Dear me. This is another example of Randall apparently thinking he can write a webcomic despite having no clue what he is doing. He gives us a very, very elaborate and long set up for something fairly disappointing.
Was I the only one who thought of Land Shark?
Ok so first off, he has to explain his complicated shark tracking thing. Is this actually how people track sharks? I don't mean the tagging them part - that makes sense. I mean the "we can't afford the second part of this research, so we're going to hope that our capsules don't land in the oh, I don't know, 90% of the world that no one inhabits, and then kind people will mail our data back to us, and nothing can possibly go wrong!" part. They should just have the GPS data, which has to come from a satellite, find some other satellite to send its data to, so you don't have to recover the tag itself. BUT NO MATTER.
The point is that the system is contrived to set up the WACKY situation where a shark has a balloon attached to him and he floats away! Who knows where he got that wacky idea?! I don't!
I for one read the first two rows and thought "oh god, I bet this ends with a flying shark..." but then again, I am very intelligent, so perhaps other people did not find it so predictable.
Points to whoever said that the "beakers 'n' flasks" image may represent chemists but it is a dumb thing for zoologists to have.
Ok so the main problem with this comic - the reason I said he doesn't know what he's doing - is that his punchline sucks. If you are going to work so hard to make a situation where we can (sort of) accept a flying shark, you need to do better than "I want to be a scientist [BECAUSE THEY GET TO MAKE FLYING SHARKS]" . how about these-
"Dad, why do you have to keep bringing me along to your boring old job ?"
"And that, my dear, is what will happen if you don't eat your broccoli."
"I hope that was God's way of punishing those Creation Scientists."
See? not hard.
Are we really approaching 600 comics? fuck.
Was I the only one who thought of Land Shark?
Ok so first off, he has to explain his complicated shark tracking thing. Is this actually how people track sharks? I don't mean the tagging them part - that makes sense. I mean the "we can't afford the second part of this research, so we're going to hope that our capsules don't land in the oh, I don't know, 90% of the world that no one inhabits, and then kind people will mail our data back to us, and nothing can possibly go wrong!" part. They should just have the GPS data, which has to come from a satellite, find some other satellite to send its data to, so you don't have to recover the tag itself. BUT NO MATTER.
The point is that the system is contrived to set up the WACKY situation where a shark has a balloon attached to him and he floats away! Who knows where he got that wacky idea?! I don't!
I for one read the first two rows and thought "oh god, I bet this ends with a flying shark..." but then again, I am very intelligent, so perhaps other people did not find it so predictable.
Points to whoever said that the "beakers 'n' flasks" image may represent chemists but it is a dumb thing for zoologists to have.
Ok so the main problem with this comic - the reason I said he doesn't know what he's doing - is that his punchline sucks. If you are going to work so hard to make a situation where we can (sort of) accept a flying shark, you need to do better than "I want to be a scientist [BECAUSE THEY GET TO MAKE FLYING SHARKS]" . how about these-
"Dad, why do you have to keep bringing me along to your boring old job ?"
"And that, my dear, is what will happen if you don't eat your broccoli."
"I hope that was God's way of punishing those Creation Scientists."
See? not hard.
Are we really approaching 600 comics? fuck.
I thought it was funny...
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThere were no comp sci inside jokes, internet memes, firefly fan-fic, or awkward relationships in this comic, so I'd say it was better than most.
ReplyDeleteI laughed at this one but could have done without the ISN'T SCIENCE GREAT motif at the end.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't require 16 panels either.
I got points from Carl. Cool.
ReplyDeleteI thought that it would end with a shark getting a blowjob for some reason
ReplyDeleteThe shark repellent thing made me think of a crack fanfic I read when a girl went crazy and upset some bats when spraying wombat repellent at them. I felt that the similarity was relevent and it made me laught a little.
