Not a lot to say today, I'm afraid. Today's comic presents us with a joke based on a situation that is not happening, and if it were happening, precious few people would care. Perhaps people should care that the Unix time problem would destroy the world, but they wouldn't. So I see this as little more than a dog whistle comic for serious computer nerds, using the tried (tired?) and true xkcd formula of "Maybe if I reference something that most people don't know about, the ones who do get it will think it is funny JUST BECAUSE OF THE REFERENCE!" It's a style xkcd has gotten super duper good at.
In other news, I tire of my own voice and so next week you will all get to hear from Guest Poster Doctor Horrible. I do not believe that is his real name. I do not believe he is related to any other Horrible Doctors you may have heard of. Anyway, god knows what he'll say or if he's any good at this but I guess we'll all find out next week, huh?
In other news, I tire of my own voice and so next week you will all get to hear from Guest Poster Doctor Horrible. I do not believe that is his real name. I do not believe he is related to any other Horrible Doctors you may have heard of. Anyway, god knows what he'll say or if he's any good at this but I guess we'll all find out next week, huh?
FIRST!
ReplyDeleteTo fail!
ReplyDeleteDoctor Horrible is me! I am also known as Dr. S, or doctorscience on the forums. I look forward to being the best damn poster ever. Right, Randall? I mean Carl?
ReplyDeleteHa. Ha. Ha. How quaint.
ReplyDeleteTo Carl "Ugly" Wheeler:
Why shall you be absent? Is there an underlying subtext to your scheduled disappearance?
Frightened, Carl Wheeler? Have I, William Monty Hughes, finally intimidated you? Do you fear me? If so then I understand completely. Fear is a reasonable response to my scathing commentary and REMARKABLE intellect.
I believe my counter-blag has ALREADY proven effective. Impressive, is it not? Am I not? The answer is, objectively, YES.
You have already lost. I am victorious. Surrender with your dignity intact and I shall perhaps recognize you as a former rival. Tis the best you can hope to achieve with your PATHETIC mockery of a human life. I suggest you accept my reasonable offer.
Or you could expire slowly and with difficulty at some point in the near future.
It is your choice to make. Choose wisely.
Farewell.
-William Monty Hughes
IQ 224
"Cogito Ergo Sum"
ANN APOLIS, M. D., PRESENTS
ReplyDeleteJOKES EXPLAINED
1) The 2038 problem is the Unix equivalent of the Y2K problem. Because of binary.
2) The Y2K problem was overhyped and turned out to not be much of a problem because of preventative action.
3) The man on the street sees Y2K as, in retrospect, nothing much to worry about.
4) Therefore an attempt to explain the 2038 problem by reference to the Y2K problem will leave the man on the street unimpressed at how dreadful it is.
Now everyone can play the game!
THIS HAS BEEN JOKES EXPLAINED
BY SHAMELESS RYAN NORTH RIPOFF
ANN APOLIS, M. D.
Mr. Hughes. My arch-enemy; my doctorate in horribleness was obtained just weeks after you left your so-called "legacy" at the University of Brilliance.
ReplyDeleteDo not underestimate Carl. Beneath his crude and grammatically apathetic exterior lies not only the heart of a warrior, but that of an intellectual. I will warn you that next week, the mind-shattering intelligence floating around in my head shall destroy your very perception of "Intelligence Quotient" (a complete mockery of intellectual testing). My number would be so high that your mother would indeed be unable to compute it properly, given that your mother is a 64-bit ALU with no software loaded for larger-than-max computations.
Ha. Ha. HA!
-DH
(Captcha: mulneur - what WMH is full of.)
It's, like Y2K, a potentially big problem. I believe it's already caused a few glitches in things like 30-year loans, bonds, and such. Times in Unix are generally stored as the number of seconds since 1970. Sometime in 2038, that value gets too big to store in a 32-bit integer.
ReplyDeleteThings are being gradually switched over to 64 bits for performance reasons, and coincidentally solving the problem without a big fuss.
god you guys are bigger homos than the xkcd fags
ReplyDeleteCarl has gotten as lazy as Randall.
