UGHHH is it time to post again already? Man, this strip is boring. I don't care about it. I guess it's about terminator or something, oh boy, exciting. I side entirely with this forumite.
The art in the explosion is pretty cool, I guess, but the weirdness of the girl in panel two makes up for that.
I guess the point is that when the movie first came out we didn't have unmanned planes that could blow stuff up, and now we do, so real life is even more terrifying than the dystopian film. Whatever.
I get to pass on comics every once in a while and this will have to be one of those times. The fact that you all are still discussing the airport security comic and not this one is proof that this is just boring.
see you next week when hopefully this mediocrity will end.
The art in the explosion is pretty cool, I guess, but the weirdness of the girl in panel two makes up for that.
I guess the point is that when the movie first came out we didn't have unmanned planes that could blow stuff up, and now we do, so real life is even more terrifying than the dystopian film. Whatever.
I get to pass on comics every once in a while and this will have to be one of those times. The fact that you all are still discussing the airport security comic and not this one is proof that this is just boring.
see you next week when hopefully this mediocrity will end.
How's this for an actual joke?
ReplyDeletehttp://img251.imageshack.us/img251/5174/moreaccurate.png
I was expecting more on this comic... especially considering SARAH CONNOR HAS A MOUSTACHE. Dang, I can't get over that!
ReplyDelete"see you next week when hopefully this mediocrity will end."
Yes, I do hope so. =/
New comic is... another TVTropes entry masquerading as a comic?
ReplyDeleteAre there enough of these to be a Repeat Offender category?
Wow, he combined like FIVE MEMES into ONE COMIC! PROTIP, SO BAD IT'S GOOD, SO BAD IT'S HORRIBLE, ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW, and STAR WARS HOLIDAY SPECIAL! With so many references, AND A GRAPH, it must be super great!
ReplyDeleteI'm noticing an intriguing parallel between this comic and the Star Wars Holiday Special
ReplyDeleteMeaning, they're both horribly mediocre. I can't even feel the hate...just 'meh'.
ReplyDeletewait a second, was this comic basically a guy saying that he found the Star Wars Holiday Special unwatchable?
ReplyDeleteBecause even though that movie was crazy horrible, each second was more entertaining than that statement, and I'm counting the unintelligible roar-conversations AND the wookie porn.
I guess the joke could also be "hey guys, I saw a movie at bad movie night, and who would have thought bad movies could actually be unenjoyable. Huh how about that." HILARIOUS
TVTropes needs to die in a fire. Trope used to be a perfectly good word that meant something. They're all "you can't define 'trope' but you know it when you see it." No, you can't define 'trope' just because you are an uneducated boor. I can define 'trope' perfectly fine because I try to learn what words mean before I start throwing them around.
ReplyDeleteI've never been a hardcore xkcd hater. But TVTropes fills me with goddamn firey rage.
I'm surprised he didn't go the Shredded Moose route and draw himself having a threesome with the two girls.
ReplyDeleteI like to think that Randall is calling out his own fanbase with the alt text but I know he's not that self-aware.
ReplyDeleteso, on the topic of Wednesday's comic. Did any one read the rest of the forum posts? I did unfortunately, and I did not see ONE comment that said anything along the lines of "Randall missed the fact that Predator Drones are still manned, by people at computer screens, but they are not full-fledged AIs like the skynet bots" NO WHERE. Anybody else see a problem with that?
ReplyDeleteThis comic was horribly boring. But I would say the Sarah Connor mustache is much more amusing--albeit confusing--than anything in the strip.
ReplyDeleteNewest comic is even more boring, but at least he drew a graph properly this time. Congratulations, Randall Munroe, you've finally passed middle school geometry.
(was that when we started learning about axes, i dont even know)
I like TVTropes, but I haven't read it in a long time and even when I do read it I only ever read article and I always skim past all the anime stuff and only ever look at shows I already know about and I don't read the discussions and so I don't see people talking about dumb tropey stuff, I just see tons of nifty examples and informal descriptive analysis.
