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No. 389: They Do Not Move

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They Do Not Move

First | Previous | 2020-05-09 | Next | Latest

Permanent URL: https://mezzacotta.net/itoons/?comic=389

Strip by: KelpTheGreat

White Hat Guy: How are you doing?
Cueball: Really excited to be confidently handling this extremely basic social interaction!
White Hat Guy: Same here!
Cueball: Hey, congrats!
White Hat Guy: You too!
Cueball: Thanks!
{beat panel}
White Hat Guy: And now it's falling apart before my eyes.
Cueball: I'm gonna quit while I'm ahead.
White Hat Guy: Same.
Cueball: See you later!
{they do not move}
{beat panel}
{beat panel}
{beat panel}
{beat panel}
{many more beat panels follow; in none of them do White Hat Guy and Cueball move. Gradually, the camera zooms out until the two are just specks in the distance}

The author writes:

Originally, I had thought of just inserting a single beat panel at the end of the strip, but after I had done that, I stared at it for a bit, and then thought to myself, "why not just go nuts?"

Before I wisely changed my mind, I briefly considered titling this edit "A strip from xkcd plus a beat panel inspired by the mouse-over text for that strip". It was the briefest of moments - 0.68 seconds - but for an android, that is nearly an eternity.

Original xkcd strip: #1961, 2018-02-28.