explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

68: Five Thirty

2021-03-12T11:53:22Z

Knit cap: Correcting myself

{{comic
| number = 68
| date = February 24, 2006
| title = Five Thirty
| image = five_thirty.jpg
| titletext = The 8th panel is my favorite
}}

==Explanation==
At 5:30 AM, one's sleep-deprived or prematurely-roused mind sometimes comes up with things that seem like nonsense later.

None of the twelve panels in this comic seem to have any correlation with one another, each one being its own "story," and none of them really make any sense. It is unknown whether Randall really wrote this comic while awake at 5:30 in the morning, or if he wrote it while completely alert and is trying to pass off his rejected ideas by saying what one's mind may experience when trying to process information at an hour when the person is not used to being awake.

===Explanations of the individual panels (numbered left to right, top to bottom)===
# "'80s night" is a special theme many nightclubs hold, inviting their guests to wear fashions that were popular in the 1980s while playing dance music from the same period.
# {{w|Jack the Ripper}} was an infamous serial killer in Victorian {{w|England}}. {{w|Jack Black}} is a rock star and actor. "There is no Tuesday" is likely a reference to the line "There is no spoon" in ''{{w|The Matrix}}''.
# There doesn't seem to be too much to this panel that isn't self-explanatory, but it's possible that there's a reference to the ''{{w|Civilization (video game)|Civilization}}'' series of video games, in which it's possible (albeit unlikely) for medieval soldiers to attack and destroy 20th-century military helicopters.
# Stick figures standing upright are indeed drawn without any thought as to which section of their legs are the shins.
# Two Cueballs seem very upset as indicated by them shouting ''shit'' ten times without break, and as indicated at the end, they will continue to do so, as only "sh" of the 11th shit is written. What they should have been alarmed about is the third arm that seems to have grown out of the left Cueball's torso. But as it turns out, they are worried about daylight savings ''[sic]'', which comes out in the second line of their shouting. {{w|Daylight saving time}} (DST) was {{w|History_of_time_in_the_United_States#Start_and_end_dates_of_United_States_Daylight_Time|not due}} until April 2nd in the USA in 2006, more than a month after the release of this comic. This seems to be the first to use DST as part of a joke, but it is far from the last time that Randall has made it clear that he is [[:Category:Daylight saving time|not a fan of DST]], which he sometimes directly mocks. It's hard to tell what the two stick figures are actually doing and what the black blobs at the ends of their arms should represent, given that Randall normally doesn't draw hands on his stick figures. One guess is that they're both wearing watches, one on each of their combined five arms. In that case, they are upset because they forgot to adjust all their clocks for DST. Alternatively, the two Cueballs represent two clocks, the right one with only hour-hand and minute-hand, but the left one also with a seconds-hand, and it is these hands that are drawn. In that case, the left Cueball is one hour ahead of the right Cueball, as his shortest arm points down left at around 8 o'clock (with the seconds-hand above, and the minutes-hand at 20 minutes past), and the right Cueball has his hour hand at 7 o'clock and the minute hand also at 20 past. This would explain both the three arms, the "hands" at the end of the arms, and the different length of especially the left Cueball's arm, and finally why they are so upset about one of them forgetting DST.
# "Ointment" may be a reference to the infamous lotion scene in ''{{w|Silence of the Lambs}}'', as the panel appears to be invoking horror movie visuals.
# The farthest left angle is labeled theta. The joke is that finding the cosine, the length of the adjacent leg divided by the length of the hypotenuse, would be difficult as the adjacent leg is poorly drawn and does not resemble a straight line to be measured. Alternatively, the line <q>fuck the cosine</q> resembles the slogan {{w|fuck the police}}.
# Lots of jokes have been made out of the template "does liking X make you gay?", where the speaker is afraid that he may be a homosexual. Here, the speaker has apparently transformed into a {{w|mermaid}} at some point. His friend seems to be eager to both turn into a mermaid himself and confirm himself for a homosexual. Another explanation may be that the friend thinks that a man who was a mermaid for five minutes should be homosexual afterwards, because he simply can't imagine something else about it. In this explanation, the friend has no interest in others being gay or not; he just thinks that this may be a realistic progress.
# Waving a gun around and declaring that things you hate are "for pussies" is stereotypical "{{w|macho}}" behavior. Possibly, the man with the gun is going to cut the other man's hair with bullets because it's more "macho" than going to the barber.
# This doesn't seem to mean anything whatsoever. However, both of the characters say something irrational: "My hair is bleeding" is irrational because strands of hair can't bleed (It could be a reference to eddsworld's [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ch1lO9aFRvU| Matt sucks], but it is unlikely), and "√3" is an {{w|irrational number}}. The first statement may also have something to do with the prior panel (as cutting one's hair with bullets does not tend to end well).
# A bachelor party is a traditionally raucous party that is thrown for a groom on the night before his wedding. Because these parties can be wild (involving drinking and such), this may explain why the figure is upside down.
# Likely a reference to the "{{w|ant on a rubber rope}}" thought experiment. Apparently in Randall's mind, the experiment does not end well for the ant.

----

The title text could actually refer to two different panels. If a person chooses to read the comic left-to-right, top-to-bottom (which is more likely given that this is the order in the official transcript), the eighth panel could be the one with where Cueball asks "Does being a mermaid for five minutes make you gay?" However, if a person chooses to read the comic top-to-bottom, left-to-right, the eighth panel will instead be the one with Cueball hanging upside down shouting "Bachelor party!"

==Transcript==
:Comics from 5:30 AM
:[A succession of unrelated and completely random panels.]

:Cueball: It's 80's night at the club. Wanna go?

:Friend: There is no Tuesday.
:Cueball: Jack the Ripper or Jack Black?

:[Cueball in this panel is holding a glinting sword.]
:Friend: You crashed my helicopter!
:Cueball: Verily!

:[A small figure is talking with a larger figure.]
:Figure 1: Basically, neither of us have shins.
:Figure 2: Over and out.

:[Two men are shown: one with three arms, and another with just two. All arms have round appendages at their ends.]
:Men: shitshitshitshitshitshitdaylightsavingsshitshitshitshitsh

:[Two figures with pumpkins (carved with faces) for heads.]
:Figure 1: You're out of ointment and out of time!

:[A diagram of a right-angled triangle, with a theta at the smallest angle.]
:FUCK THE COSINE

:Friend: Does being a mermaid for five minutes make you gay?
:Cueball: I hope so!

:[The friend is holding a gun to Cueball's head.]
:Friend: Barbershops are for pussies.

:Friend: My hair is bleeding.
:Cueball: √3

:[Cueball seems to be walking on the ceiling.]
:Cueball: Bachelor party!

:[Warning sign with picture of an ant.]
:WARNING: STRETCHY DEATH

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Homosexuality]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Daylight saving time]]

Talk:68: Five Thirty

2021-03-12T11:51:16Z

Knit cap:

Do we need to attempt to explain any of them? --[[User:Quicksilver|Quicksilver]] ([[User talk:Quicksilver|talk]]) 14:33, 25 August 2013 (UTC)
:Sure, the name of this site is explainxkcd.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:33, 25 August 2013 (UTC)
:: Well then this sort of thing merits an incomplete tag, not pages for which the grammar is slightly off! There should be a tag for explanations that do not explain enough (Incomplete) that is separate from that for copy-edits and such. Blow me if many pages marked Incomplete are far more complete than this one. --[[User:Quicksilver|Quicksilver]] ([[User talk:Quicksilver|talk]]) 21:39, 25 August 2013 (UTC)
Here's my attempt at a partial explanation: I always thought panel 10 (if you read it left to right, top to bottom) was making a joke on how both of the things said were irrational, "My hair is bleeding" for the obvious reasons, and "√3" as it's an irrational number. Panel 9 could be the guy's friend trying to cut his hair with bullets because it's more "manly" than going to the barber. [[User:RoseEmanuel|RoseEmanuel]] ([[User talk:RoseEmanuel|talk]])

Just pointing out that when discussing the eighth (as well as the second, fifth, and eleventh) panel, it makes no diference whether you'r reading left to right or right to left (as long as your going side to side, top to bottom). if going top to bottom, side to side, this is true for the fifth through eighth panels.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.114|108.162.249.114]]

Is it just me or couldn't the title "Comics from 5:30" also be deemed a panel (considering it's boxed in)? In which case I really have no idea what Mr Munroe's preferences are... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.163|141.101.98.163]]

Does Mr.Munroe (or Dr.Munroe?) ever watch this? I bet he's smiling at his own genius (well deserved, of course) of making his fans quarrel over the random ideas he had. Just like black hat. (I do want to conspire and say he has an account with a pseudonym just to throw us off, if we ever came close to the truth. )
And yes, I do wear tin foil hats too. Duh! /s [[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.67|173.245.55.67]] 21:22, 8 April 2014 (UTC)BK201

The first stick figure in Panel #5 seems to have three arms --gg109 [[Special:Contributions/108.162.225.128|108.162.225.128]] 10:26, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

I though he was just waving his arm frantically, taking into account he was cursing frantically aswell [[User:Brackeel|Brackeel]] ([[User talk:Brackeel|talk]]) 05:34, 21 July 2014 (UTC)

The panel 5 figures appear to have hands, unlike regular figures, just as a clock has hands, and their hands appear stretched similar to the hands of a clock. Perhaps because daylight savings adds an extra hour the one figure got an extra hand, which appears about an hour in distance from the presumed original hand. The shitshitshit could be explained as onomatopoeia for a clock ticking sound. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.174|108.162.245.174]] 09:52, 14 February 2016 (UTC)B Bandit

Panel 11 - is He doing a kegstand? {{unsigned ip|141.101.105.146}}

For some reason, I really like this strip. The complete chaos appeals to a part of me and made me laugh uncontrollably the first time that I saw this. This and Shrodener's comic appeal to the nihilist in me, having chaos+swearing=pants-shitting hilarity. That is why my username ends in 68. [[User:RedHatGuy68|RedHatGuy68]] ([[User talk:RedHatGuy68|talk]])

Panel 8: could the figure on the right hope that becoming a mermaid makes one gay so that his friend, now a presumably gorgeous (and female in body) mermaid, could be attracted to him? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.70.217|141.101.70.217]] 16:55, 26 July 2016 (UTC) {{unsigned ip|141.101.70.217|16:48, 26 July 2016 (UTC)}}

How did anybody decide who's Cueball and who's "Friend"? I find it especially questionable to call someone "friend" who points a gun to your head. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 14:35, 8 June 2018 (UTC)

Has anyone considered that the title of the comic and the alt text combine to make 538, the stat website of which Randall is a huge fan? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.193|162.158.74.193]] 23:09, 8 April 2020 (UTC) Jury

I think panel 10 could be a reference to power edd. Added. [[User:Knit cap|Knit cap]] ([[User talk:Knit cap|talk]]) 12:23, 8 December 2020 (UTC)
:you're probably thinking of the episode 'matt sucks', 'cause at the end of that episode, after a misfire with the stake gun, edd and tom are pinned to the wall (obvs dead, 'cause they've been stabbed a whole ton), and tom's hair bleeds. however, in the episode 'poweredd', tom's hair does not bleed. -lance [[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.19|162.158.75.19]] 19:23, 27 January 2021 (UTC)
::Correct. I only realised that hours after I wrote that comment, then I forgot to correct myself. [[User:Knit cap|Knit cap]] ([[User talk:Knit cap|talk]]) 11:51, 12 March 2021 (UTC)

User:Knit cap

2020-12-14T13:54:42Z

Knit cap:

{{crickets}}

Second account of [[User:Beanie|Beanie]] (a beanie is the British version of a knit cap)

User:Knit cap

2020-12-14T13:54:18Z

Knit cap:

{{crickets}}

Second account of [[User:Beanie]] (a beanie is the British version of a knit cap)

User:Knit cap

2020-12-14T13:48:24Z

Knit cap:

{{crickets}}

Second account of Beanie (a beanie is the British version of a knit cap)

Talk:101: Laser Scope

2020-12-09T12:50:23Z

Knit cap:

Wouldn't this comic be about a whole gun aparatus including a laser scope if it were about "missing" (by target) your loved ones? In my opinion, this is much more about stalkers. The "good" stalkers are rarely seen (i.e. using a high powered viewing device of some kind), which would only need the sight, not a whole gun. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]] ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 22:03, 13 September 2012 (UTC)
:Nope. Nothin' ta do with stalkers. The scope is to improve the accuracy of the firearm it is attached to. It's saying "are you missing your loved ones with your un-scopified weapon? This scope will improve your accuracy and you won't miss anymore." [[Special:Contributions/207.225.239.130|207.225.239.130]] 22:33, 13 September 2012 (UTC)
::Scopified?, really [[User:Whiskey07|Whiskey07]] ([[User talk:Whiskey07|talk]]) 09:15, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

The parity of meanings shown here is also known as "zeugma". AP English Language for the win! Anonymous 06:31, 3 December 2013 (UTC) {{unsigned ip|173.245.54.91}}
:Actually, a zeugma is specifically an instance in which the word is used once, but applies to multiple parts of the sentence. If it were stated that "I wish I'd missed you then, so I wouldn't now," the title text would be an example. Since missed is included twice, it misses being a zeugma, but not being memorable. (One favorite of mine is: "You are free to execute your laws, and your citizens, as you see fit." -William Riker, Star Trek: TNG.) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.197|108.162.246.197]] 05:36, 8 October 2014 (UTC)

Might also be an reference to the classic "blues brothers movies" in which a stalker makes numerous attempts, including one attempt where she uses a rocket launcher
--[[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.180|141.101.104.180]] 10:36, 14 September 2015 (UTC)

Could also be a reference to the common situation, that one is too sure about one's partner (i.e. not showing them, that one misses them when being a couple but spacially apart) and this being the reason for the partner for leaving one. If one had missed them while being together they would'nt have left. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.89.253|162.158.89.253]] 17:56, 13 January 2017 (UTC)

: I think the RJX-21 device is shaped like a small optical telescope, with laser sight with a wire attached, yet not a standalone laser sight module. Therefore, we may have a stalking reference as well.

