xkcd.WTF!?

Explanation ➲

Many people have different sets of acquaintances from different parts of their lives, and there's not much overlap. For instance, they have colleagues at work and friends from different hobbies. People encountered in online forums are often very separate, since they may be anywhere in the world and even have quite differently eclectic tastes that they never mention. People find it surprising when there are overlaps in unrelated spheres.

In this comic, NorthLakeKayak and AntaresMike are two participants in an online thread (presumably about boating, or maybe specifically kayaking). NorthLakeKayak recognizes the username AntaresMike as also used by someone he remembers from a different forum about Animorphs, and apparently not a likely username to have been independently claimed by someone else.

As children, the most striking example of this type of compartmentalization is that we think of teachers as only existing in school. They're actually people with real lives (as also referenced in 2808: Daytime Firefly), but we find it extremely weird when we encounter them in some mundane place outside school, like at a restaurant or store. The comic makes the point that encountering the same person in two unrelated online forums is analogous to this.

This strip shows NorthLakeKayak excitedly identifying AntaresMike, and referencing the Animorphs forum, then appearing to realize that's off topic for the forum, and awkwardly trying to transition back to discussion of kayaks. The title text continues these theme, presumably within the same forum thread, specifically wanting to discuss a video series AntaresMike had done. This is followed by a correction (either self-censoring, or in response to an unseen reply) with apologies that "this isn't the place" to discuss such things.

Very often, the culture/rules of a particular forum will encourage relevance to the forum's raison d'etre, at least in its main threads, and fellow users will get to know all about their on-topic obsessions but usually only see hints of other individuals' alternate pastimes and hobbies. Additionally, it's possible that AntaresMike prefers to keep their interest groups separate. Animorphs fandom is a particular niche and nerdy interest that some people would hesitate to discuss it around people who aren't part of the fandom, either out of embarrassment, or out of fear of boring people. If that's the case, AntaresMike might not appreciate having those interests discussed in front of a kayaking forum. If the forum has a Private Messaging feature, this off-topic personal discussion could be taken there. Conceivably, the message from the title text was taken 'off-thread', but the author still finds their own excited tendency to blur the boundaries between subject matter embarrassing.

The alt text references Animorphs #19: The Departure. In this book, Cassie, a girl with the power to transform into animals, is trapped as a caterpillar after she exceeds the two hour limit on morphing. The video essay likely focuses on this book because it contains elements that stand out among the series, such as that the caterpillar form can uniquely "reset" its morphing time limit by metamorphosizing into a butterfly, or that it introduces the recurring character Aftran, a former member of the Yeerk Empire who chooses to defect and start a peaceful resistance group.