Worst Thing That Could Happen
Worst Thing That Could Happen
[Ponytail is standing in front of a desk with a computer. One of her hands is on the keyboard. Behind her, Cueball, Hairy, and Megan are looking at the computer screen.] Ponytail: We should upgrade.  What's the worst that could happen? Cueball: Supervolcano. Hairy: Robot uprising. Megan: Everyone falls down a well at once.
[Zoom in on Cueball, Hairy, and Megan. Cueball has turned toward the other two.] Cueball: Instead of hitting the tallest thing around, lightning starts hitting the nicest. Megan: Seagulls all get handguns. Hairy: A really slow nuclear war.
[Large panel with the original setting. Ponytail has turned towards the other three but is now facepalming, as Cueball gesturing with his hands at chest-height are still looking at the other two facing him.] Cueball: We all have to go on a game show where they show you photos of people you've met once and ask you their names, and if you get one wrong a trapdoor opens and you fall into a garbage disposal. Hairy: Ooh, that's a good one. Megan: Yeah, let's put off the upgrade.

Ponytail and her friends are considering upgrading some part or program of their computers. They may feel the need to upgrade because the software they are currently using has some vulnerability that is only patched in newer revisions (this comic was released just two weeks after the end of extended support for Windows 7 ), or because they want to have access to some new feature. As part of the decision-making process, Ponytail asks her friends, "What's the worst that could happen?" If the computers they are discussing are privately owned, she may be concerned about losing personal data or having to learn new software interfaces. On the other hand, if they are discussing a corporate computer system, there may also be business-related risks. If their company relies on functionality offered by their current system that has been deprecated or modified in the updated version (such as in 1172: Workflow , or as with many specialized tools or machines in the real world), they may suffer downtime while they modify the rest of their workflow. Even if the upgraded system should continue to fit their needs, they may need to take some downtime to perform the update and deal with the risks of something going badly along the way, and there may be major costs associated with license subscriptions and support contracts. "What's the worst that could happen?" is also a common rhetorical question ; Ponytail may be expressing a belief that nothing bad could happen as a result of the upgrade, and not expecting an answer.
Unfortunately, Ponytail's friends answer with their ideas for the worst things that could happen ever , not as a result of the upgrade , as Ponytail meant, or they are taking the question to the logical extreme and invoking chaos theory . The result is a list of "worst things" ridiculously unconnected to a computer upgrade. At the end, however, Megan interprets these as possible results of the upgrade, and advises against upgrading. A list with explanations can be found below. Ponytail facepalms at her friends' overly-literal senses of humor.
Alternatively, Ponytail could be facepalming at the fact that the worst thing which could happen, according to her team, is that they are put on a ridiculous game show in which, if they answer a question incorrectly, they are chucked in garbage disposal. This may be bad, but it is nowhere near as bad as an erupting supervolcano or nuclear war. [ citation needed ] However, Cueball has shown anxiety and difficulties in social situations, such as the less-than-helpful advice in 1917: How to Make Friends , so he (and likewise Hairy and Megan) may consider that embarrassment on the game show (which might then be immortalized online) is worse than instantaneous death in a nuclear war.
Megan and Cueball have previously experienced a severely-botched upgrade in 349: Success , in which Cueball somehow caused them to end up in shark-infested waters off the coast of a deserted island when he was just trying to get their computer to dual-boot BSD.
The title text talks about searching upgrade release notes for some of the things listed to be sure none are potential side effects of an upgrade. "Ctrl-F" is a common keyboard shortcut for "find text string" in many programs. Since Randall is just reading but not changing the patch notes, a web browser, PDF viewer, or word processing program such as Adobe Reader or Microsoft Word might have been used.
[Ponytail is standing in front of a desk with a computer. One of her hands is on the keyboard. Behind her, Cueball, Hairy, and Megan are looking at the computer screen.] Ponytail: We should upgrade.  What's the worst that could happen? Cueball: Supervolcano. Hairy: Robot uprising. Megan: Everyone falls down a well at once.
[Zoom in on Cueball, Hairy, and Megan. Cueball has turned toward the other two.] Cueball: Instead of hitting the tallest thing around, lightning starts hitting the nicest. Megan: Seagulls all get handguns. Hairy: A really slow nuclear war.
[Large panel with the original setting. Ponytail has turned towards the other three but is now facepalming, as Cueball gesturing with his hands at chest-height are still looking at the other two facing him.] Cueball: We all have to go on a game show where they show you photos of people you've met once and ask you their names, and if you get one wrong a trapdoor opens and you fall into a garbage disposal. Hairy: Ooh, that's a good one. Megan: Yeah, let's put off the upgrade.
