Bun
Bun
[Ponytail is a teacher and she holds a pointer to a picture of a rabbit on a board behind her.] Ponytail: Good morning class! Today, we will be learning about the bun.
[Two rabbits are shown, one slightly smaller, and a greater than symbol indicates that the smaller one is "greater than" the larger one. Ponytail is talking off panel to the left.] Ponytail (off panel): Buns have a hierarchy. Ponytail (off panel): A bun's rank is determined by its size. Smaller buns are higher-ranking.
[Two normal sized rabbits are sitting left and right of a very small rabbit. The smaller rabbit appears to give off a radiant light indicated with gray and white alternating rays going through the image. It is indicated that it shines on the larger rabbits as they are gray on the side turned away from the smaller rabbit and white on the front turned towards it. Ponytail narrates above the frame of this half sized panel:] Ponytail (narrating): Most buns you see are relatively low-ranking. Ponytail (narrating): But this time of year, a lucky few may catch a glimpse of a king bun .
[A student represented by Megan is sitting at a desk with a few books on it, pencil in hand.] Megan: OK, hang on. Megan: We're talking about rabbits and hares, right? Lagomorphs?
[Ponytail is holding her finger up on her left hand, and is holding her pointer at her side with the other. Students reply to her off panel to the right.] Ponytail: Informally, yes. But in this course, we use the scientific term, "bun". Student #1 (off-panel): Are we sure this is the right room for introductory mammalogy? Student #2 (off-panel): I'll check online. Student #3 (off-panel): Shh! Show respect! We look upon the image of a king!

In this comic, Ponytail is teaching a class about an animal referred to as a "bun". The word "bun" is short for bunny , which is in turn an informal term used for a rabbit . The comic depicts a childish response to seeing a cute animal, but coming from an adult. The humor in the comic comes from a tone of absurdity in a classroom situation where lectures are expected to be serious.
The lecture opens with the statement that smaller buns are superior in rank, which is plainly false. [ citation needed ] Instead, the teacher clearly thinks that smaller bunnies are just cuter. She mentions that "king buns" may be seen around this time of year, which refers to rabbit kittens being born in the spring. Kittens would be smaller and cuter than any other rabbits because of their age. There is no mention of a "queen bun", but the gender of the kitten can be difficult to determine without a close examination. A prime example of a king bun can be seen here .
Megan , who attends this biology class, expected to learn about rabbits and hares which are both lagomorphs , a mammalian order that also includes the pikas . Megan thus clearly has the correct understanding of what a "bun" is. Ponytail then claims that the word bun is the scientific term, and states that rabbit, hare, and lagomorph are informal ways to describe these animals, again being completely wrong as in reality bun is the most contracted and informal name for a rabbit.
Two students are then legitimately doubting that they're in the correct class and decide to check online (either the crude theories that Ponytail expressed, or their course schedule). A third student however appears to believe the lecturer uncritically, reminding the fellow students that they're looking upon the image of a king (i.e. a cute bunny).
The title text refers to photographing a rabbit and, for example, posting it on social media - something which would typically be done today if someone sees a cute rabbit in the wild. If the poster had failed to photograph the rabbit before it ran away, they may typically post a message saying something like "I saw a really cute bunny today!" with an emoji depiction of a rabbit (probably 🐇 or 🐰 ). This is especially common in the area where Randall lives, as the urban rabbit population in the Cambridge/Somerville area has exploded, putting a large human population with relatively little previous experience with rabbit-sightings suddenly in the position of encountering them very frequently. [ citation needed ] Emoji have become a recurrent theme on xkcd.
Ponytail tells that buns have a hierarchy in which the smaller the bun, the higher its ranking is - a rank-size distribution. A "king bun" can be seen as an instance of the king effect, the phenomenon where the top one or two members of a ranked set show up as outliers. An interesting linguistic note is that in several languages (including Czech and Polish), the word for rabbit literally means "little king".
[Ponytail is a teacher and she holds a pointer to a picture of a rabbit on a board behind her.] Ponytail: Good morning class! Today, we will be learning about the bun.
[Two rabbits are shown, one slightly smaller, and a greater than symbol indicates that the smaller one is "greater than" the larger one. Ponytail is talking off panel to the left.] Ponytail (off panel): Buns have a hierarchy. Ponytail (off panel): A bun's rank is determined by its size. Smaller buns are higher-ranking.
[Two normal sized rabbits are sitting left and right of a very small rabbit. The smaller rabbit appears to give off a radiant light indicated with gray and white alternating rays going through the image. It is indicated that it shines on the larger rabbits as they are gray on the side turned away from the smaller rabbit and white on the front turned towards it. Ponytail narrates above the frame of this half sized panel:] Ponytail (narrating): Most buns you see are relatively low-ranking. Ponytail (narrating): But this time of year, a lucky few may catch a glimpse of a king bun .
[A student represented by Megan is sitting at a desk with a few books on it, pencil in hand.] Megan: OK, hang on. Megan: We're talking about rabbits and hares, right? Lagomorphs?
[Ponytail is holding her finger up on her left hand, and is holding her pointer at her side with the other. Students reply to her off panel to the right.] Ponytail: Informally, yes. But in this course, we use the scientific term, "bun". Student #1 (off-panel): Are we sure this is the right room for introductory mammalogy? Student #2 (off-panel): I'll check online. Student #3 (off-panel): Shh! Show respect! We look upon the image of a king!