ReplyDeleteINTERESTING CHOICE: The x-axis on Randall's graph. I think we would normally be inclined to have "goodness" be the PRIMARY metric, so if an axis is measuring goodness, higher values on that axis would correspond to better movies. However, he clearly labels which direction of the graph is more good and more bad, and the inversion is necessary to tell the joke such as it is. It is an example of Randall not following 100% of graphing standards, but still being clear and easily-understood. In fact I think that the change of the x-axis makes the graph MORE legible which is good. It's a far cry from that FUCKING laptops/dysentery comic.
ReplyDeleteYes, I think it's about time for a plagiarism/excessive inspiration category.
ReplyDeleteRandy, it's "kitschy." Not "kitchy." Learn to fucking spell.
ReplyDeleteThe most aggravating thing? That's not even a Protip.
ReplyDeleteThe Protip gag, as used in ProGamer Magazine was to give exceedingly, horrifyingly blatant advice. "To defeat the Cyberdemon, shoot at it until it dies" is of course the definitive one. Similar ideas would be "to defeat a goomba, jump on it" or "you can catch fish with a fishing rod" or "update your pokedex by catching new pokemon".
"Even at the bad movie night, avoid the Star Wars Holiday Special" is not a Protip. If you're going to use overdone gags, at least do them properly.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteRyan: Calm the fuck down.
ReplyDeleteI laughed at Wednesday's comic. Not because the joke was funny, dear God no. It was downright mediocre. What I laughed about was the fact that Sarah Connor suddenly grew a handlebar moustache and a nice big curly beard. I love how Randall managed to fuck up his art so much that the only funny thing about his comic is the fact that he accidentally turned one of his characters into an abomination.
ReplyDeleteThe new comic is old-fashioned awful. The "protip" header basically says that the SWHS is too awful to watch on bad movie night, and then there's a big fucking chart explaining thatthe SWHS is too awful to watch on bad movie night. That's right, we need to hear it twice. Oh also, in case you don't get what "so bad it's good" means, let's explain by giving two examples of movies you'll have to look up on Wikipedia anyway, because if you're unaware of the so bad it's good thing those two titles certainly won't mean a thing to you.
Oh also, here's three panels (see, it's a regular comic, not a graph comic!) of people thinking they'll enjoy it but then don't. See, because they think the Holiday Special will be so bad it's good, but then won't enjoy it at all. Did Randall stress the point enough, guys? Did you understand that the SWHS is bad, not in a "so bad it's good" way, but so bad that you won't even enjoy it that way. It is -beyond- bad movies. Don't watch it!
Alt text: "The Star Wars Holiday Special is a bad movie that you won't enjoy."
Urgh, the new comic is so awful. In a way, it's really simply a mediocre comic with a blatantly braindead "revelation" that 95% of all xkcd fans already know BEATEN TO DEATH in a single panel. But this is mediocrity to the extreme. It defies the reader's intelligence. Let's face it: if some unknown loser made this strip exactly the way it is and posted on some popular forum, it'd be shrugged off as obvious. But since it's Randall, he apparently has enough cred to come up Monday with a strip explaining in 50 different ways that the "the princess is in another castle!" thing used to be pretty annoying.
ReplyDeleteRegarding Mal's post on TV Tropes: Maletooth, get out of my head!! HAHAHA LOLZ
Okay, today's (Friday's) comic had so many things wrong with it I don't know where to begin.
ReplyDeleteI'll start with the cliches:
1. "Protip: Even at Bad Movie Night, avoid the Star Wars Holiday Special."
Alright, no. No, Randall. That's not a protip. To put this in terms you might understand, YOU'RE DOIN IT WRONG.
2. The whole "har har it's so bad it runs off the graph at the bottom" tired joke.
Is this really the kind of crap you put out these days, Randall? I know graphing is bewilderingly hard for you, but at the very least try to not go for such obvious, unfunny jokes. I mean, what's next? a guy arguing with TSA because their screening policies are illogical? O WAI-
3. So bad it's good. No duh this sort of phenomenon exists, Randall. It has to because it's the only reason I keep reading your webcomic.
Compliment time!
Hooray for you, Randall, you figured out how to write a graph. It sure took you long enough though. After how badly you screwed up the "dysentery vs. laptop use" graph, I honestly was proud that you went for a line graph here and not, say, a pie chart. It's a sad day when you get props for meeting the bare minimum skills required (in this case, possessing a middle-schooler's knowledge of graphing). The closest equivalent to this I can think of is you getting an award for not ripping your ears off while you poured your breakfast cereal, because you SHOULDN'T BE DOING THAT ANYWAY.
