hey! so as you can see, there's still no post for comic 625. That is of course because I never got one e-mailed to me by whatever he is. That's ok, I'll write it myself, just not now. I'll do it tomorrow. As early as possible so I can still leave it up for a bit before I post the thing for 626, which as astoundingly already been sent to me.
also I will maybe be Away from The Internet for a week or so. Don't worry, Thomas will take care of you here. BUT - one thing thomas can't do: approve moderated comments. So the comments (on anything older than 2 weeks) are going to be a bit slow for a while probably. deal with it.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
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you realize a bunch of anons are pretty likely to not read this post at all and be all pissed off when their comments aren't modded through
ReplyDeleteOMG CARL you only allow comments that AGREE WITH YOU
HOW ORWELLIAN
I liked 626. Sure it's stupid, and meme-ish, the kind of stuff you'd find in reddit pun threads, but it made me chuckle.
ReplyDeleteI loved 626. That wins the award for most unexpected CSI moment combined with the award for worst math pun since "imaginary friends".
ReplyDeleteI know I'm going to say this twice, but...
ReplyDeleteGuys.
He got his pun timing right.
Maybe it's because I wasn't aware about the whole CSI thing, but I didn't like it.
ReplyDeleteI didn't get the new one. Is it some American culture reference or something? and why is he wearing sunglasses?
ReplyDeletealso, Wikipedia says that Leibniz invented calculus in 1675 and published in 1684 whereas Newton published in 1693 and worked it out "years before" so I don't know where those dates come from...
See: http://www.epiconeliner.com (which is a cheap ripoff of instantcaruso.com, but the latter is sadly no longer online).
ReplyDeleteIt's from some American TV series. But you don't need to be American to get it, just hang around sites like digg, reddit, fark, 4chan, etc. to get all the latest memes.
XKCD was funny today because it really explained all prior knowledge you'd need to have simply, the pun was brilliantly timed and the alt-text wasn't nerdy and weird.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget to mention that it was Leibniz who invented the derivative. Newton called them fluxions and refused to refer to them by any other name.
ReplyDeleteThis comic is really good in a vacuum! However, the one flaw I can give it is thus: CSI Miami humor is really old, scores of other webcomics and other assorted websites have made this joke to about the same amount of skill that Randall has (there is only really one way to tell this joke, unless you count the one where he puts on a pair of sunglasses while already using sunglasses.)long before this comic. So my opinion of this would be much greater if CSI just entered it's second season and Randall wanted us all to know what an awesome show he has been watching.
ReplyDeleteOh doublepost worthy material: Is it just me or has Randall replaced all his math and science material with the meta surrounding math and science. Like early on he made jokes about specific functions, but now he does exclusively jokes about who made a certain science or whether Franklin gave the charges the right symbols.
ReplyDeleteOh, and from what I gather, Newton was a bit of a jackass, so I can see him seeing the events as the comic as Randall put them, instead of how they technically historically happened.
Timofei - thanks! I still don't get it but I'll assume that it would be funny if I did hang around those kind of sites.
ReplyDeleteIt's hardly romance, sarcasm, maths or language though. Well, a bit of maths but ultimately not really anything to do with it.
http://xkcd.com/524/
ReplyDeleteDifferent pun, but he shamelessly re-used the CSI meme without changing it a bit.
@Kirk
ReplyDeleteThat's what happens when you try to mine a niche subject for humor. Especially when you leave that world, it's hard to find material. See: Dilbert.
@Asher
ReplyDeleteHm, interesting. I failed to mention that in my post which Carl hasn't posted yet.
Well at least no one has made a joke like that before.
ReplyDeleteI hate to say it, but I think The Horatio does improve the timing of the comic. The problem is that Randall found a way to make mediocre puns into mediocre strips, and goddamn it if he's going to give it up without a fight.
ReplyDeleteAgreed with Kirk. Furthermore, it was Leibniz's work that really paved the way for modern calculus; the Newtonian method of integration was far too ugly.
ReplyDeleteLeibniz believed that every problem could be solved if you created a notation that was elegant enough to solve it. If he had ever looked at Newton's work, Leibniz would have probably just called him a hopeless hack.
Matt - just email carl an extended post including that
ReplyDeletenewton was just a bit of a dick.
ReplyDeleteagreed that the timing was finally done right this time.
Still don't get the point of the csi bit... I guess cuz he says a lame line each time. But as someone pointed out, he's done it before.
William Monty Hughes admits he's a fake. Fun's over.
ReplyDeleteway to tell us that santa isn't real, anon.
ReplyDeleteBut it's no fun if he comes out and says it.
ReplyDeleteYeah, you know that dick? Back in kindergarten or whatever, that dick who, when you were gushing about all the things Santa brought you, snidely informed you that "Santa's not real"? You remember how you felt, that hollow feeling inside, because you'd known, you'd KNOWN all along, but it had been so nice to pretend, and now you couldn't, the magic had died and you just couldn't play make believe anymore?
