2600: Rejected Question Categories

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
Revision as of 20:50, 30 March 2022 by 172.69.34.28 (talk) (β†’β€ŽTranscript: cats)
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Rejected Question Categories
You can click to preorder to get a copy of What If? 2 when it comes out 9/13, assuming we all make it past the spider situation(?) on Tuesday(?).
Title text: You can click to preorder to get a copy of What If? 2 when it comes out 9/13, assuming we all make it past the spider situation(?) on Tuesday(?).

Explanation

Ambox notice.png This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: Created by a SPIDER-CREATED WEAPON OF MASS DESTRUCTION LAUNCHED AT A VOLCANO - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.
If you can address this issue, please edit the page! Thanks.

Randall recently announced he is publishing a book based on reader-submitted questions. This comic shows some of the questions he claims to have received, but rejected, with the category hinting at why they were rejected. In typical XKCD fashion, the categories seem fairly plausible until the last row, where the questions appear to be submitted by XKCD characters themselves, ending in a question that appears to be a combination of all previous categories and is therefore marked "?????"

Question Explanation
What if I made a pendulum by hanging a rock on a 2.75 meter string? What would its period be in seconds? (Show your work)
What if you got a scratch and the next day your hand looks like this [πŸ“Ž attachment]? Should you see a doctor or what?
Why don't the squirrels in my yard like me???
Do you want to meet lonely singles in your area tonight?
Have you recently been the victim of phishing? To check, log in to your account by clicking here.
Using modern science, what would be the fastest way to get through this bank vault door? [πŸ“Ž blueprints]
Why am I me and not someone else
What is going to to happen? (Be specific)
Will I have to start worrying about spiders after Tuesday?
Hi, we're lonely singles in your area, and we're wondering what would happen if we shot a nuclear bomb into a volcano! Click here to log in and tell us

The title text refers to the launch date of the book, which is confusingly rendered in the American style and so is apparently for launch on the 9th day of the 13th month.

Tuesday is normally the second day of the week, however the Tuesday of the week following the publication of this cartoon will be noted for the last day of the last week ever.

Transcript

Ambox notice.png This transcript is incomplete. Please help editing it! Thanks.

In What If? 2 (xkcd.com/whatif2), I answer ridiculous questions sent in by readers about everything from volcanoes to spaceships to soup.

Here are a few of the common types of questions that I did not answer:

[In separate boxes for each category]

[In row 1:]

People cheating on homework: What if I made a pendulum by hanging a rock on a 2.75 meter string? What would its period be in seconds? (Show your work!)

Medical advice: What if you got a scratch and the next day your hand looks like this [πŸ“Ž attachment]? Should you see a doctor or what?

Personal: Why don't the squirrels in my yard like me???

[In row 2:]

Spam: Do you want to meet lonely singles in your area tonight?

Phishing: Have you recently been the victim of phishing? To check, log in to your account by clicking here.

Requests for help with a crime: Using modern science, what would be the fastest way to get through this bank vault door? [πŸ“Ž blueprints]

[In row 3:]

Unanswerable: Why am I me and not someone else

Vague: What is going to to happen? (Be specific)

Vague+Ominous: Will I have to start worrying about spiders after Tuesday?

?????: Hi, we're lonely singles in your area, and we're wondering what would happen if we shot a nuclear bomb into a volcano! Click here to log in and tell us


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Discussion

I added the transcript, but I'm not sure if it's appropriate to use an emoji for the paperclip symbol. Especially since the emoji paperclip leans to the left, but the icon in the comic leans to the right. Barmar (talk) 20:07, 30 March 2022 (UTC)

I wonder why there's no question mark at the end of the unanswerable question. Barmar (talk) 20:07, 30 March 2022 (UTC)

I think that it is because the question likely continues on, beyond the bounds of the comic (hence why the text is partially cut off), so there's not a question mark there because it isn't actually the end of the question. --Carrera (talk) 20:12, 30 March 2022 (UTC)
  I think that he was referring to the one that was labelled the unanswerable question. <-- Yes, and because the one Randall did has no question mark, the one in the explanation should have no question mark. 108.162.216.201 09:36, 31 March 2022 (UTC)

I wonder if the spider thing is a reference to 1688:_Map_Age_Guide, more specifically, the part about Colorado becoming a radioactive exclusion zone by 2022, with the "spiders" being mentioned after 2023. It is currently 2022, after all... --Carrera (talk) 20:12, 30 March 2022 (UTC)

Note to Randall: if you do a red spiders comic on Tuesday of next week, I will double my current Patreon level of support for you. (I love callbacks.) Nitpicking (talk) 01:34, 31 March 2022 (UTC)
I figured it was a reference to the invasive Joro spider on the USA east coast108.162.246.154 13:50, 31 March 2022 (UTC)

I wonder if Randall's going to include any more weird non-questions in this volume. You know, like that one about the chair. GreatWyrmGold (talk) 20:39, 30 March 2022 (UTC)

The ninth day of Jancember (or, in mortal human terms, the 9th of January 2023) will occur on Monday... a day before Tuesday! We may only have one day to enjoy the book before the spiders come! --141.101.98.225 21:31, 30 March 2022 (UTC)


Sorry, does this mean that April 5th is the apocalypse? What's this about "last day of the last week ever?"

The last day of the last week ... briefly. Because then there will be another week. It's a weird joke, but I think that's what the idea behind it is. Nitpicking (talk) 01:34, 31 March 2022 (UTC)
As I found it, someone had left it as "...of the last week." Which nearly prompted me to add an {{Actual citation needed}}. But I instead decided to add the "Briefly." for either the above reason or because we wouldn't have much time to appreciate it. We don't know which yet, but future readers (if any!) can make up their own minds.
...You're welcome! :P 172.70.162.77 02:48, 31 March 2022 (UTC)

The Volcano/Nuke question sounds a lot like Scientology (am I allowed to mention them?). Didn't they stack millions of aliens around Earth's ancient volcanos before blowing them all up, thereby creating alien ghosts who attached themselves to humans? Beechmere (talk) 23:36, 30 March 2022 (UTC)Beechmere

I realize this isn't the case in France (for example), but in the US, Tuesday is the THIRD day of the week. 172.70.207.8 01:58, 31 March 2022 (UTC)

This depends on when you "start" the week. I would consider Tuesday the 2nd day of the "work week", and others consider Monday the 1st day of the week to have the weekend (Saturday and Sunday) together. 172.69.33.181 03:32, 31 March 2022 (UTC)

2^(2^(2+(2/2))+2+(2/2))+2^(2^(2+(2/2))+(2/2))+2^(2^2+(2/2))+2^(2+(2/2)) comics GcGYSF(asterisk)P(vertical line)e (talk) 04:44, 31 March 2022 (UTC)

"Hundreds of the greatest scientific minds are unable to answer" the question about why I'm me. Really? To me that seems like one of those questions that just pretends to be very deep and complex while it's actually just a matter of linguistics. By the very definition of the words I can't be anyone but me. If I were to switch with my younger brother, I'd be a younger brother, but again I'd be me and now have an older brother. Bischoff (talk) 06:28, 31 March 2022 (UTC)

The spiders thing does in fact appear to be about Map Age Guide, which was published, if the date listed and the online calendar I used are correct, on a Wednesday, right after a Tuesday. You see where this is headed.