explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

3227: Creation

2026-04-01T20:24:53Z

NotBob:

{{comic
| number = 3227
| date = April 1, 2026
| title = Creation
| image = creation_2x.png
| imagesize = 567x198px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = This xkcd.com update introduces a variety of new reading modes which can be activated through the menu.
}}To experience the interactivity, visit the {{xkcd|{comicNum}|original comic}}!

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created recently in ROBOTIC MODE. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
this comic was created when modes were added to the xkcd website, allowing different viewing options. Some are normal, like light and dark mode, but others are more interesting, like airplane mode (see below)

The comic references one of the first lines of the bible, about god making light, but then a person on earth asks to turn on dark mode, referencing the new options.

MODES:

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>[[Category:Interactive comics]][[Category:Dynamic comics]]

3227: Creation

2026-04-01T20:24:20Z

NotBob:

{{comic
| number = 3227
| date = April 1, 2026
| title = Creation
| image = creation_2x.png
| imagesize = 567x198px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = This xkcd.com update introduces a variety of new reading modes which can be activated through the menu.
}}To experience the interactivity, visit the {{xkcd|{comicNum}|original comic}}!

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created recently in ROBOTIC MODE. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
this comic was created when modes were added to the xkcd website, allowing different viewing options. Some are normal, like light and dark mode, but others are more interesting, like airplane mode (see below)
The comic references one of the first lines of the bible, about god making light, but then a person on earth asks to turn on dark mode, referencing the new options.
==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>[[Category:Interactive comics]][[Category:Dynamic comics]]

3210: Eliminating the Impossible

2026-02-20T21:18:04Z

NotBob:

{{comic
| number = 3210
| date = February 20, 2026
| title = Eliminating the Impossible
| image = eliminating_the_impossible_2x.png
| imagesize = 675x349px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = 'If you've eliminated a few possibilities and you can't think of any others, your weird theory is proven right' isn't quite as rhetorically compelling.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by the one thing that actually was in the car. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

[White Hat and Cueball are standing together and talking. White Hat has one hand slightly raised.]
:White Hat: As Sherlock Holmes said,
:White Hat: When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.
[Close-up of Cueball's head.]
:Cueball: What about the possibility that you forgot to eliminate a possibility?
:Cueball: Or that you eliminated one incorrectly?
:Cueball: Both of those remain, too.
[Zoom back out to show both parties. Cueball is holding his arms out.]
:White Hat: You're being pedantic.
:White Hat: It's just a general rule for deduction.
:Cueball: But it's a ''bad rule.''
[Cueball is now holding up one finger.]
:Cueball: How often have you thought, "I can't find this thing, and I've searched the whole house. The only place I haven't looked is the car, so it ''must'' be there."
:White Hat: ...And then it's never in the car.
:Cueball: ''It's never in the car!''

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

3200: Chemical Formula

2026-01-28T21:03:50Z

NotBob:

{{comic
| number = 3200
| date = January 28, 2026
| title = Chemical Formula
| image = chemical_formula_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x225px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Some of the atoms in the molecule are very weakly bound.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by the carbon in the universe . Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
The universe contains atoms such as carbon and hydrogen.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
:[A long panel with a chemical formula trailing off the right side]
:C1076 H1080 Ac1067 Ag1069 Al1075 Am1026 Ar1075 As1070 At1047 Au1069 B1071 Ba1070 Be
:[Caption below the panel:] The approximate chemical formula for the universe

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

3199: Early Arthropods

2026-01-27T01:19:37Z

NotBob:

{{comic
| number = 3199
| date = January 26, 2026
| title = Early Arthropods
| image = early_arthropods_2x.png
| imagesize = 553x469px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = 'Ugh, I'm never going to be like spiders. My descendants will all just be normal arthropods who mind their own busines and don't do anything weird.' --The ancestor of a bunch of eusocial insects
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by an arthropod who will get 10 pointy things to zap a metal box and tell it stuff.. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

This comic pokes fun at spiders, which have a very unusual way of catching prey.

The first arthropod refers to isopods, while the second refers to scorpions.

Note that evolution in real life does not work the way the comic implies, as creatures cannot decide which direction in which to evolve.{{citation needed}}

[[:Category:Spiders|Spiders]] are a recurring theme on xkcd.

The hovertext mentions the eusocial insects, another group of arthropods. They are notable for not "minding their own business", as their ancestor arthropod apparently expects.

