3130: Predicament

Predicament

|< < Prev #3130 (August 18, 2025) Next > >|

Title text: I dropped my phone while trying to search, and I tried to unlock it from up here, so can you also search for screen repair places?

|< < Prev Random Explanation Next > >|

Explanation

This is one of 52 incomplete explanations: This page was created by someone on stilts. Don't remove this notice too soon. If you can fix this issue, edit the page!

Someone on very tall stilts walks up to Cueball and requests that he google something for them. Cueball correctly guesses that they want to find out how to get down from stilts.

The title text explains that this person dropped their phone and tried to unlock it with the stilts, but ended up breaking their phone in the process. When someone is standing on stilts, their weight (and the weight of the stilts themselves) is distributed over the relatively small contact area between the stilts' bottoms and the surface they rest on. It would be very difficult to perform a precise task such as unlocking a phone on the ground, using the bottom of a stilt that one is standing on, without accidentally putting a lot of pressure on the phone's fragile screen. One would, in essence, need to balance on one stilt, putting almost all of the weight on it... and carefully and gently touch the phone with the other, supporting most of the weight of the free stilt with one's hand and arm, doing precise manipulations at the distance of the length of the stilt with an awkward blunt tool that has both considerable mass and considerable moment of inertia. This procedure clearly hasn't gone well.

It is also unlikely that a phone 'touchscreen' could even be operated by a stilt. Most work through capacitive sensing, and are unlikely to work with the stilt-ends unless specifically equipped with a cap of material with sufficiently similar dialectric qualities to human fingers.

Transcript

This is one of 27 incomplete transcripts: Don't remove this notice too soon. If you can fix this issue, edit the page!

[Panel 1:]

[On the left a long stick enters the panel from near the top left. There are "tap tap" sounds where the stick hits the ground. Cueball is on the right, looking left towards the stick.]

[Panel 2:]

[There are now two long sticks closer to the middle of the panel. They cross near the top, and there are three taps near the bottom. Cueball is still looking at them.]

[Panel 3:]

[The two sticks are almost parallel now, a little further apart at the ground. Cueball is still looking at them.

Voice from above: Do you have your phone?

Cueball: Yeah.

[Panel 4:]

[The two sticks are parallel. Cueball is holding a cellphone in his right hand.]

Voice from above: Can you google --

Cueball: -- How to get down from stilts?

Voice from above: Yes please.

  Add comment        Create topic (use sparingly)       Refresh 

Discussion

Those are some pretty dang tall stilts ... oh yeah, and F1RST P0ST! RadiantRainwing (talk) 20:59, 18 August 2025 (UTC)

There's a not entirely tenuous link with 1660: Captain Speaking, methinks... 92.23.2.228 21:31, 18 August 2025 (UTC)

Is unlocking the phone with stilts even possible? Aren't phone touchscreens based on electrical conductivity? What are these stilts made of? 160.39.41.182 21:33, 18 August 2025 (UTC)

Ah, I just added a paragraph about that! Great minds think alike/fools never differ...

Probably capacitative (which is what I linked), and indeed I was thinking that wooden/other-structural-material wouldn't get any response unless you put a pad of special material (such as seen on the tips of "iPhone gloves") that emulates the electrical qualities of bare skin. Which is probably not what you usually get, there, even if they're given "little rubber boots/soles" for grip purposes. 92.23.2.228 21:44, 18 August 2025 (UTC)

So... is there a special procedure for getting off stilts? If so, it should be mentioned in the explanation. 2A01:36D:104:47E3:7D15:7369:B5C7:C18D 22:56, 18 August 2025 (UTC)

Gravity being what it is, I always found it easier to get down than to stay up. 98.5.115.49 (talk) 23:39, 18 August 2025 (UTC) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

I think the trick is getting down without hurting yourself. Barmar (talk) 04:59, 19 August 2025 (UTC)

You don’t get down from stilts, you get down from an elephant! 2607:FB90:8B0C:94F1:95A5:B4D0:D3A3:4420 06:54, 19 August 2025 (UTC)

I'm sure you could get down from stilts if you really wanted to. 82.13.184.33 09:48, 19 August 2025 (UTC)

Heh. Nice! ("You don't get down from an elephant, you get down from a duck.") BunsenH (talk) 14:34, 19 August 2025 (UTC)

Why did he make this comic? Is he running out of ideas? Caliban (talk) 15:23, 19 August 2025 (UTC)

Because it was an idea that amused him? Why did he make any of the previous 3129? 82.13.184.33 16:10, 19 August 2025 (UTC)

Obviously because he is currently stuck on stilts and hopes to be able to check this website for ideas on how to get off of them. Tharkon (talk) 18:02, 19 August 2025 (UTC)

I hope he can read us, from all the way up there! 92.23.2.228 19:50, 19 August 2025 (UTC)

I rather like this comic. It led me into a deep dive with Copilot about how stilt walkers stay safe. Next time I see a parade with stilts, I'm going to watch for the spotters on the ground. Gbisaga (talk) 19:48, 19 August 2025 (UTC)

I've never been on stilts and will happily defer to people with firsthand experience. But from my time hanging around in circus schools, I saw people put on stilts while sitting on a ladder or other convenient tall platform. They get down by reversing the process. Stilt walkers travelling to events usually bring their own ladder, and often another person to act as a spotter while they're up there. 66.162.136.21 21:10, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

A "retired professional stiltwalker" has spoken up in the Reddit thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/1mtyz9v/xkcd_3130_predicament/n9hvjtp/ Dogman15 (talk) 09:35, 21 August 2025 (UTC)

How do add that in the wiki Mathmaster (talk) 19:19, 1 September 2025
        Add comment