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...ommon target of mockery for its tendency to claim that 'no one understands me,' when in fact such feelings are common amongst teenagers, which is probabl The title text is a reference to some of the people who contributed to language theory:

However, he is up against [[Jill]] who tells him he is wrong. She explains that her parents took samples of their :[The noob turns out to be Jill, with two hair buns, who kneels on her chair, typing at a laptop on a table in this frame-less panel

...it's actually *me* on Klout first, and not one of my friends trying to get me punched. The great thing about this douchebag deadman switch is that I will ...ormation provided by Klout was not held in high esteem. The type of person who took most interest in their score was typically not well-liked.

...30, Randall calculates that there are around 10,000 people in the US alone who learn any given common fact for the first time each day. ...n is part of a special and select group - she is one of the "Lucky 10,000" who, that day, will learn and experience that thing for the first time.

...Verse 2|Verse 2]] or [[#Verse 3|Verse 3]]). Each verse ends with "Just put me down as 'Undecided' - Every Major's Terrible", which gives the song its nam *Randall's: Just put me down as undecided- every major's terrible

...king on as Megan takes her hands to her mouth and yells after Miss Lenhart who is walking away while looking back at her over her shoulder.] ...ng about algebra the moment I graduated, and in 20 years no one has needed me to solve ''anything'' for x.

This is common case of anxiety for people who are usually not very skilled in navigating social situations like parties. ...I be leaning on something? Where should my hands go? I hope he doesn't ask me what his name is. I've said "yeah" too much; what are some other agreeing w

| titletext = Wait, that second one is a woman? ...wait, if that bothers me, then why doesn't... man, this game is no fun anymore. ...tion" of the FPS game), and in the title text it is clear that [[Cueball]] who played this modified version no longer enjoys the game.

...you'd have no trouble finding willing participants among college students (who are often broke). ..., along with the text "This dynamic is so easily manipulated and it freaks me out."

...ts of the world. In the US, some consider it to be inconsiderate to others who would prefer not to see such a display. Of course, women breastfeeding in p ...If? (book)|What If?]]'', in the first comic, it shows the 92nd little pig, who built his house out of depleted Uranium, The wolf responded, "Dude". Howeve

# People who can always make him smile # People who constantly show him new things to love about the world.

...990 novel by {{w|Michael Crichton}}. The film centers around a billionaire who bought an island and opened a zoo or theme park for dinosaurs that he has c :Randall: Miss Lenhart couldn't be here today, so she asked me to substitute.

...l discouragement from using it willy-nilly, it is fairly common for people who use or administer UNIX systems to attempt a straight up <code>% make instal ...denies the request. Cueball then (ab)uses the sudo command on the friend, who then has no choice but to go and make the sandwich, and now does so without

...l quotes exchanged, with no context, in lieu of conversation. It depressed me badly.<br><br><span class="plainlinks">[https://web.archive.org/web/2007092 ...unchlines and jokes. This is akin to a common ironic concept of a teenager who wants to rebel against conformity by doing all the things their friends are

...uirrels|animals]], a majority of the people featured are [[stick figure]]s who have become a cast of recurring [[characters]]. The xkcd art style has unde ...with those things. I want to get a string that will just point uniquely to me that's not my name, because that's kind of boring. And so, I [decided] to g

...g a rubber ball off the wall isn't going to dent it, and the roof can hold me just fine. You LIED! ...y so much as touch an expensive item, which can be frustrating to children who feel that they don't have the freedom to explore.

...notably "maybe if this T-shirt is witty enough, someone will finally love me" sums up what Randall thinks snarky shirts really say. There are shirts wit :As a matter of fact the world <big>does</big> revolve around me

...te|An old friend of mine, Randall Munroe of [http://xkcd.com/ XKCD], asked me to make a fun "simple writer" for his new book, Thing Explainer. The simple {{Quote|Thank you to James Zetlen, who helped make the word checker work on other people’s computers and not jus

...ed in the game {{w|Guitar Hero}} is equally hazardous when driving. Anyone who's become accustomed to rocking out on a fake guitar to a particular song co :Cueball: It looked smaller then me. It was just instinct.

...bed under an open window in the corner of a room. He is looking at Megan, who is spinning fast, indicated with two large circles indicating where her arm :Megan: Giving me a little more time here

{{comicsrow|417|2008-04-30|The Man Who Fell Sideways}} {{comicsrow|274|2007-06-08|With Apologies to The Who}}

{{w|Michael Phelps}} is an American {{w|Olympics|Olympic}} swimmer, who could easily be considered the best swimmer worldwide: he is the most decor :Phelps: Ha hah! Can't catch me!

...You want me to pick up waffle cones? Oh, right, for the wine. One sec, let me just derive your son's credit card number and I'll be on my way. [[Cueball|Cueball's]] friend (who also looks like Cueball) explains the {{w|principle of explosion}}, a class

...hould NOT honk solely because I stopped for a pedestrian and you're behind me. ...e title text further elaborates on this, saying in essence: "Don't honk at me just because you're impatient that I stopped for a pedestrian."

...g it was the weekend. Anyway, the first version of this strip was drawn by me and then written by Doug. I redrew/wrote it and now you are reading it! Coo ...e-guy: Well, you might as well call into question all of human experience. Who really knows what world someone else sees?

...t me to the authorities, but because I had the device they couldn't charge me. ...d that he mentions it is his device in the caption, it must be [[Randall]] who managed to create this device. The physicists are also likely more angry th

...|Michael Jordan}}, a very popular and accomplished {{w|basketball}} player who played for the {{w|Chicago Bulls}} and the {{w|Washington Wizards}}. His na :Cueball: Pickup artists are dehumanizing creeps who see relationships as adversarial and women as sex toys.

...would be hard to direct fans to the band's website. As an example, someone who hears "www.thedottumblrdotcom.com" might instead write it out as "www.the.t :For me, "...Dot tumblr dot com" has been gradually replacing "...would be a good n

...that right now, because it's depressing how much better at this he is than me. ...get serious. The girl in the comic wants someone who can see every part of who she is and still love her.

{{w|Hypochondriac}}s are people who worry obsessively about their health, often looking up symptoms on the Inte :Cueball (thinking): Seriously!? '''''This''''' is what gets me? I wasted so many hours on WebMD worrying about the rash on my arm!

...r also caught fire in [[1693: Oxidation]], but this time she knew for sure who did it, so no direct relation to this comic, except the poor luck Megan has .... She has an audience consisting of Cueball standing in front of Black Hat who is sitting and leaning back in a chair and Danish standing behind him.]

...in character vampires do not need to be slain, but she then turns on those who tries to do so in real life on the message board. ...ight board, now infesting their own site. The third picture is of a person who has tried to dress up like a {{w|goth}} vampire, even commenting on the dar

...who is mentioned in the comic as the only blogger to actually do this, and who also appeared in comic [[345: 1337: Part 5]] in this guise. ...y joins in" theme behind the commercials. The teacher is [[Miss Lenhart]], who was first properly introduced in comic [[263: Certainty]], but may have mad

...|Where's Wally?|Where's Waldo books}}. To not give anything away for those who wish to search for him themselves there will be no spoiler here. But if som The title text is a reference to the phrase "Show me the money!" which originates from the film ''{{w|Jerry Maguire}}''.

| titletext = Hi! Someone call for me? I'm a superhero who specializes in the study of God's creation of Man in the Book of Genesi-- H ...w|Entomology}} is the study of insects. Instead of calling Entomology-Man, who could probably help with fighting off the mantises, they have accidentally

...to any movie where a record scratch plays and the protagonist says "that's me". ...ext) is the name of {{w|Renesmee Cullen#Renesmee Cullen|Renesmee Cullen}}, who is the baby born in the book and movie {{w|Breaking Dawn}} to parents Edwar

...st cemetery, where the headstones just had names and star ratings. Freaked me out. When I got home I tried to leave the cemetery a bad review on Yelp, bu ...ible explanation for the title text is that the headstones are from people who gave the cemetery star ratings and were then murdered, having their given r

...about the stability and user interface features of the app, left by users who actually never experienced its core functionality (simply because they neve :Reviewer 4 (White car): ★☆☆☆☆ App did not warn me about tornado.

...ite in it on the train, and wait for a shy-looking girl to sit across from me. ...ing in his journal, is sitting to the right across from Megan to the left, who sits with her arm on her handbag standing on the seat next to her. The wind

...ible problem in an aptitude test, as it is disadvantageous to have someone who is easily nerd sniped working for you. :Black Hat: This has led me to invent a new sport: Nerd Sniping.

...mmon example might be someone who weaves in and out of traffic, or someone who parks across two parking spaces, Black Hat is "more creative." This also su :Cueball: Your sociopathic abuse of random strangers staggers me.

...he title text, {{w|Roger Ebert}} was a famous American {{w|movie critic}}, who could be quite caustic when reviewing a movie he disliked. "Directionless" :Goatee Guy: Even though it technically ''wasn't'' cheating, she dumped me anyway! So I tell Bret, and he's like "She sounds just like ''my'' crazy ex

''{{w|Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me}}'' is an hour-long weekly radio news panel game show produced by {{w|Chica {{w|Carl Kasell}}, who also served as the news anchor on {{w|Morning Edition}}, was the show's off

| titletext = Sci-fi has energy weapons because otherwise the people like me who watch it get distracted counting shots. ...is an action thriller about a police officer named "Dirty" Harry Callahan, who's notorious for being aggressive with criminals and quick to resort to leth

...t her. She thought that he would agonise the loss of her - the only person who understands him - but he subdues her ego when claiming that he likes his ha ...erhaps may be significant that this comic includes the line "So, you found me after all", given that the previous comic number [[404: Not Found]] was ski

| titletext = First person to bring me Wayne Coyne in a hamster ball gets a free t-shirt! He gets one too. ...g the hamster ball while it is in use, thus also kidnapping the rock star, who would be structurally powerless to fight back while trapped within a spheri

...alcolm Reynolds}} is aided by {{w|Zoë Washburne}}, his second in command, who gets behind the bar thug he is speaking to. In the comic, Nathan Fillion is :Cueball: Who—

...oncept of {{w|Nativism (politics)|nativism}}, which is the view that those who are native to a place should have more rights than immigrants. A frequently ...earn English? She points out that even the English speakers are immigrants who did not learn the native language. Alternatively, she is saying that the te

...ame as in the comic — presumably to the annoyance of his older relatives who will be reminded of the fast passage of time. He does not stop here, but te :Rob: Try me.