Also: in some languages, once camera (or "photoapparat[us]") has a stock for better handling, it's called "photo gun". Joke is, many film cameras, even professional ones, had iron sights without oculars.
[[Special:Contributions/172.68.182.16|172.68.182.16]] 13:43, 1 June 2019 (UTC)

Reminds me of a joke where there is a sniper pictured with the text (which I think is also some song lyrics): "I only miss you, when I'm breathing" --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 13:28, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

On Married with Children, Peg once asked, "Did you miss me, Al?" to which he replied, "With every bullet so far."

Re the last paragraph about the title text, "the writer wishes he had missed (failed in his attempt to shoot) someone so they would not miss them (feel bad that they are not there), implying that he shot a family member, and is now feeling the grief", I read this to mean that the writer wishes that they had missed someone as in not met them in the first place, and as a result they wouldn't have got to know them and now find their absence saddening. 15:26, 7 September 2020 (UTC)

Or use Styropyro's lazer sniper rifle [[User:Knit cap|Knit cap]] ([[User talk:Knit cap|talk]]) 12:50, 9 December 2020 (UTC)

92: Sunrise

2020-12-09T12:42:35Z

Knit cap: Added 'shaves his head' because he did

{{comic
| number = 92
| date = April 21, 2006
| title = Sunrise
| image = sunrise.jpg
| titletext = Sometimes, I sit on top of parking decks and watch the sun rise. I feel like I should have a guitar or something.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is about the desire for an intimate connection with another, and the compromises we make to not be alone.

[[Hairy]] finds a certain beauty in the way the world looks without billions of humans crawling around on it. He thinks of this as a secret place that thrills him. He is excited about the remote chance of finding someone like him who appreciates its beauty. But he realizes that it's the very thing that makes this time beautiful to him that makes his imagined chance encounter exceedingly unlikely. Reconciled to the fact that he will not find a kindred spirit outside this morning, he heads back home.

At the house, he gets ready and drives to a club to meet people. The club is drawn using an inverted color scheme (white people, black background) to emphasize that it is the opposite of the 4am outside world. The club is dark and full of people, who are the lightest things present, where outside, the natural beauty shines without interruption by human forms. Hairy is seen alone in the middle of the crowd.

The title text is a reference to a common music video scene (sometimes country music videos) where people play the guitar on parking garages as the sun rises.

==Transcript==
:[Hairy is on the street. Behind him is a house with a lawn.]
:Hairy's thoughts: I love the time just before sunrise. It's quiet; no one is ever just walking about. It's like a secret. I always hope that I'll find someone else quietly hiding from sleep, and we'll see each other and sit and talk. I guess this is a bad place to meet people. I wish it weren't.
:[Hairy goes into the house, brushes his teeth, shaves his head (?), and leaves the house again.]
:[Hairy is at a club, disco balls in the ceiling and a giant woofer. Many people are dancing around him.]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Romance]]
[[Category:Comics with inverted brightness]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]

Talk:86: Digital Rights Management

2020-12-09T12:36:41Z

Knit cap:

And cue global warming...
[[User:Krev|Semicolon here]] ([[User talk:Krev|talk]]) 14:50, 27 August 2012 (UTC)

i might sound daft here, but is the wall of ice explained in any way? it feels like the humour here derives from it, and i'm not sure what to make of it. the explanation focusing on the details of the antipiracy laws and regulations feels a tad superfluous while i feel it doesn't really add anything that explains the joke. again, i'm a romanian, so my grasp of the english language (and the american culture) is below par, so this might be a silly question. feel free to remove my comment here if that's the case. {{unsigned ip|108.162.254.88}}
:The idea is that a glacier is impossible to stop if it starts moving simply because it is so massive. This can be compared to the demands of people for DRM-free content, which is equally unstoppable no matter how many politicians the DRM companies bribe. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.53|141.101.99.53]] 05:00, 9 March 2014 (UTC)
I agree; I think the "ice-wall" is a metaphor for the mass of the consumers. The companies are trying to go against the flow, and it's either bend or break. It's an ice-wall/glacier,, because there are few things in the world more powerful and unstoppable as a glacier. A glacier is also very slow, so it's also saying that although he might not be able to crush them immediately, he will eventually, and they'd better not forget it (no saying how far away he's starting from, either. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.118|108.162.218.118]] 01:50, 12 May 2016 (UTC)

First thing that came to my mind: ICE == Intrusion Countermeasures Electronics, e.g. in ''Burning Chrome'' (by William Gibson); see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intrusion_Countermeasures_Electronics]. IIRC, the book describes ICE as walls closing in on the protagonist's avatar in the virtual (cyber) world. --[[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.231|199.27.128.231]] 09:36, 31 January 2015 (UTC)

This may be a stretch but I associated this with "Now is the winter of our discontent" from Richard III. Discontent can both be applied to the general dislike and therefore discontent on the users, but also discontent in terms on the dis, meaning negativity and content relating to the digital content. The wall of ice represents the approaching Winter which will continue until the end of the discontent. --[[User:Igwarrender|Igwarrender]] ([[User talk:Igwarrender|talk]]) 15:53, 5 November 2015 (UTC)

This could also be a joke that the ice wall isn't actually stoppable by him, or is it?[[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.83|108.162.218.83]]
:It probably is. He's black hat. [[User:Knit cap|Knit cap]] ([[User talk:Knit cap|talk]]) 12:36, 9 December 2020 (UTC)
Game of Thrones / ASoIaF ice wall, anyone? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.58.143|172.68.58.143]] 17:36, 10 August 2017 (UTC)

2395: Covid Precaution Level

2020-12-09T11:35:56Z

Knit cap: Editing transcript again

{{comic
| number = 2395
| date = December 7, 2020
| title = Covid Precaution Level
| image = covid_precaution_level.png
| titletext = It's frustrating to calibrate your precautions when there's only one kind of really definitive feedback you can get, you can only get it once, and when you do it's too late.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an INSUFFICIENT PRECAUTION THAT FEELS EXCESSIVE. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic seems to represent the problem that precautions that are insufficient feel excessive to many people and vice versa, thus there is such a large overlap between the 2 sections. Even a moderately sensible individual will likely consider some blanket precautions restrictive because they don't allow a nuance of behaviour they think they should be able to embrace safely; meanwhile they'll find some of the actual official exceptions, that probably do not apply to them, to be taken reckless advantage of by others. Additionally, neither range mentions whether the precautions are actually effective, which also can have a level of subjectivity.

==Transcript==
Shown is a control knob for adjusting the stringency of precautions taken against COVID-19 (the knob has a black line indicating exactly where it is pointing), with fewer precautions to the left, more to the right. Most of the lower two thirds of the range is labelled "precautions that feel insufficient"; most of the upper two thirds is labelled "precautions that feel excessive". There is an overlap between the two, covering about 1/4 of the range. The control is set to somewhat above the top of the "insufficient" subrange.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:COVID-19]]

2395: Covid Precaution Level

2020-12-09T11:32:54Z

Knit cap: Removing the incomplete tag and editing the transcript slightly

{{comic
| number = 2395
| date = December 7, 2020
| title = Covid Precaution Level
| image = covid_precaution_level.png
| titletext = It's frustrating to calibrate your precautions when there's only one kind of really definitive feedback you can get, you can only get it once, and when you do it's too late.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an INSUFFICIENT PRECAUTION THAT FEELS EXCESSIVE. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic seems to represent the problem that precautions that are insufficient feel excessive to many people and vice versa, thus there is such a large overlap between the 2 sections. Even a moderately sensible individual will likely consider some blanket precautions restrictive because they don't allow a nuance of behaviour they think they should be able to embrace safely; meanwhile they'll find some of the actual official exceptions, that probably do not apply to them, to be taken reckless advantage of by others. Additionally, neither range mentions whether the precautions are actually effective, which also can have a level of subjectivity.

==Transcript==
Shown is a control knob for adjusting the stringency of precautions taken against COVID-19 (the knob has a black line indicating exactly where it is), with fewer precautions to the left, more to the right. Most of the lower two thirds of the range is labelled "precautions that feel insufficient"; most of the upper two thirds is labelled "precautions that feel excessive". There is a significant overlap between the two, of almost a third of the range. The control is set to somewhat above the top of the "insufficient" subrange.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:COVID-19]]

Talk:79: Iambic Pentameter

2020-12-09T09:58:48Z

Knit cap: I really hope these don't count as edits

It's really not so hard to write such prose, 
To stick to Shakespeare's scheme for fellow bards, 
Of course the preparation always slows, 
So spontaneity aint on the cards. 
The better art of live concoction sits, 
Beyond the skill of I your editor, 
And this is why the comic title bits, 
Are true and accurate without a flaw. 
Or so I humour Randall by these lines, 
Restricted by the form I've set upon, 
Fearing that soon I'll commit rhyming crimes, 
That you the readers see arrive, 'ere long. 
And thus a sonnet author finds to be, 
Whether for fun or for a Dark Lady. 
[[Special:Contributions/178.98.31.27|178.98.31.27]] 14:08, 24 June 2013 (UTC)
:I am stunned. Flabbergasted, of a lack of words. You, good sir, are a hero. A true poet, a master of words. I applaud you, and thank you for your time here. [[User:Netherin5|Netherin5]] ([[User talk:Netherin5|talk]]) 15:04, 25 February 2019 (UTC)
:Please create an account, [[Main_Page|explainxkcd]] needs you here. [[User:Knit cap|Knit cap]] ([[User talk:Knit cap|talk]]) 09:54, 9 December 2020 (UTC)

Wait, normal people don't communicate exclusively in iambic pentameter? Shakespeare lied to me! [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.62|199.27.128.62]] 04:04, 4 June 2014 (UTC)

There is a [[explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Proposals#Merge_Cueball_.26_Rob|community portal discussion]] of what to call Cueball and what to do in case with more than one Cueball. I have added this comic to the new Category:Multiple Cueballs. Since Randall is the one with the hobby and also the one that Cueball represents I have kept Cueball in this explanation and transcript. But made a note of it. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:58, 15 March 2015 (UTC)

If you unstress both "of" and "course," the title text also kind of works with iambic meter. [[User:Aronurr|Aronurr]] ([[User talk:Aronurr|talk]]) 23:25, 21 January 2020 (UTC)

Talk:79: Iambic Pentameter

2020-12-09T09:57:53Z

Knit cap:

