Latest revision as of 06:19, 3 January 2026

Welcome to the explain xkcd wiki!
We have an explanation for all 3207 xkcd comics, and only 58 (1.8%) are incomplete. Help us finish them!

Go to this explanation

Latest comic[edit]

Double-Pronged Extension Cord

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!!!!!!'

Explanation[edit]

This is incomplete:
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!

This comic begins with Cueball approaching Ponytail, who’s sitting at her desk, asking if she has an extension cord with prongs at both ends that he can borrow. To which she replies with a horrified NO!!! Whether the no means that she doesn’t have the cord, or she does but Cueball can’t borrow it is unclear (though the second panel would suggest it’s the former). This design of extension cord (created to solve some power-connectivity issues, but likely to cause other problems) is lethally dangerous, as Ponytail points out. 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, which normally wouldn't even be an option where such a double-ended cord was required. But then he elaborates that rather than wanting the cord to carry electricity, he actually intends to use it as some kind of support prop. He thinks that the plug prongs at each end are suitable for fixing the cable into a wall (though he doesn't specify, presumably two regular wall-sockets - depending upon the exact type of plug/prongs he uses, this itself would be a problem, connecting the opposite polarities of the same building supply together), this leaving the free cable between in the right place to act as a makeshift support for something even more dangerous. Based on his description his setup appears to be a recreation of Louis Slotin's infamous "Demon Core" or "Tickling the dragon's tail" experiment, which proved fatal, with the extension cord replacing the flat-head screwdriver. Understandably, this horrifies Ponytail even more. This is the third comic to reference the Demon Core experiment, after 1242: Scary Names and 2593: Deviled Eggs.

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 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 lethal. (Any acid will tend to liberate chlorine from bleach, though vinegar is a relatively dilute solution of a weak acid (acetic acid). Other acidic household cleaning products, such as drain openers, would be much more dangerous to combine with bleach.) As such, the theme of the title text appears to be "innocuous-appearing substances which are actually quite dangerous".

Transcript[edit]

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!!!!

Add comment

Create topic (use sparingly)

Refresh

Discussion

Make changes, try things out, or just have fun with the wiki here! Just leave everything above the line alone, please.

This is a test. PoolloverNathan^{[stalk the blue seas]} 20:48, 16 March 2021 (UTC)

A foreign student asked me to help fight against his math teacher. That was unusual. He was in that class for just a couple of weeks. The teacher's phone number was sent to me. The student asked me to spam-call the teacher. 172.71.155.55 22:58, 18 September 2023 (UTC)

here i'm just messing around in html, ignore this

^furhhfghure _{guyrburgryhuyvfr} "rvhru"

interesting way of writing quotations xd

hmmm this one of putting "<p>" in a line break will come in handy for when i want it to start at the same place than the first line

Please beware that <p> on mediawiki also disables automatic paragraph breaks, so you need a closing </p> or you'll break automatic paragraph formatting for the rest of the page. Zmatt (talk) 22:06, 31 July 2024 (UTC)

edit: da hek did that "</div>" come from An user who has no account yet (talk) 14:14, 13 October 2023 (UTC)

hi uh its hard to get here. is this a reference to undocumented feature??? hmm... this is interesting.
108.162.241.216 02:05, 23 November 2023 (UTC)

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

yum yum ^{[citation needed]}

Hiuiedeixgeyceiyedhcdiedcve {{trout}}

This is the leaderboard:

Last 7 days (Top 50)

Rank	Score	Pages	Changes	Username
1	25	19	28	TheusafBOT
2	20	8	47	Elizium23
3	16	13	16	Natg19
4	12	8	13	DollarStoreBa'al
5	9	4	10	BunsenH
6	8	6	7	FaviFake
7	7	5	6	Elektrizikekswerk
8	6	4	5	Utdtutyabthsc
9	6	3	5	管委会篝火无法解放军“赐额“你去呢管理哦法？
10	5	3	4	Kynde
11	5	5	5	Victoria
12	5	2	4	Artem Vasyliev
13	5	2	4	Paul
14	5	2	4	DKMell
15	4	2	3	Lily Long
16	4	2	3	Lyall Deere
17	4	1	3	RadiantRainwing
18	4	1	3	Drkaii
19	3	1	2	Vaedez
20	3	3	3	GreatWyrmGold
21	3	1	2	Joshua Kronengold
22	3	1	2	Magtei
23	3	1	2	Baruch
24	3	1	2	TheOne664
25	3	1	2	Daniel Griscom
26	3	3	3	August Fuller
27	3	1	2	Coconut Galaxy
28	2	2	2	Qwertyuiopfromdefly
29	2	2	2	New editor
30	2	2	2	Giraffequeries
31	1	1	1	Darth Vader
32	1	1	1	Jon
33	1	1	1	Ralfoide
34	1	1	1	Damian Yerrick
35	1	1	1	Lordpishky
36	1	1	1	Conor O'Brien
37	1	1	1	Fabian42
38	1	1	1	These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For
39	1	1	1	Christian
40	1	1	1	Bewa
41	1	1	1	William
42	1	1	1	Orion205
43	1	1	1	King Pando
44	1	1	1	CreatorOfWorlds
45	1	1	1	Logalex8369
46	1	1	1	Dratini0
47	1	1	1	J-beda
48	1	1	1	IIVQ
49	1	1	1	boB
50	1	1	1	Sean McDonough

Add comment

View comic discussion

New here?[edit]

Last 30 days (Top 10)

Rank	Score	Pages	Changes	Username
1	81	69	104	TheusafBOT
2	49	37	76	DollarStoreBa'al
3	29	20	41	BunsenH
4	29	20	39	FaviFake
5	25	11	57	Elizium23
6	23	20	23	Natg19
7	23	16	29	R128
8	23	15	31	Kynde
9	16	3	44	Firestar233
10	15	12	15	Utdtutyabthsc

Lots of people contribute to make this wiki a success. Many of the recent contributors above have just joined. You can do it too! Create your account here.

You can read a brief introduction about this wiki at explain xkcd. Feel free to create an account and contribute to the wiki! We need explanations for xkcd comics, characters, What If? articles, and everything in between. If it is referenced in an xkcd comic, it should be here.

If you're new to wiki editing, see the explain xkcd:Editor FAQ for a specific guidance to this wiki and the more general help on how to edit wiki pages. There's also a handy wikicode cheatsheet.

Discussion about the wiki itself happens at the Community portal.

You can browse the comics from the list of all comics or by navigating the category tree at Category:Comics.

The incomplete explanations are listed here. Feel free to help out by expanding them!

Rules[edit]

Don't be a jerk!

There are a lot of comics that don't have set-in-stone explanations; feel free to put multiple interpretations in the wiki page for each comic.

If you want to talk about a specific comic, use its discussion page.

Please only submit material directly related to xkcd and, of course, only submit material that can legally be posted and freely edited. Off-topic or other inappropriate content is subject to removal or modification at admin discretion, and users who repeatedly post such content will be blocked.

If you need assistance from an admin, post a message to the Admin requests board.