ReplyDeleteAnon, that dick is you.
"William Monty Hughes admits he's a fake. Fun's over."
ReplyDeleteOh my god, I just heard the news. Michael Jackson is dead!
He admitted it on his third post, exactly 12 minutes after his first. Jeeze.
Is 626 the first xkcd where opinion is higher here than on the forums?
ReplyDeleteApparently all the people here are suckers for puns :P. Also, we have low expectations, so are happier when he does something decent.
ReplyDeleteIt would have been good if he hadn't thrown the CSI thing in there. God, I am so sick of Randall trying to milk dead memes. This would have been HILARIOUS a year ago, when the whole CSI "YEAAAAAH" thing was at the height of its popularity. Now it's just another sad example of how Randall just pulls these references out of his bag of retard tricks for lack of actual cleverness.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 9:19: That picture is totally, definitely photoshopped.
ReplyDeleteany talk of photoshop always reminds me of poore
ReplyDeletewhere the hell are you poore, i miss you =(
I can't get behind this comic because he is taking the wrong side in the Newton-Leibniz debate. Leibniz for life, dog.
ReplyDeletei don't think he's really taking sides, just saying that newton probably thought something similar when he saw leibniz's published work
ReplyDeletei would have totally liked the comic if it weren't for the sunglasses thing. seriously, why is randy so bad at delivering puns? it is like he is pathologically incapable of punning without, like, lampshading the fact that it's a pun.
ReplyDeletebecause without it, there's no comic. it's just some pun.
ReplyDeletealso randy's elite mensa squad of aspie forumites would have no clue what the joke is?
a pun is quite sufficient to have a comic, dude
ReplyDeleteYeah, if it were just a pun it would have gotten a giggle out of me. This just made me roll my eyes.
ReplyDeleteI should clarify something. I like the timing because, even without the reference, it's still a pun that I laughed at. The joke holds it's own. And THEN there's a reference. It actually ends the comic nicely, without Leibniz saying "I hate you" after the punchline. Though I may be biased; I'm the kind of guy who doesn't shy away from well-timed "that's what she said" jokes, despite them being older than dirt.
ReplyDeleteI'm a sucker for timing, and Randall made made his pun work despite an old joke. A+ would buy again.
@Rob, aloria:
ReplyDeleteI chuckled at the pun and laughed at the reference. I genuinely wasn't expecting it!
I guess I'm in the minority here, but I don't think this was a case of "quick, make this pun funnier". If I had thought of this scene myself, I would have thought of it exactly like this, sunglasses and all, and I would have giggled to myself in line at the supermarket while everyone wondered what's so funny about Tic-Tacs.
what are you talking about, tic tacs are hilarious
ReplyDeleteYeah I mean they are like regular mints
ReplyDeletebut little
and when you get real cold it looks like you got two of em under your shirt
but really, those are nipples
It's an old meme.
ReplyDeleteThe pun is OK, but wrapping it in a years old meme really ruins it.
It's telling the low expectations some of you guys have that you're giving this one a pass.
omfg aloria
ReplyDeletehahahhahahahha
Exactly. The meme is over a year old. In meme years, it's eligible for discounted movie tickets and meals at Old Country Buffet.
ReplyDeleteI fully expect a "squirrel popping up in the middle of a picture" xkcd in a year and a half from now.
Alright, I know there's no "winning" in a comment section, but. I feel the need to stand my ground here.
ReplyDeleteI starting reading XKCD almost entirely to see quick jokes done well. If he made the comic "Solar Plexus" now, how many people would see it as a cop-out? And yet, reading that strip was the moment I knew I was hooked.
Half the reason I started seeking out this blog is that Randall stopped making things like this. He started trying to add shit, making everything more complicated, and he started to fail at timing. His ego has gotten bigger, so now he's making an Art Work, and why should I make myself laugh if I can make my audience laugh with less work? Anyway, my reviews all have something to do with the execution, not the joke.
Today's joke was fast and punny. I like 'em that way. You say low standards, I say let's call a spade a spade.
Apparently it's an old meme, but it's new to me. I watch CSI:Miami, but never saw it as a meme. Actually, I always thought the sunglasses thing was very 80's and that Horatio was sort of taken off of that. So, to me, the comic was a pun with a reference. Pun was the comic, reference added for fun.
ReplyDeleteBut even if it's an old meme, I don't care. Partly because I like old memes. But, more importantly, it added that beat, panel 4, that was needed to make the pun work. If you were making this pun in real life, you'd add that beat. Without something happening in the fourth panel, it's either just spreading the text of two panels which feels sloppy or loses the beat which loses the joke.
dicks
ReplyDeletecheney wow
ReplyDeletei can't believe you're here
are you pro or anti-xkcd?
or are you ambivalent towards it?
Randall is a democrat.
ReplyDelete