explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

1837: Rental Car

2017-05-16T01:43:09Z

LordYaymaster: I think that the title text refers to multiple murder ghosts instead of one moving from car to car

{{comic
| number = 1837
| date = May 15, 2017
| title = Rental Car
| image = rental_car.png
| titletext = Technically, both cars are haunted, but the murder ghosts can't stand listening to the broken GPS for more than a few minutes.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Work in progress}}

In this comic the couple [[Megan]] and [[Cueball]] want to rent a car. The [[:Category:Multiple Cueballs|Cueball-like guy]] from the {{w|car rental}} agency tells them they only have two vehicles available:
* One car that puts its occupants into mortal danger, so much so that it is called ''The Murder Car''. The danger, however, is abstract - it is [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/haunted haunted] by a {{w|ghost}}, and actual death befalls only "maybe one in six". (That is the equivalent of a round of {{w|Russian Roulette}}. )
* The other car, a regular {{w|Sedan (automobile)|Sedan}}, has a defective {{w|GPS}} that incessantly gives instructions to go specifically to {{w|Seattle}}, regardless of the driver's intention to go there. And it cannot be turned off.

Megan believes she can ignore this and accepts the least lethal car. The comic suggests that driving with a GPS that tries to guide you to a different destination than that which you wish to visit - so it is always recalculating and asking you to do U-turns - is incredibly annoying. So annoying that given the choice between the persistent low-level annoyance of the GPS on one hand, and the ("low") probability of being murdered on the other, most people will choose the latter option. After all, they might survive murderous ghosts but they feel they will not survive long having to listen to the broken GPS.

According to the title text, the murderous ghosts haunt both cars, but as soon as the car starts driving and the GPS begins to drone on, even the ghost cannot stand listening to the broken GPS and stops possessing it.

Apart from the joke about GPS, there is also a joke on the horrible cars one might get at a car rental service...

==Trivia==
*With an estimated 1.25 million vehicular deaths globally in 2013[http://www.who.int/gho/road_safety/mortality/traffic_deaths_number/en/] and approx 53.7 million cars sold in the same year [https://www.statista.com/statistics/200002/international-car-sales-since-1990/], the number of fatalities per vehicle sold comes to be around 2.3% or about 1 in 43.5.
** The above number is an intentionally misleading statistic. See [[1102: Fastest-Growing]]

*The global number of haunted cars those with faulty GPS/Sat Navs is not available, but believed to be at least five in number. [http://www.autoblog.com/2014/10/31/five-cursed-haunted-cars/]

==Transcript==
:[A Cueball-like guy standing behind a desk looking at a computer screen services Megan and Cueball on the other side of the desk.]
:Guy: We have two rental cars left.
:Guy: One is the murder car. But don't let the name scare you!
:Guy: It's definitely haunted. But most drivers don't get murdered.
:Guy: Maybe one in six.

:[The guy lifts his hand and looks at Megan and Cueball.]
:Guy: The other is a regular Sedan.
:Guy: But is has a GPS that's stuck trying to navigate to Seattle.
:Megan: ...I can ignore it, right? That's fine.

:[In a frame-less panel Megan and Cueball drives in the Sedan.]
:GPS: Turn left
:GPS: Recalculating
:GPS: Make a U-Turn
:GPS: Recalculating
:GPS: Turn right
:GPS: Make a U-Turn
:GPS: Recalculating

:[Megan and Cueball walks back into the the guy behind his desk. Megan holds out the car keys in one hand.]
:Guy: Back already?
:Megan: We'll take the murder car.
:Guy: Popular Choice.

{{comic discussion}}

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

1761: Blame

2017-05-15T00:16:24Z

LordYaymaster: Edited a small typo, said Donal, instead of Donald

{{comic
| number = 1761
| date = November 18, 2016
| title = Blame
| image = blame.png
| titletext = I bet if I yell at my scared friends I will feel better.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] states that he feels sad and links it with his observation that bad things are happening. Sadness is a normal human reaction to perceived bad events<ref>http://www.clinical-depression.co.uk/dlp/depression-information/causes-of-depression/</ref>. (Other emotions that might be felt at such times include anger and guilt.)

He then reasons that it must be someone's fault. If the "bad things" in question are not natural calamities or accidents, it is usually logical to surmise that someone is responsible for them taking place.

After some thinking, he has an idea. Ideas are usually the result of thinking (unless they are a result of {{w|computers}}{{Citation needed}}), although it might not always be conscious thinking like Cueball is doing.

