diff --git a/README.md b/README.md index d6842e9abb0a46dfa9ed995f7b9339d01f43ef8a..2c68d631ebf2e5669650a4f4f0ae13f6e8231184 100644 --- a/README.md +++ b/README.md @@ -9,6 +9,26 @@ tags: pretty_name: Explain XKCD size_categories: - 1K[https://web.archive.org/web/20070927001941/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=40#:~:text=8%3A35%20pm-,Island,-I%20draw%20these Original title]: '''Island'''", "image": "island_color.jpg", "titletext": "Hello, island

[https://web.archive.org/web/20070927001941/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=40#:~:text=8%3A35%20pm-,Island,-I%20draw%20these Original caption]: I draw these a lot.", "transcript": ":[A green island surrounded by blue water]", "explanation": "This was the third comic originally posted to LiveJournal. The previous one was 4: Landscape (sketch), and the next one was 2: Petit Trees (sketch). It was among the :Category:First day on LiveJournal|first thirteen comics posted to LiveJournal within 12 minutes on September 30, 2005, on the first day of the xkcd LiveJournal account.\n\nThis comic does not present a particular point, it's just a picture drawn by Randall Munroe|Randall. The title text may be a reference to the classical \"Hello, World!\" program|\"Hello, world!\" program, traditionally the first program a developer runs when learning a new programming language."} -{"number": "5", "date": "January 1, 2006", "title": "Blown apart", "image": "blownapart_color.jpg", "titletext": "Blown into prime factors", "transcript": ":[A black number 70 sees a red package with the appearance of a Christmas present. This small panel is partly overlaid on the next larger panel, which is shifted down.]\n:'''70'''\n:70: hey, a package!\n\n:[The package explodes in a cloud of brown smoke. This panel is both behind the first in the top left corner, and below the last panel, which has been laid on top of that corner.]\n:'''BOOM'''\n\n:[There are a red 7, a green 5, and a blue 2 lying near a scorched mark on the floor.]\n:'''[https://web.archive.org/web/20070927001941/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=40#:~:text=8%3A42%20pm-,Irony,-Too%20much%20perspective Original title]: '''Irony'''", "image": "irony_color.jpg", "titletext": "It's commonly known that too much perspective can be a downer.

[https://web.archive.org/web/20070927001941/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=40#:~:text=8%3A42%20pm-,Irony,-Too%20much%20perspective Original caption]: Too much perspective can do that.", "transcript": ":[A panel only with text. The last text is written below a line in all capital letters.]\n:When self-reference, irony, and meta-humor go too far\n:A CAUTIONARY TALE\n\n:[Cueball talks to his Cueball-like friend.]\n:Cueball: This statement wouldn't be funny if not for irony!\n\n:[Cueball laughs at his own joke in front of his friend.]\n:Cueball: ha ha\n:Friend: ha ha, I guess.\n\n:[Again a panel only with text.]\n:20,000 years later...\n\n:[A desolate brown badlands landscape with an imposing red sun in the dark blue sky.]", "explanation": "This was the ninth comic originally posted to LiveJournal. The previous one was 8: Red Spiders, and the next one was 9: Serenity is coming out tomorrow. It was among the :Category:First day on LiveJournal|first thirteen comics posted to LiveJournal within 12 minutes on September 30, 2005, on the first day of the xkcd LiveJournal account.\n\nCueball makes a true statement, that his statement is not very funny. However, because he invoked irony and thus makes it self-referential, the sentence is now funny! The other guy Cueball, producing a fake laugh, is probably not so sure that it is actually funny.\n\nNow going meta: In 20,000 years, there might be no more humans on earth to find the irony funny anymore. How ''ironic''!\nAlternatively, the barren landscape would have occurred regardless of whether someone made the joke, so ironically, the cautionary tale is completely meaningless, although still funny. Self-references would be used again in 33: Self-reference and :Category:Self-reference|many more comics.\n\nThe title text is a reference to the visit of Spın̈al Tap to the grave of Elvis Presley. In addition, the perspective theme also invokes the Total Perspective Vortex in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. This is located on the desolate planet Frogstar B, possibly looking not unlike the final image in the comic."} -{"number": "8", "date": "September 30, 2005", "title": "Red Spiders", "before": "[https://web.archive.org/web/20070927001941/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=40#:~:text=8%3A41%20pm-,Spiders,-They%27re%20not%20spiders Original title]: '''Spiders'''", "image": "red_spiders_small.jpg", "titletext": "They are six-legged spiders

[https://web.archive.org/web/20070927001941/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=40#:~:text=8%3A41%20pm-,Spiders,-They%27re%20not%20spiders Original caption]: They're not spiders; they have six legs!", "transcript": ":[Many six-legged red spiders standing on and hanging from cuboids. The cuboids hang in the air with no visible means of support. Some of the spiders have made a bridge out of themselves.]", "explanation": "This was the eighth comic originally posted to LiveJournal. The previous one was 13: Canyon, and the next one was 6: Irony. It was among the :Category:First day on LiveJournal|first thirteen comics posted to LiveJournal within 12 minutes on September 30, 2005, on the first day of the xkcd LiveJournal account.\n\nThis comic is the first in an arc of comics, spaced out over 3 years (so far), in which Red Spiders are seen attacking humans. Its objective is not to be funny, philosophical, or scientifically interesting; it just tells a story, in a Questionable Content-esque way. Interestingly, the red spiders actually more closely resemble opiliones, the order of arachnids that includes the Pholcidae|Daddy Longlegs, and which are actually more closely related to mites than to spiders.\n\nThe title text and the original caption note that the spiders in this comic have six legs, while most spiders have eight legs each.\n\nThe full series of :Category:Red Spiders|Red Spiders comics:\n*8: Red Spiders, this one\n*43: Red Spiders 2, in which the spiders begin building.\n*47: Counter-Red Spiders, in which the humans begin a counter-offensive.\n*126: Red Spiders Cometh, in which the spiders attack a city.\n*427: Bad Timing, in which, in a style more typical to xkcd, the spiders attack a couple in the middle of a serious relationship discussion in a hot-air balloon.\n*442: xkcd Loves the Discovery Channel, in which it appears briefly in the 14th panel crawling over a cube"} -{"number": "10", "date": "September 30, 2005", "title": "Pi Equals", "before": "[https://web.archive.org/web/20070927001941/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=40#:~:text=8%3A44%20pm-,Pi%20equals,-(4%20Comments Original title]: '''Pi equals'''", "image": "pi.jpg", "titletext": "My most famous drawing, and one of the first I did for the site", "transcript": ":[A huge π to the left, then a large equal-to sign, and then five rows of text.]\n:π", "explanation": "This was the eleventh comic originally posted to LiveJournal. The previous one was 9: Serenity is coming out tomorrow, and the next one was 14: Copyright. It was among the :Category:First day on LiveJournal|first thirteen comics posted to LiveJournal within 12 minutes on September 30, 2005, on the first day of the xkcd LiveJournal account.\n\nThere are two possible references here. One is from the book ''Contact (novel)|Contact'' by Carl Sagan, where the existence of God was shown in the last chapter to be encoded in the digits of pi. The other is an old joke of a Fortune cookie|fortune cookie with a fortune that reads, \"Help! I'm trapped in a fortune cookie factory!\" Similar jokes are often repeated for any mass-manufactured personalized item, often implying that the worker who made the item is working in a sweatshop somewhere or is literally trapped inside a factory and calling for help via the items they produce. This joke is also referenced in 327: Exploits of a Mom's title text, where Mrs. Roberts' Help I'm trapped in a driver's license factory Elaine Roberts|daughter's name is \"Help I'm trapped in a driver's license factory.\" The most literal interpretation of the joke would be that some being who helped to create the universe in a \"universe factory\" snuck a message into the digits of pi, asking for help to get out. Mathematical concepts being manufactured in a factory is the main mental image here. One can't help but wonder if the [http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/TimeBandits.jpg primordial beings who labored on the universe] to produce things like the gravitational constant and pi have a labor union. Judging by the fact that they're calling for help, it seems they don't.\n\nSince pi is irrational (it has an infinite, non-repeating decimal representation), if each number pair were assigned a letter from the alphabet, or if it was converted to base-26, ASCII, or some other encoding, the entire works of Shakespeare, as well as any other expressible piece of information, including the message in this comic, could presumably be found. It is not really ''known'' that pi really has normal number|this property, but the absence of this property would in itself be an extraordinary coincidence. However, the probability of finding any given string of numbers within a calculable range of digits of pi [http://www.angio.net/pi/whynotpi.html diminishes rapidly as the string length increases].\n\nIn the novel Contact (novel)|Contact by Carl Sagan, he includes a \"[https://web.archive.org/web/20180801055937/http://goddoesnt.blogspot.com:80/2013/10/pi-and-signature-of-god-from-carl.html Signature of God].\" In brief, the signature consists of a very long string of 1s and 0s far out (after some 10^20 seemingly random numbers) in the base-11 expansion of pi that when arranged in a square of a specific size yields a clear drawing of a circle with a diameter of several hundred digits. The existence of this pattern was hinted to the protagonist by a member of an advanced alien civilization as being encoded in physics by an even more advanced civilization with the ability to create universes. Interestingly enough, this could also work for pictures: if you assign a set of nine numbers to equal an RGB hexadecimal color value, eventually you will find the Mona Lisa.\n\nIn the book ''xkcd: volume 0'', this comic has a red text at the bottom of the page: [https://web.archive.org/web/20070927001941/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=40#:~:text=8%3A46%20pm-,Barrel%20%2D%20Part%202,-The%20story%20continues Original title]: '''Barrel - Part 2'''", "image": "barrel_mommies.jpg", "titletext": "Awww.

