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XKCD cartoons are so clever that the Explain XKCD site exists to … explain them!
You may have come across XKCD line-drawing cartoons in your website travels, but did you know that there's also a site dedicated to explaining the science behind them?

Posted by Andy Brown on 28 February 2023

Explaining XKCD cartoons

So you may know about the XKCD cartoon website, which includes my favourite techie cartoon of all time:

It helps to be an SQL programmer to understand this one.

I quite like this Excel cartoon too:

A summary of Excel's role in society?

However, what these cartoons lack is context (including a detailed explanation of the technology referenced in each cartoon). This is where Explain XKCD comes in. As an example, here's what the first cartoon above includes:

Section	Contents
Explanation	A summary of the principles behind SQL injection attacks
Transcript	The text of the cartoon
Trivia	Some interesting facts about the cartoon
Discussion	Threads in this include a discussion over whether Bobby or his parents are responsible for this SQL injection attack, and whether it is correctly coded.