Title text:
It does come at the cost of some launchpad expansions and increased fuel requirements, but that all comes out of the facility's budget.
Transcript:
Transcript will show once it’s been added to explainxkcd.com
Source: https://xkcd.com/3291/
I thought that was a silly joke but that's actually more or less how an alcubierre drive would work.
Is it though?
Giant chemical engines to push a planet away is like bending space around a spacecraft?
The giant chemical engines were not being compared to the alcubierre drive. The commenter was discussing how the engine of the ship in futurama, which "moves the universe around it" would fairly neatly describe the function of an alcubierre drive in layman's terms. This is why you were downvoted.
I don’t know why you got downvoted for what seems like a reasonable question. I think it might be the lateral nature of the solution that is comparable.