xkcd.WTF!?

Explanation ➲

To my knowledge, my friend James and I are the origin of that urban legend, through xkcd. We used to joke with a third friend about how gullible she was, and made that up as one of our many stories to her. I would check any references to the legend -- unless they're dated from before late 2005, I don't think there's any reason to assume it existed before I started it.

—Randall Munroe, Source

George Clinton is an American musician most famous for his funk music and wild hair style. His recorded music features themes of space, sci-fi, technology, and futurism. As Randall says, he had attempted to spread around an urban legend that George Clinton had a Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics, but he found himself believing it was true. This behavior is related to pseudologia fantastica, which is more commonly known as pathological or compulsive lying. This comic references the associated behavior that an "individual may be aware they are lying, or may believe they are telling the truth, being unaware that they are relating fantasies." These individuals may eventually stop the lie as demonstrated by the title text, which indicates that at some later time, the individual realized that the rumor was not true, but wishes it to be so.

The equations on the board are laplace transforms of functions. The first Laplace transform has a mismatched left parenthesis, which would be the topic of 859: (. The second formula is not the inverse Laplace transform as stated, as it differs from the actual Mellin's inverse formula by its bounds and a missing factor. An example of George Clinton's work most appropriate to this comic is the song "Mathematics" from the 1996 album T.A.P.O.A.F.O.M.. (The Awesome Power of a Fully Operational Mothership):

I count the moments we're apart. And add them up mathematically

and multiply them by the kisses supposedly I've been missing.

Divided by the attention not to mention the affection.

Subtract that from your gross potential and see I ain't missin' none.

Cause any percentage of you is as good the whole pie.

Any fractions thereof brings dividends of interest.

Any percentage of you is as good as the whole pie.

Any fractions thereof brings dividends of love.

I take the square root and get boxed in every time.

When I know the shortest distance between two points is in a straight line.

I'ma go into you, I'ma come into you two times, and carry the fun over the one to where we equal one.