It's really not so hard to write such prose, 
To stick to Shakespeare's scheme for fellow bards, 
Of course the preparation always slows, 
So spontaneity aint on the cards. 
The better art of live concoction sits, 
Beyond the skill of I your editor, 
And this is why the comic title bits, 
Are true and accurate without a flaw. 
Or so I humour Randall by these lines, 
Restricted by the form I've set upon, 
Fearing that soon I'll commit rhyming crimes, 
That you the readers see arrive, 'ere long. 
And thus a sonnet author finds to be, 
Whether for fun or for a Dark Lady. 
[[Special:Contributions/178.98.31.27|178.98.31.27]] 14:08, 24 June 2013 (UTC)
:I am stunned. Flabbergasted, of a lack of words. You, good sir, are a hero. A true poet, a master of words. I applaud you, and thank you for your time here. [[User:Netherin5|Netherin5]] ([[User talk:Netherin5|talk]]) 15:04, 25 February 2019 (UTC)
:Please create an account, [[Main_page|explainxkcd]] needs you here. [[User:Knit cap|Knit cap]] ([[User talk:Knit cap|talk]]) 09:54, 9 December 2020 (UTC)

Wait, normal people don't communicate exclusively in iambic pentameter? Shakespeare lied to me! [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.62|199.27.128.62]] 04:04, 4 June 2014 (UTC)

There is a [[explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Proposals#Merge_Cueball_.26_Rob|community portal discussion]] of what to call Cueball and what to do in case with more than one Cueball. I have added this comic to the new Category:Multiple Cueballs. Since Randall is the one with the hobby and also the one that Cueball represents I have kept Cueball in this explanation and transcript. But made a note of it. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:58, 15 March 2015 (UTC)

If you unstress both "of" and "course," the title text also kind of works with iambic meter. [[User:Aronurr|Aronurr]] ([[User talk:Aronurr|talk]]) 23:25, 21 January 2020 (UTC)

Talk:79: Iambic Pentameter

2020-12-09T09:56:34Z

Knit cap:

It's really not so hard to write such prose, 
To stick to Shakespeare's scheme for fellow bards, 
Of course the preparation always slows, 
So spontaneity aint on the cards. 
The better art of live concoction sits, 
Beyond the skill of I your editor, 
And this is why the comic title bits, 
Are true and accurate without a flaw. 
Or so I humour Randall by these lines, 
Restricted by the form I've set upon, 
Fearing that soon I'll commit rhyming crimes, 
That you the readers see arrive, 'ere long. 
And thus a sonnet author finds to be, 
Whether for fun or for a Dark Lady. 
[[Special:Contributions/178.98.31.27|178.98.31.27]] 14:08, 24 June 2013 (UTC)
:I am stunned. Flabbergasted, of a lack of words. You, good sir, are a hero. A true poet, a master of words. I applaud you, and thank you for your time here. [[User:Netherin5|Netherin5]] ([[User talk:Netherin5|talk]]) 15:04, 25 February 2019 (UTC)
:Please create an account, [[Main page|explainxkcd]] needs you here. [[User:Knit cap|Knit cap]] ([[User talk:Knit cap|talk]]) 09:54, 9 December 2020 (UTC)

Wait, normal people don't communicate exclusively in iambic pentameter? Shakespeare lied to me! [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.62|199.27.128.62]] 04:04, 4 June 2014 (UTC)

There is a [[explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Proposals#Merge_Cueball_.26_Rob|community portal discussion]] of what to call Cueball and what to do in case with more than one Cueball. I have added this comic to the new Category:Multiple Cueballs. Since Randall is the one with the hobby and also the one that Cueball represents I have kept Cueball in this explanation and transcript. But made a note of it. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:58, 15 March 2015 (UTC)

If you unstress both "of" and "course," the title text also kind of works with iambic meter. [[User:Aronurr|Aronurr]] ([[User talk:Aronurr|talk]]) 23:25, 21 January 2020 (UTC)

Talk:79: Iambic Pentameter

2020-12-09T09:55:12Z

Knit cap:

It's really not so hard to write such prose, 
To stick to Shakespeare's scheme for fellow bards, 
Of course the preparation always slows, 
So spontaneity aint on the cards. 
The better art of live concoction sits, 
Beyond the skill of I your editor, 
And this is why the comic title bits, 
Are true and accurate without a flaw. 
Or so I humour Randall by these lines, 
Restricted by the form I've set upon, 
Fearing that soon I'll commit rhyming crimes, 
That you the readers see arrive, 'ere long. 
And thus a sonnet author finds to be, 
Whether for fun or for a Dark Lady. 
[[Special:Contributions/178.98.31.27|178.98.31.27]] 14:08, 24 June 2013 (UTC)
:I am stunned. Flabbergasted, of a lack of words. You, good sir, are a hero. A true poet, a master of words. I applaud you, and thank you for your time here. [[User:Netherin5|Netherin5]] ([[User talk:Netherin5|talk]]) 15:04, 25 February 2019 (UTC)
:Please create an account, [[explainxkcd]] needs you here. [[User:Knit cap|Knit cap]] ([[User talk:Knit cap|talk]]) 09:54, 9 December 2020 (UTC)

Wait, normal people don't communicate exclusively in iambic pentameter? Shakespeare lied to me! [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.62|199.27.128.62]] 04:04, 4 June 2014 (UTC)

There is a [[explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Proposals#Merge_Cueball_.26_Rob|community portal discussion]] of what to call Cueball and what to do in case with more than one Cueball. I have added this comic to the new Category:Multiple Cueballs. Since Randall is the one with the hobby and also the one that Cueball represents I have kept Cueball in this explanation and transcript. But made a note of it. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:58, 15 March 2015 (UTC)

If you unstress both "of" and "course," the title text also kind of works with iambic meter. [[User:Aronurr|Aronurr]] ([[User talk:Aronurr|talk]]) 23:25, 21 January 2020 (UTC)

Talk:79: Iambic Pentameter

2020-12-09T09:54:38Z

Knit cap:

It's really not so hard to write such prose, 
To stick to Shakespeare's scheme for fellow bards, 
Of course the preparation always slows, 
So spontaneity aint on the cards. 
The better art of live concoction sits, 
Beyond the skill of I your editor, 
And this is why the comic title bits, 
Are true and accurate without a flaw. 
Or so I humour Randall by these lines, 
Restricted by the form I've set upon, 
Fearing that soon I'll commit rhyming crimes, 
That you the readers see arrive, 'ere long. 
And thus a sonnet author finds to be, 
Whether for fun or for a Dark Lady. 
[[Special:Contributions/178.98.31.27|178.98.31.27]] 14:08, 24 June 2013 (UTC)
:I am stunned. Flabbergasted, of a lack of words. You, good sir, are a hero. A true poet, a master of words. I applaud you, and thank you for your time here. [[User:Netherin5|Netherin5]] ([[User talk:Netherin5|talk]]) 15:04, 25 February 2019 (UTC)
:Please create an account, [[explainxkcd:explainxkcd]] needs you here. [[User:Knit cap|Knit cap]] ([[User talk:Knit cap|talk]]) 09:54, 9 December 2020 (UTC)

Wait, normal people don't communicate exclusively in iambic pentameter? Shakespeare lied to me! [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.62|199.27.128.62]] 04:04, 4 June 2014 (UTC)

There is a [[explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Proposals#Merge_Cueball_.26_Rob|community portal discussion]] of what to call Cueball and what to do in case with more than one Cueball. I have added this comic to the new Category:Multiple Cueballs. Since Randall is the one with the hobby and also the one that Cueball represents I have kept Cueball in this explanation and transcript. But made a note of it. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:58, 15 March 2015 (UTC)

If you unstress both "of" and "course," the title text also kind of works with iambic meter. [[User:Aronurr|Aronurr]] ([[User talk:Aronurr|talk]]) 23:25, 21 January 2020 (UTC)

539: Boyfriend

2020-12-09T09:45:40Z

Knit cap:

{{comic
| number = 539
| date = February 4, 2009
| title = Boyfriend
| image = boyfriend.png
| titletext = ...okay, but because you said that, we're breaking up.
}}

==Explanation==

In classical statistics, {{w|statistical significance}} is used to determine whether a conclusion can be confidently made about the implications of a given set of data. If some data set is determined to be an appropriate sample of a given population, then conclusions can be made by determining trends in the data. Since one can never be completely sure that their data is truly representative, or their statistical analysis completely accurate, calculations of the likelihood of error are made (below p = 0.05). Once these calculations are made, it can be decided that a given conclusion is statistically significant because it passes a certain threshold for the likelihood of error. Because the statistical analysis that was done concluded that it is significantly more likely that the conclusions made are accurate than inaccurate, these conclusions are termed statistically significant.

In this case, [[Megan]] has analyzed the amount of time that [[Cueball]] spends with her versus others in his life. Based on the data she has gathered, she constructed a box plot. A box plot is a way to present data that utilizes boxes to show the range that a certain percentage of data points fall into. The boxes denote quartiles, so the large box demonstrates the range between the lowest and highest quartile, and the line in the center of the box denotes the median of the entire data set. The bars extend to the outer limits of the data set, encompassing the highest and lowest points (but excluding outliers). Box plots are useful to show the spread of data, and how it may be skewed. For more on box plots, see {{w|Box plot}}. [[Megan]] uses the data she has collected to show that the amount of time that [[Cueball]] spends with her is significantly higher than the amount of time he spends with others, since the amount of time they spend together is high enough to be an outlier when she completes a statistical analysis of the time he spends with people in his life.

[[Cueball]] accepts her claim, and she responds with a witticism that combines the phrases "statistically significant" and "significant other".

The title text can be interpreted in multiple ways. Firstly, [[Cueball]] may be resistant to the title of <q>boyfriend</q>. As he indicates, he is currently casually dating multiple people, and may therefore be resistant to any single individual attempting to establish a monogamous relationship. It could also be inferred that anyone taking the time and effort to statistically examine their relationship with him is off-putting, as this behavior could be viewed as obsessive. It could also be theorized that the term <q>statistically significant other</q> seems cold, and [[Cueball]] would rather date someone who makes him ''feel'' as though their relationship is significant, not simply someone who is an outlier in terms of time spent together. However, we know how [[Cueball]] responds to [[833: Convincing| graphs without axes]], so part of his rejection may stem from his disdain of her graph's lack of necessary units (for all we know, he could be spending significantly ''less'' time with [[Megan]] than with others!
...Or it could just be that it's a cringe-worthy pun, and [[Cueball]] doesn't appreciate [[Megan]] being so pun-happy. The unduly{{Citation needed}} severe consequences for an over-elaborate pun setup are analogous to how another [[Cueball]] gets his [[410: Math Paper| math license revoked]] over a pun.

==Transcript==
:[Megan is on the phone.]
:Megan: Can my boyfriend come along?

:[Cueball talks to Megan.]
:Cueball: I'm not your boyfriend!
:Megan: You totally are.
:Cueball: I'm casually dating a number of people.

:[Megan points to a chart with gray box plot with a single black dot as an outlier to the far right.]
:Megan: But you spend twice as much time with me as with anyone else. I'm a clear outlier.

:[Cueball puts his hand on his chin while Megan spreads out her arms.]
:Cueball: Your math is irrefutable.
:Megan: Face it—I'm your statistically significant other.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Statistics]]
[[Category:Romance]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Puns]]

77: Bored with the Internet

2020-12-09T09:38:13Z

Knit cap: /* Transcript */

{{comic
| number = 77
| date = March 17, 2006
| title = Bored with the Internet
| image = bored_with_the_internet.jpg
| titletext = I used to do this all the time.
}}
==Explanation==
A character who has hair (not to be confused with [[Hairy]]) suggests to [[Black Hat]] that he is wasting his life on the Internet, and they should go explore the world. They appear to walk a great distance, through what appears to be a swamp or perhaps a forest in winter, across a plain, and down to a river valley. Despite traveling so far and through such varied landscapes, in the last panel, one of the characters admits that all he can think about is what a great Livejournal post their trip would make. It appears that the plan to get the Internet off their mind has failed.

{{w|Livejournal}} is a website on which users can make accounts and, effectively, blog, although the site is designed around the premise that the blogs ought to be used as personal journals, with the ability to privatize the journal or only let certain friends see certain entries. Livejournal was an early social network and an early blog platform, and was a good way for people to let others know what was going on in their lives. As of 2020, Livejournal still exists, although sites like Facebook and Twitter have become far more powerful and popular sites for sharing one's daily life.

Unlike most of his appearances (especially later ones), Black Hat does not exhibit any of his signature [[Classhole]] tendencies.

The title text suggests that [[Randall Munroe|Randall]] has overcome a tendency to think about how he will document what he has been doing, rather than concentrate on the thing itself.

