 Valentine shirt 0 1
*** 0 0 0 1 [limited run] 0 0 1
*** The [https://web.archive.org/web/20150125080756/https://teespring.com/xkcdbinaryheart link to the shirt] from the picture.
* Ended while [[1480: Super Bowl]] was up on [https://web.archive.org/web/20150201015913/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-02-01].

===2015-01-27 - Valentine's Day cards===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20150127161237/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-01-27]
* [[1478: P-Values]] was up when it changed.
** It was to tell that about a collaboration to make science themed Valentine's Day cards.
** There was just two lines of text:
* The text was:
** I've teamed up with three other webcomic artists
** to make [https://web.archive.org/web/20150127161237/https://store.xkcd.com/products/webcomic-science-valentines a set of science-themed Valentine's Day cards]!
* There was a link to the cards on the store.
* Ended while [[1479: Troubleshooting]] was up [https://web.archive.org/web/20150128172147/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-01-28].

===2015-01-24 - Get shirts in store===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20150124110707/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-01-24]
* [[1477: Star Wars]] came out as it changed.
** It was to tell about a new type of t-shirt for Valentine Day.
** There was just two lines of text:
* The text was:
** For Valentine's Day, you can get a binary heart shirt
** (from {{xkcd|99|comic #99!}}) in [https://web.archive.org/web/20150125080756/https://teespring.com/xkcdbinaryheart a limited run on TeeSpring]
* There was a link to [[99: Binary Heart]] and to the relevant t-shirt on the [https://teespring.com/ Teespring] home page.
* Ended while [[1478: P-Values]] was up [https://web.archive.org/web/20150126133139/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-01-26].

===2014-12-22 - Get shirts in store===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20141222233233/https://xkcd.com/ 2014-12-22]
* [[1463: Altitude]] came out as it changed.
** After the Christmas sale deadline there was still merchandise in the [https://store.xkcd.com/ xkcd store].
** There was just a line of text:
* The text was:
** You can get xkcd shirts, prints, and posters in the [https://shop.xkcd.com/ store]!
* The word store was a link to the shop.
* Ended while [[1476: Ceres]] was up [https://web.archive.org/web/20150123102318/https://xkcd.com/ 2015-01-23].

===2014-12-19 - Back to previous header===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20141219092349/https://www.xkcd.com/ 2014-12-19]:
* [[1462: Blind Trials]] came out as it changed.
It changed back to the exact same heading as before the one with order now here below.
* See [[#2014-12-17 - Christmas deadline|2014-12-17]] below for all details.
* Ended while [[1462: Blind Trials]] was still up [https://web.archive.org/web/20141221172450/https://www.xkcd.com/ 2014-12-21].

===2014-12-18 - Order now===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20141218090650/https://www.xkcd.com/ 2014-12-18]
* [[1461: Payloads]] was still up when it changed.
** It was to alert that the deadline for shipping before Christmas from the [https://store.xkcd.com/ xkcd store] was Friday and that it was rapidly approaching. This was a follow up on the [[#2014-12-17 - Christmas deadline|Wednesdays announcement]] the day before.
** The image was just four lines of text with several red and blue words.
* The text was:
** The xkcd store Christmas shipping deadline is Friday!
** Once it passes, there is no going back. The arrow of time drags us all
** Inexorably forward toward decay and disorder. toward the end of all things.
** Towards the empty silence of the grave. Order now!
* The entire drawing was a link to the [https://store.xkcd.com/ xkcd store], not just the blue text.
* Ended a day later while [[1461: Payloads]] was still up [https://web.archive.org/web/20141216084107/https://xkcd.com/ 2014-12-16].

===2014-12-17 - Christmas deadline===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20141217085320/https://www.xkcd.com/ 2014-12-17]
* [[1461: Payloads]] came out as it changed.
** It was to alert that the deadline for shipping before Christmas from the [https://store.xkcd.com/ xkcd store] was Friday. This was announced Wednesday two days before the deadline.
** The image was just text with the last word in each line in red and the xkcd store blue as a link.
* The text was:
** Looking for a gift?
** xkcd store Christmas shipping deadline is Friday!
* The entire drawing was a link to the [https://store.xkcd.com/ xkcd store], not just the blue text
* Ended a day later while [[1461: Payloads]] was still up!

===2014-12-03 - Christmas shopping===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20141203132024/https://www.xkcd.com/ 2014-12-03]
* [[1455: Trolley Problem]] came out as it changed.
** It was to announce the start of the Christmas shopping on the [https://store.xkcd.com/ xkcd store]
** Four boxes with shipping details are shown. Two green and two red, alternating from green. Between them are three text messages in two, two and three lines.
* The text was:
** xkcd store
** Christmas shopping
** I will probably not ship you a bobcat.
* The entire drawing was a link to the [https://store.xkcd.com/ xkcd store].
* The bobcat is a reference to [[325: A-Minus-Minus]].
* Ended while [[1460: SMFW]] was up [https://web.archive.org/web/20141216084107/https://xkcd.com/ 2014-12-16].

===2014-11-29 - Thanks - Emily===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20141129211604/https://xkcd.com/ 2014-11-29]
* [[1453: fMRI]] was still up when it changed.
** It was to thanks for all the help his friend Emily with cancer got through among other his previous header text [[#2014-11-27 - Help Emily| Help Emily]].
** That only needed to be up two days before the goal was met.
* The text was:
** Thank you for helping my friend Emily.
** It means so much.
* Ended three days later while [[1454: Done]] was up [https://web.archive.org/web/20141202065133/https://xkcd.com/ 2014-12-02].

===2014-11-27 - Help Emily===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20141127005239/https://xkcd.com/ 2014-11-27]
* [[1452: Jurassic World]] came out as it changed.
** It was to help a friend who got cancer by raising money for her.
* The text was:
** Hey all. My friend Emily—the economist who helped
** me with my {{xkcd|980|money chart}}—has been fighting cancer. She's
** having a rough time and could use some [https://web.archive.org/web/20141128183414/https://www.gofundme.com/e07dqk help]. Thank you.
* There are two links, one to the [[980: Money]] comic she helped Randall create, and one for her Go Fund Me page to raise money for her cancer cure.
** The help link above is to the archived version from that time, but the link was still active in August 2019: [https://www.gofundme.com/e07dqk Helping Emily Fight Cancer].
* Ended while [[1453: fMRI]] was up [https://web.archive.org/web/20141128070838/https://www.xkcd.com/ 2014-11-28].
** She did thus not get a permanent header as did Becky on the [[#Seven_Years|Seven Years]] comic.

===2014-10-02 - what if? bestseller===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20141002211139/https://xkcd.com/ 2014-10-02]
* [[1428: Move Fast and Break Things]] was up when it changed from the [[#2014-09-02 - what if? book out|book is out]].
* This was a month after the ''[[What If? (book)|What If?]]'' book came out.
** It added a line of red text beneath the previous header to announce that the book was the #1 New York bestseller.
* The text was:
** My <u>book</u> is out!
** (#1 New York bestseller!)
* The entire image was a link to the [https://whatif.xkcd.com/book/ The Book] page on the [https://whatif.xkcd.com/ what if?] page on xkcd. post.
* Ended while [[1451: Background Screens]] was up [https://web.archive.org/web/20141125234520/https://xkcd.com/ 2014-11-25].

===2014-09-04 - what if? book out===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20140904150600/https://xkcd.com/ 2014-09-04]
* [[1416: Pixels]] was up when it changed from the [[#2014-09-02 - what if? book out today|book is out today]].
* This was two days after the ''[[What If? (book)|What If?]]'' book came out.
** It only removed to today from the previous header, that had only been up two days.
* The text was:
** My <u>book</u> is out!
* The entire image was a link to the [https://whatif.xkcd.com/book/ The Book] page on the [https://whatif.xkcd.com/ what if?] page on xkcd. post.
* Ended while [[1428: Move Fast and Break Things]] was up [https://web.archive.org/web/20141001130827/https://xkcd.com/ 2014-09-01].

===2014-09-02 - what if? book out today===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20140902125802/https://xkcd.com/ 2014-09-02]
* [[1415: Ballooning]] was up when it changed from the [[#2014-07-23 - what if? book tour|book tour header]].
* This was the day the ''[[What If? (book)|What If?]]'' book came out. [[Cueball]] standing to the left of the text with arms raised shouts this out.. The word Book is underlined and blue to indicate a link.
* The text was:
** My <u>book</u> is out today!
* The entire image was a link to the [https://whatif.xkcd.com/book/ The Book] page on the [https://whatif.xkcd.com/ what if?] page on xkcd. post.
* Ended while [[1416: Pixels]] was still [https://web.archive.org/web/20140903134518/https://xkcd.com/ 2014-09-03].

===2014-07-23 - what if? book tour===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20140723180600/https://xkcd.com/ 2014-07-23]
* [[1398: Snake Facts]]
* This was a promotion of his book tour for the ''[[What If? (book)|What If?]]'' book made by [[Cueball]] standing to the left of the text with arms raised. Several parts of the text was underlined and blue to indicate links.
* The text was:
** I'm going on a <u>book tour!</u> click <u>here</u> for a list of stops.
** Or click <u>anywhere</u>-this whole image is one link because I've never gotten the hang of <u>HTML imagemaps</u>.
* The entire image was a link to the [[Blag]] post: [https://blog.xkcd.com/2014/07/22/what-if-book-tour/ What If book tour!].
** Later Randall commented on this lacking ability in the comic: [[1572: xkcd Survey]].
** He also mentions it in one of the [[#xkcd_Header_text#2019-07-09_-_Drawings_from_How_To|promotions]] for his [[How To]] book.
** He much later he again mentions that html is hard, thus explaining why the entire image is a link instead of the actual blue highlighted link in one of the promotions for [[xkcd_Header_text#2022-08-11_-_Preorder_What_if.3F_2_-_with_image|what if? 2]].
* Ended while [[1415: Ballooning]] was still up [https://web.archive.org/web/20140901113916/https://xkcd.com/ 2014-09-01].

===2014-03-13 - what if? announced===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20140313070951/https://xkcd.com/ 2014-03-13]
* [[1341: Types of Editors]] was up.
* This was the first promotion of Randall's new ''[[What If? (book)|What If?]]'' book which is shown next to two lines of text.
* The text was:
** News:
** I'm publishing a ''what if'' book!
* The entire image was a link to the [[Blag]] post: [https://blog.xkcd.com/2014/03/12/what-if-i-wrote-a-book/ What if I wrote a book?]
* Ended while [[1397: Luke]] was up [https://web.archive.org/web/20140722142115/https://xkcd.com/ 2014-07-22].

===2014-01-09 - Back to standard text===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20140109190927/https://www.xkcd.com/ 2014-01-09]
* When [[1314: Photos]] was still up when the text returned to the standard xkcd header:
** xkcd updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
* It stayed until [https://web.archive.org/web/20140312070248/https://xkcd.com/ 2014-03-12] when [[1340: Unique Date]] was up, a bit more than two months.

===2013-12-21 - Deadline for Christmas shipping has passed===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20131221043417/https://www.xkcd.com/ 2013-12-21]
* It changed when [[1306: Sigil Cycle]] came out.
* This came up when it was too close to Christmas in 2013 for shipping to arrive in time for Christmas. And Randall makes a note of this, but lets people know that they could still buy presents...
* The text was
** The deadline for guaranteed Christmas shipping has passed, but if you order something from the [https://store.xkcd.com/ xkcd store], we'll get it to you as fast as possible!
* Ended when [[1314: Photos]] was up on [https://web.archive.org/web/20140108181520/https://www.xkcd.com/ 2014-01-08].

===2013-12-06 - Empty header===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20131206213503/https://xkcd.com/ 2013-12-06]
* It changed when [[1300: Galilean Moons]] came out.
** There was no header text. This happened next on [[Header_text#2020-04-05 - Empty header|2020-04-05]]. It looks really weird.
* Ended when [[1305: Undocumented Feature]] was up on [https://web.archive.org/web/20131220005306/https://xkcd.com/ 2013-12-20].

===Changes not documented yet 3===
More changes will for sure be here between this and the one below.

Just put the link here with a date and maybe a short note:
[https://web.archive.org/web/20131205202730/https://xkcd.com/ 2013-12-05]: Xmas sale before above
[https://web.archive.org/web/20130315162227/https://xkcd.com:80/ 2013-03-15]: Empty follows below

===2013-03-15 - Empty header===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20130315162227/https://xkcd.com:80/ 2013-03-15]
* It changed while [[1186: Bumblebees]] was on the front page.
** After the text saying a comic would be delayed disappeared no text replaced this.
** So the header was left empty!
* This lasted until [https://web.archive.org/web/20130318072820/https://xkcd.com/ 2013-03-18] while [[1187: Aspect Ratio]] was up.

===2013-03-13 - Comic will be delayed===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20130313133631/https://xkcd.com/ 2013-03-13]
* It changed when [[1184: Circumference Formula]] came out, likely because the next comic was delayed.
** But there is a gap of three days before where no archived version exist, so cannot say if there where more than a few hours with this text.
* The text:
** The comic will be delayed until late morning EDT.
* Ended when [[1185: Ineffective Sorts]] was up on [https://web.archive.org/web/20130313175306/https://xkcd.com:80/ 2013-03-13].
** That was later same day as the first archived version. But could have been longer as mentioned above.

===2012-11-26 - xkcd store===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20121126235628/https://xkcd.com/1138/ 2012-11-26]
* It changed while [[1138: Heatmap]] was up.
** Notice that the above link is not from the main page, but from {{xkcd|1138}}.
** There was a gap of five days in the archive of the main page.
** The first day that it was archived from the front page was on [https://web.archive.org/web/20121201111432/https://xkcd.com/ 2012-12-01], while [[1141: Two Years]] was up.
* The standard header text is replaced with an image that makes it seem like a rip is being torn in the white region where the text used to be. Beneath the white material that has now been ripped, some text can partly be seen. It is possible to read it.
* The text:
** xkcd store
*** The image is a link to the [https://store.xkcd.com/ xkcd store] (tadaaa!)
* Ended when [[1183: Rose Petals]] was up on [https://web.archive.org/web/20130311073948/https://xkcd.com:80/1183/ 2013-03-11]
** The above link is from {{xkcd|1183}}.
** Last time the front page was archived with it was though on [https://web.archive.org/web/20130309010403/https://xkcd.com/ 2013-03-09].

===2012-10-24 - Back to standard text===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20121024082017/https://xkcd.com:80/ 2012-10-24]
* While [[1124: Law of Drama]] was on the front the header returned to the standard xkcd header:
** xkcd updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
* It stayed until [https://web.archive.org/web/20121126035129/https://xkcd.com:80/ 2012-11-26] when [[1138: Heatmap]] was up, a few days more than a month.

===2012-10-17 - New What-If - Lightning===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20121017232102/https://xkcd.com/1121/ 2012-10-17]
* Probably while [[1122: Electoral Precedent]] was up.
** But the link above showing it was up on the 2012-10-17 is from the previous comics page {{xkcd|1121}} [[1121: Identity]].
** But the first version archived with this header is saved on [https://web.archive.org/web/20121018082304/https://xkcd.com/ 2012-10-18]
* Randall promotes another New What-If article.
** See the ''[[what if? (blog)|what if?]]'' article ''{{what if|16|Today's topic: Lightning}}''.
* The text
** New What-If article:
** [https://what-if.xkcd.com/16/ What if lightning struck while you were ...]
* This lasted until [https://web.archive.org/web/20121023023404/https://xkcd.com/1121/ 2012-10-23] when [[1124: Law of Drama]] was on the front page
** This link is though from {{xkcd|1121}}.
** The last this version was archived on the front page was the day before on [https://web.archive.org/web/20121022120008/https://xkcd.com:80/ 2012-10-22].

===2012-10-10 - New What-If - Mariana Trench Explosion===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20121010003837/https://xkcd.com/ 2012-10-10]
* [[1118: Microsoft]] was still up at this time.
* Randall promotes another New What-If article.
** See the ''[[what if? (blog)|what if?]]'' article ''{{what if|15|Mariana Trench Explosion}}''.
* The text
** New What-If article:
** [https://what-if.xkcd.com/15/ What if you set off a nuclear bomb in the Mariana Trench?].
* This lasted until [https://web.archive.org/web/20121016055538/https://xkcd.com:80/ 2012-10-16] when [[1121: Identity]] was up.

===2012-10-02 - This week's What-If - Short Answer Section===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20121002231724/https://www.xkcd.com/ 2012-10-02]
* [[1115: Sky]] was still up at this time.
* Randall promotes another New What-If article.
** See the ''[[what if? (blog)|what if?]]'' article ''{{what if|14|Short Answer Section}}''.
* The text
** In this week's What-If article I [https://what-if.xkcd.com/14/ answer multiple reader questions].
* This lasted until [https://web.archive.org/web/20121008112434/https://xkcd.com/ 2012-10-08] when [[1118: Microsoft]] was up.

===2012-09-26 - New What-If - Laser Pointer===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20120926163111/https://xkcd.com/1108/ 2012-09-26]
* [[1113: Killed in Action]] was up at this time.
** The link above showing it happened on the 26th is from {{xkcd|1108}}
** The first day this version was archived on the front page was on [https://web.archive.org/web/20120928003838/https://xkcd.com:80/ 2012-09-28]
* Randall promotes another New What-If article.
** See the ''[[what if? (blog)|what if?]]'' article ''{{what if|13|Laser Pointer}}''.
* The text
** New What-If article:
** [https://what-if.xkcd.com/13/ If everyone aimed a laser pointer at the Moon at once, would it change color?]
* This lasted until [https://web.archive.org/web/20121001080517/https://xkcd.com/ 2012-10-01] when [[1115: Sky]] was up.

===2012-09-18 - what-if.xkcd.com - Raindrop===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20120918143653/https://www.xkcd.com/1108/ 2012-09-18]
* [[1109: Refrigerator]] was still up at this time.
** The link above showing it happened on the 18th is from {{xkcd|1108}}
** The first day this version was archived on the front page was on [https://web.archive.org/web/20120919015232/https://xkcd.com/ 2012-09-19]
* Randall promotes another What-If article on the what-if page.
** See the ''[[what if? (blog)|what if?]]'' article ''{{what if|12|Raindrop}}''.
* The text
** what-if.xkcd.com: [https://what-if.xkcd.com/12/ What if all of a storm's water fell in a single raindrop?].
* This lasted until [https://web.archive.org/web/20120925090123/https://xkcd.com:80/ 2012-09-25] when [[1112: Think Logically]] was up.

===Changes not documented yet 2===
The above is the last documented.
* There will for sure be more changes earlier than this.

Just put the link here with a date and maybe a short note:
[https://web.archive.org/web/20120917052827/https://xkcd.com:80/ 2012-09-17]: What if Droppings ends.
[https://web.archive.org/web/20120718231719/https://www.xkcd.com/ 2012-07-18] Next stores header text

===2012-07-10 - New: what-if.xkcd.com===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20120710114846/https://xkcd.com/1078/ 2012-07-10]
* This was a special change happening over a few days. The above "new" header text from the given date is actually shown on the previous comic [[1078: Knights]].
** Another example from [https://web.archive.org/web/20120710072249/https://xkcd.com:80/1070 2012-07-10] is shown for [[1070: Words for Small Sets]].
* The comic on the main page released on [https://web.archive.org/web/20120709045709/https://xkcd.com:80/ 2012-07-09] was [[1079: United Shapes]], but that comic had a [[xkcd_Header_text#United_Shapes|unique header text]] upon its release.
** So both on the 9th as shown above and on [https://web.archive.org/web/20120710114846/https://xkcd.com/1078/ 2012-07-10] the header text was different on the front than on all other pages.
*** As can be read in the link above, the new header text actually got incorporated into the unique text, so that after the next comic was released on [https://web.archive.org/web/20120711234408/https://xkcd.com/1079/ 2012-07-11] the current new header text and a smaller version of the original unique header text was now shown on the Unites Shapes page.
*** {{xkcd|1079|And it was never changed back}}.
* The first version of the new text from the 10th was only active one day:
** The text:
*** New site: what-if.xkcd.com, where I abuse science to answer hypothetical questions. I'll answer a new question every Tuesday.
**** The link was not an active link. And this was never shown on the front page, but on all other comics.
* Already on [https://web.archive.org/web/20120711223349/https://xkcd.com/1078/ 2012-07-11] when [[1080: Visual Field]] was released the new header changed a bit
** At this time it most have been shown on the front page, but the link above is again from [[1078: Knights]].
*** For some reason the front page was not saved on either the 11th or 12th, so no version of the front page with Visual Field exist
*** The first archived version of the front page with this new header text was from [https://web.archive.org/web/20120713154207/https://xkcd.com/ 2012-07-13] when [[1081: Argument Victory]] was on the front page.
* The final text:
** New: [https://what-if.xkcd.com/1/ what-if.xkcd.com]: abusing science to answer hypothetical questions.
** I'll answer a new reader question every Tuesday.
*** This time the link was active and directs to the new ''[[what if? (blog)|what if?]]'' blog and its first entry {{what if|1|Relativistic Baseball}}
* The whole idea was that Randall released the new what if? blog on the 10th of July 2012. And thus would like to make a promotion of it.
** And then he timed it so poorly that the front page had a different header than the rest of the comics.
** It was so annoying for him that he actually changed the header for Unites Shapes manually so that page also showed the new link. Maybe even before it left the front page, but that has not been documented in the archive.
** And then he forgot about it when the header changed for all the other comics, so it is now a relic of the promotion of his first what if release.
* The what if promotion continued for a long time, but the final version from above only lasted until 17th at the latest. There is again no archived versions of the front page from the 15th, 16th or 17th.
** The last time it was archived on the front page was [https://web.archive.org/web/20120714062857/https://xkcd.com/ 2012-07-14], when [[1081: Argument Victory]] was still up.
** But on [https://web.archive.org/web/20120715070938/https://xkcd.com:80/1081/ 2012-07-15] it was still shown on the page for Argument Victory and same for [https://web.archive.org/web/20120716235458/https://www.xkcd.com/998/ 2012-07-16] on [[998: 2012]]
*** So seemed it stayed up while [[1082: Geology]] was up on the 16-17/7.

===2012-04-09 - Standard text plus store link===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20120409190952/https://xkcd.com/1026/ 2012-04-09]
* It changed when [[1040: Lakes and Oceans]] came up.
** The above link to prove this is though from comic {{xkcd|1026}} [[1026: Compare and Contrast]] the first to be found that where archived on the 9th.
** The first archived version on the main page is from [https://web.archive.org/web/20120411053543/https://xkcd.com/ 2012-04-11] when [[1041: Whites of Their Eyes]] was up.
** There where no archived version of the front page on the 9th or 10th while Lake and Oceans was up. So it was also first on the 11th that this new text could be seen, but only when it had moved to its own page number [https://web.archive.org/web/20120411052948/https://xkcd.com/1040/ 1040].
*** The change probably came because of this special comic, which may became a [https://store.xkcd.com/collections/posters/products/lakes-oceans-poster poster].
* The update was to add a promotion for the store under the standard header text.
* The text
** XKCD updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
** You can get prints, posters, and t-shirts in the [https://store.xkcd.com/ store].
* This lasted until [https://web.archive.org/web/20120709004956/https://www.xkcd.com/ 2012-07-09] when [[1078: Knights]] was up, exactly three months, so although not only the standard text, the standard text was first for three months and three days, see [[#2012-04-05 - Back to standard text|below]].