[https://web.archive.org/web/20070927001941/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=40#:~:text=8%3A46%20pm-,Barrel%20%2D%20Part%202,-The%20story%20continues Original caption]: The [http://www.livejournal.com/users/xkcd_drawings/1388.html story] continues.", "transcript": ":[A boy sits in a barrel which is floating in an ocean.]\n:Boy: none of the places i floated had mommies.", "explanation": "This was the thirteenth comic originally posted to LiveJournal. The previous one was 14: Copyright, and the next one was 15: Just Alerting You. It was among the :Category:First day on LiveJournal|first thirteen comics posted to LiveJournal within 12 minutes on September 30, 2005, on the first day of the xkcd LiveJournal account.\n\nAs in the previous comic in the :Category:The Boy and his Barrel|The Boy and his Barrel series, the boy is floating in the ocean inside a barrel. The previous comic made a point about the uncertainty of life; here, Barrel Boy's lament at not finding a mother is pure sentimentality, as accentuated by the title text. According to Freud, the first stage of psycho-sexual development is the Oral Stage, which relates to a baby's relationship with its mother. The realization that 'mommy' cannot be found is the first point at which a person learns to stop trusting the world and realizes that the world is not always comforting and safe.\n\nThis is the third in a six-part series of comics whose parts were randomly published during the first several dozen strips. The series features Barrel Boy, a character that is different from what would quickly become the xkcd stick figure style. The full series can be found :Category:The Boy and his Barrel|here. After Randall released the full [http://liveweb.archive.org/web/20070207052159/http://www.xkcd.com/barrel.html The Boy and his Barrel] story on the site, it became clear that the original comic 20: Ferret was also part of the series. The comics are listed in the order chosen by Randall:\n* 1: Barrel - Part 1\n* 20: Ferret\n* 11: Barrel - Part 2\n* 22: Barrel - Part 3\n* 25: Barrel - Part 4\n* 31: Barrel - Part 5"} -{"number": "12", "date": "January 1, 2006", "title": "Poisson", "image": "poisson.jpg", "titletext": "Poisson distributions have no value over negative numbers", "transcript": ":[Cueball is talking to Black Hat. Cueball has his mouth wide open and has both of his arms up.]\n:Cueball: I'm a poisson distribution!\n\n:[Same scene, except Cueball has only one arm up.]\n:Cueball: Still a Poisson distribution!\n:Black Hat: what the hell, man. Why do you keep saying that?\n\n:[Cueball's face is gone, and he is not holding any arms up.]\n:Cueball: Because I'm totally a poisson distribution.\n:Black Hat: I'm less than zero.\n\n:[Cueball is gone. Black Hat is now whistling.]", "explanation": "Cueball expresses himself as a Poisson distribution, which shows the probability of a given number of events occurring in a fixed interval of time or space. The X axis typically represents the \"number of events\" while the Y axis is a decimal representing the probability (e.g., 0.5 for 50% probability) a given number of events will occur in that fixed interval of time or space. It is commonly represented by a bar graph or a scatter graph (sometimes with a line connection to show a trend, even though there is no actual value for non-integers).\n\nWhat's important to note for this comic is that this distribution only has data points on non-negative integers and is not continuous through decimal numbers or (as the image text tells us) negative numbers because events can't occur 0.3 of a time, or −2 times. After implying that the concept of a person being a mathematical distribution is irrational, Black Hat suggests he is \"less than zero\". Since the Poisson distribution doesn't exist or has no value at negative values, Cueball no longer exists to Black Hat and thus either leaves or disappears magically. Cueball repeating his claim may also be a reference to the fact that the Poisson point process is memoryless. Randall Munroe|Randall was still experimenting with character design, as Cueball has a face in the first two frames.\n\nIn the title text, as in some other early comics, Randall Munroe|Randall explains the joke rather than adding to it."} -{"number": "13", "date": "September 30, 2005", "title": "Canyon", "before": "[https://web.archive.org/web/20070927001941/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=40#:~:text=8%3A41%20pm-,Canyon,-I%27m%20not%20sure Original title]: '''Canyon'''", "image": "canyon_small.jpg", "titletext": "They're standing at the lip of the canyon, which isn't clear at all.

[https://web.archive.org/web/20070927001941/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=40#:~:text=8%3A41%20pm-,Canyon,-I%27m%20not%20sure Original caption]: I'm not sure where they are, but they should be more excited! I would be.", "transcript": ":[Two guys, both Cueball-like, are standing at a cliff's edge.]\n:Friend: What time is it?\n\n:[Cueball looks at his watch in silence.]\n\n:[Cueball looks up.]\n:Cueball: Now.\n\n:[The full scene is shown: the two men (barely visible) are standing at the lip of a huge canyon in a rocky, barren landscape. A pock-marked moon and a ringed planet are visible in the burgundy-colored sky.]\n\n:[The two guys are again seen standing at what is now known to be the lip of the canyon.]\n:Friend: That's a pretty boring answer.\n\n:[Same scene as before.]\n:Cueball: Is not.\n\n:[Same scene.]\n:Cueball: It's the least boring answer imaginable.", "explanation": "This was the seventh comic originally posted to LiveJournal. The previous one was 24: Godel, Escher, Kurt Halsey, and the next one was 8: Red spiders. It was among the :Category:First day on LiveJournal|first thirteen comics posted to LiveJournal within 12 minutes on September 30, 2005, on the first day of the xkcd LiveJournal account.\n\nCueball and his friend (who also looks like Cueball) are having a discussion. After the friend asks Cueball what the time is, Cueball simply states that it is \"now.\" Then there is a beat panel showing the two standing at the lip of a great canyon drawn in detail and color. The friend claims that \"now\" is a boring answer, since it's a tautology, a functionally useless answer, and a bad joke all at the same time. Cueball, however, asserts that \"now\" is the least boring answer he could give. It's typical for humans to focus on mundane concerns, like a meeting they might be late for or a bus they have to catch, and take their familiar environment for granted, no matter how fabulous it might have been at first sight.\n\nThe title text explains that they stand on the lip of the canyon, which may not be clear if you do not look very carefully at the color drawing. There are two tiny stick figures at the edge of the canyon, near the center of the panel. On the other six panels, there is just a ragged line, which thus obviously is this lip of the canyon."} -{"number": "14", "date": "September 30, 2005", "title": "Copyright", "before": "[https://web.archive.org/web/20070927001941/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=40#:~:text=8%3A45%20pm-,Copyright%20Law,-I%20posted%20this Original title]: '''Copyright Law'''", "image": "copyright.jpg", "titletext": "After reading Slashdot and BoingBoing, sometimes I have to go outside.