ReplyDeleteTruthfully I thought that the obviously poor excuse for research was a little funny just for being so amazingly bad. Also in my head the shark ate the scientists in the "chomp chomp" panel and I feel like that completes the idiocy circle. It wasn't bad but it wasn't good.
Sweet I also got points.
ReplyDeleteAlso theres the fact that the amount of helium required to lift a shark LET ALONE the tracker which I assume has a good deal of weight to it, would be quite high.
This one got a chuckle out of me. I rather liked the punchline.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was funny in a goofy way, which isn't better than a clever way, but better than not funny at all.
ReplyDelete"Sarcasm delivery, ma'am."
ReplyDelete"I didn't order any sarcasm. And you don't sound like the regular boy."
"Math jokes, I got math jokes cheap."
"You can't fool me. You're that cuddlefish that shocks people."
"No, I'm not."
"Yes, you are. I can tell because cuddlefish are terrible at math."
"Romance."
"I didn't--"
"Lust."
"But, aren't you--"
"Sex."
"Wait a min--"
"Stick figure cunnilingus."
"Oh, boy!"
[door opens]
chomp chomp
[exeunt]
Does anyone else get the impression that Randall was trying to score points with the whole influential, chic, internet nerd demographic with that crowd-sourcing of the capsule recovery thing?
ReplyDelete"I know, I'll make a comic where PROFFESIONAL SCIENCE is crowd-sourced! Lots of AVERAGE PEOPLE will be harnessed to help SCIENCE. Nerds will love that."
People on boingboing are always talking about crowd-sourcing, and Randall is a big fan of preening for nerd-cred with heroes like Cory Doctorow.
Anyways my point is that I am ashamed to even know the term crowd-source.
Apparently there was an XKCD fan tribute to this particular comic by Chris Doyle, creator of "Brick House".
ReplyDeletehttp://www.reasonablyclever.com/bh/689x.html
Thought this might be interesting.
Today's comic (Symphony): Awful. Was there a joke in there somewhere?
ReplyDeleteI actually enjoyed the fan tribute. Comic itself? Ehhhhh I guess it was better than the other ones we've seen lately (but as we all know, that doesn't say much), wasn't too horrible.
ReplyDeleteNewest one, though? I mean at least he attempted to draw things. First panel was amusing.
CAPTCHA: vomazoox! The most awesome word, ever.
Wait. Why would we want to *accept* a flying shark? Doesn't rationalizing a flying shark rob it of the insane glee it brings?
ReplyDeleteOf course the floating balloon thing is a bad idea, but I could see somebody doing it, especially since it was brought on by budget cuts. Consider how many rape evidence kits sit unprocessed because of a lack of funds. Or the fact that the thousands of hours/millions of dollars that went into researching and designing the Saturn V rocket went to hell because they threw out the thousands of boxes of tapes and schematics to free up some storage space.
I mean, you might laugh at something like the submacopter:
http://wondermark.com/scraps/submo.gif
Then you read about shit like this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Submarine_Aircraft_Carrier
The budget cuts also explain the test tubes and beakers. Clearly these are grad students at some shitty small university with no funding, so they have to use the chem lab for their zoologist work. And when the flying shark came after them, they grabbed it so the shark wouldn't break/eat them, becuase that shit is expensive and a crappy, poorly funded university would have their asses on a platter for that loss.
I mean, this is beside the fact that demanding a perfectly logical setup for a flying shark punchline is demented beyond belief, but observing that is like observing the ocean is wet around these parts.
What parts?
ReplyDeleteShark comic was ok. Carl, you cannot send signal back to a satellite without employing a huge antenna dish (not that a shark with a satellite dish strapped to its back wouldn't look badass). It's not particularly funny, but not cringeworthy either.
ReplyDeleteSymphony, on the other hand, is positively cringeworthy.