===2012-04-05 - Back to standard text===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20120405195956/https://www.xkcd.com/1021/ 2012-04-05]
* While [[1038: Fountain]] was on the front the header returned to the standard xkcd header:
** xkcd updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
* The link above to prove the date is seen on [[1021: Business Plan]].
** The first archived version on front page is from [https://web.archive.org/web/20120406111048/https://xkcd.com/ 2012-04-06], when [[1039: RuBisCO]] was up.
** A version showing Fountain with this can be found on it's own page {{xkcd|1038}} on [https://web.archive.org/web/20120406085618/https://xkcd.com:80/1038/ 2012-04-06].
*** When it was archived while on the front page it still had the previous header on [https://web.archive.org/web/20120404210927/https://xkcd.com:80/ 2012-04-05].
* It stayed up, unchanged, until [https://web.archive.org/web/20120408200414/https://xkcd.com:80/ 2012-04-08] when [[1039: RuBisCO]] was up. So only three days.
** But [[#2012-04-09- Standard text plus store link|the change]] did not remove the standard text but just added a link to the store. And this version, still with the standard text at the top stayed for three more months.

===2012-03-28 - Visiting Newport News===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20120328103319/https://xkcd.com/ 2012-03-28]
* [[1035: Cadbury Eggs]] was on the front when it changed.
** From the end of March 2012, there is a problem with the archived versions of xkcd, so they do not load properly and do not include the comic picture.
* It was to announce a talk Randall gave at his old school.
* The text:
** I'm [https://blog.xkcd.com/2012/03/22/im-visiting-cnu-on-april-4th/ visiting] Newport News, VA next week, where I'll be speaking at CNU, my old school. If you want to come, reserve a seat [https://web.archive.org/web/20120329214411/https://www.cnu.edu/pcs/xkcd/index.asp here]!
*** The first link it to a post in the [[Blag]]: [https://blog.xkcd.com/2012/03/22/im-visiting-cnu-on-april-4th/ I’m visiting CNU on April 4th].
*** The other link is no longer working, but the link above goes to an archived version.
* There was a special situation with this header text. For three days it was not on the front page, as the [[April Fools' Day comics|April Fools' Day comic]] [[1037: Umwelt]] came out and stayed from April 1st to April 3rd on the front page.
** This comic had it's own [[#Unique header text|unique header text]] from the start, one that has [[#Umwelt|stayed like this]] since!
*** So from [https://web.archive.org/web/20120401151639/https://xkcd.com:80/ 2012-04-01] to [https://web.archive.org/web/20120403223453/https://www.xkcd.com/ 2012-04-03] the front page had another header:
**** You can get posters, prints, and t-shirts in the [https://store.xkcd.com/ xkcd store].
** But all the other comics kept the Visiting header on all three days as shown here:
*** [https://web.archive.org/web/20120401214214/https://xkcd.com:80/1036/ 2012-04-01] from[[1036: Reviews]].
*** [https://web.archive.org/web/20120402150258/https://xkcd.com/1019 2012-04-02] from [[1019: First Post]].
*** [https://web.archive.org/web/20120403164523/https://xkcd.com:80/1036/ 2012-04-03] from [[1036: Reviews]].
**** The one from the 2nd of April was hardest to find, but the most important, because that was clearly in the time period where Umwelt was up, thus definitely proving that the other pages had a different header than the front page. This is rare.
* It returned to the front page on [https://web.archive.org/web/20120404210927/https://xkcd.com:80/ 2012-04-04] and stayed up until [https://web.archive.org/web/20120405195956/https://www.xkcd.com/1021/ 2012-04-05] when [[1038: Fountain]] was up.
** The link from the 5th though is from {{xkcd|1021}} [[1021: Business Plan]], the only comic archived on the 5ht to be found.
*** The previous link was the last time it was archived while on the front page.

===2012-03-12 - xkcd Holistic Browser===
[https://web.archive.org/web/20120312185125/https://xkcd.com/ 2012-03-12]
* [[1028: Communication]] was up at the time.
** From here the archive doesn't load the page properly so it is really boring to document. This goes for both first and last day of this text.
* The text:
** New: [https://web.archive.org/web/20120318153220/https://holistic.xkcd.com/ holistic.xkcd.com], the least useful web navigation tool ever.
*** The link is now dead, but the link above is to an archived version.
*** On that page there is the following text:
**** The XKCD Holistic Browser
**** Because we are all one.
**** Type a web address
**** and you'll be taken to one
**** typed by someone else.
**** URL:
**** Warning: This allows strangers to direct your browser!
**** They may send you to pages containing
**** porn, viruses, or Justin Bieber fanfiction.
**** At the very least, turn on private browsing.
* During the time this header was active the comic [[1031: s/keyboard/leopard/]] came out.
** It had its own [[xkcd_Header_text#Unique_header_text|unique header text]] which thus replaced this text on the front page for two days.
** But it did not replace it on all the other pages so this was the active header text during the entire period, see more here: [[xkcd_Header_text#s.2Fkeyboard.2Fleopard.2F|s/keyboard/leopard/]]
* This lasted till [https://web.archive.org/web/20120327050311/https://xkcd.com/1033 2012-03-27] while [[1034: Share Buttons]] was up.
* But the last archived version with this on the front page was the day before [https://web.archive.org/web/20120326180811/https://xkcd.com// 2012-03-26].
** The link from 27th is from an archived version of [[1033: Formal Logic]].

===Changes not documented yet 1===
The above is the last documented.
* There will for sure be more changes earlier than this.
[https://web.archive.org/web/20120311135259/https://xkcd.com/ 2012-03-11] Text before. For next entry below...



[[Category:Design of xkcd.com]]{{xkcdmeta}}

Category:News anchor

2026-05-09T15:49:15Z

FaviFake:

A {{w|news anchor}}, also known as news presenter, is a person who presents news during a news program for instance on television. Below is a list with all comics where a news anchor is either shown speaking on the news or where "news anchor" is explicitly mentioned in xkcd.
'''Click''' to expand for a more detailed explanation:
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed leftAlign" style="width:100%">
<br>
__NOTOC__
==Explanation==
On Wikipedia the primary term used is "{{w|News presenter}}", but Randall has used the phrasing "news anchor" directly in [[1086: Eyelash Wish Log]], "news caster" in [[727: Trade Expert]] and just "reporters" in [[1368: One Of The]]. Another version of a news report could be with a roving reporter, reporting from the scene. Although that alternative has been seen to coexist in some of these comics below, it is always with a news anchor talking to the reporter from the studio, otherwise it would not have belonged in this category.

[[Cueball]] became the most used character, with 10 comics, for presenting news reports after [[2965: Chili Tornado Quake]]. But, given that he is the most used character in general, it should be noted that the much rarer used [[Miss Lenhart]] seems to be the go to character for Randall when needing a news anchor. Miss Lenhart was the news anchor in the next such comic, [[2984: Asteroid News]], and tied Cueball for most times used as such, until she again stared in [[3215: Solar Warning]] and moved to the top with eleven times in this role.

===List of presenters===
====Miss Lenhart====
#[[495: Secretary: Part 2]]
#[[618: Asteroid]]
#[[932: CIA]]
#[[1600: MarketWatch]]
#[[1607: Supreme Court]]
#[[1699: Local News]]
#[[1985: Meteorologist]]
#[[2201: Foucault Pendulum]]
#[[2304: Preprint]]
#[[2984: Asteroid News]]
#[[3215: Solar Warning]]

====Cueball====
#[[727: Trade Expert]]
#[[756: Public Opinion]]
#[[944: Hurricane Names]]
#[[957: Development]]
#[[1302: Year in Review]]
#[[1368: One Of The]]
#[[1487: Tornado]]
#[[1985: Meteorologist]]
#[[2080: Cohort and Age Effects]]
#[[2965: Chili Tornado Quake]]

====Hairy====
#[[1111: Premiere]]
#[[1295: New Study]]

====Ponytail====
#[[558: 1000 Times]]
#[[1391: Darkness]]
</div>
<br>

[[Category:Comics by topic]]

Category:Comics featuring Mrs. Roberts

2026-05-09T15:47:49Z

FaviFake: given the proposal made at the community portal, i'm merging Blondie and Miss Lenhart, just like Cutie and Megan

<noinclude>:''For the character's explanation, see [[Mrs. Roberts]].''</noinclude>

These are all the comics that feature or mention Mrs. Roberts.

{{navbox-characters}}
[[Category:Comics featuring minor characters|Mrs. Roberts]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Miss Lenhart| ]]

Category:Comics featuring Miss Lenhart

2026-05-09T15:47:42Z

FaviFake:

<noinclude>:''For the character's explanation, see [[Miss Lenhart]].''</noinclude>

These are all the comics that feature or mention Miss Lenhart.

{{navbox-characters}}
[[Category:Comics featuring minor characters|Miss Lenhart]]

Category:Comics featuring Elaine Roberts

2026-05-09T15:47:35Z

FaviFake:

<noinclude>:''For the character's explanation, see [[Elaine Roberts]].''</noinclude>

These are all the comics that feature or mention Help I'm trapped in a driver's license factory Elaine Roberts.

{{navbox-characters}}
[[Category:Comics featuring minor characters|Elaine Roberts]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Miss Lenhart| ]]

Category:Comics featuring Blondie

2026-05-09T15:47:21Z

FaviFake: given the proposal made at the community portal, i'm merging Blondie and Miss Lenhart, just like Cutie and Megan

#REDIRECT [[Category:Comics featuring Miss Lenhart]]

1000: 1000 Comics/1000 characters

2026-05-09T15:46:55Z

FaviFake: given the proposal made at the community portal, i'm merging Blondie and Miss Lenhart, just like Cutie and Megan

<big>[[#Table of 1000 characters|''(jump to table)'']]</big>

Below is a brief explanation of the system used to sort the following table:

This table is a sortable, numbered list of the 1000 small drawings/characters from this comic, the numbering system of which can be found at [[1000: 1000 Comics/Numbered images]]. Relevant categories for all aspects of the comic have been added to the main page. Links are also located at relevant parts of the table. In this way, it is possible to find all [[Ponytail|Ponytails]] or [[White Hat|White Hats]] quickly, as well as all comics with straightforward references, transcripts, objects, or animals. This could include when a character is suspected to be from a previous comic, where an object is unclear, or when the text of the transcript is unreadable.

The first column gives the number from the [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/c/c7/1000_Comics_-_The_entire_comic_with_numbers.png numbered image]. However, given that this is a large image, and not easily over-viewed, then after the number there is a link to an image of the relevant section from the [[1000:_1000_Comics/Numbered_images#Explanation|thirteen sections]] the image has been divided into. The section link for the edits and last character in each section is written in '''bold''' for convenience. The "one" is one section, but the three "zeros" have been divided in top (T), right (R), bottom (B) and left (L), so for instance the second zero bottom is labelled: Zero 2 B.

The third column is a description of the character or picture. This column always begins with the name of a known character, or, if unknown, the gender, if this is clear. For known characters, a link will be given on the name. However, this link only appears on the first instance of this character. After this, it continues with a full description of the character, and anything correlated with the number on the list. The description always includes whether the figure is standing or in some other position and whether they are in a group or standing alone (which means that there are no interactions). The direction indicates the direction the face is turned or the direction the head points if lying down.

If the character is just standing alone and is well known (e.g. [[Cueball]]), there will be no explanation given. The number after the character mentioned in either explanation or description refers to the number in the table (i.e., the 20th Ponytail to appear will be labeled "Ponytail 20". Comic references with in '''bold''' are without any doubt references to a specific comic. The transcript for images or characters where anything is written may be hard to read. The image may help make an educated guess. Animals and objects are often included along with the characters, but never alone. They are listed here for an easier reference.