[https://web.archive.org/web/20070927001941/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=40#:~:text=8%3A45%20pm-,Copyright%20Law,-I%20posted%20this Original caption]: I posted this to a Slashdot thread about copyrights, and without any moderation, over 600 people clicked on it.", "transcript": ":[A colored drawing of a hilly, grassy landscape. Cueball is leaning against a tree.]\n:Cueball: Sometimes I just can't get outraged over copyright law", "explanation": "This was the twelfth comic originally posted to LiveJournal. The previous was 10: Pi Equals, and the next one was 11: Barrel - Part 2. It was among the :Category:First day on LiveJournal|first thirteen comics posted to LiveJournal within 12 minutes on September 30, 2005, on the first day of the xkcd LiveJournal account.\n\nFor Cueball, following the copyright wars can be tiring and irritating, but faced with the beauty of nature, its importance fades away. Copyright is a monopoly granted by governments to artists or corporations to control the distribution of their creative works. Before the digital age, it allowed authors and publishers an opportunity to profit from their work without fear of someone making copies and selling them for their gain. In the digital age, when the cost and difficulty of copying has been reduced to near zero, it hasn't worked so well, especially for publishers of music and video. Via the idea of digital copyright, industry trade organizations like the RIAA and MPAA fought to preserve their old business models, lobbying for new laws to protect their income streams in an age where anyone can copy an MP3 file or a DVD quickly and cheaply.\n\nThis has involved ordering web sites to take down \"infringing\" material (and many times material that wasn't infringing), media campaigns comparing file copiers to folks who commit murder on the high seas, and suing artists and writers who have used samples of music or movies in their own work. The RIAA has claimed that rampant illegal copying hurts the artists whose work is copied, as it cuts into the artists' royalty payments; many artists, on the other hand, complain that the RIAA's accounting practices have denied them their fair royalties for decades anyway, and that increased copying leads to increased fans and money through direct sales and is actually better for them than the RIAA. It's a vicious war. An early casualty in the copyright wars was Napster; a later casualty was the concept of DRM (Digital Rights Management) on recorded music and/or elsewhere. The wars have been going on since the early 1990s and essentially ended with the advent of streaming service royalties (Apple Music, Pandora, etc.).\n\nIn the title text, [https://slashdot.com Slashdot] and [https://boingboing.net Boing Boing] are two news aggregation websites that cover (among other things) the copyright wars in detail, usually biased against the RIAA, MPAA, and similar organizations."} -{"number": "15", "date": "October 2, 2005", "title": "Just Alerting You", "before": "[https://web.archive.org/web/20070927001941/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=40#:~:text=Just%20Alerting%20You%20(Monday%27s%20drawing) Original title]: '''Just Alerting You (Monday's drawing)'''", "image": "just_alerting_you.jpg", "titletext": "Just thought you should know

[https://web.archive.org/web/20070927001941/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=40#:~:text=Just%20Alerting%20You%20(Monday%27s%20drawing) Original caption]: I bet she's cool. I mean, she has a dinosaur!
I'm gonna update this MWF for a while and see how that works.", "transcript": ":[A man is standing on the back of a green dinosaur and holding reins to the dinosaur's head.]\n:Man: Before you talk to me, I should warn you: I am kind of strange", "explanation": "This was the fourteenth comic originally posted to LiveJournal. The previous one was 11: Barrel - Part 2, and the next one was 16: Monty Python -- Enough. It was the first comic posted to LiveJournal after the :Category:First day on LiveJournal|first thirteen xkcd comics were released.\n\nIn this comic, a man is riding a Brontosaurus (or what would :Category:Apatosaurus|later be referred to as an Apatosaurus). The humor lies in the fact that the man feels the need to highlight their peculiarity, despite the obvious oddity of riding an extinct and dangerous creature. Megan would later ride an Apatosaurus in 650: Nowhere. This dinosaur genus is also mentioned in 460: Paleontology and 636: Brontosaurus. This was the first comic with dinosaurs, but since then, there have been numerous :Category:Dinosaurs|comics about them on xkcd.\n\nThe title text further emphasizes this, while the original caption signifies that Randall Munroe|Randall would start posting a new comic every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Ironically enough, this comic was posted on a Sunday, a few minutes before Monday: see the #Trivia|trivia section. From now, he also began putting the date into most, but not all, comic titles on LiveJournal until he started to use [https://xkcd.com xkcd.com] instead."} -{"number": "16", "date": "October 4, 2005", "title": "Monty Python -- Enough", "before": "[https://web.archive.org/web/20070927001941/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=40#:~:text=Support%20Surreal%20Humor Original title]: '''Support Surreal Humor'''", "image": "monty_python.jpg", "titletext": "I went to a dinner where there was a full 10 minutes of Holy Grail quotes exchanged, with no context, in lieu of conversation. It depressed me badly.

[https://web.archive.org/web/20070927001941/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=40#:~:text=Support%20Surreal%20Humor Original caption]: Just sayin'. It's been 30 years now.", "transcript": ":[The comic is drawn on blue-ruled graph paper.]\n:[A Cueball with raised hands talks to two other Cueball-like characters and one Megan.]\n:Cueball: We are the Knights who say... Ni!!\n:Cueballs and Megan: hahaha\n\n:[There is only text in the second panel]\n:Does anyone else find it funny that decades later, people are still quoting --word-for-word-- a group loved for their mastery of shock, the unexpected, and defiance of convention?\n\n:[Two Cueballs are looking at a hairy guy.]\n:Hairy guy: We are the Knights who... oh, God, I'm so sorry\n\n:[Close up of hairy guy.]\n:Hairy guy: So sorry, the car just came too fast and\n\n:[Words crumpled inside the panel, there's barely enough space for the hairy guy to the right and below the text. The last two words need to be to the right of him.]\n:Hairy guy: She was right there and I saw her and then it was a blur and so much I ran to help didn't know what she wasn't moving I'm so sorry \n:Hairy guy: so sorry\n\n:[The two Cueballs are looking again at the hairy guy.]\n:Hairy guy: Anyway, yeah, Knights who say \"Ni.\"\n\n:[The last panel is also almost only text. The text is centered. Below is a drawing that looks a flat infinity sign with two small lines at the center.]\n:Honor\n:Monty Python:\n:promote surreal humor.", "explanation": "This was the fifteenth comic originally posted to LiveJournal. The previous one was 15: Just Alerting You, and the next one was 17: What If.\n\nThis comic refers to the classic British sketch comedy group Monty Python, active primarily during the 1970s and early 1980s but also Monty Python Live (Mostly)|partly reunified in 2014, whose humor style was frequently based on surreal jokes that subverted sense and logic. Their sketches are so popular that, as noted in the comic, many fans can repeat the dialog word-for-word, and often do. This comic points out the inherent irony of repeating a surrealist sketch, as surrealist humor primarily depends on presenting something the audience does not expect. By repeating the sketch verbatim among those who have already seen it, the listeners know and expect the punchlines 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 also doing.\n \nThe sketch in question here is the \"Knights who say Ni\" sketch from the film ''Monty Python and the Holy Grail'', about a group of knights who protect certain sacred words, including the word \"Ni\" (pronounced like the word \"knee,\" but shortened and with more staccato). The comic suggests that readers continue in the surreal traditions of Monty Python, and provides an example: The character in panels 3-6 interrupts his retelling of the sketch with what appears to be a traumatic recalling of the time he saw someone run a woman over with their car and kill her, before returning to the sketch. The surreal humor is that the character dismisses the significant and serious comment he has just made by returning to the sketch as if nothing happened.\n \nThe title text and the original caption refer to how fans of Monty Python can go for lengthy periods of time simply quoting the sketches, as one person quotes a sketch, another recognizes it and says another quote without context, assuming everyone will recognize it. Perhaps a more contemporary version of this might be ''The Simpsons'' or ''Family Guy'' quote frenzies."} -{"number": "18", "date": "October 10, 2005", "title": "Snapple", "before": "[https://web.archive.org/web/20060529063505/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=20#:~:text=Monday%27s%20drawing%3A%20Snapple Original title]: '''Monday's drawing: Snapple'''", "image": "snapple.jpg", "titletext": "Sn = tin", "transcript": ":[Above the frames:]\n:This one is entirely James' fault.\n\n:[Two Cueball-like guys are standing and talking.]\n:Cueball: Here, take a bite of this Snapple.\n:Friend: food!\n\n:[Cueball's friend takes a bite.]\n:Friend: Ow! What is this?\n:''Clink''\n\n:[The panel switches to Cueball.]\n:Cueball: It's an apple infused with tin.\n\n:[Beat panel. A wide shot of the two.]\n\n:[Same scene, except the panel is lightly shaded and there is a box above saying:]\n:Those of you who know your periodic table should be laughing right about now.", "explanation": "This was the seventeenth comic originally posted to LiveJournal. The previous one was 17: What If, and the next one was 19: George Clinton.\n\nSnapple is a brand of beverages that mostly sells bottled juices and teas. Its name is based on a carbonated apple juice the company once produced (\"snappy apple\"). In this comic, Cueball hands another Cueball-like guy an apple calling it a \"Snapple\". When the guy bites into it, his teeth are blocked by the apple's metallic surface because Cueball has infused the apple with tin. Tin is a metallic element whose abbreviation on the periodic table is \"Sn\" (as the Latin word for tin is \"stannum\"). Thus, the \"tin apple\" could be referred to as a \"Sn-apple\". The fourth panel is a silent wide shot, perhaps suggesting the joke was met with silence as a weak joke. As a meta-joke, the final panel might jokingly suggest that the silence is because those unfamiliar with the periodic table of elements don't get the joke. According to the caption at the top, James Zetlen presumably once made a joke to Randall Munroe|Randall similar to the one in the comic.\n\nThe title text continues the trend in early xkcd comics of explaining the joke rather than expanding to it."} -{"number": "19", "date": "October 12, 2005", "title": "George Clinton", "before": "[https://web.archive.org/web/20060529063505/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=20#:~:text=Wednesday%3A%20George%20Clinton Original title]: '''Wednesday: George Clinton'''", "image": "george_clinton.jpg", "titletext": "I still wish it were true.", "transcript": ":[George Clinton uses a baton to point to the bottom of two equations on a blackboard. There is one more equation and a diagram on another blackboard to the right, which is cut off. There is text above:]\n:I once tried to start the urban legend that George Clinton has a B.A. in mathematics\n\n:[On the left blackboard there are two formulas:]\n:L(F(t)", "explanation": "This was the eighteenth comic originally posted to LiveJournal. The previous one was 18: Snapple, and the next one was 20: Ferret.\n\nGeorge Clinton (funk musician)|George Clinton is an American musician most famous for his funk music and wild hair style. His recorded music features themes of space, sci-fi, technology, and futurism. As Randall says, he had attempted to spread around an urban legend that George Clinton had a Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics, but he found himself believing it was true. This behavior is related to pseudologia fantastica, which is more commonly known as pathological or compulsive lying. This comic references the associated behavior that an \"individual may be aware they are lying, or may believe they are telling the truth, being unaware that they are relating fantasies.\" These individuals may eventually stop the lie as demonstrated by the title text, which indicates that at some later time, the individual realized that the rumor was not true, but wishes it to be so.\n\nThe equations on the board are laplace transforms of functions. The first Laplace transform has a mismatched left parenthesis, which would be the topic of 859: (. The second formula is not the inverse Laplace transform as stated, as it differs from the actual Mellin's inverse formula by its bounds and a missing factor. An example of George Clinton's work most appropriate to this comic is the song \"Mathematics\" from the 1996 album T.A.P.O.A.F.O.M.. (The Awesome Power of a Fully Operational Mothership):\n\n:I count the moments we're apart. And add them up mathematically \n:and multiply them by the kisses supposedly I've been missing. \n:Divided by the attention not to mention the affection. \n:Subtract that from your gross potential and see I ain't missin' none. \n::Cause any percentage of you is as good the whole pie. \n::Any fractions thereof brings dividends of interest. \n::Any percentage of you is as good as the whole pie. \n::Any fractions thereof brings dividends of love. \n:I take the square root and get boxed in every time. \n:When I know the shortest distance between two points is in a straight line. \n:I'ma go into you, I'ma come into you two times, and carry the fun over the one to where we equal one."} -{"number": "20", "date": "October 14, 2005", "title": "Ferret", "before": "[https://web.archive.org/web/20060529063505/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=20#:~:text=1%3A16%20pm-,Friday%27s%20Drawing,-My%20brother%20has Original title]: '''Friday's Drawing'''", "image": "ferret.jpg", "titletext": "My brother had a ferret he loved which died since I drew this strip. RIP.

