Good Cop, Dadaist Cop
by Jeff
Image text: NOW INVENT AN IMPOSSIBLE-TO-TRANSLATE LANGUAGE AND USE IT TO TELL US WHERE THE MONEY IS.
So, this is a play on the traditional police officer strategy of "Good Cop, Bad Cop", in which two officers play different parts to get the suspect to give the required information. One is nice to the suspect and the other is mean to the suspect.
However, in this comic, they use the strategy "Good Cop, Dadaist Cop" strategy in which one is nice to the suspect and the other is Dadaist, which is defined as (via the Free Dictionary) an European artistic and literary movement (1916-1923) that flouted conventional aesthetic and cultural values by producing works marked by nonsense, travesty, and incongruity.
So, the Dadaist cop is spouting nonsense attempting to get the suspect to give some information. Unfortunately, I don't think it is going to work.
Wake Up Sheeple
by Jeff
Image text: Your will be led to judgement like lambs to the slaughter--a simile whose existence, I might add, will not do your species any favors.
In this comic, Cueball is going through the traditional loudspeaker-having person refrain about the government having control over our lives and uses the refrain "Wake Up Sheeple", which has been referenced at least two other times in XKCD. Sheeple is a portmanteau (another thing that is loved in XKCD) of "sheep" and "people" used as a derisive term to describe people who thoughtlessly wander through their daily lives going exactly where they are "herded" by the powers that be.
However, in this comic, "sheeple" are not that, instead are a race of half sheep/half person who have slumbered beneath the Earth for ten thousand years and are apparently going to destroy the human race.
Suckville
by Jeff
Image text: Suckville is considered by the Census Bureau to be part of the Detroit metropolitan statistical area, despite not being located anywhere near Detroit.
Ok, so Megan and Cueball are playing a card game, that I am not able to identify from simply the piles (anyone know what game it looks like?) and Megan whips out one of the oldest insults in the book, a play on the word "suck" and adds a typical city name to the end of it. Other variations are: "losertown", "lameville", etc.
The phrase is originally based on the ubiquitous signage you see along roads that say "Welcome to Town X - Population Y". Really, it is just some creative smack talk that basically says "You suck".
Then, since Cueball one-ups Megan by indicating there is a city by that name, she can only resign herself to the fact that her smack talk did not work.
Also, she has a strange number of legs and arms in the 3rd frame. I'm not sure if that is supposed to be showing motion, or what. Either way, it is not working for me, she just looks like a spider on a laptop, which is completely terrifying.
Mnemonics
by Jeff
Image text: 'Sailor Moon's head exploded once' and 'Some men have explosive orgasms' both work for the Great Lakes from west to east (Paddle-to-the-Sea order).
Here we have six different science mnemonics. A mnemonic is (thanks Wikipedia!) any learning technique that aids memory. Mnemonics rely on associations between easy-to-remember constructs which can be related back to the data that are to be remembered. This is based on the observation that the human mind much more easily remembers spatial, personal, surprising, physical, sexual or humorous or otherwise meaningful information, as compared to retrieving arbitrary sequences. To improve long term memory, mnemonic systems are used to make memorization easier.
The category is listed at the top of the box, the members are listed below that. Then there is the traditional mnemonic that children are usually taught in school to help them remember. Below the comic is one or two options for new mnemonics suggested by Randall. The top one is illustrated in the frame.
I'm going to pick out a few items and references in each one to explain.
SI Prefixes are the prefixes for the systems of units from large to small and since there are so many, the mnemonic needs two lines. Karl Marx, as he is seen in the comic, (Wiki'ed for full explanation) was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. Microsoft's Zune was a failed mp3 player that Microsoft brought to market and never "caught on".
Taxonomy is is the science of identifying and naming species. Katy Perry is an America pop music singer, who's popular songs are ones like "Fireworks" or "I Kissed A Girl". And that is the stick figure of her in the illustration.
In the geologic periods frame, the illustration is of a month's worth of "the pill" a common contraceptive.
In Resistor Color Codes, Glenn Beck is in the illustration. Beck is a far-right conservative commentator in the US, who used to have a show on the Fox News Network.
In the Planets frame, the illustration is of Mary and Joseph, who in the story of the Birth of Jesus in the Bible, were mother and father to Jesus. However, Mary's conception of Jesus was from God and Mary was still considered a virgin. This mnemonic shows Joseph not really believing that story. (That part wasn't in the Bible, obviously)
Percentage Points
by Jeff
Image text: Grayton also proposed making college scholarships available exclusively to sexually active teens, amnesty for illegal immigrants who create room for themselves by killing a citizen, and a graduated income tax based on penis size. He has been endorsed by Tracy Morgan, John Wilkes Booth's ghost, and the Time Cube guy.
Senator Grayton is a fictional name, made up for this comic, which is a bit surprising to me as the names used in xkcd are usually references to something.
I'll see if I can do a line on each of the issues that Grayton fictionally supports:
Tax Breaks to Drunk Drivers - Grayton proposed to give money back on their taxes for people who have been convicted of a DUI or DWI. Driving Under the Influence or Driving While Intoxicated
Predator Drones and the War on Christmas - The War on Christmas is a not a real war, it is simply Christians who believe that non-Christians are trying to get rid of Christmas trees, Christmas music and the endless barrage of Christmas-themed nonsense we get from Thanksgiving to Christmas. I don't know how his support would go down if he supported unmanned Predator Drones to destroy people who hate Christmas, knowing America. (Jokes!)
College Scholarships to Sexually Active Teens - Not sure how they would test for this on the scholarship application, but it is funny none the less.