{{notice2|In the table, these red notices indicate<br>something that cannot be explained.}}
==Table of 1000 characters==
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Sect<br>ion
! #
! Character description
! Explanation
! Refer<br>ences
! Transcript
! Animals
! Objects
|-
! rowspan="132" | '''[https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/5/56/1000_Comics_-_The_one_in_thousand_with_numbers.png One]'''
| 1
| [[Cueball]] standing alone
| The very '''first character in one''' is of course the standard everyman Cueball, and no matter how one would count, this character would be the first encountered!
|
|
|
|
|-
| 2
| [[Megan]] standing turned right hand up towards Cueball 3
| Megan and Cueball 3 interact, she lifts her hand and he points at her.
|
|
|
|
|-
| 3
| Cueball standing left pointing with an arm at Megan 2
| Megan 2 and Cueball interact, she lifts her hand and he points at her.
|
|
|
|
|-
| 4
| Woman with black hair wide standing right looking at Cueball 7
| The hairdo is much wider at the shoulder than Megan’s so it cannot be her or any other known characters. She may be looking down at Cueball 7. See also 171 and 325.
|
|
|
|
|-
| 5
| Megan standing alone right
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 6
| Cueball standing alone right leaning
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 7
| Cueball standing alone left looking up at the woman 4
| He may be looking up at the woman 4.
|
|
|
|
|-
| 8
| [[Hairy]] standing alone left
| The hair is not as thick as normal for Hairy, spikier.
|
|
|
|
|-
| 9
| Cueball standing alone left behind a lectern with a microphone heading a hand up to his mouth
| Cueball is addressing some audience not shown. This is a typical setting for the public speaking comics, although there seems to be no situation where there is a microphone on the lectern when Cueball speaks.
| Category: [[:Category:Public speaking|Public speaking]]
|
|
| [[1661: Podium|Lectern]]
|-
| 10
| Cueball standing alone right
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 11
| Megan prone right drifting up as shown with three lines
| Megan seems to be floating up into the air. Could be that Cueball 12 and 13 are looking after her?
|
|
|
|
|-
| 12
| Cueball standing alone right looking up
| He may be looking up at Megan 11 floating together with Cueball 13?
|
|
|
|
|-
| 13
| Cueball standing alone left looking up
| He may be looking up at Megan 11 floating together with Cueball 12?
|
|
|
|
|-
| 14
| Character with a black half sphere on the head left looking down
| {{notice2|What is on the head?}} This may be either a military or other kind of helmet, or a special hairdo, and could be both male and female?
|
|
|
|
|-
| 15
| Megan standing right towards Guy 16 her head down with a white heart floating in front of her
| Megan seems to be in love with the spectacled guy 16 to her right, but he seems not to notice her. This may explain why her head is bent down.
|
| Megan: ♥
|
|
|-
| 16
| Guy with glasses (round) and no hair standing right away from Megan 15 and her heart
| Like Cueball with round glasses. Megan 15 to his left may have a crush on him with the heart in front of her and her head down because he seems not to notice her. See also 42 where he has square glasses.
|
|
|
|
|-
| 17
| Cueball standing alone right leaning
| He may be looking at Ponytail 18 spinning in her office chair.
|
|
|
|
|-
| 18
| [[Ponytail]] sitting right arms out. She is spinning around in an office chair as shown with several circling lines
| Ponytail is having fun spinning around in her office chair so fast she yells out loud. Maybe Cueball 17 is looking at her, maybe he gave her a push? Could be that he is the one spinning in the referenced comic where the friction of office chair is correlated to how much work is being done. Too little friction an deveryone just spins in stead of doing any work. The next to sit in a chair is Cueball 340 (not counting the wheelchair in 49). Ponytail is also the first to sit on the ground in 185.
| Comic: '''[[815: Mu]]'''
| Ponytail: ''Wheeee''
|
| Office chair
|-
| 19
| Cueball standing alone left
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 20
| Ponytail standing alone right
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 21
| Cueball standing alone making wavy arms and holding something in his hand towards left
| {{notice2|What his he holding. What is the name for what he is doing with his arms? Is there a reference to a comic? Update: Named the dance and described the object. Looked for a reference to a previous comic, couldn't find anything but I'm not convinced I didn't miss something. }} Cueball seems to be doing a variant of the wave dance move, although his version would be impossible to do in real life since it would require more joints than humans have. He is holding an object towards the left.
|
|
|
| Cueball is holding an object that resembles a short dagger, with a wide crossbar and triangular blade.
|-
| 22
| Cueball standing alone left
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 23
| Megan standing alone right
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 24
| Megan standing alone left
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 25
| Cueball standing alone left
| Maybe Cueball 30 waves at him.
|
|
|
|
|-
| 26
| Guy with hat, white dome shaped standing alone right
| This version of White Hat is the one from Idiocracy. It is used more than once in this comic, so here he will not be listed as White Hat. See also 324.
| Comic: [[603: Idiocracy]]
|
|
|
|-
| 27
| Cueball standing right towards short haired woman 28
| Cueball looking at woman 27.
|
|
|
|
|-
| 28
| Woman with short black hair like Megan on the head but stop above neck standing left towards Cueball 27
| The woman looking at Cueball 28 has much shorter hair than Megan.
|
|
|
|
|-
| 29
| Woman with hair bun white standing alone right
| This is not Hairbun as she has dark hair. This white hair bun woman is used more than once (see already in 43).
|
|
|
|
|-
| 30
| Cueball standing alone right waving with the arm to the right
| He may be waving upwards towards Cueball 25.
|
|
|
|
|-
| 31
| Guy with hat locomotive shaped and no hair standing right
| {{notice2|Any references to comics?}} Could be that this guy was a model train [[878: Model Rail|enthusiast]]? Seems like this hat is related to the hat on 65.
|
|
|
| Locomotive hat
|-
| 32
| Cueball standing alone right
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 33
| [[Mrs. Roberts]] standing alone left with an oven-mitt on her hand to the left that holds a bun tray from the oven and in her other hand she holds down her laptop
| Mrs. Roberts trademark image, almost as the one from her character page and directly a link to {{w|Leet}} (1337).
| Comic: '''[[341: 1337: Part 1]]'''
|
|
| Laptop, oven mittens, baking plate
|-
| 34
| Cueball standing alone left
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 35
| Guy with sunglasses and no hair standing left
| The sunglasses are drawn so small that it is hard to see the left glass. Could be a headband… See other guys like this at 261, 349 and 638 and Hairbun 568 with sunglasses.
|
|
|
|
|-
| 36
| Ponytail standing left hands out towards a woolly sheep with spiral horns facing her while baaing
| Could be that it was a ram that charged at her but maybe she just reach out to pat the sheep as there are no speed lines to indicate movement. Could also be Mary after her little lamb got bigger. The reference to the Sheep comic may be dubious but this is the only sheep in this comic and he has a comic with that name...
| Comic: [[35: Sheep]]
| Sheep: Baaa
| {{w|Sheep}}
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| 37
| Megan standing alone
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| 38
| Woman with hair bun black, large and on top of her head with what appears to be two hairpins stuck into it standing alone right
| {{notice2|Is it hairpins in a hair bun? Any reference to characters drawn previously}} Even though this Megan like character has a hair bun it is much too different from Hairbun's to be her. See also similar women 38 and 427 with hairpins in hair bun.
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| Hairpins?
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| 39
| Ponytail standing alone right
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| 40
| Hairy standing alone right
| First standard version of Hairy in the comic.
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| 41
| Cueball standing alone left
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| 42
| Guy with glasses (square) and no hair standing right
| Like Cueball with square glasses. See also 16 where he has round glasses.
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| 43
| Woman with hair bun white standing alone right
| This is not Hairbun as she has dark hair. This white hair bun woman is used more than once (see first appearance at 29).
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| 44
| Cueball standing alone left
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| 45
| Megan standing alone left arms up and out
| Megan holds her arms out like to embrace someone, but she seems to be standing alone.
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| 46
| Guy with glasses (round) and no hair standing left
| Like Cueball with round glasses. See also 42 where he has square glasses.
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| 47
| Megan standing alone
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| 48
| Cueball standing alone
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| 49
| Stephen Hawking with dark hair and dark glasses sitting in his wheelchair with a computer screen in front of him alone right looking down
| The image here is the last in the comic bearing the name, {{w|Stephen Hawking}}, as the title -he is downcast after the events in the comic and thus is looking down.
| Comic: '''[[799: Stephen Hawking]]'''
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| Wheel chair with computer screen
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| 50
| Cueball standing right towards Megan 51
| Cueball looking at Megan 51
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| 51
| Megan standing left towards Cueball 50
| Megan looking at Cueball 50.
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| 52
| Megan standing alone left
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| 53
| Megan standing alone left longer hair
| This Megan has somewhat longer hair, but not Danish length…
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| 54
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 55
| Cueball standing alone right leaning while pointing left
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| 56
| Cueball standing alone right with both arms up
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| 57
| Cueball standing left with a turtle to his right talking to him. Seems short
| There is also a turtle in [[636: Brontosaurus]]. Later a stack of turtles was used in [[1416: Pixels]]. It could also be a {{w|tortoise}} as the one drawn only 37 comics later in [[1037:_Umwelt#Black_Hat|Black Hat's version]] of [[1037:_Umwelt]]. This Cueball here looks short, maybe he is a kid?
| Comic: [[889: Turtles]]
| Turtle: Hey.
| {{w|Turtle}}
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| 58
| Megan standing alone right
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| 59
| Cueball standing alone
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| 60
| Cueball standing alone left
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| 61
| [[Beret Guy]] standing right looking up at the woodpecker flying away with a drill it holds in its claws in the wire
| A direct reference to the comic Woodpecker where Beret Guy gives a woodpecker an electric drill as a birthday present. The bird flies away with it as depicted here, although first after Beret Guy has left.
| Comic: '''[[614: Woodpecker]]'''
|
| {{w|Woodpecker}}
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| 62
| Megan standing right towards Cueball 63 and character 64 with her hands in front of her mouth
| {{notice2|The sex of 64 is unclear and makes this triangle 62-64 hard to analyze}} Seems like this Megan (with more loose hair than normal) is shocked to see Cueball 63 and the person 64 holding hands. Maybe she was in love with one of them and is shocked to see them together as a happy couple. Or if it is supposed to be two men she could at the same time be shocked that they are openly gay...
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| 63
| Cueball standing right holding hands with the person 64
| {{notice2|The sex of 64 is unclear and makes this triangle 62-64 hard to analyze}} Cueball holding hand with the person in 64 who could be a girl in which case Megan in 62 could be jealous, or it could be a guy in which case this could be a gay scene and that cold shock Megan (as well).
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| 64
| Character with short black hair with spikes in the front standing left holding hands with Cueball 63
| {{notice2|The sex of 64 is unclear and makes this triangle 62-64 hard to analyze}} Cueball 63 is holding hand with this person who could be a girl in which case Megan in 62 could be jealous, or it could be a guy in which case this could be a gay scene and that cold shock Megan (as well).
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| 65
| Guy with a hat city-sky-line shaped and no hair standing alone right
| {{notice2|Is the hat a city sky line or something else? Any references to comics?}} Seems like this hat is related to the locomotive hat on 31.
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| City sky line hat
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| 66
| Woman with hair bun white hair black bun standing alone left. Her hair is short and white. The hair bun sits on top of her head it looks black but could be caused by two hairpins stuck into the bun
| {{notice2|Is it hairpins in a hair bun? Could also look like it is an antenna on her head. If so it may even be a man with an antenna cap? Any reference to characters drawn previously?}}As the hair is white, it is not Hairbun plus there are hairpins. See also similar women 38 and 427 with hairpins in hair bun.
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| Hairpins?
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| 67
| Cueball standing alone left
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| 68
| Ponytail standing alone left
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| 69
| Soldier with helmet with camouflage pattern and machine gun barrel upwards standing alone left
| A soldier with arms ready like in the referenced comic, but with a different helmet.
| Comic: [[984: Space Launch System]]
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| Machine gun
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| 70
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 71
| Hairy standing alone very tall
| This version of Hairy has more curly hair than normally and he seems to be a head higher than the Cueballs around him.
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| 72
| Cueball standing alone right one arm bent at the elbow
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| 73
| Guy with beard, full, and black hair standing alone left
| First guy with a beard! Could be Joseph (father of Jesus) from the referenced comic. Another guy 470 also has as beard but not quite like Joseph
| Comics: [[992: Mnemonics]]
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| 74
| Cueball standing alone left with both arms up, seems short
| This Cueball here looks short, maybe he is a kid?
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| 75
| Guy with hair only around the neck standing alone left seems tall
| This could be [[Donald Knuth]] from [[342: 1337: Part 2]] or George from [[587: Crime Scene]]. The hair is the same. See similar guys at 269, 406, 516 and 608. See also Guy 411 with similar hair but different appearence.
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| 76
| Character with short black hair standing alone right
| Could be either sex, hair too short to be Megan, like the next Megan 77.
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| 77
| Megan standing alone left
| As this is clearly Megan the person 76 is clearly not Megan.
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| 78
| Cueball standing alone left
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| 79
| Ponytail standing alone left
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| 80
| Cueball standing alone left
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| 81
| [[Jill]] standing alone right
| It is size wise clearly a girl with hairdo like Jill. But so far the only known instance of Jill looking like this comes after this comic. But she was already in [[585: Outreach]]. Her first known appearance looking more like this was in [[1058: Old-Timers]] less than half a year later. But this exact feature was first used in [[1352: Cosmologist on a Tire Swing]].
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| 82
| Woman with long hair white standing alone right
| The first woman with long blonde hair in the comic.
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| 83
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 84
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 85
| Megan running alone left arms out hair hanging loose and curly behind her
| The first running character. There has been a floating and a spinning character, but the rest seems to be standing still. She is not clearly running towards any other character.
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| 86
| Hairy standing alone left with flat hair
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| 87
| Cueball standing alone right pointing one arm right and down
| The posture is almost identical with Cueball 89.
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| 88
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 89
| Cueball standing right pointing right at Cueball 90
| He points at and maybe accusing Cueball 90 of something since Cueball 90 has his arms crossed in front of his chest and looks away and down like he is insulted or angry, This Cueball posture is almost identical with Cueball 87.
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| 90
| Cueball standing right arms crossed in front of his chest looking down away from Cueball 89 who points at him
| Maybe Cueball 89 who points at this Cueball is accusing him of something since this one has his arms crossed in front of his chest and looks away and down from the other like he is insulted or angry.
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| 91
| Cueball standing alone left
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| 92
| Guy with helmet white with a strap under his chin no hair standing alone left, seems short
| Could be the Cueball with a bicycle helmet for skating from the referenced comic. This does not look like a soldier compared with 69. But could also be a soldier’s helmet as it looks like the one in [[984: Space Launch System]]. It could be a kid.
| Comic: [[579: The Race: Part 3]]
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| 93
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 94
| Megan standing alone left with less dark hair
| Megan’s hair is not quite so black as usual here.
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| 95
| Hairy standing alone left with very large hair
| Hairy's hair is maybe a little too wild to be the regular Hairy…
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| 96
| Hairy standing alone right with a bath towel around his waist
| Hairy has just gotten out of the shower, preparing for a date.
| Comic: '''[[761: DFS]]'''
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| {{w|Bath towel}}
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| 97
| Cueball standing alone left, seems short
| This Cueball here looks short, maybe he is a kid?
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| 98
| Megan standing alone right
| As this is clearly Megan the person 99 is clearly not Megan.
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| 99
| Character with short black hair standing alone right
| Could be either sex, hair too short to be Megan, like Megan 98 before.
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| 100
| Cueball standing alone left
| Of course number 100 would also be a Cueball…
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| 101
| Megan sliding on a snow board alone right hair standing out behind her
| {{notice2|Is it a character from a previous comic?}} As there are no wheels it cannot be a skateboard. The way she stands also does not fit with ski. Could be a surfboard, but where’s the surf…
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| Snowboard
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| 102
| Cueball standing alone left
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| 103
| Cueball standing alone right seems short
| This Cueball here looks short, maybe he is a kid?
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| 104
| Cueball standing alone right, very tall
| A very large version of Cueball.
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| 105
| Cueball lying down on his back alone left resting his head on his arms behind him
| The first character that lies down on the ground. See also lying Cueball 597, the second to lie down like this.
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| 106
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 107
| Hairy standing alone right flat hair
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| 108
| Hairy standing alone right large hair
| Almost an Afro hairstyle on this Hairy
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| 109
| Megan standing alone left wind blowing her hair back right
| Seems like she is facing a strong wind from the left.
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| 110
| Cueball standing alone right holding an item towards right looking like a short golf club
| {{notice2|What is Cueball holding and is this a reference to a comic?}} Cueball holds an item with a stick and a head. It looks like a golf club but seems too short. It also has the shape of a pipe but then it is too big.
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| {{notice2|Short golf club?}}
|-
| 111
| Character with black hair and strange appearance floating above Hairbun 112
| {{notice2|What is this? Reference for comic?}} A strange appearance floats above Hairbun 112 (maybe interacting with her and the woman 113 whom Hairbun may be interacting with?) It could be a person lying down leaning on arms looking straight out. So only the arms and torso and head can be seen. Could be either sex.
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| 112
| [[Hairbun]] standing right maybe interacting with character 111 above her and with woman 113 to her right
| {{notice2|Is she interacting with 111 and 113 and if so is there a reference to a comic?}} The first instance of a woman with hair bun without pins. This is thus the first that can be described as Hairbun, but it is not the typical hair do for her. She may be interacting with the strange character 111 above her as well as with the freezing cloaked woman 113
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| 113
| Woman with black hair like Megan standing left in a long black cloak indicated to freeze or shake with nine wiggly lines around her
| {{notice2|Is she interacting with 112 and 113 and if so is there a reference to a comic? Freezing or shaking?}} This woman who could be a Megan freezing in spite of her clock may be interacting with Hairbun 112, and if she is interacting with character 111 then also with that person.
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| 114
| Megan standing alone left
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| 115
| Cueball standing alone left
| First of 6 Cueballs in a row.
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| 116
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 117
| Cueball standing alone left
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| 118
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 119
| Cueball standing alone left
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| 120
| Cueball standing alone left
| Last of 6 Cueballs in a row.
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| 121
| Woman with hair bun white standing alone right
| White hair so not Hairbun.
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| 122
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 123
| Megan standing alone left
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| 124
| Ponytail standing alone right
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| 125
| Guy with hat white that looks a little like a knit cap, but seems to go too high above his head no hair standing alone left looking up
| If this was a knit cap it would be closer to his head, so it seems like this white hat has a band around the rim and it quite tall over the head.
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| 126
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 127
| Man with very spiky hair dragging a large sword behind him.
| This is a drawing of [https://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Cloud_Strife Cloud] from Final Fantasy VII, dragging his Buster Sword behind him. In the game, Cloud carries the large sword with ease, but in real the life the weight would be staggering, requiring him to drag it.<br> Alternative explanation: It is Jesus with thorn crown dragging a strange cross
|
| Object drawn: Scraape
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| Sword
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| 128
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 129
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 130
| Megan standing right leaning towards Woman with white hair bun 131
| Seems like Megan is facing and interacting with the woman with hair bun 131 as she leans towards her and is already close by.
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| 131
| Woman with hair bun white standing left with Megan 130 leaning towards her
| White hair so not Hairbun. Seems like Megan 130 lean over to her.
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| 132
| Cueball standing alone right
| This is the '''last character in one''', of course it is a Cueball.
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|-
| rowspan="75" | '''[https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/b/b7/1000_Comics_-_The_first_zero_in_thousand_Top_with_numbers.png Zero 1 T]'''
| 133
| Cueball standing right towards Jill 134 holding a kite flying above her head
| This is the '''first character in the first zero''' - of course also a Cueball. Kites have been a recurring theme in xkcd but this comic [[235: Kite]] was the first and the kite looks the same. Wether the kite is flown also for Jill 134 is unclear.
| Category: [[:Category:Kites|Kites]]
|
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| Kite
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| 134
| Jill Standing left under Cueball 133 kite, drawn with two hair buns
| Seems like she is part of the kite flying Cueball 133. Size wise clearly a girl with hairdo like Jill with two hair buns like in [[1058: Old-Timers]].
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| 135
| Megan standing alone right
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| 136
| Cueball standing alone left
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| 137
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 138
| Cueball standing alone left holding his hand out with a small round bomb with a lit fuse
| {{notice2|Is it a character from a previous comic?}} Seems Cueball is holding a lit bomb ready to throw it (but not at anyone in particular in this comic). Seems like there is no situation where this happens in xkcd? A similar bomb is shown in [[968: Everything]] but Cueball is not carrying it and it is not lit. Cueball throws a smoke-bomb in [[486: I am Not a Ninja]] but it does not have a fuse or look like this.
|
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| Bomb with lit fuse
|-
| 139
| Megan flying right with arms spread out swooping downwards at Hairy 140 with great speed indicated with two speed lines after her hands
| {{notice2|Is it a character from a previous comic?}} It is not certain that Megan is aiming at Hairy 140, but she aims at his position. Megan flying was shown in [[438: Internet Argument]] but she was not swooping down with great speed like here. Maybe she has imported antigravity from [[353: Python]]. Later Megan also flew without speed in [1416:_Pixels#Clouds|the clouds]] deep down in [[1416: Pixels]] and a similar [https://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-flying-fig.png flying Megan] could "[[https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/3/38/1663_garden_Blitz_Girls_UFO_taking_Megan_garden.png grow]] in [[1663: Garden]].
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| 140
| Hairy standing right with flying Megan 139 coming right at him. Very thin hair.
| This version of Hairy has very little hair, but it is clearly not a bald Cueball. It is not certain that flying Megan 138 is aiming at Hairy but she aims at his position.
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| 141
| Character with short black hair standing alone left
| Could be either sex, hair too short to be Megan but too long to be Hairy.
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| 142
| Cueball standing alone leaning left
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| 143
| Hairbun standing alone left with hair falling down from the bun
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| 144
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 145
| Character with short white hair standing alone right, seems short
| Could be either sex, and maybe it is a child. See similar kid in 446 and similar adult in 174.
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| 146
| Cueball standing alone arms raised up
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| 147
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 148
| Cueball standing alone right looking up
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| 149
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 150
| Cueball standing right looking at Cueball 151 with an exclamation mark and a white heart over his head
| {{notice2|Is it a character from a previous comic?}} Does this Cueball have a crush on Cueball 151. Could be the second gay related event already… It cannot be stated for sure that they are looking at each other.
|
| Cueball: !♥
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| 151
| Cueball standing left looking at Cueball 150
| Maybe Cueball 150 has a crush on this Cueball. It cannot be stated for sure that they are looking at each other.
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| 152
| Guy with knit cap with long top and pom-pom at the end, glasses, a cane and a west (or other clothing) standing alone left
| {{notice2|Is it another character from a previous comic?}} This could be a black and white version of Wally or Waldo (in the US) from the {{w|Where's Waldo}} books. Randall included the color version in [[980: Money]] (though without glasses, but with eyes which Randall never draws in regular comics, so maybe glasses was added since Waldo should not be drawn without?) Then there would also be a Where's Waldo in this 1000 comic released only 20 comics later.
|
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| Cane
|-
| 153
| Cueball standing alone right, seems short
| Maybe a child?
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| 154
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 155
| Cueball standing alone right holding a briefcase by its handle in one hand
| Cueball is holding a briefcase in the handle. This could be related to the referenced comic where he arrives home to find Black Hat trying to cover up a murder.
| Comic: [[542: Cover-Up]]
|
|
| Briefcase
|-
| 156
| Ponytail standing right with curly hair at her forehead. Seems to be looking at other woman with ponytail 157
| {{notice2|Is it a character from a previous comic?}} The curly hair at her forehead in unusual for Ponytail. She seems to be looking at another curly haired woman 157 with a dark ponytail. Maybe they belong together (in a comic?)
|
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| 157
| Woman with a ponytail dark and curly hair at her forehead standing left looking at Ponytail 156
| {{notice2|Is it a character from a previous comic?}} She seems to be looking at Ponytail 156 also drawn with curly hair at her forehead which is unusual for Ponytail. Maybe they belong together (in a comic?)
|
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| 158
| Cueball standing right hands up to his mouth shouting as indicated with three lines in front of his mouth. Maybe he shouts as spinning Megan 159
| This Cueball seems to be shouting at Megan 159 maybe to stop her from spinning. This is not part of the comic that her spinning is related to. So maybe they are not connected.
|
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|-
| 159
| Megan is spinning fast around herself as indicated with three circles around her body below her outstretched arms. She faces left towards Cueball 158
| This is a direct reference to the Angular Momentum comic but in that comic there was no shouting Cueball, but maybe he tries to make her stop before she throws up (see title text). Later the same spinning Megan was used in [[442: xkcd Loves the Discovery Channel]], but that was a call back to the other comic. See also Cueball 541 spinning.
