Irony
Irony
[A panel only with text. The last text is written below a line in all capital letters.] When self-reference, irony, and meta-humor go too far A CAUTIONARY TALE
[Cueball talks to to his Cueball-like friend.] Cueball: This statement wouldn't be funny if not for irony!
[Cueball laughs at his own joke in front of his friend.] Cueball: ha ha Friend: ha ha, I guess.
[Again a panel only with text.] 20,000 years later...
[A desolate brown badlands landscape with an imposing red sun in the dark blue sky.]

It must be part of the human condition that causes us to think that odd statements are sometimes more humorous than those supposed to be funny. Cueball makes a true statement, that his statement is not very funny. However, because he invoked irony and thus makes it self-referential, the sentence is now funny! The other guy (also a Cueball-like character), producing a fake laugh, is probably not so sure that it is actually funny.
Now going meta: In 20,000 years, there might be no more humans on earth to find the irony funny anymore. How ironic ! Alternatively, the barren landscape would have occurred regardless of whether someone made the joke, so ironically, the cautionary tale is completely meaningless, although still funny.
This is the first xkcd comic showing stick figure people, which eventually becomes a defining characteristic of the future comic series. It is thus also the first comic with Cueball (and the first with Multiple Cueballs ). Note however, that it was actually not the first comic Randall released using either of the above mentioned features, see the trivia below.
The "too much perspective" line comes from the visit of Spın̈al Tap to the grave of Elvis Presley . In addition, the perspective theme also invokes the Total Perspective Vortex in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy . This is located on the desolate planet Frogstar B, possibly looking not unlike the final image in the comic.
Self-references was already used again in 33: Self-reference , and again and again , but never more famously than in 688: Self-Description .
[A panel only with text. The last text is written below a line in all capital letters.] When self-reference, irony, and meta-humor go too far A CAUTIONARY TALE
[Cueball talks to to his Cueball-like friend.] Cueball: This statement wouldn't be funny if not for irony!
[Cueball laughs at his own joke in front of his friend.] Cueball: ha ha Friend: ha ha, I guess.
[Again a panel only with text.] 20,000 years later...
[A desolate brown badlands landscape with an imposing red sun in the dark blue sky.]
