metadata
license: cc
task_categories:
- image-to-text
language:
- en
tags:
- art
pretty_name: Explain XKCD
size_categories:
- 1K<n<10K
dataset_info:
features:
- name: number
dtype: string
- name: date
dtype: string
- name: title
dtype: string
- name: before
dtype: string
- name: image
dtype: image
- name: titletext
dtype: string
- name: transcript
dtype: string
- name: explanation
dtype: string
splits:
- name: train
num_bytes: 183315711.73
num_examples: 2795
download_size: 226687075
dataset_size: 183315711.73
configs:
- config_name: default
data_files:
- split: train
path: data/train-*
Dataset Card for Explain XKCD
Dataset Description
- Homepage: https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
- Repository: https://huggingface.co/datasets/dchichkov/explainxkcd
- Paper:
- Leaderboard:
- Point of Contact:
Dataset Summary
An import of the Explain XKCD wiki (up to March 30, 2024), containing explanations for 2668 xkcd comics.
Field | Type | Description |
---|---|---|
number |
string | The xkcd comic’s sequential number (e.g. "3" , "1000" ). |
date |
string | Publication date of the comic, in “Month Day, Year” format (e.g. "September 30, 2005" ). |
title |
string | The displayed title of the comic (e.g. "Island (sketch)" ). |
before |
string | Any original or archived title/caption metadata, typically a MediaWiki-style link or HTML snippet pointing back to the source (e.g. the LiveJournal archive). |
image |
string | Filename of the comic image (e.g. "island_color.jpg" ) in the images/. |
titletext |
string | The “alt” or tooltip text that appears when you hover over the comic on xkcd’s site. |
transcript |
string | A plain-text transcript of the comic panels and dialogue. |
explanation |
string | A detailed explanation of the joke or references in the comic, suitable for the “Explain xkcd” format. |
NOTE: original image filenames in xkcd included spaces, in this dataset these were replaced with underscores.
Licensing Information
Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Explain xkcd: It’s ’cause you’re dumb. (2025). Main Page. Fan-maintained wiki. Retrieved May 19, 2025, from https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License (CC BY-NC 2.5)
xkcd: License Page. Retrieved Retrieved May 19, 2025, from https://xkcd.com/license.html
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC-BY 4.0)
This work
Citation Information
@misc{dchichkov_explainxkcd_2025,
author = {Chichkov, Dmitry},
title = {{Explain XKCD Dataset}},
year = {2024},
howpublished = {\url{https://huggingface.co/datasets/dchichkov/explainxkcd}},
note = {Fan-curated import of the Explain XKCD wiki up to March 30, 2024}
}
### Contributions
Thanks to [@dchichkov](https://github.com/dchichkov) for adding this dataset.