Warning: this comic occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors).
xkcd
is a
Stick Figure Comic by Randall Munroe. It is a gag-a-day comic, and generally does not have a continuing plotline or continuity (though there are occasional short story arcs). Many of the jokes are based on math, physics, UNIX and
Internet memes, as well as romance and sex.
Originally a relatively unknown set of personal sketches and doodles, it grew in popularity in 2006 when other webcomics (such as
Dinosaur Comics) began linking to it. However, it was when Randall posted a "
Map of the Internet", and said map was subsequently
featured on Slashdot, that xkcd's popularity truly erupted. Since then, it has been among the most well-known of webcomics.
...Of course, you wouldn't know that just by looking at the comic. The characters are still drawn as very basic stick figures, with no facial features other than hairstyle (which is often used to
distinguish males and females). However, there are two recurring characters who can be recognized by their respective headgear: "Black Hat Guy," a
Jerkass character with a black fedora, who in one recent storyline encountered a woman who
out-Jerkassed him, and has now become a
romantic interest; and a beret-clad
Cloud Cuckoo Lander, generally thought of to be an Existentialist, albeit one with a thing for pastries..
Currently appears to be in the middle of a wide-scale
Hype Backlash. The internet is a fickle bunch.
Numerologists take note: adding up the numerical values of the titular letters yields a sum of
42. Coincidence? ...Yes.
Tropes invoked by this webcomic:
- Alt Text
- Affectionate Parody: Parody Week, whose strips don't really make fun of anything and, in some cases, could actually have been used by the regular cartoonist except for the artwork.
- Angrish: One comic has a father conditioning his daughter's speech centers to shut down when she's upset. Hilarity Ensues to say the least.
- Author Avatar: the plain-featured stick man.
- Author Filibuster: Quite a few on DRM, for example here. Eventually lampshaded here.
- Car Fu (actually Submarine Fu: Black Hat Guy recovers his hat from his Love Interest in this strip by crashing a Russian nuclear submarine through the ice she's skating on)
- Continuity Nod: Many instances of this occur. One example is this strip, where the water gun appears to be the same one from this earlier strip.
- Many of the
creepy romance comics feature a girl named Megan with shoulder-length black hair.
- "The hell? Who mails a bobcat?"
- The sound reflecting dish from, "Loud Girlfriend," is referenced in the title-text from, "Bass".
- Electric skateboards are a recurring theme.
- Cuteness Proximity: Shown in the above strip "Cat Proximity", which is the Trope Namer as well.
- Description Cut: Surely Nathan Fillion has better things to do these days than pretend to be Captain Reynolds. Meanwhile, wearing a brown coat, "Name's Captain Reynolds, ma'am. *ahem* "Name's Captain Reynolds, ma'am."
- Defictionalization - examples courtesy of The Other Wiki
- Discontinuity - Done to the sequels to The Matrix
- Dream Apocalypse
- Drunken Master in the form of Ballmer's Peak
- Filler Strip (parodied)
- Godwin's Law: Apparently, a picture of Hitler stuck on your screen is better than Vista.
- Heroic Sociopath (Black Hat Guy)
- Homage
- It Was His Sled - parodied.
- It's Popular Now It Sucks (the above Hype Backlash)
- Jerkass
- Logic Bomb - Used several times, but this one's for the audience.
- Masochism Tango - Black Hat Guy and his girlfriend. He blew up her car, for Chrissakes.
- By moving the mines she had set up to blow up his car.
- She stole his hat.
- He likes his hat.
- Manic Pixie Dream Girl - the female character.
- On the other hand, most characters in the strip have a strong devotion to making life a little weirder from the start.
- Including Black Hat Guy.
- Memetic Mutation
- Mundane Utility - Frequently, including lasers to zap squirrels.
- Nightmare Fuel - Velociraptors, to the artist. And that goddamn Garfield comic.
- Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot - Several examples, including this strip.
- Red Pill Blue Pill - parodied.
- Science Is Wrong - "No one told you because you're cute when you get into something." Bitches.
- Silent Scenery Panel - The occasional landscape drawings.
- Stalker With A Crush / Dogged Nice Guy - Once again, Strip 513. You'll understand.
- Stealth Pun - This strip.
- Stop Having Fun Guys - Trope Namer. This strip shows a guy deriding a few people playing Rock Band, telling them it doesn't make them cool ... even though they're having fun.
- Take That - As required for any "real" computer user, the strip hates Windows.
- Tastes Like Diabetes - a few (some say most) of the romance-based comics.
- Sometimes brutally, brutally subverted.
- There Are No Girls On The Internet - This strip addresses the reasons for that.
- This Is For Emphasis, Bitch!
- Vanity License Plate - The tendency of such plates to be owned by pretentious rich jerks is parodied, and Black Hat Guy claims another victim.
- Viewers Are Geniuses - one of the biggest practitioners. The strip often bases comics on obscure math, physics, or computer jokes. This has gotten less common over time, and the forums are very useful.
- That just makes it all the funnier to those of us who do get the jokes. "Little Bobby Tables" was one of this troper's favorites.
- What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome - in Randall's imagination, computer science is revered as if it were a martial art.
- The 1337 story arc is a good example.
- Wiki Walk: This shows use the danger of falling into these.
- X Days Since - 38 days since someone reset this sign.
- Your Mom - Played with frequently. Subverted here. Is in the Alt Text here.
- You Fail Biology Forever - A rare example. Eating sugar in and of itself cannot cause diabetes.
