Editing 2064: I'm a Car

{{comic
| number    = 2064
| date      = October 26, 2018
| title     = I'm a Car
| image     = im_a_car.png
| titletext = I'm the proud parent of an honor student, and the person driving me is proud, too!
}}

==Explanation==

This comic was released eleven days before the {{w|United States midterm election|United States midterm elections}} on {{w|United States elections, 2018|Tuesday, November 6, 2018}} and even the [[Design_of_xkcd.com#Header|header text]] at the top of the xkcd page had changed a few days before by showing a link to [https://www.vote.org/ vote.org] to help US citizens to register and finding their polling places.

This comic shows a car with a {{w|bumper sticker}}.  Bumpers stickers display a short message the owner of the car want to show to other drivers or pedestrians.  They are usually used to express a viewpoint, whether personal or political, held by the owner or driver of the car.  This comic makes literal the ones that include or allude to the personal pronoun "I" and its variations, i.e. {{w|Grammatical person|first person singular}} statements.  Of course the intent is that "I" is referring to the person who put the bumper sticker on the car, but as the sticker is attached to the car the more literal interpretation is that "I" is referring to the car. So the humor is derived by the notion that the car itself is making these statements. (On an even more meta level, the comic could be interpreted as saying that the person who wrote the words in the comic, i.e. [[Randall]], is saying that he is a car.)

The bumper sticker on the car in the comic is a variation of a sticker used to both encourage people to vote, as well as express their political position: "I'm a ___, and I vote" (where the blank is traditionally filled in with "Union Worker", "Catholic", "Senior Citizen", "Gun Owner" or some other demographic or organizational membership). However here it is attributed to an automobile which is not [https://resources.lawinfo.com/civil-rights/right-to-vote/what-are-the-requirements-to-be-eligible-to-v.html capable of voting].

The comic could be an indirect reference to the growing "intelligence" of {{w|self-driving cars}}, such that one day they might have the intellect to communicate, vote, and engage in other self-motivated activities. See ‘{{w|Sally (short story)|Sally}}’ by {{w|Isaac Asimov}}.

The title text seems to be another [https://www.positivepromotions.com/proud-parent-of-an-honor-student-bumper-sticker-personalization-available/p/os-3360/ typical message] on a bumper sticker, saying that the driver is a "Proud Parent Of An Honor Student". However, this sticker is a bit longer, since it continues to state that "the person driving me is proud, too". Thus once again it is the car who is the proud parent. And thus maybe it is a car that is the honor student?  Another thought is that this may be a reference to the 1965-66 TV sitcom {{w|My Mother The Car}}.

==Transcript==
:[The bottom right rear end of a car is shown with a bumper sticker next to the unreadable license plate.]
:I'm a car
:''and I vote''

==Trivia==
*This is the third comic displaying a bumper sticker, after the comics [[80: My Other Car]] and [[1033: Formal Logic]] that came out in 2006 and 2012 respectively.
*Bumper stickers also are mentioned as a future milestone for self-driving cars in [[1925: Self-Driving Car Milestones]].
*Randall used to sell bumper stickers with the word "OPINIONS!" on them at the [https://store.xkcd.com/products/opinions-bumper-sticker xkcd-store] before it was shut down.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Politics]]
[[Category:Elections]]
[[Category:Self-driving cars]]