xkcd

by **ConMan** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 4:02 am UTC

Alt-text = "..."

"..." indeed. Who was that mysterious double-hatted man?

by **TheHand** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 4:03 am UTC

Haha I love it!

The logical yet absurd escalation of it all.

by **sje46** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 4:03 am UTC

That man is probably the most dangerous man in the world.

by **Editer** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 4:04 am UTC

Is the Power of the Black Hat additive, or multiplicative?

by **SwissArmyAnts** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 4:04 am UTC

Black hat man:
"Some one divided by zero, didn't they?"

by **Ansible** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 4:04 am UTC

I don't know if I can trust a man with two hats.

by **wizzfizz** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 4:05 am UTC

Are 2 hats better than one?
Would the classhole-inducing qualities of a black hat be cancelled out upon wearing a second?
If not then is the relationship linear or exponential?

EDIT: I see my questions are already asked.

EDIT #2: BTW, Love the new shirt in the store!

by **VHBT** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 4:05 am UTC

You know, I think I would do that, too.

Also, I doubt that this is the start of a new story. Remember the last comic like this?

by **kellsbells** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 4:06 am UTC

Is one of his hats... eating... the bottom hat?

by **Sanctuary1** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 4:07 am UTC

He may be two classy hats classy, but no one can beat 2 popped collars classy.

by **Master Gunner** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 4:07 am UTC

lol, yet more completely, utterly, absurd, awesomeness, courtesy of Randall Munroe.

by **ConMan** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 4:07 am UTC

The one thing I'd note about wearing two hats, though, is that Black Hatted Man is the Classhole - the guy who is an asshole in a classy way - and wearing the hat is part of that classiness. Wearing two hats doesn't make you classier, it makes you look like an idiot (believe me, I know).

Actually, a thought along the lines of comic 412 - perhaps there are *three* people in this comic, but you can't tell because the third one has collapsed into his hat and is currently being worn by the guy on the right. Or maybe it's some kind of trophy from having defeated another hat-wearing guy.

Website · by **Interactive Civilian** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 4:08 am UTC

For some reason, this has a "happened in real life" feeling to it...

by **aerojad** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 4:09 am UTC

Classhole is about to be dumped for classierhole. Poor guy.

How many nerds will have to die to appease his coming anger?

by **VHBT** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 4:11 am UTC

Sanctuary1 wrote:He may be two classy hats classy, but no one can beat 2 popped collars classy.

Don't you mean 4 popped collars?
(link for those who haven't seen it)

by **Solt** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 4:16 am UTC

Don't you see... it's a Hat Collector. Black Hat Man is in mortal danger.

by **Linux0s** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 4:17 am UTC

What goes on here? The power of black hats strengthen with multiples?

by **kgirlfae** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 4:20 am UTC

I love the "Recoiling" lines. That's my favorite part.

One of my favorite comics overall...

by **krynd** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 4:21 am UTC

Honestly, when I saw this, I thought like BHM did: WTF?

A guy wearing two hats is a threat to take seriously. It's kind of like the Joker: just the fact that he dresses "weird" makes you very apprehensive. You just know something bad is about to go down. The fact that his face is discolored due to chemical burns only makes you that much more afraid.

At least the laughter puts you at ease...

by **Glenn Magus Harvey** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 4:24 am UTC

Am I the only one who thinks that those things look like half rests?

by **krynd** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 4:27 am UTC

Not really. To me, they seem much too big to be considered musical in nature.

Instead, it looked to me like the number 7 (binary code). The bell has rung.

EDIT: Though why the BHM would be ringing a bell as he tries to sneak away is beyond me. Unless he was signaling for BHW to come and help him (maybe plant some land mines to pre-emptively strike DBHM (Double-Black-Hat Man) before he destroys the black-hatted population of the xkcd-verse).

by **JonRock** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 4:29 am UTC

I hope this is the start of a series of comics

by **scarletmanuka** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 4:33 am UTC

I was just reading "The Cat in the Hat Comes Back" to one of my kids on Saturday night. At least we didn't see a succession of ever tinier stick figures in ever tinier hats...

