3319: Elevators

Not to be confused with 288: Elevator.

Elevators

|< < Prev #3319 (November 2, 2026)

Title text: "A reusable elevator would also be great because we'd save so much on the bulky and expensive shields that people currently use to avoid bruises and rug burns when sliding down the stairs."

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Explanation

This is one of 64 incomplete explanations: This page was partialy created, but my elevator crashed before I finished. Don't remove this notice too soon. You can help by editing the explanation!

This comic imagines what would happen if elevators could only be used once, like a rocket going to space. It shows the elevators being ejected out of the top of the building, and then crashing into a heap on the ground, which means that a new elevator must be manufactured and installed every time someone in the building wants to go up. Typically, elevators are reusable - they can go up and down. A real-world elevator car is suspended from cables attached to its top, which would make it difficult to eject from a chute at the top of a building — it would have to be detached from the cable, and the cable lowered down the shaft to be attached to another elevator car. If the bizarre scenario of the "disposable elevator car" were to be implemented, it would probably be more efficient to lift it by some other means, such as a gear/track mechanism on its sides.

The comic is very likely a parodic commentary upon the difference between expendable spacecraft, which for a long time was the only real means to access space, and reusable spacecraft which are only fairly recently being developed in earnest, having significant or (potentially) full reusability aside from the fuel load and any cargo. A space elevator should be even more like the 'non-disposable' travel system that this comic's characters apparently hope for, but no such a reference is directly made.

The title text adds onto the joke by adding in shields that people use to slide down the stairs without burns- as presumably this is faster than walking down, but can cause bruises and burns, making it a non-ideal method of transportation. This is once again, a comparison to space travel - this time, it's reentry. The shields mentioned protect against burns (parodying reentry heating) and bruises (crash landings).

Transcript

This is one of 41 incomplete transcripts: Don't remove this notice too soon. You can help by editing the transcript!

[Cueball and Megan, both shown very small and barely recognizable, are standing at the bottom of a skyscraper which has eight rows of windows above the ground floor. On the roof of the building is a chute ejecting an elevator, as a dotted line shows the path of the elevator falling from the chute towards the ground. On the ground is a pile of crumpled elevators.]

Cueball: It's such a waste.

Megan: If only there were a way to bring them back down intact.

[Text below the panel:]

Skyscrapers were a lot less economical before the development of the reusable elevator.

Trivia

This is the first comic about elevators since 897: Elevator Inspection.

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Discussion

first 66.154.219.128 21:03, 2 November 2026 (UTC)

S3C0ND P0S7! 73.132.167.116 22:05, 2 November 2026 (UTC)
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