==Transcript==
:[Someone with hair and [[Black hat]] are talking in a room with a computer on.]
:Person with hair: I feel like I'm wasting my life on the internet. Let's walk around the world.
:[[Black Hat]]: Sounds good.
:[The two men are shown walking through trees.]
:[The two men are shown walking on flat stretch, with mountains in the distance.]
:[The two men are shown in a magnificent canyon. They stand, silently looking at the scene.]
:Person with hair: And yet all I can think is, "This will make for a great LiveJournal entry."

==Trivia==
*Livejournal was the site where Randall presented his comics before starting xkcd.

*The Image behind the banner on the xkcd site is from the first panel of this comic, showing only the characters and the desk.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Internet]]
[[Category:Footer comics]]

77: Bored with the Internet

2020-12-09T09:37:28Z

Knit cap: /* Transcript */

{{comic
| number = 77
| date = March 17, 2006
| title = Bored with the Internet
| image = bored_with_the_internet.jpg
| titletext = I used to do this all the time.
}}
==Explanation==
A character who has hair (not to be confused with [[Hairy]]) suggests to [[Black Hat]] that he is wasting his life on the Internet, and they should go explore the world. They appear to walk a great distance, through what appears to be a swamp or perhaps a forest in winter, across a plain, and down to a river valley. Despite traveling so far and through such varied landscapes, in the last panel, one of the characters admits that all he can think about is what a great Livejournal post their trip would make. It appears that the plan to get the Internet off their mind has failed.

{{w|Livejournal}} is a website on which users can make accounts and, effectively, blog, although the site is designed around the premise that the blogs ought to be used as personal journals, with the ability to privatize the journal or only let certain friends see certain entries. Livejournal was an early social network and an early blog platform, and was a good way for people to let others know what was going on in their lives. As of 2020, Livejournal still exists, although sites like Facebook and Twitter have become far more powerful and popular sites for sharing one's daily life.

Unlike most of his appearances (especially later ones), Black Hat does not exhibit any of his signature [[Classhole]] tendencies.

The title text suggests that [[Randall Munroe|Randall]] has overcome a tendency to think about how he will document what he has been doing, rather than concentrate on the thing itself.

==Transcript==
:\[[[Black Hat]] and someone with hair are talking in a room with a computer on.]
:Person with hair: I feel like I'm wasting my life on the internet. Let's walk around the world.
:[[Black Hat]]: Sounds good.
:[The two men are shown walking through trees.]
:[The two men are shown walking on flat stretch, with mountains in the distance.]
:[The two men are shown in a magnificent canyon. They stand, silently looking at the scene.]
:Person with hair: And yet all I can think is, "This will make for a great LiveJournal entry."

==Trivia==
*Livejournal was the site where Randall presented his comics before starting xkcd.

*The Image behind the banner on the xkcd site is from the first panel of this comic, showing only the characters and the desk.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Internet]]
[[Category:Footer comics]]

77: Bored with the Internet

2020-12-09T09:36:09Z

Knit cap: Trying to hyperlink black hat a g a i n

{{comic
| number = 77
| date = March 17, 2006
| title = Bored with the Internet
| image = bored_with_the_internet.jpg
| titletext = I used to do this all the time.
}}
==Explanation==
A character who has hair (not to be confused with [[Hairy]]) suggests to [[Black Hat]] that he is wasting his life on the Internet, and they should go explore the world. They appear to walk a great distance, through what appears to be a swamp or perhaps a forest in winter, across a plain, and down to a river valley. Despite traveling so far and through such varied landscapes, in the last panel, one of the characters admits that all he can think about is what a great Livejournal post their trip would make. It appears that the plan to get the Internet off their mind has failed.

{{w|Livejournal}} is a website on which users can make accounts and, effectively, blog, although the site is designed around the premise that the blogs ought to be used as personal journals, with the ability to privatize the journal or only let certain friends see certain entries. Livejournal was an early social network and an early blog platform, and was a good way for people to let others know what was going on in their lives. As of 2020, Livejournal still exists, although sites like Facebook and Twitter have become far more powerful and popular sites for sharing one's daily life.

Unlike most of his appearances (especially later ones), Black Hat does not exhibit any of his signature [[Classhole]] tendencies.

The title text suggests that [[Randall Munroe|Randall]] has overcome a tendency to think about how he will document what he has been doing, rather than concentrate on the thing itself.

==Transcript==
:[ [[Black Hat]] and someone with hair are talking in a room with a computer on.]
:Person with hair: I feel like I'm wasting my life on the internet. Let's walk around the world.
:[[Black Hat]]: Sounds good.
:[The two men are shown walking through trees.]
:[The two men are shown walking on flat stretch, with mountains in the distance.]
:[The two men are shown in a magnificent canyon. They stand, silently looking at the scene.]
:Person with hair: And yet all I can think is, "This will make for a great LiveJournal entry."

==Trivia==
*Livejournal was the site where Randall presented his comics before starting xkcd.

*The Image behind the banner on the xkcd site is from the first panel of this comic, showing only the characters and the desk.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Internet]]
[[Category:Footer comics]]

77: Bored with the Internet

2020-12-09T09:35:32Z

Knit cap: Trying to hyperlink black hat again

{{comic
| number = 77
| date = March 17, 2006
| title = Bored with the Internet
| image = bored_with_the_internet.jpg
| titletext = I used to do this all the time.
}}
==Explanation==
A character who has hair (not to be confused with [[Hairy]]) suggests to [[Black Hat]] that he is wasting his life on the Internet, and they should go explore the world. They appear to walk a great distance, through what appears to be a swamp or perhaps a forest in winter, across a plain, and down to a river valley. Despite traveling so far and through such varied landscapes, in the last panel, one of the characters admits that all he can think about is what a great Livejournal post their trip would make. It appears that the plan to get the Internet off their mind has failed.

{{w|Livejournal}} is a website on which users can make accounts and, effectively, blog, although the site is designed around the premise that the blogs ought to be used as personal journals, with the ability to privatize the journal or only let certain friends see certain entries. Livejournal was an early social network and an early blog platform, and was a good way for people to let others know what was going on in their lives. As of 2020, Livejournal still exists, although sites like Facebook and Twitter have become far more powerful and popular sites for sharing one's daily life.

Unlike most of his appearances (especially later ones), Black Hat does not exhibit any of his signature [[Classhole]] tendencies.

The title text suggests that [[Randall Munroe|Randall]] has overcome a tendency to think about how he will document what he has been doing, rather than concentrate on the thing itself.

==Transcript==
:[|[[Black Hat]] and someone with hair are talking in a room with a computer on.]
:Person with hair: I feel like I'm wasting my life on the internet. Let's walk around the world.
:[[Black Hat]]: Sounds good.
:[The two men are shown walking through trees.]
:[The two men are shown walking on flat stretch, with mountains in the distance.]
:[The two men are shown in a magnificent canyon. They stand, silently looking at the scene.]
:Person with hair: And yet all I can think is, "This will make for a great LiveJournal entry."

==Trivia==
*Livejournal was the site where Randall presented his comics before starting xkcd.

*The Image behind the banner on the xkcd site is from the first panel of this comic, showing only the characters and the desk.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Internet]]
[[Category:Footer comics]]

77: Bored with the Internet

2020-12-09T09:34:55Z

Knit cap: Trying to hyperlink black hat

{{comic
| number = 77
| date = March 17, 2006
| title = Bored with the Internet
| image = bored_with_the_internet.jpg
| titletext = I used to do this all the time.
}}
==Explanation==
A character who has hair (not to be confused with [[Hairy]]) suggests to [[Black Hat]] that he is wasting his life on the Internet, and they should go explore the world. They appear to walk a great distance, through what appears to be a swamp or perhaps a forest in winter, across a plain, and down to a river valley. Despite traveling so far and through such varied landscapes, in the last panel, one of the characters admits that all he can think about is what a great Livejournal post their trip would make. It appears that the plan to get the Internet off their mind has failed.

{{w|Livejournal}} is a website on which users can make accounts and, effectively, blog, although the site is designed around the premise that the blogs ought to be used as personal journals, with the ability to privatize the journal or only let certain friends see certain entries. Livejournal was an early social network and an early blog platform, and was a good way for people to let others know what was going on in their lives. As of 2020, Livejournal still exists, although sites like Facebook and Twitter have become far more powerful and popular sites for sharing one's daily life.

Unlike most of his appearances (especially later ones), Black Hat does not exhibit any of his signature [[Classhole]] tendencies.

The title text suggests that [[Randall Munroe|Randall]] has overcome a tendency to think about how he will document what he has been doing, rather than concentrate on the thing itself.

==Transcript==
:[[Black Hat]] and someone with hair are talking in a room with a computer on.]
:Person with hair: I feel like I'm wasting my life on the internet. Let's walk around the world.
:[[Black Hat]]: Sounds good.
:[The two men are shown walking through trees.]
:[The two men are shown walking on flat stretch, with mountains in the distance.]
:[The two men are shown in a magnificent canyon. They stand, silently looking at the scene.]
:Person with hair: And yet all I can think is, "This will make for a great LiveJournal entry."

==Trivia==
*Livejournal was the site where Randall presented his comics before starting xkcd.

*The Image behind the banner on the xkcd site is from the first panel of this comic, showing only the characters and the desk.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Internet]]
[[Category:Footer comics]]

77: Bored with the Internet

2020-12-09T09:33:57Z

Knit cap: This shouldn't say 'Hairy'

{{comic
| number = 77
| date = March 17, 2006
| title = Bored with the Internet
| image = bored_with_the_internet.jpg
| titletext = I used to do this all the time.
}}
==Explanation==
A character who has hair (not to be confused with [[Hairy]]) suggests to [[Black Hat]] that he is wasting his life on the Internet, and they should go explore the world. They appear to walk a great distance, through what appears to be a swamp or perhaps a forest in winter, across a plain, and down to a river valley. Despite traveling so far and through such varied landscapes, in the last panel, one of the characters admits that all he can think about is what a great Livejournal post their trip would make. It appears that the plan to get the Internet off their mind has failed.

{{w|Livejournal}} is a website on which users can make accounts and, effectively, blog, although the site is designed around the premise that the blogs ought to be used as personal journals, with the ability to privatize the journal or only let certain friends see certain entries. Livejournal was an early social network and an early blog platform, and was a good way for people to let others know what was going on in their lives. As of 2020, Livejournal still exists, although sites like Facebook and Twitter have become far more powerful and popular sites for sharing one's daily life.

Unlike most of his appearances (especially later ones), Black Hat does not exhibit any of his signature [[Classhole]] tendencies.

The title text suggests that [[Randall Munroe|Randall]] has overcome a tendency to think about how he will document what he has been doing, rather than concentrate on the thing itself.

==Transcript==
:[[[Black Hat]] and someone with hair are talking in a room with a computer on.]
:Person with hair: I feel like I'm wasting my life on the internet. Let's walk around the world.
:[[Black Hat]]: Sounds good.
:[The two men are shown walking through trees.]
:[The two men are shown walking on flat stretch, with mountains in the distance.]
:[The two men are shown in a magnificent canyon. They stand, silently looking at the scene.]
:Person with hair: And yet all I can think is, "This will make for a great LiveJournal entry."

==Trivia==
*Livejournal was the site where Randall presented his comics before starting xkcd.

*The Image behind the banner on the xkcd site is from the first panel of this comic, showing only the characters and the desk.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Internet]]
[[Category:Footer comics]]

77: Bored with the Internet

2020-12-09T09:32:52Z

Knit cap:

{{comic
| number = 77
| date = March 17, 2006
| title = Bored with the Internet
| image = bored_with_the_internet.jpg
| titletext = I used to do this all the time.
}}
==Explanation==
A character who has hair (not to be confused with [[Hairy]]) suggests to [[Black Hat]] that he is wasting his life on the Internet, and they should go explore the world. They appear to walk a great distance, through what appears to be a swamp or perhaps a forest in winter, across a plain, and down to a river valley. Despite traveling so far and through such varied landscapes, in the last panel, one of the characters admits that all he can think about is what a great Livejournal post their trip would make. It appears that the plan to get the Internet off their mind has failed.

{{w|Livejournal}} is a website on which users can make accounts and, effectively, blog, although the site is designed around the premise that the blogs ought to be used as personal journals, with the ability to privatize the journal or only let certain friends see certain entries. Livejournal was an early social network and an early blog platform, and was a good way for people to let others know what was going on in their lives. As of 2020, Livejournal still exists, although sites like Facebook and Twitter have become far more powerful and popular sites for sharing one's daily life.

