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| the Time Before And After Land |
 Title text: According to Google, "the time for Beeland" is apparently whenever you're looking for delicious honey in Spillimacheen, British Columbia or a hexagonal chalet in the Savinja valley in Slovenia. |
Explanation
|
This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: Created by a BEE ON THYME. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon. |
This comic is wordplay on The Land Before Time, an animated film series centered on dinosaurs. The comic shows a timeline of the history of the universe, from the Big Bang to the present day. The Land Before Time film series is listed on the timeline as between "Ground-nesting bees evolve " and "Thymus genus diverges". Thyme, a herb used in cooking, is a general description for any member of the genus Thymus.
The joke comes from the various permutations of "The Land Before Time" that are highlighted below the timeline - for example, "the time before land" is the period of time before any land existed in the universe. (If only land on Earth was counted, then the time before land would have extended until 3 billion years BC; Earth existed before then, but the oceans covered its entire surface.)
Additional wordplay arises from exchanging the homophones "time" and "thyme", and the homonyms "land", a noun meaning ground, and "land", a verb meaning to come to rest from the sky to the ground, creating even more permutations. Other wordplay arises from exchanging "before" with "bee for" and then rearranging the words to make grammatical sense.
The title text is for the phrase "the time for Beeland" and lists 2 places (that Randall found on Google) with the name "Beeland": a market in Spillimacheen, British Columbia or a chalet in Slovenia.
Explanation of time ranges on the chart
| Range | From | To | Explanation |
|---|---|---|---|
| The time before land | Big Bang | Rocky planets form | The Big Bang is a scientific theory that attempts to describe the very earliest conditions in our universe, but is also used informally as a synonym for the beginning of the universe. The early universe contained only simple elements such as hydrogen, but over time, star formation led to the creation of new, heavier elements, which eventually gave rise to planets with a rocky surface, which we call "land". It would have taken billions of years for the first such land-bearing planet to appear in the universe, so this time period could be considered "the time before land". |
| The time before bees | Big Bang | Ground-nesting bees evolve | This time range also includes the formation of the Earth, a necessary precondition for bees to evolve. Any time before the evolution of bees could be considered "The time before bees", although it should be noted that the chart does not account for the possibility that non-ground-nesting bees may have existed prior to ground-nesting ones. If they did, then the chart would be incorrect, as "The time before bees" (for bees as a whole) would precede the evolution of ground-nesting bees. |
| The land before thyme | Rocky planets form | Thymus genus diverges | This time range is after land first appears in the universe, but before thyme evolved - therefore, any land that existed within this time range can be considered "the land before thyme". This is a homophone of The Land Before Time's title. |
| Time for land bees! | Ground-nesting bees evolve | Now | When conditions change to allow an event to occur, people sometimes say "time for (event)!". In this case, the event is the emergence of ground-nesting bees, which could be considered "land bees". |
| Bees land on thyme | Thymus genus diverges | Now | Bees are flying insects, and therefore must land in order to rest before taking off again. Now that thyme has evolved, bees are able to land on thyme plants. This is a play on two different meanings of the word "land"; as a noun, it means solid ground, but here, it is a verb which means to alight or stop flying. |
Transcript
- [Caption at top of panel:]
- (Timeline not to scale)
- [A timeline is shown with two endpoints and five other points. The points are labeled:]
- Big Bang
- Rocky planets form
- Earth forms
- Ground-nesting bees evolve
- The Land Before Time
- Thymus genus diverges
- Now
- [Below the timeline are five overlapping time periods in three rows. The text is between two thick black bars. The time periods all start and end at two different points.]
- [Big Bang to Rocky Planets Form:]
- The Time Before Land
- [Big Bang to Ground-Nesting Bees Evolve:]
- The Time Before bees
- [Rocky Planets Form to Thymus Genus Diverges:]
- The Land Before Thyme
- [Ground-Nesting Bees evolve to Now:]
- Time for Land Bees!
- [Thymus Genus Diverges to Now:]
- Bees Land on Thyme
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