xkcd #3114: Building a Fire
Title text:
That was quicker than usual! The cabin's sprinkler system often makes it really hard to keep anything lit.
Transcript:
Transcript will show once it’s been added to explainxkcd.com
Source: https://xkcd.com/3114/
20 replies
Don't forget to put a tiny dog drinking coffee in there, too!
IMHO the cabin is second best. Teepee is the best for building fires.
Cabin method is better when you want to cook above the fire. The flames stay low, but on tee pee method, the flames go too high and scorch the food.
I don’t cook over open flames. Only coals.
Also this is just to start the fire. You build up a larger bed after your kindling gets going.
Idk I hate balancing everything
I have been using a Kelly kettle a lot lately, usually dump a bunch of wood shavings or dried leaves in the base and then sticks above that in the chimney.
Next, we'll try the petroleum refinery method. First, let's get some steel pipe, a MIG-welder and a barrel of crude oil.
As per usual, Randall keeps going after the punchline was already delivered, ruining the comic. It would be better if there was no text in the final panel.
I for one liked the third and fourth panels
You know, no one is holding a gun to your head. There are a billion other webcomics out there if you don't like this one.
I, for one, like Randall's more conversational style. I wouldn't want him to abruptly stop after a punchline like a stage comic from the 90s.
fair.
I feel like the last panel especially builds on the joke by continuing to divert expectations. It goes from humorously building too accurate of a log cabin, to coming back around to accidentally/on purpose starting a fire, thus completing the initial request.
The cabin is already on fire in panel 4. It is clear what happened. Then the words explain the joke.
It’s a typical instruction delivery speech structure:
Hence the text in panel 4 completes the pattern.
The point isn't it is on fire. The point is the roundabout way of getting it to be on fire.
This guy’s wiring certainly isn’t up to code.
It'd rudimentary.
It didn't understand the 4th panel as an explanation of the joke but just an emphasis on how absurd it is that the character planned all along that his installation will be wrong.
I know, what a dick right