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| Groundhog Day Meaning |
 Title text: Originally, the ceremony used a variety of rodents and mustelids, but over time most people agreed it made sense to standardize on a specific individual ground squirrel in Pennsylvania. |
Explanation
This comic was posted on Groundhog Day, February 2nd. Cueball is shown explaining the holiday to Black Hat.
Groundhog Day originates from a superstition regarding the behavior of a groundhog, a type of rodent. Supposedly, if the groundhog does not see its shadow, the spring thaw is likely to happen shortly thereafter. If it does see its shadow, however, it is frightened and retreats into its burrow, and six more weeks of winter await.
Groundhog Day is also the title of a 1993 film starring Bill Murray. In the film, Murray's character is trapped in a time loop centered on Groundhog Day; no matter how his day ends - whether by falling asleep at the end of the day or dying somewhere during the event - the world and everyone around him resets to that same morning. However, Murray's character retains all memories of the previous day. The movie has become synonymous with the plot element of a time loop in English-speaking cultures.
The title text refers to the process of standardizing measurement units, which typically involves forming a consensus among many people from a wide range of places. Basing a weather prediction on rodents (such as groundhogs) and mustelids (weasels) is ridiculous to start with, and basing it on a single individual (named Punxsutawney Phil) is even more so.
Transcript
- Cueball: Historically, it refers to a ceremony to predict the weather using a rodent. But nowadays people often use it to mean "a time loop experienced by one person."
- Black Hat: ...what.
- [Caption below the panel:]
- Easily our weirdest holiday.
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