Back to the complaints.
Let's put on our imagination caps for a second and pretend that this comic actually had a good joke hidden somewhere inside of it. I know, it's difficult, but bear with me. Just pretend it's hidden there somewhere. And I use the word "hidden" deliberately, because if there were anything funny to be found in this wreck (there isn't), it'd have to be hidden quite well by the rest of the crappiness. Redundancy. After giving this comic the title it has, why bother drawing a graph that basically says the same thing, only less in a less clever manner? If you had just used the title for the punchline, people would at least have had to extrapolate a little to come to the conclusion that you meant the Star Wars Holiday Special was terrible. Don't insult our intelligence by giving the same terrible joke twice (with a step-by-step explanation, no less). Why, oh why, in god's name did you put those pointless three panels at the bottom? In case us mouthbreathers were too stupid to figure out, after outright telling us so and then providing a graph to explicate the point, that the Star Wars Holiday Special should not be watched? Thanks, Randall. Glad to know your estimate of our intelligence is so high. On Monday I guess we'll be treated to a comic where he teaches us how to dress ourselves on our own.
And don't get me started on the alt-text.
Not saying Randall plagerised this but sompare friday's comic to http://survivingtheworld.net/lesson193.html
ReplyDeleteNow this comic is entirely based around giving post college useful advice, so it fits ion a lot more there. Plus it goes to show how common the So-bad-it's-good idea already is.
Was there supposed to be a joke in this comic? Or just 'haha this movie is bad! Look at these people drinking their sorrows away'?
ReplyDeleteI don't have time to read all the comics, but Cam I totally thought the same thing as you did and I am sad to know that no one commented on it.
ReplyDeleteI am going to say that I smiled at this one.
ReplyDeleteI liked it, knowing it was cheap and stated nothing and not that funny and that anyone could do equal if not better, but I still liked it...
Then I realised that it will be posted on any forum where xkcd, so bad its's good things or the movies mentioned are being dicussed. Followed by posters clamouring about how utterly great xkcd is. Why, Randall... Why?!
I AM ASHAMED.
Captcha: Uncess.
Its not a moustache, its her hands over her mouth. Admittedly it took me a while to realize.
ReplyDelete"Admittedly it took me a while to realize."
ReplyDeleteThat's the joke.
Uh, anyway. RANDALL MIGHT HAVE PIRATED THE STAR WARS HOLIDAY SPECIAL WHICH IS ILLEGAL AND actually I don't care, I just want to see him arrested for something.
He makes it so easy for me:
ReplyDeletehttp://img14.imageshack.us/img14/8673/threesome.png
Lo, an xkcd comic with an extremely accurate title!
ReplyDelete...what, nobody did this comment yet? I thought it was so obvious...
But really, Randall is getting very good at doing unexpected humor. First, Sarah Connor's moustache, and now this awesomely accurate title. Man, I can't wait for Monday strip now! =D
Why doesn't Randall have any male stick figure friends?
ReplyDeletecaptcha: crane (?)
They're his hoes.
ReplyDeleteAnon 9:27PM, that is the funniest thing I've read in a while. I salute you.
ReplyDeleteI will defend this last comic on the basis that you are using it to mock it.
ReplyDeleteNo complaining that Randall won't shut up about how The Future Is Now? Tsk, that was the most annoying thing about the comic for me.
ReplyDeleteI thought this one was all right, but that's because I really couldn't stand Bag Check. It makes sense: why would anyone send a killer robot back in time when they could achieve the same result with a massive bomb?
ReplyDeleteA killer robot would be a lot more subtle, admittedly... And I don't think that a huge bomb would technically be any "more accurate" - it would be quicker.
What pisses me off particularly about 653 is that, as far as I can see, Randall did it only because he knows he doesn't need to do more than namedrop an (in)famous item of nerd culture in order to do what he considers a successful strip. Just LOOK at that: there is no joke at all. There is NOTHING in that strip designed to make you laugh: it just expects you to look at the reference and take it as the "joke" itself. The fans do exactly that, the strip gets posted in a hundred thousand forums, and Randall gets famous without any effort. This is the Internet equivalent of Dire Straits' "money for nothing and the chicks for free".