In this comic [[Cueball]] is an alleged evil villain who rules over a "Doom Island." In addition to commanding minions and detaining *{{w|Despicable Me}}, where the comical villain has a shark in his lair that unrealistically a

...tic and polemical that he has garnered active dislike from traditionalists who believe that software {{w|source code}} should be retained as a trade secre ...). It also turns out that they specifically choose targets for their raids who have reason to be paranoid of larger companies that might send someone afte

...ppens, the media likes to have at least two things: interviews with people who are the news, and on-the-scene reporters. In this case, [[Blondie]] as a [[ ...ewed. This could be a reference to former President {{w|Harry S. Truman}}, who operated a failed haberdashery in the early 1920s.

...about the pace of technology's improvement, that it goes ''too slowly''. (Who isn't disappointed? From old sci-fi movies' predictions, we should by this ...ike in the book ''{{w|2001: A Space Odyssey (novel)|2001}}''). Also people who are terminally ill or beyond current technology to save sometimes go throug

{{w|Merlin}} is a wizard who features prominently in various retelling of the legend of King Arthur. ''{ :Cueball: They make me think of T. H. White's Merlin.

...ng the {{tvtropes|GirlInTheTower|trope of the helpless maid in the tower}} who needs saving, by helping to save seafarers by operating a lighthouse that h ...killed}} career &mdash; one might expect such a career to indicate someone who has no specific career plan, yet Megan seems to know her exact purpose, unl

...r registries}}. Cueball, though, thinks that there are certain governments who would have no problem with personal integrity infringement. :White Hat: But after all the problems with sex offender registries, who would agree to run it?

...s I was tutoring became too good at writing, and their essays were forcing me to confront painful existential questions, so I started trying to turn them ..."full potential" and they need to work harder. The comic comforts the kids who were subject to this — by telling the students if they did reach their fu

...under the completed prototype, then tell her, 'I don't expect you to date me just because I'm a rocket scientist, but you've gotta admit--this is pretty ...aun}}, who was one of the developers of the {{w|Saturn V}} launch vehicle, who came over to America (from {{w|Germany}}) as part of {{w|Operation Papercli

...solution for the problem of map projection. The comic implies that people who like that projection aren't very interested with map issues, and typically ...e skewing of the poles. {{w|Buckminster Fuller}} was an eccentric futurist who believed, for example, that world maps should allow no conception of "up" o

...col|ARP}} discovery packets that are sent out to the network to see who is who. All servers send out ARP packets to see what other machines are on the net :Server: Hi! I'm a server! Who are you?

...ust a fantasy, but since your Dad walked out your Mom could use a guy like me," and this is the line the comic is referencing, with Stacy's Dad (drawn th ...you think that since I walked out she could use a guy like you. But trust me. That woman has got a lot going on, and you want none of it.

...broken RSA. And I know I can trust him, because I asked if he was lying to me and he said no. ...s had not happened yet. The comic is implying that it was Elaine, in fact, who planted those ideas in Jobs' mind (while perching on his bedpost, a nearly-

...say irrationally, that "there are too many stars", and "it's been freaking me out". This may be a reference to Isaac Asimov's "Nightfall" which explores :[Back to Cueball on the podium who now looks down on the audience from where a question emanates at the top of

...ciation of America}} (RIAA), use the {{w|Digital Millenium Copyright Act}} who had found out about the Roberts hacking. ...it is [[Cory Doctorow]], a blogger, journalist, and science fiction author who serves as co-editor of the weblog {{w|Boing Boing}}. He is an activist in f

As such, the comic is satirizing people who respond to requests for advice for unclear, complicated tools with referenc ...I just tried to toast some bread, and the toaster grew an arm and stabbed me in the face!

...ring character in the webcomic {{w|Questionable Content}} by Jeph Jacques, who also manages her twitter handle. ...The user's Twitter handle is a reference to {{w|Pauly Shore}}, a comedian who was briefly popular in the 1990s before quickly becoming out of favor and d

| titletext = But then the Ghost of Subjunctive Past showed up and told me to stay strong on 'if it were'. ...ns}}'s ''{{w|A Christmas Carol}}'', where Scrooge is replaced with someone who insists on calling people out on their incorrect usage of the word "literal

...ravitation}}). This setup is also very typical of the Jason Fox character, who, ostensibly ten, is supposed to be too young to like girls. The female cha ...al halls it is customary, when calling an issue to vote to have the people who want the issue at hand to be passed to say out loud that they agree. The cu

...out of her being a girl, he directs unwanted sexual attention at any woman who joins. :Black Hat: Hi. I'm here about the girl who visited your IRC channel last night looking for Java help.

...echo-location. It is a reference to {{w|Marco Polo}} the Venetian merchant who was the first European to make it to Central Asia and China. The character climbing the rigging is apparently {{w|Elizabeth Warren}}, who said at the {{w|2012 Democratic National Convention}}, "People feel like th

...rmation theory and security and is in an infuriating argument with someone who does not (possibly involving mixed case), I sincerely apologize. ==People who don't understand information theory and security==

| titletext = Man, this trick has saved me so many times. :[Black Hat has moved away from the bloody rags towards Danish who has taken her hands down. They look straight at each other. The bloody mop

| titletext = What do you want me to do? LEAVE? Then they'll keep being wrong! ...omic is simply called [[1731: Wrong]], but here it is not the other people who are wrong! A callback to this comic was made in [[2051: Bad Opinions]].

...'no turns' sign all on one pole. I honestly have no idea what it's telling me to do. ...Light 2 is stuck on red-and-yellow, constantly teasing the lane 2 drivers who expect it may switch to green any moment now. Probably for the best that it

:Cueball: I once asked a genie for someone who could play it for me, but I think he misheard.

...ote|Thanks to James Zetlen, who arranged the lovely piece in the comic for me.}}

:Cueball: This light always takes forever. I'd like to smack the idiot who designed this intersection. :Cueball: Who the hell are you?

...ot shown, and is now sitting with her hands in her lap in front of Cueball who holds one hand up as he replies.] :Megan: Is it just me, or have we created a Burning Man attendee?

...{{w|There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly}} in which a little old lady who swallowed a fly where each time she puts some other animal in her body to g ...Ok, so I have blood cells growing out of control, so you're going to give me different blood cells that ''also'' grow out of control?

...again. In the case of missed connections, one person describes themselves "Me" and describes the other person "You" in order that the second person would ...live, since the only reason the "you" should know about the "me" is if the me fired the harpoon (and missed). A person sitting in a well telling people s

...ession could, if fired with less precision, kill a horse (they did not let me test this). An {{w|oncologist}} is a doctor who specializes in the treatment of {{w|cancer}}. This comic is certainly relat

...ipods}}'' trilogy, a young adult series of books that is also about aliens who ride in walking tripods. Suddenly the windmills' pylons split into three le ...e original story, Don Quixote is a wandering knight of questionable sanity who fights a windmill, which he believes to be a giant. Hence, he is the approp

...w|Ring (film)|Ringu}}''. In it, there is a video tape that causes everyone who watches it to die after seven days. However, the viewer can prevent their d ...would likely kill many more people than those who rickrolled him (or those who've rickrolled anyone else).

...te "Welcome to the AAA Club!" in lipstick on the bathroom mirror, and left me a membership/roadside assistance card on the counter. :[Zoom in on Beret Guy who rubs his eyes groggily, small bubbles floating up from his head. A caption

...nbase who are convinced that the film is brilliant and transformative, and who have a reputation for wanting to discuss it at every opportunity. ...thusiasm for it, and appears to have no interest to discuss it with people who are still fans.

After missing the delivery, [[Cueball]] (who is directly referencing ''{{w|The Lord of the Rings}}'') asks the Elves to :Cueball: Who are they to keep from me what is mine?

..."A withdrawn eight-year-old in a troubled family invents imaginary friends who bear the names of missing children" (Publisher's Weekly). The part of the s

...n be quite beautiful and mesmerizing to look at. In this case the speaker (who is located where the black dot is) enjoys watching interesting, unexpected The caption suggests that this happens when the people who run the radar notice you looking at the page enough they tease you by addin

...ses the hypocritical treatment they disproportionately receive from others who are likely just as strange, and therefore defends furries, given the opport :Megan: Forget those assholes. Come help me.

Here, [[Cueball]] appears to be putting blame on someone who called him. This could be a result of... :...Cueball being "forced" to tell person who is wrong, due to him giving Cueball something that was in a font that was n

...eal Programmer has come to describe the archetypical 'hardcore' programmer who eschews the modern languages and tools of the day in favor of more direct a ...vely more obscure or outdated methods, culminating in the final programmer who claims that "real" programmers use butterflies.

| titletext = Wishbone and the Illustrated Classics series have gotten me through every conversation I've ever had about Dickens, Treasure Island, Th ...{{w|Wishbone (TV series)|Wishbone}}'' was a children's TV show about a dog who draws parallels between literature and real life in his dreams, reenacting

...s and Bayesians were actual camps of people—all of whom are now emailing me. I thought they were loosely-applied labels—perhaps just labels appropria ...nce to the approach of a leading Bayesian scholar, {{w|Bruno de Finetti}}, who made extensive use of bets in his examples and thought experiments. See {{w

...ges based on which voting systems have what level of support. But it tells me a lot about the people I'm going to be voting with! ...se" candidate who is the second choice of a majority to defeat a candidate who is supported by a plurality but disliked by other groups.

...CoitusEnsues|immediately arouses Megan, who grabs Cueball and shouts "FUCK ME NOW."}} It turns out that the consecutive vowels themselves appear to cause :Megan: ''FUCK ME NOW.''

...ot sacrifice. As is the good, so is the sinner; He who takes an oath as he who fears an oath. ...hated life because the work that was done under the sun was distressing to me, for '''all is vanity''' and grasping for the wind.

:Megan: No, why are you talking to me. :Megan: Who do you think you are? If I were even slightly interested, I'd have shown it

...indicates she probably uses a whitelist to secure the server from griefers who might destroy structures created by others, not expecting that Cueball woul :Cueball: Hey! Know how you've been bugging me to play Minecraft for the past year? I'm game.