Real in-the-wild tagging works somewhat differently. Researchers tag as many [animal] as they can, and then a year later they go and tag as many more [animal] as they can, and hopefully they come across some of the ones they tagged previously. They also do "crowdsource" it somewhat, in that if someone captures a tagged [animal] there's a little "if found please return to [address] postage due" thing and then hopefully the person will return the tag so they at least get the data.
ReplyDeleteAlso, FWIW, GPS doesn't work terribly well underwater.
Emergency locator beacons, which can be purchased by anyone for a hundred bucks or so, are the size of a 1995 cell phone and can send a signal to low-earth orbit satellites without a huge dish.
ReplyDeleteAnyhow, why not just have a ship nearby to receive a signal or something. The point is that the premise on which his joke depends is stupid.
Symphony ends on a *sigh*? I feel robbed of an actual punchline...
ReplyDeleteIt made me laugh
ReplyDeleteOf course, the little girl wouldn't realize that the scientists had actually created the flying shark, and all she would have to go on was two scientists being attacked by an airborne shark. Why the fuck would that make you want to be a scientist?
ReplyDeleteI thought this one was all right, but I definitely agree that the ending sucked pretty hard. Also, exactly how did the shark manage to find its way back to the scientists again? The capsule was supposed to be mailed back to them, so, what, did somebody just mail a shark attached to a helium balloon?
ReplyDeleteKinda like his expression in panel 11 though.
also sharks can't breathe air
ReplyDeleteCarl,
ReplyDeleteSorry to nitpick, but GPS does not work that way. When you track your position by GPS the satellite no more knows your position than the map knows your position when you use one of them.
If you put a GPS tag on a shark, you do need to get the tag back to see its movements (or stay withinin radio range, not a realistic proposition). Randy's method of retrieving tags is of course absurd, and not worth using as the build-up to such a poor punchline.
Comic 586: "Techno"?
ReplyDeleteRAAAAAGE.
And then he goes on to talk about samplers and remixing? I hate people who use "techno" as a blanket term for everything electronic and hip-hop. Fucking hell.
Anon, 3.13
ReplyDelete"'Techno'?"
Yes, techno. It's a genre of music.
"I hate people who use 'techno' as a blanket term for everything electronic and hip-hop."
Do you have any specific reason to believe that's what Randall is doing, rather than meaning techno when he says techno?
I'm quite aware it's a genre of music.
ReplyDeleteHowever, if you're trying to make a point of how uncultured someone's listening habits are, saying they only listen to "techno" is not the most unambiguous way to do so, seeing as the most common use of the word is by people ignorantly refering to electronic music as a whole.
Just my 2 cents.
Hey, let's argue about faulty use of musical genres when the definition of musical genres isn't set in stone and varies from person to person.
ReplyDelete@Anons:
ReplyDeleteI think the point Ragefish up there wanted to get across was that techno != sampling or remixing. Indeed, musical genres are subjective, but lumping all music that uses sampling into the genre of techno means that Boards of Canada is now in the same genre as Lee "Scratch" Perry and Eminem. Surely we can agree that these three artists have distinct styles, none of which could accurately be described as techno.
Tim just made the comic about five times as hillarious. Well done, Tim.
ReplyDeleteAnon 3.50,
ReplyDelete"[T]he most common use of the word is by people ignorantly refering to electronic music as a whole"
If that's the most common use of the word (and I'm not saying it is), then they are neither ignorant nor incorrect to use it that way. Sorry if that makes you unhappy, but a word means whatever most people use it to mean.
poore,
"I think the point Ragefish up there wanted to get across was that techno != sampling or remixing."
Techno can and does involve sampling and remixing. Not everything involving sampling and remixing is techno, just like not eveything with four legs is a dog. But dogs do have four legs.
"[...]lumping all music that uses sampling into the genre of techno [...]"
I don't see any particular reason to believe Randy has done that.
Guys, I think the point isn't the retarded debate about what techno is or isn't. The point is that not only isn't there a funny joke, there isn't even anything I can recognize as ATTEMPTING to be a joke. Is the joke that Techno Girl is retarded? Haha, some people don't understand fine art?
