Tornado
Tornado
[Cueball is a news commentator holding a microphone while standing in front of a small village with three (intact) houses behind him.] Cueball: The tornado touched down directly over a merry-go-round, in what victims are calling a "fun" and "awesome" disaster.

A merry-go-round (or carousel) is an amusement ride consisting of a (usually) slowly rotating circular platform with seats for riders. These seats are traditionally wooden horses. Merry-go-rounds usually rotate slowly, as it is a children's ride. [ citation needed ] The implication is that a tornado have made a merry-go-round spin much faster, creating the "fun" and "awesome" experience described by the news commentator. In reality such an event would most likely destroy the merry-go-round or at least damage it in a way that would keep it from spinning, such as by breaking an axle or bearing. Barring damage to the merry-go-round itself, if the tornado caused it to spin much faster than normal, anyone riding it at the time would likely be thrown off and injured due to the increased centrifugal force .
The title text refers to the spinning teacup ride which consists of several circular units ("teacups") that seat several people each. They rotate around their center axis, while simultaneously orbiting the center of the entire ride, exposing people to acceleration in rapidly shifting, seemingly random directions. The second tornado system, as reported in the title text, had multiple vortices , similarly rotating around a common center, that attached themselves to each of the "teacups", also spinning them faster than normal operation of the ride would have. This is, of course, even less likely (to happen, and to result in no injuries if it did) than the single-vortex tornado on a merry-go-round.
Tornadoes are a recurring subject on xkcd. This setup is a variety of the news anchor category , but since Cueball is not in a studio it cannot be included in that category.
[Cueball is a news commentator holding a microphone while standing in front of a small village with three (intact) houses behind him.] Cueball: The tornado touched down directly over a merry-go-round, in what victims are calling a "fun" and "awesome" disaster.