...hol brands don't make much difference (in 915 "Wine all tastes the same to me."; in 1534, "maybe we should just admit that all beer tastes kind of bad an :Cueball: Wine all tastes the same to me.

Part of the humor in this comic comes from the fact that Death's boss, who would presumably be an extraordinarily powerful entity, appears to be a com :Death: You know how when someone dies, they can challenge me to a game for their soul?

People who live in rented properties often face the annoying problem of being unable t ...tatement expresses the fact that he was actually better off having someone who could dictate what could and could not be done with his residence, as then

...all Greece -- "Athens rules all Greece; I control Athens; my wife controls me; and my infant son controls her." Thus, nowadays the world is controlled by ...that, but the systems administrator is usually responsible for controlling who has access to the information - making them the most powerful person in the

:Ponytail: My teacher always told me that if I applied myself, I could become the next Marie Curie. :Zombie Marie Curie (off-panel): You know, I wish they'd get over me.

Obviously, this would be very annoying, causing the [[Cueball]] in the comic (who works in one such facility) to call him an asshole. :I worry a lot about what the people at the recycling center think of me.

...ise that "freedom", hence the title. This is enough to convince his friend who promptly exercises his option to punch Cueball in the face, perfectly in ke :[The text is written above a half height frame with a zoom in on Cueball who shakes his fist.]

| titletext = The chemistry experiment had me figuratively -- and then shortly thereafter literally -- glued to my seat. ...riend are walking left together. The friend turns his head towards Cueball who speaks, but is interrupted by voice from behind them off-panel right.]

...qualifying statement, that he loves Megan the most of the subset of girls who also love Cueball back. ...eople their first choice, just their first choice among potential partners who prefer them to all the alternatives. The algorithms also favor either the m

...r mom and skinned her. This is a reference to serial killer {{w|Ed Gein}}, who (among other things) made suits out of the skin of some of his victims. To :Cueball: was before he left, he went and named me "Trig."

...s. This fits with the theme of the comic, with Cueball being a "superhero" who fights crime using computer skills. ...er I learn a new skill I concoct elaborate fantasy scenarios where it lets me save the day.

...different light. Instead of Alice and Bob being perfectly innocent people who just want to communicate in private, Bob is actually having an affair with ...signature. One downside is that anybody who has the public key can verify who a message is from, so it removes plausible deniability; Bob's partner clear

...to further mysterious goals. The punchline only makes sense to the viewer, who lives in a reality where "the pen fifteen club" is a middle school prank an ...are not proved to be real. In this context it might mean that the only one who can conspire would be you, hiding the truth from yourself.

| titletext = I recently had someone ask me to go get a computer and turn it on so I could restart it. He refused to mo ...}} geek and asks to talk to her. Hairy transfers him over to the engineer, who immediately recognizes the problem and fixes it. Then she tells him of a se

...entification from, hacking the operating system itself. Thus, many people who are {{w|Linux}} {{w|Hacker (hobbyist)|enthusiasts}} began by not really kno ...Here, the joke starts to build in that Cueball's cousin, a computer novice who just wanted something to work out of the box, is now having to learn how to

{{w|Emily Dickinson}} is a famous American poet, who wrote a poem called "[http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/ :He kindly stopped for me

...ges, without profit to the content generators. This infuriated many users, who closed their accounts or stopped uploading images. ...mic [[Cueball]] tells his Cueball-like friend about his problem with Chad, who just sent him a note telling him that he no longer wants to store all this

...Black Hat]] would rather avoid. Alternately, only people who speak Lojban, who compose an admittedly tiny proportion of the general population, could bene ...It translates roughly as: "That was a joke. Really. Wanna be friends with me?" Since Lojban aims to be completely unambiguous, idiomatic structures like

{{w|Zeno of Elea}} was an ancient Greek philosopher who devised several apparent paradoxes of motion called {{w|Zeno's paradoxes}}. ...n A and B. Then I must walk half the remaining distance, which would bring me to three-quarters of the original distance; then I must again walk half the

| titletext = The only blood these contracts are signed in is from me cutting my hand trying to open the goddamn CD case. A {{w|Faustian deal}} is done by someone who sells his soul to the devil for something desired in this life, a textbook

...stly everyone can be assumed to have heard of, and [[Cueball]] has no clue who they are, because Metallica is not featured in Guitar Hero (at the time of *{{w|Boston (band)|Boston}} is an American rock band from Boston, who had their most success in the 1970s and 1980s. Their song "{{w|More Than a

This results in a sort of "tug of war" between the user who is trying to remove the disc and the CD drive trying to retract, and it is :I feel uncomfortable when my computer physically struggles with me. Sure, I can overpower it <u>now</u>, but it feels like a few short steps f

...me bald as he gets older. In this scenario, Cueball is just missing Megan, who was with him in the past but no longer is, maybe even because she has died :Cueball: Come explore the future with me!

...ebody who can appreciate its elegance, in this case that being an academic who can see the programmer's true brilliance and get him much-earned plaudits f ...ving y=1/√x as fast as possible through a program – no-one knows quite who came up with this very useful bit of code (Now believed to be devised by Gr

:My dad was always the one who taught me about science, but looking back, I'm starting to realize how much my nerdin

| titletext =You know, pep rallies weirded me out in high school, and they've only gotten creepier in retrospect. Any American who went to high school remembers the convocations they had during {{w|High sch

The strip had a strong emotional impact on the fans of the rover, who created a number of alternative versions and endings for it. :''Spirit'' (thinking): Maybe if I do a good enough job, they'll let me come home.

...role, due to the terror of his name. Of course, there may be a few people who needed to be killed, over the years, but the implication in the book (and m :Buttercup: Why did you let me think you were dead?

...s own bubble to be inside is a smart move. He is contrasted to White Hat, who is wearing a {{w|Surgical mask|facemask}} for protection. ...a control over the situation. However, as White Hat notes, the same people who laughed at Cueball before are still laughing at him, for the same reasons a

| titletext =There are so many well-meaning conservatives around here who just assume global warming is only presented as a moral issue for political ...n't ''matter'' if he wins the debate or not — science doesn't care about who got the last word. If humanity reaches the tipping point and one day can't

...ven against Cueball's better judgement, as so often happens between people who're physically attracted to one another. And he apparently left the webcam o :Cueball: It's been so hard to stop. But she's falling for me, and I can't keep getting her hopes up like this.

:''Just like me, they long to be'' :[Cueball is singing to Megan, who has wiggly lines and unkempt hair. Musical notes appear around Cueball's wo

| titletext =Scary thought #138: Raptors coming down the waterslide behind me. ...it worked frequently enough to enter gamer culture, and even today, people who had the NES as children remember having to do that. Some posit the act of c

...his ring finger. The books tell the story of a small group of adventurers who rediscover the lost Ring and attempt to destroy it, as Sauron's army gather ...galad}} is a high Elven-king, and {{w|Galadriel}} is an Elf of royal blood who serves as a matriarch of sorts to the remnants of the Elven race. {{w|Geogr

...atized by this, and he doesn't have anything to say aside from "Please let me go." ...om ''The Colbert Report'' and put him in the attic. As opposed to Stewart, who basically played "himself" on the show and was surrounded by zany reporters

...aimed that it was [https://youtu.be/LWPENk8rH7w "like a second language to me"]. :[The Burning Bush of Exodus fame speaks to Moses, who is shielding himself with his arm, as if a great gust of wind is overtaking

Only to be interrupted by the ''girl's'' internal monologue, who introduces herself to Cueball's internal monologue and asks if he'd like to :Cueball's thought bubble: E-Excuse me?

| titletext =Let me look away and type 'guy who's just jealous that I beat all his MarioKart times' and turn back, and... y In the title text, she types "guy who's just jealous that I beat all his ''{{w|Mario Kart}}'' times" (this could

| titletext =My biology grad student friends tell me that different types of alcohol don't actually have different effects. I tr ...To defuse this misunderstanding, I've invited both men to have a beer with me at the White House.

...r of Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. When I was stressed out, Zach gave me a talk that was really encouraging and somehow involved nanobots. ...ved his victories by using dragons. Genghis Khan was a Mongolian conqueror who conquered almost all of Asia and much of Europe founding the {{w|Mongol Emp

...p administrations, Snopes has come under fire from right-wing commentators who have claimed that the site has a liberal or left-leaning bias; as in the th :Cueball: Another urban legend? You should check out Snopes before sending me this stuff.

| titletext = If you need some help with the math, let me know, but that should be enough to get you started! Huh? No, I don't need t ...nt studying the problem. This attitude leads to great annoyance from those who have probably spent years and years working on the problem, hence the Cueba

...lk of the bailout was spent on bonuses - in particular to the very traders who caused the problem that cause the need for TARP in the first place - making :billion is the difference between me having a

| titletext = Day six: 'The hell? Who mails a bobcat?' ...paranoid passerby, the purchased items make Cueball look like a terrorist who plans to kidnap and {{w|Rubber-hose cryptanalysis|torture}} federal employe

...ment, I'd rather stay a normal user. Again, thank you to everyone who sent me bitcoins before I took this down! I'll try to use them for something fun an

...coln lay back on the bed, nude save for his trademark stovepipe hat. 'Tell me,' he purred seductively, as he and Obama formed a more perfect union. 'When ...s home to {{w|Sarah Palin}}, a politician known for making such gaffes and who was {{w|John McCain}}'s {{w|running mate}} in the {{w|United States preside

| titletext = I hear many of you finally have smooth Flash support, but me and my Intel card are still waiting on a kernel patch somewhere in the pipe ...top computer and Linux users, and the general dismissive attitude of those who point this out. Cueball has created a patch that allows support for process

...of this comic, there is a friend here who had a loved one (named 'Maggie') who died. Maggie is likely a spouse or girlfriend, but could also be a mother o :Cueball: Okay, let me put this in your terms.

