About 65 people voted in the contest, which I think is pretty good. The winner was, by a fairly good margin, DAN!
congratulations dan. I will be e-mailing you about getting your prize. GUYS: do you remember what the prizes are? Dan won $100 at Topatoco, that is pretty good. I strongly regret promising people that much money.
The honorable mentions were JASON and WAY WALKER, who will each get $20 gift certificates to Topatoco. PS WAY WALKER YOU HAVE TO E-MAIL ME.
The loser was Fred. Sorry fred. I don't know what to say to make you feel better. It is really my fault for picking 4 finalists.
Here lets all look at the winning comic together!
I really like this comic. I think it makes fun of xkcd (not a requirement for the contest) but does it in the context of making a good joke. All the elements of the punchline are set up in the comic, but you still don't see the punchline coming (unless you are way smarter than me, I guess). It also uses a lot of comics that had just come out when this contest was around, which I think is nice. It heavily recontextualized them though, so it wasn't just "make fun of comic X using the art from comic X" it was more like "make fun of the whole xkcd process, using a punchline related to comic X and art from comics A, B, C, D etc."
The final panel, presented as an end result comic on its own, is of course lame, but that's the point. As the final panel of the whole thing, though, I think it's quite funny and a great, tidy ending to a massive comic.
WELL DONE DAN!
Did people like this contest? Do you want more in the future? What if I am too poor to pay for nice prizes, and just have cheap or nonexistent prizes?
The final panel, presented as an end result comic on its own, is of course lame, but that's the point. As the final panel of the whole thing, though, I think it's quite funny and a great, tidy ending to a massive comic.
WELL DONE DAN!
Did people like this contest? Do you want more in the future? What if I am too poor to pay for nice prizes, and just have cheap or nonexistent prizes?
Great comic, nice one Dan. Good luck replacing Randall, at y'know, being funny
ReplyDeleteWell, fuck!
ReplyDeleteSorry, Fred. It's not because we hate you, it's because...
ReplyDeleteWell, actually, yeah, it pretty is much because we hate you.
Fair's fair, anonymous. Fair's fair.
ReplyDeleteI don't personally see how anyone considers this an improvement, but congratulations...
ReplyDeleteyou need someone other than yourself to pick the finalists next time
ReplyDeleteI know a winner when I see one, and Dan is a win-
ReplyDeleteoh, right.
Carl, how will you know it's me? Really, anyone could e-mail you claiming to be Way Walker.
ReplyDeleteIn any case, I promised a Fat Pony but cannot deliver on that promise. Buy yourself something nice. May the freedom of choice make up for the lack of Fat Pony.
I know a moron when I see one, and Carl is
ReplyDeleteThis one is certainly very good (I would say second best), but Opus was magnificent.
ReplyDeleteI like how you bash XKCD EVERY FLIPPING DAY and here you just demonsrate that you can't make anything close to the same caliber...
ReplyDeleteThe end joke is (intentionally) terrible but it's still orders of magnitude funnier than Randall's Spinal Tap comic.
ReplyDeleteThat's right. This was a way, way higher caliber than anything Randall's crapped out. :-P
ReplyDeleteUuuuuuugh, I can't believe I actually forgot to vote! XP
ReplyDeleteWell, congrats, Dan, that sure looks like some work to come up with.
I waited a long time for a punchline that never came. At least randall's comics are short so i don't have to slog through too much crap.
ReplyDeleteAt xkcdsucks, hilarious levels go up to 11.
ReplyDeleteAt xkcd, hilarious levels remain at 1.
I am perplexed by today's xkcd. Is there a joke or is it just Randall's way of saying he likes Edgar Allan Poe and Daft Punk? It's like he spent all of his time on the artwork and forgot to come up with something even remotely amusing or insightful.
ReplyDeleteHey everyone thanks for voting for my comic! (those that did) and thanks to everyone that participated in the contest, it was fun.