Unlike most of his appearances (especially later ones), Black Hat does not exhibit any of his signature [[Classhole]] tendencies.

The title text suggests that [[Randall Munroe|Randall]] has overcome a tendency to think about how he will document what he has been doing, rather than concentrate on the thing itself.

==Transcript==
:[Black Hat and someone with hair are talking in a room with a computer on.]
:Person with hair: I feel like I'm wasting my life on the internet. Let's walk around the world.
:Black Hat: Sounds good.
:[The two men are shown walking through trees.]
:[The two men are shown walking on flat stretch, with mountains in the distance.]
:[The two men are shown in a magnificent canyon. They stand, silently looking at the scene.]
:Person with hair: And yet all I can think is, "This will make for a great LiveJournal entry."

==Trivia==
*Livejournal was the site where Randall presented his comics before starting xkcd.

*The Image behind the banner on the xkcd site is from the first panel of this comic, showing only the characters and the desk.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Internet]]
[[Category:Footer comics]]

Talk:76: Familiar

2020-12-09T09:29:32Z

Knit cap:

What do you reckon is missing from the explanation? ––[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 14:26, 2 July 2013 (UTC)
:I'm running through the first comics and when I feel that something is missing it just gets the incomplete tag. Everyone is welcome to fix and remove this tag. The most worse error here was :) instead of :(.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 15:22, 2 July 2013 (UTC)
::The happy smiley was ''after'' the sentence dryly ''explaining'' the fairly obvious thing that a sad smiley means sadness. It was totally intentional, meant as a joke, funny or not! It could have been ;) though. –[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 07:55, 3 July 2013 (UTC)
:::The title text shows :( not more or less. If you have ideas beyond of this explain it, but do not change the original text.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:14, 7 July 2013 (UTC)
::::This is confused. How do you mean, I changed the original text? –[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 09:36, 10 July 2013 (UTC)
:::::Go here: [[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=76:_Familiar&diff=prev&oldid=43148]], you did change the ":(" to ";)" and a few edits before you did ":)". I just did edit this to the correct sadness symbol. When Randall talks about apples you can't explain bananas.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 10:44, 10 July 2013 (UTC)
::::::I'm removing the sentence. It was just a joke, but it wasn't appreciated. :( ––[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 19:19, 21 July 2013 (UTC)
:::::::What the hell you are doing? We need an explain for the title text, even when it's simple.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:32, 21 July 2013 (UTC)
::::::::No. You don't need to explain what a smiley is. Everybody knows. Especially on the internet. There's got to be a limit; we don't, for example, explain the meaning of common english words. –[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 08:18, 22 July 2013 (UTC)
::Please never say 'most worst' again. [[User:Knit cap|Knit cap]] ([[User talk:Knit cap|talk]]) 09:27, 9 December 2020 (UTC)
Is this the shortest title text? [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 10:56, 11 June 2018 (UTC)
:If you don't count comics without any title text at all, then yeah, I'm pretty sure it is. [[User:SuperSupermario24|SuperSupermario24]] 06:32, 1 June 2019 (UTC)

== Comic rotation ==

Anyone else notice the comic is rotated 90 degrees clockwise for them on the xkcd website? I’m using Safari on an iPhone. {{unsigned|172.68.142.209}}
:It's fine in Chrome on Android and Debian. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 01:13, 12 May 2019 (UTC)
::Exif.Image.Orientation is set to rotate the image. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.238|108.162.219.238]] 21:10, 13 February 2020 (UTC)
::Also rotated in Chrome on Mac as of May 2020
:::As well as for Chrome on PC as of July 2020.[[User:Blueshoes317|Blueshoes317]] ([[User talk:Blueshoes317|talk]]) 16:26, 3 July 2020 (UTC)
:Currently not rotated in Firefox on Debian. [[User:ExcarnateSojourner|ExcarnateSojourner]] ([[User talk:ExcarnateSojourner|talk]]) 02:47, 4 July 2020 (UTC)
::Rotated in Firefox on Ubuntu as of September 2020. [[User:LegionMammal978|LegionMammal978]] ([[User talk:LegionMammal978|talk]]) 18:37, 24 September 2020 (UTC)

Talk:76: Familiar

2020-12-09T09:28:01Z

Knit cap:

What do you reckon is missing from the explanation? ––[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 14:26, 2 July 2013 (UTC)
:I'm running through the first comics and when I feel that something is missing it just gets the incomplete tag. Everyone is welcome to fix and remove this tag. The most worse error here was :) instead of :(.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 15:22, 2 July 2013 (UTC)
::The happy smiley was ''after'' the sentence dryly ''explaining'' the fairly obvious thing that a sad smiley means sadness. It was totally intentional, meant as a joke, funny or not! It could have been ;) though. –[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 07:55, 3 July 2013 (UTC)
:::The title text shows :( not more or less. If you have ideas beyond of this explain it, but do not change the original text.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:14, 7 July 2013 (UTC)
::::This is confused. How do you mean, I changed the original text? –[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 09:36, 10 July 2013 (UTC)
:::::Go here: [[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=76:_Familiar&diff=prev&oldid=43148]], you did change the ":(" to ";)" and a few edits before you did ":)". I just did edit this to the correct sadness symbol. When Randall talks about apples you can't explain bananas.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 10:44, 10 July 2013 (UTC)
::::::I'm removing the sentence. It was just a joke, but it wasn't appreciated. :( ––[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 19:19, 21 July 2013 (UTC)
:::::::What the hell you are doing? We need an explain for the title text, even when it's simple.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:32, 21 July 2013 (UTC)
::::::::No. You don't need to explain what a smiley is. Everybody knows. Especially on the internet. There's got to be a limit; we don't, for example, explain the meaning of common english words. –[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 08:18, 22 July 2013 (UTC)
:Please never say 'most worst' again. [[User:Knit cap|Knit cap]] ([[User talk:Knit cap|talk]]) 09:27, 9 December 2020 (UTC)
Is this the shortest title text? [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 10:56, 11 June 2018 (UTC)
:If you don't count comics without any title text at all, then yeah, I'm pretty sure it is. [[User:SuperSupermario24|SuperSupermario24]] 06:32, 1 June 2019 (UTC)

== Comic rotation ==

Anyone else notice the comic is rotated 90 degrees clockwise for them on the xkcd website? I’m using Safari on an iPhone. {{unsigned|172.68.142.209}}
:It's fine in Chrome on Android and Debian. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 01:13, 12 May 2019 (UTC)
::Exif.Image.Orientation is set to rotate the image. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.238|108.162.219.238]] 21:10, 13 February 2020 (UTC)
::Also rotated in Chrome on Mac as of May 2020
:::As well as for Chrome on PC as of July 2020.[[User:Blueshoes317|Blueshoes317]] ([[User talk:Blueshoes317|talk]]) 16:26, 3 July 2020 (UTC)
:Currently not rotated in Firefox on Debian. [[User:ExcarnateSojourner|ExcarnateSojourner]] ([[User talk:ExcarnateSojourner|talk]]) 02:47, 4 July 2020 (UTC)
::Rotated in Firefox on Ubuntu as of September 2020. [[User:LegionMammal978|LegionMammal978]] ([[User talk:LegionMammal978|talk]]) 18:37, 24 September 2020 (UTC)

Talk:76: Familiar

2020-12-09T09:27:17Z

Knit cap:

What do you reckon is missing from the explanation? ––[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 14:26, 2 July 2013 (UTC)
:I'm running through the first comics and when I feel that something is missing it just gets the incomplete tag. Everyone is welcome to fix and remove this tag. The most worse error here was :) instead of :(.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 15:22, 2 July 2013 (UTC)
::The happy smiley was ''after'' the sentence dryly ''explaining'' the fairly obvious thing that a sad smiley means sadness. It was totally intentional, meant as a joke, funny or not! It could have been ;) though. –[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 07:55, 3 July 2013 (UTC)
:::The title text shows :( not more or less. If you have ideas beyond of this explain it, but do not change the original text.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:14, 7 July 2013 (UTC)
::::This is confused. How do you mean, I changed the original text? –[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 09:36, 10 July 2013 (UTC)
:::::Go here: [[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=76:_Familiar&diff=prev&oldid=43148]], you did change the ":(" to ";)" and a few edits before you did ":)". I just did edit this to the correct sadness symbol. When Randall talks about apples you can't explain bananas.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 10:44, 10 July 2013 (UTC)
::::::I'm removing the sentence. It was just a joke, but it wasn't appreciated. :( ––[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 19:19, 21 July 2013 (UTC)
:::::::What the hell you are doing? We need an explain for the title text, even when it's simple.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:32, 21 July 2013 (UTC)
::::::::No. You don't need to explain what a smiley is. Everybody knows. Especially on the internet. There's got to be a limit; we don't, for example, explain the meaning of common english words. –[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 08:18, 22 July 2013 (UTC)
Is this the shortest title text? [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 10:56, 11 June 2018 (UTC)
:If you don't count comics without any title text at all, then yeah, I'm pretty sure it is. [[User:SuperSupermario24|SuperSupermario24]] 06:32, 1 June 2019 (UTC)
:Please never say 'most worst' again. [[User:Knit cap|Knit cap]] ([[User talk:Knit cap|talk]]) 09:27, 9 December 2020 (UTC)

== Comic rotation ==

Anyone else notice the comic is rotated 90 degrees clockwise for them on the xkcd website? I’m using Safari on an iPhone. {{unsigned|172.68.142.209}}
:It's fine in Chrome on Android and Debian. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 01:13, 12 May 2019 (UTC)
::Exif.Image.Orientation is set to rotate the image. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.238|108.162.219.238]] 21:10, 13 February 2020 (UTC)
::Also rotated in Chrome on Mac as of May 2020
:::As well as for Chrome on PC as of July 2020.[[User:Blueshoes317|Blueshoes317]] ([[User talk:Blueshoes317|talk]]) 16:26, 3 July 2020 (UTC)
:Currently not rotated in Firefox on Debian. [[User:ExcarnateSojourner|ExcarnateSojourner]] ([[User talk:ExcarnateSojourner|talk]]) 02:47, 4 July 2020 (UTC)
::Rotated in Firefox on Ubuntu as of September 2020. [[User:LegionMammal978|LegionMammal978]] ([[User talk:LegionMammal978|talk]]) 18:37, 24 September 2020 (UTC)

74: Su Doku

2020-12-09T09:22:00Z

Knit cap:

{{comic
| number = 74
| date = March 10, 2006
| title = Su Doku
| image = su doku.jpg
| titletext = This one is from the Red Belt collection, of 'medium' difficulty
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Su Doku}} (Japanese for "single number," and now usually written as "sudoku") is a type of number puzzle, in which the player must place digits in a matrix field in the correct arrangement, such that they do not repeat within given domains. The most common arrangement is a 9×9 grid subdivided into nine 3×3 grids, into which the nine non-zero digits of the normal decimal counting system must be inserted, with no digit being allowed to appear twice in a horizontal or vertical row or in each individual 3×3 grid. The number and combination of pre-filled squares determines the difficulty of the puzzle.

However, [[Randall Munroe|Randall]] presents a 2x2 {{w|binary}} sudoku puzzle which isn't subdivided. The joke is that the binary system has only two digits (0 and 1), and as a result binary sudoku puzzles would be trivially easy and thus pointless. The puzzle in the comic would be completed by filling 0 in the top-left and 1 in the bottom-left empty box. The only other possible grid would have the 0s and 1s swapped. This fulfills the criterion of having no repeated digits in any row, column or cell.

The title text appears to reference a series of published sudoku puzzle books called "Martial Arts Sudoku". The difficulty of each book is denoted by a martial arts belt color, with each color representing a certain skill level. A red belt is a rather high level, second only to the black belt. When applied to binary sudokus, a sudoku with one number given would be the most difficult one (though still trivial) and thus be a black belt. This sudoku has two numbers given, hence the medium red belt level.

