Main Page

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
Revision as of 03:05, 4 September 2013 by Davidy22 (talk | contribs) (New here?)
Jump to: navigation, search

Welcome to the explain xkcd wiki!

We have an explanation for all 2 xkcd comics, and only 0 (0%) are incomplete. Help us finish them!

Latest comic

Go to this comic explanation

Driving PSA
This PSA brought to you by several would-be assassins who tried to wave me in front of speeding cars in the last month and who will have to try harder next time.
Title text: This PSA brought to you by several would-be assassins who tried to wave me in front of speeding cars in the last month and who will have to try harder next time.

Explanation

Ambox notice.png This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: Created by a CLUELESS BOT DRIVING AT 72.42048 km/h (20.1168 m/s) (outpaced by raptor) - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.

A PSA is a Public Service Announcement. Some drivers, when having priority (often informally called "right of way") by the rules of the road, will let others take it before them. This comic is saying that people who exhibit this behavior are actually Terminator-style assassins, sent to kill people by sending them into contention with other traffic and making it look like an accident.

Despite the PSA's conspiratorial presentation, this is good advice. This habit is sometimes called "the wave of death", because it is common for such "generous" drivers to forget about other lanes that also have priority over the crossing driver or pedestrian, and cluelessly wave them through right into the path of another car which is traveling at full speed. Always check for yourself that your way is clear, and if your view is blocked, sit tight. In this comic, there is a queue of vehicles (most importantly, a large articulated truck) held up by the 'considerate' driver that would obscure the immediate view of the moving vehicle at the most potentially dangerous time. While Randall likely exaggerated this for comical effect, it could actually be helpful in making the advice more memorable and therefore more likely to save lives.

The title text explains that Randall made this PSA because he has experienced this multiple times in the last month. Since this behavior is often catastrophically dangerous, he believes the action could only be performed by time-travel assassins. As such, he has not accepted the right of way, and thus believes himself to have evaded death. He then says that, since he already knows this trick, the assassins should try harder. Such a claim that assassins are actively trying to murder him using "right of way" would be treated as a conspiracy theory by most people.


Transcript

Ambox notice.png This transcript is incomplete. Please help editing it! Thanks.
Driving PSA:
Random drivers can’t grant you the right of way as a gift.
[A T-intersection with a major road separated by a concrete median going from top to bottom, and a minor road coming from the left]
[A car is parked to the right of the minor road]
First car: You, waiting to turn left
[A second car is parked in the left turning lane of the right major road, with a third car, a truck hauling cargo, and a fourth car lined up behind it]
Second car [in a speech bubble]: You go ahead! I’m feeling generous.
Second car [arrow pointing to car]: Time traveler pretending to be polite
[In the second lane is a black arrow pointing upwards, with text below it reading 45 MPH, and a fifth car below the text]
Fifth car [arrow pointing to car]: Car that they are waving you into the path of
If someone waves you out, assume that they are an assassin sent from the future to kill you and make it look like an accident.


Is this out of date? Clicking here will fix that.

New here?

Last 7 days (Top 10)

Lots of people contribute to make this wiki a success. Many of the recent contributors, listed above, have just joined. You can do it too! Create your account here.

You can read a brief introduction about this wiki at explain xkcd. Feel free to sign up for an account and contribute to the wiki! We need explanations for comics, characters, themes, memes and everything in between. If it is referenced in an xkcd web comic, it should be here.

  • List of all comics contains a table of most recent xkcd comics and links to the rest, and the corresponding explanations. There are incomplete explanations listed here. Feel free to help out by expanding them!
  • If you see that a new comic hasn't been explained yet, you can create it: Here's how.
  • We sell advertising space to pay for our server costs. To learn more, go here.

Rules

Don't be a jerk. There are a lot of comics that don't have set in stone explanations; feel free to put multiple interpretations in the wiki page for each comic.

If you want to talk about a specific comic, use its discussion page.

Please only submit material directly related to —and helping everyone better understand— xkcd... and of course only submit material that can legally be posted (and freely edited). Off-topic or other inappropriate content is subject to removal or modification at admin discretion, and users who repeatedly post such content will be blocked.

If you need assistance from an admin, post a message to the Admin requests board.