xkcd is a stick-figure webcomic by Randall Munroe, and it has been running since 2005. You land on the latest strip, and the genius is in the details: hover your cursor over the image and a second joke often appears as alt text. The subjects are romance, sarcasm, math, science, programming and language, handled with a nerdy deadpan that has made many strips famous across internet culture. The best way in is the Random button, which drops you on a strip from the archive; some will be baffling, others will make you laugh out loud. There is also a comic archive, plus the spin-off What If?, which answers absurd hypothetical questions with real math. If you like jokes that reward a little curiosity, xkcd is a rite of passage for the odd web. Read a few strips, hover over each one, and then go and send your favorite to the person most likely to get it.
Tips for getting the most out of it
- Hover over the comic to see the extra alt-text joke.
- Use the Random button to sample the archive.
- If a strip confuses you, search its title for explanations.
Questions about xkcd
Who makes xkcd?
xkcd is written and drawn by Randall Munroe, and the site's own listings and the research behind this directory both point to 2005 as the year it began. The strips are drawn in a minimalist stick-figure style, and a new one appears regularly. In short: Randall Munroe's webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math and language.
Does xkcd have jokes in the hover text?
Yes. On most strips, hovering your cursor over the image (or long-pressing on some devices) reveals a title text that often adds a second, sometimes funnier joke. It is a long-running xkcd habit worth checking on every comic you read. For reference, xkcd is best tried on a desktop if you can, takes about 5 min to enjoy, and we check its link daily.
Sites like xkcd
What If?
Absurd hypothetical questions, answered with real science.
- Rabbit hole
- Works on phones
- Alive · checked 15 days ago
The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows
Invented words for feelings you didn't know had names.
- Rabbit hole
- Works on phones
- Alive · checked 15 days ago
Wikipedia: Unusual Articles
Wikipedia's own list of its strangest entries.
- Rabbit hole
- Mature themes
- Alive · checked 15 days ago
Weird Universe
A tour of odd news, inventions and strange history.
- Rabbit hole
- Works on phones
- Alive · checked 15 days ago
Esolang Wiki
A catalogue of deliberately bizarre programming languages.
- Rabbit hole
- Works on phones
- Alive · checked 15 days ago
The Library of Babel
A website that contains every possible page of text.
- Rabbit hole
- Works on phones
- Alive · checked 15 days ago