880: Headache

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
Revision as of 14:07, 30 May 2013 by Mormegil (talk | contribs) (I highly doubt it refers to Nintendo 3DS at all; explicate the point; fix title text explanation)
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Headache
I'm only willing to visit placid lakes, salt flats, and painting exhibits until the world's 3D technology improves.
Title text: I'm only willing to visit placid lakes, salt flats, and painting exhibits until the world's 3D technology improves.

Explanation

Some people suffer from headaches (and eyestrain, motion sickness, or other problems) when watching 3D movies or playing 3D games (which are proliferating in recent years, including 3D television, hand-held Nintendo 3DS, etc.).

In this comic, Cueball is using the excuse that 3D gives him a headache to get out of going outside into the real world, where everything is in 3D. Instead he stays inside and looks at his 2D computer monitor. In the title text, he says he will only go to flat places (i.e. places where everything he could see would be 2D-like).

On a side note: Megan is wearing her helmet and practicing safe bike riding. Way to go Megan!

This comic was released on April Fools' Day. The April fools joke for 2011 made every comic on the site 3D, thus forcing people like Cueball to endure 3D even at their computer screens. The 3D view is still available at xk3d.xkcd.com.

Transcript

[Megan has a bike, and is wearing a helmet. Cueball is at a computer.]
Megan: Wanna go for a bike ride?
Cueball: Nah, I hate 3D stuff. It gives me a headache.
When you think about it, this excuse can get you out of almost anything.


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Discussion

this is so true... and the frame rate of downhill skiing is a joke...

Douglasadams472 (talk) 03:18, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

I'm waiting for the next universe patch. God says it'll add redemption and eternal bliss, which should make things run smoother. Davidy22[talk] 10:09, 16 December 2012 (UTC)
I'd be happy with a mini patch which removes the memory gating glitch (forgetting what you went into a different room for), corrects metabolic rates, and gets rid of the scenario where eyelashes fall into your eyelids. -Pennpenn 108.162.250.162 00:07, 23 June 2015 (UTC)


on the xk3d page, if you click forward, what's the deal with the teapot? Teapot ? Saibot84 (talk) 05:16, 29 May 2013 (UTC)

I think it's the common 3d reference teapot model. 99.235.241.90 05:02, 6 August 2013 (UTC)

It may be worth to say that the mentioned headaches etc. usually come from one of two problems (visual artefacts or the discrepancy of an object's perceived position to its real one) that those articial 3D worlds tend to have, while the real world does not. --YMS (talk) 21:44, 12 January 2014 (UTC)


I thought the headache was the excuse that could be applied to almost anything, rather than the 3D, just my reading. b. 198.41.238.231 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

I am really surprised by this. I was not aware until now, of the xk3d page. Are we sure, that the mentioned one is the only easteregg, and that no future comics have a 3d version? --Lupo (talk) 10:00, 9 October 2019 (UTC)