{{w|Edward Tufte}} is a statistician who worked on data visualization and wrote books on the subject, including "The ...s. Good example - help me to [https://writeanypapers.com/ write papers for me]

...is isn't unusual, since the {{w|Genie in popular culture|idea of a genie}} who does this is a very {{tvtropes|GenieInABottle|common trope}} in the fantasy :Genie: You have awakened me from the lamp. You may have three wishes. What does your heart desire?

| titletext = The same people who spend their weekends at the Blogger Reenactment Festivals will whine about * "Me Hearties" is popular 'pirate speak', which purports to come from the {{w|Go

...e plateau. They run into three people, all of whom look like [[Knit Cap]], who speak a language that they are unable to understand. Despite the language b ...ing light are high above them. They approach a long-haired woman at a desk who greets them. After Cueball asks, it appears she can "somewhat" understand h

{{w|Obi-Wan Kenobi}} is a character from the movie series ''{{w|Star Wars}}'' who played the mentor figure to the protagonist, {{w|Luke Skywalker}}. One of h :Cueball (thinking): Why is chess so hard? Maybe the answers lie within me. Maybe I just need to let go, relax, and let my instincts and subconscious

| titletext = Guest comic by David Troupes of Buttercup Festival, who is living in that lovely tree outside your window. :Cueball: Hold on—that guy used to dump my notebooks in high school. Give me a moment. Try to keep the moon steady.

...image you're hovering over. It presented a competition for students to see who could come closest to breaking a {{w|Skein (hash function)|Skein hash}} but ...the two days until comic 1194 appeared, a competition was underway to see who could come closest to breaking a {{w|Skein (hash function)|Skein hash}}. T

...in the unpredictability of life. In this way, the comic criticizes people who become depressed with the lack of control they have over their future: Bere ...ght thing to do. In this way, the comic could be seen as criticizing those who do not take advantage of life's opportunities.

...tructed their volunteers to refuse admission to him and "any stick figures who may attempt to register, particularly if they are [[:Category:Characters wi ::::::::OK - posted to the PyCon blog, by the power vested in me as publicity chair. With Michael Foord's excellent sentence added.

| title = Stephen and Me | image = stephen and me.png

...have sat down at the movie theater. Part of the problem is that two people who are apparently in a relationship do not sit together. He therefore tries to ...tle text shows that another part of the problem is that Cueball's friends, who could have helped him calculate a solution, are each sitting three seats aw

...meone who has waved to you, or purposefully failing to acknowledge someone who is trying to get your attention. ...uld more likely be embarrassment over making friends with mechanical doors who he believes have feeling that can be hurt in the first place.{{Citation nee

...ave to have either been involved in someone's death, or have known someone who died in a way that he blames himself for (or could be convinced to blame hi :[Black Hat is driving, and Danish, who seems to be his equal, is in the passenger's seat. They are closely followe

...ation. The term "Wikifriends" is coined in the comic as a label for people who adjust their views in order to incorporate into a group. That is to say tha :Cueball: Me too.

For those who haven't read it, this is a [http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=1387 typi ...menon in which people of a {{w|heterosexual}} or {{w|homosexual}} identity who, while showing some curiosity for a relationship or sexual activity with a

...be familiar with the behavior shown in the comic, since most every person who likes solving problems has experienced a moment of realization similar to C :[Ponytail approaches Cueball, who is sitting on porch steps, laptop in lap and backpack open.]

...goes in to get a closer look at the tornado - and "{{w|big game hunter}}", who often kill for trophies. Tornado chasers are typically, but not always, {{w :Passenger: Help me mount it on the hood.

...private personal data it contains and can access (usually online). Anyone who wished to do real mischief on an active computer could do {{w|Identity thef ...hile I'm logged in, they can read my email, take my money, and impersonate me to my friends, but at least they can't install drivers without my permissio

..., since he drifts off to think about the fictional character {{w|Batman}} (who appears in comic books, often considered children's material), in the middl :Cueball: For god's sake, you're entrusting me with a ''building''. I still make LEGO buildings sometimes.

| titletext = The 2007 Bridge To Terebithia trailer put me off too much to see that particular movie, but I am cautiously optimistic a ...ading and off-putting to fans of the novel, as in the title text. Viewers who were unfamiliar with the novel and saw the movie with expectations based on

...things to happen, commonly in a romantic context. Cueball dreams of a girl who gives him a time and a place, and the last panel implies that he went to th :Cueball: She grabbed me and spoke a stream of numbers into my ear. Then it all went away.

...irst time ever, the phrase 'I'd like to thank everyone at 4chan for making me successful and happy' is uttered. The title text pokes fun at users of [http://www.4chan.org 4chan] who are notoriously known for their habit of hoarding image macros, a practice

:Megan (out of the Etch-a-Sketch): I'm the one who draws when you turn the knobs. :Megan (out of the Etch-a-Sketch): I'm glad you found me, then!

:[Cueball is standing next to his brother, who is holding a Google Maps printout.] :Cueball: Let me see those directions.

...ne-hit wonder}} {{w|Mashup (music)|mash-up|}}." A {{w|lesbian}} is a woman who is only sexually interested in other women. {{w|Voyeurism}} is the act of w | I '''want you to love''' me (2nd part of 1st line).

...m ''feel'' as though their relationship is significant, not simply someone who is an outlier in terms of time spent together. However, we know how Cueball :Megan: But you spend twice as much time with me as with anyone else. I'm a clear outlier.

...ng pool full of Crisco. You guys all have that dream, right? It's not just me. Right? ...room, where all students are grayed out except one of the Cueball students who is drawn in the normal black line.]

...eyes I feel a hand on my shoulder, and I see Tycho smile at someone behind me. Gabe is standing there, grinning that mischievous grin, and twirling his b

...spect, it's weird that as a kid I thought completely random outbursts made me seem interesting, given that from an information theory point of view, lexi ...alogous, or even desirable; it is more likely a character trait of someone who is immature or has difficulty in following or adding to a normal human conv

| titletext = Wait, this is space -- how are you talking to me? And, as an afterthought, what's up with the hole in reality? ...panel and tells Megan that she has been found. When Megan asks the speaker who it is, reality becomes even more distorted, and suddenly she finds that she

...to your leader! – No, Steve. || {{w|Beta Cassiopeiae|Caph}} || {{w|Take me to your leader (phrase)}} || 1957 || 55 ly || 2012 | You talkin' to ''me?'' || {{w|Arcturus}} || ''{{w|Taxi Driver}}'' || 1976 || 36.7 ± 0.3 ly ||

...a fall down several flights of concrete steps. Relatedly, he's upset with me - I hope he doesn't take revenge by messing with my site's contenDISREGARD :Mephistopheles: You're the Fujitsu exec who killed the Q-series.

| titletext = Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can make me think I deserved it. But words will never hurt me.</blockquote>

...'WHERE YOU BROKE MY HEART' as a listing for his own house, so that Megan, who is now on the Google Maps team, will see those submissions. The title text :Megan: I'm sorry. The Google Maps team hired me.

...ons on books like Ender's Game that they could never get along with anyone who disagreed. ...un at ''Xenocide'' by saying that there are only seven people in the world who would defend it, a laughably small number.

...d of asking her out directly, promises to be her "best friend" and someone who is always "there for you," in the hopes that this will eventually lead to M ...hip), his plans are rather selfish and manipulative, making him a "friend" who is in fact detrimental.

...letext = Quick, fashion a climbing harness out of a cat-6 cable and follow me down. ...people, is the opposite of interesting. This is contrasted with [[Megan]], who is rappelling down the outside of his office building, for no apparent reas

...bly not actually racist—the Easterlings are portrayed as non-evil people who were deceived by Sauron, and the Orcs deliberately modified into evil. Howe ...others and sisters. [[Randall Munroe|Randall]] then points out that people who {{w|Religious debates over the Harry Potter series|protest against Harry Po

[[Black Hat]] agrees and tells that he had an issue yesterday with a guy who had a serious case of the ...rs to have caused grief even to his own author and creator}}, [[Randall]], who only managed to check up on the ''Star Wars'' cast before getting too depre

Megan is upset because she is apparently older than 26, and among people who marry, {{w|median|half}} do so below 26. The intuitive conclusion is that t ...than half your age plus 7 years. For example, a 50-year-old dating someone who is younger than 32 (50/2 + 7 = 32) would be considered creepy. As the graph

...mba in the clouds and speaks to him. [[Cory Doctorow]] is a famous blogger who features in several of [[Randall]]'s [[:Category:Comics featuring Cory Doct :Cueball: My father once told me that the great bloggers of the past are up there, watching over us.

...ginal trilogy. So in this situation, it is the actor Ford and not Han Solo who speaks the lines. | Another example of an out-of-tone ad-lib. The original line is "never tell me the odds," a nod to Solo's daredevil persona. In this ad-lib, however, he i

...urn details a horror story of a family living in a sentient house. Truant, who is clearly intelligent and cultured, probes deeper into notating ''The Navi ...me, I flee ahead of I know not what. Whenver I turn, there's nobody behind me. And yet someone is clearly stealing the ketchup. WHY? (The footnote is cov

| titletext = My friend Finn tried to mail one end of the cable to me and thread the mail system. At the time, people who took their internet access seriously would have preferred that at least som

...of the clone's text to the rest of the text. It is given from the context who speaks. There are always more stars in the panels to the left than those to :Megan: Why tell me this?

In the context shown, the expression "bear with me for a moment" usually implies that two seemingly unrelated topics are in fa ...ry implausible) possibility is that Randall is making the joke that people who attend computer graphics conferences are stereotypically not very athletic,

| title = The Man Who Fell Sideways | image = the man who fell sideways.png

...s the user a range of controls such as which device is called depending on who is calling or what time of day it is, or to simply ignore the call altogeth :Note: did you try to call me? use my google voice number next time.

