Bowl
Bowl
[A boy is glaring at a model sailing ship floating in a bowl of water.] Boy: Sooner or later, my friend, one of us will run out of time.
"This is not the barrel boy. Current Mood: Final Exam-y "
Announcement "What with winter break starting and the like, I'll probably be going off my regular update schedule. I'll try to post something here and there, and might end up doing more drawings than I expect, but won't stick to the MWF schedule. Thanks for the support! This has been and will continue to be a lot of fun." This may also be due to his examinations coming up. But probably he was using a lot of time preparing for the release of his new xkcd site after new year.

The comic roughly parodies a situation in which two characters are seeing who can wait longer to get the result they want. However, in the comic, the model sailing ship is not alive and doesn't experience time (except perhaps if it absorbs water and falls apart, or beaches once the water in the bowl evaporates). The comic compares the patience of a boy with that of an inanimate object. Also, it could imply that the boy has too much time on his hands.
Like many of the earlier comics, some of this comic's humor comes from the surreality of the situation. The gravity of the boy's statement is juxtaposed with the insignificance of a child's toy floating in a bowl of water. On one level, the absurdity of this is funny in itself; on another level, the audience is invited to imagine what might possibly be going through the boy's mind to make him take this toy and bowl so seriously.
Alternatively, the comic can be taken to recognize the mortality and ultimate fate of death/decay for both the boat and the boy, creating a grim moral. But, if one goes deeper into meaning, one could realize that the comic itself is humorous for trying to make a fatalistic statement using a boy and a toy boat, still making the comic ultimately humorous.
In the original quote for this comic (see trivia ), Randall states that this is not the barrel boy . This is not only because they have a similar hairstyle. Since the Barrel Boy was floating on the water in a barrel, and this boy is looking into a bowl (not barrel) filled with water, it would be easy to draw some parallels. It was obviously important for Randall to make clear that there were no such connections.
[A boy is glaring at a model sailing ship floating in a bowl of water.] Boy: Sooner or later, my friend, one of us will run out of time.
"This is not the barrel boy. Current Mood: Final Exam-y "
Announcement "What with winter break starting and the like, I'll probably be going off my regular update schedule. I'll try to post something here and there, and might end up doing more drawings than I expect, but won't stick to the MWF schedule. Thanks for the support! This has been and will continue to be a lot of fun." This may also be due to his examinations coming up. But probably he was using a lot of time preparing for the release of his new xkcd site after new year.
