explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

112: Baring My Heart

2022-05-26T21:08:42Z

TheDragonOfFlame:

{{comic
| number = 112
| date = June 7, 2006
| title = Baring My Heart
| image = baring_my_heart.png
| titletext = I'm just trying to explain, please don't be jealous! Man, why are all my relationships ruined by early 90's rappers?
}}

==Explanation==
[[Randall Munroe|Randall]] presents a logical diagram known as a {{w|Venn diagram}}, which illustrates the relationship between multiple sets. The diagram is usually used to illustrate the overlap between various sets. For example, a Venn diagram of "even numbers" and "numbers divisible by 5" would have 2, 4, 6, 8, 12… in one circle, 5, 15, 25… in another circle, and 10, 20, 30… in the intersection of the circles (as those numbers fit into both sets).

Here we have a three-set diagram that Randall has purportedly created to explain his feelings to his love interest. The three sets are:
# People who can always make him smile
# People he wants to spend the rest of his life with
# People who constantly show him new things to love about the world.

In the intersection of these three sets is "you" – his love interest; all three of these statements apply to her. Normally, this might be a cute way of simply implying that he has these three feelings about her, without including any other elements in any of the sets.

Here, however, Randall has included one other element: {{w|Vanilla Ice}} is shown to also constantly show Randall new things to love about the world, and to be someone Randall wants to spend the rest of his life with (although Vanilla Ice doesn't always make him smile).

{{w|Vanilla Ice}} is an {{w|United States|American}} {{w|Light skin|white-skinned}} {{w|Rapping|rapper}} who was most popular in the early {{w|1990s}} with his song "{{w|Ice Ice Baby}}." He was frequently mocked as a very "white" rapper. He is obviously an unexpected name to turn up in this diagram.

Apparently, Randall's love interest didn't take too well to Randall professing similar feelings for Vanilla Ice as he did for her, causing some friction in their relationship. The title text suggests that other '90s rappers have similarly affected Randall's past relationships.

Randall / Cueball's affinity for Vanilla Ice in romantic scenarios can also be seen im [[159: Boom Box]]

==Transcript==
:[A Venn diagram with three sets]
:Description of set 1: People who can always make me smile
:Description of set 2: People who constantly show me new things about the world
:Description of set 3: People I want to spend the rest of my life with
:Intersection point: YOU.
:Intersection of sets 2 and 3: Vanilla Ice
{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Venn diagrams]]
[[Category:Romance]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]

2: Petit Trees (sketch)

2022-05-26T19:11:52Z

TheDragonOfFlame: Undo revision 282223 by Donald Trump (talk)

<noinclude>:''"2", this comic's number, redirects here. For the comic named "2", see [[2614: 2]].''</noinclude>
{{comic
| number = 2
| date = September 30, 2005
| title = Petit Trees (sketch)
| image = tree_cropped_(1).jpg
| titletext = "Petit" being a reference to Le Petit Prince, which I only thought about halfway through the sketch
}}

==Explanation==
This comic does not present a particular point; it is just a picture drawn by [[Randall]].

''{{w|The Little Prince}}'' (in French ''Le Petit Prince)'' is a novella written by {{w|Antoine de Saint-Exupéry}} in 1943, about the titular Little Prince, who lives on an asteroid and visits other inhabited asteroids and eventually the Earth. The book is filled with drawings of the asteroid, the prince, and the travels they make. It is noted how, on occasion, {{w|Adansonia|baobab trees}} can begin to grow on these asteroids, and should they not be immediately uprooted, the growth of their roots would tear the asteroid apart. In this drawing, the roots are encircling the sphere, rather than piercing it, as Le Petit Prince describes.

''The Little Prince'' has later been referenced both in [[618: Asteroid]] and in [[1350: Lorenz]] at [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/a1-2014/VgSdMz8OAHQ8w5Ee432f5Q.png the end] of the space trip branch. It was also referenced to in the What If article [https://what-if.xkcd.com/26/ Leap Seconds].

==Transcript==
:[Two trees are growing on opposite sides of a sphere.]

==Trivia==
*This was the 4th comic originally posted to [[LiveJournal]].
**The previous was [[3: Island (sketch)]].
**The next was [[1: Barrel - Part 1]].
*Original title: "Le Petit"
*Original [[Randall]] quote: "Another fairly old drawing that I scanned."
*This was one of the [[:Category:First day on LiveJournal|thirteen first comics]] posted to LiveJournal within 12 minutes on Friday September 30, 2005.
*This comic was posted on [[xkcd]] when the web site opened on Sunday the 1st of January 2006.
**It was posted along [[:Category:First day on xkcd|with all 41 comics]] posted before that on LiveJournal as well as a few others.
**The latter explaining why the numbers of these 41 LiveJournal comics ranges from 1-44.
*One of the original drawings drawn on [[:Category:Checkered paper|checkered paper]].

