Editing 2124: Space Mission Hearing

{{comic
| number    = 2124
| date      = March 15, 2019
| title     = Space Mission Hearing
| image     = space_mission_hearing.png
| titletext = Our grant application contains one of those little greeting card speakers that plays spaceship noises when you open it.
}}

==Explanation==

[[Megan]] and [[Ponytail]] are organizers of a space mission going over their upcoming presentation to a hearing that will approve the mission's funding. Megan recites the grown-up, professional, scientific justification for the mission, but soon her enthusiastic and nerdy attitude toward space breaks through, and she exclaims "space" and "pew pew pew" (An internet meme for the sound of lasers, inspired as a typical sound that media space weapons make, and now an onomatopoeia often used in gaming speak for ray weapons and spells as a joke) with childish abandon. Ponytail wants her to rein in her enthusiasm during the actual hearing as the funding is unlikely to come if they are behaving childishly instead of being professional.

The joke is that most of the motivation people working in space agencies have for spending billions of dollars and other resources on interplanetary exploration is not really for all the stuffy reasons listed, but simply because they believe space is cool. Funnily, due to the vacuum in space, you would actually not hear sounds and so some part of the enthusiasm is entirely childish.

The title text refers to a repurposable piece of electronics contained within specific {{w|greeting card}}s, which plays a prerecorded song when the card is opened. Usually, these cards play a song, like "Happy Birthday", when they are opened. Apparently, their grant application has incorporated speakers which play "spaceship noises", in order to stimulate excitement about the coolness of space in the receiver which is in contrast to the business-like atmosphere that a mission hearing would normally have. An additional joke is that the card will likely hurt their chances to get the funding instead of stimulating excitement in the receiver.

The enthusiastic exclamation "Spaaaaaace" is likely a reference to the Space Core in the video game Portal 2, which was also very enthusiastic about space travel. Portal has been previously featured in [[606: Cutting Edge]].

==Transcript==
:[Megan and Ponytail are standing and talking.]
:Ponytail: All ready for the hearing? Let's go over things one more time.
:Ponytail: *ahem*
:Ponytail: What is the main reason to fund this mission?

:[Close-up of Megan.]
:Megan: It will significantly advance out long-term goal of better understanding the formation and evolution of the Solar System, while fulfulling our mandate to develop a new generation of interplanetary spacecraft.
:Ponytail (off-panel): Great.

:[Megan and Ponytail are standing and talking. Megan's arms are raised.]
:Megan: And because it's '''''space!'''''
:Megan: Spaaaaaace.
:Megan: Pew pew pew!
:Megan: '''''Space!'''''
:Ponytail: Dial it back.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Space]]