Religions
by Jeff
Image text: But to us there is but one God, plus or minus one. --1 Corinthians 8:6±2.
This comic is a reference to the increasing coverage of the prediction by Harold Camping that the Rapture will be on May 21, 2011. The Rapture is the event prophesied in the Bible in which Christians believe that Christ will return to Earth and take all true believers up to Heaven.
The first frame is a reference to raptors in Jurassic Park, if you haven't seen it, the raptor dinosaurs get much more dangerous once they learn how to open doors. Cueball mishears Megan, which is why he thinks she said "Raptors" instead of "Rapture".
In the 2nd frame, Cueball references three major religions. Christian and church for Christianity, Mosque for Islam and Rabbi for Judaism.
The 3rd frame is a math joke in which Megan references error bars which are used on graphs to indicate the uncertainty. So, Megan believes in one God (monotheism), as she says in the comic. But if she is still trying to find the error bars, she is uncertain if there could be many more Gods as well.
The image text is a supposed excerpt from the holy text of experimental monotheism. Corinthians is a real chapter book of the Christian Bible.
Raptor Fences
by Jeff
Image text: If at least one person has a nightmare about being swarmed by hundreds of mouse-sized dromaeosaurids, my work will have been done.
This is a reference to the movie Jurassic Park. In this scene, the power goes out and so do the electric fences that keep the raptors in their cages. This obviously puts the characters in extreme danger... unless of course like this comic, they are mini dinosaurs.
Movie Narrative Charts
by Jeff
(You absolutely have to click on the image to see it larger. It is quite detailed and impressive.)
Image text: In the LotR map, up and down correspond LOOSELY to northwest and southeast respectively.
Lord of the Rings is pretty self-explanatory if you have seen the movies based on the series by JRR Tolkien. It is important to note that the chart is based on the movie, not the books. Second, is the original Star Wars trilogy. If you haven't seen those, stop what you are doing right now and go get them. Third, is the original Jurrassic Park movie.
The joke in 12 Angry men graphic is that in the movie all 12 jurors are all in the same room the entire movie. They never move and they all always interact with each other, hence their lines stay straight and close to each other.
The last box is a movie called Primer from 2004, which became a cult classic. It is about accidentally discovering time travel. The plot is so convoluted and mixed up with the time travel between the original person and the so-called time travelling "double" that it is almost impossible to figure out where each character is at one time...as the comic illustrates.
UPDATE: These charts are roughly a reference to the map by Charles Joseph Minard that details the movements and losses of Napolean's troops on his failed conquest of Russia.
Example can be found here.
Nowhere
by Jeff
Image text: I mean, seriously, NOWHERE? For starters, there are like a thousand species of dinosaur.
Looks like the girl in the comic would rather be riding a dinosaur than hanging out with that dude. Ouch. The rare comic that allows us to use the cynicism, love and dinosaurs tag in one post. Bet that doesn't happen again.
Brontosaurus
by Jeff
Image text: Well, sex is like a velociraptor: despite your movie-fueled lifelong neurotic obsession, unlikely to be found in your house.
And here we continue xkcd's author's obsession with the cyncism about love.
Brontosaurus is an obsolete phrase for the Apatosaurus. Brontosaurus is the "popular" (but incorrect) name for the dinosaur, but Apatosaurus is the correct name.