# Randall Munroe is fucking creepy **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** comic-strips\ **Created:** [March 14, 2014, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/randall-munroe-is-fucking-creepy/683713 "2014-03-14T19:51:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Incubus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c68b51/32.png) [@Incubus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Incubus)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2014, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/randall-munroe-is-fucking-creepy/683713/1 "2014-03-14T19:51:26Z")
Randall Munroe, author of the xkcd comic, has many strips that are just off the rails in creepiness. I get the not-so-subtle feeling that ‘cueball’ is a self-insert, and the obsession with ‘Megan’ is Randall being obsessed about his ex girlfriend. Assuming I’m correct, [what kind of person writes this stuff?](http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/jealousy.png) Let’s say that I’m right and Cueball is really Randall and Megan is his ex girlfriend. That means his poor ex has to deal with the embarassment of having this guy’s Nice Guy Passive Agressive Rant scrawled all over the internet. Maybe nobody knows who his ex girlfriend is in real life, even then it has to be pretty embarassing to have him write stuff like this. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2014, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/randall-munroe-is-fucking-creepy/683713/2 "2014-03-14T20:10:27Z")
I thought her ended up marrying “Megan” in real life, and stood by her through her cancer battle. Personally, I find him anything but creepy and wonderfully creative. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2014, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/randall-munroe-is-fucking-creepy/683713/3 "2014-03-14T20:12:55Z")
Yeah, it’s outrageous when artists draw on real life for material. ---
**Author:** ![Frazzled](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frazzled/32/3368_2.png) [@Frazzled](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frazzled)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2014, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/randall-munroe-is-fucking-creepy/683713/4 "2014-03-14T20:15:50Z")
I agree with the OP that Cue Ball is Munroe and Megan is his girlfriend / wife. But like others said, I thought they got married. I think she’s still alive and haven’t read anything about her lately. Clearly her cancer has influenced a number of his strips and was responsible for his long hiatus a couple of years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2014, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/randall-munroe-is-fucking-creepy/683713/5 "2014-03-14T20:20:00Z")
Never even thought of Megan as a real person Just an amalgamation of women from the eyes of the “good guy who finishes last” I also figured he stopped writing about her once he got a real girlfriend (now wife) ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2014, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/randall-munroe-is-fucking-creepy/683713/6 "2014-03-14T20:20:22Z")
Myself, I thought there were probably a lot of real-life inspirations for ‘Megan’ - the fiancee/wife who had cancer, yeah, but some of his exes are probably mixed up in there too, and friends. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2014, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/randall-munroe-is-fucking-creepy/683713/7 "2014-03-14T20:22:21Z")
Maybe, but he’s certainly not obsessing over an ex in some creepy way. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2014, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/randall-munroe-is-fucking-creepy/683713/8 "2014-03-14T20:28:10Z")
[According to this site](http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Megan), “The name Megan derives from a lost love of the author’s.” Which is different from the character being based on an ex or “really” being an ex. These days I always get suspicious when people say a fictional character is “really” some real person. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Doom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/0ea827/32.png) [@Dr\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Doom)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2014, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/randall-munroe-is-fucking-creepy/683713/9 "2014-03-14T20:29:31Z")
It’s a joke. Can’t you see the narrator standing in a tuxedo at a dais, delivering this speech as an incredibly awkward toast to the bride (his first love) and groom (his best friend)? ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2014, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/randall-munroe-is-fucking-creepy/683713/10 "2014-03-14T20:33:52Z")
He’s a writer and they are characters. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2014, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/randall-munroe-is-fucking-creepy/683713/11 "2014-03-14T20:34:22Z")
Life is real. If you haven’t loved more than one person, being honest with yourself, you haven’t lived much. And when you get married, your spouse has already loved other people, and is probably still fond of most of them. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2014, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/randall-munroe-is-fucking-creepy/683713/12 "2014-03-14T20:36:42Z")
I believe that comic is what we hu-mons call a[joke](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joke). ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2014, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/randall-munroe-is-fucking-creepy/683713/13 "2014-03-14T20:38:53Z")
> [@Dr\_Doom](#): > > It’s a joke. > > Can’t you see the narrator standing in a tuxedo at a dais, delivering this speech as an incredibly awkward toast to the bride (his first love) and groom (his best friend)? Exactly. It’s Munroe making a joke about the kind of obsession the OP is talking about. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2014, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/randall-munroe-is-fucking-creepy/683713/14 "2014-03-14T20:40:39Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > I believe that comic is what we hu-mons call a[joke](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joke). Oh _that_. When you get down to it, everything in the OP is an assumption: Megan is the ex, Cueball is Randall, the speech represents the author’s real feelings. What’s the basis for believing any of that? ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2014, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/randall-munroe-is-fucking-creepy/683713/15 "2014-03-14T20:41:45Z")
He has way too much ironic distance from his writing for anyone to think that he’s being serious. It would be amusing, though, to contribute our most creepy XKCDs. [Here](https://xkcd.com/513/) is my submission. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2014, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/randall-munroe-is-fucking-creepy/683713/16 "2014-03-14T20:58:47Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > He has way too much ironic distance from his writing for anyone to think that he’s being serious. > > It would be amusing, though, to contribute our most creepy XKCDs. [Here](https://xkcd.com/513/) is my submission. That’s not creepy. That’s an incisive and rather cutting analysis of the whole “nice guy” issue, and frankly, I think it should be an IMHO sticky. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2014, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/randall-munroe-is-fucking-creepy/683713/17 "2014-03-14T21:06:22Z")
Everyone knows that if a character in a story makes a statement, that means the author believes it to be true and is trying to convince the readers that it is true. ---
**Author:** ![Sr\_Siete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@Sr\_Siete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sr_Siete)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2014, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/randall-munroe-is-fucking-creepy/683713/18 "2014-03-14T21:06:48Z")
Wait, you talk about Randall and creepiness, and it’s not a comic starring the black hat guy? But- but- HOW? ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2014, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/randall-munroe-is-fucking-creepy/683713/19 "2014-03-14T21:25:57Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > I believe that comic is what we hu-mons call a[joke](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joke). Can you also teach us this thing you call "love?’ ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2014, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/randall-munroe-is-fucking-creepy/683713/20 "2014-03-14T21:26:22Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > Everyone knows that if a character in a story makes a statement, that means the author believes it to be true and is trying to convince the readers that it is true. A symptom of the Facebook age. With everyone yapping about their own lives, who has time for fiction? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/randall-munroe-is-fucking-creepy/683713.md?page=2)