...a more personal reason to fight. The only explanation given is by Elrond, who says "As Sauron's power grows, her [Arwen's] strength wanes." This subplot ...eel that she is no longer immortal ("I can feel this body dying all around me"). According to Tolkien, though, after Aragorn dies in the year 120 (Fourth

...ing memory. I wonder who that person will be for me. Whose death will make me truly dead?”</blockquote>

| titletext = I'm the Philosopher until someone hands me a burrito. ...is that the joke is on the people who gather the data, rather than those who are subsequently able to make use of it (such as Facebook's users rather th

...ish when she realizes the moon is right behind her, as if it were a person who could become offended by what she is saying. This is, of course, a {{tvtrop :Megan: ...it's right behind me, isn't it?

| titletext = When you talk about the job experience you'll give me, why do you pronounce 'job' with a long 'o'? ...ob (biblical figure)|Job}} (pronounced with a long O to rhyme with globe), who was put through many horrendous ordeals to test his faith in God. This sugg

| titletext = It's taken me 20 years to get over skyline tetris. ...w|Tetris effect}}, which takes its name from the game {{w|Tetris}}. People who play Tetris for extended periods tend to imagine real-life objects (like sk

| titletext = I'm SO glad I escaped. They almost had me caught in their weird ...thing. ..."MOOOOOON!" (this might be a reference to an old joke: Q: Knock Knock. A: Who's there? Q: Interrupting Cow. A: Interrupting Co— Q: MOOOOOOO!).

:On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me. ...ative; for example, ''13 Worst Plane Crashes of the Decade'' or ''8 Otters Who Are So Cute We Can't Even Handle It''. This method of writing headlines, re

...mathematician}}, and fellow of the {{w|Royal Society}}, {{w|Horace Lamb}}, who famously {{w|Horace Lamb#Later years, 1920–1934|stated in 1932}}: ...ur understanding of turbulence has improved little. {{w|Richard Feynman}}, who was himself largely responsible for explaining QED, famously described turb

...where together; I'm trying to leave this conversation and you're following me. ...re rude and/or treat them badly. This has given rise to a cliche about men who assume themselves to be nice guys, insisting that women reject them for bei

...;"|33,638,400||This, together with "The turn signal of the car in front of me blinks", forms a reference to [[165: Turn Signals]]. |The turn signal of the car in front of me blinks||style="text-align:right;"|0.9||style="text-align:right;"|67||style=

The title 'Lorenz' is referring to {{w|Edward Norton Lorenz}} who, among other subjects, was famous for {{w|Chaos theory}} and the {{w|Butter ***Google Maps did not warn me of this @

======They make me so hungry.====== =====Yes. You didn't see me reply burned into the lawn?=====

| titletext = Are you still there, server? It's me, Margaret. ...] too. ''Meg'' can be a nickname for ''Margaret'' as well as ''[[Megan]]'' who Margaret resembles.

| titletext = Who's calling me?? WHY IS THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD CALLING ME!?

...''Why a four-year-old child could understand this report! Run out and find me a four-year-old child, I can't make head or tail of it.''"[http://muse.tau. *[http://www.freerangekids.com freerangekids.com] blog for and by parents who would rather have their kids asking math grad students questions than const

...eyes. Every night at midnight, a ferry stops at the island. Any islanders who have figured out the color of their own eyes then leave the island, and the '''"I can see someone who has blue eyes."'''

...balls, but also human remains. She may be referring to a real grandfather who has been cremated, or is simply improvising a joke at Cueball's expense. ...all the next time have increased. Megan (or rather [[Randall]] if it is he who speaks in the title text) would prefer to put the ashes back into the urn.

:::when the UK “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” aired :::when the US “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” aired

| titletext = To everyone who responds to everything by saying they've 'lost their faith in humanity': Th ...is stupid. He jokes that he will let humanity (everyone other than the guy who makes the comment) know that he has lost faith in them - and very sarcastic

...be the worst film ever made, but has also earned a sizable number of fans who uphold it as a prime example of a film that is "{{w|so bad, it's good}}". I ...in a way not typical of American English.</p><p>The phrase "You're tearing me apart!" originally appeared in ''{{w|Rebel Without a Cause}}'', though it a

| titletext = 'Finding a 105-year-old who's lived in each location and asking them which hurricane they think was the ...his map: "If you think there was a worse one, find a 105 year old resident who agrees!" 105 was likely chosen because most people can only remember back t

.... Perhaps xkcd's "parts" refers to KSP's large community of mod developers who contribute 'parts' to the game, although it was likely intended as nothing :Cueball: Someone once told me the great kings of the past look down on us...

:[Randall's ''What If?'' book is standing next to Cueball who is taking something out of a box. On the side of the box it says:] :Cueball: Someone once told me the great kings of the past look down on us...

...ow the person you were in the past can be viewed as a distinct entity from who you are now, as well as the predictability of future events relating to you :Cueball: Stop judging me!

...ard is shown, is a reference to the character Sherlock Holmes, a detective who is often attributed the famous line "Elementary, my dear Watson" (despite h |"You wanna fuck with me? Okay. You wanna play rough? Okay. Say hello to my little friend!"

:Rosetta: Quick, take a picture of me! :Rosetta: Oh, they wanted me to mention-

...to bring about a superintelligent AI that will eternally torment everyone who failed to make fun of the Roko's Basilisk people. ...t someday exist but didn't work to create it, thereby blackmailing anybody who thinks of this idea into bringing it about. This idea horrified some poster

| titletext = Hey guys! What's eating you? Ha ha ha it's me! Oh, what fun we have. ...iew-with-ryan-north-creator-of-dinosaur-comics-15523444/ clip art]. Anyone who has read so much as a handful of ''Dinosaur Comics'' will know that its ''T

| titletext = My parents sent me to several years of intensive Kix test prep. ...ental research and clinical trials. This phrase suggests that the children who tested the cereal did not obtain the required consent, which would generall

...ball by talking about 'sportsball' and acting excited to find someone else who's interested, then acting confused when they try to clarify. ...pe characteristic of some ''xkcd'' comics: here, Randall references people who scornfully refer to popular sports such as football, basketball, and/or bas

...ar and was a member of the [http://warisboring.com/articles/the-scientists-who-pee-plutonium/ UPPU club (translated as “You pee Pu!”)]. Alternatively :[Megan turns to Beret Guy who takes the sample and looks at it.]

| titletext = The invisible hand of the market never texts me back. ...chips to later resell them. This is much to the consternation of Cueball, who is (depending on how you interpret the simple art-style) holding his hands

...can see from where you stand. Below the heading, the two groups of people who will get the most use out of this sheet are listed. The first is "GeoGuessr ...le text references {{w|Anton Chigurh}} (portrayed by {{w|Javier Bardem}}), who is the main antagonist of the film ''{{w|No Country For Old Men}}.'' In thi

...s}} are a British pop girl group formed in 1994. It consists of five girls who each have a "spice girl" nickname. The five girls with their respective nic ...e dialogue may be one of two Spice Girls, described alternately as the one who is merciful and the one started the war (which likely resulted in the said

|this will make me a millionaire (patent pending) |The rook is getting closer. Help me.

...to Anchorage, Black Hat will have created a serious problem for its owner who will have to report the car as stolen. :[Black Hat walks past Cueball who turns to look after him.]

| titletext = To me, trying to understand song lyrics feels like when I see text in a dream but ...} song {{w|Israelites (song) |Israelites}} so for instance the line ''Poor me Israelites'' becomes ''Oh-oh my ears are alight''. See more details in the

...lay in every process in my body, really, they deserve this award more than me. Just gotta figure out how to give it to them. Maybe I can cut it into piec ...tance speech which traditionally begins with the recipient thanking people who have helped them achieve the honor. Sometimes when a number of people are m

...hiteboard or produce a generation of offspring or something? It might take me a bit, but I can do it. ...for the job — because the interviewer is likely to presume that a person who gives silly and unhelpful answers is not right for most positions.

Since the public key is initially designated to be shared, anyone who has that key can send the user an encrypted message that only the user can ...'ve been posting my public key for 15 years now, but no one has ever asked me for it or used it for anything as far as I can tell.

...en working in groups. It can be used as a light reprimand to a team member who isn't cooperating, with the reminder that when working as a team one cannot ...ctim of {{w|cherry picking}}, especially when considering that "there's no me in team" would, strictly speaking, be a bit more grammatical. On a related

:Jesus carried me :Who was that guy?

...ould be deliberately that she tries to annoy the woman she is talking too, who is standing behind her. It is Hairbun (or Princess Leia with her typical ha :[Past them we find Ponytail with an arrow on her bow and Cueball who has just shoot an arrow from his bow. They are aiming at the Star Destroyer

Beyond the maze on either side (just far enough that players who remain within the maze will not see) are [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/i ...sphere_worry_and_car_room_at_bottom_of_hull.png commented on] by [[Megan]] who looks out from an opening in the bottom of the Destroyer's hull.

...y human who would prevent it from fulfilling those orders, even the person who originally gave them. Given the superior abilities of robots, the most effe :Car factory robot: I'll make cars for you, but try to unplug me and I’ll vaporize you.

...ne, and the line for her kite goes up in the air between her and Beret Guy who has now almost reached her. He is just holding on to the end of the line, w :Beret Guy: Hey, Me too!

...s pride in her sluttiness and would be dismayed at being bested by a child who is presumably not as experienced in behaving sluttily. # "Evolution has not prepared humans/me/us/men/women to..." is a common excuse by some people to justify their beha

...that the comment was unoriginal, useless, or otherwise unimportant. People who read it might assume that there is a hidden joke or meaning somewhere insid :Hairy guy: This video looks fake to me.

...erence to how the consumer versions of Microsoft Windows (3.x, 95, 98, and ME) ran on the "older version" software Microsoft DOS until Windows NT. Paired

...iously made the comic [[526: Converting to Metric]]. There are also people who wish the US to change to the metric system, although some of them still wis ...hrenheit: ''Valuing unit standardization over being helpful possibly makes me a bad friend.''

...especially for anyone who likes the ''good stuff'' in space like the host, who cannot wait for the star to explode. Clearly she hopes it will be in her li :Host: Welcome to stargazing, with your host, me.

...rting my edits" suggests the murders are being committed by ''one person'' who is influencing how they are shown on Wikipedia - perhaps trying to prevent ...eferred to be high-quality, accurate, and pretty. It seems that the people who are editing the article are getting desperate to find a non-bleak picture o

...e Rapture, but only for technology: computers lifted up into heaven, those who aren't "true believers" being left behind, and a great tribulation to follo :[A wider view of the table where the phone continues to talks to Cueball who in the end turns right and walks away as he replies.]

