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xkcd #3209: Plums
(thelemmy.club)
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/
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.
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.