ReplyDeleteRandall is lazy. And Randall is only lazy because he knows he can afford it.
ugh every time I see an xkcd strip on a TvTropes page I cringe a little. This one's already (!) made it to SoBadItsHorrible
ReplyDeleteI just want Ryan North to remove XKCD from his COMICS I WOULD TOTALLY MARRY list. He must realize how bad XKCD is now.
ReplyDelete500 comics of gold (ok, more like 400 of gold and another hundred of silver), he has earned the right to be lazy and silly in his old age (30?)!
ReplyDeleteVes, may I dress as you for Halloween? I like your style.
ReplyDeletehttp://img35.imageshack.us/img35/9408/sobaditsxkcd.png
ReplyDeleteI actually like xkcd mostly, even ones as bad as this one, but I couldn't resist.
Whoops, I had the labels around wrong, plus I thought it needed a little story. Here's the update.
ReplyDeletehttp://img32.imageshack.us/img32/9408/sobaditsxkcd.png
Good one, Naz. I wonder what the bump on the curve is supposed to be, then...
ReplyDeleteAlso, nothing more obvious than having this strip illustrating So Bad It's Horrible... because, you see, this strip is so bad it's horrible! *rimshot*
Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week.
CAPTCHA: focketa... I think Randall invaded our comment box CAPTCHA generator, guys!
I always thought that the Star Wars Christmas Special was bad enough to be funny. Cringeworthy--yes but not so bad you want to drink away your sorrows. I mean whats not funny about Chewbacca having a kid.
ReplyDeleteI don't know what all of you are talking about. 653 is fucking great.
ReplyDeleteAt least, it is once you get rid of the graph.
Clip out everything but the caption and the three panels of the bad movie night party slowly morphing from boozy glee, to horrified silence, to drinking in a desperate attempt to kill the pain, and you've got one of the best Randall's done in a long time. Understated and funny.
With the graph, though? Fuck that noise.
"If you take out 90% of the comic, it's really quite understated!"
ReplyDeleteWow, no shit. CAD Rule, etc.
The CAD rule works because they make somewhat funny non-sequiturs (unlike the Chef Brian character, but I digress).
ReplyDeleteThat anon's suggesting that somebody could make a FULLY COMPREHENSIBLE edit out of 652.
Capcha is Leratos. Sounds like a good name for a Mary Sue, methinks.
I like the idea of people drinking away the pain of a webcomic becoming bad
ReplyDelete"Good one, Naz. I wonder what the bump on the curve is supposed to be, then..."
ReplyDeleteThe "xkcd sucks" factor, perhaps... With the blog, we could extract a different kind of enjoyment out of xkcd, but even with that the comic proceeded to become SO BAD that not even the incessant critique could do any good...
... though that might not be at all accurate.
so after reading Friday's comic, I had to watch the Holiday Special so I would understand what the crap is going on. Upon watching it, I don't know where this "so bad, it's horrible" comes from, I didn't mind it, it wasn't gold but it wasn't absolutely cringe worthy either.
ReplyDeleteMy overall opinion of said Holiday Special? Maybe a bit tooo much wookie family chatting and not enough of the main characters, plus all the singing was kinda annoying, but the rest? Hell it was about as cheesy and lame as any soap we've got these days, just with wookies :)
If you guys dislike xkcd so much, why waste your time looking at it, and even more time bitching about it?
ReplyDeleteWhy not get a life of yor own or something?
From the FAQ: "The blog's primary purpose is not to convince people that xkcd sucks, but to make people who already think xkcd sucks feel better about themselves."
ReplyDeleteWhat makes you think nobody here has a life because they spend 2 minutes here looking at a blog now and then?
Dumbass.
ReplyDeleteyeah guys, why not get a life of yor own. Lisa makes a compelling case.
ReplyDeleteRight! Instead of reading xkcd and complaining about it, we should do something more constructive...like reading a blog and complaining about it...
ReplyDeletenaz i particularly enjoyed that the image name was "so bad it's xkcd." nicely done.
ReplyDeleteperson #1: why do you think poore drinks, don't you know randall drove him to it