ReplyDeleteNo coincidence though, Crandarl.
http://echochamber.me/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=42271#p1674025 An XKCD lover saying that the new comic is lame.
ReplyDelete608 did nothing but make me sigh. It's almost identical to that one he did with the number 3 pencils on the standardized test, which in turn was the same as the goto velociraptor one. Floating heads and sunglasses forever.
ReplyDeleteThe alt text provoked a couple seconds of thought from me, though.
Doctor Horrible, please write in-character as the Sing-Along Blogger. Please?
ReplyDeleteHoly shit.
ReplyDeleteI was in the middle of writing about my thoughts on the new comic, then I had a sudden and unfortunate rush of perspective:
I AM SPENDING MY EVENING POSTING MY OPINION ON A STRIP FROM A WEBCOMIC ONTO THE COMMENTS SECTION OF A POST ON A BLOG DEDICATED TO DETAILED ANALYSIS AND CRITICISM OF SAID WEBCOMIC
This blog would be better is it wasn't so FUCKING slow. Honestly, the new comic (608) has been up for an hour and a half!!!!!
ReplyDelete608: guy writes in the blank where it says don't write.
ReplyDeleteThis ranks right up here on the funny scale as jokes about removing the tags from mattresses.
Also it's sweet that the spellcheck, arrow keys, and copy/paste working in the comment field.
Re 607: Got it immediately, so I guess I'm in the target audience. Sadly, I didn't laugh.
ReplyDeleteRe 608: A friend of mine wrote a nearly identical comic several months ago. A guy replies to donotreply@gmail, with a impish grin, before his head pops like a balloon. At least that had some funny imagery...this is pathetic. Tag-on-the-mattress jokes? This is not why I read xkcd.
As Mal (not from Firefly) pointed out, 608 = 292 = 499 in xkcd arithmetic.
ReplyDeleteNEXT EPISODE: Randall shares his uproarious thoughts on what happens if you jaywalk on an empty street or tear that little tag off of a mattress! Will the mischievous stick-man be violently punished for his seemingly minor offense? How hilariously absurd that would be!
I FOR ONE CANNOT WAIT
DAMMIT, ninja'd on the mattress thing. Twice.
ReplyDeleteAt least it confirms that other people know what the heck I'm talking about. I wasn't quite sure.
What about those little packets of, um, you know, those weird little pellets that sometimes come in shipping things? And it says do not ingest?
ReplyDeleteMaybe he eats those, and then he explodes!
I exploded once. That'll teach me.
ReplyDeleteI kind of liked 608. At least it has art and a joke.
ReplyDeleteI would've laughed at 608, I guess, if it was two years ago when XKCD was still good and he hadn't done this a few times already.
ReplyDeleteI kind of like 608, even if the concept is lame. The impulsiveness of the action is somehow conveyed very well. I dunno what he did and if he actually meant to do it, but whatever he did was done.
ReplyDeleteWill he loose his shit if I move his chair?
ReplyDeleteOh, and 608 is the most overused joke ever. I don't know where anymore, but I've seen it on at least 3 different places, the exact same joke. Simpsons also did something somewhat similar.
ReplyDeleteTalking about originality, yesterday I saw an episode of the colbert report from 2008 in which colbert talks with a guy who wrote a book about robot sex, and asks him if the sexbots won't just start having sex with each other
I laughed at 608.
ReplyDeleteWell, I laughed at the notion that this is what xkcd is down to. Not only one of the oldest types of jokes, but 499 was basically the same thing only slightly better. 292 had a similar concept also, but was better again. Not coincidentally, the quality of the same joke has gotten worse over time.
There's nothing good about this strip. Nothing.
The concept is lame, sure. At least the execution is nice, and you can't complain much about the "art" this time (*nudge nudge*).
ReplyDeleteI'm usually one who doesn't care about "originality" of lack thereof, but this time, it was groan worthy indeed.