| Comic: '''[[162: Angular Momentum]]'''
|
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|-
| 160
| [[Danish]] standing alone right
| Danish can usually not be distinguished without her personality, but with this very long hair, much longer than Megan’s usually is, it is reasonable to assume it could be her. She looks quite a lot like the version of Danish in [[1014: Car Problems]] released a few weeks after this comic. Most of the comics she appears in were before 1000. See also Danish 373.
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| 161
| Cueball standing alone left
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| 162
| Ponytail standing alone left
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| 163
| Megan standing alone right
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| 164
| Megan standing alone left
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| 165
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 166
| Cueball standing alone left
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| 167
| Guy with glasses (square) and no hair standing alone right
|
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| 168
| Cueball standing alone right, seems short
| Maybe a child?
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| 169
| Cueball standing alone left
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| 170
| Cueball standing alone
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| 171
| Woman with black hair wide standing right looking at Cueball 172
| This is the second version of this woman with wider hair than Megan, and also this time she seems to be looking at a Cueball, this time 172. See also 4 and 325.
|
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| 172
| Cueball standing left looking at woman 172
| Second time a Cueball seems to be looking at a woman 172 with wider hair than Megan.
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| 173
| Cueball standing alone
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| 174
| Character with short white hair standing alone right
| Could be either sex, but as opposed to the similar 145 it cannot be a child.
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| 175
| Cueball standing alone left
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| 176
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 177
| Guy with glasses (round) standing alone left with both arms out
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| 178
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 179
| Hairbun standing alone right with very dark hair bun
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| 180
| Ponytail standing alone left
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| 181
| Megan standing alone right
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| 182
| Hairbun standing alone left with looser hair
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| 183
| Megan standing alone left
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| 184
| Cueball dancing alone right one leg lifted up and bend at the knee body bend forward, both arms out and two lines both in front of the knee and behind his back to indicate the dancing
| {{notice2|Is it a character from a previous comic?}} Cueball seems to be enjoying a little dance alone. It would fit very well if he had been in front of Megan 286.
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| 185
| Ponytail sitting on the ground alone right leaning back on one hand, while the other hand seems to be lifted to her face like she is speaking on a phone. One leg is almost straight the other lifted up
| Ponytail is the first person to sit on the ground, which she also does in 458 and 510. Previously Ponytail 18 was also seen sitting on a spinning office chair.
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| 186
| Hairbun standing alone left
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| 187
| Aragorn with beard (full) and hair is standing alone right with his broken sword lifted up in one arm
| {{w|Aragorn}} from the {{w|Lord of the Rings}} was depicted like this in the referenced comic. Towards the end of LOTR the broken sword Narsil is reforged and handed to Aragorn.
| Comic: '''[[370: Redwall]]'''
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| Broken sword
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| 188
| Megan standing alone left
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| 189
| Hairy standing alone right
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| 190
| Cueball standing alone left
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| 191
| Cueball standing alone
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| 192
| Guy with glasses (round) standing alone left
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| 193
| Hairbun standing alone right with very dark hair bun
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| 194
| Cueball standing alone leaning left
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| 195
| Jill standing alone right with bun and hair down her back
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| 196
| Hairy standing alone right, seems short
| May be a kid like Jill 195 to his left
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| 197
| Cueball standing alone left, seems short
| May be a kid, making it three in a row with 195 and 196 as well.
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| 198
| Hairy standing alone left
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| 199
| Cueball standing left together with Cueball giant 200
| Together with giant Cueball 200 they look like the pair in panel four of the referenced comic.
| Comic: '''[[68: Five Thirty]]'''
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| 200
| Cueball giant twice normal height standing left with Cueball 199
| Together with the normal sized Cueball 199 they look like the pair in panel four of the referenced comic.
| Comic: '''[[68: Five Thirty]]'''
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| 201
| Megan standing alone left, seems short
| May be a kid.
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| 202
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 203
| Cueball standing right looking at Cueball machine 204
| Seems like he is looking at Cueball machine 204 who encompasses him and Cueball 205 with his outstretched arms.
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| 204
| Cueball torso with outstretched arms fused together with a platform standing on its three spider-like legs which looks mechanical. He seems to encompass Cueball 2023 and 205 on either side of him
| {{notice2|Is it a character from a previous comic?}} Seems like someone made an experiment with Cueball putting his torso on top of some platform that is supported by (at least) three sharp ended legs. He is now part man part machine, but not like a typical cyborg... Seems like he holds his arms out to the two Cueballs on either side of him 203 and 205, maybe they are his servants or creators?
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| 205
| Cueball standing left looking at Cueball machine 204
| Seems like he is looking at Cueball machine 204 who encompasses him and Cueball 203 with his outstretched arms.
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| 206
| Hairy standing alone right
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| 207
| Cueball standing alone right
| This is the '''last character in the first zero top''', of course it is a Cueball.
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|-
! rowspan="71" | '''[https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/a4/1000_Comics_-_The_first_zero_in_thousand_Right_with_numbers.png Zero 1 R]'''
| 208
| Cueball standing alone right
| This is the '''first character in the first zero right''' - of course also a Cueball.
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| 209
| Woman with long hair white but maybe also a hair bun standing alone left
| {{notice2|Is it a character from a previous comic?}} The way the hair comes down to her shoulders make her look different from any normal characters. She also seems to have some kind of hair bun, which does not fit with the hair. The color seems to be white, but with features on her forehead.
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| 210
| Hairy standing right towards Megan 211 with a white heart floating between them
| A couple in love as indicated with the heart between Hairy and Megan 211. See also similar Cueball/Megan couple 590-591.
|
| Hairy/Megan: ♥
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| 211
| Megan standing left towards Hairy 210 with a white heart floating between them
| A couple in love as indicated with the heart between Megan and Hairy 210. See also similar Cueball/Megan couple 590-591.
|
| Hairy/Megan: ♥
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| 212
| Megan standing alone right
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| 213
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 214
| Ponytail standing alone right
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| 215
| Woman with two hair buns on either side of her head standing
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| 216
| Cueball standing alone left
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| 217
| Cueball standing right looking at Megan 218 with her sign
| Seems like he is reading Megan’s 217 sign.
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| 218
| Megan standing left showing a sign she is holding on a stick in one hand to Cueball 217 and Cueball 219
| Megan is the first to be listed of the ten characters that hold up small signs showing binary numbers, which form the shape of a heart if connected. As this heart begins at 0, and her sign is 2 (binary 10), she is the third of the ten, forming the left of the upper left part of the heart. As she is drawn it seems like both Cueball 217 and 219 looks at her sign.
| [[1000: 1000 Comics#Connect the Dots|Connect the dots]] 2
| Sign: 10
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| Sign on a stick
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| 219
| Cueball standing left looking at Megan 218 with her sign
| Seems like he is reading Megan’s 217 sign.
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| 220
| Woman with dark hair that seems to fall behind her, maybe like a ponytail She holds up a sign above her head with both hands.
| This woman’s hair does not look like Megan’s, as it seems to fall only to her left side as if it has been collected in a ponytail. She is the second to be listed of the ten characters that hold up signs showing binary numbers, which form the shape of a heart if connected. As this heart begins at 0, and her sign is 1 (binary 1), she is the second of the ten, forming the right of the upper left part of the heart.
| [[1000: 1000 Comics#Connect the Dots|Connect the dots]] 1
| Sign: 1
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| Sign
|-
| 221
| Cueball falling sideways alone right having bounced on the visible grassy ground twice, as indicated with three curved lines, and he is now positioned head down, arms out and legs flailing up in to the letters A of the sound he makes while tumbling further right
| This Cueball represents ''The Man Who Fell Sideways'' from the referenced comic. The gravity pulls him wrongly along the ground thus he always falls, and only meet people when bumping into them, maybe the white haired character 222 is in for a surprise, but it doesn't seem like they are connected.
| Comic: '''[[417: The Man Who Fell Sideways ]]'''
| Cueball: Aaaaaaaaa
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| 222
| Character with short white hair standing alone right holding up a sign above the head with both hands
| Could be either sex. This is the third to be listed of the ten characters that hold up signs showing binary numbers, which form the shape of a heart if connected. As this heart begins at 0, and his/her sign is 3 (binary 11), this is the fourth of the ten, forming the outer part of the upper left part of the heart.
| [[1000: 1000 Comics#Connect the Dots|Connect the dots]] 3
| Sign: 11
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| Sign
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| 223
| Ponytail standing alone left
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| 224
| Megan standing alone left, seems short
| Maybe she is kid.
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| 225
| Ponytail is standing alone right looking into a large telescope standing on a platform that almost coincides with the helmet of the guy 230 below, but seems to not have any connection
| In the referenced comic Ponytail looks into a much larger observatory like telescope to discover the Sun is dying. Seems like a mistake that this drawing overlaps with Guy 230 below. Actually hard to say if the platform is on his head or below the telescope as it seems the legs of the telescope goes below this platform instead of resting on it.
| Comic: [[673: The Sun]]
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| Telescope
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| 226
| Megan standing alone right
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| 227
| Cueball standing alone left
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| 228
| Cueball standing alone left
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| 229
| Megan standing alone right
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| 230
| Guy with helmet white with a strap under his chin no hair standing alone right with what appears to be roller skates on his feet. Seems to be unstable as the movement lines indicate his feet are about to move apart. Is drawn so close to Ponytail 225 that the base of her telescope coincides with his helmet
| This guy wears roller skates, something never drawn in xkcd so far. Looks like the Cueball with a bicycle helmet for skating from [[579: The Race: Part 3]]. It also looks like the soldier’s helmet in [[984: Space Launch System]]. Seems like a mistake that this drawing overlaps with Ponytail 225 above. Actually hard to say if the platform is on his head or below the telescope as it seems the legs of the telescope goes below this platform instead of resting on it. Could be some kind of device attached to the helmet.
|
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| Roller skates
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| 231
| Cueball standing alone right holding a sign level with his torso, one hand coming from above and one from below to hold it
| This Cueball is the fourth to be listed of the ten characters that hold up signs showing binary numbers, which form the shape of a heart if connected. As this heart begins at 0, and his sign is 4 (binary 100), he is the fifth of the ten, forming the lower left of the upper left part of the heart.
| [[1000: 1000 Comics#Connect the Dots|Connect the dots]] 4
| Sign: 100
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| Sign
|-
| 232
| Guy with black hair going up in two spikes on each side of his head standing alone right
| {{notice2|Is it a character from a previous comic?}} This hairdo is very special and not at all like Hairy's.
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| 233
| Woman with long curly white hair standing right towards Cueball 234. Seems to have something attached to both arms, that is disconnected from her hair that stops clearly above these items
| {{notice2|Is it a character from a previous comic? What does she wear on her arms?}}
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| 234
| Cueball standing left towards curly haired woman 233
| Seems like he is looking at woman 233 with curly hair.
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| 235
| Megan standing alone left
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| 236
| Guy with Afro hairdo giant size standing alone right
| {{notice2|Is it a character from a previous comic?}} A very large hair on top of this guy compared to 248, close by, and also 565.
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| 237
| Cueball standing alone left
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| 238
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 239
| Cueball standing alone left
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| 240
| Cueball standing right with a giant snail with a coiled shell with its head out displaying the two eyes tentacles. Its rear side is hidden behind Cueball. The snail seems to be moving right away from Cueball
| Cueball and his giant pet snail. The only snail drawn in xkcd so far seems to be a sea snail at the bottom of the seas to the right in [[731: Desert Island]].
|
|
| {{w|Land snail|Snail}}
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| 241
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 242
| Cueball standing alone left
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| 243
| Cueball standing alone right, larger than normal
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| 244
| Cueball standing alone left
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| 245
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 246
| Ponytail standing right towards Cueball 247
| Seem like she faces Cueball 247.
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| 247
| Cueball standing left towards Ponytail 246
| Seems like he faces Ponytail 246.
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| 248
| Guy with Afro hairdo normal size standing alone right
| {{notice2|Is it a character from a previous comic?}} A more normal Afro hair than on 236, like 565.
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| 249
| Cueball standing alone left, seems short
| Maybe a child?
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| 250
| Megan standing alone left
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| 251
| Mephistopheles standing alone right with horns, tail with arrow and a trident held before him in one hand
| The devil {{w|Mephistopheles}} has been used twice, but only in the referenced comic also with {{w|trident}}. He was first used in [[501: Faust 2.0] without trident.
| Comic: '''[[533: Laptop Hell]]'''
|
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| Trident
|-
| 252
| Cueball standing right towards Cueball 253
| Seems to be looking at Cueball 253
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| 253
| Cueball standing left towards Cueball 252
| Seems to be looking at Cueball 252
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| 254
| Woman with white hair but not a simple hairstyle standing right almost touching the sword tip of [[Richard Stallman]] 255
| The woman is not looking like any regular figures. But In the [[:Category:1337|1337 series]] Stallman 255 was helping [[Elaine Roberts]], daughter of the hacker [[Mrs. Roberts]]. This woman could be meant to represent Elaine, but the hair is not drawn in the same way as in the comic, although both are white haired, so maybe it is just a coincidence that the sword tip almost touches her?
|
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| 255
| [[Richard Stallman]] with beard and wild hair stands with two katana swords pointing right and left, the latter almost touching Woman 254
| [[Richard Stallman]] is a recurring character in xkcd, and he is always depicted with two {{w|katana swords}}. This depiction of Stallman is taken almost directly from the referenced comic in the Leet/[[:Category:1337|1337 series]]. He was first shown, also with swords, in [[225: Open Source]]. In the 1337 series he was helping [[Elaine Roberts]], daughter of the hacker [[Mrs. Roberts]]. The woman 254 could be meant to represent Elaine, but the hair is not drawn in the same way as in the comic, although both are white haired, so maybe it is just a coincidence that the sword tip almost touches her?
| Comic: '''[[345: 1337: Part 5]]'''
|
|
| Katana swords, two
|-
| 256
| Hairy standing alone right, seems short
| This really looks like a child.
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| 257
| Megan standing alone right
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| 258
| Cueball standing alone left
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| 259
| Cueball standing alone left
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| 260
| Guy with spiky hair standing alone left
| {{notice2|Is it a character from a previous comic?}} The hairdo is much different than Hairy’s.
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| 261
| Guy with sunglasses and very thin black hair standing alone left
| First time seen in 35.
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| 262
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 263
| Ponytail standing alone right
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| 264
| Cueball standing alone left
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| 265
| Hairy standing alone right
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| 266
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 267
| Megan standing alone right
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| 268
| Cueball standing alone
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| 269
| Guy with hair only around the neck standing alone left
| This could be [[Donald Knuth]] from [[342: 1337: Part 2]] or George from [[587: Crime Scene]]. The hair is the same. The first Guy with hair like this was 75.
|
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|-
| 270
| Character with short black hair standing alone right
| Could be either sex, hair too short to be Megan. Also the hair on top of the head is higher than usual for a Megan.
|
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|-
| 271
| Guy with hat a peaked cap and a stick in one hand, and appears to only have one arm, the other ending in a black square next to his shoulder
| {{notice2|Is it a character from a previous comic?}} At first it may appear to be a police officer with {{w|peaked cap}} and a {{w|baton}}, but it seems weird he only has one arm. Could of course be a drawing mistake, and after drawing a shoulder pad Randall may have forgotten to draw the arm. In that case it is a policeman. But if he only has one arm and some weapon in his hand, it could also be a pirate with a special peaked pirate cap. Black peaked caps has been drawn on police officers both in [[587: Crime Scene]] and [[617: Understocked]]. Also after this comic in [[1018: Good Cop, Dadaist Cop]], [[1105: License Plate]] and [[1251: Anti-Glass]]
|
|
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| Stick/baton
|-
| 272
| Guy with spiky hair standing alone left, seems short
| {{notice2|Is it a character from a previous comic?}} Looks like a kid with crazy hair.
|
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|-
| 273
| Character with black hair in a high dome on top of the head standing alone left
| Could be either sex, hair too short to be Megan. Also the hair on top of the head is higher than usual for a Megan.
|
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|-
| 274
| Megan standing alone right shaking a round object with black strings up and down as indicated with two lines above and below
| {{notice2|Is it a character from a previous comic? What is it she is shaking}} It could look like a Medusa head (or normal head) she is shaking. Do not look like a ball.
|
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|
| {{notice2|Round object with black strings}}
|-
| 275
| Cueball standing alone left
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| 276
| Cueball swinging left on a rope as indicated with three lines behind his back while he is looking back over his shoulder at Megan 277
| Cueball has learned {{w|regexes}}, and is using them heroically.
| Comic: '''[[208: Regular Expressions]]'''
|
|
| {{w|Rope}}
|-
| 277
| Megan standing left looking at Cueball 276 swinging by her
| Megan was drawn differently in early comics. This could be her in comic [[208: Regular Expressions]], with Cueball 276.
|
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|-
| 278
| Megan standing alone left
| This is the '''last character in the first zero right''', finally a Megan not a Cueball.
|
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|-
| rowspan="72" | '''[https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/5/5c/1000_Comics_-_The_first_zero_in_thousand_Bottom_with_numbers.png Zero 1 B]'''
| 279
| Megan standing alone right
| This is the '''first character in the first zero bottom''', which is also a Megan not a Cueball.
|
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|-
| 280
| Cueball standing alone
|
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| 281
| Cueball standing alone left
|
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| 282
| Hairbun standing alone left
|
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| 283
| Boy with hair like hairy, standing alone right
| Obviously a child, a boy with hair.
|
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| 284
| Cueball standing alone right
|
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| 285
| Cueball standing alone right
|
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|-
| 286
| Megan dancing alone left one arm up and one arm held out, one leg held up and bent completely at the knee, three double lines indicating movement of arms and legs
| {{notice2|Is it a character from a previous comic?}} Megan seems to be enjoying a little dance alone. It would fit very well if she had been in front of Cueball 184.
|
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|-
| 287
| Hairbun standing alone left, seems she has some hair hanging down her back
|
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|-
| 288
| Character with short white hair standing alone right
| Could be either sex, see also similar characters at 174 and 222.
|
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|-
| 289
| Cueball standing alone left
|
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|-
| 290
| Cueball standing right in a very tight embrace arms with around, legs between each others and kissing Cueball 291 with a white heart over their heads
| {{notice2|Is it a characters from a previous comic?}} Obviously two Cueball's kissing in such a tight embrace is a gay reference. There are several of these throughout this comic. This could be the two Cueball's from [[65: Banter]] a little later…
|
| Cueballs: ♥
|
|
|-
| 291
| Cueball standing left in a very tight embrace arms with around, legs between each others and kissing Cueball 290 with a white heart over their heads
| {{notice2|Is it a characters from a previous comic?}} Obviously two Cueball's kissing in such a tight embrace is a gay reference. There are several of these throughout this comic. This could be the two Cueball's from [[65: Banter]] a little later…
|
| Cueballs: ♥
|
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|-
| 292
| Cueball standing alone left
| He could be looking at the gay Cueballs couple 290-291, but seems offset from them.
|
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|-
| 293
| [[Miss Lenhart ]] with very long white hair standing alone right
| {{notice2|Is it a character from a previous comic?}} This may be the longest white hair on any woman drawn in xkcd.
|
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|-
| 294
| Hairy standing alone left
|
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| 295
| Cueball standing alone right
|
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|-
| 296
| Boy with a hat, a fez, standing alone right
| {{notice2|Is it a character from a previous comic?}} Obviously a child, a boy with a {{w|fez}} with the characteristic shape and with a tassel attached to the top.
|
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|-
| 297
| Hairbun standing alone right
|
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|-
| 298
| Cueball hanging in the air a little above the ground alone left arms stretched out, legs bend a little at the knee, shadow beneath him on the ground
| {{notice2|Is it a character from a previous comic?}} Cueball could have just jumped and pulled his legs up, but is seems like he is floating in the air keeping his arms out for balance. He may later be the one falling down in 576. Possible reference to comic [[118: 50 Ways]] ("...to learn to hover").
|
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|-
| 299
| Hairbun standing alone left with lots of hair also coming down her back
| There is a clear hair bun but the hair down her back is more than usual for Hairbun
|
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|-
| 300
| Cueball standing alone right
|
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|-
| 301
| Guy in an open lab coat with wild long hair and glasses standing alone left with both arms raised up
| This may very well be meant to represent {{w|Emmett_Brown|Dr. Emmett L. Brown}} from {{w|Back to the Future (franchise)|Back to the Future}}, since a kid was dressed up looking like this, and in the same pose, in the referenced comic. Given that this does not look like a kid it could not be the kid, but rather the real person. Seems like he has not been drawn in any comic though.
| Comic [[656: October 30th]]
|
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|-
| 302
| Cueball standing with bend knees and arms out alone left bending his back backwards right but keeping his head above his feet
| Could look like he was dancing but both feet are on the ground and there are no movement lines like say dancing Megan 286.
|
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|-
| 303
| Cueball standing alone left
|
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|-
| 304
| Cueball standing alone right
| Could be involved with Cueball 305 but this is not clear.
|
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|-
| 305
| Cueball running alone left with arms up like he is happy that he has just spotted a black rectangular shape on the ground in front of him
| {{notice2|Is it a situation from a previous comic? What is the object on the ground and why is he happy to see it. Anything to do with Cueball 304 standing there?}} This running Cueball seems to be happy that for the object he finds on the ground. Could be his wallet lying open on the ground. Could also be some kind of sport, where he runs toward this object to kick it. In that case maybe he is playing with Cueball 304?
|
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|
| Black rectangular object
|-
| 306
| Cueball standing alone left
|
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| 307
| Cueball standing alone right looking up
|
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|-
| 308
| Cueball standing alone right, seems short
| This Cueball here looks short, maybe he is a kid?
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| 309
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 310
| Cueball standing alone left
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| 311
| Cueball standing alone
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| 312
| Ponytail standing alone right
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| 313
| Cueball standing right leaning slightly toward Megan 314
| Looks like he is with Megan 314
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| 314
| Megan standing left leaning slightly toward Cueball 313
| Looks like she is with Cueball 313
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| 315
| Cueball inside a hamster ball is rolling right down a steep slope alone. He is at this moment face down, head to the right a little lower than his feet and arms out. The drawing is smaller than the others, so he is not a kid, just further away. The slope is also drawn and it continues with two more lines to indicate that it is long behind Megan 316 and stops in front of the feet of Cueball 317, without they are involved. Behind the hamster ball there are two lines to indicate the rolling motion. Above the Hamster ball is a word that is not easily readable
| {{notice2|What is the word above the hamster ball?}} Hamster ball is a recurring theme in xkcd, see the referenced category, and was first featured in [[152: Hamster Ball]], but this scene with Cueball rolling down a hill is not from any comic. The only scene with something falling down (a stair) in a hamster ball was a robot in [[413: New Pet]]. However, much later in [[1608: Hoverboard]], there was a [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/5/53/1608_0987x1075y_Hamsterball_bowling.png scene with a girl] running downhill inside a hamster ball.
| Category: [[:Category:Hamster balls|Hamster balls]]
| {{notice2|Cueball: Tho??a}}
|
| Hamster ball
|-
| 316
| Megan standing alone right, seems tall
| This Megan seems taller than the surrounding figures, the Cueball 317 next to her, seems short, maybe he is her child? Behind her is part of the slope from the hamster ball Cueball 315, but she is not part of that scene.
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| 317
| Cueball standing alone right, seems short
| This Cueball seems short, maybe he is a kid, or it is just because Megan 316 is extra tall. Maybe she represents his mother. Just left of his feet is part of the slope from the hamster ball Cueball 315, but he is not part of that scene.
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| 318
| Megan standing alone right
| This Megan is obviously shorter than Megan 316, but does not seem like a child.
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| 319
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 320
| Character with something black on the head, seems short
