Hurricane forums are full of excited comments about central pressure and wind speed and comparisons to Camille and 1931 and 1938, with hastily-tacked-on notes about how it will be tragic if anyone dies and they hope it's a dud.
The comic is referring to a phenomenon known as gaping or rubbernecking. The terms are applied to people who stand around as spectators at the site of a disaster. Apparently, many people are attracted to terrible scenes out of a sort of morbid curiosity. While fascinated by the spectacle, most people also feel a sense of shame and guilt at the same time, unsure of whether it is morally wrong to be entertained by other's misfortunes.
This feeling of conscience is expressed in the comic by Megan, who secretly cherishes hope that a hurricane might strike but feels guilt despite knowing she isn't the cause of any danger. Black Hat on the other hand regards these feelings as perfectly natural. In the comic, he gives three more examples of how he enjoys other people's misfortune, each more sinister than the last, eventually partaking in the disaster itself which is another thing entirely:
- Watching shuttle launches because you don't want to miss a disaster, referring to the Challenger shuttle explosion shortly after launch on January 28, 1986. This example is similar to Megan's scenario, where they're not doing anything illegal or not allowed.
- Dressing as an intern and sneaking into operating rooms to watch surgeries in case a patient dies, in hopes of watching organs be harvested. This is not allowed in operating rooms[citation needed] and would be seen as socially unacceptable, but in this case he's not actually causing any harm. The organ harvesting could be a normal case of donating organs upon one's death, but could also be referring to illegal organ harvesting.
- Detour signs are usually used when there is construction down a main road; the signs direct drivers down a longer and more roundabout path. In this case, Black Hat uses stolen detour signs to direct cars down a much more dangerous path. His backwoods roads are strewn with caltrops, small weapons that have a spike pointed upward no matter how they are thrown. They were used in World War 2 to burst tires, and Black Hat plans to do the same thing to the unsuspecting drivers’ car tires. He plans to then shoot at their windows and hunt them down on horseback. In this example, Black Hat would actually be causing the danger, potentially injuring or killing passengers in the car, which would be a very Black Hat thing to do.[citation needed]
It becomes clear that he actually enjoys it when other people are hit by tragedies. He reveals that he even actively promotes or causes the tragic fates of others. Him being a sadist concurs with the characterization depicted in other comics. Megan understands that the two of them are in fact leading entirely different conversations, as Black Hat is not in the least able to comprehend her scruples.
The title text aims at hurricane enthusiasts in internet forums, who are distracted by their scientific curiosity from the danger a hurricane may present to humans. Hurricane Camille was a category 5 hurricane that occurred in August of 1969 with windspeeds of 280 km/h and caused a few hundred deaths in the United States, Cuba, and Mexico. The 1931 hurricane likely refers to the 1931 British Honduras hurricane, a category 4 hurricane with windspeeds of 215 km/h and resulted in 2,500 fatalities in British Honduras and Mexico. The 1938 hurricane is likely the 1938 New England hurricane, which was a category 5 hurricane with 260 km/h windspeeds that caused around 700 direct fatalities in the Northeastern United States. It would generally be considered inappropriate to express excitement about people's deaths, hence the hastily added notes stating that this isn't the goal of their comments.