1624: 2016

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
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2016
Want to feel old? Wait.
Title text: Want to feel old? Wait.

Explanation

Ambox notice.png This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: Like 2016, the comic is just a few hours old
If you can address this issue, please edit the page! Thanks.

A common genre of Internet humor, which Randall has used before, is trying to make people "feel old" by mentioning the ages of various things which came into existence during their lifetime. Since many people tend to think of anything that they can remember a time before as "new", this often provokes a feeling of age and out-of-touchness.

White Hat, however, is less interested in Cueball's attempts to make him feel old than he is in the fact that Cueball has apparently crashed through his ceiling and woken him at roughly three o'clock in the morning.

Night at the Museum and Cars are both children's films from 2006, "Hips Don't Lie was an unescapable hit for Shakira, and the Wii is a Nintendo games console. If you were born in the early nineties, these were probably cultural touchstones of your childhood - most people who enjoyed these are now legally adults.

Twister and Independence Day are both disaster movies that were huge box office hits. The Rock probably refers to the action film The Rock, which also came out in 1996, but it could also refer to the the wrestler The Rock, who made his WWF/WWE debut in 1996. Pokémon Red and Blue, the first games in the Pokémon series, came out in Japan in 1996 (Americans wouldn't get them until 1998, however, and Europeans had to wait until 1999). "Wonderwall" was perhaps the biggest hit for the band Oasis and remains a favourite of acoustic guitarists to this day.

Other examples of xkcd's making people "feel old" include 647: Scary, 891: Movie Ages, 973: MTV Generation, 1393: Timeghost, and 1477: Star Wars.

Transcript

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Discussion

This guy looks more like white hat, you can see it hanging off one of the bedposts ‎173.245.54.58 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

True, I have corrected this, mentioned it in explanation and transcript and also made a note in the wiki code so people who do not read the explanation won't change it without learning of their mistake ;-) --Kynde (talk) 16:12, 1 January 2016 (UTC)

Isn't Wonderwall already 20 years old? Mudri (talk) 11:28, 1 January 2016 (UTC)

Yes it was from 1995 a mistake by Randall. It was probably first big in the US in 1996 though? If the unpluged MTV version was more famous (?) then it was recorded in 1996. Mentioned now in the explanation. And happy new year to all on explain xkcd --Kynde (talk) 16:12, 1 January 2016 (UTC)

I feel old because all of those things mentioned (even the 20-year ones) are so much more recent than my own personal milestones and I know that the unsaid 30-year set, at least, would be even better.

Let's see, a sample list for 30 years could include, as one per month: The Challenger disaster; Halley's Comet; Microsoft's IPO; Chernobyl; Short Circuit; Mexico hosts the World Cup; Prince Andrew marries Sarah Ferguson; Castle In The Sky from Studio Gibhli; Desmond Tutu is a Bishop; Reagan and Gorbachev meet (unsuccessfully) in Reykjavík; Iran-Contra; Rutan Voyager's non-stop non-refuelled circumnavigation of the Earth; and, precise date unknown... The Simpsons created!

And 40 years has its interesting points: the Cray-1 created; Apple Computers formed; Concorde flies; as does the (shuttle prototype) Enterprise; Vikings 1 and 2 land; Jimmy Carter nominated; Bob Marley killed; the Sex Pistols swear; the first Laser Printer; The Selfish Gene...

Anyway... Happy New Year, to all. Young and old. 162.158.152.227 20:10, 1 January 2016 (UTC)

Simpsons became it's own show on the 17th December 1989. Prior, it was featured on The Tracey Ulman show. The first Tracey Ulman short aired on April 19th 1987. It may have been CREATED in 1986, however.162.158.152.119 01:50, 3 January 2016 (UTC)

I think Mr. Ford and others would dispute that Cars are only 10 years old. While _I_ may have walked to school (in the snow) (uphill (both ways)), I knew others driving back then. :p 108.162.221.33 04:41, 3 January 2016 (UTC)

The Cars may be 40 years old, but even if the FX are lousy by todays standard, "You Might Think" is brilliant as ever. :P 162.158.90.211 13:02, 6 January 2016 (UTC)

Oh man, this was a year ago already! Time really is passing quickly. -- LuigiBrick (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

(This comment thanks to the highlighting of a typographical error, in the main page, by another user. A pity I couldn't wait another four years to make this addition...) The (valid) speculation that Mission: Impossible inspired the wire-dangling entrance is tarnished by it being smashed through the ceiling and otherwise unsubtle. I'd have said it was more inspired by Minority Report, as the first example of a rope-descent intrusion that comes to mind, but that was 2002 (wow... 20 years ago... not actually sure if that feels longer ago or less so, the last couple of years may have done funny things to my sense of time passing... or that might just be me and my own advancing years). No doubt this otherwise fairly standard action-trope existed in the more violent form in plenty of other films from other years ending in a 6, and probably multiple notable instances. (However, the most obvious James Bond example, the earliest I could definitively recall myself, was released in 1967. Darnit.) Still, an interesting idea. 14:46, 5 November 2022 (UTC)