ReplyDeleteOr, fuck, is this one of the IT'S NOT SUPPOSED TO BE FUNNY ones and it's a deep meaningful commentary about the insuperable boundaries between humans that we raise for ourselves artificially? Our argument about genres is simply giving a particularly poignant example of Randall's premise, as we create and fight over boundaries rather than uniting in appreciation for shitty comics.
Anyway, thinking about the fact that this is the second time he's referenced electronic music disparagingly (well, the music disparagingly in that "loop the iTunes samples" comic, the fans disparagingly in this one), I have to wonder what his deal is with it. Has he even mentioned much other music in the comic?
The new one is awful, but not spectacularly awful. Fortunately, Sinfest has us covered in that category: http://sinfest.net/comikaze/comics/2009-05-20.gif
ReplyDeleteCarl, you are wrong. #585 was actually pretty funny; I think you just didn't notice because of the immense aura of shit emanating from #586.
ReplyDeleteYes, it's shit enough to time-travel.
1.21 GigaShits? Impressive.
ReplyDelete586 is awful. There is no discernible joke. The alt-text is even an extension of the non-joke in panel 4.
ReplyDeleteThough, I could tell it was going to be terrible at just the first panel. The girl, while being apparently dragged against her own will and clawing the floor, offers a non-chalant "Don't wanna."? Not even an exclamation point.
Also, it's clear Randall has no way of conveying an old lady unless it's with that bun hairstyle of the lady on the left of panel 3. The other lady just has a generic hair style and could be any age.
@Fred: People still read Sinfest? Wow.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it a bit much to claim that you are "very intelligent"? Not only is this taboo, but also you are trying to separate yourself from most other people. Barring this, the comic itself isn't much worse than any other popular artistic excretement that is floating around in the toilet bowl called the internet.
ReplyDeleteCarl's never snarky and is always completely 100% sincere.
ReplyDeleteThis site is the Evel Knievel of shark jumping sites.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you up to the first three sentences.
Land Shark: Talking shark that can live on land fools lady into opening door and eats her.
xkcd: Floating, non-talking shark eats someone.
This has about as much in common with Land Shark as it does with Jaws or any shark-related material.
"BUT NO MATTER"
Oh my god! Did this comic just eschew common sense for comedic effect? That reminds me of the time my friend told me this joke about a talking dog. What an idiot! Doesn't he know that dogs can't talk?!
The "Up" reference...uh, yes, correct, they do both have balloons floating something. Again, you're reaching like you did on the Land Shark similarities, give it Up. Even if he did get the idea from "Up", it has been changed significantly. Are you faulting him from taking inspiration/influences from his environment and reworking them. That's what creation is(and now I just reached...damn).
"his punchline sucks"
I agree, though I feel your brocolli line is equally sucky.
I'm just saying, stick to things that can be supported with a logical argument and stop reaching so much. The material is there, don't force it. I don't want to start xkcdsuckscouldbebetter.
That was clearly a joke. It's common knowledge Carl is dumb as a post (SORRY CARL I LOVE YOU).
ReplyDelete-I- read Sinfest, once in a while. What can I say, I love reading awful webcomics, and Sinfest is one of the worst. Unlike XKCD, it never fails to disappoint when I need something to laugh at, because unlike XKCD it doesn't occasionally come up with something a bit decent.
ReplyDelete@Anon 8.48
ReplyDeleteOne could argue that xkcd and xkcdsucks both suffer from the same problems, namely the authors of each have ran out of material.
Though that was inevitable with Carl as most of Randall's comics suffer from a similar list of problems. You can only say so much about the twentieth comic with poor setup and hilarious meme joke.
@Fluffy: People still read furry comics? Wow.
ReplyDelete@Fred: I suppose, but Sinfest has had even less material that the author ran out of long ago. Every time I look at it, I think it's one of the same 5 strips that it's always been.
