1079: United Shapes

United Shapes

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Title text: That eggplant is in something of a flaccid state.

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A larger version of this comic is available here.

Shut the fuck up

Transcript

This is one of 31 incomplete transcripts: This transcript isn't detailed enough for our standards. Weirdly enough, the third column of the table above is more descriptive, so you could start by transferring the descriptions from the table over to this section. If you can fix this issue, edit the page!

The United Shapes

A map of things states are shaped like

[Each state has some item wedged to stay inside its borders]]

[Washington contains a whale.]

[Idaho contains a garden gnome sitting down.]

[Montana contains half of a muffin turned on its side.]

[North Dakota and South Dakota contain the top and bottom halves of a guitar amplifier speaker cabinet, respectively.]

[Minnesota contains $160 in $20 bills, tied together.]

[Upper peninsula and lower peninsula of Michigan contain an eagle and a mitten, respectively.]

[Ohio contains a single pair of white underwear briefs.]

[Pennsylvania contains a very thick book with a bookmark.]

[New York contains a hybrid transmission with standard manual-style gears and a torque converter sliced in half.]

[Vermont contains an upside-down microscope.]

[New Hampshire contains a tall brick factory building.]

[Maine contains a hand doing a Vulcan salute.]

[Massachusetts contains an elephant carrying crates of tea and being ridden by a man.]

[Rhode Island contains the bow half of a boat's hull.]

[Connecticut contains a train conductor's hat.]

[New Jersey contains a bent-over old person carrying a cane.]

[Delaware contains a meerkat.]

[Maryland contains a wolf, howling at the moon while upside-down.]

[Washington D.C. is represented by a star.]

[Virginia is represented by a stegosaurus.]

[North Carolina contains a bouquet of flowers which appear similar to Marsh Bedstraws.]

[South Carolina contains a slice of pizza.]

[Georgia contains a red Missouri, which contains a drawing of the Gateway Arch.]

[Florida contains an eggplant.]

[Alabama contains a Moai head facing east.]

[Mississippi contains a Moai head facing west.]

[Louisiana contains a boot with gum stuck to the bottom.]

[Texas contains a dog sitting in a bowl.]

[New Mexico contains a yellow liquid container with upside-down labeling.]

This end up!!

Property of White Sands Missile Range

Contains White Sand

[Written inside a hazardous-materials NFPA diamond with the ? very large, and the three '4' in the three top part of a diamond shape divided in four these three sections being blue(health), red(flammability), and yellow(instability). The lower part has a radioactive sign on the same grey background as the large rectangle.]

??? 4 4 4

Flammable

Warning

This product contains chemicals known

Only to the State of Nevada.

Contents under pressure from parents

If swallowed, induce labor

56 fluid ounces

and 14 other ounces

NB - There are several chemicals such as Pentaborane(9)(reacts with water) and tert-Butyl hydroperoxide(explosive) which have a 4-4-4 rating, however, a substance that is both 4-4-4 and radioactive is unlikely to be handled in bulk.

[Arizona contains a refrigerated shelf containing milk, bread, and pastries.]

[California contains a vacuum cleaner.]

[Oregon contains a locomotive.]

[Wyoming contains the back side of a white envelope, sealed with red wax, with a black heart next to a signature in the lower left corner. ]

[Nebraska contains a blue VW type 2 with mattresses sticking out of the back. ]

[Iowa contains a tomato, lettuce, cold cut and cheese sandwich.]

[Illinois contains a gangster with a guitar case, upside down.]

[Indiana contains the brush end of a paintbrush.]

[Kentucky contains a cloud.]

[West Virginia contains a frog.]

[Wisconsin contains a side profile of a skull, oriented facing toward Lake Michigan.]

[Tennessee contains a number of children's books, placed in a slightly askew pile.]

[Arkansas contains a clear measuring cup.]

[Oklahoma contains a covered pot, dripping with boil-over.]

[Nevada contains an iron for clothing.]

[Utah contains an oven with a towel on a towel bar on the side.]