...very detailed old code. This group is on the left. To the right are people who have gotten so used to the tools and conventions of the '80s that they spen In the center is Cueball, presumably representing Randall, who has learned enough to change how the code operates but not enough for his c

| Surprising || Unexpected || Surprising (but not to me) || The speaker/writer claims that everyone else is surprised by something, | {{w|Doctor Who}} || Longrunning popular sci-fi TV series often combining history and alien

This comic presents a series of images depicting a female {{w|gnome}} who is known as "Gnome Ann". The humor derives from the fact that the name "Gno | "Fool! No man can kill me."

| titletext = A childhood spent walking while reading books has prepared me unexpectedly well for today's world. ...walk around staring at their phones. This makes those "antisocial" people who grew up used to walking around while reading the best-adapted to navigating

...or doctor [[Ponytail]], who orders 50 CCs from a nurse (probably [[Megan]] who walks in front of her rather than [[Cueball]] walking away behind her), all :Ponytail: Nurse, bring me 50 CCs!

...tombs where such jars have been found, or the names of the archaeologists who have affirmed finding such jars. Repeated encounters with the assertion lea ...olunteers in the 1936-1939 {{w|Spanish Civil War}} to fight {{w|fascism}}, who ends up wounded and alone, about to ambush the enemy to give his comrades a

...re than two persons off-panel, but it's also impossible to say if a person who speaks in one panel also speaks in one of the next, hence the numbering.] :Cueball: Now hear me out-

...re entirely different.{{Citation needed}} This is pointed out by White Hat who states that at some point in the process he switched from the puzzle of deb :Cueball: Debugging '''''that''''' led me to a mysterious error message from a system utility...

...you will see a new error messages email to you (located in <code>/var/mail/me</code>) stating it can't send email to a user named <code>/etc/crontab</cod X-Original-To: me@mycomputer.local

...#Trivia|trivia section]]). [[Randall]] uses this comic to criticize people who are unable to put aside their ego and re-assess what they know in the face :White Hat: No, let me show you...

...insight into what's involved in bringing a product to market. Also people who sit around all day wondering what could be funny, like Randall, could also ...witch on the body who were fired. Alternatively it could have been the one who put the switch on the wire that was fired later, when they got poor on-line

| titletext = Remind me to order another pack of coffee filters from Dyson. Man, these things are E :[Pan to only Megan who pours a pail of water over the grounds now lying in a pile on the floor.]

...is paused, a character narrates something along the lines of, "Yup, that's me. You're probably wondering (how I ended up in this situation)..." The rest ...one feel old|make people feel old]], and is likely most relevant to those who have actually used vinyl to listen to music, comedy or other recordings.

...his seems more like a way to attract turkey vultures." "My mom always told me a turkey vulture is just a friend you haven't met yet, usually because you ...ove him like {{w|vultures}}. But his plan is to start telling these people who are ready to rob him of his life support cool facts about {{w|Outer space|s

| title = Who Sends the First Text? ...ften?" This is meant to show who Randall initiates conversations with, and who initiates conversations with him.

...situation is to leave the phone in the pocket and steal both cars, and see who gets there first to defuse the bomb. This would both ensure one of them rea :Protip: If you ever need to defeat me, just give me two very similar options and unlimited internet access.

| titletext = It me, your father. ...'he'', ''she'', and ''we'') while objects use the {{w|accusative case}} (''me'', ''him'', ''her'', ''us''). This rule is still strong in languages like

The title text is a reference to [[Nate Silver]] who is well-known (in the United States) as an election polling analyst on {{w| :Cueball: And it's prime. Prime years have always been good for me.

:[Ponytail walks up to Megan, who is sitting in an office chair at a desk using her laptop.] :Ponytail: So there are probably several research teams out there who are sitting on Nobel-Prize-worthy discoveries, but haven't told the rest of

This comic is a satire of computer programmers, who sometimes forget that not everything can be solved with an {{w|algorithm}}, ...ns, everyone thinks Enigma is unbreakable," and Turing replies, "Good. Let me try and we'll know for sure, won't we?"

...n Trilogy'', and [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Pellaeon Gilad Pellaeon], who serves as a {{w|Dr. Watson}}-type companion to Thrawn throughout much of th ...tains multiple aborted subplots which can make it very confusing for a fan who has seen the later works.

...r, so she builds a system to shoot them down. She shows it to [[Cueball]], who is also excited about the idea and helps spot the drones. However, each of :Megan: People in the park keep flying drones near me, so I've built a system to shoot them down.

:[Megan is standing behind Cueball who is sitting at a computer desk using a laptop.] :If something is formatted like a serious scientific paper, it can take me a while to realize it isn't one.

...op. The EU told me I'm the heir to some ancient European throne that makes me exempt from the GDPR, but we should probably still try to fix that. ...terpart Samara Morgan from the {{w|The_Ring_(2002_film)|American remake}}, who has been referenced by xkcd several times in the past — [[396: The Ring]]

Carroll's Humpty Dumpty is a parody of people who use technical language without defining their terms and expect others to un ...e: I wonder what all those words you just said meant. Maybe you're telling me I can have all your stuff!

| titletext = According to the cable company reps who keep calling me, it's because I haven't upgraded to the XTREME GIGABAND PANAMAX FLAVOR-BLAS ...working point of view, but sometime in the last few years this flipped for me.

...{{w|sports drink}} multi-pack containing twelve 20 oz bottles. The people who gave negative reviews are {{w|Merlin}} (the wizard from the legends of King :Merlin (1 of 5 stars) Drinking this made me thirstier

...I know I don't belong in your network. The person you invited was someone who had not yet inflicted this two-year ordeal upon you. I'm no longer that per ...is sitting at his desk writing an {{w|email}}. He is responding to Kevin, who sent him an email ''two years'' ago. Cueball is so far behind in responding

...have been written instead. This feature would also be able to catch anyone who tries to avoid the feature depicted in the comic by saving the email in "dr :Enjoyed it! I'm busy this weekend, but let me know if you're free sometime next week and want to get dinner or something.

| titletext = NO DRAMA ZONE -> If I've made you sad, you'd better not tell me, because I am TERRIFIED of that situation and have NO IDEA how to handle it ...nslation” of the description reveals that it is a vastly insecure person who seems to have the problem of saying the wrong thing every time and so their

...r listed events. The joke is that if Horse Hole was a real sport, then one who won a major competition for it, the Missouri Horse Hole, in addition to the ...he title text may relate to Episode 354 of ''{{w|My Brother My Brother And Me}}'', "Beanfreak", where a potential punishment for losing horses in a race

| titletext = People keep telling me to use the radio but I really hate making voice calls. ...a plane that he is unable to fly, and unless he finds a match with someone who can (and is able to provide assistance) the plane will crash. Even then, un

|Many quotes are misattributed to famous people who are well known for originating a lot of quotes (such as [https://en.wikiquo |This is likely the case for many famous, widely admired people who are often quoted for all sorts of arguments, even diametrically opposed one

...osest to the Sun in January, despite what those in the northern hemisphere who are tilted away from the Sun at that time may think.) In yet another sense, ...est so the Earth's spin is carrying me backward. But our orbit is carrying me forward around the Sun.

...is. No fair saying "Frank ... Johnson. That sounds like a real person! Let me just Google him real quick." ...n'' in the same way as this. In at least one case it is not entirely clear who is being referred to: "John Kelly" most likely refers to Gen. {{w|John F. K

...they've been working on in their garages for 10 years, they'll come after me. ...n their garages for the last 10 years. By this, he implies that the people who work on them do this as a home garage project, so they will never really be

Find: Where, When, How, (grayed out) What, (grayed out) Why, Who. ...4th, a second submenu has been added, which contains Slappy and Skippy's "Who's on Stage?" parody of the previous routine, which also eventually leads to

...ime travel</code> replies "TARDIS error: Time Lord missing.". A {{w|Doctor Who}} reference. See also the <code>next</code> command. * <code>make me a sandwich</code> behaves like [[149: Sandwich]].

...s generally considered an acquired taste for western palates. [[Randall]], who has made comics about [[388: Fuck Grapefruit|being unimpressed by food]] in ...tray anyone for them. It should be noted that, in the books, it was Edmund who requested the Turkish Delight, implying that they're his favorite treat. Th

...related, [[169: Words that End in GRY]] is a surreal reprimand upon people who act smug when their bad communication is misunderstood. *The title text of [[1028: Communication]] notes that “Anyone who says that they're great at communicating but 'people are bad at listening'

| titletext = Can you stop glaring at me like that? It makes me feel really ironic. ...That someone who understands what irony is would be unhappy while someone who doesn't would be happy is ''not'' an example of irony. Since Black Hat is t

| titletext = It traveled so far to reach me. I owed it my best. :[Zoom back on Cueball and Megan who are still looking in the direction she threw the stone.]

...tives from the Louvre showed up and took them all. They wouldn't even give me back my thumbtacks! ...blind to other parts. Sharing and reading jokes about this may help people who experience that pattern handle the stress of being unable to completely con

:[Cueball is sitting in a car parked to the left of Hairy, who thus stands in front of it while pointing behind him towards a big black ho :I'm sure the economics make sense, but it still freaks me out how quick companies are to replace computing devices instead of trying

...in a {{w|Linguistic prescription|prescriptive view of language}} and those who have a {{w|Linguistic description|descriptive view}}. In the prescriptive ...a meta-meaning, as that is actually the common activity of prescriptivists who complain about incorrect usage; it's a losing battle, because language chan

...t = If I wait a while, it's not so bad, because then it's just shaped like me, plus some pipes and tanks and probably eventually all of Earth's oceans. ...that it will eventually dilute through the entire human body ("shaped like me"), with what doesn't leaving the body to pass through the water treatment p

...as he ages, and thus the number of appointments and legitimate businesses who need to contact him, and the increased use by businesses of automated remin ...thods of communication. This is supported by an entry for "that one friend who hates texting" which has grown to encompass pretty much the entire "Friends

...tletext = I'm the proud parent of an honor student, and the person driving me is proud, too! ...more meta level, the comic could be interpreted as saying that the person who wrote the words in the comic, i.e. [[Randall]], is saying that he is a car.

