Theft of the Magi
Theft of the Magi
[Black Hat is holding up a copy of Left 4 Dead . Danish is holding up a small harness.] Black Hat: Hey. I sold your Roomba on Craigslist so I could buy myself Left 4 Dead . Danish: But I eBayed your XBox so I could get this dueling harness for my Roomba! Black hat and Danish at the same time: Aww.

This comic is a satirical play on O. Henry 's short story " The Gift of the Magi ." In O. Henry's story, a couple with very little money goes to great lengths to purchase gifts for one another. The wife sells her prized possession, her hair, to purchase a fancy chain for her husband's prize possession, a watch; the husband sells his watch to purchase some fancy hair accessories (clips/combs) for his wife. The story is about selflessness, as each party sold their prize possession to purchase something to enhance the other's prize possession.
In this comic, however, the opposite occurs: Black Hat stole Danish 's Roomba (an autonomous robotic vacuum cleaner) and sold it to buy a new game for his Xbox , while Danish stole Black Hat's Xbox and sold it to buy a "dueling harness" for her Roomba, highlighting their mutually destructive selfishness. Although these actions reflect their sociopathic personalities and are at each other's detriment, both are apparently touched by the simultaneity of their selfish actions and the symmetry of the consequences. This is a play on the reaction that readers typically have upon reading the O. Henry story: although neither of the characters can actually use their gift, the gifts are touching nevertheless because they are literal symbols of the self-sacrificing love the characters have for each other.
The "dueling harness," also mentioned in the title text, is an invention by Randall , which presumably would allow Roombas to wield weapons and battle each other like the robots in Robot Wars .
[Black Hat is holding up a copy of Left 4 Dead . Danish is holding up a small harness.] Black Hat: Hey. I sold your Roomba on Craigslist so I could buy myself Left 4 Dead . Danish: But I eBayed your XBox so I could get this dueling harness for my Roomba! Black hat and Danish at the same time: Aww.
