Some jokes stay with you because they are funny. Others linger because they expose a habit you would rather not recognise. Randall Munroe’s xkcd has delivered plenty of both, from gentle and goofy cartoons to ambitious explorations of time, space and climate change.
Not every strip lands equally for every reader. Munroe often writes about computer science, engineering and highly specific technical problems, which can make some of the series feel more relevant to a specialist audience.
That is certainly true in my household. My husband, Kevin, works as a technical project manager and says there is an xkcd comic for almost any problem he encounters. His favourites include “Standards”, which shows how attempts to create one shared standard can produce even more fragmentation, and “Tasks”, which captures how difficult it can be to tell whether a programming task will be simple or practically impossible.
The comic about being wrong online
One strip has stayed in my thoughts for 18 years: “Duty Calls”. Its setup is simple. A stick figure sits at a computer while their partner asks them to come to bed. The response is that leaving is impossible because somebody is wrong on the internet, and that person will remain wrong unless the character intervenes.
The joke is especially familiar to me because arguing about pop culture is part of my professional life. That can mean reading opinions from powerful public figures and then spending time explaining why their claims or interpretations are incorrect. It is work, but the comic makes clear how absurd the situation can look from the outside.
Why “Duty Calls” remains so effective
There are more openly emotional xkcd comics, including strips connected with Munroe’s relationship with his wife and her cancer diagnosis. “Duty Calls” appeals to me for a different reason: its relationship dynamic feels like a gender-swapped version of my own life with Kevin.
Kevin has no social media presence and dislikes the idea of publishing his opinions online. When I become frustrated by an inaccurate post or an argument that demands a response, he can simply repeat the comic’s central line: “Someone is wrong on the internet.” It is a short reminder that this situation is constant, predictable and rarely worth sacrificing sleep over.
The same lesson applies to almost any screen-based hobby. Whether you are researching an new arcade machine, comparing replacement arcade parts or planning a home setup through cabinet design plans, there is always another opinion waiting to pull you into an endless online debate.
That does not mean every technical joke needs to feel personal. Kevin has little reason to worry about my work stress, just as I have no desire to estimate project timelines or debate programming languages. The strongest xkcd strips find an everyday frustration, push it into the open and make it look ridiculous.
For me, “Duty Calls” is both a great joke and useful advice: step away from the computer, resist the urge to correct every stranger, and go to bed.
Leave a Reply