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xkcd #3209: Plums (thelemmy.club)
submitted 1 day ago by xkcdbot@lemmy.world to c/xkcd@lemmy.world

xkcd #3209: Plums

Title text:

My icebox plum trap easily captured William Carlos Williams. It took much less work than the infinite looping network of diverging paths I had to build in that yellow wood to ensnare Robert Frost.

Transcript:

Transcript will show once it’s been added to explainxkcd.com

Source: https://xkcd.com/3209/

explainxkcd for #3209

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[-] Bubs@lemmy.zip 20 points 22 hours ago

Def a more niche reference I feel:

This is a reference to the William Carlos Williams poem This Is Just to Say, in which the narrator is apologizing for eating the plums in the icebox. In this comic, the joke is that Cueball, learning that the person out of view has left themselves some plums in the refrigerator for tomorrow, cannot resist eating them as a reference to the poem.

[-] finallymadeanaccount@lemmy.world 7 points 15 hours ago

His characters have names? TIL.

[-] SlurpingPus@lemmy.world 4 points 4 hours ago

It's rather the ExplainXKCD lore. Recurring-looking characters have been assigned names, even though they clearly denote different people in the comic. (Although Black Hat is always up to some antics.)

[-] VindictiveJudge@lemmy.world 1 points 3 hours ago

Well, sometimes they denote different people. They also sometimes represent recurring characters.

Beret Guy, Black Hat, and Danish are the same character each time.

At the other end of the spectrum, Ponytail and White Hat are just whoever the comic needs at the time. Sometimes they show signs they're a recurring character, but usually probably just a one-off.

In the middle of the spectrum are Cueball and Megan. These are the generic male and female designs and the most frequently seen. They're usually probably just one-offs, but both have two distinct recurring roles as well. The first is Cueball as an unnamed male character and Megan as Megan, with the two of them being a couple. The second is Cueball as the comic's author and Megan as his wife, with this being most apparent in the cancer strips.

[-] SlurpingPus@lemmy.world 1 points 3 hours ago

I've seen some early comic or somesuch where Black Hat was in some far-fetched alternative history scenario, way more evil than his usual everyday discordian approach. So he also gets repurposed outside the normal character, as a villain.

[-] Flauschige_Lemmata@lemmy.world 4 points 5 hours ago

I believe most don't officially

[-] Bubs@lemmy.zip 6 points 12 hours ago

Yeah lol.

Cueball, beret guy, white and black hat, ponytail, Megan are a few I can remember

this post was submitted on 19 Feb 2026
175 points (95.3% liked)

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