ReplyDeleteThe comic took about an hour to put together, from conception to creation, for those that are wondering. And yes, I realize its too long and too wordy but there is a punchline! (@anon7:26)
Also might as well plug my own "comic." It's more of just a blog where I post post-it doodles I make at work complete with title/alt text and bonus panels sometimes! Check it out. Some of it sucks, some of it is ok and some of it is funny (i think) at http://www.pegasusfortnight.com
I'd do this again even if there was no monetary reward.
artwork aside, the joke worked quite well. why? it makes the tell tale heartbeat the beat of the music, and builds the joke on that.
ReplyDeleteHoly shit, xkcd has art! It's a shame the joke's as shitty as ever...
ReplyDeleteYeah 740! Interesting art, tight well-written words, good delivery, and an alt-text that actually - alright didn't make me laugh, but it amused me into a smile.
ReplyDeleteWow. Kudos Randy.
I can't really fault this one. No it's not hilarious, but it's not really prey to the usual criticism. It's Well Done.
this one is fucking terrible, i can't believe randall betrayed his fanbase by trying something other than the usual stick figures and no background, everyone will be outraged by this development
ReplyDeleteanyway it's not terrible as usual but it doesn't do much for me
Randy tries to be ASW again. he's almost getting it this time actually--no specific complaints about the style and why he fails.
ReplyDeletebut he should have made it more iconic to the story, something on the order of:
"Villains! Dissemble no more! / Tear up the floorboards: here! Here! / 'tis the pounding of their hideous bass!"
oh and the alt text sucks.
ReplyDeletebut this one was not bad apart from that.
I would like this comic better if he didn't fuck up his Poe reference. In "The Tell-Tale Heart", the narrator is not haunted by the sound of the heartbeat, lie awake at night hearing it, or any of that nonsense. That is the ignorant general public's version of the story learned through cultural osmosis. This is the "Beam me up, Scotty" of Poe references.
ReplyDeleteTo the forumites saying things like "any Poe reference is a good Poe reference", "Haha, I love it! I love Poe", and "I could recognize a Poe reference ANYWHERE. I feel so proud for getting the joke.": I hate you all.
Nothing to write home about, but still a moderately decent joke moderately well-executed. Nicely done Randall.
ReplyDelete"I would like this comic better if he didn't fuck up his Poe reference. In "The Tell-Tale Heart", the narrator is not haunted by the sound of the heartbeat, lie awake at night hearing it, or any of that nonsense. That is the ignorant general public's version of the story learned through cultural osmosis. This is the "Beam me up, Scotty" of Poe references."
ReplyDeleteyeah, this was about as subtle as a hammer to the head, and failed to actually capture what happened in the story.
"To the forumites saying things like "any Poe reference is a good Poe reference", "Haha, I love it! I love Poe", and "I could recognize a Poe reference ANYWHERE. I feel so proud for getting the joke.": I hate you all."
ugh yes. that is not a clever reference to get. it's even called The Tell-Tale Beat. he was not going for subtle.
The prizes for future contests should be things from off your desk.
ReplyDeletei prefer A Hug From Rob
ReplyDeletelol @4:07 Anonymous, and their incredible reading skill
ReplyDeleteHave you seen the new comic? The joke's o.k. (not the greatest I've ever seen) but any and all accusations that R.M. can't draw are off the table. My only question is this: why isn't the caliber of the artwork that high for EVERY COMIC? Now that we know that Munroe can pull that off, why lower standards so much for his typical comic? (P.S. his artwork has been showing more signs of effort lately - see the lava comic. Hopefully a trend?) (P.P.S. good job to all the finalists, absolutely hilarious!)
ReplyDeleteboring, long, bitter, not funny
ReplyDeleteprops for the art on today's comic...
ReplyDelete"Have you seen the new comic? The joke's o.k. (not the greatest I've ever seen) but any and all accusations that R.M. can't draw are off the table."