Come on Carl. You have GOT to do the placeholder posts when the new comic comes up. This is ridiculous. Everybody has had 2 days to discuss 607. We'd like to see what you've got to say, and you can take you're time writing it, but folks are basically done talking about 607 now.
ReplyDeleteWe only get 10 comments into the thread on this post and people are already discussing 608 (and most of those 10 are about Willy Montell Hewes).
"ninja'd on the mattress thing. Twice."
ReplyDeleteThat sounds hot
Anon 10:38:
ReplyDelete"Also it's sweet that the spellcheck, arrow keys, and copy/paste working in the comment field."
That was just a momentary hiccup. Appologies. Won't happen again.
Oops, that should be apologies.
ReplyDeleteDamn Firefox forgot to automatically spellcheck because the textbox is so crappy.
"Come on Carl. You have GOT to do the placeholder posts when the new comic comes up. This is ridiculous. Everybody has had 2 days to discuss 607. We'd like to see what you've got to say, and you can take you're time writing it, but folks are basically done talking about 607 now."
ReplyDeleteOh hi, you must be new here.
The execution is competent, and seems nice because normally Randall's execution has been verbose, over-expository, and fucking terrible.
ReplyDeleteAnd actually I can complain about the damn bobblehead soldiers and their goofy sunglasses, because I feel like it.
Hey guys, did you know that the last letters of the titles of the last five comics, read backwards, ignoring 607, spell 'me gay'? Because I did.
ReplyDeleteThe last latters of the titles of the last five comics, read backwards, ignoring 607, and inserting a space at an arbitrary location.
ReplyDeleteretard.
That sounds like a bible code.
ReplyDelete@William Monty Hughes a.k.a. Willy:
ReplyDeletePlease kill yourself; thank you in advance.
Anon 11:09 clearly does not understand the unfiltered win that is WMH. Filthy plebian.
ReplyDelete-Cuddlefish Prime, Esq.
IQ 291
"Ixnay on the upidstay"
"@William Monty Hughes a.k.a. Willy:
ReplyDeletePlease kill yourself; thank you in advance."
And deprive the world of my presence? How selfish.
Also, never call me "Willy". I have tolerated you people until now but NO MORE. The next primitive to call me "Willy" SHALL regret having done so. This is your last warning.
Do. Not. Try. To. Aggrivate. Me.
-William Monty Hughes
IQ 224
"Cogito Ergo Sum"
Hey Farva,
ReplyDeleteWhat's that pizza joint you like in South Park Colorado, you know with the old man whistling and all the goofy shit on the walls and the mozzarella sticks?
Man, xkcd has become so boring and lame that it's actually sapped my will to snark on it. The only thing that works me into a lather anymore is when people incessantly link to the "Bobby Tables" comic every time SQL injection comes up on a message board.
ReplyDeleteHey, Willy, man! How's it hangin'?
ReplyDeleteOH GOD I'M AFRAID!!!!11!!!!ELEVENTY HUNDRED AND TEN PLUS 1!
ReplyDeleteHey, it's FRED!!
ReplyDeleteThe above posts were me. Please come and kill me right away.
That is all.
It seems odd that they are monitoring the man's writing using Radar.
ReplyDeleteit seems odd that the man is taking a test standing up.
ReplyDeleteHey Willy! You're super obnoxious and bring absolutely nothing to the discussion here, please die! Slowly! Painfully!
ReplyDeleteAnd guess what? You can't kill me because you don't know A. my name and B. where I am, because I'm using TOR to mask my IP/location!! HAHA
See you later Willy!!
WILLY WILLY WILLY WILLY WILLY WILLY WILLY WILLY.
ReplyDeletewhat chu gonna do about it
xkcd is so fucking bland it's not even worth pointing out anymore... it's not horrible in the mock worthy Ctrl-Alt-Delete way, but instead in a Garfield kind of way, so there's really nothing to say other than; meh.
ReplyDelete""@William Monty Hughes a.k.a. Willy:
ReplyDeletePlease kill yourself; thank you in advance."