| {{notice2|Is it a character from a previous comic?}} The character looks short, maybe it is a kid? The black shape on the head seems a little like a flat hat, and the black along the back of the head could be a strip holding it in place. It could also just be short black hair, but then not clear what sex the character has.
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| 321
| Megan standing right towards Cueball kid 322, she also seems short
| This Megan here looks short, maybe she is a kid? But then the boy looking like Cueball 322 to her left, much shorter than her, is definitely also a kid. Maybe her little brother.
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| 322
| Boy looking like Cueball standing right, may be together with Megan 321
| This kid looking like Cueball is certainly too short to be Cueball. He is standing near Megan 321 who, although clearly taller, is short compared to most characters, so maybe she is also a child and could be his older sister?
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| 323
| Cueball standing alone left, seems tall
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| 324
| Guy with hat, white dome shaped with wide brim standing alone left
| This version of White Hat is the one from Idiocracy. It is used more than once in this comic, so here he will not be listed as White Hat. The hat seems to have a wider brim than 26.
| Comic: [[603: Idiocracy]]
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| 325
| Woman with black hair wide standing alone right
| This is the third version of this woman with wider hair than Megan. See also 4 and 171.
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| 326
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 327
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 328
| [[White Hat]] standing alone right
| This is the first standard version of White Hat in this comic. The previous two with white hat was the shape from [[603: Idiocracy]], see 324.
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| 329
| Cueball standing alone left, with a face that almost has a heart shape, rather than round
| Seems like this face has been drawn sloppily, not like those with clearly different shapes later. Although the shape here almost resembles a heart.
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| 330
| Cueball wearing a mask with a long nose and a strip around his neck standing alone right
| {{notice2|Is it a character from a previous comic?}} Seems like there is no comic with a guy in a mask like this with a long nose. Could be a {{w|Guy Fawkes mask}} which was referenced shortly before this comic in [[960: Subliminal]], but not on a Cueball. A guy wearing a mask is seen nine comics before this in [[991: Phantom Menace]], but it is not that kind of mask here.
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| Mask wit long nose
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| 331
| Cueball standing alone left
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| 332
| Ponytail standing alone right
| Her head is turned to the ponytail is partly hidden behind her head.
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| 333
| Cueball standing alone left
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| 334
| Guy with hat black bowler standing alone right
| There have been two guys with black bowler hats in [[344: 1337: Part 4]] and [[344: 1337: Part 5]], but they looked somewhat different more high and slim, so not quite like this guy. Similar difference between this guy and Black Hat as White Hat and the [[603: Idiocracy]] guy.
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| 335
| Cueball standing alone left looking down at his hand which holds something small and slim like a smartphone
| Could be Cueball from the referenced comic, where he holds a smartphone looking at it like this Cueball. See also Cueball 523, maybe also holding a smartphone.
| Comic: [[864: Flying Cars]]
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| Smartphone
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| 336
| Cueball standing alone right, seems short
| This Cueball here looks short, maybe he is a kid?
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| 337
| Megan standing alone left
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| 338
| Character with short curly standing alone left
| {{notice2|Is it a character from a previous comic?}} Could be either sex with this short curly hair.
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| 339
| Character with short white hair standing alone right
| Could be either sex, see also similar characters at 174, 222 and 288.
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| 340
| Cueball sitting alone left leaning back in an armchair legs straight in front of him
| There are several comics with Cueball sitting in an armchair but in the references comic Cueball is seen sitting in a very similar position having been watching {{w|The Matrix}}. Previously only Ponytail 18 has been seen sitting in a chair (an office chair).
| Comic: [[566: Matrix Revisited]]
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| 341
| Hairy standing alone
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| 342
| Cueball standing alone right
| He could be looking at two Cueballs with present 343-344.
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| 343
| Cueball standing right towards Cueball 344 who is holding up a present
| {{notice2|Is this a scene from a previous comic?}} Seems like he receives a present from Cueball 344. Maybe Cueball 342 is also in on this party?
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| 344
| Cueball standing left towards Cueball 343 holding a wrapped present up in one hand
| {{notice2|Is this a scene from a previous comic? Is it a present?}} Seems like he offers the present he holds up to Cueball 343. Maybe Cueball 342 is also in on this party? The drawing of the present is not very clear, and it doesn't look like the wrapping goes down below the box.
|
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|
| Box looking like a wrapped present
|-
| 345
| Ponytail standing alone left, seems short
| The Ponytail here looks short, maybe she is a kid?
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| 346
| Woman with white hair and pigtails standing alone
| {{notice2|Is it a character from a previous comic?}} There have been two girls with pigtails in xkcd, the first was a parody not in the style of xkcd in [[142: Parody Week: Megatokyo]], and the other is a girl in [[573: Parental Trolling]], with dark hair.
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| 347
| Cueball standing alone left
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| 348
| Cueball standing alone left
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| 349
| Guy with sunglasses standing alone left
| First time seen in 35.
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| 350
| Cueball standing alone left
| This is the '''last character in the first zero bottom''', again it is a Cueball.
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|-
! rowspan="74" | '''[https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/0/06/1000_Comics_-_The_first_zero_in_thousand_Left_with_numbers.png Zero 1 L]'''
| 351
| Cueball standing alone leaning right
| This is the '''first character in the first zero left''', again it is a Cueball.
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| 352
| Megan standing alone left
| {{notice2|Explanation missing}}
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| 353
| Woman with hair bun white standing alone right
| This is not Hairbun as she has dark hair. This white hair bun woman is used more than once (see already in 43 and above here 420). Maybe the next character 354 is also this woman or maybe a guy with knit cap?
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| 354
| Character with either hair bun white or it could be a knit cap with a pom-pom on top standing alone left
| Could be either sex, depending if it is a woman with hair bun (which would make it two next to each other with 353) or a guy with knit cap. {{w|Knit cap|Knit caps}} has been [[1350:_Lorenz#Knit_Cap_Girl|used several times]] in xkcd but only after this comic.
|
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| 355
| [[:Category:Comics featuring Cory Doctorow|Cory Doctorow]] in his cape and googles are flying swooping head first downwards and left alone with his cape out behind him and two speed lines along the edges of his cape
| This is the typical representation of Cory Doctorow, who is featured twice in this section of this first zero (see 398 as well). Cory Doctorow has been shown in several comics and this flying version is from the referenced comic. Normally his cape is drawn in red, but there is no color in this comic.
| Comic: '''[[442: xkcd Loves the Discovery Channel]]'''
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| 356
| Megan standing alone right
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| 357
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 358
| Cueball standing alone left
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| 359
| Hairbun standing alone right
| She is standing above and left of the woman with white hair bun 353 who is near another character 354 perhaps with bun (or knit cap with pom-pom), but it is a close cluster of characters with buns or poms.
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| 360
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 361
| Megan standing alone left
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| 362
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 363
| Hairy standing alone right
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| 364
| Cueball standing alone leaning right, seems short
| This Cueball here looks short, maybe he is a kid?
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| 365
| Hairy standing alone left
| Hairy’s hair is spiky
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| 366
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 367
| Hairy standing alone left
| Hairy’s hair is messy
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| 368
| Megan standing alone right
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| 369
| Megan standing alone right
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| 370
| Guy wearing some kind of black head gear standing alone seems like the top of the head can be seen in the middle, so it could just be a head band.
| {{notice2|Is it a character from a previous comic? What is it on his head?}} A guy is wearing something on his head. Is it a hat, is it hair is it a hairband. Given that some of the head seems to be visible at the top maybe that. Could also be two large horns a little like Mephistopheles 251, but not at all like him. Could also be a crown with two peaks on either side, which the head gear may look to have, and that would be able to go low enough to show the top of the head.
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| 371
| Cueball standing alone left
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| 372
| Woman with long black hair generally much larger in all directions than Megan’s
| {{notice2|Is it a character from a previous comic?}} This woman’s hair is so much more thick and long than Megan’s usually is, and not at all like the depiction of Danish either like 373
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| 373
| Danish standing alone left
| Danish can usually not be distinguished without her personality, but with this very long hair, much longer than Megan’s usually is, it is reasonable to assume it could be her. She looks quite a lot like the version of Danish in [[1014: Car Problems]] released a few weeks after this comic. Most of the comics she appears in were before 1000. Very much different from the other longer than Megan haired woman in 372. See Danish 160
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| 374
| Hairy standing alone right
| Hairy’s hair stands up
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| 375
| Cueball sitting right on the ground straight back supported with on one hand behind him, while the other hand resting on the knee of one leg which is lifted up and bend at the knee getting close to his head. Maybe he rests his chin on his arm on the knee. The other leg is almost straight out but bends a little at the knee. Maybe Megan 376 is looking down on him.
| This Cueball is the second person to sit on the ground. Previously Ponytail 185 also sat on the ground, and later Cueball 439 and Cueball as Rob 602 will sit on the ground as well. Cueball 340 sat in an armchair.
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| 376
| Megan standing left maybe looking down on sitting Cueball 375
| Megan maybe looking at sitting Cueball 375, but it is not clear.
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|-
| 377
| Cueball standing alone left
| This is the first of nine Cueballs in a row from 377-385. However, not all of them are placed together due to the numbering system. Particularly this Cueball is two rows below the full row from 379-383.
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| 378
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 379
| Cueball standing alone right
| Cueballs 379-383 constitutes a full line across the right part of the first zero only with Cueball. They are part of the nine Cueballs in a row.
|
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| 380
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 381
| Cueball standing alone left
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| 382
| Cueball standing alone left, seems tall
| This Cueball is taller than the others in this group of nine.
|
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|-
| 383
| Cueball standing alone right
| Cueballs 379-383 constitutes a full line across the right part of the first zero only with Cueball. They are part of the nine Cueballs in a row.
|
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|-
| 384
| Cueball standing alone left, seems short
| This Cueball here looks short, maybe he is a kid?
|
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|-
| 385
| Cueball standing alone right
| This is the last of nine Cueballs in a row, but given the numbering system not all of them are close together. But he is the top of a group of five Cueballs close together.
|
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|-
| 386
| Megan standing right is holding a hand out to a sitting squirrel, it looks big she looks short
| This Megan here looks short, maybe she is a kid? She seems to reach out to maybe pad the squirrel which is drawn almost exactly as in [[776: Still No Sleep]] but here it is with Cueball. Squirrels are a recurring theme as shown in the reference.
| Category: [[:Category:Squirrels|Squirrels]]
|
| Squirrel
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|-
| 387
| Megan standing alone left, seems short
| This Megan together with Megan 386 may both be kids. Maybe she looks on Megan 386 and her squirrel?. Those two girls and the guy 391 are more or less surrounded by a ring of nine Cueballs, with even more of them close by. One of the most Cueball-lized areas so far.
|
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| 388
| Cueball standing alone left
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| 389
| Character with short loose hair standing alone
| Could be either sex, not really hair like a Hairy.
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| 390
| Cueball standing alone, seems short
| This Cueball here looks short, maybe he is a kid?
|
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| 391
| Guy with black knit cap standing alone right
| This looks very much like a guy with knit cap. {{w|Knit cap|Knit caps}} has been [[1350:_Lorenz#Knit_Cap_Girl|used several times]] in xkcd but only after this comic.
|
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| 392
| Cueball dancing alone left one leg slightly lifted and crossing over the other leg on the ground body bend slightly both arms out and one is higher up and three times two lines at his arms and behind his back indicate the dancing
| {{notice2|Is it a character from a previous comic?}} Cueball seems to be enjoying a quiet little dance alone. As he did in 184 but more vigorously. Megan 186 is also dancing. Seeing this Cueball "hanging" above the two characters next to him 391 and 393 is could look like he was floating up in the air. But the lines do not indicate this and there is no shadow below him as for floating Cueball 298. Possibly from comic [[118: 50 Ways]] ("...to learn to hover").
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| 393
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 394
| Cueball standing alone left arms out
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| 395
| Ponytail standing alone right
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| 396
| Ponytail standing alone right, seems short
| This Ponytail here looks short, maybe she is a kid? It would be the second Ponytail in a row after 395.
|
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| 397
| Hairy standing alone left
|
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|-
| 398
| Cory Doctorow in his cape and googles standing left, left arm lifted up
| This is the typical representation of Cory Doctorow, who is featured once before in this section of this first zero (see 355 as well). Cory Doctorow has been shown in several comics and this version is probably from the first depiction of him in the referenced comic , which is actually not of him but of a guy trying to look like him, Normally his cape is drawn in red, but there is no color in this comic.
| Comic: '''[[239: Blagofaire]]'''
|
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| 399
| Cueball standing alone left
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| 400
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 401
| Cueball standing alone left
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| 402
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 403
| Cueball standing alone left
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| 404
| Boy looking like Cueball standing right, seems like he is holding a snake in its tale shaking it by the tail so it flows out from his arm snaking in the air
| {{notice2|Is it a snake and does it refer to a previous comic?}} This boy child (much shorter than regular Cueballs) seems to be holding a snake, but it is not clear if it is a snake or represents some weird long arm on the kid? See similar boy with branch 475.
|
|
| {{notice2|Snake?}}
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|-
| 405
| Megan standing alone right, may be looking toward the guy 406
| There is some distance but she is facing the next guy 406.
|
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|-
| 406
| Guy with hair only around the neck standing alone left, maybe looking at Megan 405
| This could be [[Donald Knuth]] from [[342: 1337: Part 2]] or George from [[587: Crime Scene]]. The hair is the same. The first Guy with hair like this was 75. See also 411 just above him, which does not really look like this guy but same style of hair. He may be looking at Megan 405 even though there is some distance between them.
|
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|-
| 407
| Cueball standing alone left
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| 408
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 409
| Megan standing alone left
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| 410
| Cueball standing alone left
|
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|-
| 411
| Guy with hair only around the neck standing alone right, head is very thin
| This does not really look like the other guy 406 with hair like this just below him. The head shape is weird like it has been squeezed together. The first Guy with hair like this was 75 but he did not quite look like this guy.
|
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|-
| 412
| Guy with hair short white and spiky standing alone left
| {{notice2|Is it a character from a previous comic?}} Seems a special type of hair, that has not been seen before in this comic. Not looking like similar described 491.
|
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|-
| 413
| Megan standing alone right, may be looking toward the Cueball 414
| Could be looking at Cueball 414.
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|-
| 414
| Cueball standing alone left, may be looking toward the Megan 413
| Could be looking at Megan 413.
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| 415
| Cueball standing alone left
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| 416
| Guy with glasses (square) and hair black standing alone right
| Most of those with glasses so far have been bold as Cueballs, but this one has hair.
|
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| 417
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 418
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 419
| Megan standing alone right
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| 420
| Woman with hair bun white standing alone right
| This is not Hairbun as she has dark hair. This white hair bun woman is used more than once (see already in 43, and below here in 353)
|
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| 421
| Cueball standing alone
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| 422
| Hairbun standing alone left
| Hairbun with her dark hair looks in the direction of the white haired woman with hair bun 420.
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| 423
| Ninja dressed in black with black cloth around his head so only a small part of the face is visible and a broad and curved sword in hand standing alone right
| There have been several references to {{w|ninjas}} before this comic. But in neither of these does they look much like this one with this particular curved sword. First time with ninjas was in [[225: Open Source]] and there is also one in the first comic of [[820: Five-Minute Comics: Part 2]]. Cueball has also noted that [[486: I am Not a Ninja]].
|
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|
| Ninja sword
|-
| 424
| Cueball standing alone
| This is the '''last character in the first zero''', again it is a Cueball.
|
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|-
| rowspan="82" | '''[https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/e/ea/1000_Comics_-_The_second_zero_in_thousand_Top_with_numbers.png Zero 2 T]'''
| 425
| Cueball standing alone right
| This is the '''first character in the second zero''' - of course also a Cueball.
|
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| 426
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 427
| Woman with hair bun black, large and on top of her head with what appears to be two hairpins stuck into it standing alone right looking down arms out
| {{notice2|Is it hairpins in a hair bun? Any reference to characters drawn previously}} Even though she has a hair bun it is much too different from Hairbun's to be her and with the pins in. See also similar women 38 and 66 with hairpins in hair bun.
|
|
|
| Hairpins?
|-
| 428
| Cueball standing alone right
|
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| 429
| Cueball standing alone right, seems short
| This Cueball here looks short, maybe he is a kid?
|
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| 430
| Cueball standing alone left balancing (or dancing) on one leg with the other lifted up and bend by the knee arms out
| {{notice2|Could it be that he is about to kick the squirrel above the smoke of Cueball 439?}} Seems like this Cueball is balancing on one leg, but could also be that he is dancing. However, a few others that clearly danced had lines to indicate movement, which is not the case here.
|
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| 431
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 432
| Cueball standing alone right
|
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| 433
| Character with short dark hair standing alone left
| Could be either sex. See also 586.
|
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| 434
| Cueball standing alone right
|
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| 435
| Cueball standing alone right arms out, seems short
| This Cueball here looks short, maybe he is a kid?
|
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|-
| 436
| Cueball standing alone left pushing with both arms, one leg lifted behind him, on the hilt of a sword that is just protruding out of a large stone. The stone has a jagged edge to the left, and is a bit lower where the sword is pushed in. Sound effect and lines to show the pushing is drawn over Cueballs hands
| {{notice2|Is it a character from a previous comic?}} This is clearly a reference to the sword in the stone ({{w|Excalibur}}). The legend says that whoever pulls on the {{w|hilt}} of that sword, to get it out of the stone will be the king of England. However, either Cueball is desperate not to get that honor, or he is the one that is about to place it there making it hard to get out. There seem to be now direct reference fro before this comic, but much later a comic titles exactly [[1521: Sword in the Stone]], references a situation where a person getting the sword declines the honor after reading about England. Read the explanation for that comic on more about the sword. There are however what appears to be the hilt a sword sticking out of a stone in right pile in the second panel of [[968: Everything]]. Maybe it is this stone Cueball has prepared for Megan in that comic.
| Other: {{w|Excalibur#Excalibur_and_the_Sword_in_the_Stone| Sword in the Stone}}
| Sound: ''Puhs push''
|
| Hilt of a sword sticking out of a large stone
|-
| 437
| Cueball standing alone right arms out on top of a balance board looking like a skateboard with only one large wheel in the middle. Four times two movement lines on either side of Cueball and the wheel shows he is balancing and not moving
| {{notice2|Is it a character from a previous comic?}} Cueball is using a {{w|balance board}} (and not a one wheeled skateboard) and is managing to hold the balance even though movement lines indicate that he shifts left and right on the board. There have been many comics with skateboards or electrical skateboards, but seems like there are none with a balance board.
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| Blance board
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| 438
| Boy with hair like hairy, standing alone left
| Obviously a child, a boy with hair.
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| 439
| Cueball sitting on the ground right straight back supported with on one hand behind him, while the other hand resting on the knees which are lifted up is holding the pipe he is smoking. The smoke rises straight but then seems to hit a shelve above it on top of which sits something that looks like a squirrel, but could also be licking flames. Maybe together with Cueball 440
| {{notice2|Is it a character from a previous comic? What is happening here? Does the smoke support a shelve with a squirrel or is it flames above the smoke? Do Cueball try to smoke out the squirrel? Do this belong with the Cueball 440 or is the squirrel a part of Cueball 430 trying to kick it?}} This is a very difficult situation to decipher. Best guess at the moment is that Cueball is tired of the squirrel sitting above him and is trying to smoke it out. [[:Category:Squirrels|Squirrels]] are a recurring theme and in [[382: Trebuchet]] a trap to get rid of squirrels are mentioned, although more effective than smoke in getting rid of them. It is unclear if there is any relation with Cueball 440 with his plant but they are closer together than most other characters, but maybe that is just the smoke and the plant's fault and not the two figures? This is the second Cueball sitting on the ground, the first being 375.
|
|
| {{notice2|Squirrel?}}
| Pipe with smoke and a shelfe above it (with flames or squirrel?)
|-
| 440
| Cueball standing right with a potted plant behind him. It is a thin stem with a few leafs. At the top it reaches Cueballs shoulders and bends towards him. He stands close to Cueball 439
| {{notice2|Is it a character from a previous comic? Has he any relation to the Cueball 439? Is it a potted plant?}} Looks like Cueball is standing with his plant looking away from Cueball 439. It is unclear if there is any relation with Cueball 439 with his pipe and smoke but they are closer together than most other characters, but maybe that is just the smoke and the plant's fault and not the two figures? There is a potted plant in the office in [[393: Ultimate Game]]. Later a more similar potted plant next to a kid looking away (like Cueball here) was [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/3/3e/1608_1033x1095y_The_rotary.png seen in the rotary] inside the Destroyer in [[1608: Hoverboard]].
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| 441
| Woman with lots of spikes in her hair on the back of her head standing alone left
| {{notice2|Is it a character from a previous comic? What is it with her hair. Is it hair or is something sitting on her head, not a hat?}} This Megan style woman has a weird hair style or something with spikes has attached itself to her head?
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| 442
| Cueball with antenna on his head standing right towards Cueball three arms 443
| {{notice2|Is it a character from a previous comic? What is it on his head? Maybe it should not be listed as Cueball if it is hair or a hat?}} This Cueball seems to have a small antenna on his head. Could also be a single hair? Maybe this freak belongs together with the three armed Cueball 443?
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| 443
| Cueball standing alone left all three arms out, hands on the two arms to the left. Maybe together with Cueball 442
| This is the Cueball clock with three arms from panel five in the referenced comic. He even has the same position and hands on two (though not all three) arms. He may be together with the other freak Cueball 442 with antenna on his head?
| Comic: '''[[68: Five Thirty]]'''
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| 444
| Woman with hair long and loose standing alone right with a scarf around her neck hanging down her back. She holds her arms up to keep it over her throat as she makes a sound like she is freezing
| {{notice2|Is it a character from a previous comic?}} This woman is not Megan. Her hair is different and looks weird over her head. Maybe it should look like some kind of hat? She obviously freezes with the sound and the scarf. Although this is not Megan, Megan is seen here with a scarf: [[726: Seat Selection]]. Possibly from comic [[511: Sleet]].
|
| Woman with scarf: ''Brrr''
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| Scarf
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| 445
| Cueball standing alone left
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| 446
| Character with short white hair standing alone left, seems short
| Could be either sex, and maybe it is a child. See similar kid in 145 and similar adult in 174.
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| 447
| Woman with hair short black and with a bump in the neck standing alone left, seems short
| This woman here looks short, maybe she is a kid? Her hair is short compared to Megan and there is a small hair bun like bump in the neck, but it does not really look like a hair bun and not at all like Hairbun. See also similar woman 481.
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| 448
| Guy with hair or some kind of hat standing alone
| {{notice2|Is it a cap or hair on his head? It would change the direction he looks!}} This guy seems to have either some thin hair or maybe some hat, like a cap?
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| 449
| Cueball standing alone left
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| 450
| Cueball standing alone left
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| 451
| Hairy standing alone right, with thin hair
| This Hairy has very thin hair.
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| 452
| Cueball standing alone right looking down
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| 453
| Megan standing alone left with hair flowing behind her
| Seems like Megan is facing wind into her face which blows her hair out behind her, giving her a different look from normal Megan.
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| 454
| {{notice2|Guy with thick hair is either standing with some sword hanging up his back, or it is part of the chair he is sitting in. His hands are toward what appears to be a bird bath with a duck in it}}
| {{notice2|Is it a character from a previous comic? Hopefully it is because it is impossible to see what happens here. What is the thing in front of him? Is he standing with sword or sitting in a chair?}} It looks like a [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/e/e8/1663_garden_Cueball_talks_to_deer_duck_in_birdbath.png duck in a birth bath] in front of this person who either have a sword or sits in a chair? Seems small too, but would be even smaller if sitting on a chair.
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| {{notice2|Duck?}}
| {{notice2|Bird Bath?}}
|-
| 455
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 456
| Cueball standing alone right holding the remote control for a radio controlled toy helicopter flying up as indicated with two lines above and below
| {{notice2|Is it a character from a previous comic?}} Cueball is playing with his radio-controlled helicopter. One of those was also shown later in [[1110: Click and Drag]] where Beret Guy [https://imgs.xkcd.com/clickdrag/1n1e.png chases it with a butterfly net].
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| Remote controlled helicopter and remote