ReplyDelete@anon: WOW YOU SURE TOLD ME LOL
@John
ReplyDeleteI have to agree. In that case, xkcdsuckscouldbebetter would suffer the same fate.
Why your art so shitty, fluffbutt?
ReplyDeleteJust start a "busybee comics sucks" blog already (and keep your retarded commentary there instead of crapping up the comments here).
ReplyDeleteWhy don't you keep your retarded commentary over at your place?
ReplyDeleteLast I checked, animals didn't have yellow(!) hair. If you're going to do a comic about animals with extremely human traits, do it with people.
I don't really understand what all this ragging on fluffy is all about. I mean as far as I know it's not like he links to his comic daily here or something.
ReplyDeleteJohn I think I always agree with you, so nothing new to see here.
(and poore I always love you)
Oh, thank you very much Anonymous, you're too kind.
ReplyDelete586 fails in that:
ReplyDelete1) Anyone who listens to "techno" would rage at the use of the term "techno" as it is a generalization for all electronic music.
2) Electronic music is PROGRAMMED not PLAYED.
3) Sampling would not work unless the sounds were sampled beforehand or all the instruments were hooked up to the sampler directly for cuing. Unless experimental or breakcore was being composed could this work using a spliced amen break, but this is "techno" so none of this applies.
I wonder where Randall gets his information about electronic music, which apparenlty is lacking. The strip suggests we can blame Megan, who apparently has the interest in it. But I'd hate to think this horrible strip was the result of the effort of multiple people.
ReplyDeleteAlso, on second review, the fact that "sigh" is the punchline reminds me of Garfield or other similarly generic newspaper comics. The difference being "xkcd minus Randall-stick-figure" would still be lame and unfunny.
John: "have ran"
ReplyDeleteYou mean "have run."
Feel free to correct all of my posts. I believe I mistyped "apparently" in the last one.
ReplyDeleteRe Symphony: It would be a joke on both of them if the concert that night was "A Night with Philip Glass and John Cage".
ReplyDeleteRandall knows no more about classical music than he does about "techno".
omfg randall is so stupid for lumping music together like that. if he knew anything he would've diffurentiated between techno, trance, elektronic, and the bit where cage just sits at the piano and plays nothing. Is that techno, or crowdcore? Or crowdsourced? comix are such a bad place to oversimplify something people care about like music, they should've gone to an art museum insted
ReplyDeleteIt's okay. You can spell it out instead of abbreviating it. Oh my fucking god.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure I get what you're saying here? People shouldn't make jokes about things that other people care about? Because really most comics take something and look at an oversimplified stereotypical aspect of it and then make a joke. I mean Randel makes jokes about science all the time (sure they might not be the best but he tries) and by and large people don't get pissed off about it.
ReplyDeletedo I really, really have to be the first one to directly say 'oh boy xkcd jumped the shark with this comic'?
ReplyDeleteThat joke is in the frickin' URL. Look:
ReplyDeletehttp://xkcdsucks.blogspot.com/2009/05/comic-585-shark-jumps-xkcd.html
Now go back to bed.
(My favourite electronic album is "Kid A" by Radiohead. Do I win a prize?)
("Hail to the Thief" is better, but also not electronic.)
>>I'm not sure I get what you're saying here? People shouldn't make jokes about things that other people care about? Because really most comics take something and look at an oversimplified stereotypical aspect of it and then make a joke. I mean Randel makes jokes about science all the time (sure they might not be the best but he tries) and by and large people don't get pissed off about it.
ReplyDeleteIt has become commonplace to lump all music sounding vaguely electronic as being techno. Techno was originally just gay black disco music from Detroit. The several other electronic genres such as trance, house, ragga, downtempo, breakbeat, ragga, chiptune, etc are radically different.
Think of it as being like being like referring to death metal as being rock'n'roll.