And deprive the world of my presence? How selfish.
Also, never call me "Willy". I have tolerated you people until now but NO MORE. The next primitive to call me "Willy" SHALL regret having done so. This is your last warning.
Do. Not. Try. To. Aggrivate. Me.
-William Monty Hughes
IQ 224
"Cogito Ergo Sum""
This would have been funnier if you'd signed yourself off "Willy Monty Hughes". Or at least, I think it would have been.
I've just noticed: http://xkcd.com/276/ is ABOUT ROB.
ReplyDeleteROB WHAT HAVE YOU DONE
listen
ReplyDeletesometimes i send my chat logs to randall
don't judge me
Before the comic even begins, the narration tells us nobody would really care. Then the comic is about people still not caring. The double-negative of ignorance/apathy in this comic only makes it twice as bad and not a positive.
ReplyDelete608 continues Randall's "George Carlin for 10-year-olds" trend. You know all the little rules you live by? Well they have been SKEWERED!
@anon 2:14:
ReplyDelete"it seems odd that the man is taking a test standing up."
It's an application form for hemorrhoid cream.
Protip: don't go to wikipedia to see how you spell the word hemorrhoid.
ReplyDelete>>Do. Not. Try. To. Aggrivate. Me.
ReplyDelete>>To. Aggrivate. Me.
>>Aggrivate.
>>gri
Jesus Christ Anon 2:16 is so slow.
ReplyDeletethe sfx on 608 bother me. cha-click is not the sound it makes. randy needs to diaf
ReplyDelete@ malethoth
ReplyDeletedessicant, and seriously do not eat.
@ann apolis
ReplyDeletewhat have you done? that is the worst xkcd that i can think of, it is an example of everything that is wrong with xkcd.
It is a made up situation just to make a stupid joke. A stupid joke that is so common in the 'target audience' that so many people would say RANDALL GET OUT OF MY HEAD!
The biggest complaint is that "for real" and "just sex" have the exact same amount of characters! So the lines would have matched up no matter what, but Randall couldn't take the time to change it so it made sense.
what? i didn't frickin' draw it. I noticed it had someone called "rob" in it doing Questionable Things, and hey! comedy gold was born.
ReplyDeleteanyway, isn't 276 supposed to be before it jumped the shark?
Yes because there is a definitive moment in time that xkcd went from being perfect and revered by the heavens themselves to being the Marmaduke of webcomics.
ReplyDeleteI agree that 276 is one of the stupidest comics there is.
See, one of the problems I have with Randall's created scenarios is that he tries so hard to make them realistic when they clearly have no grounds in reality whatsoever. Then, when he tries to find the "absurd" in life, he does so with a straight face and points out things every single person on earth has noticed before him. And he is even incapable of using artwork.
There's nothing really to add about 608, in my opinion. It doesn't even need it's own post here. It's a joke that's been around for ages and almost all the versions of it I've heard have been better than Randall's. Oh boy! Look at that major consequence that is befalling this man who cleverly (? - you can't really tell what his motivation is, he doesn't have a face) "fought the man"! Oh, guess what? I bet in the next comic there will be some artificial situation about wikipedia involving a graph and maybe a boomerang and the punchline is that Marmaduke is really big haha get it?
http://www.isowantone.com/randy.jpg
ReplyDeleteHEY! I'm still alive here!
ReplyDeleteWhat the fuck is your problem, Willy?
WILLY! Stop playing around willy nilly and FUCKING KILL ME ALREADY!
(I know; it wasn't funny the first time, and it isn't funny now)
@Jay:
ReplyDeleteIf only the title of this comic was an N. Then they'd spell MEGAN.
No they wouldn't, Ramsey.
ReplyDeleteThey'd spell NEGAY.
That sounds almost... racist.
Dirty negays need to get the fuck out of here.
ReplyDeleteCould you make a placeholder for 608?
ReplyDeleteit's offensive to TWO minorities! Everybody wins!
ReplyDelete