1452: Jurassic World

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
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Jurassic World
Hey guys! What's eating you? Ha ha ha it's me! Oh, what fun we have.
Title text: Hey guys! What's eating you? Ha ha ha it's me! Oh, what fun we have.

Explanation

This strip refers to Jurassic World, the new Jurassic Park movie. White Hat explains that the movie's plot involves genetically engineering a better Tyrannosaurus Rex. Megan doesn't feel that the historic Tyrannosaurus can be improved upon, but White Hat insists they've created an even more terrifying, smarter T-Rex for this new movie.

White Hat refers to T-Rex as "two decades old", at which point he has switched from talking about the plot line, to talking about the animation techniques that created the T-Rex on-screen in 1994 vs. today. Clearly, in the computer animation world, we should be able to create something more convincing with modern technology. But Megan objects to this notion that T-Rexs are only 20 years old, staying with the line of thought that White Hat started with.

In the final panel, White Hat introduces the new T-Rex, who is immediately recognizable as the T-Rex from Ryan North's Dinosaur Comics. The joke is that Dinosaur Comics's T-Rex is about as far from smart and scary as it is possible for a T-Rex to be. It is also not very funy (as suggested by the title text).

Characters from Dinosaur Comics also appeared in 145: Parody Week: Dinosaur Comics and 1350: Lorenz.

Transcript

Ambox notice.png This transcript is incomplete. Please help editing it! Thanks.
[White Hat and Megan are walking together]
White Hat: In Jurassic World, we've used genetic engineering to create a better dinosaur.
Megan: Tyrannosaurus is the most charismatic animal that ever lived, and you think you'll upstage it?
White Hat: Tyrannosaurus was cool, but it's two decades old!
Megan: I think it's a little older than that.
[White Hat points up]
White Hat: We took Tyrannosaurus and we improved it. Made it scarier, deadlier, smarter. Look – there it is!
[White Hat and Megan stare up at T-Rex from Dinosaur Comics.]

Trivia

  • In the last panel Randall has made the error of forgetting White Hats hat, thus drawing him as Cueball. Since Megan is still there it is obvious that it is a mistake.
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Discussion

Uh ... maybe, just maybe, is Megan referring to the ACTUAL tyrannosaurus, the animal which lived several millions years ago? -- Hkmaly (talk) 11:47, 26 November 2014 (UTC)

Any reason why "white hat" is not wearing his hat in the final panel? 173.245.54.194 12:20, 26 November 2014 (UTC)

Good catch. Jarod997 (talk) 14:31, 26 November 2014 (UTC)
none that I feel confident about - perhaps the T-Rex ate it or blew it off swinging his tail around? -- Brettpeirce (talk) 14:35, 26 November 2014 (UTC)
Logical reason: Randall forgot.
Fun reason: the surprise blew away the hat! Greyson (talk) 16:07, 26 November 2014 (UTC)

Is it just me, or does this particular episode of xkcd just not come off as funny? Jarod997 (talk) 14:31, 26 November 2014 (UTC)

I suppose not particularly, but that happens regularly - it's not always supposed to be funny... -- Brettpeirce (talk) 14:35, 26 November 2014 (UTC)
I really enjoyed this comic. It's probably because I did not see the punchline coming on my small smartphone screen. RecentlyChanged (talk)
It's funny if you've read Dinosaur Comics Smperron (talk) 16:20, 26 November 2014 (UTC)

I believe that Rex from We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story would be even more 'improved'! Greyson (talk) 16:07, 26 November 2014 (UTC)

Barney would have been more logical as it (he?) already appears on a TV in JP III :-) 108.162.254.100 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

I'd think that Dinosaur Comic's T-Rex is actually quite intelligent for a dinosaur. 108.162.221.169 18:26, 26 November 2014 (UTC)

"But Megan objects to this notion that the T.rex is only 20 years old, staying with the line of thought that White Hat started with." This phrase is very confusing for a non-native english speaker... I nearly edited it as a mistake from the author before understanding its actual meaning. Maybe it should be rephrased in a simpler way?188.114.110.47 08:55, 27 November 2014 (UTC)


Note: There is also movie Tyrannosaurus. I though they may refer to that, with the world being in italics, but that one is not 20 years old. -- Hkmaly (talk) 12:52, 28 November 2014 (UTC)

I think the explanation should mention the double meaning (figurative vs. literal) of "what's eating you?", as I think most non-native speakers won't be aware of the figurative one. (For example, I only caught it the third time reading.) --108.162.230.119 12:31, 30 November 2014 (UTC)

Which is? I'm not a native English speaker either, but I suppose the figurative meaning is "what's troubling you?". Oddly, Wiktionary was of no help. 188.114.99.189 23:47, 1 December 2015 (UTC)


Is it just me or this comic is pretty obviously referencing Apple's ads? Like 'it's two decades old!' as they constantly need to create a new iphone, and even if nothing changes, they still fill the ad with marketing bullshit. "We improved it. Made it scarier, deadlier, smarter." All of those are subjective. Etimologyman (talk) 20:30, 8 March 2019 (UTC)