...d in the Coliseum. The one at the Coliseum will be operated by a gentleman who draws $60 a week from Barnum & Bailey's circus for the use of his voice." ...megaphones were installed to convey the news equally unavoidably to those who couldn't (or didn't want to) see the color bombs. This is in fact true but

| titletext = This is my four-digit PIN. It was passed down to me by my father, and someday I will pass it on to you. Unless we figure out ho Inaccurate addresses may be a common problem for someone who has moved constantly in their lifetime. Alternatively, Cueball and his fami

...a kid, someone told me the end of The Giver was ambiguous, which surprised me. I had just assumed Jonah died--because the book had a medal on the cover, :[Zoom out again as White Hat walks past Cueball who now hold his arms out to the side as he looks after White Hat.]

:[A man in a cap with a toolbox approaches Cueball, who is shown to be thinking with a cloud like bubble above his head with his th :Thanks to movies, whenever anyone asks me to open any door, I immediately assume I'm a minor character in a heist.

:Narrator: But for me, the really exciting part of finding something new ...another Cueball holding his hand to his chin, Ponytail and finally Megan, who points forward.]

...k, Kat, Reuven, @cotrone, @bstaffin, @zigdon, schwal, Stereo, and everyone who voted! ...rts are released, often in bundles, and then they wave up across the emoji who's button they emanated from.]

...her to see a dead body. (This is likely a reference to the movie "Stand By Me," which begins with one of the main characters making this exact offer.) Ma :[Cueball is walking, talking to Ponytail, who is offscreen.]

...ng by playing the one I'd been assigned before. It's possible they're onto me and this is all part of the plan. ...ing. Though being a game tester can be seen as glamorous and fun to people who enjoy playing video games ("I get to play video games all day at work"), it

...mundane as atmospheric temperature measurement is too ridiculous even for me." ...er screen while looking over his shoulder and addressing Scully off-panel, who replies.]

The last of the comments may be from the user "Mary" who, in the NPR article, was explicitly cited to have said that the comments ha ::This dynamic is so easily manipulated and it freaks me out. <u>xkcd.com/1019</u>

**This comic's header mentions the people who helped put it together. **This comic's header mentions the people who helped put it together.

...-off. This would indeed have been a formative memory for the many students who saw it live, but Hairy subverts this expectation by clarifying that he saw ...to the United States (which launched the mission in question). For people who where children in the 1960's, having the first moon landing as a memory is

The first panel shows a group of masked men, who have apparently flown to the US from a different country and broken into so ...first line of the lyrics is "Somebody once told me the world is gonna roll me." The singer subsequently admits that he is not "the sharpest tool in the

...ick them over other sports equipment. But, she added, "Drones don't bother me." ...hite Hat (hard to say on black background). Both are looking up on Cueball who is floating in the air with a quadcopter drone beneath either leg, trying t

...known that from {{w|Aladdin}}, who grants one or more wishes to the person who frees it, such as by polishing or opening the lamp. Instead of wishing for ...s]] wish to know about the worst costume. So this is not Megan but Randall who has the wish to see this costume. The best we can do today is to look throu

...who is canonically worthy), is able to throw it. Thor is also the only one who uses {{w|furlongs}} to measure his distances among the standard throwers. H ...champion athlete, shows a person with a helmet with chin strap and goggles who states that he trains 36 hours a day by using a time machine. It is thus in

| titletext = Trust me, you don't want to get on the wrong side of the paramilitary enforcement ar ...likely that some on this team are geophysicists, since they were the ones who took Black Hat down.

...Despicable Me}}, which revolves around Gru and his {{w|Minions (Despicable Me)|Minions}} trying to steal the Moon. The Kerbals (mascots of Kerbal Space ...olding game, where the winners build antibodies to save the lives of those who have health care. Such efforts have often been supported by {{w|SBIR}}-size

...I was fired by the National Weather Service five minutes after they hired me for going into their code base and renaming all the tornado warnings to "to ...r instance, when talking about a plot twist of a new movie, so that people who haven't seen the movie can avoid learning important details that would spoi

...'possible curses' but I kinda tune them out. At least one of them offered me the flu shot." ...r accident, etc., or because of the {{w|healthy user effect}} (i.e. people who take the time to get non-mandatory vaccines are probably also taking better

[[Cueball]] was one of these people who thought he had a dislike for Brussels sprouts, but after trying them recent ...ssels sprouts, the taste of licorice has not changed noticeably, so people who hated the taste before are likely to still find it unpleasant.

...xt = Billboard's "Best of the 80s" chart includes Blondie's 1980 hit "Call Me." QED. ...he mid 1990s. The term is sometimes used pejoratively by older generations who view millennials as immature or complacent, and this was particularly commo

...status/1084272599339753473 ruler tattoo], which might be useful for people who frequently need to measure lengths. Using a slide rule involves sliding the | EURion constellation, so no one can photocopy pictures of me

...tellites}} to the relationship between humans and {{w|pet}}s. "He followed me home, can we keep him?" is a stock phrase said by children pleading with th :[Zoom in on Jill who looks straight out of the panel, the satellite is passing by her ear with t

[Close-up on Ponytail, who has turned to Cueball.] :Cueball: Hey, this company's CEO wants revenge on the same ghost as me! I'm buying!

...people who could stop the Bad Thing is either small, or made up of people who will predictably act like White Hat, the fact that White Hat has refused to :White Hat: Well, please let me know if that happens!

Looking these symptoms up on his phone, [[Cueball]] reads them to [[Megan]] who expresses relief. The experiences of hers she claims as normal are so extr ...ces distantly touches on, but deftly evades, the harsh reality that people who, unlike the comic's characters, already have severe respiratory issues, may

...sistant against pathogens by genetic drift (although there are researchers who are seeking to identify genes that encode resistances to various diseases a ...claims: "I'm not locked up in here with YOU. You're locked up in here with ME." This presents an alternate perspective on quarantine and isolation that

:[Cueball stands at a distance from Megan, who is wearing a face mask] ...as carrying around a big sign that said "There's a pandemic so please give me space because I don't want to get sick or make anyone else sick!"

[[Megan]] sent her copy of the coronavirus genome to [[Cueball]], who then proceeded to share it with his friends on social media. In effect, he ...the useless or counterproductive behaviors of clueless people (e.g. people who wear gloves before touching potentially-contaminated surfaces, but then scr

...ok How To, where I got the Roper Center on Public Opinion Research to help me design the world's least electable political campaign platform. |{{w|Betty White}} is an American comedic actress who was 98 years old at the time of publishing. She has been a fixture in Ameri

...cd character with alternate gravitational susceptibility is [[417: The Man Who Fell Sideways]], where a consistent off-vertical pull somehow applies (rath ...mic strange forces exerted a pull on Beret Guy, although in that it was he who attracted water, where here it was himself that was most affected.

| titletext = My biggest fear is that colonial engineers will try to flood me to generate electricity. My biggest hope is that I'll develop sailing stone ...minerals to be worth extracting, which is presumably what he means by "let me know if you need any minerals".

...on the US are 99% about keeping out COVID and 1% about keeping out people who say 'pod.' ...probably not like being kept in an enforced social situation with someone who uses the other term.

The initial post was made in 2000 by NIN85 who was, at the time, a teenaged girl (likely 14 or 15 years old given that her ...n the case for around one human generation. This can be jarring for people who are still used to thinking of the Internet as a new technology. Noting how

...like a vampire, except I'm not crossing that threshold even if you invite me. ...sharing an enclosed space with someone who is infected, especially someone who is asymptomatic and not aware of being infected. Wearing a face mask, as b

...eal with others, especially romantic interests. Continuing, she says, "Let me slough off this dress, and slither into something more comfortable," replac :[Megan is wearing a dress and talking to Hairy, who is dripping wet.]

...h "Uh oh," perhaps worried that an epidemiological model created by people who aren't epidemiologists could be ineffective. Alternately, she may be expres ...kely 4-8 years or more. This demonstrates, as an introverted physics major who [[:Category:Social interactions|struggles with social interactions]],

...lection. A prominent predictor of the election results is [[Nate Silver]], who runs the FiveThirtyEight website. He [https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/sta * C) Fool-me lines

...ay have been injuries and liability lawsuits involved). Alternately, those who happily consumed this company's new output were put off by the overt commer :Off-panel voice: Let me see ...

...ng|contact tracer}}s have been attempting to visit the store to figure out who else has been working or shopping there, which suggests that people may hav :Beret Guy: '''''Excuse me!?''''' I'm trying to buy some bread and do battle with ghosts, not endanger

:[Randall and Randall's fiancée (who is wearing a knit cap) are paddling a kayak against a scenic mountain backd :[Randall is sitting on a grassy field, a bit higher than his wife who lies on her back looking up.]

...echnically, the popular vote in each state is to elect a slate of electors who in turn elect the President. |Maine (ME)

...s don't. During exams, students can be seen performing this feat. People who learn cross products early in their life may develop other approaches for r :Ponytail: Hmm, let me think of an analogy...

..., that makes the video the best one as well as the worst one. [[Randall]], who has often been [[:Category:Banned from conferences|banned from conferences] :NASA tried to ban me from their press briefings, but ironically their security was totally unpre

:Cueball: I built another COVID exposure model to help me limit my risk. :[Megan stands behind Cueball, who has turned in his chair to face her. He is leaning his arm on the back of t

...e text, Cueball responds that this change would also cause issues for him, who is "living in the present", and he should not be forced to "move into the f :Black Hat: Can anyone stop me?

...long time white backgrounds were the usual default style, and only people who understood esoteric browser configurations could redisplay many things with :Transport me to an immersive Myst-like game where I click confusingly-labeled toggle swi

...nications sound like a parent, or other adult, trying to encourage a child who was trying to win a game: giving it a pep talk about how he doesn't care if :[Megan is walking toward Cueball, who is holding his arm.]

|WHO ARE YOU ''or'' WHAT IS YOUR NAME -> SOJOURNER |MAKE ME A SANDWICH -> NOT A CHANCE

...tremely rude how Turing's later formulations of the halting problem called me out by name specifically. :[Ponytail, holding her phone to her side stands behind Cueball, who is sitting in an office chair with a hand on a laptop standing on his desk.

...ntly I got a mean reply from a stranger. It was minor but it really got to me. :Post: Every group has one person who likes that movie, and it's the friend they all secretly hate.

