81: Attention, shopper

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
Revision as of 16:55, 12 January 2018 by 141.101.76.16 (talk) (Explanation)
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Attention, shopper
There's a red convertible outside my building with the license plate 'DADS MNY'.
Title text: There's a red convertible outside my building with the license plate 'DADS MNY'.

Explanation

A common trope (often referenced in TV and film) is a loudspeaker announcement in which a store employee (or anyone else in charge somewhere where people gather, like church or a school) announces that a certain colour and model of car has its lights on, or is blocking another car, or is about to be towed, or similar. A licence plate is sometimes included to allow the owner to identify that it is specifically their car that is involved.

In this case, Black Hat is up to his old ways as, in addition to announcing that an SRT-10 has its lights on, he also announces that it has had its windshield smashed with a golf club. He clearly only knows what instrument was used because he is holding the golf club, and presumably was the one who smashed the windshield. The lights are probably on because the attack triggered the car's alarm system, which usually makes a car's lights flash repeatedly and sound either its horn or a programmed alarm sound.

The Dodge Viper SRT-10 was a version of the Dodge Viper available on the third and fourth generations of Viper from 2003-2010. It was a very expensive sports car.

The two license plates in the comic are personalized license plates, which are plates with a custom set of characters that you can pay for if you desire. They are typically intended to represent words, but often have vowels missing, or numbers in place of letters, to save characters or keep within the legal restrictions for a valid plate. The one in the comic-proper is clearly "My Toy" – suggesting that the owner was bragging about his car and perhaps that he has lots of money, which may have irritated Black Hat; the plate in the title text is most likely "Dad's Money", which Randall suggests is a real plate on a car outside his building, suggesting that the driver's father paid for the car: not something the average person would want to brag about, as it seems fairly cocky, and also suggests that the person hasn't done anything to earn the car themselves.

Transcript

[Black Hat is holding a golf club and speaking into a P.A. system.]
Black Hat: Attention,
Black Hat: To the owner of a Dodge Viper SRT-10 with license plate "MYTOY", your lights are on and your windshield was just smashed with a golf club.


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Discussion

I always assumed he'd smashed the windshield because the lights were on, rather than the other way around. 108.162.215.90 17:14, 16 October 2014 (UTC)

I think most people just assume that Black Hat smashed the windshield and turned on the lights because the license plate was bragging so obviously about the owners money.Mulan15262 (talk) 14:32, 3 June 2015 (UTC)
I assumed that he had
  1. noticed the car because its lights were on,
  2. seen the licence plate,
  3. found (or stolen) a golf club,
  4. smashed the windshield, and
  5. made the announcement.
Cheese Lord Eggplant (talk) 21:15, 14 December 2015 (UTC)

I think that the car outside Randall's window is "dad's mini", which is a type of car right?108.162.245.50 19:50, 1 November 2016 (UTC)

The "Y" in DADSMNY suggests "money" to me 198.41.238.16 06:16, 1 February 2017 (UTC)

i think the sequence of events is black hat sees fancy car hits car with club makes annunouncement

I think the title text refers to a car that was actually outside Randall's building when he drew this comic. Me[citation needed] 07:54, 8 June 2023 (UTC)

I thought the same when I fist read this comic, but I think both explanations work. Trogdor147 (talk) 15:57, 9 June 2023 (UTC)