Eusociality has evolved multiple times in the Hymenoptera alone, as well as in termites. There is no arthropod species that is the ancestor to all the eusocial arthropods and no others.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

:[Wide panel with three small arthropods standing on the ocean floor. Two of the creatures are facing the leftmost one. Small bubbles and particles float around them.]
:Arthropod 1: Now that we're multicellular, what are your plans?
:Arthropod 1: I'm gonna evolve little legs and swim around with them!
:Arthropod 2: I'm gonna evolve sharp pincers and use them to crunch stuff!
:Arthropod 3: I'm gonna evolve glands to make string from my butt and use it to construct elaborate geometric nets hundreds of times my size to catch other animals.

:[Beat panel narrowed in on the arthropods.]

:[Same scene:]
:Arthropod 1: '''''Dude.'''''
:Arthropod 2: Can you '''''please''''' just be normal about this?
:Arthropod 3: '''''What??!'''''

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Spiders]]
[[Category:Biology]]

3188: Anyone Else Here

2025-12-31T22:48:09Z

NotBob:

{{comic
| number = 3188
| date = December 31, 2025
| title = Anyone Else Here
| image = anyone_else_here_2x.png
| imagesize = 285x350px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Anyone else watching this Youtube video in 1954? If so, my last trip definitely messed with the timeline.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by a youTuber without internet Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
This comic jokes about a familiar pattern in YouTube comment sections: people often leave comments announcing the year they are watching a video. These comments serve no practical purpose, but are nonetheless a harmless compliment implying the video is "timeless" and a memory worth revisiting.

The comic reframes this behavior as the actions of confused time travelers. Since YouTube comments frequently include statements like “Anyone else here in 2017?” or “Watching this in 2025,” the strip humorously suggests that people displaced in time use comment sections to confirm what year they’ve landed in.

The title text escalates the joke by placing a commenter in 1954, decades before YouTube existed. This absurd anachronism implies that the time traveler’s last jump went so badly that it altered the timeline enough for YouTube to exist in the mid-20th century. Rather than questioning the impossibility of the situation, the time traveler treats it casually, blaming themself for breaking history.

The humor comes from:

Recognizing a real, mildly annoying internet habit

Treating YouTube comments as a universal, cross-timeline reference point

The understated admission that history itself may be broken, delivered with the same casual tone as typical comment spam

Like many XKCD comics, it mixes everyday internet culture with science-fiction concepts, using a dry, matter-of-fact tone to make an absurd premise feel oddly reasonable.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

3188: Anyone Else Here

2025-12-31T22:47:19Z

NotBob:

{{comic
| number = 3188
| date = December 31, 2025
| title = Anyone Else Here
| image = anyone_else_here_2x.png
| imagesize = 285x350px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Anyone else watching this Youtube video in 1954? If so, my last trip definitely messed with the timeline.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete explanation|This page was created by a youTuber without internet Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
This comic jokes about a familiar pattern in YouTube comment sections: people often leave comments announcing the year they are watching a video. These comments serve no practical purpose, but are nonetheless a harmless compliment implying the video is "timeless" and a memory worth revisiting.

The comic reframes this behavior as the actions of confused time travelers. Since YouTube comments frequently include statements like “Anyone else here in 2017?” or “Watching this in 2025,” the strip humorously suggests that people displaced in time use comment sections to confirm what year they’ve landed in.

The title text escalates the joke by placing a commenter in 1954, decades before YouTube existed. This absurd anachronism implies that the time traveler’s last jump went so badly that it altered the timeline enough for YouTube to exist in the mid-20th century. Rather than questioning the impossibility of the situation, the time traveler treats it casually, blaming themself for breaking history.

The humor comes from:

Recognizing a real, mildly annoying internet habit

Treating YouTube comments as a universal, cross-timeline reference point

The understated admission that history itself may be broken, delivered with the same casual tone as typical comment spam

Like many XKCD comics, it mixes everyday internet culture with science-fiction concepts, using a dry, matter-of-fact tone to make an absurd premise feel oddly reasonable.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

3181: Jumping Frog Radius

2025-12-16T21:08:39Z

NotBob:

{{comic
| number = 3181
| date = December 15, 2025
| title = Jumping Frog Radius
| image = jumping_frog_radius_2x.png
| imagesize = 339x243px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Earth's r_jf is approximately 1.5 light-days, leading to general relativity's successful prediction that all the frogs in the Solar System should be found collected on the surface of the Earth.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by an A frog stuck on mars. I have added a bit about the drawing. It is important I think that the planet with the frog has exactly the rjf radius. This means the frog cannot escape but just barely. Is there a physics relation behind the fact that the jumps height seems to be very close to the radius of the planet, i.e. rjf? Also Can someone calculate the size and mass of the largest object from which a champion frog can achieve escape velocity? Are there some named asteroids that are of sow low a mass that it would be possible for frog to jump of? (Of course there are some small enough... but do any of them have real names, like the one named after Randall)? Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
The {{w|Schwarzschild radius}} is essentially the size of a {{w|black hole}} -- the maximum distance from the center where gravity is so strong that light can't escape.