[https://web.archive.org/web/20060529063505/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=20#:~:text=1%3A16%20pm-,Friday%27s%20Drawing,-My%20brother%20has Original caption]: My brother has a ferret. He holds it like that and generally adores it. I have to concede that it's pretty cute, if smelly.", "transcript": ":[A color drawing of a ferret with airplane wings and tail on it.]\n\n:[Cueball and his Cueball-like friend (to the left) are talking.]\n:Friend: Why on earth did you make those wings? You don't seriously think they could let your ferret fly, right?\n:Cueball: I... of course not.\n\n:[They continue to talk.]\n:Cueball: That would be pretty dumb. It's just, uh... ...a Halloween costume.\n:Friend: oh, okay.\n\n:[They continue to talk. The head of the ferret can be seen to the far right on a table.]\n:Friend: Besides, who would want a pet to fly anyway?\n:Cueball: Yeah. Pretty lame, huh?\n\n:[The friend leaves the frame while Cueball stays. The ferret cannot be seen.]\n:Friend: Anyway, let's go play video games.\n\n:[Cueball stands behind after his friend has left. He looks back towards his ferret.]\n\n:[Cueball imagines his ferret flying over the ocean near the beach using his makeshift wings while holding his ferret.]", "explanation": "This was the nineteenth comic originally posted to LiveJournal. The previous one was 19: George Clinton, and the next one was 21: Kepler.\n\nCueball built wings for his ferret and his friend asks why, indicating that it would be foolish to think that this would allow the ferret to fly. Cueball did, in fact, build these wings in hopes of allowing his ferret to fly, but dissembles in order to avoid losing face with his friend. Then the friend suggests they go play video games instead, while Cueball imagines the ferret actually flying. The fact that Cueball lies about his goal may be a commentary on abandoning dreams to avoid confronting societal expectations.\n\nThe title text refers to the fact that Randall Munroe|Randall's brother in real life had such a pet ferret. As shown by the original caption, Randall drew this comic while the ferret was still alive, but then it passed away in between his posting it on LiveJournal and reposting it with a title text on [https://xkcd.com xkcd.com]. He now wishes that it will rest in peace.\n\nThis is the second in a six-part series of comics whose parts were randomly published during the first several dozen strips. The series features Barrel Boy, a character that is different from what would quickly become the xkcd stick figure style. The full series can be found :Category:The Boy and his Barrel|here. After Randall released the full [http://liveweb.archive.org/web/20070207052159/http://www.xkcd.com/barrel.html The Boy and his Barrel] story on the site, it became clear that the original comic 20: Ferret was also part of the series. The comics are listed in the order chosen by Randall:\n* 1: Barrel - Part 1\n* 20: Ferret\n* 11: Barrel - Part 2\n* 22: Barrel - Part 3\n* 25: Barrel - Part 4\n* 31: Barrel - Part 5"} -{"number": "21", "date": "October 17, 2005", "title": "Kepler", "before": "[https://web.archive.org/web/20060529063505/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=20#:~:text=10%3A58%20am-,Monday%27s%20drawing,-Another%20one%20which Original title]: '''Monday's drawing'''", "image": "kepler.jpg", "titletext": "Science joke. You should probably move along.

[https://web.archive.org/web/20060529063505/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=20#:~:text=10%3A58%20am-,Monday%27s%20drawing,-Another%20one%20which Original caption]: Another one which, if you don't get, you're probably better off.", "transcript": ":[Two Cueball-like guys stand in an aisle in a store.]\n:Cueball: Nice store. How do you keep the floors so clean?\n:Store manager: Oh, we hired this dude named Kepler, he's really good. Hard worker. Doesn't mind the monotony. Sweeps out the same area every night.", "explanation": "This was the twentieth comic originally posted to LiveJournal. The previous one was 20: Ferret, and the next one was 44: Love.\n\nJohannes Kepler was a German mathematician, astronomer, and astrologer, best known for his laws of planetary motion. By using Tycho Brahe's observations of our solar system (Brahe gave Kepler the job of observing and explaining the motion of the planet Mars), Kepler was able to deduce that planets in the system do not move in circular orbits around the Sun, but rather in elliptical ones. In doing so, he directly contradicted Brahe's own conviction that the Earth was the center of the universe. According to Kepler's laws of planetary motion#Second law|Kepler's Second Law, \"A line joining a planet and the Sun sweeps out equal areas during equal intervals of time,\" somewhat akin to sweeping a broom over the floor. In the comic, the janitor Kepler also sweeps the same area, although in this case, \"area\" is used in the sense of \"surface\" (of floor) rather than in the purely mathematical sense. It is also very monotonous, like a planet's set orbit, but Kepler doesn't mind this.\n\nThe comic could also be seen as a subtle reference to the Kepler space telescope that was searching for exoplanets (planets outside the Solar system) from March 2009 to August 2013, by looking at exactly the same spot in the night sky over and over again. Even though the telescope was not launched until 4 years after this comic was published, the details of Project Kepler had been disclosed by NASA press releases [https://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/news/releases/2001/01_107AR.html as early as 2001].\n\nThe title text assumes that the reader is scientifically illiterate and won't understand the joke, which is ironic, considering how xkcd came to be known for embracing STEM fields and nerdiness in general."} -{"number": "22", "date": "October 24, 2005", "title": "Barrel - Part 3", "before": "[https://web.archive.org/web/20060529063505/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=20#:~:text=1%3A30%20pm-,Monday%27s%20Drawing,-The%20saga%20of Original title]: '''Monday's Drawing'''", "image": "barrel_whirlpool.jpg", "titletext": "A whirlpool!