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| 457
| Boy with party hat with a strap under the chin. Around him lies confetti on the ground
| This is one of the kids from the Malaria party in the referenced comic. The hat and the items on the ground are taken directly from the comic.
| Comic: '''[[51: Malaria]]'''
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| 458
| Ponytail sitting on the ground alone right leaning back on one hand, while the other hand rest on her bend knees
| This is the second Ponytail to sit straight on the ground, the first being 185.
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| 459
| Cueball is floating alone above a pentagram with lit candles at its points
| Cueball has summoned himself from a parallel universe in a ritual using a pentagram (5-pointed star) and burning candles.
| Comic: '''[[105: Parallel Universe]]'''
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|
| {{w|Pentagram}}, {{w|candles}}
|-
| 460
| Character with dark hair, maybe down the back, maybe short standing alone right
| Could be either sex. The hair on the head does not look like Megan, and it is difficult to determine if the hair stops above or below the shoulders.
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| 461
| Boy with hair short black standing alone right arms up holding something in the arm to the left, maybe a ball
| {{notice2|What is in his hand}} Clearly this is a kid holding some object, could be a ball he is about to pass?
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| {{notice2|Ball?}}
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| 462
| Woman with black ponytail standing alone left
| This is not Ponytail as she has white hair. There is a similar woman in [[882: Significant]]. Later a girl looking very much like this was [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/d/d0/Garden_Stilt_walker.png seen on stilts] in [[1663: Garden]].
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| 463
| Cueball standing alone left
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| 464
| Guy with hat black beret and black beard only on his chin standing alone right smoking a pipe, smoke coming out and drifting up beginning with a round black cloud and then above two white clouds
| {{notice2|Is it a character from a previous comic? Is he supposed to look French?}} There are some smoking pipe in xkcd (see for instance [[923: Strunk and White]]) but none with smoke like this and no only looking anything like this black beret guy.
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| Pipe with smoke
|-
| 465
| Guy with hat black but much larger than Black Hats although similar shape, but soft in the middle standing alone right. A large wing is hanging out from the hat on the left side
| {{notice2|Is it a character from a previous comic?}} This winged hat seems to be related to the locomotive hat. There seems to be only one wing, and with the white ends it seems like it is feathers, although there is some bat wing over the drawing. Maybe a joke on the phrase ''{{w|A feather in your cap}}'' but no with an entire wing instead?
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| Wing on hat
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| 466
| Cueball standing alone left
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| 467
| Cueball standing alone left with a large head and a camera or a mask held in front of his face with both hands
| {{notice2|Is this from a previous comic? Is it a big camera he is holding or a mask?}} Unclear what Cueball is holding in front of his head. The head seems rather large, maybe a drawing mistake due to the camera or mask he is holding up to his head?
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| {{notice2|Camrea or mask?}}
|-
| 468
| Megan standing alone right
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| 469
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 470
| Guy with beard, full, and black hair standing alone right
| {{notice2|Is it a character from a previous comic?}} Does not look like guy with beard 73.
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| 471
| Guy with pumpkin face with slits for eyes and a curvy mouth standing alone right
| This is one of the pumpkin men from the referenced comics 6th panel.
| Comic: '''[[68: Five Thirty]]'''
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| 472
| Cueball standing alone left
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| 473
| Cueball standing alone right
| There may be indication of thin hair, but could be a sloppy end to the circle of the head
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| 474
| Cueball standing alone right while bending in the knees leaning over them back bend arms stretched out for balance
| Could be that he is preparing to jump?
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| 475
| Boy looking like Cueball standing right seems like he is holding a branch in one end so it hangs out in the air to the right. At the end there is a split in two parts.
| {{notice2|Is it a branch or a snake like in 404 and does it refer to a previous comic?}} This boy child (much shorter than regular Cueballs) seems to be holding a branch out, but it is not clear how he holds this or if it is a branch? See similar boy with snake 404.
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| {{notice2|Branch?}}
|-
| 476
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 477
| Megan standing alone right
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| 478
| Ponytail standing alone left
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| 479
| Cueball standing alone left
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| 480
| Cueball running alone right towards something that gives off smoke with a sound. Seems like he is holding a bow and maybe he has just shot an arrow at the smoking object, the arrow missing hitting the ground with a sound
| {{notice2|Is it a character from a previous comic? Quite unclear what happens here?}} Best guess is that something is being aimed at by Cueball's bow and arrow but he misses the target (he burns his shot) and the target burns releasing smoke while hissing.
|
| Smoking object: Ssss <br> Arrow: Thump
|
| Bow, arrow and smoking object
|-
| 481
| Woman with hair short black and with a bump in the neck standing alone left, seems short
| This woman here looks short, maybe she is a kid? Her hair is short compared to Megan and there is a small hair bun like bump in the neck, but it does not really look like a hair bun and not at all like Hairbun. See also similar woman 447.
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| 482
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 483
| Cueball standing right speaking to a butterfly that flies in front of him with two times two lines around the wings away from Cueball and one two times one line close to Cueball
| This is a direct reference to the referenced comic where real programmers use butterflies and it turns out e-macs has a command that does this which begins with C-x as Cueball says, and then continues to give this sentence: ''C-x M-c M-butterfly.''
| Comic: '''[[378: Real Programmers]]'''
| Cueball: C-x
| Butterfly
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|-
| 484
| Megan standing alone right, rather long hair
| This Megan does not look like Danish.
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| 485
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 486
| Cueball standing alone right
| His face shape is a little squeezed at the top, so his head is not close to being round.
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| 487
| Miss Lenhart standing alone left
| It is not a ponytail but long hair going down her back.
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| 488
| Hairy standing alone left
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| 489
| Ponytail standing alone right
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| 490
| Boy looking like Cueball standing alone
| Clearly a kid much smaller than Cueball normally is.
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| 491
| Guy with hair short white and spiky standing alone left
| {{notice2|Is it a character from a previous comic?}} Seems a special type of hair, that has not been seen before in this comic. Not looking like similar described 412.
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| 492
| Megan standing right looking slightly down at Cueball with Boombox 493
| This is the named Megan from the referenced comic, hair even drawn a little different like in that comic. She listens to Cueball 492's music from his Boombox.
| Comic: '''[[159: Boombox]]'''
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| 493
| Cueball standing left holding a playing boombox high up over his head in both hands, playing music for Megan 492
| This is Cueball with the boombox playing for Megan 492 from the referenced comic. The music playing is a reference to the title text, as it is not ''Ice Ice Baby''.
| Comic: '''[[159: Boombox]]'''
| Boombox: Under presssure
|
| Boombox
|-
| 494
| WOPR (War Operation Plan Response) supercomputer, a box with a lid and a black line below this (looking like a Xerox machine) with its name written in front of the panel talking to Boy 495
| This is the sentient {{w|AI}} in the form of the WOPR (War Operation Plan Response) computer from the movie {{w|WarGames}} talking with a boy 495. The boy should then represent David played by {{w| Matthew Broderick}} (see also boy 495). It wants to play a game and in the movie this almost results in nuclear war where the only winning move is not to play. A similar AI has been featured in [[601: Game Theory]] where it analyzed love like the WOPR analyzed nuclear war. It determines that you always lose in love even if you say no to playing! This is the only one of the 1000 characters that has no human shape what so ever- But that it's an independent intelligence cannot be doubted, and hence it must be seen as one of the 1000 characters.
| Movie: {{w|WarGames}}
| WOPR: Would you like to play a game?<br>Boy 495: No.<br>On WOPR: WOPR
|
| WOPR (although not seen as an object here)
|-
| 495
| Boy looking like Cueball standing left talking with the WOPR 494
| If this is the boy from the movie {{w|WarGames}} talking with the WOPR (War Operation Plan Response) computer, then his name is David Lightman and he was played by {{w|Matthew Broderick}}. In the movie WOPR asks David he would like to play a game and they end of playing a game of Global Thermonuclear War which almost leads to this in real life. Either this is after so David is cleverer or it is another clever boy, because he simply declines the offer of the WOPR. He could also have played tic-tac-toe but then no one would win, but also no one would lose as shown here [[832: Tic-Tac-Toe]]. If he dared he could have played the strip version of Global Thermonuclear War as mentioned in the title text of [[696: Strip Games]].
| Movie: {{w|WarGames}}
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| 496
| Cueball standing alone right looking up while throwing two objects into the air, one a round shape the other a snake shape
| {{notice2|Is this a scene from a previous comic? What is it he throws?}} Cueball is throwing something into the air, not clear what or why.
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|
| {{notice2|Two objects thrown up?}}
|-
| 497
| Woman with black hair and safety glasses standing alone right leaning back while holding an Erlenmeyer flask (a conical laboratory flask) up in the air in one outstretched hand
| {{notice2|Is this a scene from a previous comic?}} Cueball is seen holding a similar flask up in [[520: Cuttlefish]].
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| Erlenmeyer flask
|-
| 498
| Boy looking like Cueball standing alone right
| Clearly a kid much smaller than Cueball normally is.
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| 499
| Jill with Ponytail standing alone right arms held out from her body
| This is the early version of Jill from [[585: Outreach]].
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| 500
| Boy with hair like Hairy
| Clearly a kid much smaller than Cueball normally is.
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| 501
| Girl with hair like Danish
| Clearly a kid much smaller than the adult Danish. There is a whole group of kids here, see the previous three and 490 as well.
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| 502
| Cueball standing alone looking right while holding a gun out in his arm to the left (where there is no one nearby)
| {{notice2|Is this a scene from a previous comic?}} Cueball also holds a gun like this, but looking the same direction and pointing it on another Cueball in [[68: Five Thirty]].
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| Gun
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| 503
| Cueball standing alone left looking down at a large gravestone on a big base. There are three patches of grass around the stone
| {{notice2|Is this a scene from a previous comic?}} Gravestones has been used several times, also with this shape but not with Cueball standing in front of it. See [[584: Unsatisfied]], [[599: Apocalypse]] and [[736: Cemetery]].
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| Gravestone with grass around it
|-
| 504
| Cueball standing alone right holding a trumpet up to his mouth with both hands blowing a flower out of the other end of the instrument
| {{notice2|Is this a scene from a previous comic? Is it a trumpet or is it a large opening for a gun shooting the flower out?}} Seems like the items Cueball holds in front of him send a flower out, either when he blows into it, or fires it. Depending on if this is a trumpet or a gun?
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| {{notice2|Trumpet or gun with flower?}}
|-
| 505
| [[Black Hat]] standing alone left
| This is the first time Black Hat appears, here with a little wider hat than usual.
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| 506
| Hairy running alone left with his arms up
| This is the '''last character in the second zero top''', this time not a Cueball but a running Hairy.
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|-
! rowspan="63" | '''[https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/f/fe/1000_Comics_-_The_second_zero_in_thousand_Right_with_numbers.png Zero 2 R]'''
| 507
| Cueball standing alone left with a head that seems more egg shaped, with the tip up
| This is the '''first character in the second zero right''' - again a Cueball, but one of those with a peculiar shaped head. Here the head is more egg shaped.
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| 508
| Astronaut in a spacesuit standing alone left
| {{notice2|Is it a character from a previous comic?}} A spacesuit, which there seems to be no one of in the first 1000 comics?
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| Spacesuit
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| 509
| Megan standing alone right
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| 510
| Ponytail sitting on the ground alone right leaning back on one hand, while the other hand is resting on her knee which is lifted up, the other leg also bend but less. Seems like the ground is rough beneath her, and both one arm and one leg seems to rest on small rocks
| This is the third Ponytail to sit straight on the ground, the first being 185.
|
|
|
| Rocks on rough ground
|-
| 511
| Skeleton walking right towards Cueball 512 with his sword and Megan 514. The bones are clearly not joined together, the black eye sockets almost protruding from the skull. It has its arms held out
| {{notice2|Is it a character from a previous comic?}} Seems like Cueball 512 is facing this skeleton with his sword in a valiant attempt to defend Megan 514 who’s looking on the skeleton. The idea of being able to fight a skeleton is mentioned in the title text of [[1587: Food Rule]]. It could be a coincidence as they are not very close. There seems to be no skeletons drawn in the first 1000 comics? Even though this is not a living creature (but an undead) it is obviously counted as one of the 1000 characters.
|
|
|
| Skeleton (although not seen as an object here)
|-
| 512
| Cueball standing left brandishing a sword behind him to the right as he faces the skeleton 511 walking towards him with its arms out. Maybe he protects Megan 514
| It could look like Cueball is waiting to take a swing with his sword at the skeleton 511 walking his way with its arms out, a valiant attempt to defend Megan 514 looking on the scene. The idea of being able to fight a skeleton is mentioned in the title text of [[1587: Food Rule]]. It could be a coincidence as they are not very close. Seems like Cueball only holds a sword in [[68: Five Thirty]], but it doesn't really look like that sword.
|
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| Sword
|-
| 513
| Woman with hair long and white standing alone right arms out. Seems like some sort of very long ponytail hangs down below her waist
| {{notice2|Is it a character from a previous comic? What's with the hair down the back?}} The "ponytail" down to below her waist seems strangely shaped, very thin and uneven. Could also be some sort of scarf, as there is a large black area around the neck, which could also just be hair?
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| 514
| Megan standing left looking up at skeleton 511, being protected by sword Cueball 512
| Megan seems to be part of the skeleton 511 vs. Cueball 512 scene. Maybe Cueball is defending her from the walking skeleton with his sword. It could be a coincidence as they are not very close.
|
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| 515
| Cueball is abducted by an alien spacecraft looking like the typical flying saucer. It is sucking him up in a tractor-beam while he hangs suspended arms out and one leg bend
| {{notice2|Is this a scene from a previous comic?}} This is a reference of a typical alien abduction where a {{w|flying saucer}} uses a {{w|tractor beam}} to suck a human (Cueball) up into the space craft for further investigation and [https://vimeo.com/107376483insertion of anal probes] etc. Or just for practice - see [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkYcK3z5Go4 Lifted]. Seems like there are no flying saucers in the first 1000 comics? Could be that Cueball 522 sees this scene and reacts by taking his hand to his mouth? The spaceship is not seen as an individual character, as it is not alive or conscious (like the AI in the WORP 494).
| Other: {{w|Alien abduction}}
|
|
| Flying saucer using tractor beam
|-
| 516
| Guy with hair only around the neck standing right maybe towards Jill 519
| This could be [[Donald Knuth]] from [[342: 1337: Part 2]] or George from [[587: Crime Scene]]. The hair is the same. The first Guy with hair like this was 75. Although the appearance of the girl 519 he may be facing is that of Jill, there are some similarities with her and [[Elaine Roberts]] as she appears together with [[Donald Knuth]] in the mentioned comic...
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| 517
| Ponytail standing alone left
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| 518
| Cueball standing alone left
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| 519
| Jill with bun and ponytail, standard appearance, standing left maybe towards Guy 516
| Although this is the standard appearance of Jill she may be facing Guy 516 which may be [[Donald Knuth]] from [[342: 1337: Part 2]] . In that comic, [[Elaine Roberts]] is as a young girl drawn with ponytail (white though) so there are some similarities between a scene in that comic.
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| 520
| Boy looking like Cueball with arms out standing right towards Cueball 521
| {{notice2|Is this a scene from a previous comic?}} Clearly a kid much smaller than Cueball normally is. Seems like he is explaining something to Cueball 521 who scratches his head for that reason.
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| 521
| Cueball standing left scratching his head with a small black cloud(?) over his head as he tries to understand what the boy 520 is showing him
| {{notice2|Is this a scene from a previous comic?}} Cueball is reacting to the boy showing him something, scratching his head. The black cloud over his head may indicate that he doesn't comprehend what the boy wishes to show him or that he does but is dismayed.
|
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| 522
| Cueball standing right looking up, hand to his mouth, maybe because he sees the alien abduction of Cueball 515 above him?
| Could look like he was reacting to the alien abduction scene 515 as he looks that way and has his hand to his mouth.
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| 523
| Cueball standing alone right looking at something he holds in his hand lifted up in front of his face something small and slim like a smartphone
| {{notice2|Is it a smartphone in his hand or something else?}} Could be that Cueball holds a smartphone, but it is not clear. Cueball in [[864: Flying Cars]] also holds a smartphone but not in the same position as this Cueball. That was more the case for Cueball 335.
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| {{notice2|Smartphone?}}
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| 524
| Old man with a white hat (looking a bit like a beret, but could also a sailor cap seen from the front) and a cane standing alone left
| This is not an old version of Beret Guy but the old version of Cueball from the referenced comic, as he would look if he turned and stared straight out of the panel. The cap at on his sailor hat would then look like the middle part of the hat does here, which makes it look like Beret Guy’s beret. The cane and the wrinkles that match those from the comic, is helping prove this.
| Comic: '''[[572: Together]]'''
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| Cane
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| 525
| Cueball standing alone left
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| 526
| Hairy standing alone left with high hair and long face
| A little strange head and hair shape, but still Hairy like.
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| 527
| Cueball standing left talking to the ants in the ant hill by his feet
| {{notice2|Is this a scene from a previous comic?}} Cueball is thankful to the ants. There have been many mentions of ants in xkcd, but not seem to fit this picture. See for instance the later comic [[1610: Fire Ants]], but also the much referenced comic [[68: Five Thirty]] has an ant in the last panel. A [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/d/d2/1608_1078x1095y_Ant_Queen_in_Destroyer.png giant ant queen] was inside the Destroyer in [[1608: Hoverboard]].
|
| Cueball: Thanks ants
| Ants
| Ant hill
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| 528
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 529
| Megan standing alone right
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| 530
| Ponytail standing alone right
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| 531
| Guy with black hair and a bald patch on the top of his head standing alone right
| Seems like there is no hair on the top of the head. Could be a drawing mistake but else it is either a bald patch, or it is supposed to be some head gear going around his head?
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| 532
| Cueball standing alone left
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| 533
| Hairy standing alone right
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| 534
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 535
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 536
| Hairy standing alone left
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| 537
| Cueball standing right towards boy 538 holding a large axe in both hands with the head towards the boy
| This Cueball interacts with the boy 538, which again is a reference to the boy being an {{w|troll (internet)|internet troll}} that was slain in the referenced comic. Although there it was not as a real life {{w|troll}}, and not by an axe. See more on 538.
| Comic: '''[[591: Troll Slayer]]'''
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| Axe
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| 538
| Boy with hair and lots of pimples standing left facing the axe wielding Cueball 537
| This is the pimpled boy that {{w|troll (internet)|trolls}} {{w|Stephenie Meyer}} in the referenced comic. She then slays him using her {{w|Twilight (novel series)|Twilight novels}} as her weapon of choice. Given that it is the boy who is the troll slain, it makes sense here to put this little boy in front of a Cueball 537 with an axe big enough to slay real {{w|trolls}}.
| Comic: '''[[591: Troll Slayer]]'''
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| 539
| Hairy standing alone left
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| 540
| Megan standing alone right hair blowing out behind her
| Seems like this Megan has the wind in her face her hair billowing out behind her.
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| 541
| Cueball spinning around on one leg facing right alone doing a pirouette with arms held together over his head one leg up and bend close to his body and three circle lines left and right of his body and around the leg that supports him
| {{notice2|Is this a scene from a previous comic?}} Cueball is performing a {{w|Turn_(dance_and_gymnastics)#Pirouette|pirouette}}. It is not similar to the scene in [[162: Angular Momentum]] referenced by spinning Megan 159.
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| 542
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 543
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 544
| Girl sleeping drawn in silhouette alone with her head to the left snoring as indicated with a sound
| This drawing can be a little confusing since the end of it, is very close to guy 545's face and could even be seen as smoke coming from him. But the snoring sound gives it away as the [[7#Trivia|very first drawing]] Randall released on the [[:Category:First_day_on_LiveJournal|very first day]] of releasing comics on [[LiveJournal]] from [[:Category:Posted on LiveJournal|before]] he began posting on xkcd.com (where it then got number 7 for some reason?) So of course it should be included in this comic. Given that she is not even closely related to the stick figures constituting the rest of the 1000 characters she had to be drawn like this in silhouette to make her blend in. But it would be easy to misinterpret the drawing, but the three ''zzz'' helps a lot. Those were not included in the original drawing. The comic that later received the number 1 spot on xkcd is also here as [[Barrel Boy]] 643 at the bottom in the same side of this zero.
| Comic: '''[[7: Girl sleeping (Sketch -- 11th grade Spanish class)]]'''
| Girl: Zzz
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| 545
| Guy with hat black, high and round standing alone left
| {{notice2|Is it a character from a previous comic?}} This is clearly not Black Hat (as the next character 546) as the hat is not square but rounded and higher.
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| 546
| Black Hat standing alone, with a more massive hat than usual
| Although this must be described as Black Hat, as opposed to the guy 545 before this with a rounded black hat, the hat seems more massive broader and higher than the usual style of Black Hat.
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| 547
| Cueball hanging alone left in one arm from the string of a white balloon rising up. That he is up in the air is indicated with a shadow on the "ground" beneath him
| There seems to be no direct reference to a comic with such a Cueball, although a Cueball like kid is lifted in a balloon string, but not by the balloon, in [[121: Balloon]]. It more resembles the opening frame in [[1110: Click and Drag]], but that was first released more than eight months later (and the balloon there was black).
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| Balloon on a string
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| 548
| Megan standing right towards Cueball 549 on stilts
| It is not clear if she is with Cueball 548, but they are very close and she looks straight at him.
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| 549
| Cueball walking on stilts towards left while looking right. The stilts are broader at the ground. He may be together with Megan 548
| {{notice2|Is this a scene from a previous comic?}} It seems like Megan 548 is looking at him, but it is unclear if they belong together. There also seems to be no comic with Cueball walking on stilts like this, but in [[482: Height]] there is a Cueball walking on the world’s tallest stilts. Much later two game comics showed persons on stilts, [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/8/89/1608_1038x1095y_Hamsterball_and_stilts_room.png inside] the Destroyer in [[1608: Hoverboard]] and as a [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/0/0c/1663_garden_One_color_Between_Light_yellow_and_yellow_First_thing_stilts.png grown item] in [[1663: Garden]].
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| Stilts
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| 550
| Guy with hat black peaked cap standing alone right
| Looks like one of the often occurring police officers usually drawn with a black peaked cap, a police cap. Mostly these caps are though also drawn with a white emblem, but that might have been too small here. See for instance [[617: Understocked]].
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| 551
| Cueball standing right towards woman 552
| Seems like he is facing woman 552.
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| 552
| Woman with white hair long and loose, could be Miss Lenhart but might be in a ponytail, standing left towards Cueball 551
| It could be both Miss Lenhart and Ponytail, but at first it looks like long white hair that hangs loose down her back. She seems to be facing Cueball 552.
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| 553
| Woman with white hair in a bun with a ponytail below it standing alone left
| {{notice2|Is it a character from a previous comic?}} This is not a standard hairstyle in xkcd.
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| 554
| Cueball standing alone left
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| 555
| Cueball standing alone
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| 556
| Megan driving left on a Segway alone, three lines behind her indicates her motion and speed also clear as her hair flows somewhat back
| {{notice2|Is this a scene from a previous comic?}} Megan drives a {{w|Segway PT}}. There seems to be no comics where this happens, but Segway is referenced both in the description of people who likes the {{w|Dymaxion map|Dymaxion projection}} in [[977: Map Projections]] as well as in the title text of [[296: Tony Hawk]].
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| Segway PT}
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| 557
| Guy with hat baseball cap standing with Cueball 558 both looking right
| There are not many wearing baseball caps in xkcd. There was on in the background of [[954: Chin-Up Bar]]. One was shown long after in [[1221: Nomenclature]], it could almost be those two from that comic that this guy and Cueball 557 should represent, but the other guy is also wearing a hat in the comic. Also it cannot be a reference as it is a later comic.
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| 558
| Cueball standing with Guy 557 both looking right
| Seems like he may be watching something together with baseball cap guy 557.
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| 559
| Cueball standing alone arms up
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| 560
| Cueball standing alone right holding an octopus out in one arm
| This is the biologist from the referenced comic.
| Comic: '''[[435: Purity]]'''
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| Octopus
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| 561
| Cueball standing alone left
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| 562
| Cueball driving left on an electric skateboard having the radio control remote in his hand. Behind him are three lines next to the antenna of the control (and there are no wires) so this is either indication of speed or radio waves. The skateboard is driving slightly downwards and Cueball stand still on the middle. The two next "girls" 563-564 are running after him
| This is a clear reference to the referenced comic. The [:[Category:Electric skateboard|electric skateboard]] here (a recurring theme in xkcd) seems to have radio control, as there is no wire to the board as in the comic. But the two "girls" 563-564 running after him is two of the three chicks in the comic that cheered Cueball when he got to his destination.
| Comic: '''[[139: I Have Owned Two Electric Skateboards]]'''
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| Electric Skateboard
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| 563
| Ponytail running left after Cueball 562 and his skateboard
| Ponytail is running, together with Megan 564, after Cueball 562 because he is so cool with his electric skateboard, a clear reference to the comic where both "girls" also admire Cueball on his gadget.
| Comic: '''[[139: I Have Owned Two Electric Skateboards]]'''
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| 564
| Megan running left after Cueball 562 and his skateboard
| Megan is running, together with Ponytail 563, after Cueball 562 because he is so cool with his electric skateboard, a clear reference to the comic where both "girls" also admire Cueball on his gadget.