It is part of a solution to {{w|Einstein's field equations}}. It is usually calculated as the following:
:''r'' = (2*''G*M'') / ''c''2,
where ''G'' is the {{w|gravitational constant}}, ''M'' is the mass of the object, and ''c'' is the {{w|speed of light}}.

If ''M'' were the mass of the {{w|Earth}}, it would give the Schwarzschild radius for the Earth, which is about 9 mm. (If all of Earth's mass were compressed into a sphere of a bit less than 2 cm in diameter, it would become a black hole.)

The comic suggests a more useful radius: the ''Jumping Frog radius'' ''rjf'', which is the size of a "planet" such that its gravity keeps a champion {{w|Frog jumping contest|jumping frog}} from being able to achieve {{w|escape velocity}}. Thus [[Randall]] has instead of ''c'', the 299,792,458 m/s speed of light, used a much smaller value of 4.5 m/s, to represent the maximum speed of a jumping frog. It is possible that Randall got that value from [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/5661154_Explosive_Jumping_Extreme_Morphological_and_Physiological_Specializations_of_Australian_Rocket_Frogs_Litoria_nasuta this paper], which on page 179 puts an upper limit on the maximum velocity of adult {{w|Striped_rocket_frog|Australian rocket frogs}} at 4.52 m/s.

The drawing to the right of the formula shows a planet with exactly the radius ''rjf''. Thus the frog can jump really high compared to the planet's size (in this case about as high as the planet's radius), before it unavoidably falls back down, since the small planet is just massive enough to prevent the frog escaping.

The title text points out that the ''rjf'' of the Earth is about 1.5 light days, which is about 7 times the distance to {{w|Pluto}} (compare to the 9 mm Schwarzschild radius). Since Earth's radius is much smaller than this, no frogs will be able to escape, so all frogs that stray into Earth's gravitational well would collect here on Earth. As far as we know, all the frogs in the Solar System are on Earth{{Citation needed}}, so the data apparently matches the theory. However, the reasoning is incorrect, as many other astronomical bodies in our solar system also have ''rjf'' greater than their physical radius. If a frog were to be on any of those other bodies, it wouldn't be able to jump away to fall to Earth. A flawed argument neither supports nor refutes the conclusion, although it is true as far as we know that all frogs in the solar system do live on Earth.

==Transcript==
:[The panel shows a large formula to the left and a small drawing to the right. The formula's right side is drawn above and below the division line:]
:''rjf'' = 2''GM'' / (4.5 m/s)2

:[The drawing to the left shows a very small planet with the radius indicated with a labeled dotted arrow pointing from the center straight up to the edge of the planet. A frog is shown jumping on the surface. This is indicated with a parabolic dotted line going from a frog sitting on the surface near the top of the planet, up to the frog shown soaring through the air with its limbs stretched out about as high above the surface as the planet's radius. At this point the frog is making a sound. Then the dotted line goes down to about a quarter of the way around the planet where the frog lands making a noise, with lines around the frog representing the impact.]
:Arrow label: ''rjf''
:Frog: Ribbit
:Landing: Plop

:[Caption below the panel:]
:More practically useful than the Schwarzschild radius, the '''''Jumping Frog Radius''''' is the radius at which an object's gravitational pull is so strong that even a champion jumping frog can't escape.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Animals]]

3179: Fishing

2025-12-11T12:19:51Z

NotBob:

{{comic
| number = 3179
| date = December 10, 2025
| title = Fishing
| image = fishing_2x.png
| imagesize = 317x500px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = 'That's definitely above the catch-and-release size minimum for planetesimals.' 'I'm going to throw it back anyway.'
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created BY A FISH WITH THE WEIGHT OF THE SUN. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
[[Ponytail]] and [[Beret Guy]] are fishing in the middle of a body of water, and Beret Guy has hooked a rock. Similarly to the common meme that sees people catching objects such as boots and shopping trollies, he exclaims that it "feels like a big one". Fishers may judge the size of a fish by the amount of resistance they feel on the line, and such objects would provide an unusually high level of resistance (also, the boat would be bulled down if he reeled, so he could only tell that its downward pull is greater than the boat's buoyancy.). In this case, though, Beret Guy can apparently feel that it must be "at least 1024 kilograms" — that is, an object the size of the Earth in its entirety, whose mass can be estimated at approximately 6.0x1024 kilograms (~13.1x1024 pounds at standard gravitational acceleration of the Earth).

