Editing 721: Flatland

{{comic
| number    = 721
| date      = March 31, 2010
| title     = Flatland
| image     = flatland.png
| titletext = Also, I apologize for the time I climbed down into your world and everyone freaked out about the lesbian orgy overseen by a priest.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is a reference to the satirical novel ''{{w|Flatland|Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions}}'', in which a society of flat shapes live in a {{w|Two-dimensional space|2D}} world -- a recurring reference in XKCD comins. Half the book is a direct satire of {{w|Victorian era|Victorian}} society, and the other half explores the experience of discovering a new dimension, where a sphere introduces a square (named A. Square) to {{w|Three-dimensional space|3D}}. [[Cueball]] appears to have taken the place of this sphere, and the comic takes place after the square knows the third dimension exists.

Humans will never fully be able to fully grasp the concept of a fourth spatial dimension (at least not in the foreseeable future), but there are ways of squashing or slicing four dimensions to create partial visualizations of 4D space. ''{{w|Miegakure}}'' is a yet-to-be-released 4D game that uses cross-sections of 4D space. Cueball attempted to play a pre-release version of it, but after having his "mind blown", he gained more sympathy for A. Square, who'd had similar trouble understanding 3D. A. Square accepts his apology.

The joke here is that Cueball was being silly and drew lines on A. Square to make him look like {{w|SpongeBob SquarePants (character)|SpongeBob}}, which did not make the square happy. Cueball apologizes again.

The title text is a third apology for when Cueball crawled down into the second dimension. Being a stick figure, he is composed of a circle and straight lines.{{Citation needed}} In Flatland, circles are priests (Flatland's highest social level. Actually, the highest aren't circles; in fact they are actually many-sided polygons that look identical to a true circle in Flatland.), and all women are lines; thus, to a watcher in Flatland, Cueball would look very much like a priest above many connected women, which may look like a lesbian orgy.

Also worth mentioning is the pun in the greetings: A. Square - being on ground level - asks Cueball above him how he's doing by asking what's up.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball talks to a square on the ground.]
:Cueball: Hey, A. Square. How's Flatland?
:A. Square: Still flat. What's up?
:Cueball: I just spent an hour playing a demo of this 4D game called Miegakure.

:[In a frameless panel, a character in Miegakure jumps around the 4D landscape.]
:Caption above the panel: Trying to jump from block to block in four dimensions hurt my brain.

:[Cueball continues talking to A. Square on the ground.]
:Cueball: So I apologize for giving you a hard time when you were slow to understand 3D space. I sympathize now.
:A. Square: It's okay.

:[Zoom in on Cueball's head]
:Cueball: Also, I apologize for drawing arms, legs, and eyes on you to make you look like SpongeBob. That was out of line.
:A. Square: Yes, it was.

==Trivia==
*There is actually a SpongeBob episode featuring a flat creature that resembles a crude drawing of SpongeBob.

===UniXKCD===
*This comic was released on March 31, 2010 and was still up on April 1st, 2010. 
**On {{w|April_Fools%27_Day|April Fools' Day}} in 2010 [[Randall]] altered the website to mimic a {{w|Unix}} command line interface. 
**This interface is still available on [https://uni.xkcd.com uni.xkcd.com] and the source code is available on [https://github.com/chromakode/xkcdfools GitHub]. 
**See more on the [[UniXKCD]] April Fools' Day joke.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Geometry]]
[[Category:Video games]]
[[Category:Homosexuality]]
[[Category:Sex]]
[[Category:Flatland]]