[https://web.archive.org/web/20060529063505/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=20#:~:text=1%3A30%20pm-,Monday%27s%20Drawing,-The%20saga%20of Original caption]: The saga of the boy and his barrel continues! ([http://www.xkcd.com/barrel_cropped_(1).jpg Part 1] and [http://www.xkcd.com/barrel_mommies.jpg Part 2])", "transcript": ":[A large and deep vortex is in the center; spinning water covers the whole panel. A boy in a floating barrel is near the edge, apparently about to be sucked in.]\n:Boy: wow!", "explanation": "This was the twenty-third comic originally posted to LiveJournal. The previous one was 40: Light, and the next one was 23: T-shirts.\n\nIn the first two comics in the :Category:The Boy and his Barrel|The Boy and his Barrel series, the boy is floating in the ocean in a barrel, making fairly innocent points about life's uncertainty. In this comic, the view has zoomed out considerably, and the boy is seen to be on the edge of a gigantic whirlpool. Thus, there is now a palpably heightened sense of danger, though the boy's reaction continues to be innocent wonder. The comic's visual composition is reminiscent of File:Maelstrom-Clarke.jpg|a classic 1919 illustration by Harry Clarke, made for Edgar Allan Poe's 1841 short story \"A Descent into the Maelström.\" In the short story, the main character escapes from drowning by using a barrel to escape The Maelström.\n\nThe two links in the original caption used to link to the pictures of the first and third comic in the series, but they are now defunct. Here is the last part of the caption containing links to the archived pages: \"([https://web.archive.org/web/20060529063505/http://www.xkcd.com/barrel_cropped_(1).jpg Part 1] and [https://web.archive.org/web/20060529063505/http://www.xkcd.com/barrel_mommies.jpg Part 2])\".\n\nThis is the fourth in a six-part series of comics whose parts were randomly published during the first several dozen strips. The series features Barrel Boy, a character that is different from what would quickly become the xkcd stick figure style. The full series can be found :Category:The Boy and his Barrel|here. After Randall released the full [http://liveweb.archive.org/web/20070207052159/http://www.xkcd.com/barrel.html The Boy and his Barrel] story on the site, it became clear that the original comic 20: Ferret was also part of the series. The comics are listed in the order chosen by Randall:\n* 1: Barrel - Part 1\n* 20: Ferret\n* 11: Barrel - Part 2\n* 22: Barrel - Part 3\n* 25: Barrel - Part 4\n* 31: Barrel - Part 5"} -{"number": "23", "date": "October 26, 2005", "title": "T-shirts", "before": "[https://web.archive.org/web/20060529063505/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=20#:~:text=1%3A10%20pm-,Wednesday%27s%20Drawing,-I%20saw%20the Original title]: '''Wednesday's Drawing'''", "image": "t-shirts.jpg", "titletext": "It's depressing how many of these are real shirts

[https://web.archive.org/web/20060529063505/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=20#:~:text=1%3A10%20pm-,Wednesday%27s%20Drawing,-I%20saw%20the Original caption]: I saw the \"problem\" t-shirt (upper right) on campus a few days ago and suddenly felt so sad.", "transcript": ":[A collection of phrases on T-shirts. The first and the last on actual black T-shirts worn by the same person, whose facial expression is more sad on the last one.]\n:I see dumb people\n:As a matter of fact the world does revolve around me\n:I can only please one person per day / today is not your day.\n:You know what your problem is? You're stupid.\n:Get a clue\n:Do I look like a people person?\n:Your village called / they want their idiot back\n:Go away\n:I hate you all\n:Die.\n:Help.\n:Maybe if this T-shirt is witty enough, someone will finally love me.\n:Oh God I'm so alone.", "explanation": "This was the twenty-fourth comic originally posted to LiveJournal. The previous one was 22: Barrel - Part 3, and the next one was 37: Hyphen.\n\nThis comic satirizes the plethora of \"snarky\" phrase T-shirts that exist today. In the top-left, the character wears a typical (and real) snark shirt, \"I see dumb people\" (suggesting that the wearer thinks everyone else is dumb, while being a parody of the phrase \"I see dead people\" from the movie ''The Sixth Sense''). Other shirts shown also suggest that the wearer is better than everyone else, and perhaps the shirts increasingly suggest that the wearer is anti-social moving from top to bottom. Near the bottom of the screen, the T-shirts no longer attempt to be witty and simply have straightforward phrases like \"go away\" and \"die\". These are exaggerations of the message that the other more-realistic shirts broadcast.\n\nThe final three shirts are also exaggerated shirts that suggest Randall's view that people who wear snarky shirts are overcompensating for the fact that they are already alone or perhaps putting up a tough exterior to conceal their sadness that no one would talk to them anyway. Most 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 with this or a similar message, although it is unclear whether they were created before this comic or as a tribute to this comic.\n\nIn the title text, Randall says that it's depressing how many of the shirts in the comic actually exist in real life, further underlining the point that these shirts are overly arrogant, to the point where one might believe that Randall made them up. This highlights the inadequacy of substance within these T-shirts and the emotions they invoke in Randall's mind, as shown in the original caption."} -{"number": "24", "date": "September 30, 2005", "title": "Godel, Escher, Kurt Halsey", "before": "[https://web.archive.org/web/20070927001941/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=40#:~:text=8%3A40%20pm-,Strip%20series,-One%20of%20a Original title]: '''Strip series'''

#Explanation|↓ Skip to explanation ↓", "image": "godel_escher_kurthalsey.jpg", "titletext": "I love the idea here, though of course it's not a great-quality drawing or scan.