There is no indication that Randall misused the term "techno", but then again, he is Randall and probably not a music nerd.
This is what I took from your techno conversation: blah blablah blah blah balh blah blahlbalbalhyablah blahlah blah.
ReplyDeleteActually, that's not fair. If he'd mentioned a genre of music I liked, maybe I'd be freaking the fuck out too. But still. You are overreacting.
Randall does have a history of making fun of techno and not differentiating genres. The biggest reason I don't fault him for this: it is really just not something I care about at all. I've never fought tooth and nail over various indie misclassifications, and that's music I actually like.
ReplyDelete@Everyone:
ReplyDeleteThe comic is supposed to be about "language". It is an integral part of Randall's description of xkcd. Genre discussion - specifically the nature and implications of referring to a given piece of music with a specific genre - is very much rooted in language. How ideas are expressed (the idea in this case being the aesthetics of music) is one of the core concerns of language, therefor it is relevant to discuss it's misuse. If Randall wants to claim his comic is abut language, I have no problem calling him out on it.
Btw, Amanda, you are my favorite commenter at xkcdsucks but it's a secret so don't tell anyone.
SHIT.
If you're going to turn it into a language discussion I'm going to have to side with Randall, who is only using the word the way it is commonly used rather than the way a few prescriptivists would like it to be used. Please don't phrase an argument in such a way as I have to side with Randall.
ReplyDelete"language" is the biggest misnomer on xkcd. This is the same comic that just said "do me without a condom".
ReplyDeleteI genuninely can't think of any xkcd that was about language in any shape or form (besides the regular poor usage of). Can anyone help me out with this?
No, Randy. No kids aspire to be scientists. No matter how many times you say it, what you are interested in is not, and never will be, cool.
ReplyDeleteThe only music worth listening to is Hot Water Music.
ReplyDeleteUP THE PUNX!
May not be as good as some of the classic XKCD strips. But it had a joke, it had a punchline, it made me giggle.
ReplyDeleteCompare it to the previous comic or even to the race and you see this as the stellar peice of comicry that it is.
Wall-of-text Cuddlefish: I think if you started xkcdsuckscouldbebetter, Carl's head would actually explode with the realization of the beast he has created. You should totally do it.
ReplyDelete"I genuninely can't think of any xckd that was about language in any shape or form (besides the regular poor usage of). Can anyone help me out with this?"
ReplyDeleteThe lojban comic springs to mind - http://xkcd.com/191/. I remember because the lojban webpage was the first time I was introduced to xkcd =P
Gah, sorry for double posting, but I also wanted to point out that the techno comic also irritated me. 'Techno' in the strictest sense of the genre....well, no one listens to that anymore ><" He could have mentioned a popular and trashy form of electronic music eg hardcore because that would be less ambiguous! If he's just using it, as others mentioned, as a general term for electronic music, then I am pretty irritated. Not all electronic music is created equal! >:(
ReplyDeleteSecondly, implying that "culture" means going to elitist symphonies/operas/etc is also irritating (but then again, I did postmodernism class!)
I rate that comic 1 cuddlefish out of 5.
After reading 586, and realizing how completely awful it was, I went to the forums. I was surprised to see quite a few posts that said they were disappointed. But the fact that there were even a few posts saying how "OMG AWESOME" it was made me want to punch something.
ReplyDeleteNaomi,
ReplyDelete"implying that "culture" means going to elitist symphonies/operas/etc is also irritating"
That's because you're uncultured and have uneducated tastes.
@Rob:
ReplyDeleteI would agree if it were not for a fact that the entire comic was focused on music. If the girl in question truly listened to "techno" all the time, then certainly she would react as many here have (insisting that there are more kinds of electronic music than just techno), or at least protested that she didn't listen to techno ("It's not techno - it's Intelligent Dance Music!").
Well, maybe she really DOES listen to techno specifically.
