Comic writer gets stuck in a hole and Twitter saves him, point-and-click adventure style

Ryan North is the writer behind the webcomic Dinosaur Comics, the print comic The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl and To Be or Not to Be: That Is The Adventure, a retelling of Hamlet in the style of the Choose Your Own Adventure series. He lives in Canada. He has a dog named Chompsky.

This afternoon, he got stuck in a hole.

If I climbed into this in the rain to get this picture and now couldn't get out, what should I do? Hypothetically pic.twitter.com/g5jdjbed5B

— HI IT'S ME RYAN (@ryanqnorth) August 18, 2015

As North slowly explained, to Twitter, the physical limits that were currently preventing him and Chompsky from exiting this hole and the items he had on hand that might be useful in creating a way to exit the hole, a curious thing happened.

Twitter played a point and click game of "Get Ryan North Out of a Hole." Sort of.

We'll show you:

These are the steps out but I can't get up then with Chompsky, am I definitely going to die here y/n pic.twitter.com/9JhK5O0rLy

— HI IT'S ME RYAN (@ryanqnorth) August 18, 2015

The only way that North could carry Chompsky out was by using at least one arm, and a recent rain had rendered the sides of the skate bowl quite slippery. North found that the height and slope of the structure created a situation where he could not climb out using only one arm, nor could he get close enough to the edge (while so encumbered) to toss his dog out and follow. He was reluctant to leave Chompsky entirely alone.

. @imaginarythomas all I have is an umbrella (also a pocket computer with Internet access) pic.twitter.com/lOw3C7fScN

— HI IT'S ME RYAN (@ryanqnorth) August 18, 2015

Twitter immediately responded to the conundrum.

@ryanqnorth plug the drainage hole and wait until you can swim out

— Jack Newhouse (@Chirurgic) August 18, 2015

. @Chirurgic might take a while pic.twitter.com/EGPYtCf10Y

— HI IT'S ME RYAN (@ryanqnorth) August 18, 2015

@ryanqnorth Like a skateboard, run from one side to the other until you have enough momentum to leave your hypothetical trap.

— murray (@muzrobertson) August 18, 2015

Tried but I need both arms to stay at the top with Chompsky and one is used up carrying him :( https://t.co/87cLabdyUZ

— HI IT'S ME RYAN (@ryanqnorth) August 18, 2015

.@ryanqnorth maybe use your tshirt and leash to build a body sling for chompsky to pull him out after you climb out.

— Daniel Baxter (@bearisgaming) August 18, 2015

No way to make shirt into sling big enough for Chompsky, now I am topless and stuck in a hole, please advise pic.twitter.com/4bhyO2QUgx

— HI IT'S ME RYAN (@ryanqnorth) August 18, 2015

@ryanqnorth Well.. pull yrself out, then use the leash to pull Chompsky's front half up, while grabbing his behind with the umbrella handle!

— Nicole Hoye (@iheartmuseums) August 18, 2015

Finally, the Twitter hivemind had struck gold.

IT WORKED!! I'M OUT OF THE HOLE! pic.twitter.com/x8QMgUxrSD

— HI IT'S ME RYAN (@ryanqnorth) August 18, 2015

This wouldn't be the first time that Twitter has managed to produce an homage to classic adventure games, and the similarities were not lost to the moment:

@ryanqnorth You are a character in a point and click adventure, and Twitter is trying to combine everything in your inventory to solve this.

— YES, THIS IS CHRIS (@drhastings) August 18, 2015

But it might be the first time we've seen a text-based Twitter adventure solve a real life problem.

And it WORKED https://t.co/Qz2snYzei6

— HI IT'S ME RYAN (@ryanqnorth) August 18, 2015

If you’d like to take a look at the whole saga, here’s a collection of screenshots of all the relevant tweets on Imgur.