[https://web.archive.org/web/20070927001941/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=40#:~:text=8%3A40%20pm-,Strip%20series,-One%20of%20a Original caption]: One of a series of strips I drew during a long and boring NASA lecture. It careers wildly from intellectual to chaotic to Godel, Escher, Bach to Kurt Halsey to chaotic and sappy.
The whole series is [http://www.xkcd.com/comic/comic.html here].", "transcript": ":Drawn during an unending NASA lecture\n:[Two people are talking, one in a hat.]\n:Cueball: it's just so hard to compare kids now with kids in the past. you can't help but to belong to one group or the other.\n\n:Cueball: and of course every generation seems awful to the one before it. look at quotes from throughout history.\n\n:Hatted: yeah, and it sure would be nice to have some historical perspective on some of this stuff. I just don't know what to make of it.\n:[Circles are appearing--maybe snow?]\n\n:Cueball: i guess you do what you can to help the people around you and hope it turns out okay.\n\n:Cueball: in the end, what else can you do?\n\n:Hatted: lead a crusade?\n\n:[We can no longer see the people, just the circles.]\n:it's presentism, man. the idea that historical context is irrelevant, that we understand it\n\n:all that we need take no warnings from the follies of the past. that we're facing something new.\n\n:socrates couldn't imagine the internet. but people don't change.\n:[We can start to see a darker circle in the lower right corner.]\n\n:(The borders between the three panels on this line are cracking.)\n:have you seen those collections of historical pornography? talk about historical context.\n\n:did you know the first porn photo was bestial in.\n:[inside a circle:] nature?\n\n:at least that stuff was out of the mainstream\n:[each word in one circle:]\n:no\n:just\n:in\n:history\n\n:(the three panels have merged into one on each row.)\n\n:i don't know about you, but\n:[circled] I\n:[uncircled] never\n\n:even once seen\n\n:[The circles are highly variable in size now, and pressed up against a larger one on the right side.]\n\n:[There is mass of circles of different sizes, with some dark fissures in between, against the side of a large circle which we can see part of in the right half of the panel. They look like cells. There's a tiny square in the center of the giant cell.]\n\n:[We see only the tiny square, centered. It has a few marks inside it.]\n\n:[Closer, the square is divided into rectangles of different sizes, each of which has text in it.]\n\n:[Much closer, we can see fragments of the text. Some are sideways, some are cut off, some are too small to read.]\n:machine language translated by principles of isomorphism it is a consequence of the Church-Turing thesis that ...\n:but how do you select the channel you wish to se-\n:thou ... shou ... palin ... stri ... it is a ... crab ...\n:be obvious to one-s ... your great intellectual achievements ... Tortise. Why ... you give this old Tortise ...\n\n:[Closer still, we can just see a huge sideways s and h.]\n\n:[Those letters are faded and mixed with a faded version of the next panel.]\n\n:girls take boys away ...\n:never be further than a phone call and a goosebumped shiver away ...\n:drove all night listening to mix tapes ...\n:the past is just practice\n:[There is a heart at the bottom and, in the lower left, the name Kurt.]\n\n:[The same as the previous panel, but with the words blurred out to scribbles.]\n\n:[Jagged, shaded shapes and strands start to fall. Faint panel borders appear again. There is a person on the far right.]\n\n:(Back to three panels per row.)\n:[Cueball and Megan are standing amid the fragments.]\n\n:Cueball: There's too much. And so little feels important.\n\n:[The jagged edge of the shaded area is encroaching on the sides of the panel.]\n\n:What do you do?\n\n:[We see them from farther away through a rough hole in the shaded area. Bits continue to fall around them.]\n\n:[They are holding hands.]", "explanation": "This was the sixth comic originally posted to LiveJournal. The previous one was 1: Barrel - Part 1, and the next one was 13: Canyon. It was among the :Category:First day on LiveJournal|first thirteen comics posted to LiveJournal within 12 minutes on September 30, 2005, on the first day of the xkcd LiveJournal account.\n\nAt the time xkcd was created, Randall was working on robotics at NASA's Langley Center. This comic was drawn during that period, while attending a talk that he didn't seem to like. The comic is drawn in the form of a storyboard and is intended to be visualized as an animated sequence. In the first part of the comic, two people discuss the difficulty of comparing past and present generations, since the person making the comparison invariably belongs to one of the two groups. The character with a hat is not Black Hat, as Randall hadn't standardized his character designs yet. The assembly of text panels found in the middle of the strip is similar to 124: Blogofractal. The philosophy of Kurt Gödel is also a theme in 468: Fetishes.\n\nThe name of the comic is a portmanteau-like play on the following:\n* ''Gödel, Escher, Bach'' is a book by Douglas Hofstadter. He is an American author who has written several books about philosophy, mathematics, and science. This particular book is his most famous one, about \"strange loops\", self-reference, and recurring patterns, partially shown through the works of the three people in its title:\n** Kurt Gödel was a 20th-century mathematician most famous for proving that in our commonly used axiomatic systems, there are true propositions that cannot be proved from the axioms. His proof used a self-referential paradox.\n** M. C. Escher was a 20th-century artist most famous for mathematically inspired engravings of tessellated animals, impossible scenes, [http://philosopherdeveloper.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/devilsangels.jpg hyperbolic geometry], and so on. The form of this strip resembles one of his [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2c/Escher,_Metamorphosis_II.jpg Metamorphosis etchings]. \n** Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer and musician from the Baroque Period, famous for numerous works such as the ''Brandenburg Concertos'' and his extensive use of the fugue form of composition, which involves the expression of a theme, its development, and finally a recapitulation or return to the original expression.\n* Kurt Halsey is a comic artist from Oregon. His work often contains introspective philosophical musings. At least one phrase in the letter is attributed to Halsey, \"The past is just practice\".\n\nThe original caption contains a [http://www.xkcd.com/comic/comic.html defunct link], which indicates that the comic posted on LiveJournal was only part of this series. Unfortunately, both the image in the LiveJournal post and the link in the caption weren't archived in the Web Archive, so we can't confirm if there is even more to this comic than now available on [https://xkcd.com xkcd.com] or if the original post only covered part of this series. However, based on how Randall describes the \"full series\" in the caption (\"It careers wildly from intellectual to chaotic to Godel, Escher, Bach to Kurt Halsey to chaotic and sappy.\"), it's more likely that the comic on [https://xkcd.com xkcd.com] is the full series, and the LiveJournal post only included the initial part, possibly to occupy less space in the feed. All the adjectives used in the caption perfectly match the flow of the comic."} -{"number": "25", "date": "October 31, 2005", "title": "Barrel - Part 4", "before": "[https://web.archive.org/web/20060529063505/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=20#:~:text=2%3A42%20pm-,Monday%27s%20Drawing,-(11%20Comments Original title]: '''Monday's Drawing'''", "image": "barrel_part_4.jpg", "titletext": ":(

[https://web.archive.org/web/20060529063505/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=20#:~:text=2%3A42%20pm-,Monday%27s%20Drawing,-(11%20Comments Original caption]: By the way, here are all the barrel comics on a single (easily linked) page:
http://www.xkcd.com/barrel.html
I cheated, and went back and lightened the gridlines in #2. It was just bothering me. I'll try not to do that much. But as I'm not destroying anyone's childhood, I don't feel like I'm really pulling a George Lucas.
I mean, I'm not destroying more than one childhood.
Oops.", "transcript": ":[The barrel is shown on a grid paper background, floating sideways and empty in a choppy sea.]", "explanation": "This was the twenty-sixth comic originally posted to LiveJournal. The previous one was 37: Hyphen, and the next one was 26: Fourier.\n\nIn the first three comics of the :Category:The Boy and his Barrel|The Boy and his Barrel series, Barrel Boy explored the ocean in a barrel and then encountered a whirlpool, all with a reaction of innocent wonder. Here, the empty barrel floating adrift, the title text, and a previous announcement by Randall that this would be the conclusion of the series, imply that the boy's encounter with the whirlpool separated him from the barrel, and he may have died.\n\nThis is the fifth in a six-part series of comics whose parts were randomly published during the first several dozen strips. The series features Barrel Boy, a character that is different from what would quickly become the xkcd stick figure style. The full series can be found :Category:The Boy and his Barrel|here. After Randall released the full [http://liveweb.archive.org/web/20070207052159/http://www.xkcd.com/barrel.html The Boy and his Barrel] story on the site, it became clear that the original comic 20: Ferret was also part of the series. The comics are listed in the order chosen by Randall:\n\n* 1: Barrel - Part 1\n* 20: Ferret\n* 11: Barrel - Part 2\n* 22: Barrel - Part 3\n* 25: Barrel - Part 4\n* 31: Barrel - Part 5\n\nThere was no original caption on LiveJournal for this comic. However, just three hours and four minutes after posting it, Randall made a new post, titled [https://web.archive.org/web/20060529063505/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip"} -{"number": "26", "date": "November 2, 2005", "title": "Fourier", "before": "[https://web.archive.org/web/20060529063505/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=20#:~:text=Wednesday%27s%20Drawing%20%2D%20Fourier Original title]: '''Wednesday's Drawing - Fourier'''", "image": "fourier.jpg", "titletext": "That cat has some serious periodic components", "transcript": ":[Cueball is talking on the phone. A grotesque, spiky cat, who is apparently a Fourier transform, is looking at him.]\n:Cueball: Hi, Dr. Elizabeth? Yeah, uh... I accidentally took the Fourier transform of my cat...\n:Cat: Meow!", "explanation": "This was the twenty-seventh comic originally posted to LiveJournal. The previous one was 25: Barrel - Part 4, and the next one was 27: Meat Cereals.\n\nA Fourier transform is a mathematical function transformation often used in physics and engineering. The theory is that any line graph can be represented as the sum of a bunch of sine waves of different frequencies and amplitudes. (The most obvious application is in analyzing a sound recording in terms of the different frequencies of sounds used.) So, for any line graph, you can produce another graph of the frequencies and their amplitudes. This can be done by evaluating an integral based on the function, which is referred to as \"taking the Fourier transform\" of the function. The form of the integral that needs to be taken is actually shown in the third line of the comic 55: Useless. \n\nUnfortunately, Cueball has applied this \"transform\" to his cat. Indeed, whatever he has done has literally ''transformed'' his cat into the shape of an amplitude line graph. Although the cat seems to be alive and largely unharmed, it is clearly not in its familiar shape, and it is not clear if this condition is permanent or not. Notably, the fact the cat is still alive relates to an important property of Fourier transformation: the information of the original graph is fully preserved and can even be reversed to produce the original graph. How a reverse Fourier transformation would apply to a transformed cat has yet to be seen.\n\nCueball is, in this particular comic, likely Jon from ''Garfield''. The name of Garfield's vet in the comic is Liz, and a recurring joke in that strip is Jon calling Liz to report various strange ailments befalling Garfield. \"Periodic components\" in the title text refers to the spikes in the graph. Because sine waves repeat themselves as you go along, the presence of large amounts of one particular sine wave in the Fourier transform graph (each spike) shows that the overall result (the initial graph) is likely to have parts that also repeat themselves, like a periodic function. In other words, the cat has repeating parts."} -{"number": "27", "date": "November 4, 2005", "title": "Meat Cereals", "before": "[https://web.archive.org/web/20060529063505/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=20#:~:text=Friday%27s%20Drawing%20%2D%20Meat%20Cereals Original title]: '''Friday's Drawing - Meat Cereals'''", "image": "meat_cereals.jpg", "titletext": "Disgusting", "transcript": ":[A collection of fictional meat-based cereals in bright colors with nice pictures on them.]\n:Pork Loops\n:Mice Krispies\n:Hammios\n:Frosted Bacon Flakes\n:Scrapple Jacks\n::Hey, these don't taste like Scrapple!\n:Honey Bunches of Goats", "explanation": "This was the twenty-eighth comic originally posted to LiveJournal. The previous one was 26: Fourier, and the next one was 30: Donner.\n\nRandall Munroe|Randall parodies several real-world breakfast cereals (which typically consist solely of grains and sweet flavorings) by creating versions that contain meat (animal products). The cereals that appear to be parodied (clockwise from top-left) include Froot Loops, Rice Krispies, Honey Bunches of Oats, Apple Jacks, Frosted Flakes, and Cheerios. There does not appear to be a deeper meaning to this comic than that. The Scrapple Jacks parody (the only slightly obscure reference) appears to be made with scrapple, which, according to Wikipedia, is a mush of pork scraps and trimmings combined with cornmeal and wheat flour, often buckwheat flour, and spices. Real Apple Jacks ran an ad campaign in the 1980s and 1990s in which an adult or authority figure tasted the cereal and declared \"these don't taste like apples!\", thus missing the point of why kids liked the cereal. The slogan is parodied on the Scrapple Jacks box. Randall referenced this same slogan again in \"38: Apple Jacks\".\n\nThe title text apparently reflects Randall's opinion of his own creation."} -{"number": "28", "date": "November 14, 2005", "title": "Elefino", "before": "[https://web.archive.org/web/20060529063505/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=20#:~:text=Monday%27s%20Drawing%20%2D%20Elefino Original title]: '''Monday's Drawing - Elefino'''", "image": "elefino.jpg", "titletext": "Hell if I know", "transcript": ":Q: What do you get when you cross an Elephant with a Rhino?\n:[Picture of elephant, mathematical addition symbol, picture of rhino, equals sign, large question mark.]\n:A: I haven't a goddamn clue.", "explanation": "This was the thirty-second comic originally posted to LiveJournal. The previous one was 29: Hitler, and the next one was 31: Barrel - Part 5.\n\nThe answer for the riddle in this comic is given by the title text, \"Hell if I know\", which, when spoken out loud, sounds like the title of this comic, \"Elefino\". \"Elephino\" is a portmanteau of the words \"'''eleph'''ant\" and \"rh'''ino'''\". In the comic itself, Randall Munroe|Randall unexpectedly says, \"I haven't a goddamn clue\", which still conveys the same meaning but ruins the joke instead of giving the punchline. As with many of the earlier comics, the title text explains the joke rather than adding to it.\n\nThis word play is reminiscent of the final scene in Buster Keaton's 1921 short (23 minute) film '''The Boat''' in which the titulular boat is named the ''Damfino'', a word play on \"Damned if I know.\" Keaton answers his wife's question \"Where are we?\" by mouthing the name of the boat in the final scene. The filmmakers relied on audiences to read Keaton's lips, as his answer was not intertitled."} -{"number": "29", "date": "November 11, 2005", "title": "Hitler", "before": "[https://web.archive.org/web/20060529063505/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=20#:~:text=Friday%27s%20Drawing%20%2D%20Hitler Original title]: '''Friday's Drawing - Hitler'''", "image": "hitler.jpg", "titletext": "So he's saying that God thought Hitler's art was so bad that the Holocaust was an acceptable alternative. It's no secret that the hat guy is closely based on Aram, from Men in Hats.

