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!

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 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[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	8	6	7	FaviFake
6	7	5	6	Elektrizikekswerk
7	6	4	5	Utdtutyabthsc
8	6	3	5	管委会篝火无法解放军“赐额“你去呢管理哦法？
9	5	5	5	Victoria
10	5	3	4	Kynde
11	5	2	4	John Hawkinson
12	5	2	4	Paul
13	5	2	4	DKMell
14	5	2	4	Artem Vasyliev
15	4	2	3	Daniel Griscom
16	4	2	3	Lily Long
17	4	2	3	Lyall Deere
18	4	1	3	RadiantRainwing
19	4	1	3	Drkaii
20	3	3	3	GreatWyrmGold
21	3	3	3	BunsenH
22	3	3	3	August Fuller
23	3	1	2	Baruch
24	3	1	2	Magtei
25	3	1	2	TheOne664
26	3	1	2	Coconut Galaxy
27	3	1	2	Vaedez
28	3	1	2	Joshua Kronengold
29	2	2	2	Qwertyuiopfromdefly
30	2	2	2	Giraffequeries
31	2	2	2	New editor
32	1	1	1	MrMatt
33	1	1	1	Lordpishky
34	1	1	1	Conor O'Brien
35	1	1	1	Ken g6
36	1	1	1	These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For
37	1	1	1	J-beda
38	1	1	1	Gregory
39	1	1	1	CalibansCreations
40	1	1	1	Darth Vader
41	1	1	1	Orion205
42	1	1	1	Dratini0
43	1	1	1	IIVQ
44	1	1	1	CreatorOfWorlds
45	1	1	1	R128
46	1	1	1	Jon
47	1	1	1	Sean McDonough
48	1	1	1	Christian
49	1	1	1	William
50	1	1	1	Barry Margolin

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	39	FaviFake
4	27	19	34	BunsenH
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.

24 January 2026

		N 15:32	Talk:3198: Double-Pronged Extension Cord‎‎ (17 changes \| history) . . (+4,433)‎ . . [This isn't a good name‎; Tanner07‎; Soupgirls‎; Qwertyuiopfromdefly‎; MrMatt‎; Darth Vader‎; CreatorOfWorlds‎; TheusafBOT‎; BunsenH‎; 73.146.168.31‎; Vaedez‎ (2×); 92.237.46.83‎ (2×); PRR‎ (3×)]
			15:32 (cur \| prev) . . (+444)‎ . . CreatorOfWorlds (talk \| contribs)
			15:03 (cur \| prev) . . (+534)‎ . . BunsenH (talk \| contribs) (What if your DNA was gone?)
			11:30 (cur \| prev) . . (+817)‎ . . 73.146.168.31 (talk) (Better explanation for suicide cords than AI slop)
		m	10:52 (cur \| prev) . . (+143)‎ . . Darth Vader (talk \| contribs)
			08:53 (cur \| prev) . . (+239)‎ . . 92.237.46.83 (talk)
			08:48 (cur \| prev) . . (+513)‎ . . 92.237.46.83 (talk) (Question about suicide cords)
		m	03:57 (cur \| prev) . . (+195)‎ . . Tanner07 (talk \| contribs)
			03:32 (cur \| prev) . . (+449)‎ . . MrMatt (talk \| contribs)
			03:27 (cur \| prev) . . (+4)‎ . . PRR (talk \| contribs)
			03:27 (cur \| prev) . . (+1)‎ . . PRR (talk \| contribs)
			03:26 (cur \| prev) . . (+185)‎ . . PRR (talk \| contribs)
			02:21 (cur \| prev) . . (+183)‎ . . Soupgirls (talk \| contribs)
			02:17 (cur \| prev) . . (+146)‎ . . This isn't a good name (talk \| contribs)
		m	02:15 (cur \| prev) . . (+1)‎ . . Vaedez (talk \| contribs) (forgot newline)
			02:15 (cur \| prev) . . (+312)‎ . . Vaedez (talk \| contribs)
		m	02:08 (cur \| prev) . . (+154)‎ . . Qwertyuiopfromdefly (talk \| contribs) (comment)
		N	02:00 (cur \| prev) . . (+113)‎ . . TheusafBOT (talk \| contribs) (Created by theusafBOT: talk page for 3198)