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics posted on livejournal| 04]]
[[Category:First day on LiveJournal| 04]]
[[Category:First day on xkcd]]
[[Category:Checkered paper]]
[[Category:Sketches]]

1530: Keyboard Mash

2022-05-26T19:09:59Z

TheDragonOfFlame: Undo revision 282538 by Donald Trump (talk)

{{comic
| number = 1530
| date = May 27, 2015
| title = Keyboard Mash
| image = keyboard mash.png
| titletext = WHY DON'T YOU COME HANG OUT INSIDE MY HOUSE. WE CAN COOK BREAD AND CHAT ABOUT OUR INTERNAL SKELETONS.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] is chatting with [[White Hat]], who says he is frustrated because a barking dog is preventing him from sleeping and White Hat mashes the {{w|keyboard}} to show his frustration. Keyboard mashing is often used in this way where the user makes their hands spasm across the keyboard, creating a line of text that can be compared to an angry groan in real life. Cueball is about to give some advice, but is confused by a quirk in what White Hat typed. All the characters he typed (except one) were on the home row of the QWERTY keyboard, the row starting with the letters A, S, D, and F, in the middle of the keyboard. The letters A, S, D, F, J, K, and L (all from the home row) are scattered throughout the text, but there is a 7 (which comes from the numbers row, on top of the keyboard) in the middle of this text. Cueball, wonders how White Hat put a seven in there, because if White Hat was keyboard mashing and touched the 7 key, he likely would have hit any of the QWERTY row keys because of keyboard mashing hand spasms, but he didn't. All the other characters were on the home row. White Hat berates Cueball for always focusing on strange, tiny details. When the final panel shows what's going on where White Hat is, we see that a giant {{w|spider}} has imprisoned him in a web and is talking to Cueball, which explains how the keyboard mashing "White Hat" did was strange.

The reason the dog was barking appears to be because the giant spider was lurking nearby. Little did White Hat know that the dog was alerting him of the spider. When the spider notices that White Hat mentions the barking dog to Cueball, the spider apparently restrains White Hat and takes over typing. Another possibility is that the "dog" barking is actually White Hat, as he is seen making grunts from beneath the spider's silk. It can be seen in the last panel that the spider is typing with 3 legs, which explains how the 7 key would have been pressed.

The statement "I am a normal human typing with my human hands" is {{tvtropes|SuspiciouslySpecificDenial|an oddly specific assertion}} from the giant spider that it is actually a human, a claim that would normally be taken for granted and had not really been cast into doubt by Cueball's inquiries about how "7" got into a string of home-row keystrokes.

The title text invitation ends with a similar statement, suggesting that they "...CHAT ABOUT OUR INTERNAL SKELETONS", which spiders (unlike humans) do not possess and which are not a common conversation point among humans, helping to demonstrate (along with the spider's suspiciously specific denial and using the phrase cook bread instead of bake bread) that the spider is not very good at blending in as a human. This implies that the spider also wants to trap and possibly eat Cueball as well, or actually hang out with him in an attempt to make friends or to find out how humans talk so the spider will be able to blend in better in the future. "...HANG OUT INSIDE MY HOUSE" may also have a double meaning, as White Hat and the spider are actually "hanging" from the ceiling inside White Hat's house. Also another oddity is that the spider asks Cueball to cook bread, although bread is actually baked, and in any case this isn't a common pastime during the night (the spider could also mean make toast). The final oddity is that the title text is written in all caps which is usually interpreted as shouting and would not be used in a casual invitation, although the title text should just be imitating the fact that the rest of the text messages use a font that make them look like they are in all caps.

The central theme of the comic is a vindication of Cueball's world-view, wherein tiny oddities such as the appearance of a numeral in a keyboard mash merit investigation. In the real world, the appearance of a "7" in the middle of a home row keyboard mash is more likely attributable to {{w|Rollover (key)#Key jamming and ghosting|key ghosting}}.

Alternatively, the fact that Cueball uses the phrase "all your hands" instead of "both your hands" or "both of your hands" could indicate that Cueball (and likely other people as part of a coordinated uprising of giant spiders) has also been taken hostage by a spider, and the spider behind Cueball's profile picture knows that the organism behind White Hat's profile picture is a spider, not a human. This would also explain why the spider behind White Hat's profile picture feels that the spider behind Cueball's profile picture pointing out the usage of a numeral among home row keys is weird; spiders know that other spiders have many legs and that these legs do not have to be in the same section of the keyboard.

In the title text of [[1541: Voice]] there is again a reference to a sentence that could be uttered correctly by a human, but would never be used in real life. But a non-human entity that tries to blend in as a human, may inadvertently use such a "wrong" sentence to try to ensure other people think they are indeed humans. It is a direct reference to the type of sentence used in the title text here.