Catch-and-release sizes restrict what sizes of catch of various species can be kept, generally to protect stocks. There may be minimum sizes (to protect young fish and ensure that they can reach mature reproductive age) or maximum sizes (to protect existing breeding populations). Apparently, the Earth is large enough to be kept, suggesting that smaller planets and other bodies might be considered immature, and that they might be expected to grow to 'adult' planet size.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
:[Ponytail and Beret Guy are sitting on a boat in the ocean. Fish are seen swimming in the water. Megan has a fishing rod that is about halfway down to the ocean floor. Beret Guy's fishing hook is hooked onto the sea floor.]
:Beret Guy: It feels like a big one! At least 1024 kilograms!

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Geology]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Sport]]

3175: Website Task Flowchart

2025-12-01T21:37:31Z

NotBob:

{{comic
| number = 3175
| date = December 1, 2025
| title = Website Task Flowchart
| image = website_task_flowchart_2x.png
| imagesize = 333x683px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Tired of waiting on hold? Use our website to chat with one of our live agents, who are available to produce words at you 24/7!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by a mad explain xkcd user. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
This is a flowchart comic. It shows how to do a task on a website.

First, you log in. This is a [usually] simple task, yet can lead to a bad ending. You spend a long time trying to fix it, and if you fail, you end up in the bad ending track.

If you succeed in logging in, or troubleshoot well, you try to do your task. doing the task well would usually be what a flowchart like this would be for, but Randall has made it a single box.

If you fail your task, you spend hours troubleshooting the website. If you succeed with the task or your troubleshooting, you end in the good ending, where you get a good job message.

Bad ending:

If you fail either troubleshoot, you stop you work and call the website's customer service. They say, "Did you know you could do this all more quickly and easily on our website? just go to WWW. ..." however, you were on the website, and this angers you.

you throw both the laptop on which you were trying your task and the phone with which you called customer service, into the sea, where they either short circuit, or die.
==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
Doing a task using a company or organization's website:
{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Flowcharts]]

3175: Website Task Flowchart

2025-12-01T21:35:56Z

NotBob:

{{comic
| number = 3175
| date = December 1, 2025
| title = Website Task Flowchart
| image = website_task_flowchart_2x.png
| imagesize = 333x683px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Tired of waiting on hold? Use our website to chat with one of our live agents, who are available to produce words at you 24/7!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by a mad explain xkcd user. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
This is a flowchart comic. It shows how to do a task on a website.

First, you log in. This is a [usually] simple task, yet can lead to a bad ending. You spend a long time trying to fix it, and if you fail, you end up in the bad ending track.

If you succeed in logging in, or troubleshoot well, you try to do your task. doing the task well would usually be what a flowchart like this would be for, but Randall has made it a single box.

If you fail your task, you spend hours troubleshooting the website. If you succeed with the task or your troubleshooting, you end in the good ending.

Bad ending:

If you fail either troubleshoot, you stop you work and call the website's customer service. They say, "Did you know you could do this all more quickly and easily on our website? just go to WWW. ..." however, you were on the website, and this angers you.

you throw both the laptop on which you were trying your task and the phone with which you called customer service, into the sea, where they either short circuit, or die.
==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
Doing a task using a company or organization's website:
{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Flowcharts]]

3175: Website Task Flowchart

2025-12-01T21:30:26Z

NotBob:

{{comic
| number = 3175
| date = December 1, 2025
| title = Website Task Flowchart
| image = website_task_flowchart_2x.png
| imagesize = 333x683px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Tired of waiting on hold? Use our website to chat with one of our live agents, who are available to produce words at you 24/7!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by a mad explain xkcd user. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
This is a flowchart comic. It shows how to do a task on a website.

First, you log in. This is a [usually] simple task, yet can lead to a bad ending. You spend a long time trying to fix it, and if you fail, you end up in the bad ending track.

If you succeed in logging in, or troubleshoot well, you try to do your task. doing the task well would usually be what a flowchart like this would be for, but Randall has made it a single box.