He then blames his "friends on {{w|Facebook}}", a social media website and app, for connecting with and talking to friends and family. While there could be possible reasons for bad events (for example if the bad event was nobody wishing him a happy birthday or someone posting compromising pictures,) his friends would not be a likely source for bad events extending beyond a personal or local scope. Most people have a few hundred (or thousand) "friends" on Facebook, most of whom do not have enough influence to cause bad events on a national or global level.{{Citation needed}}

This is a reference to people ranting on {{w|social media}} sites (like Facebook) about various things which are blamed on certain people (or sometimes everyone), but the person doing the ranting never thinks that the problem might be with themselves.

It could possibly also be a reference to how an individual's Facebook news feed has probably been inundated by political posts due to the results of the recent 2016 {{w|United States presidential election}} where {{w|Donald Trump}} won, less than two weeks before the release of this comic. Just before the election [[Randall]] had shown his supported for {{w|Hillary Clinton}}, the {{w|Democratic}} nominee in the comic [[1756: I'm With Her]]. That this is indeed the reason is further supported by [[1756:_I'm_With_Her#Sad_comics|several other sad comics]] that followed later. These also seemed related to the election of Donald Trump. But this comic was the first. The second [[1773: Negativity]] can actually be seen as a direct follow up to this comic. Because in that one Cueball finally goes outside his house to avoid all the negativity on-line (probably worsened when he blamed his friends for the bad things happening!).

One read on this is that, many people, including [http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/07/24/486941582/the-reason-your-feed-became-an-echo-chamber-and-what-to-do-about-it some news sources], have pointed out that social media forms an "echo chamber", and some sources have claimed that this is responsible both for political polarization (see [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rE3j_RHkqJc&t=2s this video]) and even for [http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/donald-trump-president-social-media-echo-chamber-hypernormalisation-adam-curtis-protests-blame-a7409481.html the recent victory] of Donald Trump in spite of Randall's endorsement of Hillary. Therefore, blaming social media for the election can be read as blaming his friends echoing his ideas back to him as causing (partially) Clinton's loss; thus they are (partially) at fault for his presumed sadness over her loss in the election. A second read on this would be that constant reminders of Clinton's loss only serve to make Randall sadder: again the proximal cause being his friends' posts. A third read would be that friends with whom Cueball/Randall disagrees are posting things that he finds unpleasant to read, either ideas that he finds offensive or inconvenient, or posts "rubbing in" the victory of the candidate Randall opposed.

The fourth meta-read is that Cueball (as very much distinct from Randall) is not especially smart, and Cueball's mistake here is something that Randall has seen other people make, and Randall is bitter that many people are making said mistake -- not only will venting on Facebook be counterproductive generally, in particular blaming your Facebook friends for the loss of your favored candidate will only make your interpersonal relationships more difficult, such venting will do nothing to correct the root cause of the sadness, partly because a small group of people is relatively powerless, and partly because the very nature of self-selecting Facebook friend-groupings forms a bubble of insular ideological uniformity. Convincing yourself that your ideological allies are to blame, and then alienating your ideological allies by unfairly blaming them, is dumb; that is the point of the comic, that this "bright idea" that Cueball comes up with in panel three, is actually so dumb of an idea as to be humorous.

In real life, where Randall supported Hillary and is sad she lost, one might infer that Randall has seen real-life ideological allies blaming each other: you should have worked harder for the campaign, you should have donated more, you never should have been mean to that Bernie supporter, you should have listened to me when I said we needed to get out the vote in Michigan, and so on and so on. Finding a perceived problem, and then blaming your ideological allies as being the cause of that problem, makes it LESS likely that the actual problem will be corrected in future elections, thereby perpetuating the sadness. Not only is Randall sad that his candidate lost the election, he is sad that Facebook 'friends' are accusing each other of being to blame, and he is expecting to remain sad in future election-cycles thanks to the disunity and infighting that were the byproduct of THIS election-cycle. See also: 'vicious circle'.

Thus, the comic is actually intended to be entertaining, but also intended to have a moral lesson, like Aesop's fables: if you lose an election because turnout for your candidate was lower across the board than in was in 2012 and 2008, picking fights with your ideological allies will not help you in 2020, because that will only further disunify the factions within your coalition. The only way to increase turnout for one's preferred candidate, is to expand the coalition by bringing new voters -- and in some cases re-enticing former voters -- to join with you. Difficult to do when you spend all your time blaming each other. Somewhat ironically, this plain message is something that Randall cannot put forth... because telling your ideological allies that they need to stop blaming each other for the problems of the 2016 election-cycle, or they are gonna screw up the 2020 election-cycle, is in itself a way of blaming your allies! Thus, the comic makes fun of people who blame their ideological allies for not being very bright, but also shows that Randall himself may not have been able to figure out what to do either... which is a cause for sadness, indeed, and one that cannot easily be corrected. Even though Randall understands the problem, and can make humorous comics which illuminate the trouble, and poke fun at the counterproductive nature of blaming one's local allies for national or global setbacks, that does not mean he can keep people from falling into those counterproductive habits (himself included to some degree).