[https://web.archive.org/web/20060529063505/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=20#:~:text=Friday%27s%20Drawing%20%2D%20Hitler Original caption]: Yes, it's entirely possible that those two are [http://meninhats.com/d/20040225.html Aram and Gamal].", "transcript": ":[Black Hat and Cueball are talking together in the same position in all four panels.]\n:Cueball: Learning about the Holocaust has really shaken my belief in God.\n\n:Black Hat: You know, as a young man, Hitler was rejected from art school.\n:Cueball: Yeah... shame he didn't get in.\n\n:Black Hat: Well, have you seen any of his paintings? They're awful. Defy all rules of composition.\n:Cueball: What are you suggesting?\n\n:Black Hat: Maybe there is a god, but he's a real art lover.\n:Cueball: This is why I don't go out in public with you.", "explanation": "File:Man in Hats.png|400px|thumb|right|The ''[http://meninhats.com/d/20040225.html Men in Hats comic]'' on which Black Hat is based on.This was the thirty-first comic originally posted to LiveJournal. The previous was 34: Flowers, and the next one was 28: Elefino.\n\nCueball speaks to Black Hat about the Holocaust and Adolf Hitler. Hitler was the leader of Nazi Germany beginning in 1933 and starting World War II in 1939 by attacking Poland. During that war, the Germans (under Hitler's leadership) killed millions of people; most of them were Jews, but other ethnic groups, homosexuals, and the mentally disabled were all targeted as well. This has come to be known as the Holocaust. Black Hat's comment that Hitler wanted to be a painter, but did not get into art school, is historically accurate. He applied to the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts twice. In any event, Cueball implies in the second frame that had Hitler been accepted into art school, the course of history might have changed, and the Holocaust might never have occurred. Black Hat suggests that perhaps God intentionally prevented Hitler from becoming an artist because God is an \"art lover\" and Paintings by Adolf Hitler|Hitler's art was terrible.\n\nAs with many of the earlier comics, the title text explains the joke rather than adding to it. It implies that God would have preferred the Holocaust to have occurred rather than allow Hitler to make some bad paintings. Such a comment that God could be so callous would surely be offensive to many people. Cueball's reaction to this shocking statement is relatively mild and suggests that Black Hat has made such controversial statements before. He will make a similarly controversial and Nazi-related statement again in 984: Space Launch System. The title text also says Black Hat is based on a character named Aram from a now discontinued webcomic called ''[http://www.meninhats.com Men in Hats]'' and, in the original caption, Randall Munroe|Randall directed the user to a specific ''Men in Hats'' [http://meninhats.com/d/20040225.html comic about parenting]. Like Black Hat, Aram frequently made judgmental, insulting, or controversial comments in a very emotionless manner. Aram wore a dark grey suit with a red bowtie and a black top hat with a white strip above the brim. Black Hat's hat clearly evolved from the top hat design later in xkcd."} -{"number": "30", "date": "November 7, 2005", "title": "Donner", "before": "[https://web.archive.org/web/20060529063505/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=20#:~:text=Monday%27s%20Drawing%20%2D%20Donner Original title]: '''Monday's Drawing - Donner'''", "image": "donner.jpg", "titletext": "Some people haven't heard of the Donner Party. They were pioneers who got stranded and likely resorted to cannibalism.", "transcript": ":[Three people stand outside a restaurant; Megan, a man with some hair and another shorter person, probably a woman. There is a sign above the door which says \"Joe's\" (presumably the name of the restaurant) and a menu next to it. Outside the door, there is a maître d' with a cap behind a lectern. There is a sign on the lectern which says \"Eat in\".]\n:maître d': Donner, party of four?\n:Man: Actually, never mind.\n:Megan: We're full.", "explanation": "This was the twenty-ninth comic originally posted to LiveJournal. The previous one was 27: Meat Cereals, and the next one was 34: Flowers.\n\nThe Donner party was a group of pioneers who set out west along a new route that was supposed to be easier to travel, but ultimately proved slow and treacherous. They became trapped in the Sierra Nevada mountains, and many died. It is believed that many of the pioneers, low on food, resorted to cannibalism, eating the bodies of party members who had already died. In this comic, three Donner party members arrive at Joe's restaurant, where they have ordered a table for four, as given by the fact that the Maître d'hôtel|maître d' knows they are the Donner party and calls for a party of four. The three decline the table since they are already full. This suggests that they just have eaten the fourth member (unknown to us) of their party after they placed the order for a table at the restaurant, but before they strolled over to it anyway. Of course, since they are not in a survival situation in this comic, cannibalism would be completely unnecessary. However, it may be possible that they are suffering from Wendigo|Wendigo Psychosis. Alternatively, the Donner Dinner Party may have resorted to cannibalism because it took so long to be seated at the restaurant. \n\nAs with many of the earlier comics, the title text explains the joke rather than adding to it."} -{"number": "31", "date": "November 16, 2005", "title": "Barrel - Part 5", "before": "[https://web.archive.org/web/20060529063505/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=20#:~:text=11%3A54%20am-,Barrel%20%2D%20Part%205,-The%20ferret%20got Original title]: '''Barrel - Part 5'''", "image": "barrel_part_5.jpg", "titletext": "Too good not to happen.

