Actors
Actors
[Caption above the Panel:] Who are today's 10 hottest actors? [Cueball is holding a clipboard, taking notes, while Megan aims an infrared thermometer off screen.] Megan: 81.5, but I think it got part of his shirt. HEY JUSTIN — HOLD STILL! [Caption below the Panel:] We grab an infrared thermometer and find out!

This comic plays on different meanings of the word "hottest". In the opening question, "Who are today's 10 hottest actors?" the word "hottest" would typically refer to an actor's popularity, success, demand, or attractiveness. Cueball and Megan interpret the word "hottest" as asking them to list the 10 actors who have the highest surface temperature, and we see them measuring "Justin's" (possibly referring to Long , Theroux , Bieber or Timberlake or any of the several other Justin s in show business [1] ) surface temperature using an infrared thermometer (the thermometer typically has a laser pointer to know the approximate location where the radiometric temperature comes from). The measured temperature of 81.5 is presumably reported in degrees Fahrenheit , corresponding to 27.5 °C . This temperature is below the average human internal body temperature of 98.6 °F /37 °C as skin is cooler; Megan also believes that another object (Justin's shirt) was also measured within the infrared thermometer field of view, lowering the reported measurement. With such a measurement of hotness , the hottest actor on any given day would probably be whoever is exercising, sick with a fever, or whoever has been outside in the sun the longest and/or has been sunburned, since this typically causes skin to be hot. Or, an animal actor, of a species with a higher body temperature than humans. ( Category:Films about birds )
Randall here excludes the fact that accurately deriving surface temperature from bright (radiance) temperature requires knowing the emissivity of the object. Since not all objects radiate with the same efficiency, two objects with the same surface temperature will emit different thermal radiance, but if emissivity is not taken into account they will report different surface temperatures.
The title-text references the temperatures of Hollywood's rising stars, this time interpreting stars as actual stars, not famous people. In this case, the star ξ Persei in the Perseus constellation (which is located in, and responsible for the fluorescence of, an object called the California Nebula ), one of the hottest stars (35,000 kelvins , Sun : 5,800 K) visible to the naked eye. The star also has similar declination (+35° 47′) as the latitude of Hollywood (34° N) so it is literally rising there every night.
Comic 1111: Premiere is another comic based on "star" puns.
[Caption above the Panel:] Who are today's 10 hottest actors? [Cueball is holding a clipboard, taking notes, while Megan aims an infrared thermometer off screen.] Megan: 81.5, but I think it got part of his shirt. HEY JUSTIN — HOLD STILL! [Caption below the Panel:] We grab an infrared thermometer and find out!