==Transcript==
:[A square divided into 2×2 squares, the top-right one has an 1 in it, the bottom-right one has a 0, the two left ones are empty.]
:Binary Su Doku

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Logic]]
[[Category:Math]]

Talk:68: Five Thirty

2020-12-09T09:09:21Z

Knit cap:

Do we need to attempt to explain any of them? --[[User:Quicksilver|Quicksilver]] ([[User talk:Quicksilver|talk]]) 14:33, 25 August 2013 (UTC)
:Sure, the name of this site is explainxkcd.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:33, 25 August 2013 (UTC)
:: Well then this sort of thing merits an incomplete tag, not pages for which the grammar is slightly off! There should be a tag for explanations that do not explain enough (Incomplete) that is separate from that for copy-edits and such. Blow me if many pages marked Incomplete are far more complete than this one. --[[User:Quicksilver|Quicksilver]] ([[User talk:Quicksilver|talk]]) 21:39, 25 August 2013 (UTC)
Here's my attempt at a partial explanation: I always thought panel 10 (if you read it left to right, top to bottom) was making a joke on how both of the things said were irrational, "My hair is bleeding" for the obvious reasons, and "√3" as it's an irrational number. Panel 9 could be the guy's friend trying to cut his hair with bullets because it's more "manly" than going to the barber. [[User:RoseEmanuel|RoseEmanuel]] ([[User talk:RoseEmanuel|talk]])

Just pointing out that when discussing the eighth (as well as the second, fifth, and eleventh) panel, it makes no diference whether you'r reading left to right or right to left (as long as your going side to side, top to bottom). if going top to bottom, side to side, this is true for the fifth through eighth panels.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.114|108.162.249.114]]

Is it just me or couldn't the title "Comics from 5:30" also be deemed a panel (considering it's boxed in)? In which case I really have no idea what Mr Munroe's preferences are... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.163|141.101.98.163]]

Does Mr.Munroe (or Dr.Munroe?) ever watch this? I bet he's smiling at his own genius (well deserved, of course) of making his fans quarrel over the random ideas he had. Just like black hat. (I do want to conspire and say he has an account with a pseudonym just to throw us off, if we ever came close to the truth. )
And yes, I do wear tin foil hats too. Duh! /s [[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.67|173.245.55.67]] 21:22, 8 April 2014 (UTC)BK201

The first stick figure in Panel #5 seems to have three arms --gg109 [[Special:Contributions/108.162.225.128|108.162.225.128]] 10:26, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

I though he was just waving his arm frantically, taking into account he was cursing frantically aswell [[User:Brackeel|Brackeel]] ([[User talk:Brackeel|talk]]) 05:34, 21 July 2014 (UTC)

The panel 5 figures appear to have hands, unlike regular figures, just as a clock has hands, and their hands appear stretched similar to the hands of a clock. Perhaps because daylight savings adds an extra hour the one figure got an extra hand, which appears about an hour in distance from the presumed original hand. The shitshitshit could be explained as onomatopoeia for a clock ticking sound. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.174|108.162.245.174]] 09:52, 14 February 2016 (UTC)B Bandit

Panel 11 - is He doing a kegstand? {{unsigned ip|141.101.105.146}}

For some reason, I really like this strip. The complete chaos appeals to a part of me and made me laugh uncontrollably the first time that I saw this. This and Shrodener's comic appeal to the nihilist in me, having chaos+swearing=pants-shitting hilarity. That is why my username ends in 68. [[User:RedHatGuy68|RedHatGuy68]] ([[User talk:RedHatGuy68|talk]])

Panel 8: could the figure on the right hope that becoming a mermaid makes one gay so that his friend, now a presumably gorgeous (and female in body) mermaid, could be attracted to him? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.70.217|141.101.70.217]] 16:55, 26 July 2016 (UTC) {{unsigned ip|141.101.70.217|16:48, 26 July 2016 (UTC)}}

How did anybody decide who's Cueball and who's "Friend"? I find it especially questionable to call someone "friend" who points a gun to your head. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 14:35, 8 June 2018 (UTC)

Has anyone considered that the title of the comic and the alt text combine to make 538, the stat website of which Randall is a huge fan? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.193|162.158.74.193]] 23:09, 8 April 2020 (UTC) Jury

I think panel 10 could be a reference to power edd. Added. [[User:Knit cap|Knit cap]] ([[User talk:Knit cap|talk]]) 12:23, 8 December 2020 (UTC)
:Edit: matt sucks [[User:Knit cap|Knit cap]] ([[User talk:Knit cap|talk]]) 09:09, 9 December 2020 (UTC)

68: Five Thirty

2020-12-09T09:08:14Z

Knit cap:

{{comic
| number = 68
| date = February 24, 2006
| title = Five Thirty
| image = five_thirty.jpg
| titletext = The 8th panel is my favorite
}}

==Explanation==
At 5:30 AM, one's sleep-deprived or prematurely-roused mind sometimes comes up with things that seem like nonsense later.

None of the twelve panels in this comic seem to have any correlation with one another, each one being its own "story," and none of them really make any sense. It is unknown whether Randall really wrote this comic while awake at 5:30 in the morning, or if he wrote it while completely alert and is trying to pass off his rejected ideas by saying what one's mind may experience when trying to process information at an hour when the person is not used to being awake.

===Explanations of the individual panels (numbered left to right, top to bottom)===
# "'80s night" is a special theme many nightclubs hold, inviting their guests to wear fashions that were popular in the 1980s while playing dance music from the same period.
# {{w|Jack the Ripper}} was an infamous serial killer in Victorian {{w|England}}. {{w|Jack Black}} is a rock star and actor. "There is no Tuesday" is likely a reference to the line "There is no spoon" in ''{{w|The Matrix}}''.
# There doesn't seem to be too much to this panel that isn't self-explanatory, but it's possible that there's a reference to the ''{{w|Civilization (video game)|Civilization}}'' series of video games, in which it's possible (albeit unlikely) for medieval soldiers to attack and destroy 20th-century military helicopters.
# Stick figures standing upright are indeed drawn without any thought as to which section of their legs are the shins.
# Two Cueballs seem very upset as indicated by them shouting ''shit'' ten times without break, and as indicated at the end, they will continue to do so, as only "sh" of the 11th shit is written. What they should have been alarmed about is the third arm that seems to have grown out of the left Cueball's torso. But as it turns out, they are worried about daylight savings ''[sic]'', which comes out in the second line of their shouting. {{w|Daylight saving time}} (DST) was {{w|History_of_time_in_the_United_States#Start_and_end_dates_of_United_States_Daylight_Time|not due}} until April 2nd in the USA in 2006, more than a month after the release of this comic. This seems to be the first to use DST as part of a joke, but it is far from the last time that Randall has made it clear that he is [[:Category:Daylight saving time|not a fan of DST]], which he sometimes directly mocks. It's hard to tell what the two stick figures are actually doing and what the black blobs at the ends of their arms should represent, given that Randall normally doesn't draw hands on his stick figures. One guess is that they're both wearing watches, one on each of their combined five arms. In that case, they are upset because they forgot to adjust all their clocks for DST. Alternatively, the two Cueballs represent two clocks, the right one with only hour-hand and minute-hand, but the left one also with a seconds-hand, and it is these hands that are drawn. In that case, the left Cueball is one hour ahead of the right Cueball, as his shortest arm points down left at around 8 o'clock (with the seconds-hand above, and the minutes-hand at 20 minutes past), and the right Cueball has his hour hand at 7 o'clock and the minute hand also at 20 past. This would explain both the three arms, the "hands" at the end of the arms, and the different length of especially the left Cueball's arm, and finally why they are so upset about one of them forgetting DST.
# "Ointment" may be a reference to the infamous lotion scene in ''{{w|Silence of the Lambs}}'', as the panel appears to be invoking horror movie visuals.
# The farthest left angle is labeled theta. The joke is that finding the cosine, the length of the adjacent leg divided by the length of the hypotenuse, would be difficult as the adjacent leg is poorly drawn and does not resemble a straight line to be measured. Alternatively, the line <q>fuck the cosine</q> resembles the slogan {{w|fuck the police}}.
# Lots of jokes have been made out of the template "does liking X make you gay?", where the speaker is afraid that he may be a homosexual. Here, the speaker has apparently transformed into a {{w|mermaid}} at some point. His friend seems to be eager to both turn into a mermaid himself and confirm himself for a homosexual. Another explanation may be that the friend thinks that a man who was a mermaid for five minutes should be homosexual afterwards, because he simply can't imagine something else about it. In this explanation, the friend has no interest in others being gay or not; he just thinks that this may be a realistic progress.
# Waving a gun around and declaring that things you hate are "for pussies" is stereotypical "{{w|macho}}" behavior. Possibly, the man with the gun is going to cut the other man's hair with bullets because it's more "macho" than going to the barber.
# This doesn't seem to mean anything whatsoever. However, both of the characters say something irrational: "My hair is bleeding" is irrational because strands of hair can't bleed (although it could be a reference to eddsworld's [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ch1lO9aFRvU| matt sucks]), and "√3" is an {{w|irrational number}}. The first statement may also have something to do with the prior panel (as cutting one's hair with bullets does not tend to end well).
# A bachelor party is a traditionally raucous party that is thrown for a groom on the night before his wedding. Because these parties can be wild (involving drinking and such), this may explain why the figure is upside down.
# Likely a reference to the "{{w|ant on a rubber rope}}" thought experiment. Apparently in Randall's mind, the experiment does not end well for the ant.

----

The title text could actually refer to two different panels. If a person chooses to read the comic left-to-right, top-to-bottom (which is more likely given that this is the order in the official transcript), the eighth panel could be the one with where Cueball asks "Does being a mermaid for five minutes make you gay?" However, if a person chooses to read the comic top-to-bottom, left-to-right, the eighth panel will instead be the one with Cueball hanging upside down shouting "Bachelor party!"

==Transcript==
:Comics from 5:30 AM
:[A succession of unrelated and completely random panels.]

:Cueball: It's 80's night at the club. Wanna go?

:Friend: There is no Tuesday.
:Cueball: Jack the Ripper or Jack Black?

:[Cueball in this panel is holding a glinting sword.]
:Friend: You crashed my helicopter!
:Cueball: Verily!

:[A small figure is talking with a larger figure.]
:Figure 1: Basically, neither of us have shins.
:Figure 2: Over and out.

:[Two men are shown: one with three arms, and another with just two. All arms have round appendages at their ends.]
:Men: shitshitshitshitshitshitdaylightsavingsshitshitshitshitsh

:[Two figures with pumpkins (carved with faces) for heads.]
:Figure 1: You're out of ointment and out of time!

:[A diagram of a right-angled triangle, with a theta at the smallest angle.]
:FUCK THE COSINE

:Friend: Does being a mermaid for five minutes make you gay?
:Cueball: I hope so!

:[The friend is holding a gun to Cueball's head.]
:Friend: Barbershops are for pussies.

:Friend: My hair is bleeding.
:Cueball: √3

:[Cueball seems to be walking on the ceiling.]
:Cueball: Bachelor party!

:[Warning sign with picture of an ant.]
:WARNING: STRETCHY DEATH

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Homosexuality]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Daylight saving time]]

Talk:68: Five Thirty

2020-12-08T12:23:16Z

Knit cap:

68: Five Thirty

2020-12-08T12:21:03Z

Knit cap:

{{comic
| number = 68
| date = February 24, 2006
| title = Five Thirty
| image = five_thirty.jpg
| titletext = The 8th panel is my favorite
}}

==Explanation==
At 5:30 AM, one's sleep-deprived or prematurely-roused mind sometimes comes up with things that seem like nonsense later.

None of the twelve panels in this comic seem to have any correlation with one another, each one being its own "story," and none of them really make any sense. It is unknown whether Randall really wrote this comic while awake at 5:30 in the morning, or if he wrote it while completely alert and is trying to pass off his rejected ideas by saying what one's mind may experience when trying to process information at an hour when the person is not used to being awake.