The title text refers to people venting. The (humorous) assumption here is that one will feel better after doing so. While some amount of venting might help to relieve stress caused by bad events, alienating people you know by blaming them for bad events usually causes more stress in the long run. (See above explanation about how blaming ideological allies can become a vicious circle.) The fact that he recognizes his friends are scared, like him, but still thinks yelling at them is a good idea shows he's more interested in making himself feel better rather than caring about the well being on his friends. Additionally, "yelling" on social media would likely only increase the influx of:
* Political posts reminding Cueball of his sadness.
* Angry messages back at him.
* Reminders of the reason he's sad, including possibly "rubbing in" the sad feelings.
* Posts designed to offend Cueball, including posts designed to offend his political sensibilities.
* New & improved reasons to be sad, such as being unfriended for incorrectly blaming his acquaintances.
* Future vicious-circle reasons to be sad, including picking future candidates which are a poor compromise and losing future elections.
All of these would make him feel worse, potentially in relatively short order.

==Transcript==
:Cueball (thinking): I feel sad.
:Bad things are happening.

:Cueball (thinking): They must be someone's fault.
:But whose?

:[Cueball makes several thinking poses before a light bulb appears, indicating he has an idea]

:Cueball (thinking): ''My friends on Facebook.''

==Citations==
<references/>

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Social networking]]

1544: Margaret

2017-05-14T23:43:12Z

LordYaymaster:

{{comic
| number = 1544
| date = June 29, 2015
| title = Margaret
| image = margaret.png
| titletext = Otherwise known as Margaret the Destroyer, I will bring pain to thee the Great One. Then again, maybe I won't.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic uses the starting lines of an innocent children's book and creates irony by delivering a dark message.

In the book ''{{w|Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.}}'' by {{w|Judy Blume}}, the opening lines are "Are you still there, God? It's me, Margaret. I know you're there, God. I know you wouldn't have missed this for anything! Thank you, God. Thanks an awful lot..." These lines describe a prayer, in which Margaret privately speaks to God, expressing gratitude and seeking guidance.

In the second and third panels, Margaret asks God "Are you scared, God?", and states "You should be". This is similar to threats delivered in super violent action movies, such as Taken, in which the protagonist or antagonist speaks directly to their opponent, issuing threats and indicating that they are coming after their opponent. The final panel is a shot of Margaret standing imposingly in a dark landscape, and a caption over the top of the image says "Margaret is coming for you", making this comic reminiscent of an action movie trailer. The irony is that "Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret." is a very innocent book, especially when compared to this type of action movie.

The title text is a mashup of three of Blume's other books: ''{{w|Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great}}'', ''{{w|The Pain and the Great One}}'', and ''{{w|Then Again, Maybe I Won't}}'', and likely the inspiration for the dark lines in the comic.

==Transcript==
:[Margaret, shown in full body, is alone. She is talking while looking out towards the reader.]
:Margaret: Are you there, God? It's me, Margaret.
:Margaret: I know you're listening.

:[Zoom in on her face and torso.]
:Margaret: Are you scared, God?
:Margaret: Are you?

:[Zooming so far in that not even her whole face is visible.]
:Margaret: You should be.

:[Zooming far out showing her in a white silhouette against a black sky, standing on the white earth.]
:Margaret: ''Margaret is coming for you''.

==Trivia==
*There seems to be a typo in the title text with double the:
**''I will bring pain to '''the the''' Great One''.
**It could however also be a reference to the book ''The Pain and the Great One'', so this is the "The Great One".
**Maybe it was supposed to be "thee, The Great One".

*There doesn't seem to be a typo if you pause after the first the. '''thee the''' would have been better. Realizing that God is "the Great One" may be the reason for the last part of the title text (Then again, maybe I won't.)
*I know you're listening" may refer to an earlier xkcd comic, [[525: I Know You're Listening]].
*The idea of turning an innocent children's book into a violent movie was previously touched in [[633: Blockbuster Mining]].
*Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret was previously referenced in the title text of [[1354: Heartbleed Explanation]].

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with inverted brightness]]
[[Category:Religion]]