It took me a long time to get the joke here, believe it or not. I sort of saw the joke - but it felt wrong, like I was looking at it in a mirror or underwater or something. It didn't make me laugh, and I suspect most people would be hard pressed to say what the joke actually is - is it a comment on the difficulty of bra un-hookings? Is it an idea for a devilish, nerd-friendly product? Is it a nerdy fantasy, "if only I could understand women by going online and reading some tutorials! Tutorials with Java!"I eventually came to the conclusion that it's basically just a comment along the lines of "bras are a puzzle just like any other one", and, perhaps on a deeper level, that nerds see only the physical puzzle and not the social and psychological one required to get there.
In any case I think it fails because it's too hard to see the point (and again, if you don't think that's the point of the comic, please tell me what is). Rubik's cubes are generally played with as physical objects, but they are entirely mathematical puzzles. That's why they can be done entirely on computers and solved by algorithm. It's really no different than if the cube in the comic were a series of addition problems.
I think he should have taken an actual physical puzzle - something like one of these bad dudes:
That would have been a much closer analogy and made a bit more sense. I mean, those puzzles are supposed to come apart in the end - even when you solve a rubik's cube you are left with the cube in one piece, and so it's not going to help you when you are getting laid. It's just going to be uncomfortable.And the deal with the wordless comics is this - in this case, it's not a comic. Not by any stretch., It's just a flitter of an idea - something that popped into Randall's head. Most people would take this potentially funny idea and work with it, develop it into more than just a "hey what if this existed" joke - but apparently randall thinks it's fine to post as is, and hey, let's take off for the weekend.
Another great opportunity for just One More Panel!
ReplyDeleteIn this case, Panel One would be a guy and girl sitting at a cafe, with the guy looking up at an elaborate dialog tree and thinking hard at it.
Panel Two: he bedded her! But the puzzles aren't over. Damn.
Or two kids in middle school - one is a jock who is hitting on girls, one is a nerd practicing his Cubing (guess which one I was...). Then flash forward 10 years - they are each in bed with a girl and lo and behold, they are each confronted with a rubik's cube as seen in the comic. The jock tries to solve it for a minute, gives up, and leaves, annoyed. The nerd just smiles and starts solving.
ReplyDelete"It took me a long time to get the joke here, believe it or not. I sort of saw the joke - but it felt wrong, like I was looking at it in a mirror or underwater or something. It didn't make me laugh, and I suspect most people would be hard pressed to say what the joke actually is"
ReplyDeleteBy the way, until this post actually mentioned the bra, I thought it was about 458, which is also unfunny, not a joke, and confusing as to what the punchline is (quick, everyone kiss everyone else! no regrets!).
Except, of course, that I still don't get the joke on Regrets. And also I don't expect to find one.
ReplyDeletehey, i don't know if you ever read a softer world, (not quite everywhere enough to be overrated) but they just posted their rendition of an xkcd comic as a flattering gesture. it'd be cool to know what you think.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.asofterworld.com/
A few people have sent me that comic; I think I'll post on it in the near future.
ReplyDeleteThat's a completely mathematical problem solved with the field of topology that deals with loops and toruqs and knots and whatnot*. :-p
ReplyDelete* I am stupid.
Bah, topology! is what I say. But you know what I mean - it's a totally different kind of puzzle, one that is not fundamentally different to solve on the computer (where the turns are just like in real life, as opposed to the 'physical' puzzle where you can't really play around with it as needed on the computer).
ReplyDeleteComic still sucks, and several months later no one can explain why it's supposed to be funny.