If you fail your task, you spend hours troubleshooting the website. If you succeed with the task or your troubleshooting, you end in the good ending.

bad ending:
==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
Doing a task using a company or organization's website:
{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Flowcharts]]

3175: Website Task Flowchart

2025-12-01T21:28:00Z

NotBob:

3171: Geologic Core Sample

2025-11-21T23:41:34Z

NotBob:

{{comic
| number = 3171
| date = November 21, 2025
| title = Geologic Core Sample
| image = geologic_core_sample_2x.png
| imagesize = 493x789px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = If you drill at the right angle and time things perfectly, your core sample can include a section of a rival team's coring equipment.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created recently. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

This image presents a core sample taken by a slightly chaotic team of geologists. Contained within it are fairly normal ground matter such as "topsoil" and "granite" but also such things as "bottomsoil", which has no IRL parallel, parts of subway cars, arms of a spelunker most likely amputated by the sample, a "balrog" wing (referencing a fictional animal which first made an appearance in [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/730:_Circuit_Diagram], and after diving through the core of the earth, the home of someone else. It first starts with cement, the foundation, floorboards and carpet (either a carpeted floor or a decorated floor), and then the posessions

The title text humorously refers to a "rival team" and their coring equipment - implying that with the correct angle you can muddle with their own coring experiment, which, outside of cold war-type pettiness, is not considered a constructive approach to science.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
[This shows a drill sample with various labels]

Topsoil

Till

Granite Bedrock

Bottomsoil

Roof of Subway Car

Floor of Subway Car

More Granite

Municipal water main

Slightly different granite

Piece of screaming spelunker's arm

Cool Crystals with no resale value

Mangled Fragments of drillbit from previous attempt

some boring intrusive rock that's basically granite but has a name like "diorite" or "andalite" that you always have to look up

netherrack

balrog wig

granite

topsoil

cement

floorboards

carpet

possesions of a confused and angry homeowner in the other hemisphere

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Geology]]
[[Category:Charts]]

Topsoil

Till

Granite Bedrock

Bottomsoil

Roof of Subway Car

Floor of Subway Car

More Granite

Municipal water main

Slightly different granite

Piece of screaming spelunker's arm

Cool Crystals with no resale value

Mangled Fragments of drillbit from previous attempt

some boring intrusive rock that's basically granite but has a name like "diorite" or "andalite" that you always have to look up

netherrack

balrog wig

granite

topsoil

cement

floorboards

carpet

possesions of a confused and angry homeowner in the other hemisphere

3171: Geologic Core Sample

2025-11-21T23:35:31Z

NotBob:

3145: Piercing

2025-09-22T21:12:27Z

NotBob:

{{comic
| number = 3145
| date = September 22, 2025
| title = Piercing
| image = piercing_2x.png
| imagesize = 272x391px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Some lava around the piercing site is normal, but keep an eye out for spreading earthquakes and eruptive activity that might indicate rifting.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created recently. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

The comic shows a directional drilling rig which will drill a hole through the lithosphere to create a borehole with a constant curvature.

However instead of using it for scientific study, the comic suggests that this borehole will actually be so that the Earth can get a piercing like a giant ring.

The title text plays on the normal warnings about piercings, with some lava around the piercing, but watch out for earthquakes, similar to instructions that some redness is normal, but watch out for infection.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
(one large panel, overlaid by two smaller ones in the corners shows the earth with an upward opening curve through its crust and mantle.)
(arrow pointing to a machine on tracks with an arm and a tube into the ground, with cueball, meagan, and ponytail nearby) directional drilling rig

(label on curve)constant curvature borehole

(lower title) GOOD NEWS: GEOLOGISTS HAVE DECIDED THAT EARTH IS FINALLY OLD ENOUGH TO GET ITS FIRST LITHOSPHERE PIERCING!
{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

3145: Piercing

2025-09-22T20:55:19Z

NotBob:

{{comic
| number = 3145
| date = September 22, 2025
| title = Piercing
| image = piercing_2x.png
| imagesize = 272x391px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Some lava around the piercing site is normal, but keep an eye out for spreading earthquakes and eruptive activity that might indicate rifting.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created recently. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

The comic shows a directional drilling rig which will drill a hole through the lithosphere to create a borehole with a constant curvature.

However instead of using it for scientific study, the comic suggests that this borehole will actually be so that the Earth can get a piercing like a giant ring.

The title text plays on the normal warnings about piercings, with some lava around the piercing, but watch out for earthquakes, similar to instructions that some redness is normal, but watch out for infection.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
(one large panel, overlaid by two smaller ones in the corners shows the earth with an upward opening curve through its crust and mantle.)
(arrow pointing to a machine on tracks with an arm and a tube into the ground, with cueball, meagan, and ponytail nearby) directional drilling rig
constant curvature borehole
(lower title) GOOD NEWS: GEOLOGISTS HAVE DECIDED THAT EARTH IS FINALLY OLD ENOUGH TO GET ITS FIRST LITHOSPHERE PIERCING!
{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>