3198: Double-Pronged Extension Cord

Double-Pronged Extension Cord

|< < Prev #3198 (January 23, 2026)

Title text: 'Oh, and can I borrow 50 sacks of loose flour, a pile of lithium-ion batteries, a bucket of bleach, and a bucket of vinega--' 'NO!!!!!!'

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Explanation

This is one of 58 incomplete explanations: This page was created by THE EXTENSION CORD FROM COMIC #509. I can't explain the anchoring it to the wall part yet, and I didn't do the title text. Don't remove this notice too soon. If you can fix this issue, edit the page!

As Ponytail correctly points out, extension cords with prongs on both ends are lethally dangerous. They are also known as suicide cords for this reason.

Ponytail seems to relax when she persuades Cueball to use a regular extension cord instead. But then he elaborates that rather than wanting the cord to carry electricity, he actually intends to use it as a makeshift support similar to the screwdriver in Louis Slotin's infamous "Demon Core" or "Tickling the dragon's tail" experiment, which proved fatal. Understandably, this horrifies Ponytail even more.

The title text escalates the innocently mentioned hazards...though arguably not as much as the radioactivity. Loose flour is a well known fire hazard and the key to a flour-air explosion; 50 bags of it plus some way to get it into the air could blow up a sizable building. Lithium batteries are well known fire hazards when overcharged, which is why the TSA restricts them in checked luggage and there have been numerous fires caused by the lithium batteries in "hoverboards" leading them to be oft-banned in cities, airports, and by retailers who might otherwise sell them. A bank of 50 might be overkill, but if charged in parallel (serial probably wouldn't work as well), could likely cause a noticable explosion or fire once one of them hit its limit. And while vinegar and bleach aren't a particular fire hazard, they do release chlorine gas when combined, which is rather unfortunately lethal. As such, the theme appears to be "innocuous-appearing substances which are actually quite dangerous" -- except for the plutonium, of course.

Transcript

This is one of 38 incomplete transcripts: Don't remove this notice too soon. If you can fix this issue, edit the page!

[Cueball is approaching Ponytail from off, who is sitting at a desk, with a laptop.]

Cueball: Do you have an extension cord with prongs at both ends? Can I borrow it?

Ponytail: No!!!

[Close up of Ponytail raising her arms in an exasperated fashion]

Ponytail: No one should ever buy or make those!

Ponytail: They start fires, destroy equipment, and risk electrocuting you or grid workers!

Cueball: OK, OK, I get it.

[The view zooms back out, showing Ponytail handing Cueball an extension cord.]

Cueball: Can I just borrow a regular cord, then?

Ponytail: Sure. Here.

Cueball: The prongs aren't important. I just thought they'd help anchor it to the wall.

Ponytail: Wait, what are you-

[Cueball is walking away from Ponytail, who sits at her desk with her hands to her head.]

Cueball: I need it to help hold up the top half of the reflector for this plutonium core that I'm-

Ponytail: AAAAAAAA!!!!

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Discussion

F1rSt!1!!1!1!!1!1!1!11!11!1!!!!1!1!Qwertyuiopfromdefly (talk) 02:08, 24 January 2026 (UTC)

curses, im too early on the scene for an explanation of what he's gonna do with the items in the titletext; such are the woes of being one of the people writing the explanations that you have to actually understand the comics - Vaedez (talk) 02:15, 24 January 2026 (UTC)

Same This isn't a good name (talk) 02:17, 24 January 2026 (UTC)

This is the third comic to reference the Demon Core experiment, after 1242 and 2593. Soupgirls (talk) 02:21, 24 January 2026 (UTC)

>"Demon Core experiment": Demon CoreNo, I don't understand either --PRR (talk) 03:26, 24 January 2026 (UTC)

If you're otherwise creating fire hazards, a lithium ion battery is a terrible thing to have, and none of the horror stories you've heard involved a sack of them. Flour is a serious explosion hazard. Vinegar and bleach will release chlorine gas when combined. It sounds like an attempt to have the highest ratio of destruction to materials cost with the least effort. MrMatt (talk) 03:32, 24 January 2026 (UTC)

The title text just sounds like a bunch of flammable/noxious substances. So really, he has good intentions. Tanner07 (talk) 03:57, 24 January 2026 (UTC)

--- Would someone mind explaining how the suicide cord can kill grid workers? I don't know if this is easier to understand in the US - we work on a ring main system in the UK, and (once it is plugged in and the prongs thus protected) I'm having problems seeing why it would be a problem even to the end-user (I suppose you could theoretically use it to connect a ring main rated for less current and set the walls on fire?)

The problem is if you don't plug one end in --Darth Vader (talk) 10:52, 24 January 2026 (UTC)

EDIT: Gemini reminded me that these are generally used to connect a generator, to power up internal wiring that is depowered - if the grid worker has done this deliberately to work upstream and you power things back up things get ugly.

92.237.46.83 08:48, 24 January 2026 (UTC) Jon

Electrician here, Suicide cords are used to 'backfeed' a circuit. Homeowners make them when they are too cheap to add a generator outlet. When plugged in, one side has exposed live parts which can shock or kill you. The other danger is backfeeding the grid itself when plugging in a generator (hence lineworker danger) for the exact reason that line interactive inverters for solar arrays need to shut down when the grid is off. Line workers are expecting dead lines when they come down and backfeeding them may make them live on the ground or while the worker is holding them. The proper way to power a house is to have a generator outlet installed and an interlocked panel that disconnects the mains power from your panel (isolating the power lines) and connects the generator power to specific circuits you want.

I added a "Trivia" note that two days before this comic was posted, Randall had put up a YouTube video version of the What If? item about what would happen if someone's DNA all disappeared. It was compared to the effects of receiving a massive dose of ionizing radiation. The connection between this comic and Slotin's accident seemed relevant to me, at least enough for a "Trivia" item, but another editor disagreed and removed it. Opinions? BunsenH (talk) 15:03, 24 January 2026 (UTC)

I've noticed that recently, these explanations start off very short and without the same humor that most explainxkcd explanations have, and almost appear to be written by AI, before being replaced by a longer explanation that seems more in the vein of this website. Could someone explain what's happening here, and if AI is being used? CreatorOfWorlds (talk) 15:32, 24 January 2026 (UTC)

"Any sufficiently advanced AI is indistinguishable from a lazy unimaginative human" -- Clarke's AI bot's Third Law Ralfoide (talk)
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