Illegal Immigrants Who Murder - This is an argument for immigration, but only if they make "room" and possibly an open job for themselves by getting rid of another person. This one is pretty evil.
Income Tax Based on Penis Size - Wow, this one would never pass!
On To the Names:
Tracy Morgan is an actor in the TV Show 30 Rock, who plays Tracy Jordan, he is known for his outlandish statements on politics and everything else in the world. He has been reprimanded for controversial comments on homosexuals and Sarah Palin (in separate incidents).
Josh Wilkes Booth is the person who assassinated Abraham Lincoln. He was a sympathizer with the Confederate cause and was for slavery and all its trappings.
Time Cube Guy is Gene Ray, also known as Otis E. Ray. He has a website known as Time Cube (Thanks Wikipedia) where he sets out his personal model of reality, which he calls Time Cube. He suggests that all of modern physics is wrong, in addition to claiming religion to be evil, specifically Christianity, and the idea of family is poisoning children.
Ok, finally to the numbers:
If his polling is at 20% and drops by 19%, without specifying percentage points, that means that his support has only dropped 1% (EDIT: I'm bad at math. Thanks commentors, it is 3.8% percentage points), because 19% of 20% is only 1% 3.8%. That would mean after all his outrageous statements, his support dropped from 20% to 16.2%. However, if they had said his 20% polling dropped 19% (removed percentage sign for redundancy, thanks again commentors) percentage points, that would mean his support has dropped to 1%. Therefore, the distinction is important.
Stud Finder
by Jeff
Image text: According to every stud finder I've tried to use, my walls contain a rapidly shifting network of hundreds and hundreds of studs.
In this comic, Cueball is attempting to hang a painting. But, in order to hang his painting, he will need to find a stud, which is a vertical piece of wood in the wall that allows the painting to hang more securely. The device used to find the studs is call a "stud finder" originally enough.
When Cueball can't find the stud finder, he asks our old friend Black Hat if he has seen the stud finder. However, instead of suggesting where it might be, Black Hat starts to introduce his new product "A Stud Finder Finder". But Cueball cuts him off before he can finish.
Tween Bromance
by Jeff
Image text: Verbiage. Va-jay-jay. Irregardless.
This comic is playing off the fact that people have words that make them insane or grossed out when they hear them. (For me it's webinar... that's the one that makes me insane and panties is the one that makes me grossed out.) Moist is a very common word that people have a strong dislike to. A bartender once dared me to say "Moist Cummerbund" to a waitress for a free beer. Was it worth it? The jury is still out on that one.
In this comic, Cueball seems to be dictating a "tween bromance" story or novel to Megan, who is possibly typing it up. Cueball is including all the words that get to Megan in a sequence (including the final 3 words in the image text). The 3 words in the image text are said after Megan says "STOP IT! STOP IT!".
What are your words that you HATE to hear? Are they included in this comic?
Etymology
by Jeff
Image text: For some reason, my childhood suspension of disbelief had no problem with the fact that this ancient galaxy is full of humans, but was derailed by language. There's no Asia OR Europe there, so where'd they get all the Indo-European roots?
This comic is a reference to the sci-fi class Star Wars. If you haven't seen it, (I know, but there are some who read this site who have not) two characters, Obi-Wan Kenobi (on the left with the beard) and Luke Skywalker (who are on the left side of the table in the first frame) are trying to get off the planet Tatooine secretly and they enlist help from Han Solo and Chewbacca. Chewbacca is the very hairy one because he is a wookie from the planet Kashyyyk. Han Solo's ship is named the "Millennium Falcon".
Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time. Randall (the author of the comic) wonders what Luke would say to Han if he had no idea what a falcon was. We as viewers accept it because of the etymology of the word in our world, but there is not evidence of a falcon in the Star Wars universe. (Especially for Luke who has been raised only on Tatooine, a desert world.)
In the image text, Randall references the fact that Star Wars is set "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away" and is curious how humans came to be in the Star Wars universe even though they (or we I guess) were not yet on Earth. The reference to Ind0-European roots is another reference to etymology. As an example, certain words will have Indo-European roots because the word originated in Indo-European languages.
Rogers St.
by Jeff
Image text: 'We can also use middle names in place of first pet's names, but yours is something incomprehensible about dropping tables.'
This comic is a reference to the game of creating your porn star name by putting your pet's name as your first name and the street you grew up on as your last name. For example: Max (Dog's name) Pine (Street name). In this comic, Randall would have named his cat "Mister" and had moved to "Rogers" Street and so his daughter's porn name would be "Mister Rogers", which is pretty high on the very unsexy name scale (if there was one) especially for a female actor.
In this way, Randall has prevented his daughter from getting into porn.
In the image text, he references the other way of creating a porn star name with your middle name and as your first name and the street still as your last name. Additionally, the image text references comic 327 in which "Exploits of a Mom" puts SQL table instructions into their name so that it will mess with SQL tables at school. In 327, the kids name contains '); DROP TABLE Students;-- and we are lead to believe the person in the comic above contains a similar command.
Here's a link to the location of Rogers Street, which is near Kendall Square in Cambridge, MA.
Archimedes
by Jeff
Image text: Give a man a fish, or he will destroy the only existing vial of antidote.
The full Archimedes quote is "Give me a long enough lever and a place to rest it, and I shall move the world."
The full quote in the image text is "Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat forever."
The basic idea here is to set up a premise, in this case "In the words of Arichimedes..." and then break up that premise with a joke in the final frame. This is a remarkably simple xkcd compared to others.