This comic is somewhat unusual in that the panels are read from top to bottom instead of being read from left to right in more than one row. This may be in order to accommodate the second panel, which must be tall due to containing a text conversation, without making the comic look weird due to the second panel being much taller than the first panel.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball approaches his desktop computer, which has emitted a message seemingly from White Hat as it displays a picture of him.]
:New chat message

:[Below the chat log is shown with White Hat's comments on the left in gray frames and Cueball's comments to the right in white frames. The first post in a row from each person is labeled with their picture at the end of a small arrow in the frame]:
:White Hat: Can't sleep. Stupid dog keeps barking.
:White Hat: So frustrating. FJAFJKLDSKF7JKFDJ
:Cueball: Ugh, I'm sorry. Maybe you could...
:Cueball: ... Okay, wait. I have to ask.
:Cueball: How did you hit a "7" in the middle there?
:White Hat: Huh?
:White Hat: I was just randomly keyboard mashing.
:Cueball: Sorry, Right.
:White Hat: Anyway,
:Cueball: I know this is silly, but like... All your hands were clearly right on the home row.
:Cueball: I don't get how one finger could have stretched up to the "7".
:White Hat: Why do you always fixate on these bizarre details?
:Cueball: I don't know.
:Cueball: Sorry.
:White Hat: It's weird, is all.

:[Chat transcript continues above White Hat's laptop, as it started in the first panel over Cueball's computer. But now we see a human-sized spider suspended from the ceiling by web is using three of its legs to type on the laptop. Behind the spider, White Hat is suspended from the ceiling upside down, almost totally encased in spider web. He tries to speak. Between them, a chair has been knocked over onto its back.]
:Spider (as White Hat in the chat): I am a normal human typing with my human hands.
:Cueball (chat): Yeah, of course. I know.
:White Hat (speaking): '''Mmm!! Mmph!!!'''

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Spiders]]

629: Skins

2022-05-26T19:05:57Z

TheDragonOfFlame: Undo revision 281264 by Donald Trump (talk)

{{comic
| number = 629
| date = August 28, 2009
| title = Skins
| image = skins.png
| titletext = There's Livejournal drama between those who want to wear human suits over fursuits and those who just take off the fursuits.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|furry|Furries}}, which have been discussed in [[471|a previous comic]], are people who really like anthropomorphic animals and may enjoy drawing them or dressing up as them. One of the most prominent elements of the furry community is furry conventions, where furries meet-and-greet each other, show off and engage in activities in their fursuits, sell furry-related media, and so on.

Here, [[Cueball]] mentions furry identities. The grand majority of furries have a "fursona", that is, a furry animal with which they associate themselves. While there are different approaches towards creating a fursona, they tend to be an animal representation of either themselves or what they wish to be. These fursonas sometimes have quite a bit of background that explains their origins, their abilities, where they live, and their interests... even if their interests involve pretending to be humans. According to Cueball, "skins" are furries who have fursonas that like to pretend to be humans. In other words, skins are humans who pretend to be animals ''who pretend to be humans''. The 4th panel magnifies the ridicule of the concept of skins, the skins at the convention behaving excitedly about events that actual humans usually consider mundane. This is further emphasized by the grammatically-correct but unnatural sounding phrases that they use (which could be similar to how humans imitating animal calls could sound). It is atypical to consider "having a job" to be an activity to emphasize doing in a day (it is more a description of a state of being rather than an activity as such), and even stranger to say that in response to a question about the weather. This concept would be repeated in the title text of [[1530|comic 1530]].

If this comic satirizes furry conventions, then the title text satirizes fursuits. In this case, there are skins who wear fursuits of their fursonas, but, since their fursonas like to pretend that they are humans, these skins wear human suits ''over'' their fursuits. Such a setup would seem unwieldy, so there are skins who avert this by simply taking off their fursuits, going to the conventions as their human selves, thus technically integrating into the whole "skin atmosphere". Possible problems from this can include the "wear a human suit" skins getting angry at the "take off the fursuit" skins for "ruining the fantasy atmosphere" (since, technically, the real-life skin is not the same that would be the fursona's human facade, especially if the skin makes no effort to change the appearance to fit the human facade), or again, because they are too "cheap" or "lazy" to make or otherwise obtain the two suits. This clash of ideals would cause a lot of drama, something that furries ([[1095|or all other subcultures]]) are no stranger to.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is packing luggage.]
:Voice: Where are you going?
:Cueball: Convention.

:Voice: What for?
:Cueball: Well, you know furries, right?
:Voice: Sure...
:[Cueball closes suitcase.]

:Cueball: We're furries whose animal identities have a thing for pretending to be humans.
:Voice: I see.

:[A convention. People sit behind booths in the background.]
:Cueball, with glasses and a mug: How's the weather?
:Megan: Great! I've been driving my car and having a job all day!
:Cueball: Did you meow?
:Megan: Not once!

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