[https://web.archive.org/web/20060529063505/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=20#:~:text=11%3A54%20am-,Barrel%20%2D%20Part%205,-The%20ferret%20got Original caption]: The [http://www.xkcd.com/ferret.html ferret] got to fly, in the end!", "transcript": ":[A boy is grasping on to a piece of driftwood in an ocean.]\n\n:[A zoomed out view of the boy still grasping on to a piece of driftwood in the ocean.]\n\n:[A ferret with some airplane wings and an airplane tail flies above the ocean.]\n\n:[A shot of the ocean, now empty.]\n\n:[The flying ferret is carrying the boy to safety.]\n\n:[The ferret carrying the boy is now in the distance with the sun on the horizon.]", "explanation": "This was the thirty-third comic originally posted to LiveJournal. The previous one was 28: Elefino, and the next one was 32: Pillar.\n\nThis gives a happy ending to the :Category:The Boy and his Barrel|The Boy and his Barrel series, with the flying ferret from 20: Ferret. The humor is derived from the juxtaposition of two unlike elements - in this case, the contemplative and even dark nature of the series being resolved through the timely intervention of a comical flying animal. The ferret could also be interpreted as a symbol of hope and following one's dreams, since in its original appearance, its powers of flight were just a dream. However, the dream becomes reality to save a child from an endless sea of hopelessness.\n\nThis is the last in a six-part series of comics whose parts were randomly published during the first several dozen strips. The series features Barrel Boy, a character that is different from what would quickly become the xkcd stick figure style. The full series can be found :Category:The Boy and his Barrel|here. After Randall released the full [http://liveweb.archive.org/web/20070207052159/http://www.xkcd.com/barrel.html The Boy and his Barrel] story on the site, it became clear that the original comic 20: Ferret was also part of the series. The comics are listed in the order chosen by Randall:\n* 1: Barrel - Part 1\n* 20: Ferret\n* 11: Barrel - Part 2\n* 22: Barrel - Part 3\n* 25: Barrel - Part 4\n* 31: Barrel - Part 5\n\nThe original caption included a link to 20: Ferret the second comic in the series. The link is now defunct, but there's an [https://web.archive.org/web/20070207052159/http://www.xkcd.com/barrel.html archived version]."} -{"number": "32", "date": "November 19, 2005", "title": "Pillar", "before": "[https://web.archive.org/web/20060529063505/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=20#:~:text=Friday%27s%20Drawing%20%2D%20Pillar Original title]: '''Friday's Drawing - Pillar'''", "image": "pillar.jpg", "titletext": "A comic by my brother Doug, redrawn and rewritten by me

[https://web.archive.org/web/20060529063505/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=20#:~:text=Friday%27s%20Drawing%20%2D%20Pillar Original caption]: Oops, I totally forgot to update yesterday afternoon. Well, I haven't slept, so I say it's still Friday. It's been a weird couple days and I was just thinking 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! Cool, huh?
Also, all the barrel strips are now [http://www.xkcd.com/barrel.html here] for easy linkage to people you think might like them.", "transcript": ":[At the top of the panel is a black frame with the following text:]\n:This one is mostly by my little brother, Doug.\n\n:[A Cueball-like guy stands on the top of a tall pole and talks to his Cueball-like friend on the ground. The drawing is repeated three time in the same panel, once for each comment by the two guys.]\n:Pole-guy: The sky is so blue, and all the leaves are green.\n:Friend: Haven't you ever wondered if we really see the same colors as everyone else? It's all perception.\n\n:Pole-guy: Well, you might as well call into question all of human experience. Who really knows what world someone else sees?\n:Friend: Yeah, I guess.\n\n:Pole-guy: Anyway, can you help me down from this pole?\n:Friend: What pole?", "explanation": "This was the thirty-fourth comic originally posted to LiveJournal. The previous one was 31: Barrel - Part 5, and the next one was 33: Self-reference.\n\nTwo Cueball-like guys ponder the unanswerable philosophical question of whether all people observe the universe the same, or whether, for example, what one person sees as \"red\" might be what another see as \"green\". They muse that no one really knows how anyone else sees the world. The misdirection and punchline of the comic come when the pole-guy asks if his friend can help him down from this pole where he's been standing for the entire comic. The friend's reply indicates that he does not see a pole, proving that one person can observe the world differently than another, in this case, in a far more extreme and unexpected way than color differences.\n\nAnother interpretation of the punchline is that the friend doesn't like pole-guy's idea of questioning all of human existence and mocks that philosophy by pretending not to see that he is standing on a pole. The concept of a philosopher on a pole is likely a reference to many \"stylites\" or \"pillar-saints\" of the late antiquity period, perhaps the first and most famous them being Simeon Stylites. Unlike most other xkcd comics, the \"panels\" of this comic are not divided and are drawn within a single frame.\n\nThe title text and the original caption say the comic is based on a comic drawn by Randall Munroe|Randall's brother Doug, although Randall apparently redrew and rewrote it. In the original caption of the LiveJournal post, he also apologizes for forgetting to post the comic on a Friday and reminds people of the link he created to group all the comics in the :Category:The Boy and his Barrel|The Boy and his Barrel series, because the 31: Barrel - Part 5|previous comic was the last episode in the series. The link is now defunct, but there's an [http://liveweb.archive.org/web/20070207052159/http://www.xkcd.com/barrel.html archived version]."} -{"number": "33", "date": "November 21, 2005", "title": "Self-reference", "before": "[https://web.archive.org/web/20060529063505/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=20#:~:text=Friday%27s%20Drawing%20%2D%20Self%2Dreference Original title]: '''Friday's Drawing - Self-reference'''", "image": "self-reference.jpg", "titletext": "I think about self-reference a lot. Example: this comment.", "transcript": ":[Cueball is standing alone.]\n:Cueball: I promise to never again squeeze humor out of self-reference.\n\n:[Beat panel.]\n\n:[Cueball is standing alone.]\n:Cueball: God dammit.", "explanation": "This was the thirty-fifth comic originally posted to LiveJournal. The previous one was 32: Pillar, and the next one was 41: Old Drawing.\n\nSelf-reference is a situation where something (a comic, a drawing, a musical work, a novel, a mathematical theorem) refers to itself in some manner. This can be a powerful technique in art, music, mathematics, and computer science (it is the basis of recursion). In this comic, Cueball promises not to use self-reference for humor, and then realizes after a beat panel that, since this comic is referring to the series of comics he is part of, he is using self-reference, thus breaking his promise. Without the last panel, this comic wouldn't be funny, and therefore wouldn't break the promise about using self-reference for humor. But with it, and his realization that he is breaking his promise, it does break that promise. Self-references have been used most famously later in 688: Self-Description, but was already used in 6: Irony and also in :Category:Self-reference|other comics. The webcomic"} -{"number": "34", "date": "November 9, 2005", "title": "Flowers", "before": "[https://web.archive.org/web/20060529063505/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=20#:~:text=Wednesday%27s%20Drawing%20%2D%20Flowers Original title]: '''Wednesday's Drawing - Flowers'''", "image": "flowers.jpg", "titletext": "This is actually pencil on paper, just inverted and colored

[https://web.archive.org/web/20060529063505/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=20#:~:text=Wednesday%27s%20Drawing%20%2D%20Flowers Original caption]: Original drawing is pencil on graph paper.
Bonus points if you can identify the flowers. 'cause I sure can't.", "transcript": ":[A sketch of flowers, drawn in green, red, and yellow on a black background.]", "explanation": "This was the thirtieth comic originally posted to LiveJournal. The previous one was 30: Donner, and the next one was 29: Hitler.\n\nThis is a drawing of flowers made by Randall Munroe|Randall. According to the title text and the original caption on the LiveJournal post, he originally drew the flowers with a pencil on a white sheet of paper. Then, he used the invert feature of a photo-editing program to reverse it from black-on-white to white-on-black and colored to the flowers. The image below gives a good approximation of what the original drawing might have looked like. He also says the flowers are based on his imagination and aren't a real species.\n\n