ReplyDeleteIt's just occurred to me, but a very easy way the comic could have been turned away from its ending, and into a lame pun, is with the three panel buildup, and then they're both eating yoghurt.
ReplyDeleteBecause yoghurt has culture, you see.
And they would indeed be getting culture into her.
LANGUAGE
@Emmer:
ReplyDeleteOh my God, I love you.
Oh, but you see, I stole that from the forums. My shame is showing.
ReplyDeleteIt is okay Emmer, you are a hero.
ReplyDeleteYou braved the forums and brought us an AMAZING joke. I can forgive your theft. Nay, condone it!
ReplyDeleteI last heard it as "What's the difference between Portland, Oregon and a pot of yoghurt? There's culture in the yoghurt."
ReplyDeleteIn 1986. (possibly a lie)
Re: Crime Scene
ReplyDeleteOh goody, more Wacky People Using Math In Non-Mathematical Situations. YAWN.
Ok I'll admit I laughed at "Crime Scene" but thats only because I was force fed Square One (the show from which Math Net comes from) in elementary several years ago.
ReplyDeleteI apologize I have clearly failed you all as an XKCD hater.
poore, I think that is more a problem of behavior than language. That is, Randy's friend is behaving like a deranged caricature of a human being rather than a realistic person, so it's not so much that he used the word wrong as he didn't portray it realistically.
ReplyDeleteCarl, YOU NEED TO KEEP UP WITH POSTING, OR YOU WILL BE DETHRONED BY THOSE COMMITTED TO YOUR VISION.
ReplyDelete@ Rob/Poore: Sadly, a few frames and short bursts of text require some simplification. Like, ignoring the nuances of a music genre that no one cares about.
Dang, Carl, how hard is it to post three placeholder entries a week? Less effort than it is to draw stupid stick figures saying dumb things, I tell you what!
ReplyDeletelastest Anon: I'm not really faulting Randy on this one, or at least, for this part of this one. really what it comes down to is Randy's disdain for the genre(s), which I kind of share, so meh.
ReplyDeleteThis is copying Landshark. And Up. Really.
ReplyDeleteWow. You are a moron.
New one's pretty good. It would be pretty better without the caption. I do get the joke, thanks, Randall, you don't have to explain it to me.
ReplyDeleteOk, the shark comic was fucking horrible, and the punchline was beyond horrible, but your suggestions to new ones were equally bad.
ReplyDeleteYou should avoid trying, you might lose credibility when people find out your humour is almost as bad as Randall's :D
I didn't know what Mathnet was, so when I looked it up, the first thing Wikipedia said that it was a parody.
ReplyDeleteAces, Randall, for making fun of a parody. That's some sophisticated-ass humor. OR SHOULD I SAY SOPHISTICATED ASS-HUMOR???
I think I'll go make jokes about how stupid the Reno 911 cops are.
I guess the Mathnet thing is supposed to be an "Oh, look! It's something I remember from my childhood!" -type joke (in the loosest sense of the word "joke"), but if you didn't watch the show then even that falls flat.
ReplyDeleteThe comic might have been better as a Numb3rs parody, which would have made it 20 years more topical.
ReplyDeleteYeah, before I saw the caption I thought he was going for a Numb3rs thing. That would have at least been timely in its lack of funny.
ReplyDeleteI just crossed out "MathNet" in my head and wrote "Numb3rs". I don't know what MathNet is, y'see.
ReplyDeleteMathNet was a segment on some PBS show in the 80s called "Square One" or something. It was basically a math-themed variety show for kids, like 3-2-1 Contact was for science. MathNet in particular was a parody of Dragnet where they used basic math skills to solve crimes.
ReplyDeleteIt was a lot more realistic than Numb3rs, at least.
There was this great case they solved a kidnapping using simple combinatorics, by decoding the textual message someone left on an answering machine via touchtone signals. Of course, no modern voicemail systems or even answering machines would let that work anymore, and on modern crime shows the message would be cut off and they'd use a computer to "extrapolate the missing signal" or whatever.
