Editing 3143: Question Mark

{{comic
| number    = 3143
| date      = September 17, 2025
| title     = Question Mark
| image     = question_mark_2x.png
| imagesize = 380x463px
| noexpand  = true
| titletext = Although now people will realize three-per-em space that all this time I've been using weird medium mathematical space whitespace characters in my hair space hair space hair space speech dot dot dot...
}}

==Explanation==
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In colloquial English, the phrase "{{wiktionary|question_mark#Particle|question mark}}" is often{{acn}} added to the end of an interrogative sentence to emphasize its uncertainty, as if the question mark in a written representation of the utterance should be spoken aloud instead of remaining implicit in the {{w|Intonation (linguistics)#English|rising intonation}}. When [[Hairy]] uses it in this fashion, [[Cueball]] decides to do the same with other punctuation marks and even other matters of formatting like typographical emphasis and whitespace.

Cueball mentions the film ''{{w|Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle}},'' illustrating the common use of italics to indicate titles of films (as well as other works, e.g. books, albums and series, depending on the stylebook used) and colons to separate subtitles from titles.

The title text reads: "Although now people will realize three-per-em space that all this time I've been using weird medium mathematical space whitespace characters in my hair space hair space hair space speech dot dot dot..." In the title text, Randall uses three different non-spacing characters, specifically the three-per-em space (U+2004), the medium mathematical space (U+205F), and the hair space (U+200A). Translated, it looks like this:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Characters in title text
| "<span style='white-space: break-spaces;'>Although now people will realize<span style='background-color:#808080;'>&#x2004;</span>that all this time I’ve been using weird<span style='background-color:#808080;'>&#x205f;</span>whitespace characters in my<span style='background-color:#444;'>&#x200a;</span><span style='background-color:#aaa;'>&#x200a;</span><span style='background-color:#444;'>&#x200a;</span>speech...</span>"
|-
! Ordinary whitespace
| "<span style='white-space: break-spaces;'>Although now people will realize<span style='background-color:#808080;'> </span>that all this time I’ve been using weird<span style='background-color:#808080;'> </span>whitespace characters in my<span style='background-color:#808080;'> </span>speech...</span>"
|}

Pronouncing punctuation used to be a staple of dictation especially in the 20th century, when secretaries taking dictation to type letters were more commonplace. The expression "…, period" or "…, full stop", taken to mean "…and that's final", originates from this usage. Since Cueball is pronouncing all other punctuation marks as well, his final "period" denotes only the mark and not the common expression, especially since the latter would require a comma before and an "additional" period after.

==Transcript==
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:[Hairy and Cueball are both walking to the right.]
:Hairy: That movie was so good. Maybe even the greatest movie of all time question mark?
:Cueball: Yeah comma, but you said that about italics ''Charlie's Angels Colon: Full Throttle'' period. Paragraph break.
:Cueball: I question your judgment period.
:[Caption below the panel:]
:When people say "question mark" out loud as a rhetorical device, it always makes me want to say my other punctuation and formatting too.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
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[[Category:Movies]]