| Comic: '''[[139: I Have Owned Two Electric Skateboards]]'''
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| 565
| Guy with Afro hairdo normal size standing alone right
| {{notice2|Is it a character from a previous comic?}} A more normal Afro hair than on 236, like 248.
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| 566
| Megan standing alone
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| 567
| Cueball standing alone
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| 568
| Hairbun with sunglasses standing alone left
| This is how {{w|Trinity (The Matrix)|Trinity}} from {{w|The Matrix)} is drawn in the referenced comic. First guy with sunglasses see 35.
| Comic: [[566: Matrix Revisited]]
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| 569
| Cueball standing alone right
| This is the '''last character in the second zero right''', and again a Cueball.
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| rowspan="74" | '''[https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/e/e1/1000_Comics_-_The_second_zero_in_thousand_Bottom_with_numbers.png Zero 2 B]'''
| 570
| Guy with extremely spiky hair standing alone right
| {{notice2|Is it a character from a previous comic?}} This is the '''first character in the second zero bottom''', for once an unnamed character. This hair reminds of some kind of {{w|Punk fashion}}.
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| 571
| Cueball standing right towards Cueball 572
| Seems like he is looking at Cueball 572.
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| 572
| Cueball standing left towards Cueball 571
| Seems like he is looking at Cueball 571.
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| 573
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 574
| Cueball standing alone right holding one arm slightly out right
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| 575
| Cueball standing alone left arms a little of balance bending in one leg
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| 576
| Cueball falling headfirst down alone left while flailing with his arms and legs as indicated with two lines on either side, and four lines above him indicate the speed of the fall
| {{notice2|Explanation missing}}
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| 577
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 578
| Guy with hair in a Mohawk standing alone right
| {{notice2|Is it a character from a previous comic?}} This guy seems to sport a {{w|Mohawk hairstyle|Mohawk}}.
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| 579
| Hairy standing alone left
| This Hairy has flat hair.
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| 580
| Girl with long black hair standing alone right holding her arms up
| Clearly a girl much shorter than the adults around her. Hari style could be like Megan’s, but it's hard to see for the raised arms
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| 581
| Cueball standing alone doing the arm wave
| {{notice2|Is this a scene from a previous comic?}} Cueball is doing the [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CPtOe3GVwk arm wave], hip-hop style…
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| 582
| Ponytail standing alone right
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| 583
| Cueball standing alone left
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| 584
| Cueball standing alone left
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| 585
| Jill with small bun at the base of her neck and hair hanging down behind it standing alone right holding up a model rocket in one hand
| {{notice2|Is this a scene from a previous comic?}} There seems to be no comics where anyone holds up such a rocket. It is the standard version of a rocket that can be used for space launch.
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| Model rocket
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| 586
| Character with short dark hair standing alone right
| Could be either sex, see also similar characters at 433.
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| 587
| Cueball standing alone left
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| 588
| Woman with a ponytail dark standing right looking at Genie 589
| Seems like this woman has just rubbed the lamp of the Genie 589 and is now ready to make a wish. A similar {{w|genie}} was drawn in the referenced comic, although together with Cueball. Genies have been mentioned several times in xkcd, see more in the referenced comic. See also woman 157 with dark ponytail.
| Comic: '''[[152: Hamster Ball]]'''
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| 589
| Genie rising smoke like out of an oil lamp standing on the ground facing left towards Woman 588. The genies body materializes out of the smoke getting more solid from the waist up. It has its arms held into its sides. On its head it has a turban.
| It seems that woman 588 has just rubbed the lamp from where the Genie protrudes and it now ready to fulfill her wishes. A similar {{w|genie}} was drawn in the referenced comic, although together with Cueball. Genies have been mentioned several times in xkcd, see more in the referenced comic. In the referenced comic Cueball wishes for a hamster ball, and gets one. See Cueball 618 inside his hamster ball just below and left of here.
| Comic: '''[[152: Hamster Ball]]'''
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| Oil lamp
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| 590
| Cueball standing right towards Megan 591 with a white heart floating between them
| A couple in love as indicated with the heart between Cueball and Megan 591. See also similar Hairy/Megan couple 210-211.
|
| Cueball/Megan: ♥
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| 591
| Megan standing left towards Cueball with a white heart floating between them
| A couple in love as indicated with the heart between Megan and Cueball 590. See also similar Hairy/Megan couple 210-211.
|
| Cueball/Megan: ♥
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| 592
| Cueball standing right towards Ponytail 593
| Seems like Cueball faces Ponytail 593.
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| 593
| Ponytail standing left towards Cueball 592
| Seems like Ponytail faces Cueball 592.
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| 594
| Cueball running right towards Cueball 595 holding a long stick in both hands over his head. Towards the end of the stick there is a broader part of the stick, but at the very end it is again as thin as the rest of the stick
| {{notice2|Is this a scene from a previous comic?}} Cueball seems to be in the process of attacking Cueball 595 with some kind of weapon. But it neither seems like a spear or an axe with the protrusion on the stick he is wielding neither looking like an axe head or it at the tip like on a spear?
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| Stick with protrusion at one end
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| 595
| Cueball standing left towards charging Cueball 594
| {{notice2|Is this a scene from a previous comic?}} Seems like Cueball 594 is in the process of attacking this Cueball with some kind of weapon.
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| 596
| Hairy standing alone left with very thin hair
| This Hairy has thin but not flat hair
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| 597
| Cueball lying down on his back alone left resting on one arm behind him, the other arm down along his body one leg bent a lot the other only slightly at the knees
| The second character that lies down on the ground. See the first Cueball 105 to do so.
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| 598
| Cueball standing alone left
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| 599
| Hairy standing alone right
| He may be looking at Hamster Ball Cueball 618 - as all other in front of him in this general area looks at it.
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| 600
| Cueball standing alone right
| He may be looking at Hamster Ball Cueball 618 - as all other around him in this general area looks at it.
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| 601
| Cueball standing alone right
| He may be looking at Hamster Ball Cueball 618 - as all other around him in this general area looks at it.
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| 602
| [[Rob]] sitting alone right legs curled up to his body arms holding tight around them
| This is [[Rob]] from the referenced comic after his nephew has scared him with his fact of life. This is the third Cueball-like character sitting on the ground, the first being 375.
| Comic: '''[[647: Scary]]'''
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| 603
| Megan with her hair falling backwards alone right. She seems to have lost the balance, having only one leg on the ground the other up in the air and bendy leaning far behind the leg on the ground. The arms seem to be flailing up and down so fast that three arms are drawn on either side. The hair is also standing up
| This is Megan from the referenced comic after the LSD she has been given makes her believe that there are spiders all over her. The three arms on either side because of her flailing arms make this connection clear.
| Comic: '''[[790: Control]]'''
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| 604
| Cueball standing alone right eating an ice cream cone
| Seems like Cueball never eats an ice cream cone in the first 1000 comic but his daughter Jill does so next to him in [[585: Outreach]].
|
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| Ice cream cone
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| 605
| Hairbun standing alone left
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| 606
| Cueball standing right facing a finger gun assault by Hairy 607
| Seems he is being finger gun attacked by Hairy 607.
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| 607
| Hairy standing left brandishing two finger guns, one pointed at Cueball 606 the other held up in the air
| {{notice2|Is this a scene from a previous comic?}} Hairy has shaped both his hands into finger guns (which is thus one of the rare occasion where hands are shown). He seems to be pointing one of the hand guns towards Cueball 606.
| Other: {{w|Finger gun}}
|
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| 608
| Guy with hair only around the neck standing alone left something black under one hand
| This could be [[Donald Knuth]] from [[342: 1337: Part 2]] or George from [[587: Crime Scene]]. The hair is the same. See Guy 75, the first with this type of hair. The black dot under his hand seems to be a drawing mistake?
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| 609
| Cueball standing alone right
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| 610
| Megan standing alone right
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| 611
| Cueball standing alone
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| 612
| Cueball standing right towards Ponytail 611 brandishing a lightsaber pointed up towards her
| Seems like Cueball threatens Ponytail 613 with his {{w|lightsaber}}. This is a general reference to the {{w|Star Wars}} universe which is a recurrent topic on xkcd. Lightsabers are often referenced and drawn, but there is not really a particular scene that looks like this. Most closely comes the look of the lightsaber in the 6th comic from [[Five-Minute Comics: Part 4]] which was published by mistake. Also in one of the intentionally published comics in that series, [[820: Five-Minute Comics: Part 2]], are there lightsabers. Just three weeks prior to this comic a toy lightsaber was held by Cueball in [[991: Phantom Menace]]. Later a comic named after the weapon was published in [[1433: Lightsaber]] and they were displayed more than once in [[1608: Hoverboard]], both [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/b/bc/1608_1012x1078y_Bridge_on_the_Rebel_Blockade_Runner.png with Ponytail] and [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/2/20/1608_1006x1095y_Pinata_and_Cueball_with_lightsaber_at_top_of_hull.png with a kid] looking like Cueball.
| Category: [[:Category:Star Wars|Star Wars]]
|
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| Lightsaber
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| 613
| Ponytail standing left towards Cueball 612 and his lightsaber
| Seems like she is being threatened by Cueball 612 and his lightsaber.
|
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| 614
| Cueball driving a motorcycle alone right doing a wheelie, two movement lines at the back wheel showing the progress
| This is the {{w|Linux}} using Cueball from the referenced comic doing his {{w|wheelie}} stunt from the comic.
| Comic: '''[[272: Linux User at Best Buy]]'''
|
|
| Motorcycle
|-
| 615
| Megan standing right towards Cueball 616 pointing at him as he walks away
| Seems like this Megan might be accusing Cueball 616 of something and he just walks away from her. Could also be that she points at Hamster Ball Cueball 618 - as all those behind her in this general area looks at it.
|
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| 616
| Cueball walking right away from pointing Megan 615
| Seems like he is walking away from Megan 615 who points after him like she is accusing him of something. Could also just be that after being alerted to it by Megan pointing it out he walks towards at Hamster Ball Cueball 618 - as all other behind him in this general area looks at it.
|
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| 617
| Ponytail standing right touching Cueball 618's hamster ball
| Ponytail is either pushing, holding back or holding on to the hamster ball. See interpretations and details at Cueball 618.
| Category: [[:Category:Hamster balls|Hamster balls]]
|
|
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|-
| 618
| Cueball standing right inside a large hamster ball waving his arm to the left up and down indicated with two lines above and below. He also waves his other arm forward right indicated with two small lines. The hamster ball is surrounded by characters 617-621 interacting with the ball
| This is by far the most complex scene in the entire comic. Hamster balls is a recurring theme in xkcd, see the referenced category, and was first featured in [[152: Hamster Ball]], where a genie delivers such a ball to Cueball as it is his one and only wish. That genie can be seen in 589. But this scene has some similarities also with [[211: Hamster Ball Heist]] where a rock-star (not Cueball) is being pushed around inside a hamster ball by several people like here, (but against his will, so it is not a direct reference that comic either). The four characters around this ball, Ponytail 617 left, Woman with black hair 619 on top, Megan 620 floating right and Cueball 621 lying to the right, are all interacting with it. There may be several other characters that "see" this scene, like Megan 615 that might point at this (rather than Cueball 616, who might walk towards it). And on the other side Megan 622 may also be looking on as does Cueball 623. Similarly Cueball 600 and 601 also looks that way as does Hairy 599 but he is quite far away, but all in that direction look towards the ball. It is hard to say exactly what happens with the ball, as it seems to stand still (no movement lines). But this can hardly be the case as Ponytail 617 seems to push (could be holding on), the woman 619 on top of the ball seems to walk left forcing the ball right, and Cueball 621 seems to have been knocked over by the ball. Megan 620 is the mystery as she seems to float/fly near the hamster ball. Of course if Ponytail tries to hold it, and Cueball inside is showing to stop and they have just hit Cueball 621 the hamster ball may just have stopped at this very moment. Another possible interpretation, where the ball is moving right, is that the three women respectively tries to get up, is on top and has been on top. So Ponytail will hold on to the ball, being dragged up as the ball moves, while the woman on top moves the ball and eventually she will, like Megan has just done, fall down the right side, this would mean that Megan is now falling towards Cueball. He could also just have fallen off like this, but as he holds on to his face it seems more like he has been hit in the face by the moving ball and knocked back on the ground.
| Category: [[:Category:Hamster balls|Hamster balls]]
|
|
| Hamster ball
|-
| 619
| Woman with hair black and large on top of her head walking left on top of Cueball 618's hamster ball while looking down while holding her arms back, the right arm mainly hidden behind her "high" hair, only the hand can be seen to the right of the hair
| This woman may have a hair bun, but it is hard to tell and she does not at all look like Hairbun. She seems to be walking left on the hamster ball which would be meaningful if it moved right, and she might thus stay on top, maybe even helping with moving the ball that way. See interpretations and details at Cueball 618.
| Category: [[:Category:Hamster balls|Hamster balls]]
|
|
|
|-
| 620
| Megan falling, floating or flying face towards left looking down along the side of Cueball 6187's hamster ball. One leg bent at the knee
| Megan is either one of those that flies come the see what the fuss is about, or rather she has just been on top of the hamster ball like woman 619 and has just fallen off on the way down to hit Cueball 621. See interpretations and details at Cueball 618.
| Category: [[:Category:Hamster balls|Hamster balls]]
|
|
|
|-
| 621
| Cueball lying on his back towards right face towards left supporting himself on one arm behind him and holding the other hand to his face looking up at Cueball 618's hamster ball looming over him. One leg is stretched the other bend at right angle at the knee
| Cueball seems to have been knocked over by the hamster ball although it is unclear if it rolls. If so he seems to have taken a hit in the face seeing as he holds a hand up to it. He may also have fallen off from on top of the ball. See interpretations and details at Cueball 618.
| Category: [[:Category:Hamster balls|Hamster balls]]
|
|
|
|-
| 622
| Megan standing left looking at Cueball 618's hamster ball
| This Megan has looser hair on her head than normally. It seems like she is looking at the hamster ball scene at Cueball 618.
|
|
|
|
|-
| 623
| Cueball standing left looking at Cueball 618's hamster ball
| Cueball seems to be looking at the hamster ball scene at Cueball 618.
|
|
|
|
|-
| 624
| Guy with hat with two tassels or horns and a full beard standing alone right
| {{notice2|Is it a character from a previous comic? And what kind of hat is this? In relation to the locomotive hat it could also be a hat showing a ship with two chimneys sinking...?}} A guy with a strange hat that either has two tassels or two horns.
|
|
|
|
|-
| 625
| Cueball standing alone right
|
|
|
|
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|-
| 626
| Guy with hair only around the neck standing alone right - hair seems to be quite thick
| Although the hair is of the same type as Guy 75 he does not really look like him as the hair seems much thicker and further out from the neck. Had it not been because of the stance makes it clear that he faces right, then it could even look like some kind of googles...
|
|
|
|
|-
| 627
| Woman with long hair like Megan but thinner standing alone left or maybe looking at all the black hats on Black Hat 641 below her
| This woman’s hair has a white section in front, so although similar hair as Megan, it does not seem to be quite like her. She may be looking down at the black hats of Black Hat 641.
|
|
|
|
|-
| 628
| Ponytail standing alone left
|
|
|
|
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|-
| 629
| Guy with a long cloak below his Cueball like head standing right looking at Cueball throwing boomerang
| {{notice2|Is it a character from a previous comic?}} There seems to be some resemblance to a Jedi Knight like Obi-Wan Kenobi, the thought could be lead this direction with the lightsaber at Cueball 612 just above to the right. He may represent a coach for the boomerang throwing Cueball 630 next to him, who has been shown before to not be very good with boomerangs. Acting as a mentor for Luke Skywalkers lightsaber training was Kenobi’s task in Star Wars.
|
|
|
|
|-
| 630
| Cueball throwing a boomerang to the right so it rotates as indicated by a curling line. Two other lines show how he has swung his arm. Seems like the guy in cloak 629 is looking on
| Cueball has been shown to be quite hopeless in throwing boomerangs as has been shown in the referenced comic and its sequel, and boomerangs are a [[:Category:Boomerangs|recurring theme]] in xkcd. In this situation it seems like the cloaked guy 629 is supervising his throw. Maybe he is a mentor, looking a little like a Jedi knight form Star Wars, see interpretation at 629.
| Comic: '''[[445: I Am Not Good with Boomerangs]]'''
|
|
| Boomerang
|-
| 631
| Cueball standing alone right looking up
| This Cueball is particularly not looking in the direction of Cueball 618 and his hamster ball to his right.
|
|
|
|
|-
| 632
| Cueball standing alone left
| This Cueball looks away from the nearby hamster ball at Cueball 618.
|
|
|
|
|-
| 633
| {{w|Lucy van Pelt|Lucy}}, from Peanuts drawn like Megan, standing right towards Charlie Brown 634 offering him an American football
| This is a reference to the comic strip ''{{w|Peanuts}},'' and the running gag where Lucy (drawn here as Megan) would hold the {{w|American football}} for lovable loser Charlie Brown, with his single hair on his head, thus drawn like Cueball with one hair in 634. He 'd come running at it full speed, only to have Lucy pull the football away at the last moment and send Charlie Brown crashing to the ground. This repeating scene was referenced in the title text of [[423: Finish Line]]
| Carton: {{w|Peanuts}}
|
|
| American football
|-
| 634
| {{w|Charlie Brown}}, from Peanuts drawn like Cueball with a single hair, standing left towards Lucy 633 offering him an American football
| This Cueball's single hair together with the ball offered by Lucy 633 makes it clear that this is the Charlie Brown. See more in 633
| Carton: {{w|Peanuts}}
|
|
|
|-
| 635
| Megan standing towards right, right up against a very thin sheet of material that Ponytail 636 holds up between them
| {{notice2|Is this a scene from a previous comic?}} Seems like Megan’s forehead touches the thin sheet of material Ponytail 636 holds up between them.
|
|
|
|
|-
| 636
| Ponytail standing towards left holding a very thin sheet of material up in both hands between her and Megan 635 who stands flush up against this. She speaks an almost unreadable line
| {{notice2|Is this a scene from a previous comic? What is it she holds up, and what does she say}} Ponytail holds some very thin sheet of material up between her and Megan 636.
|
| {{notice2|Ponytail: Rach????}}
|
| {{notice2|Thin sheet of material?}}
|-
| 637
| Cueball with a square head standing alone right
| This Cueball is drawn with a perfectly square face. This is related to the Cueball with a triangular face
|
|
|
|
|-
| 638
| Guy with sunglasses and no hair standing right
| First guy with sunglasses see 35.
|
|
|
|
|-
| 639
| Cueball standing right towards Black Hat 641 with many hats
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 640
| Cueball standing right towards Black Hat 641 with many hats, seems short
| This Cueball here looks short, maybe he is a kid? Could also be a Black Hat that has just lost his hat to Black Hat 641 who seems to be stealing Black Hats.
|
|
|
|
|-
| 641
| Black Hat standing left towards Cueball 639 and 640 with no less than seven black hats balancing on top of his head and each other. Maybe woman 627 is looking down at his hats
| This is a continuation of the scene from the referenced comic, where Black Hat meets another Black Hat but one with two hats. Solo Black Hat then retraces his steps away from this dangerous double Black Hat as if he just realized that his hat might soon be the third on top of the two other black hats. There is also another double Black Hat in this comic, but this one has already acquired five more than that so there are six ore hats than a normal Black Hat, seven in total. This may explain why there are so many Cueballs and so few Black Hats in this comic, since at least five, maybe six have lost their hat to this guy (and if six, then also seven with the other two hat guy). The two Cueball's looking at him 639-640 may have been Black Hat's a moment ago, when this one only had five hats...
| Comic: '''[[455: Hats]]'''
|
|
|
|-
| 642
| Cueball standing alone left
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 643
| [[Barrel Boy]] sitting in his barrel on the ocean with the horizon behind him
| This is the '''last character in the second zero bottom'''. This drawing is of Barrel Boy from comic no. 1 on xkcd, the first in the [[:Category:The Boy and his Barrel|The Boy and his Barrel series]]. Originally it was the [[1#Trivia|fifth drawing]] Randall released on the [[:Category:First_day_on_LiveJournal|very first day]] of releasing comics on [[LiveJournal]] from [[:Category:Posted on LiveJournal|before]] he began posting on xkcd.com (where it then was moved to number 1, for good reason, as it is a perfect little story of the unpredictability of life and also constitutes a series. So of course, he should be included in this comic. Given that he is not even closely related to the stick figures constituting the rest of the 1000 characters he had to be drawn like this without his eyes. The very first comic to be released, now [[7|number 7]], is also here as sleepy girl 544 further up in the same side of this zero.
| Comic: '''[[1: Barrel - Part 1]]'''
|
|
| Barrel in an ocean
|-
! rowspan="71" | '''[https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/2/2d/1000_Comics_-_The_second_zero_in_thousand_Left_with_numbers.png Zero 2 L]'''
| 644
| Cueball standing right towards Hairy 645
| This is the '''first character in the second zero left''', again it is a Cueball. He seems to be facing Hairy 645
|
|
|
|
|-
| 645
| Hairy standing left towards Cueball 644
| This Hairy has thick hair and seems to be facing Cueball 644.
|
|
|
|
|-
| 646
| Megan standing alone left
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 647
| A person with long hair, possibly Leibniz, standing left towards Megan 646
| Hair is intermediate between Newton's and Leibniz's; however, given the extra intentional lines in the character's hair, it is likely Leibniz.
| Comic: '''[[626: Newton and Leibniz]]'''
|
|
|
|-
| 648
| Cueball standing center
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 649
| Cueball standing left towards Cueball 648
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 650
| Ponytail standing left towards Zero #1
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 651
| Character with grey hair? standing right towards Cueball 652
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 652
| Cueball stands facing #651
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 653
| Ponytail is standing right holding up a hairy guy with spots, 654, with her ray gun
| This is Joanna from the referenced comic that are ready to ban the poor guy 654 from the internet, under penalty of melting his computer with her "{{w|Electromagnetic pulse|EMP}} cannon".
| Comic '''[[322: Pix Plz]]'''
|
|
| Ray gun for melting computers
|-
| 654
| Boy with spiky hair and pimples standing left toward Ponytail 653, with arms raised above his head
| Possibly the internet troll from [[591: Troll Slayer]] (see also #538), as this would be the type of person that Ponytail 653 (AKA "Joanna") would ban from the Internet.
|
|
|
|
|-
| 655
| Cueball standing alone, both hands holding a pole to the left with a sign on it
| This Cueball is the fifth to be listed of the ten characters that hold up signs showing binary numbers, which form the shape of a heart if connected. As this heart begins at 0, and his sign is 5 (binary 101), he is the sixth of the ten, forming the bottom point of the heart.
| [[1000: 1000 Comics#Connect the Dots|Connect the dots]] 5
| Sign: 101
|
| Sign on a pole
|-
| 656
| Character with hair darker than Megan stands alone
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 657
| Megan kissing Miss Lenhart 658
|
|
| Girl: smooch
|
|
|-
| 658
| Miss Lenhart being kissed by Megan 657
|
|
| Girl: smooch
|
|
|-
| 659
| Hairy with shorter hair that reaches further down his head stands right towards Jill 660
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 660
| Jill stands left towards Hairy 659
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 661
| Cueball with an eagle on his shoulder
| Type of bird unsure, although they look like the eagles from [[1608: Hoverboard]].
|
| Bird: caw
| Eagle
|
|-
| 662
| Cueball looking towards Cueball 663
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 663
| Cueball with arms outstretched to Cueball 669
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 664
| Cueball with a hand above his eyes, looking at #665 (or beyond)
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 665
| Character with grey hair or cap stands alone
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 666
| Cueball looking towards Cueball 667
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 667
| Girl with completely dark hair looking towards Cueball 666
|
|
|
|
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|-
| 668
| Cueball stands alone
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 669
| Cueball stands facing Cueball 668
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 670
| Unusually messy Hairy stands alone
| Resembles Hairy from [[1350: Lorenz]]?
|
|
|
|
|-
| 671
| Black Hat standing alone
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 672
| Cueball with a jetpack
|
|
|
|
| {{w|Jet pack}}
|-
| 673
| Reporter Tom at the 4chan /b/ board
|
| Comic: '''[[495: Secretary: Part 2]]'''
|
|
| {{w|Helmet}}
|-
| 674
| Ponytail standing right towards Cueball 675
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 675
| Cueball facing right
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 676
| Megan looking at Cueball 669
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 677
| Cueball holding something
| {{notice2|Could this maybe be boombox Cueball from [[159: Boombox]]? Aside from it being a lantern or something, that seems like the best bet.}}
|
|
|
| ???
|-
| 678
| Megan standing alone
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 679
| Cueball facing right
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 680
| Cueball looking right at Cueball 681
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 681
| Cueball with abnormally large head looks left at Cueball 680
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 682
| Girl with black hairbun looks right at Hairy 683
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 683
| Hairy looking left at #682
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 684
| Cueball holding some object behind his back, standing alone
| {{notice2|Could refer to the trope of stealing/messing with Dyson spheres?}} Accordion?
|
|
|
|
|-
| 685
| Guy with spiky hair standing alone, holding a sign in front of himself with his hands on the sides of it
| This character is the sixth to be listed of the ten characters that hold up signs showing binary numbers, which form the shape of a heart if connected. As this heart begins at 0, and his sign is 6 (binary 110), he is the seventh of the ten, forming the lower right of the upper right part of the heart.
| [[1000: 1000 Comics#Connect the Dots|Connect the dots]] 6
| Sign: 110
|
| Sign
|-
| 686
| A young Cueball standing alone
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 687
| Cueball standing right towards #688
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 688
| A young character with a strange haircut looks at Cueball 687
| The scene between this and the previous character seems to involve a common theme among parents and teenagers, in which the teenager has a "phase" (indicated here by the peculiar hair) while the parent disapproves.
|
|
|
|
|-
| 689
| A character with a cap faces left
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 690
| Cueball with earbuds stands alone
| Earbuds are later referenced in [[1899: Ears]].
|
|
|
| {{w|Headphones}}
|-
| 691
| A young Megan faces left
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 692
| Hairy with a bowl cut stands right
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 693
| Cueball stands alone
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 694
| Character with distinctive hair faces right
| {{notice2|Is this a previous character? He doesn't match Captain Reynolds, but he's the only character that looks close as far as I can tell. Especially since River Tam is 696.}}
|
|
|
|
|-
| 695
| Cueball carrying a hobo bag
|
|
|
|
| {{w|Hobo bag}}
|-
| 696
| River Tam ([[Summer Glau]]) stands left
|
| Comic: '''[[579: The Race: Part 3]]'''
|
|
|
|-
| 697
| Cueball with arms outstretched towards Megan 691
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 698
| Cueball stands alone
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 699
| Cueball standing alone, holding a sign above his head with both hands
| This Cueball is the seventh to be listed of the ten characters that hold up signs showing binary numbers, which form the shape of a heart if connected. As this heart begins at 0, and his sign is 0 (binary 0), he is the first of the ten, forming the central point at the cleft of the heart.
| [[1000: 1000 Comics#Connect the Dots|Connect the dots]] 0
| Sign: 0
|
| Sign
|-
| 700
| Megan stands right towards Cueball 705
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 701
| Megan looks down at Cueball 698
