187: The Familiar
| The Familiar |
 Title text: When I say we should do something sometime, I'm secretly hoping you'll say 'Why not now?' |
Explanation
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This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: Please include the reason why this explanation is incomplete, like this: {{incomplete|reason}}If you can address this issue, please edit the page! Thanks. |
In the first frame of this comic, the friend asks Cueball to go see the sunrise over the ocean. Cueball replies with a list of excuses. He ends this list with the saying "rationalizing the familiar is easy." This comic laughs at humans natural tendency to stay inside their comfort zone, or "the familiar," and not want to do something new. The humor is found when the reader realizes that seeing the sunrise over the ocean is not just an every day activity, but one of great awe. Even this awe-inspiring experience does not compel Cueball to go. He is instead left at his computer which he spends lots of time at.
Transcript
- [Cueball sits at a computer, a friend is standing behind him.]
- Friend: Let's go see sunrise over the ocean.
- Cueball: That's a long drive, it's cold, I'm tired, and rationalizing the familiar is easy.
- [Friend leaves. In the next two frames Cueball remains at his computer.]
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Do you think this has anything to do with the Animorphs book The Familiar? It has the same title, and Randall has shown that he likes Animorphs before.162.158.111.67 15:09, 9 October 2017 (UTC)
Cueball is an invention by this Wiki and other sites discussing about xkcd. But he is always an active person who likes the nature. The both persons should be switched.--Dgbrt (talk) 18:10, 25 June 2013 (UTC)
- It is not possible to say what Cueball likes the best, since he is not always the same from comic to comic. See the Cueball page. --Kynde (talk) 14:06, 15 March 2015 (UTC)
There is a community portal discussion of what to call Cueball and what to do in case with more than one Cueball. I have added this comic to the new Category:Multiple Cueballs. In this case there is no reason to call one Cueball and the other friend. It could easily be the other way. So I have changed to remove Cueball.--Kynde (talk) 14:06, 15 March 2015 (UTC)
I interpreted the 3rd panel with the unmotivated conversant alone, as indicating that his friend went without him. The addition of the 4th panel, with him still alone, implies the somewhat deflated feeling of having left behind and miss out on life because of lack of motivation. Mountain Hikes (talk) 01:00, 21 September 2015 (UTC)
The 4th panel actually indicates that the previous statment "im tired" is just a lazy excuse that always works, because in fact it is easy to stay awake for hours after the discussion. 108.162.219.248 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
Is anyone else bothered by the lack of the word "the" before "sunrise" in the first panel? 108.162.238.40 17:01, 14 November 2016 (UTC)
I think that "The Familiar" refers to the 4th slide, which is not so easy to rationalize. When you all alone again and trying to figure out how that happened. 162.158.62.195 18:00, 12 June 2018 (UTC)
