I have no idea what this means, but somehow I find it funny anyway

Cidu Bill on Sep 30th 2009

unification.PNG

Filed in Abstruse Goose, Bill Bickel, CIDU, comic strips, comics, humor | 25 responses so far

25 Responses to “I have no idea what this means, but somehow I find it funny anyway”

  1. Ray Brady Sep 30th 2009 at 08:47 pm 1

    Well, the three victims are the Strong and Weak nuclear forces, and the Electo-Magnetic force. The gunman is Gravity, the fourth essential force of the universe.

    If there’s any point beyond absurdity, I don’t know what it is.

  2. Frosted Donut Sep 30th 2009 at 08:51 pm 2

    And Gravity is by far the weakest of the forces. Maybe Gravity got a gun to compensate?

    (And thanks Ray, for the clue in. I was thinking they were letters and spelled out “mens” and the “G” was some kind of “G-man.”)

  3. Alex Sep 30th 2009 at 09:00 pm 3

    The joke is that physicists have managed to come up with a theoretical framework for ‘unifying’ the strong and weak nuclear forces and the EM force. The remaining force, gravity, remains a problem and someone has yet to come up with a quantum theory of gravity, despite decades of brainstorming:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_gravity

  4. David N Sep 30th 2009 at 09:01 pm 4

    Gravity is the weakest of the 4 major forces. The joke here is that he can’t kill the other forces right off, because he’s a wuss. He has to keep shooting … and shooting … and finally kicking.

  5. TasmanSea Sep 30th 2009 at 09:44 pm 5

    I agree with Alex- the 3 other forces are playing nicely by fitting into the theory together, but gravity is messing everything up.

  6. Izzy Sep 30th 2009 at 09:48 pm 6

    Before the punchline, I assumed the “G” stood for Gangster.

  7. Tim Sep 30th 2009 at 10:18 pm 7

    Thanks. Never would have gotten that one. I was trying to make some kind of a word out of that. (”Swem? What does Swem mean?”) I would have thought that here was a G-man, and the punchline referred to the fact that one of the dead bodies didn’t quite fall all the way, or something?

    Can’t say it enough. Never would have gotten that one.

  8. Winter Wallaby Sep 30th 2009 at 11:10 pm 8

    I’ll also add that the ordering is order of hugging is significant as well. The weak and electromagnetic forces have been successfully unified (i.e. shown to be different manifestations of the same force) in electroweak theory. In recent decades, there have been a number of “grand unified theories” that try to unite the strong and electroweak force. However, these theories have not been experimentally verified, so the group hug in the 5th and 6th panels is a little premature.

  9. Frank the curmudgeon Sep 30th 2009 at 11:52 pm 9

    I got lost in the second panel when I realized the “W” wasn’t a par of boobs.

  10. mkilby Oct 1st 2009 at 02:12 am 10

    If you simply ignore the letters, it’s sort of like the scenes in the old Superman TV episodes: the bad guy fires the revolver’s six shots at Superman’s chest, who stands there with a silly grin on his face as the bullets bounce off in every direction. THEN the bad guy THROWS the revolver at Superman, who DUCKS it. I would think that if a speeding bullet isn’t fatal, a thrown gun (or a boot to the head, as in the above cartoon) would have no effect at all.

  11. Powers Oct 1st 2009 at 07:00 am 11

    I didn’t get it until I read the caption and realized that G was Gravity.

  12. GP Oct 1st 2009 at 08:07 am 12

    I don’t think the joke is that gravity is weak, or has to go to extreme measures to destroy the others. It’s a personification of what physicists are experiencing. They’re getting the other forces to fit together, and just when everything seems to be going nicely and it looks like a unified theory might work, gravity comes in and messes everything up. Gravity “shoots holes” in every attempt to create a truly unified theory. And in case you thought you still had a chance of unifying after that, gravity reminds you that there’s no way he’s going to let that happen. Gravity is a jerk.

  13. jayjaybear Oct 1st 2009 at 10:58 am 13

    This was more xkcd than xkcd is, half the time…

  14. Carl Oct 1st 2009 at 11:04 am 14

    I’m probably being too subtle, but gravity does overpower the other forces if enough mass is present. When there’s enough mass to overpower the electromagnetic force, matter collapses into neutronium, as in neutron stars. When sufficient mass is present to overcome the nuclear forces, there is no known force to stop the collapse and you end up with a black hole (in current models).

  15. DevilDan Oct 1st 2009 at 11:15 am 15

    I agree: Gravity is a real downer.

  16. Mark in Boston Oct 1st 2009 at 11:36 am 16

    “jerk”? is that the four-letter word signified by ****? The only other word I can think of that would apply is a five-letter word.

  17. Fnord Oct 1st 2009 at 12:05 pm 17

    Mark, “dick” is a four letter word.

  18. Paperboy Oct 1st 2009 at 02:04 pm 18

    If I want puzzles, I do the cross-word or Spot-The-Differences.

  19. firedmyass Oct 1st 2009 at 06:11 pm 19

    I understand, Paperboy. Learning new things can be very upsetting.

  20. paperboy Oct 1st 2009 at 10:04 pm 20

    So THAT’S why you’re so calm, firedmyass.

  21. Ben Carlsen Oct 2nd 2009 at 08:00 am 21

    Man. Another one of those days when I’m just not smart enough to read the comics.

  22. Lord Jubjub Oct 2nd 2009 at 06:50 pm 22

    Winter Wallaby, it was my understanding that they had found the particles that unified the three forces thus proving the Grand Unified Theory. The problem is that the energy needed to classically integrate gravity would be equal to a small sun.

  23. paperboy Oct 2nd 2009 at 09:12 pm 23

    Ohh! NOW I get it!!! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!

  24. meerkat Oct 11th 2009 at 11:36 pm 24

    Yeah, I didn’t get it until I saw the caption but then I figured we were dealing with an extreme mass situation where gravity overpowers the other forces, like a black hole or neutron star. However, the GUT explanation is appealing too.

  25. Markovian Process Oct 22nd 2009 at 11:00 pm 25

    The 4 of them represent the 4 fundamental forces of the universe, the Weak Force, the Strong Force, The Electromagnetic Force and Gravity… why Gravity shot them, I’m not sure… maybe because even though it’s the weakest of the 4 it’s the one who has the most barring on our day to day life?

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