[Colorado contains a fake Wikipedia article on Colorado. Below the text as seen in the provided close up:]

[web address:]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado

[Headers]

Wikipedia

Article Talk

Colorado

[Main article]

Colorado (Pronounced [ˈeːijaˌfjatlaˌjœːkʏtl̥] is a US State encompassing portions of the Rocky Mountains and the Great Plains. The region has been inhabited since at least 11,000 BCE, and some archaeological evidence suggest the state – with roughly its current borders – has literally always existed. Colorado is separated from Wyoming by a 28-mile demilitarized zone, and has at times exercised substantial regional power via the installation of puppet governments in neighboring states. Geographically, Colorado is eleven-dimensional, though seven of those dimensions are tightly compacted and difficult to detect in most areas of the state. Colorado is home to the nation's oldest continually-operated wormhole and two of President Lincoln's horcruxes. The wildlife in Colorado is commonly characterized as "erratic", particularly in the radiation zones around Longmont. The State's timber wolf population is largely bipedal; the Park Service has expressed "concern" at their attempts to enroll in

[Fact box with correct (though black instead of blue) state flag and emblem and fake motto:]

State of Colorado

Motto:

"Si parare possis, vivere septem."

(With preparation, survival is possible for over a week.)

[Kansas contains a spinet piano.]

[Missouri contains an olive-green Georgia, which contains a branch of a peach tree.]

[Alaska contains a bear with a jet pack and a ray gun.]

[Hawaii contains a snowball on the island of Hawaii. The smaller islands are small bits of snow.

Trivia

This comic used to be available as a poster in the xkcd store before it was shut down.

In the fake Wikipedia article about Colorado, Randall forgot the closing parentheses ')' after the pronunciation.

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Discussion

Hooray, another comic that only Americans will get. Randall, some of us live in *other* parts of the world. Davidy²²[talk] 13:47, 8 January 2013 (UTC)

Wait, so an American addict with a mostly-American audience is supposed to limit himself to cartoons that everyone can understand? And people say AMERICANS are the arrogant ones. 71.229.88.206 07:59, 24 March 2013 (UTC)

Could someone please explain the stereotypes? I'm American and I don't really see any jokes. As far as I can tell, he just picked images that fit in each state. -- 71.229.88.206 (talk) 07:59, 24 March 2013 (UTC) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

We still have to fix this thumbnail issue. --Dgbrt (talk) 16:47, 6 June 2013 (UTC)

For the most part I don't think the shapes have anything to do with the states other than what happens to fit. The Louisiana "boot" and Michigan "glove" are commonly used to describe those states shapes. 65.117.250.78 (talk) 22:49, 20 August 2013 (UTC) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

People in Michigan actually say things like "I live in the thumb" 108.162.219.199 05:18, 12 December 2013 (UTC)

I'm not sure how this really constitutes an explanation. The current text seems to amount to "Yeah this comic is all perfectly clear and logical everyone gets all the references alright I gotta go have fun now!" I think this needs an incomplete flag, but I don't know if someone who isn't a moderator can do that? --Mynotoar (talk) 22:32, 26 December 2013 (UTC)

Could the signature in Wyoming be Randalls own one? Compare it to 1005: SOPA. --108.162.254.160 09:06, 5 March 2014 (UTC)

He does lotsa comics the rest of us can undrestand, too. After all, though, he IS American. Texas: that's a cat? 108.162.225.160 16:26, 9 March 2014 (UTC)

<rant> The bear in the state of Alaska is NOT Winnie the Pooh. The most recognizable version is yellow with a red shirt. The original illustrations didn't have a shirt, but were still yellow. Further more, there ARE other cartoon bears to choose from, or it could just be a non-affiliated one that Randall created for the sake of fitting in the state of Alaska. Add to that the fact that Winnie the Pooh never had a jetpack OR a raygun and there is a pretty solid case for that bear NOT being Winnie the Pooh. </rant> 173.245.54.91 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~) Anonymous 04:51, 18 March 2014 (UTC)

I did correct a former typo done by Randall himself, but Winnie the Pooh is just what he was thinking about. Please start a discussion on such an edit first, maybe we can say Randall's painting is bad, but that's what is on his official transcript. And SO this does only belong to the explain, the transcript is just only a transcript of the ORIGINAL comic. I'm sorry, but please don't change this until you know what you are doing, please ask for help first. You will get kind answers by many people here. --Dgbrt (talk) 22:29, 18 March 2014 (UTC)4

In regards to New Mexico, the hazardous waste container could easily be a reference to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad. I think it's also worth noting that, despite the transcript, the entire container appears to be upside-down, rather than just the label. This could be an allusion to concerns about radiation leaks in that facility. MurphysLife (talk) 23:28, 17 July 2018 (UTC)

WRT Massachusetts, yes, the Boston Tea Party occurred there. However, the tea on the elephant implies the tea came from India, when it came from China. Tea was not commercially cultivated in India until the 1820s, well after the American Revolution. I see no relation with the elephant depicted to the Republican Party symbol. Massachusetts politics do not lean towards Republican political party ideals. The conservative Tea Party, aligns with the Republican Party, but their followers do not hold much sway in Massachusetts.TCMits (talk) 20:26, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

Undoing edits

I expanded a bunch of descriptions, especially with an eye for people who may not be able to see the comic. This was the "incomplete explanation of the day" comic the day I started adding to the wiki. For example, Utah was described as "An oven." I changed this to "A white stove" because the entire appliance is called a stove (an oven plus drawer below, cooktop above, and upright piece with controls at the back of the cooktop).

