Movie Folder
Movie Folder
[Black Hat is sitting in an armchair, with the right arm on the armrest and looking at his smartphone held in his left hand, when a voice from behind him (off-panel left) addresses him. It turns out in the next panels that it is Cueball.] Cueball (off-panel): Your movie folder is so weird . Where do you find all this stuff? Black Hat: Dunno. Black Hat: Around.
[In an frame-less panel Cueball is seen sitting in an office chair at a desk facing left. He is looking at Black Hat's computer while typing on the keyboard which is on a shelve lower than the regular desk surface. Black Hat replies to his queries from behind him off-panel right.] Cueball: Lorem Ipsum: The Movie? Cueball: Titanic XCVIII? Black Hat (off-panel): That series gets good when they start hitting the reef created by all the previous wrecks.
[Cueball leans in closer to the screen.] Cueball: Debbie Did 9/11? Cueball: Time Jam: A Connecticut Huskie on King Arthur's Court? Black Hat (off-panel): Really underrated Space Jam sequel.
[Zoom in on the scene so nothing beneath the keyboard is visible. The screen and Cueballs head almost spans the width of the panel.] Cueball: Harold and Kumar Go to Howl's Moving Castle? Cueball: A Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal Deviates? Black Hat (off-panel): That's the original-the book was a novelization.
[Back to Black Hat sitting in the chair as in the first panel, but leaning a bit further back and the arm on the armrest has been moved closer to him.] Cueball (off-panel): Michael Bay's The Vagina Monologues!? Black Hat: It's pretty good, despite all the CGI explosions.

Cueball is looking through Black Hat's downloaded movies, which are all adaptations of non-literary works, improbable sequels, and/or crossovers between very disparate properties. Cueball reacts with increasing incredulity to Black Hat's collection, while Black Hat casually responds with equally unlikely (non-)explanations. Knowing Black Hat, his movie folder is deliberately weird just to provoke this kind of reaction.
In the real world, there are movies which can provoke similar shock. For example, many successful films get direct-to-video (or, now, direct-to-digital ) sequels and spinoffs, often featuring none of the original cast and which get very little marketing. Therefore, someone might be surprised to know that there's an American Psycho 2 , a Starship Troopers 3 , a Dr. Dolittle 5 , or a Bring It On 5 . Randall previously made fun of the proliferation of direct-to-video sequels in What If: Twitter Timeline Height , with at least 27 Land Before Time films (in reality, there were 14).
Another source of weird titles are mockbusters . When a film uses a public domain property as its basis, or a title that is too generic to trademark, other studios will simply create their own films and pretend that they're a sequel to the more famous film. Examples include Titanic II , Troll 2 , Troll 3 , the other Troll 3 , Day of the Dead 2: Contagium , Alien 2: On Earth (not to be confused with the real sequel Aliens ) and War of the Worlds 2: The Next Wave .
Marketing wheezes have also produced some crossovers almost as unexpected as those in the comic — Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde , Scooby-Doo! WrestleMania Mystery and Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter are all real films.
A similar setting with Cueball and Black Hat also discussing movies was seen in 493: Actuarial . Back then Black Hat was still reading newspapers. Black Hat has previously given similar non-answers to long series of questions from Cueball in 908: The Cloud and 1159: Countdown .
Another type of comic where movie titles needs to be guessed from strange versions of the title was previously used in the Synonym Movies series.
[Black Hat is sitting in an armchair, with the right arm on the armrest and looking at his smartphone held in his left hand, when a voice from behind him (off-panel left) addresses him. It turns out in the next panels that it is Cueball.] Cueball (off-panel): Your movie folder is so weird . Where do you find all this stuff? Black Hat: Dunno. Black Hat: Around.
[In an frame-less panel Cueball is seen sitting in an office chair at a desk facing left. He is looking at Black Hat's computer while typing on the keyboard which is on a shelve lower than the regular desk surface. Black Hat replies to his queries from behind him off-panel right.] Cueball: Lorem Ipsum: The Movie? Cueball: Titanic XCVIII? Black Hat (off-panel): That series gets good when they start hitting the reef created by all the previous wrecks.
[Cueball leans in closer to the screen.] Cueball: Debbie Did 9/11? Cueball: Time Jam: A Connecticut Huskie on King Arthur's Court? Black Hat (off-panel): Really underrated Space Jam sequel.
[Zoom in on the scene so nothing beneath the keyboard is visible. The screen and Cueballs head almost spans the width of the panel.] Cueball: Harold and Kumar Go to Howl's Moving Castle? Cueball: A Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal Deviates? Black Hat (off-panel): That's the original-the book was a novelization.
[Back to Black Hat sitting in the chair as in the first panel, but leaning a bit further back and the arm on the armrest has been moved closer to him.] Cueball (off-panel): Michael Bay's The Vagina Monologues!? Black Hat: It's pretty good, despite all the CGI explosions.