...tion of Wikipedia links spilling out of the trunk, meant to stop [[Hairy]] who's in the following car. The idea is that by dropping a series of interestin ...behind my car if I'm ever being chased by someone as easily distracted as me.

| titletext = People ask me whether I feel any moral qualms about the source of the points, but if he h ...ancestors. Such inheritances tend to lead to 'successes' in life for those who have done little to earn their wealth.

...ridiculous as it includes works of literature, where the reader is the one who turns pages as necessary, and speeches from periods of history, such as the | "Give me liberty or give me—Next slide, please—death!"

...outside homes are {{w|free box|often considered gifts}} for any passersby who would like them. Hence, following the instructions in the webcomic may res ...e issues such as accidental activation, or malicious activation by a party who could send the proximity signal from a great distance, possibly to many dro

...or something? Far too fancy for a simple country nanoenzyme developer like me. ...med to "fight infections", then one would need to compare groups of people who do and do not use the product, and determine whether there's a significant

| Lisbon, ME | {{w|Portland,_Maine|Portland, ME}}

...st back in the 80s, but she just spent a while dissecting the phrase 'help me down' before getting distracted by a squirrel and wandering off. [[Megan]] is walking through a wide landscape with [[Beret Guy]] who owns a big part of it. Megan is surprised that he owns such a big property,

...and so this extra information could lead to the police finding the person who was responsible.) ...{{sic}} that had a poster of the Mona Lisa on the wall, so this is hitting me especially hard.

| titletext = "9 out of 10 dentists have banned me from their offices." ...h Megan's approach (or with [[Randall]] and his ideas, as it is usually he who speaks in the title text; if it refers to Randall himself it is reminiscent

...are not unheard of). Cueball confidently asserts (to off-screen Ponytail, who probably was expecting something more practical) that his key is ''not'' co :Cueball: I got one of those two-factor security keys you've been bugging me about.

...quette is controversial, but I think it's rude when the person in front of me reclines their seat into the bell of my trumpet. ...nge airplanes had a {{w|Air_navigation#Flight_navigator|flight navigator}} who used sextants and {{w|celestial navigation}} to determine the position of t

...en the string so I can get it done faster? And can we do one where it hits me in the face? I gotta do a thing for first aid training right after." [[Megan]] is a physicist, who understands the principles of the experiment and claims she won't flinch, c

| titletext = Every time IERS adds or removes a leap second, they send me a birthday cake out of superstition. :[Megan is walking towards Cueball and Emily (who resembles Hairbun), holding a cake.]

...ive up these socks, because I really like them"), arbitrary order effects (who goes first matters), and more. These problems have a lot of political analo ...tical scientist. It also extends the humorous scenario of the nerdy family who enjoy filling in complex surveys - the same family would be likely to enjoy

...posedly turns notifications back on. His behavior is reminiscent of a user who is logged into a chat server but is "away from keyboard" and totally diseng ...y it's Cueball talking about himself in the third person to another person who knows they are in the same time zone, and unless all of the characters are

...vie or concert, perhaps), and Cueball asks White Hat if he is ready to go, who affirms this but asks for Cueball to email him the tickets before they go. :White Hat: Yup! Can you email me the tickets before we leave?

...yes" in the bottom quadrant. The left and right halves labeled as "fun for me", i.e. fun for the host Randall, with "no" in the left quadrant and "yes" i ...party is weighted more towards "Fun for Guests" and less towards "Fun for Me", as befits an event hopefully hosted to entertain its guests and make ''th

...ve ricocheted off the nest of a much higher-scoring insect before knocking me off the ladder. Really, I'm lucky. ...eir mental scales to place their actual experience in the center. Cueball, who has never experienced being trapped for hours with stinging insects, rates

| Why don't the squirrels in my yard like me??? | Why am I me and not someone else

* A turtle who may have walked a path in the shape of the letters "T" and "Y" |I made friends with a turtle yesterday and he gave me his phone number.

: Let me show you what is going on up here. : I made friends with a turtle yesterday and he gave me his phone number. I asked is that a landline? He said no it’s my shell ph

| titletext = At first I didn't get why they were warning me about all those birds sitting on the wire, but then I understood. ...e baseball was getting bigger. Then it hit me." Just as that pun uses "hit me" to mean both the action of the ball and to understand, this comic uses the

...nce removed" relationship between the two (without individually qualifying who is the 'senior' generation, from whom the 'nth' count is determined). You w ...ly nearly the most distant relationship you're likely to find among people who have ancestors from the same geographical region.

...rviewing [[Ponytail]] for the podcast, and she tells a story about a woman who betrayed her. Just when she is about to tell what the betraying woman said :Ponytail: But there was one moment that makes me think, maybe she did.

| titletext = It's made me way more excited about ferris wheels, subways, car washes, waterslides, and ...s][https://www.reuters.com/world/the-great-reboot/pay-cut-google-employees-who-work-home-could-lose-money-2021-08-10/][https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackke

...insight into how to load it, but instead of reading the booklet they gave me, it seems easier to experiment for years and then get in arguments so heate

...rious reasons, one being that Wilson was the first translator into English who used words that showed the original connotations better(such as 'hounded' i ...ith drink and blinded him, the Cyclops cries out that "Nobody is attacking me!" Hearing this, Polyphemus's cyclops neighbors (quite reasonably, seeing th

...ment.<!-- Benefit of the doubt, but it hasn't seemed to work that well for me, either. --> || [[File:2916_prism.png|frameless|upright=0.125]] *Randall acknowledges the people who helped him create this comic in a [[Header_text#Machine|comic-specific head

...im by stitching together these parts in such an unnatural way, some called me mad. ...18 novel by Mary Shelley about a young scientist named Victor Frankenstein who creates a sapient, humanoid lifeform through an unorthodox experiment, and

...of that fact. The humor arises when Cueball mentions this to "Surf King", who is flabbergasted that Cueball is not aware of this fact. ...nderstanding why. Instead he directs a comment about this to "@Surf King", who apparently did not deign to respond (a typed-out ellipsis as a common short

...as about nine years old. He read a discussion about {{w|Green Day}}, asked who they are, and was told that not knowing was a serious problem. As Megan say :Cueball: I remember the first thing anybody ever said to me on the internet.

...y metal poison effects. The scientist is so relieved to have found someone who might take over filling out grant applications that they are willing to giv ...ing toxic mineral; mineral taste-tests should only be performed by experts who know they're not eating arsenic or stibnite.

...says to White Hat, "I checked downforeveryoneorjustme.com and it says just me", and he replies "Yeah, I guess down isn't down for everyone." Throughout t "I checked downforeveryoneorjustme.com and it says just me"

...via a {{w|telehealth}} appointment to [[Ponytail]], a medical professional who explicitly advised him to act out, since his condition has no effective med ...was presumably so intolerable to the Board (or perhaps the control group, who were presumably forbidden from whining while sick) that they had to put a s

...gers') who have to resist this. While the mafiosi know who are mafiosi and who are villagers, the villagers do not know any other person's role. The mafio ...d they usually rely on bluff (or multiple layers of bluff) against players who are aware of what they entail.

This is a quick list for those who want to check if they found everything. However, as anybody who tried a trick of throwing a piece of candy upwards and catching it in one's

...aplate ground motion data, the National Geodetic Survey has politely asked me to stop using the word 'supple' so often when describing Midwestern states. :[Hairy standing in front of Ponytail and Cueball, who are sitting behind a desk]

...thread, so those seeking help will tend to mostly read posts by the others who are, or have been, seeking help, if no one has provided a proper solution. ...e general invitation (venue permitting) to several other new acquaintances who have likewise fallen foul of the holiday-home service's own problematic imp

|That W annoys me|| Tungsten: W (Wolfram) -> Tg. ...(mentioned in another of Asimov's essays, ''The Nobel Prize That Wasn't'') who used early X-ray spectroscopy to resolve the confusion over rare earth elem

| titletext = "The police told me I can't be a doctor, but whenever they show up I just go into the Google Ma ...ent. If they did so, they might say: "We are trained medical professionals who diagnose and treat illness, provide healthcare advice, and help maintain ov

<!-- Extended notes for the benefit of future editors who wish to tweak/correct anything and might need to know the assumptions being ...ery letter is correctly identified (e.g. "T" looked like a serifed "I", to me!)

...an evening of tabletop gaming. The group has a running competition to see who can mention fake apps or services without being called out. The idea being ...eone is correctly called out, then they apparently must pay for the player who caught them. If a player isn't caught like when Cueball mentions Food.net n

.../archives/003645.html] Armstrong later said he hoped, "history would grant me leeway for dropping the syllable and understand that it was certainly inten ...[893: 65 Years]], Randall made a graph showing the number of living people who had been on the moon, and estimated the day when zero would be alive. At th

...!! Year <!-- !! Genre --> !! Explanation !! Do I like you? !! Do you like me? | {{w|That Don't Impress Me Much}} || {{w|Shania Twain}} || 1998 <!-- || Country pop --> || The song sa

| titletext = It's taken me 20 years, but I've finally finished rebuilding all my software to use 33-bi ...rmal solution for the Y2K bug among engineers of [[Randall]]'s generation, who learned to code when computer memory space was still at a premium. Taking 2

...s I left on the tower railing fell and hit me on the head. Hey, that gives me an idea..." :History's greatest scientist was probably that one who measured the shadow of the Leaning Tower of Pisa while flying a kite into a

...|| {{what if|2|SAT Guessing}} || July 10, 2012 || 0.0 || What if everyone who took the SAT guessed on every multiple-choice question? How many perfect sc * When my wife and I started dating she invited me over for dinner at one time. Her kitchen had something called Bauhaus chair

...title text "A Google search for unsolved+packing+problems very nearly got me just now."

...sher will make a wish (for greater or lesser personal gain) but the entity who grants it will {{tvtropes|LiteralGenie|inadvertently}} (or {{tvtropes|Jacka :Black Hat: Fine. Just give me what I deserve.

...een built yet{{Citation needed}} (and likely won't for a very long time).||Who built the first airplane '''after''' the Wright brothers? When was the fin ...who it was that played drums that night, as part of the bar's live music.||Who played the drums for some specific band/album/track/concert/tour/time/place

:Cueball: Can you help me with my account? :[Cueball holds his laptop up in front of Ponytail who has turned the chair so she faces him, with her hands in her lap. Her table