ReplyDeleteWhy is it that everytime he creates something that isn't godawful, people go "See? He's a GOOD ARTIST!"? Yes, this comic looks nice, and yes, that ship he once drew looked nice too. NICE. That's not great art. It's something most people with a decent example to copy would be able to produce. That doesn't make someone a good artist.
Joke: not bad, but mangling the Poe reference. In other words: he had a decent idea and then for lack of effort failed to develop it properly.
Props to this new comic. It's his best in a while. It's a mash-up that actually makes ironic sense, and it does refer to a real life experience that I can relate to (being tormented by techno music coming from beneath the floor boards, though in my case it was downstairs neighbors). The headline telegraphs the final panel, but that's okay because the joke is in the first panel, and the other two panels are just follow-through. Also he put a lot of effort into the art, and I think there are even Poe references that he allows to remain subtle-- is that the bust of Pallas just above the chamber door on the third panel?
ReplyDeleteIn my worthless opinion this strip is a success.
I recognized the reference, but I haven't read Poe. May someone enlighten me how everyone is fucking it up?
ReplyDeleteOh, was there potential in the latest one, but it's the wording that really kills it. First of all, he should have gone with a parody of Poe's style, a la the alt-text. The frantic tone of the narrator is not difficult to emulate, and doing so would have made the presence of Daft Punk even more surprising (changing one variable at a time is effective for both science and humor).
ReplyDelete"Ever since I murdered Daft Punk and hid their bodies beneath the floorboards," is far too long an introductory dependent clause, especially considering its redundancy. It takes away all punch from the joke. Also, the title is already flagging the Poe reference, so all we need to know is that it is Daft Punk under the floor, and we can take the whole murdering thing as a given.
He's also giving away the joke in the first panel again. The joke isn't that there is pounding from the floor--it's that Daft Punk is causing the pounding. He should introduce the pounding first, giving us the classic "Tell-Tale Heart" setup, and THEN subvert our expectations with the Daft Punk reveal.
Otherwise, the art does a good job of capturing a Gothic tone. But, with some editing, the joke could have been a much better one.
I bet around the world is playing in his head.
ReplyDeleteI would still like to see a group X or lemon demon reference so I can have one of those nerdgasms that the forumites have...
Perhaps that is why we hate XKCD. It can no longer please us enough to induce a nerdgasm. We wish to nerdgasm like the forumites, but we can't makeing us bitter pleasure deprived maniacs. Then again, the forumites could be pleasure whores who have nergasms from just hearing the letter "X".
Anyone wish to add to my hypothesis so it sounds a little less idiotic... or something?
It shouldn't have given away the Poe reference in the title.
ReplyDeleteSPOILER!
ReplyDeleteThe story isn't about how he is haunted by the heartbeat under the floorboards, it's about how, when the police enter his house, his own guilt and nervousness drives him to imagining that the heart is still audibly beating, and ultimately to the point of spontaneously confessing the crime.
Admittedly, it's a subtle difference, and maybe it's a difference that doesn't matter in the context of the joke, but it's still an example of how Randall doesn't take the time to work out his ideas.
"Ever since I murdered Daft Punk and hid their bodies beneath the floorboards," is far too long an introductory dependent clause, especially considering its redundancy. It takes away all punch from the joke. Also, the title is already flagging the Poe reference, so all we need to know is that it is Daft Punk under the floor, and we can take the whole murdering thing as a given."
ReplyDeletethis sort of thing is usually his problem when he's trying to be ASW. he insists on setup, and usually on being too wordy--it isn't tightly honed. words are completely wasted. ASW's style is about precision and minimalism, and he just fails to achieve that.
740 would have been good, but the title gave away the punchline. Better luck next time.
ReplyDeleteWhat the fuck is ASW?
ReplyDeleteA Softer World, the comic Randall is trying to be when he does comics like these. You should recognize the style right away--and we know he has deliberately copied their style before. (Randall has also done this several times--I think I linked to all the ones I've found in the thread about the Ghost in Zshell comic, maybe. Too tired/lazy to search.)
