Difference between revisions of "3217: Home Remedies"

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{{incomplete|This page was created but can be easily removed with this one great trick!. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
 
{{incomplete|This page was created but can be easily removed with this one great trick!. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
  
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Many household problems have a range of commonly-circulated solutions using easily available items and ingredients, such as using salt to lift a stain out of a carpet. Sometimes, when one of these problems presents itself, several competing remedies may be offered by those present. This comic imagines this as a competitive sport, in which the final test is to combine several of these problems into one grand challenge to be solved. Specifically, the contestants in this case are presented with:
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Many household problems have a range of commonly-circulated supposed solutions using easily available items and ingredients, such as using salt to lift a stain out of a carpet. Sometimes, when one of these problems presents itself, several competing remedies may be offered by those present. This comic imagines this as a competitive sport, in which the final test is to combine several of these problems into one grand challenge to be solved. Specifically, the contestants in this case are presented with:
 
* removing unpleasant odours (in this case, that of a {{w|skunk}})
 
* removing unpleasant odours (in this case, that of a {{w|skunk}})
 
* {{w|Hangover_remedies|curing a hangover}}
 
* {{w|Hangover_remedies|curing a hangover}}
 
* [https://www.wikihow.com/Get-Gum-Out-of-Your-Hair removing chewing gum stuck in hair]
 
* [https://www.wikihow.com/Get-Gum-Out-of-Your-Hair removing chewing gum stuck in hair]
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and possibly
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* removing a wild animal from the premises
  
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The title text's requirement that any assistance must come from a grandparent may reference the fact that such treatments are sometimes referred to as '{{w|old wives' tales}}', or possibly just that they are often handed down as family lore.
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The title text's requirement that any assistance must come from a grandparent may reference the fact that such treatments are often described as "something my (granpappy/grandmaw/etc) told me", perhaps having reportedly been something that they themselves learnt from their own grandparent (and possibly even further back), deferring to the implied {{w|Wise old man|authority and experience}} behind them. These tidbits of information are rarely used enough to be among any of the life lessons that direct parents may teach to an individual, but still useful knowledge to {{w|Grandmother hypothesis#The grandmother effect|pass down the generations}}.
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Other people, not so emotionally invested in the ramblings of someone else's grandparent, may be more skeptically considering such 'advice' as more of an {{w|old wives' tale}} that isn't being passed on (or even remembered) entirely reliably, but then this is at least partly what the featured competition seems to be testing, and presumably those who have reached this final stage have already proven themselves as being more aptly critical than most of the various home remedies that they've potentially been told by their various (especially more elder) family members.
  
 
==Transcript==
 
==Transcript==
 
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
 
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
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[Cueball, holding a microphone, is addressing 3 contestants (Megan, White Hat & Hairbun), each standing at desks, with lidded boxes on the desks. Megan and Hairbun's boxes are shaking.]
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Cueball: And now, for the final round, you have each been given a skunk with a hangover and chewing gum stuck to it's fur.
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Cueball: You have 30 minutes. Good luck.
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[Caption below the image:]
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The Home Remedy World Championships
  
 
{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
 
{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

Revision as of 11:00, 10 March 2026

Home Remedies
As always, you are permitted to call one person for guidance, but that person must be a grandparent.
Title text: As always, you are permitted to call one person for guidance, but that person must be a grandparent.

    Explanation

    Ambox warning blue construction.png This is one of 74 incomplete explanations:
    This page was created but can be easily removed with this one great trick!. Don't remove this notice too soon. If you can fix this issue, edit the page!

    Many household problems have a range of commonly-circulated supposed solutions using easily available items and ingredients, such as using salt to lift a stain out of a carpet. Sometimes, when one of these problems presents itself, several competing remedies may be offered by those present. This comic imagines this as a competitive sport, in which the final test is to combine several of these problems into one grand challenge to be solved. Specifically, the contestants in this case are presented with:

    and possibly

    • removing a wild animal from the premises

    The title text's requirement that any assistance must come from a grandparent may reference the fact that such treatments are often described as "something my (granpappy/grandmaw/etc) told me", perhaps having reportedly been something that they themselves learnt from their own grandparent (and possibly even further back), deferring to the implied authority and experience behind them. These tidbits of information are rarely used enough to be among any of the life lessons that direct parents may teach to an individual, but still useful knowledge to pass down the generations.

    Other people, not so emotionally invested in the ramblings of someone else's grandparent, may be more skeptically considering such 'advice' as more of an old wives' tale that isn't being passed on (or even remembered) entirely reliably, but then this is at least partly what the featured competition seems to be testing, and presumably those who have reached this final stage have already proven themselves as being more aptly critical than most of the various home remedies that they've potentially been told by their various (especially more elder) family members.

    Transcript

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    Don't remove this notice too soon. If you can fix this issue, edit the page!

    [Cueball, holding a microphone, is addressing 3 contestants (Megan, White Hat & Hairbun), each standing at desks, with lidded boxes on the desks. Megan and Hairbun's boxes are shaking.]

    Cueball: And now, for the final round, you have each been given a skunk with a hangover and chewing gum stuck to it's fur.

    Cueball: You have 30 minutes. Good luck.

    [Caption below the image:]

    The Home Remedy World Championships


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    Discussion

    Wow that came out late. I guess it is still technically Monday in California? Or at least was when it came up on explain xkcd half an hour ago? --Kynde (talk) 08:03, 10 March 2026 (UTC)

    Very late comic Broseph (talk) 08:13, 10 March 2026 (UTC)

    Even later explanation. 82.13.184.33 09:30, 10 March 2026 (UTC)
    For anyone perhaps wondering how you get a skunk with a hangover, all you need to do is find one of them that is famously inebriated, then wait. The chewing gum bit probably 'just happens' at some point during this whole process... 82.132.231.180 10:40, 10 March 2026 (UTC)
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