And now I'm wondering what the xkcd equivalent of VOOM would be. (VOOM, if you haven't read the book lately, is a magical cleaning substance(?) that Little Cat Z has underneath his hat. When unleashed it instantly cleans up the mess, which at this point is all over the snow outside, and also shovels the snow off the path and generally tidies up. With a very loud VOOM noise, hence the name.)

... whatever the xkcd equivalent is, presumably there's an emacs command for it, as per Real Programmers.

by **nikobro** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 4:35 am UTC

My first impression was that the motion lines could have been representative of a magnetic field, with the likeness of the hats repelling each other

by **lingomaniac88** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 4:39 am UTC

The original classhole should get two more hats. And then the other gets two more hats... repeat ad infinitum.

by **frozendevil** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 4:40 am UTC

The Classhole has fallen victim to a common hat-spotting error!

B = ((H+1)^-1 * C)/K

Where B is the bassass factor, H is the number of hats worn, C is the Classhole Constant and K is Karma.

We need three hat backup! Stat!

Edit: I like the idea of hats being similar-natured and therefore repellent.

by **seconskin552** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 4:42 am UTC

I do believe the hat is a trophy from killing another classhole. However, i feel that the hats should cancel out due to the amount of classy. BTW, 4 collars popped made me lol so hard my cat woke up and clawed me. I was still loling even in pain.

by **britMonster** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 4:43 am UTC

When I was little I was told it was bad luck to wear two hats at once. Also to put hats on the bed. To this day, I will still do neither.

Bad things happened last time I put a hat on a bed.

by **'; DROP DATABASE;--** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 4:45 am UTC

It's a glitch in the Matrix.

by **cephalopod9** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 5:00 am UTC

An alt text has been reused! :gasp:

by **musthavebeenmykarma** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 5:03 am UTC

ConMan wrote:The one thing I'd note about wearing two hats, though, is that Black Hatted Man is the Classhole - the guy who is an asshole in a classy way - and wearing the hat is part of that classiness. Wearing two hats doesn't make you classier, it makes you look like an idiot (believe me, I know).

Agreed... this two-hatted man is clearly a poser, and BHM should kick his arse.

by **jakerman999** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 5:07 am UTC

We are dealing with a black-hat-wearing-black-hat-wearing-man(who shall be called bhwbhwm from now on).

black hat guy just got pwned pretty hard, he might want to sit down

by **benjhuey** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 5:09 am UTC

The hats are breeding. They have chosen a host best suited for its balance and posture. A very rare occurrence, even in nature.

by **aidantaus** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 5:10 am UTC

Man, Johnny must be pissed off now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8K1fTZaR7w

by **Vandole** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 5:10 am UTC

I think he's some kind of hat hunter, or maybe received the second hat from another classhole who he outdid.

by **ohthecommotion** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 5:10 am UTC

I have the answer!

So, I'm here in San Diego. I visited to attend comic con with my friend, Tara. We went to see Randall at his booth, and both asked for sketches. When he asked her what she wanted, she asked if he could just draw something surprising. So, he drew this:
http://ohthecommotion.googlepages.com/CIMG1550.JPG

Now, obviously I have no hard proof that this was drawn just the other day (and I don't know if Mr. Munroe is the type to confirm something like this), but I promise it was, and it does seem pretty suspect. And totally awesome.

Mr. Munroe, if you do read this post, Tara and I both thank you very much, and if it was the inspiration for this strip, well...that is just fantastic.

by **Upsilon** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 5:11 am UTC

aerojad wrote:Classhole is about to be dumped for classierhole. Poor guy.

That isn't classierhole. Classierhole has a monocle.

by **tetsujin** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 5:15 am UTC

sje46 wrote:That man is probably the most dangerous man in the world.

He's like General Grievous, except instead of collecting lightsabers from Jedi it's hats from guys who wear hats.

by **RSMaster** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 5:18 am UTC

Edit: Ninja'd!

by **vodka.cobra** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 5:24 am UTC

Dear lord, what has science done?!

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