Editing 282: Organic Fuel

Jump to: navigation, search

Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.

The edit can be undone. Please check the comparison below to verify that this is what you want to do, and then save the changes below to finish undoing the edit.
Latest revision Your text
Line 6: Line 6:
 
| titletext = I have nothing to apologize for.
 
| titletext = I have nothing to apologize for.
 
}}
 
}}
 +
 
==Explanation==
 
==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] is fascinated about engines that can burn organic matter. But in fact, {{w|biofuel}} is a big industry today. It is criticized now and then, because it can affect food prices and is believed to exacerbate world hunger. Next comes a reference to the famous quote, "Mussolini made the trains run on time," an oft-quoted piece of [http://www.snopes.com/history/govern/trains.asp propaganda] from Italy under Fascist dictator {{w|Benito Mussolini}}. The pun is made on the fact that {{w|Thyme|thyme}} (an herb, or as in this comic, a spice) and {{w|time}} (the universal phenomenon, as in the original quote) are {{w|homophones}}. But the organic matter thyme could technically be used as fuel. [[Randall Munroe|Randall]] later made another joke on the fact that thyme and time are homophones: [[1123: The Universal Label]].
+
{{incomplete}}
 
+
This comic references the famous quote "Mussolini made the trains run on time", a piece of propaganda from Italy under dictator Benito Mussolini. In the comic, a pun is made on the fact that thyme (the spice, as in the comic) and time (the physical phenomenon, as in the original quote) are homophonous.
The title text may be interpreted in one of two ways. It may be attributed to the pun-maker, in which case he makes no apology for his corny joke, or it may be attributed to Cueball, in which case he makes no apology for the termination of friendship, since the pun was too terrible.
 
  
 
==Transcript==
 
==Transcript==
:[Cueball at a computer and a friend standing nearby.]
+
:[Cueball at computer and a friend standing nearby.]
 
:Cueball: Wow – Engines can burn vegetable oil.
 
:Cueball: Wow – Engines can burn vegetable oil.
:Friend: Well, sure. You can burn most any organic matter. Corns, leaves, spices...
+
:Friend: Well, sure. You can burn most any organic matter. Corn, leaves, spices...
 
:Cueball: Spices? Really?
 
:Cueball: Spices? Really?
 
:Friend: Sure – Mussolini made the trains run on thyme.
 
:Friend: Sure – Mussolini made the trains run on thyme.
Line 21: Line 21:
  
 
{{comic discussion}}
 
{{comic discussion}}
 
 
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
 
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
 
[[Category:Puns]]
 

Please note that all contributions to explain xkcd may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here.
You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see explain xkcd:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission!

To protect the wiki against automated edit spam, we kindly ask you to solve the following CAPTCHA:

Cancel | Editing help (opens in new window)