Latest one is just another lame reference / "X but IN REAL LIFE" comic aka xkcd's bread and butter. Lazy, easy, and the audience eats it up because they've all seen Square One.
ReplyDeleteTV shows aren't realistic! Haha?
http://www.rockpapercynic.com/index.php?date=2009-02-26
ReplyDeleteAnyone? Anyone?
[from the rockpapercynic site] omfg that poor thing
ReplyDeleteUp is not an original idea. Urban legends like that were around for a while. Mythbusters lifted a toddler with party balloons.
ReplyDeleteOK, but Up was released around the time of this comic and got a lot of publicity and stuff. I mean, I'd read a story about a guy who did this with his lawn chair years ago. But that doesn't have the same culture saturation as a Pixar movie.
ReplyDeleteYou people are fucking idiots. If your collective lives are pointless enough to even waste time on a website criticizing a semi-obscure webcomic, then I suggest you end your already vapid lives.
ReplyDeleteA rubber hose attached to the muffler of a running car, fed back in through a window which is then rolled up does the job nicely, I have been told.
Obscure? Really? What are you, retarded?
ReplyDeleteAnd seriously, I have lots of much more fun things to do. I just like venting about shitty webcomics. This exercise takes like half an hour a day, tops, and I am usually doing other things in the meanwhile. It's a nice way to recharge one's mental energy.
i don't even have to spend time on the blog because Rob takes care of it all now.
ReplyDeletewith fangs and death
ReplyDeleteYou set up a blog to rip on a somewhat unknown webcomic? Wow... Perhaps you should be spending your time creating a 'better' webcomic rather than gripe about another. I gladly admit to following XKCD and its frequent moments of absurdity. I don't quite 'get' the detailed computer coding humor, but the cracks about math and the sciences are dead on. In fact, a number of my coworkers enjoy the science humor strips and will have some of them posted to their office doors. Amazing what one can find outside the office of a university biology professor...
ReplyDeletedamn, you convinced me! you clever man. OK, i'll stop the blog.
ReplyDeleteas of....NOW
I got a nice little chuckle out of it. Don't you have anything better to do with your time than bash someone for making a comic that, although it might not be perfect,certainly isn't bad?
ReplyDeleteWe get a nice little chuckle out of it. Don't you have anything better to do with your time than bash someone for making a blog that, although it might not be perfect, certainly isn't bad?
ReplyDeleteYou guys seriously need something new to criticize if you're going after a goofy web comic. The Bush Administration wasn't an easy enough target for you?
ReplyDeleteif you are referring to my side project, the blog "The Former Bush Administration And All Its Members SUCK" then all i can say is THANK YOU FOR READING MY BLOG! sometimes i think people only read my webcomic blog while ignoring my more serious work.
ReplyDeleteHa, wow. Those alternate punchlines were legitimately funny. I would have been willing to forgive the utter stupidity of the setup if Randall had used those. Especially the third one.
ReplyDeleteBeakers? Flasks? Test tubes? That's a flask (which could contain a culture of some kind) and a microscope.
ReplyDeleteI think it's funny how people are like "well the series of events leading up to this are so UNLIKELY that blah blah etc"
ReplyDeleteI assumed that this comic wasn't REALLY meant to be taken literally. Of course scientists wouldn't invent a device that can lift a shark out of water, allow it to survive, locate the scientists and attack them. I assumed that the whole bad idea and convoluted plan thing was supposed to be a joke...
But obviously, he intended for everyone to think this was true... :| lol
And the punchline: I thought that was quite funny. If I was a little kid I probably would (and actually did, because of programs like Dexter's Laboratory) have thought all scientists did was make strange inventions, wear labcoats and use chemical beakers.
(Also, who said they were zoologists? I mean, I know they're working with animals, but they seem to be generic stereotypical "scientists")