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 702
| Cueball standing alone, holding a sign above his head with both hands
| This Cueball is the eighth to be listed of the ten characters that hold up signs showing binary numbers, which form the shape of a heart if connected. As this heart begins at 0, and his sign is 7 (binary 111), he is the eighth of the ten, forming the outer part of the upper right part of the heart.
| [[1000: 1000 Comics#Connect the Dots|Connect the dots]] 7
| Sign: 111
|
| Sign
|-
| 703
| Cueball stands alone
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 704
| Cueball stands right towards Megan 700
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 705
| Cueball stands left
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 706
| Blond Hairbun stands left facing Cueball 705
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 707
|
| Hairy wearing a labcoat, as a doctor? Possibly Nathan Fillion/Captain Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds from [[:Category:The Race|The Race]].
|
|
|
|
|-
| 708
| Cueball stands alone
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 709
| Cueball stands facing right towards Cueball 710
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 710
| Cueball standing alone, holding a sign in front of himself, with both hands on the top of it
| This Cueball is the ninth to be listed of the ten characters that hold up signs showing binary numbers, which form the shape of a heart if connected. As this heart begins at 0, and his sign is 9 (binary 1001), he is the tenth of the ten, forming the left of the upper right part of the heart.
| [[1000: 1000 Comics#Connect the Dots|Connect the dots]] 9
| Sign: 1001
|
| Sign
|-
| 711
| Megan looks down at Hairbun 706
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 712
| Cueball standing alone, holding a sign to the right, with one hand on the top of it, and the other hand on the side of it
| This Cueball is the tenth to be listed of the ten characters that hold up signs showing binary numbers, which form the shape of a heart if connected. As this heart begins at 0, and his sign is 8 (binary 1000), he is the ninth of the ten, forming the right of the upper right part of the heart.
| [[1000: 1000 Comics#Connect the Dots|Connect the dots]] 8
| Sign: 1000
|
| Sign
|-
| 713
| Cueball stands left
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 714
| Cueball with a parrot on his arm
| This is the '''last character in the second zero'''.
|
|
| Parrot
|
|-
| rowspan="91" | '''[https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/e/ed/1000_Comics_-_The_third_zero_in_thousand_Top_with_numbers.png Zero 3 T]'''
| 715
| Cueball on a unicycle.
| {{notice2|Explanation missing.}} This is the '''first character in the third zero'''.
|
|
|
| {{w|Unicycle}}
|-
| 716
| Ponytail with a baseball bat.
| {{notice2|Explanation missing.}} Bat?
|
|
|
|
|-
| 717
| Cueball standing alone right
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 718
| Cueball wearing a party hat
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 719
| Another blond Hairbun, looking towards Cueball 722
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 720
| A gorgon
|
Medusa, with multiple snakes hungry for mice?
|
| Snake 1: Mouse? Snake 2: Mouse? Snake 3: Mouse?
|
|
|-
| 721
| Megan standing alone left
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 722
| Cueball running with a laptop
|
|
|
|
| Laptop
|-
| 723
| Cueball bouncing a soccerball off his knee
| Soccer ball/association football ball?
|
|
|
| Soccer ball
|-
| 724
| Ponytail smoking a black pipe, looking at Cueball 715
|
|
|
|
| {{w|Smoking pipe}}
|-
| 725
| A character in a white baseball hat stands right
| The hat is similar to the one from [[30: Donner]], but white instead of black
|
|
|
|
|-
| 726
| Cueball standing alone
| {{notice2|Explanation missing}}
|
|
|
|
|-
| 727
| Hairy looking left at Cueball 726
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 728
| Hairy with spiky hair like Hairy 685 looks right at Cueball 729
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 729
| Cueball standing alone left
| {{notice2|Explanation missing}}
|
|
|
|
|-
| 730
| Jill looking at Cueball 731's experiment
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 731
| Cueball performing a Coke and mentos experiment, getting splashed in the face
| Comic: '''[[346: Diet Coke+Mentos]]'''
| Cueball: "Hi" Soda bottle: "Fwooosh"
|
|
| Soda
|-
| 732
| Megan in a black belt carrying a sai in each hand, charging left towards Cueball 731
| A black belt is a symbol of prowess throughout a variety of fighting styles; karate seems most likely here, as Megan also has ''sai''s, weapons associated with karate.
|
|
|
| {{w|Sai (weapon)}}
|-
| 733
| Cueball roasting marshmallows over a campfire via swords
| Cueball seems to have forgone the typical stick or skewer to roast his marshmallows in favor of swords. Likely related to Megan 732 in some way.
|
|
|
| Marshmallows, swords, campfire
|-
| 734
| Cueball standing alone right
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 735
| Cueball with a pistol and a flag (?)
| In races, the firing of a pistol into the air and/or waving a flag starts a race; thus, this Cueball is likely primed to initiate a competition.
|
|
|
| Gun, flag
|-
| 736
| Cueball crouching slightly to the right
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 737
| Cueball standing alone right
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 738
| Cueball standing alone left
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 739
| Ponytail standing alone right
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 740
| Cueball standing alone left
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 741
| Ponytail looking at Cueball 740
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 742
| Cueball standing alone right
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 743
| Miss Lenhart standing alone
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 744
| Cueball appears to be wearing a black headband or black bandana
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 745
| A character with incomplete hair looks at Cueball 744
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 746
| Miss Lenhart looking down at Cueball 765
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 747
| Cueball standing alone
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 748
| Cueball standing alone
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 749
| A character that is perhaps Jayne Cobb stands left
|
| Comic: '''[[9: Serenity is coming out tomorrow]]'''
|
|
|
|-
| 750
| Hairy interacting with Cueball 751
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 751
| Cueball interacting with Hairy 750
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 752
| A character with curly hair kicking a soccer ball
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 753
| Black Hat with a fan mounted on his hat
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 754
| Cueball standing alone
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 755
| A young character wearing a jester's hat
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 756
| Cueball standing alone
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 757
| Hairy standing alone
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 758
| Hairy looking slightly down, maybe at Cueball 760
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 759
| Hairy looking at #744
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 760
| Cueball interacting with Megan 761
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 761
| Megan interacting with Cueball 760
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 762
| Cueball standing right
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 763
| Cueball looking at Cueball 764
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 764
| Cueball curled into the fetal position, balancing himself on extended arms
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 765
| A triangular-headed Cueball with a pickaxe
|
|
|
|
| {{w|Pickaxe}}
|-
| 766
| Megan with outstretched arms, standing alone
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 767
| Cueball standing alone
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 768
| Cueball standing left
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 769
| Cueball looking at Cueball 770
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 770
| Cueball shouting "Kitty!" at a cat
| {{notice2|Explanation missing}} This is probably a reference to [[231: Cat Proximity]]
|
| Cueball: kitty!
| {{w|Cat}}
|
|-
| 771
| Megan standing alone
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 772
| Cueball holding an Erlenmeyer flask
|
|
| Flask: Help
|
| {{w|Erlenmeyer flask}}
|-
| 773
| Cueball looking down at Megan 774
|
|
| Cueball: ♥
|
| Heart
|-
| 774
| Megan flying downwards
| A reference to [[445: I Am Not Good with Boomerangs]]
| Comic: '''[[445: I Am Not Good with Boomerangs]]'''
|
|
|
|-
| 775
| Cueball wears a mask around his eyes, presumably to preserve his identity
| While this mask has not explicitly been drawn in xkcd, it calls to mind either Westley's from {{w|The Princess Bride (film)}}, a recurring theme.
|
|
|
|
|-
| 776
| Cueball holding hands with Cueball 777
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 777
| Cueball holding hands with Cueball 776
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 778
| A character with some sort of headwear looking at Megan 779
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 779
| Megan looking at #778
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 780
| A Ponytail suffering from trochee fixation
| 'Ron Paul' is actually not a trochee but a spondee
| Comic: '''[[856: Trochee Fixation]]'''
| Ponytail: Altavista Ron Paul!
|
|
|-
| 781
| Megan standing left
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 782
| Megan looking to the left
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 783
| Blond Hairbun standing left
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 784
| Cueball standing alone
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 785
| A character with a knit cap looking at Cueball 786
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 786
| Cueball, still fleeing his locust pursuers
|
| Comic: '''[[797: debian-main]]'''
| Person: AAAAA
| {{w|Locust}}
|
|-
| 787
| Cueball standing alone
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 788
| Cueball looking at Megan 774
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 789
| Cueball standing alone
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 790
| Wayne Coyne, without a hamster ball
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 791
| Megan looking at the Pope 793
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 792
| Hairy with a bit more hair than usual
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 793
| {{w|Pope}} standing alone right
| Pope from [[459: Holy Ghost]]. Note that the hat appears to be worn sideways.
|
|
|
| Pope's hat ({{w|Mitre}})
|-
| 794
| Cueball looking at Hairy 795
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 795
| Hairy looking at Cueball 794
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 796
| Cueball standing alone right
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 797
| Cueball standing alone
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 798
| Cueball standing left
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 799
| Cueball standing alone
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 800
| Dark-haired character looks right
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 801
| Hairy with a large bowl cut looking right
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 802
| Megan looking right
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 803
| Cueball looking left
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 804
| Danish looking at 803
| While judicion is practiced about the difference between Megan's/Danish's hair, this is almost certainly Danish.
|
|
|
|
|-
| 805
| Cueball standing right
| This is the '''last character in the third zero top''', another Cueball.
|
|
|
|
|-
! rowspan="61" | '''[https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/3/39/1000_Comics_-_The_third_zero_in_thousand_Right_with_numbers.png Zero 3 R]'''
| 806
| Cueball standing left
| This is the '''first character in the third zero right''', again Cueball.
|
|
|
|
|-
| 807
| Megan interacting with Hairy 808
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 808
| Hairy interacting with Megan 807
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 809
| Cueball standing alone
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 810
| Megan standing right
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 811
| Cueball standing alone
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 812
| Cueball appears to be looking slightly down at Megan 816
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 813
| Cueball wearing boxing gloves
|
|
|
|
| Boxing gloves
|-
| 814
| Cueball standing alone
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 815
| Ponytail standing right
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 816
| Megan standing left
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 817
| Hairbun that appears to use a sword as a hairpin
|
| Later referenced in [[1856: Existence Proof]]
|
|
|
|-
| 818
| Cueball interacting with Hairy 819
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 819
| Hairy interacting with Cueball 818
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 820
| Shorter Cueball standing right
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 821
| Cueball looking at #822
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 822
| A character in cat-like headwear sits in a cardboard box
| {{notice2|Can anyone tell what the words on the box say?}}
|
|
|
|
|-
| 823
| Cueball looking at #822
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 824
| Megan stands alone
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 825
| Ponytail looking at Cueball 831
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 826
| Cueball holding a laptop
| He appears to be holding the laptop similarly to Black Hat in [[925: Cell Phones]].
| Comic: '''[[925: Cell Phones]]'''
|
|
| {{w|Laptop computer}}
|-
| 827
| Cueball pointing at Cueball 828
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 828
| Cueball looking at Cueball 827
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 829
| Cueball standing left
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 830
| Cueball standing alone
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 831
| Cueball standing alone
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 832
| Cueball looking at Hairy 833
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 833
| Hairy standing alone
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 834
| Cueball looking at Megan 835
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 835
| Megan hovering
| This Megan bears much more of a resemblance to the actual comic than the Megan from the second zero
| Comic: '''[[445: I Am Not Good with Boomerangs]]'''
|
|
|
|-
| 836
| Ponytail looking right towards Hairy 837
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 837
| Hairy looking at Ponytail 836
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 838
| A character in a knit cap looks left
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 839
| Cueball standing alone
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 840
| A Hairy with incredibly spiky hair
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 841
| Probably a stick-figure incarnation of 12-year-old Julia Stiles
|
| Comic: '''[[130: Julia Stiles]]'''
|
|
|
|-
| 842
| Megan looking straight ahead
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 843
| Cueball standing right
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 844
| Cueball standing right
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 845
| Cueball standing alone
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 846
| Cueball standing right
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 847
| A Dallas Cowboys football player
|
| '''''[[What If? (book)|What If?]]'']''' Richter 15
|
|
|
|-
| 848
| Cueball looking at football player 847
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 849
| Jill standing alone
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 850
| Cueball standing with his arms extended outwards
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 851
| Cueball looking at Megan 855
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 852
| Cueball looking at Cueball 856
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 853
| {{w|Bill Gates}} standing alone
| He doesn't have a sword out-- clearly w|Richard Stallman isn't nearby.
| Comic: '''[[521: 2008 Christmas Special]]'''
|
|
|
|-
| 854
| Megan looking at Bill Gates 853
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 855
| Megan standing alone
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 856
| Cueball looking at Cueball 852
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 857
| Cueball looking at Cueball 856
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 858
| Cueball wearing a crown
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 859
| Hairy looking at Megan 860
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 860
| Megan 860 looking at Ponytail 862
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 861
| A Cueball that appears to be wearing [[Cory Doctorow]]'s goggles, or else Cory Doctorow without his xkcd trademark cape
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 862
| Ponytail looking at Ponytail 864
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 863
| A man with 80's-style hair and a mullet looks at Ponytail 864
| {{notice2|Any resemblance to a real person?}}
|
|
|
|
|-
| 864
| Ponytail looking at Ponytail 862
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 865
| Cueball looking at #863
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 866
| Cueball standing alone
| This is the '''last character in the third zero right''', another Cueball.
|
|
|
|
|-
| rowspan="68" | '''[https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/1/1c/1000_Comics_-_The_third_zero_in_thousand_Bottom_with_numbers.png Zero 3 B]'''
| 867
| Ponytail ice skating
| This is the '''first character in the third zero bottom''', a Ponytail this time.
|
|
|
| {{w|Ice skates}}
|-
| 868
| Cueball leaning his arm on a plasma globe
|
|
|
|
| {{w|Plasma globe}}
|-
| 869
| Cueball looking at a plasma globe
|
|
|
|
| {{w|Plasma globe}}
|-
| 870
| Wally looks left
| The striped knit cap resembles Wally's from {{w|Where's Wally?}}. This was previously referenced in [[980: Money]].
|
|
|
|
|-
| 871
| Small Cueball looks left
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 872
| Cueball looking at Wally 870
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 873
| Character with messy hair looks at Cueball 874
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 874
| Cueball looks at Cueball 875
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 875
| Cueball looking at Cueball 876
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 876
| Cueball stroking his chin, looking at Cueball 877
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 877
| Cueball looking at Cueball 876
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 878
| Cueball playing with a toy car
|
|
| Cueball: Zoom!
|
|
|-
| 879
| Cueball looking at Cueball 880
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 880
| Cueball standing alone right
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 881
| Cueball looking at Cueball 882
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 882
| Cueball standing alone
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 883
| Character with bangs
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 884
| Two Black Hats
| The original multiple-hat stacking, humorously extrapolated by Seven Black Hats 641 in this comic
| Comic '''[[455: Hats]]'''
|
|
|
|-
| 885
| Cueball standing alone
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 886
| Hairy with larger hair looks at Megan 887
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 887
| Megan looks at Hairy 886
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 888
| Hairy standing right
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 889
| Cueball looking at Megan 890
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 890
| Megan looking at Cueball 891
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 891
| Cueball standing right, arm outstretched toward Megan 892
| Cueball from the 2nd last frame of comic [[442: xkcd Loves the Discovery Channel]], where Megan is also doing the M.C. Hammer slide.
| Comic: '''[[442: xkcd Loves the Discovery Channel]]'''
|
|
|
|-
| 892
| Megan M.C. Hammer-sliding right, away from Cueball 891
|
| Comic: '''[[108: M.C. Hammer Slide]]'''
|
|
|
|-
| 893
| Character with white hair
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 894
| Cueball in a graduation cap and gown
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 895
| Cueball's Lisp ancestor, no longer carrying parentheses
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 896
| Cueball looking at Ponytail 911
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 897
| Hairy playing with a gyroscope
|
| Comic: '''[[332: Gyroscopes]]'''
|
|
|
|-
| 898
| Cueball standing alone
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 899
| Megan looking at Hairbun 900
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 900
| Hairbun looking at Megan 899
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 901
| Cueball looking up at Hairy 883
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 902
| Blond girl with pigtails stands right
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 903
| Ponytail looks at #902
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 904
| Cueball standing alone
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 905
| Cueball looking at Hairy 906
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 906
| A Hairy that appears to have a mohawk, standing right
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 907
| Hairy looking left
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 908
| Cueball looking at Hairy 907
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 909
| Cueball standing alone
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 910
| Hairy standing right
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 911
| Ponytail standing right
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 912
| Cueball crouching, as if about to jump
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 913
| Hairy looking at Cueball 912
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 914
| Ponytail juggling four balls
|
| Reference to '''[[942: Juggling]]'''
|
|
|
|-
| 915
| Cueball being asked out/ proposed to by Megan 916
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 916
| Megan asking out/proposing to Cueball 915
|
|
| Megan: ♥?
|
| Heart
|-
| 917
| Blond Hairbun standing right
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 918
| Cueball interacting with Ponytail 919
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 919
| Ponytail interacting with Cueball 918
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 920
| Cueball failing to wind up a yo-yo
|
|
| Yo-yo: Thopa thopa thopa
|
|
|-
| 921
| Megan standing left of Cueball 923 and child 922, looking down at child
| Note Megan's and Cueball's positions are swapped.
| Comic: [[674: Natural Parenting]]
|
|
|
|-
| 922
| Child standing between Megan 921 and Cueball 923, with arms raised
|
| Comic: [[674: Natural Parenting]]
|
|
|
|-
| 923
| Cueball standing right of Megan 921 and child 922, looking down at child
| Note Megan's and Cueball's positions are swapped.
| Comic: [[674: Natural Parenting]]
|
|
|
|-
| 924
| Megan looking at Cueball 923
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 925
| Cueball looking at Gandalf 932
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 926
| Megan looking at Cueball 925
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 927
| Cueball in a helicopter hat
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 928
| Gnome Ann standing alone
| This is anachronistic, as Gnome Ann's comic was released over 700 comics after this was published. Perhaps her character had been in the making for a while...
| Comic: '''[[1704: Gnome Ann]]'''
|
|
|
|-
| 929
| Cueball looking at Hairy 913
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 930
| Cueball standing left
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 931
| Cueball looking at Cueball 925
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 932
| Gandalf standing left
|
| Comic: '''[[760: Moria]]'''
|
|
|
|-
| 933
| Cueball with a large cut/stitch along his left cheek
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 934
| Cueball looking at Gnome Ann 928
| This is the '''last character in the third zero bottom''', another Cueball.
|
|
|
|
|-
! rowspan="66" | '''[https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/3/38/1000_Comics_-_The_third_zero_in_thousand_Left_with_numbers.png Zero 3 L]'''
| 935
| Megan holding Cueball 936's hand
| This is the '''first character in the third zero left'''.
| Comic: '''[[943: Empirical]]'''
|
|
|
|-
| 936
| Cueball in a bow tie holding Megan 935's hand
|
| Comic: '''[[943: Empirical]]'''
|
|
|
|-
| 937
| Cueball looking up at Hairy 945
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 938
| Cueball looking at the plasma globe
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 939
| Cueball looking right
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 940
| Death's boss looking at Cueball 939
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 941
| Ponytail looking left at the ground
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 942
| Cueball looking at dark-haired Ponytail 944
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 943
| Cueball holding a balloon
| While Cueball appears to be adult-sized here, the reference comic clearly indicates that he is a child.
| Comic: '''[[121: Balloon]]'''
|
|
|
|-
| 944
| A dark-haired Ponytail, who appears to have caught Cueball 943's balloon in a cobweb
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 945
| Hairy with rather messily-drawn hair
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 946
| Cueball looking at Hairy 945
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 947
| An ornately-dressed character stands alone
| Perhaps Inigo Montoya from ''The Princess Bride''
|
|
|
|
|-
| 948
| Cueball looking at Cueball 949
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 949
| Cueball looking at Cueball 948
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 950
| Hairbun standing right
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 951
| Cueball looking at Ponytail 953
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 952
| Cueball standing alone
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 953
| Ponytail standing left
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 954
| Ponytail standing right
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 955
| [[Donald Knuth]] standing left
|
| Comic: '''[[342: 1337: Part 2]]'''
|
|
|
|-
| 956
| Megan charging headfirst at Cueball 957
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 957
| Cueball holding his arms out to preemptively hold Megan 956 back
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 958
| Cueball spinning a hula hoop
|
|
|
|
| {{w|Hula hoop}}
|-
| 959
| Character with big dark hair standing right
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 960
| Megan standing alone
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 961
| Cueball holding a baseball in a pitcher's glove
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 962
| Megan standing left
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 963
| Character with sideburns standing alone
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| 964
| Ponytail knocked down by Cueball 966's staff, her sai knocked away
|
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|
| {{w|Sai}}
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| 965
| Cueball tumbling through the air in this four-person battle
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|-
| 966
| Cueball with a staff, knocking down Ponytail 964 and about to face Cueball 967
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|-
| 967
| Cueball swinging a cutlass at Cueball 966
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|-
| 968
| Danish standing alone
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|-
| 969
| Cueball looking at Megan 970
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|-
| 970
| Megan extending a tape measure
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| Comic: '''[[284: Tape Measure]]'''
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|-
| 971
| Another Cueball with a distinctively triangular head
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|-
| 972
| Cueball looking at character #979
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|-
| 973
| Cueball stroking his chin, looking at Cueball 974
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|-
| 974
| Cueball looking upwards
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|-
| 975
| Morpheus from {{w|The Matrix}} standing alone
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| Comic: '''[[566: Matrix Revisited]]'''
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|-
| 976
| Character with wild blond hair
| {{notice2|Based on a real person?}}
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|-
| 977
| Cueball looking at Megan 978
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| 978
| Megan looking at Cueball 977
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|-
| 979
| Incredibly long-haired Megan-like character
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| 980
| Megan looking at character #979
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| 981
| Cueball looking at Megan 980
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|-
| 982
| Two Berets Guy
| Given the strange powers of Beret Guy (see eponymous category page) and the [[455: Hats|relationship between Black Hat and Double Black Hat]], Two Berets Guy may be more powerful and even more optimistic and aloof. His playfully outstretched arms indicate the second part.
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|-
| 983
| Cueball surrounded by three bats/birds.
| [[1004: Batman|just four comics]] after this one is a Batman-themed comic, and the animals surround him in a similar manner; it is more likely that they are bats.
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|-
| 984
| Ponytail stands right
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|-
| 985
| Cueball playing with a yo-yo
| He seems to be doing considerably better than Cueball 920.
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| {{w|Yo-yo}}
|-
| 986
| Character with hairbun and ponytail stands left
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|-
| 987
| Abalding character stands right
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| 988
| Megan stands left
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| 989
| Character with afro stands left
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| 990
| Cueball stands center
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| 991
| Cueball sledding down a slope
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| 992
| Jill standing alone
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| 993
| Cueball stands right
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| 994
| Cueball stands right
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|-
| 995
| Megan Playing guitar
| This character has the same stance as in [[70: Guitar Hero]] but the same hair as the singer in the background. '''Cannot''' be [[Elaine Roberts]] due to wrong hair color.
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|
| {{w|Guitar}}
|-
| 996
| Policeman stands left
| The next example of such a trapezoidal hat is [[1018: Good Cop, Dadaist Cop|eighteen comics later]], and isn't used in ''[[what if? (blog)|what if?]]'' until November.
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| 997
| Cueball stands right
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|-
| 998
| Character in black beanie stands right
| Since they're looking directly at Medusa's head, they may be turned to stone.
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|-
| 999
| Medusa stands left
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|-
| 1000
| Character in curved top hat
| Identical to the time-traveller from [[2068: Election Night]]; the character must have been in the works for a long time (or, given the character's nature as a time-traveller, this may have been intended). This is the '''last character in the third zero'''.
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|}

==Transcript==
:[1000 characters, many of whom have appeared previously in other comics, are arranged to create the number "1000". Two more people stand in the foreground, commenting on the formation. There are several spoken words amongst these 1000, but the text transcribed here is only that which can be read from the small version, shown above.]
:1000
:Megan: Woooo!
:Cueball: Wow—Just 24 to go until a big round-number milestone!

{{comic discussion}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:1000}}
[[Category:Comic subpages]]