All three comics and both explanations in the book, does like this comic, comment on how crazy it is that we have created enough firepower to obliterate Earth several times (or at least scourge it for any human life). Nuclear weapons are also mentioned twice in Thing Explainer, specifically they are explained in the explanation for Machine for burning cities about thermonuclear bombs, but they are also mentioned in Boat that goes under the sea about a submarine that caries nukes. Within a year before this comics release Randall made several other comics about nuclear weapons, most recently January of 2016 with 1626: Judgment Day, and before that these two in 2015, 1539: Planning and 1520: Degree-Off. A nuclear bomb, not yet exploded but with a short countdown, was the facilitator of the joke in 1168: tar. Randall has mocked DST several times, so this could be yet another attempt to have some fun at its expense.Īnother doomsday clock was used in 1159: Countdown, although here it was for a supervolcano eruption. Many people, including Randall, also believe that DST also makes little sense today, so maybe this is why the two are connected in this comic. This once more underlines the entire point of this comic, that it makes no sense to have such a clock. This is interpreted as the world actually blinking in and out of the Doomsday Clock's midnight, so nuclear explosions thus naturally appear and disappear in sync with the clock. Many digital clocks blink 00:00 once per second after a power outage, only stopping when the clock is reset. The title text continues on this same theme, with the digital doomsday clock (apparently it has now been replaced by a digital one, maybe Cueball broke the old analog one) being reset by a power outage.

When he spots the clock showing 11:57 at 12:57 he just thinks someone has forgotten this particular clock, (which happens a lot the day after DST), and he is thus just helpfully adjusting to the new correct DST time. Also Cueball would only ever adjust the clock like this, if he happened to come by just when the real time was 12:57 the day after DST (as it is not clear from an analog clock if it is AM or PM). Furthermore, in the comic the Doomsday Clock does not just measure the world's risk but actively controls it even if the Doomsday Clock were affected by DST, the doomsday scenario notably does not occur until Cueball adjusts the clock. This is an absurdist joke confusing the Doomsday Clock with an actual clock the Doomsday Clock is a subjective measurement of risk, not of time, and as such is not subject to Daylight Saving Time. Strangelove-esque nuclear apocalypse, with the typical mushroom cloud shape, with a ring around the stem, which is also displayed in the Wikipedia page on nuclear weapons. Citing a mnemonic, 'Spring forward, fall back', referring to which direction to move the hour hand in the season when DST begins or ends, he pushes the hour hand forward one hour, so instead of the world being three minutes from the end of the world, it is now 57 minutes into it, so the final panel simply shows the world erupting in a Dr. This makes it the first of several comics about DST that has been released in conjunction with the beginning of DST.Ĭueball is inside the office of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and comes across the Doomsday Clock, which is apparently an actual clock. The day before this comic came out (Sunday), most of the United States switched from standard time to DST. Its current setting is (as of 24th January 2020) at '100 seconds to midnight' (11:58:20 PM or 23:58:20).ĭaylight saving time (DST) is a feature in many countries where in the summer months, everyone moves their clock forward an hour to artificially postpone sunset and thereby have a longer time of sunlight in the afternoon. Its setting as of the publication of this comic was at 'three minutes to midnight' (11:57 PM or 23:57). The idea is that when the clock hits midnight, the world ends (originally conceived as in a nuclear war), so how close the clock is to midnight is a scale of the world's current state of risk.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is an academic journal which has a recurring feature known as the Doomsday Clock, which shows the Bulletin's judgment on the current state of the world. Title text: After a power outage at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the new Digital Doomsday Clock is flashing 00:00 and mushroom clouds keep appearing and then retracting once a second.

3 minutes to midnight clock