Dgbrt undid all my changes without explanation. Would someone please explain what, if anything, I did wrong? I know I'm new here, but I did look around before making any changes. Is there an "o

Corollary question: Someone also removed the actual text that appears in the various images.

Is there an official-from-Randall transcript somewhere?

Thanks. Karenb (talk) 21:48, 20 March 2014 (UTC)

Dgbrt replaced the transcript that was present with the transcript that can be found here, or in the page source of the original comic. It's not always perfectly accurate, but I usually just trust in it since Randall probably knows what he drew. If you feel that there's a typo/stuff-up somewhere, feel free to change it. Accuracy trumps the original transcript. Davidy²²[talk] 00:48, 21 March 2014 (UTC)

Thanks, David! That makes a lot of sense. Karenb (talk) 01:37, 21 March 2014 (UTC)

I disagree. The transcript here should explain what is in the comic. Randall's transcript (if there even is one) is often not very complete, and he doesn't use the names we have here. If he has drawn something that is clearly not what he writes it is, then it should be corrected in this transcript. --Kynde (talk) 10:14, 11 February 2016 (UTC)

Is this ready for the incomplete flag to be removed? Explain section has been updated to explain the shapes that can be explained.Tornadowrangler (talk) 03:35, 3 April 2014 (UTC)Tornadowrangler

A note about Maryland -- the transcript description is incomplete, because the wolf (main part of the state) appears to be howling at a full moon (across the Chesapeake Bay). That bit of land is referred to as the Delmarva peninsula, because it includes nearly all of Delaware, the eastern part of Maryland and (not indicated on this map) the southern tip belongs to Virginia. 108.162.219.13 04:13, 13 May 2014 (UTC)

I always thought NC & SC look like a bird beak & VA looked like a bird in flight Beastachu (talk) 19:35, 8 November 2015 (UTC)

I halfway fixed the issue addressed by the incomplete box. I have nothing to contribute to the current spotlighted explanation, so I am working here. I will finish the job later if I have time. I also added some more possible explanations to the chart, such as Washington D.C. being a star because that's how capitals are shown and the somewhat weak explanation of Maine's camp sunshine holding an event to appear in a Star Trek film. 108.162.237.140 16:04, 20 April 2016 (UTC)

I believe the transcript is now complete. 108.162.237.140 15:08, 22 April 2016 (UTC)

After some more additions to the transcript I removed the incomplete box. The only thing left is the comic explanation, and finding possible explanations for all of the shapes. Despite what the current description says, Randall just picking shapes based on shape is very unlike him. 108.162.237.188 22:19, 25 April 2016 (UTC)

So what you're saying is it should no longer be flagged as incomplete because only the explanation is incomplete? What an interesting conclusion 141.101.99.239

Holy crap what's with the transcript? Should we collapse the table? Because it makes the page zoom way out, to the point where it becomes too small to see the words. Herobrine (talk) 06:08, 6 April 2018 (UTC)

I have fixed the table. 172.68.143.24 06:38, 4 October 2018 (UTC)

I've marked it as incomplete: A table should not be used in general. Check this What is the format of the transcript section ?. --Dgbrt (talk) 18:45, 5 October 2018 (UTC)

eːijaˌfjatlaˌjœːkʏtl̥

What is eːijaˌfjatlaˌjœːkʏtl̥ actually pronounced as? Why does that show as the pronunciation of Colorado? It's clearly not colorado.

That's the phonetic writing of Eyjafjallajökull, and icelandic volcano that caused disruptions to air travel in Western Europe between March and June of 2010. If you want an analogy pronunciation guide, it would be something as "a [as in the letter]-ya-fiat-la-YOE-cutl [do not mistake with 'cult']". --188.114.111.225

Just put in an explanation for New York, which was the last one missing. The table should be complete, then, though many of the explanations (including New York's) are one-liners or could be improved. Should the note be changed to reflect that? R128 (talk) 15:22, 13 November 2025 (UTC)
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