===Explanations of the individual panels (numbered left to right, top to bottom)===
# "'80s night" is a special theme many nightclubs hold, inviting their guests to wear fashions that were popular in the 1980s while playing dance music from the same period.
# {{w|Jack the Ripper}} was an infamous serial killer in Victorian {{w|England}}. {{w|Jack Black}} is a rock star and actor. "There is no Tuesday" is likely a reference to the line "There is no spoon" in ''{{w|The Matrix}}''.
# There doesn't seem to be too much to this panel that isn't self-explanatory, but it's possible that there's a reference to the ''{{w|Civilization (video game)|Civilization}}'' series of video games, in which it's possible (albeit unlikely) for medieval soldiers to attack and destroy 20th-century military helicopters.
# Stick figures standing upright are indeed drawn without any thought as to which section of their legs are the shins.
# Two Cueballs seem very upset as indicated by them shouting ''shit'' ten times without break, and as indicated at the end, they will continue to do so, as only "sh" of the 11th shit is written. What they should have been alarmed about is the third arm that seems to have grown out of the left Cueball's torso. But as it turns out, they are worried about daylight savings ''[sic]'', which comes out in the second line of their shouting. {{w|Daylight saving time}} (DST) was {{w|History_of_time_in_the_United_States#Start_and_end_dates_of_United_States_Daylight_Time|not due}} until April 2nd in the USA in 2006, more than a month after the release of this comic. This seems to be the first to use DST as part of a joke, but it is far from the last time that Randall has made it clear that he is [[:Category:Daylight saving time|not a fan of DST]], which he sometimes directly mocks. It's hard to tell what the two stick figures are actually doing and what the black blobs at the ends of their arms should represent, given that Randall normally doesn't draw hands on his stick figures. One guess is that they're both wearing watches, one on each of their combined five arms. In that case, they are upset because they forgot to adjust all their clocks for DST. Alternatively, the two Cueballs represent two clocks, the right one with only hour-hand and minute-hand, but the left one also with a seconds-hand, and it is these hands that are drawn. In that case, the left Cueball is one hour ahead of the right Cueball, as his shortest arm points down left at around 8 o'clock (with the seconds-hand above, and the minutes-hand at 20 minutes past), and the right Cueball has his hour hand at 7 o'clock and the minute hand also at 20 past. This would explain both the three arms, the "hands" at the end of the arms, and the different length of especially the left Cueball's arm, and finally why they are so upset about one of them forgetting DST.
# "Ointment" may be a reference to the infamous lotion scene in ''{{w|Silence of the Lambs}}'', as the panel appears to be invoking horror movie visuals.
# The farthest left angle is labeled theta. The joke is that finding the cosine, the length of the adjacent leg divided by the length of the hypotenuse, would be difficult as the adjacent leg is poorly drawn and does not resemble a straight line to be measured. Alternatively, the line <q>fuck the cosine</q> resembles the slogan {{w|fuck the police}}.
# Lots of jokes have been made out of the template "does liking X make you gay?", where the speaker is afraid that he may be a homosexual. Here, the speaker has apparently transformed into a {{w|mermaid}} at some point. His friend seems to be eager to both turn into a mermaid himself and confirm himself for a homosexual. Another explanation may be that the friend thinks that a man who was a mermaid for five minutes should be homosexual afterwards, because he simply can't imagine something else about it. In this explanation, the friend has no interest in others being gay or not; he just thinks that this may be a realistic progress.
# Waving a gun around and declaring that things you hate are "for pussies" is stereotypical "{{w|macho}}" behavior. Possibly, the man with the gun is going to cut the other man's hair with bullets because it's more "macho" than going to the barber.
# This doesn't seem to mean anything whatsoever. However, both of the characters say something irrational: "My hair is bleeding" is irrational because strands of hair can't bleed (although it could be a reference to eddsworld's [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uy4ksRIwOzQ| power edd]), and "√3" is an {{w|irrational number}}. The first statement may also have something to do with the prior panel (as cutting one's hair with bullets does not tend to end well).
# A bachelor party is a traditionally raucous party that is thrown for a groom on the night before his wedding. Because these parties can be wild (involving drinking and such), this may explain why the figure is upside down.
# Likely a reference to the "{{w|ant on a rubber rope}}" thought experiment. Apparently in Randall's mind, the experiment does not end well for the ant.

----

The title text could actually refer to two different panels. If a person chooses to read the comic left-to-right, top-to-bottom (which is more likely given that this is the order in the official transcript), the eighth panel could be the one with where Cueball asks "Does being a mermaid for five minutes make you gay?" However, if a person chooses to read the comic top-to-bottom, left-to-right, the eighth panel will instead be the one with Cueball hanging upside down shouting "Bachelor party!"

==Transcript==
:Comics from 5:30 AM
:[A succession of unrelated and completely random panels.]

:Cueball: It's 80's night at the club. Wanna go?

:Friend: There is no Tuesday.
:Cueball: Jack the Ripper or Jack Black?

:[Cueball in this panel is holding a glinting sword.]
:Friend: You crashed my helicopter!
:Cueball: Verily!

:[A small figure is talking with a larger figure.]
:Figure 1: Basically, neither of us have shins.
:Figure 2: Over and out.

:[Two men are shown: one with three arms, and another with just two. All arms have round appendages at their ends.]
:Men: shitshitshitshitshitshitdaylightsavingsshitshitshitshitsh

:[Two figures with pumpkins (carved with faces) for heads.]
:Figure 1: You're out of ointment and out of time!

:[A diagram of a right-angled triangle, with a theta at the smallest angle.]
:FUCK THE COSINE

:Friend: Does being a mermaid for five minutes make you gay?
:Cueball: I hope so!

:[The friend is holding a gun to Cueball's head.]
:Friend: Barbershops are for pussies.

:Friend: My hair is bleeding.
:Cueball: √3

:[Cueball seems to be walking on the ceiling.]
:Cueball: Bachelor party!

:[Warning sign with picture of an ant.]
:WARNING: STRETCHY DEATH

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Homosexuality]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Daylight saving time]]

68: Five Thirty

2020-12-08T12:20:21Z

Knit cap:

{{comic
| number = 68
| date = February 24, 2006
| title = Five Thirty
| image = five_thirty.jpg
| titletext = The 8th panel is my favorite
}}

==Explanation==
At 5:30 AM, one's sleep-deprived or prematurely-roused mind sometimes comes up with things that seem like nonsense later.

None of the twelve panels in this comic seem to have any correlation with one another, each one being its own "story," and none of them really make any sense. It is unknown whether Randall really wrote this comic while awake at 5:30 in the morning, or if he wrote it while completely alert and is trying to pass off his rejected ideas by saying what one's mind may experience when trying to process information at an hour when the person is not used to being awake.

===Explanations of the individual panels (numbered left to right, top to bottom)===
# "'80s night" is a special theme many nightclubs hold, inviting their guests to wear fashions that were popular in the 1980s while playing dance music from the same period.
# {{w|Jack the Ripper}} was an infamous serial killer in Victorian {{w|England}}. {{w|Jack Black}} is a rock star and actor. "There is no Tuesday" is likely a reference to the line "There is no spoon" in ''{{w|The Matrix}}''.
# There doesn't seem to be too much to this panel that isn't self-explanatory, but it's possible that there's a reference to the ''{{w|Civilization (video game)|Civilization}}'' series of video games, in which it's possible (albeit unlikely) for medieval soldiers to attack and destroy 20th-century military helicopters.
# Stick figures standing upright are indeed drawn without any thought as to which section of their legs are the shins.
# Two Cueballs seem very upset as indicated by them shouting ''shit'' ten times without break, and as indicated at the end, they will continue to do so, as only "sh" of the 11th shit is written. What they should have been alarmed about is the third arm that seems to have grown out of the left Cueball's torso. But as it turns out, they are worried about daylight savings ''[sic]'', which comes out in the second line of their shouting. {{w|Daylight saving time}} (DST) was {{w|History_of_time_in_the_United_States#Start_and_end_dates_of_United_States_Daylight_Time|not due}} until April 2nd in the USA in 2006, more than a month after the release of this comic. This seems to be the first to use DST as part of a joke, but it is far from the last time that Randall has made it clear that he is [[:Category:Daylight saving time|not a fan of DST]], which he sometimes directly mocks. It's hard to tell what the two stick figures are actually doing and what the black blobs at the ends of their arms should represent, given that Randall normally doesn't draw hands on his stick figures. One guess is that they're both wearing watches, one on each of their combined five arms. In that case, they are upset because they forgot to adjust all their clocks for DST. Alternatively, the two Cueballs represent two clocks, the right one with only hour-hand and minute-hand, but the left one also with a seconds-hand, and it is these hands that are drawn. In that case, the left Cueball is one hour ahead of the right Cueball, as his shortest arm points down left at around 8 o'clock (with the seconds-hand above, and the minutes-hand at 20 minutes past), and the right Cueball has his hour hand at 7 o'clock and the minute hand also at 20 past. This would explain both the three arms, the "hands" at the end of the arms, and the different length of especially the left Cueball's arm, and finally why they are so upset about one of them forgetting DST.
# "Ointment" may be a reference to the infamous lotion scene in ''{{w|Silence of the Lambs}}'', as the panel appears to be invoking horror movie visuals.
# The farthest left angle is labeled theta. The joke is that finding the cosine, the length of the adjacent leg divided by the length of the hypotenuse, would be difficult as the adjacent leg is poorly drawn and does not resemble a straight line to be measured. Alternatively, the line <q>fuck the cosine</q> resembles the slogan {{w|fuck the police}}.
# Lots of jokes have been made out of the template "does liking X make you gay?", where the speaker is afraid that he may be a homosexual. Here, the speaker has apparently transformed into a {{w|mermaid}} at some point. His friend seems to be eager to both turn into a mermaid himself and confirm himself for a homosexual. Another explanation may be that the friend thinks that a man who was a mermaid for five minutes should be homosexual afterwards, because he simply can't imagine something else about it. In this explanation, the friend has no interest in others being gay or not; he just thinks that this may be a realistic progress.
# Waving a gun around and declaring that things you hate are "for pussies" is stereotypical "{{w|macho}}" behavior. Possibly, the man with the gun is going to cut the other man's hair with bullets because it's more "macho" than going to the barber.
# This doesn't seem to mean anything whatsoever. However, both of the characters say something irrational: "My hair is bleeding" is irrational because strands of hair can't bleed (although it could be a reference to eddsworld's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uy4ksRIwOzQ| power edd]]), and "√3" is an {{w|irrational number}}. The first statement may also have something to do with the prior panel (as cutting one's hair with bullets does not tend to end well).
# A bachelor party is a traditionally raucous party that is thrown for a groom on the night before his wedding. Because these parties can be wild (involving drinking and such), this may explain why the figure is upside down.
# Likely a reference to the "{{w|ant on a rubber rope}}" thought experiment. Apparently in Randall's mind, the experiment does not end well for the ant.

----

The title text could actually refer to two different panels. If a person chooses to read the comic left-to-right, top-to-bottom (which is more likely given that this is the order in the official transcript), the eighth panel could be the one with where Cueball asks "Does being a mermaid for five minutes make you gay?" However, if a person chooses to read the comic top-to-bottom, left-to-right, the eighth panel will instead be the one with Cueball hanging upside down shouting "Bachelor party!"

==Transcript==
:Comics from 5:30 AM
:[A succession of unrelated and completely random panels.]

:Cueball: It's 80's night at the club. Wanna go?

:Friend: There is no Tuesday.
:Cueball: Jack the Ripper or Jack Black?

:[Cueball in this panel is holding a glinting sword.]
:Friend: You crashed my helicopter!
:Cueball: Verily!

:[A small figure is talking with a larger figure.]
:Figure 1: Basically, neither of us have shins.
:Figure 2: Over and out.

:[Two men are shown: one with three arms, and another with just two. All arms have round appendages at their ends.]
:Men: shitshitshitshitshitshitdaylightsavingsshitshitshitshitsh

:[Two figures with pumpkins (carved with faces) for heads.]
:Figure 1: You're out of ointment and out of time!

:[A diagram of a right-angled triangle, with a theta at the smallest angle.]
:FUCK THE COSINE

:Friend: Does being a mermaid for five minutes make you gay?
:Cueball: I hope so!

:[The friend is holding a gun to Cueball's head.]
:Friend: Barbershops are for pussies.

:Friend: My hair is bleeding.
:Cueball: √3

:[Cueball seems to be walking on the ceiling.]
:Cueball: Bachelor party!

:[Warning sign with picture of an ant.]
:WARNING: STRETCHY DEATH

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Homosexuality]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Daylight saving time]]

68: Five Thirty

2020-12-08T12:19:20Z

Knit cap:

{{comic
| number = 68
| date = February 24, 2006
| title = Five Thirty
| image = five_thirty.jpg
| titletext = The 8th panel is my favorite
}}

==Explanation==
At 5:30 AM, one's sleep-deprived or prematurely-roused mind sometimes comes up with things that seem like nonsense later.

None of the twelve panels in this comic seem to have any correlation with one another, each one being its own "story," and none of them really make any sense. It is unknown whether Randall really wrote this comic while awake at 5:30 in the morning, or if he wrote it while completely alert and is trying to pass off his rejected ideas by saying what one's mind may experience when trying to process information at an hour when the person is not used to being awake.

