I found this to be a very obnoxious comic. It's entirely saying "hey people, look at this way in which I am better than you." It's especially dumb because if you think about it, what is a ringing sound for a cell phone? There are rings that sound like old landline phones, but those are uncommon and weird. Is he really saying he never uses standard ringtones? Why is that something to be proud of?
Anyway, I just find it very self righteous and not something I imagine many readers will identify with, and if you don't recognize some aspect of truth in something then it will never be funny.
I actually liked this one. I thought the joke was more "Hey, check out this grumpy guy" than "Hey, look at how much better I am than you". Not exactly hilarious, but harmless enough.
ReplyDeleteThe decline of ringing in today's society actually sort of . . . I wouldn't say it bothers me. But my cell phone ring is now a really low-quality clip from "Incommunicado" by Harvey Danger. That just isn't a ring. It is like phones are slowly moving away from the idea of actually ringing in such a way that it sounds like a phone.
ReplyDeleteSo I found this one vaguely amusing.
Actually the place where I've really most noticed it is in movies. Movies, no matter how high tech, almost never have the cool, musical ring tones in them unless it is for comic effect. How long will they be able to get away with this?
The worst ringtone is the standard Razr(?) one that sounds like bad '80s techno and has a deep voice saying something incoherent like "oohawoo."
ReplyDeleteAlso, I don't think real phone ringtones are all that uncommon. However they do annoy the hell out of some people who think that a landline phone is ringing- I personally think it's pretty funny, but it's still annoying to people. Makes me wonder what kind of old-timey tel-e-phone chime Randall's got on his.
ReplyDeleteI insisted that my friend record a ringtone that was just me saying the words "Ring ring ring!" It is a continual sadness in my life that I have yet to own a phone where I can record my own ringtone; it would totally be that.
ReplyDeleteMy ring tone is me saying things like "Answer already!" in a more and more impatient voice. I agree with jay on the comic.
ReplyDeleteCould you analyze Randall's short story on the xkcd blag, please? I liked it so I guess you hate it. ;)
I will read it and comment. I saw it only briefly but I have a feeling I will dislike it, just cause it seems like one of those "ooh I don't really know about this topic but I am going to pretend" things.
ReplyDeletelol My roommate has the weirdest ringtones. I think she recorded a lot of them herself: her texts come in as a really long burp (or a ribbit, I can't really tell), and her calls come in as "Pick up the phone! (nicely) I know you're there!" and then progressively gets more and more deep and demanding.
ReplyDeleteI still think it's better than using a fake real phone ring.
I did not enjoy this comic.
I actually use a ringing tone, simply because there were no good tunes on my old Nokia 1600, and frankly, I can't think of anything more appropriate on my newer phone.
ReplyDeleteBut then again, I'm the sort of person who installs IBM mainframe operating systems and writes articles on Spacewar! for the PDP-1 in my spare time.
It wasn't until months later when I came back to this comic that I realized it was an attempt to mirror the style of asofterworld.
ReplyDeleteIt failed. In fact, it didn't even get the typical ASW panel pattern right (two or more of the panels are from the same photo zoomed in to the same degree, whereas all three of these panels are zoomed in differently). Plus, it's fucking pretentious, whereas ASW tends to be more about the quirky personalities in life. I'm not sure how accurate a description that is, because it is really hard to summarize the style of an entire comic, especially ASW, at 3 in the morning.
But yeah, what the hell, Randall? Why did you do it? WHY?!