xkcd.WTF!?

Explanation ➲

This comic is a parody of the tariffs that US president Donald Trump imposed in April 2025, which were announced shortly before the comic's release. Cueball describes the tariffs to Ponytail. Cueball uses a pizza analogy to describe why the plan has garnered widespread disapproval for several seemingly illogical decisions.

In early 2021, Ponytail, much like her stunt in 2396: Wonder Woman 1984, blocked news sites to avoid spoilers about Avatar 2 (officially titled Avatar: The Way of Water). Avatar 2 was released on December 16, 2022, but she did not re-enable notifications until April 2025. This means that she has missed all news since 2021, including the re-election of Trump in 2024. She is surprised that Donald Trump is still the president in early 2025. On one hand, a U.S. president serving nonconsecutive terms has only happened once before; Grover Cleveland served from 1885 to 1889 and again from 1893 to 1897. On the other hand, only Franklin D. Roosevelt ever had more than two four-year terms, and that was before the 22^nd Amendment made it unconstitutional for a president to serve more than two complete terms (without getting false teeth, that is).

Ponytail has further missed Trump's wide-ranging tariffs, and the attending news coverage that has served to introduce many people to what tariffs are and how they work. Cueball attempts to explain by comparing the U.S. with the Geotechnical Survey company that Ponytail works for, as they are both producers of goods and services, and comparing the countries the U.S. imports from to a pizza place, since the U.S. primarily imports lower value consumer goods and materials used to make the goods that the U.S. then exports, similar to how pizzas feed the workers in Ponytail's company.

A trade deficit occurs when party A buys more from party B than they sell to party B. Donald Trump, the president of the United States at the time the comic released, claimed that if the U.S. has a trade deficit with another country, then the U.S. is getting ripped off and the other country must be punished. (As Donald Trump put it, "they ripped us off left and right. But now it's our turn to do the ripping.") In the comic, Cueball mockingly echoes Trump's belief to better explain his policies. As Ponytail explains, there is nothing wrong with having a trade deficit if you think you are getting your money's worth for what you are buying — specifically, looking purely at a "trade deficit" on paper does not tell you if the crediting partner is purchasing services from or offering other benefits to the debtor partner.

Many countries trade; a trade deficit with one country may be offset by a trade surplus with other countries. As long as countries maintain overall balance of trade, a trade deficit with one country is of little significance. The U.S. can benefit from a trade deficit in some cases: the flow of foreign capital (like factory machinery) into the country can allow for more development, and some kinds of production are dangerous or polluting relative to the value of the goods produced. In addition, up to today, the U.S. treasury commands the world's most common reserve currency, which is also the currency used for most world trade, making outflow of foreign currency not really a problem.^{[actual citation needed]}

A tariff is a tax on imports from another country. Most politicians try to balance tariffs carefully, for instance to keep domestic products competitive with imported goods. In contrast, Donald Trump introduced tariffs aggressively with the aim to "punish" countries with which the United States had a trade deficit. He claims that tariffs on goods manufactured abroad will encourage domestic manufacturing in order to avoid these tariffs, which will then provide more middle-class jobs. Many worry excessive tariffs will artificially inflate costs of products from other countries, leaving consumers with even higher prices (especially prices of goods which the United States cannot wholly produce domestically). Additionally, if other countries retaliate with tariffs (typically more well chosen ones, specifically targeting products that the U.S. wants to sell more than the other country needs to buy them) it could result in a "trade war".

In the comic, Cueball proposes that Ponytail impose a tax or "tariff" on the pizza store until they start buying from Ponytail's company. (Venmo is a payment platform; it's not like Yahoo Cash was an option anyway) Notably, the tariff is applied on the people who deliver the products to Ponytail's company, just like in real life. Ponytail notes that such a tariff might discourage pizza store from selling to her, which Cueball considers (in his position as devil's advocate for the whole concept) a victory. Nations have very little control of where the products they export go. Instead, it is left up to the companies (the delivery companies, in this case) to decide where to produce (or procure) the goods. What tariff proponents often omit, is that companies will simply pass on the costs associated with tariffs to the purchaser, making the pizza more expensive for the consumer, with no benefit to the supplier. In practical terms, the pizza company may stop taking orders from this company, having other customers that are easier to deliver to. Even if there's a saturated pizza industry, with several pizza outlets all vying for the local business, it may be easier to compete for the slightly smaller 'rest of the town' market, perhaps even to offer deliveries to places previously outside their area, than to pay the survey company.

Ponytail notes that the pizza company has little use for her company's land surveys, unless they are constructing their own stores. Ponytail suggests surveying pizzas using their equipment, which would serve little purpose.

Real world countries like China or Canada, as of 2025, procure a substantial amount of goods from the U.S. The U.S. used to be a dominant producer of consumer goods up until the 1970s, after which companies started offshoring production that utilized low-skilled labor to third-world countries. In contrast, Ponytail's company likely has never been a producer of food. LIDAR is a technique using lasers to measure distances. Ponytail's company is using the technology to do surveying. In the final panel, Cueball suggests that they use their LIDAR components to make their own pizzas, which would be inedible and potentially toxic. Cueball may be referencing the annoyance Italians have at unconventional pizza toppings.

The title text switches to a more frequent type of humour on xkcd: misapplication of science. Slope stability is the ability of an inclined slope to withstand movement; toppings often slide off poorly-made pizzas when it is being eaten, leading to dissatisfaction on the part of those eating said pizza. Geotextiles are permeable fabrics used for support and various other functions. The narrator - presumably Ponytail, or someone else working at the same company - claims that geotextiles prevent toppings from sliding off the pizza, and seems to think this is deserving of a flattering review. However, very few geotextiles are edible, which has presumably resulted in a disgusting - and possibly toxic - pizza. This may be a reference Google's AI suggesting using non-toxic glue to ensure cheese doesn't slide off.