===Explanations of the individual panels (numbered left to right, top to bottom)===
# "'80s night" is a special theme many nightclubs hold, inviting their guests to wear fashions that were popular in the 1980s while playing dance music from the same period.
# {{w|Jack the Ripper}} was an infamous serial killer in Victorian {{w|England}}. {{w|Jack Black}} is a rock star and actor. "There is no Tuesday" is likely a reference to the line "There is no spoon" in ''{{w|The Matrix}}''.
# There doesn't seem to be too much to this panel that isn't self-explanatory, but it's possible that there's a reference to the ''{{w|Civilization (video game)|Civilization}}'' series of video games, in which it's possible (albeit unlikely) for medieval soldiers to attack and destroy 20th-century military helicopters.
# Stick figures standing upright are indeed drawn without any thought as to which section of their legs are the shins.
# Two Cueballs seem very upset as indicated by them shouting ''shit'' ten times without break, and as indicated at the end, they will continue to do so, as only "sh" of the 11th shit is written. What they should have been alarmed about is the third arm that seems to have grown out of the left Cueball's torso. But as it turns out, they are worried about daylight savings ''[sic]'', which comes out in the second line of their shouting. {{w|Daylight saving time}} (DST) was {{w|History_of_time_in_the_United_States#Start_and_end_dates_of_United_States_Daylight_Time|not due}} until April 2nd in the USA in 2006, more than a month after the release of this comic. This seems to be the first to use DST as part of a joke, but it is far from the last time that Randall has made it clear that he is [[:Category:Daylight saving time|not a fan of DST]], which he sometimes directly mocks. It's hard to tell what the two stick figures are actually doing and what the black blobs at the ends of their arms should represent, given that Randall normally doesn't draw hands on his stick figures. One guess is that they're both wearing watches, one on each of their combined five arms. In that case, they are upset because they forgot to adjust all their clocks for DST. Alternatively, the two Cueballs represent two clocks, the right one with only hour-hand and minute-hand, but the left one also with a seconds-hand, and it is these hands that are drawn. In that case, the left Cueball is one hour ahead of the right Cueball, as his shortest arm points down left at around 8 o'clock (with the seconds-hand above, and the minutes-hand at 20 minutes past), and the right Cueball has his hour hand at 7 o'clock and the minute hand also at 20 past. This would explain both the three arms, the "hands" at the end of the arms, and the different length of especially the left Cueball's arm, and finally why they are so upset about one of them forgetting DST.
# "Ointment" may be a reference to the infamous lotion scene in ''{{w|Silence of the Lambs}}'', as the panel appears to be invoking horror movie visuals.
# The farthest left angle is labeled theta. The joke is that finding the cosine, the length of the adjacent leg divided by the length of the hypotenuse, would be difficult as the adjacent leg is poorly drawn and does not resemble a straight line to be measured. Alternatively, the line <q>fuck the cosine</q> resembles the slogan {{w|fuck the police}}.
# Lots of jokes have been made out of the template "does liking X make you gay?", where the speaker is afraid that he may be a homosexual. Here, the speaker has apparently transformed into a {{w|mermaid}} at some point. His friend seems to be eager to both turn into a mermaid himself and confirm himself for a homosexual. Another explanation may be that the friend thinks that a man who was a mermaid for five minutes should be homosexual afterwards, because he simply can't imagine something else about it. In this explanation, the friend has no interest in others being gay or not; he just thinks that this may be a realistic progress.
# Waving a gun around and declaring that things you hate are "for pussies" is stereotypical "{{w|macho}}" behavior. Possibly, the man with the gun is going to cut the other man's hair with bullets because it's more "macho" than going to the barber.
# This doesn't seem to mean anything whatsoever. However, both of the characters say something irrational: "My hair is bleeding" is irrational because strands of hair can't bleed (although it could be a reference to eddsworld's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uy4ksRIwOzQ|power edd]]), and "√3" is an {{w|irrational number}}. The first statement may also have something to do with the prior panel (as cutting one's hair with bullets does not tend to end well).
# A bachelor party is a traditionally raucous party that is thrown for a groom on the night before his wedding. Because these parties can be wild (involving drinking and such), this may explain why the figure is upside down.
# Likely a reference to the "{{w|ant on a rubber rope}}" thought experiment. Apparently in Randall's mind, the experiment does not end well for the ant.

----

The title text could actually refer to two different panels. If a person chooses to read the comic left-to-right, top-to-bottom (which is more likely given that this is the order in the official transcript), the eighth panel could be the one with where Cueball asks "Does being a mermaid for five minutes make you gay?" However, if a person chooses to read the comic top-to-bottom, left-to-right, the eighth panel will instead be the one with Cueball hanging upside down shouting "Bachelor party!"

==Transcript==
:Comics from 5:30 AM
:[A succession of unrelated and completely random panels.]

:Cueball: It's 80's night at the club. Wanna go?

:Friend: There is no Tuesday.
:Cueball: Jack the Ripper or Jack Black?

:[Cueball in this panel is holding a glinting sword.]
:Friend: You crashed my helicopter!
:Cueball: Verily!

:[A small figure is talking with a larger figure.]
:Figure 1: Basically, neither of us have shins.
:Figure 2: Over and out.

:[Two men are shown: one with three arms, and another with just two. All arms have round appendages at their ends.]
:Men: shitshitshitshitshitshitdaylightsavingsshitshitshitshitsh

:[Two figures with pumpkins (carved with faces) for heads.]
:Figure 1: You're out of ointment and out of time!

:[A diagram of a right-angled triangle, with a theta at the smallest angle.]
:FUCK THE COSINE

:Friend: Does being a mermaid for five minutes make you gay?
:Cueball: I hope so!

:[The friend is holding a gun to Cueball's head.]
:Friend: Barbershops are for pussies.

:Friend: My hair is bleeding.
:Cueball: √3

:[Cueball seems to be walking on the ceiling.]
:Cueball: Bachelor party!

:[Warning sign with picture of an ant.]
:WARNING: STRETCHY DEATH

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Homosexuality]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Daylight saving time]]

68: Five Thirty

2020-12-08T12:17:36Z

Knit cap:

{{comic
| number = 68
| date = February 24, 2006
| title = Five Thirty
| image = five_thirty.jpg
| titletext = The 8th panel is my favorite
}}

==Explanation==
At 5:30 AM, one's sleep-deprived or prematurely-roused mind sometimes comes up with things that seem like nonsense later.

None of the twelve panels in this comic seem to have any correlation with one another, each one being its own "story," and none of them really make any sense. It is unknown whether Randall really wrote this comic while awake at 5:30 in the morning, or if he wrote it while completely alert and is trying to pass off his rejected ideas by saying what one's mind may experience when trying to process information at an hour when the person is not used to being awake.

===Explanations of the individual panels (numbered left to right, top to bottom)===
# "'80s night" is a special theme many nightclubs hold, inviting their guests to wear fashions that were popular in the 1980s while playing dance music from the same period.
# {{w|Jack the Ripper}} was an infamous serial killer in Victorian {{w|England}}. {{w|Jack Black}} is a rock star and actor. "There is no Tuesday" is likely a reference to the line "There is no spoon" in ''{{w|The Matrix}}''.
# There doesn't seem to be too much to this panel that isn't self-explanatory, but it's possible that there's a reference to the ''{{w|Civilization (video game)|Civilization}}'' series of video games, in which it's possible (albeit unlikely) for medieval soldiers to attack and destroy 20th-century military helicopters.
# Stick figures standing upright are indeed drawn without any thought as to which section of their legs are the shins.
# Two Cueballs seem very upset as indicated by them shouting ''shit'' ten times without break, and as indicated at the end, they will continue to do so, as only "sh" of the 11th shit is written. What they should have been alarmed about is the third arm that seems to have grown out of the left Cueball's torso. But as it turns out, they are worried about daylight savings ''[sic]'', which comes out in the second line of their shouting. {{w|Daylight saving time}} (DST) was {{w|History_of_time_in_the_United_States#Start_and_end_dates_of_United_States_Daylight_Time|not due}} until April 2nd in the USA in 2006, more than a month after the release of this comic. This seems to be the first to use DST as part of a joke, but it is far from the last time that Randall has made it clear that he is [[:Category:Daylight saving time|not a fan of DST]], which he sometimes directly mocks. It's hard to tell what the two stick figures are actually doing and what the black blobs at the ends of their arms should represent, given that Randall normally doesn't draw hands on his stick figures. One guess is that they're both wearing watches, one on each of their combined five arms. In that case, they are upset because they forgot to adjust all their clocks for DST. Alternatively, the two Cueballs represent two clocks, the right one with only hour-hand and minute-hand, but the left one also with a seconds-hand, and it is these hands that are drawn. In that case, the left Cueball is one hour ahead of the right Cueball, as his shortest arm points down left at around 8 o'clock (with the seconds-hand above, and the minutes-hand at 20 minutes past), and the right Cueball has his hour hand at 7 o'clock and the minute hand also at 20 past. This would explain both the three arms, the "hands" at the end of the arms, and the different length of especially the left Cueball's arm, and finally why they are so upset about one of them forgetting DST.
# "Ointment" may be a reference to the infamous lotion scene in ''{{w|Silence of the Lambs}}'', as the panel appears to be invoking horror movie visuals.
# The farthest left angle is labeled theta. The joke is that finding the cosine, the length of the adjacent leg divided by the length of the hypotenuse, would be difficult as the adjacent leg is poorly drawn and does not resemble a straight line to be measured. Alternatively, the line <q>fuck the cosine</q> resembles the slogan {{w|fuck the police}}.
# Lots of jokes have been made out of the template "does liking X make you gay?", where the speaker is afraid that he may be a homosexual. Here, the speaker has apparently transformed into a {{w|mermaid}} at some point. His friend seems to be eager to both turn into a mermaid himself and confirm himself for a homosexual. Another explanation may be that the friend thinks that a man who was a mermaid for five minutes should be homosexual afterwards, because he simply can't imagine something else about it. In this explanation, the friend has no interest in others being gay or not; he just thinks that this may be a realistic progress.
# Waving a gun around and declaring that things you hate are "for pussies" is stereotypical "{{w|macho}}" behavior. Possibly, the man with the gun is going to cut the other man's hair with bullets because it's more "macho" than going to the barber.
# This doesn't seem to mean anything whatsoever. However, both of the characters say something irrational: "My hair is bleeding" is irrational because strands of hair can't bleed (although it could be a reference to eddsworld's [[power edd|https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uy4ksRIwOzQ]]), and "√3" is an {{w|irrational number}}. The first statement may also have something to do with the prior panel (as cutting one's hair with bullets does not tend to end well).
# A bachelor party is a traditionally raucous party that is thrown for a groom on the night before his wedding. Because these parties can be wild (involving drinking and such), this may explain why the figure is upside down.
# Likely a reference to the "{{w|ant on a rubber rope}}" thought experiment. Apparently in Randall's mind, the experiment does not end well for the ant.

----

The title text could actually refer to two different panels. If a person chooses to read the comic left-to-right, top-to-bottom (which is more likely given that this is the order in the official transcript), the eighth panel could be the one with where Cueball asks "Does being a mermaid for five minutes make you gay?" However, if a person chooses to read the comic top-to-bottom, left-to-right, the eighth panel will instead be the one with Cueball hanging upside down shouting "Bachelor party!"

==Transcript==
:Comics from 5:30 AM
:[A succession of unrelated and completely random panels.]

:Cueball: It's 80's night at the club. Wanna go?

:Friend: There is no Tuesday.
:Cueball: Jack the Ripper or Jack Black?

:[Cueball in this panel is holding a glinting sword.]
:Friend: You crashed my helicopter!
:Cueball: Verily!

:[A small figure is talking with a larger figure.]
:Figure 1: Basically, neither of us have shins.
:Figure 2: Over and out.

:[Two men are shown: one with three arms, and another with just two. All arms have round appendages at their ends.]
:Men: shitshitshitshitshitshitdaylightsavingsshitshitshitshitsh

:[Two figures with pumpkins (carved with faces) for heads.]
:Figure 1: You're out of ointment and out of time!

:[A diagram of a right-angled triangle, with a theta at the smallest angle.]
:FUCK THE COSINE

:Friend: Does being a mermaid for five minutes make you gay?
:Cueball: I hope so!

:[The friend is holding a gun to Cueball's head.]
:Friend: Barbershops are for pussies.

:Friend: My hair is bleeding.
:Cueball: √3

:[Cueball seems to be walking on the ceiling.]
:Cueball: Bachelor party!

:[Warning sign with picture of an ant.]
:WARNING: STRETCHY DEATH

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Homosexuality]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Daylight saving time]]