Editing 1268: Alternate Universe

{{comic
| number    = 1268
| date      = September 23, 2013
| title     = Alternate Universe
| image     = alternate_universe.png
| titletext = As best as I can tell, I was transported here from Earth Prime sometime in the late 1990s. Your universe is identical in every way, except for the lobster thing and the thing where some of you occasionally change your clocks for some reason.
}}

==Explanation==
Randall is trying to make the point that eating {{w|Lobster|lobsters}} is as weird as eating {{w|spiders}}. {{w|Crustacean|Crustaceans}} and {{w|Arachnid|arachnids}} are both {{w|Arthropod|arthropods}}, members of the same phylum, so his comparison isn't too far off. Then again, humans are in the same phylum ({{w|Chordate|chordates}}) as {{w|Ascidiacea|sea squirts}}, so any perceived similarities are not exactly rooted in a close biological relationship. In addition, lobsters were once considered the "cockroaches of the sea", and a captain trying to feed his crew with lobster would often be seen as cruel; although there is some justification for that mindset as lobsters were served by being crushed into mush, shell and all, and boiled into a bland gruel. On the other hand, {{w|Spider#Benefits_to_humans|cooked tarantula spiders}} are considered a delicacy in {{w|Cambodia}}.

One common objection to eating spiders, crickets, roaches, and ants is that they are sometimes eaten whole, with guts, feces, and chitin devoured indiscriminately. However,  many people eat only the actual muscles of the lobster, the same as one would any vertebrate.

In the title text, Randall suggests a fantastical reason for why he is so repulsed by eating lobster; he was actually born on a world almost completely identical to Earth, and was unknowingly relocated to our Earth when he was a teenager. The sentiment expressed here is that the act of eating lobster feels outright alien to him. This might be a reference to the {{w|Mandela Effect}}, which is a suggestion by various peoples - some jokingly, some seriously - that groups of people occasionally get transported into alternate realities as an explanation for why so many people were certain that {{w|Nelson Mandela}} died in the 1980s despite him actually dying in 2013. (Contrary to popular belief, the Mandela Effect is not rationalising those false memories but rather why so ''many'' people have the same false memory.)

To feel ''that'' strongly about shellfish-based cuisine, he would have to have not been exposed to it until his adolescent years; this seems unlikely, as the real Randall Munroe was born about 60 miles inland from the United States' northern east coast, where said cuisine is particularly prevalent. In reality, he is probably merely grossed out by the idea of eating lobster, and is probably exaggerating his feelings for comic effect. The title text also references changing clocks to and from {{w|Daylight Saving Time}} (DST), a practice which Randall has previously shown disdain for, mocking its irrational premise in [[:Category:Daylight saving time|several comics]]. Again, he is likely comically exaggerating his feelings, unless he literally doesn't recall a time before his teenage years when his parents ever changed the clocks in accordance with DST.

The term "{{w|Earth Prime}}" is typically used in fictional {{w|multiverse}} settings, as a way to conveniently distinguish the Earth in which the narrative is rooted from any other Earths featured in the story.

The idea of a alternative universe where Brussels sprouts taste good was the subject in [[2241: Brussels Sprouts Mandela Effect]].

==Transcript==
:[Captions above the panel:]
:Imagine you were transported to an alternate universe just like your own, except people occasionally ate spiders.
:You can't convince anyone this is weird.

:[Megan is holding a very large spider, with another similar spider before her on the ground, and Cueball is standing behind her, leaning away with his hands out to each side shocked, as shown with three small lines going out from his head.]
:Megan: Mmm...
:Cueball: ''No!'' What are you ''doing!?''

:[Caption below the panel:]
:This is how I feel about lobster.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Spiders]]
[[Category:Animals]] <!--Lobsters is the other animal-->
[[Category:Daylight saving time]]