Editing 1635: Birdsong

The comic shows [[Cueball]] walking along with a {{w|songbird}} singing above him; Cueball is apparently enjoying the perfect weather and the birdsong as he comments on both. In the next panel, it becomes apparent that the bird is actually singing the words to the song "{{w|Smooth (song)|Smooth}}" ([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Whgn_iE5uc official video]) by {{w|Santana (band)|Santana}} featuring {{w|Rob Thomas (musician)|Rob Thomas}}. This gives the word songbird a completely new meaning. The bird's singing begins to annoy Cueball, so he chases the bird with a {{w|butterfly net}} in an attempt to catch it. Meanwhile the bird just continues with the song. (Interestingly the two lines from the last two panels follow each other in the song, but Cueball manages to get hold of the net in between).

The comic is a play on the words ''bird'' and ''song''.  Songbirds, of course, don't actually sing: the sounds they make are territorial challenges, mating cries, etc. But in Western cultural traditions, particularly the {{w|pastoral}} one, imagining these sounds as 'song' is part of seeing nature as beautiful and harmonious. Ironically, the fact that this bird is really singing urban pop music, is perceived by Cueball to be an intrusion.  Playing {{w|Pastoral#Pastoral_music|pastoral music}} to 'reprogram' the bird is of course an even more unnatural intervention - all with the purpose of restoring the pastoral naturalness of the morning. Of course some birds can actually {{w|Talking bird|emulate human words}}, and in this way actually sing real words, like with the {{w|common hill myna}}. Other birds can mimic any odd and unusual sounds, particularly the {{w|lyrebird}} of Australia, known to reproduce all types of sounds from chainsaws to barking dogs and certainly also music.

The title text of "reprogramming" the bird by placing it in a box also refers to {{w|B. F. Skinner|B.F. Skinner}} and his development of {{w|Programmed learning|programmed learning}} through his theories of operand conditioning and behaviorism in psychology. By famously using birds in so-called {{w|Skinner boxes}}, he conditioned birds to respond to certain stimuli and expect rewards for particular behaviors, leading to an understanding of many impulsive behaviors in humans like addiction. Cueball apparently hopes to "correct" the bird and its song through this method.

It is also possible that the comic is a reference to the video game "{{w|Undertale}}". Shortly before the end of a No Mercy/{{w|Genocide}} Run (attempting to complete the game by killing all monsters), the final boss has the following line of dialogue:

:''It's a beautiful day outside. Birds are singing, flowers are blooming... on days like these, kids like you... Should be burning in hell.''

At the very end of a Genocide Run, the player is faced with the choice to walk away from the game forever (to ''forget about it''), or to sell their soul to reverse the erasure of the game (''Give me your heart, make it real''). These parallels may indicate that [[Randall]] has played Undertale. However, given how the players of Undertale tend to spam the Internet with spoilers of the game (ironically, given how sensitive the game is to spoilers), Randall may simply be familiar with the secrets of the game out of {{w|osmosis}}.

Lately Randall has had his characters catch several things (but [[:Category:Butterfly net|never butterflies]]) with a butterfly net; recently in [[1622: Henge]] it was the sun...

:[Cueball stops and looks up when the bird above him starts to sing using human language, four notes are floating around the text. The text of the bird's song is in ''italic text'' to indicate this.]