112: Baring My Heart

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Baring My Heart

Title text: I'm just trying to explain, please don't be jealous! Man, why are all my relationships ruined by early 90's rappers?

Explanation

Randall presents a logical diagram known as a Venn diagram, which illustrates the relationship between multiple sets. The diagram is usually used to illustrate the overlap between various sets. For example, a Venn diagram of "even numbers" and "numbers divisible by 5" would have 2, 4, 6, 8, 12… in one circle, 5, 15, 25… in another circle, and 10, 20, 30… in the intersection of the circles (as those numbers fit into both sets).

Here we have a three-set diagram that Randall has purportedly created to explain his feelings to his love interest. The three sets are:

1. People who can always make him smile
2. people he wants to spend the rest of his life with
3. people who constantly show him new things to love about the world.

In the intersection of these three sets is "you" – his love interest; all three of these statements apply to her. Normally, this might be a cute way of simply implying that he has these three feelings about her, without including any other elements in any of the sets.

Here, however, Randall has included one other element: Vanilla Ice is shown to also constantly show Randall new things to love about the world, and to be someone Randall wants to spend the rest of his life with (although Vanilla Ice doesn't always make him smile).

Vanilla Ice is an American white-skinned rapper who was most popular in the early 1990s with his song "Ice Ice Baby". He was frequently mocked as a very "white" rapper. He is obviously an unexpected name to turn up in this diagram.

Apparently, Randall's love interest didn't take too well to Randall professing similar feelings for Vanilla Ice as he did for her, causing some friction in their relationship. The title text suggests that other '90s rappers have similarly affected Randall's past relationships.

Transcript

[A venn diagram with three sets]

Description of set 1: People who can always make me smile

Description of set 2: People who constantly show me new things about the world

Description of set 3: People I want to spend the rest of my life with

Intersection point: YOU.

Intersection of sets 2 and 3: Vanilla Ice

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Discussion

Rikthoff (talk) The issue date is definitely off, as i don't have a clue about the creation date of the comic. Can anyone fix?

I really had no idea Vanilla Ice was from Caucasus, I thought he was an American of German, English, and Irish descent. But I guess you learn something new every day. 141.101.81.205 17:32, 25 June 2014 (UTC)

Vanilla Ice is not a descendant from Caucasus mountains! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanilla_Ice

He may be a Caucasoid (or Europid) though. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caucasian_race

But I strongly suspect that "Caucasian" here means merely "a white person". http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/Caucasian

As this meaning of the term is chiefly North American and not universal, it causes confusion for other readers. I think it should be replaced by a less politically correct but a more clear term "white".Georgri (talk) 07:30, 21 September 2014 (UTC)

Hey! I read the ebook of xkcd: volume 0 and this comic had "M.C. Hamster" at the bottom. What happened to that??? (please tell me on my talk page.) --172.68.189.67 11:31, 2 February 2020 (UTC)

This is a Euler Diagram, not a Venn.

Sorry. Please read the category page carefully.