Title text:
If you want to see true audacity, do an image search for 'Altoona-style pizza.'
Transcript:
Transcript will show once it’s been added to explainxkcd.com
Source: https://xkcd.com/3142/
this post was submitted on 15 Sep 2025
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This is such a US meme, holy shit.
Not even Randall can escape it!
This is not a meme.
To be fair, the comic artist is from Boston. This comic strip has been around for almost 20 years, and this community is solely focused on the comic. This is like saying to ich_iel "God, this community is so German!"
What he means is that while his memes are in general universally applicable, this one is a US-thing.
In particular, it's a very East Coast thing. While we have the mom-and-pop pizzerias on the West Coast, there aren't styles of pizza named for West Coast cities and we just don't have that pizza rivalry that the other coast has. There's California-style pizza, but that's named for a state rather than a city, and as soon as you leave California it's easier to find almost any other kind of pizza.
Chicago-style pizza too.
But yeah, the diversity isn't as significant as the comic would lead you to believe.
That is a disingenous excuse. Most xkcd comics are pretty universally relatable. In fact it is known mostly for its almost complete absence of US centrism.