ReplyDeleteIt's not that I object to a pastiche. But you should at least be good at it when you do.
I hate Daft Punk and I hate that people think they are good. Also, I never noticed any particular beat associated with them. Well, at least it makes for a decent goatkcd.
ReplyDeleteYou should do this competition every week so some wit can make xkcdsuckscontestwinnerssuck.
ReplyDeleteI think the title is fine. It doesn't give away the joke--it just situates us in the realm of Poe. "Beat" is monosyllabic enough to fit in the title and ambiguous enough to be puzzling. Only after we would get the joke would we be able to put everything together (Ah, "beat" as in "dance beat" as in "Daft Punk music"! Oh, Randall, you rascal!).
ReplyDeleteThe problem is that the joke is revealed in the first panel, which, I'll grant, is still far too early. I think the "UNTZ UNTZ UNTZ" should be present in the first panel (and the subsequent ones, for that matter, to convey how incessant it is). The first two panels should contain Poe-style narration (let's see some dementia to match the body language of the stick figure) building up to the reveal in the third panel that it is Daft Punk under the floorboards. Hilarity ensues, etc., etc.
BONUS EPILOGUE: As the narrator continues to writhe with madness, the camera pans down past the floorboards, revealing the room is actually on the second floor of a building. Directly below is a group of college kids partying.
http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/3623/telltalebetter.jpg
ReplyDeleteNot perfect, but the reveal is much better at the end.
"That's the name of the band that makes that music? Or do they all sound like that?"
ReplyDeleteOoh. That's... forumite you anger me.
"Everyone in this thread seems to be a fan of Poe; I'm starting to get the impression that I'm the only one who feels like she was just a copy of Tinky-Winky."
You, forumite, deserve praise and cookies.
I still haven't successfully read the entire winning comic. Way too long.
ReplyDelete"It's a mash-up that actually makes ironic sense, and it does refer to a real life experience that I can relate to (being tormented by techno music coming from beneath the floor boards, though in my case it was downstairs neighbors)." -Eric 12:48
ReplyDeleteIf he had used this as the set up it could have been very funny. 3 panels in the unusual art style explaining that he is being tormented by beats coming from beneath the floorboards and then then a 4th panel in his normal style showing the people donwstairs listening to Daft Punk. I don't know much about making comics (or Poe for that matter, forgive me if the reference is wrong =/) but I think this would have been much funnier in a subverting your expectations sort of way.
Also Fred 3:33's version is much better than Randy's version.
ReplyDeleteFACT: anyone calls electronic music producers a "band" as if they were a standard rock act deserves to have their geek card removed. I'm pretty appalled that Randall never noticed that they never call themselves "bands," and that using the term makes him sound like some kind of indie hipster douche—I guess that would be a step up, though.
ReplyDeleteDJ: How tremendous is Fatboy Slim?
ReplyDeleteBrad: The band of the 90's, if you want to call
it a band because it's a one man name.
rob actually nailed it perfectly ... his "'tis the pounding of their hideous bass" rewrite is perfect. this comic could have used subtly and finesse and been much better. everyone knows the story and the reference so randall didn't have to spell it out for us like we are idiots. i was *shocked* by the quality of the art (although if i saw it as an independent art piece, id be considerably less impressed, but for xkcd i give it an A+).
ReplyDeleteas far as Dan's comic goes... congrats for winning, I thought it was very well done.
Fred: That's much better (and I don't even really dislike the original). The only thing that would improve it further I think would be rhyme.
ReplyDeleteDan, I voted for you!
ReplyDeleteThat "is that the name of a band?" shit annoys me to no end. Any idiot can Google the name to see if it is, indeed, the name of a band. And the people who post shit like that know it too. The -only- reason they ask is so that they can let everybody else know how they are such independent minds that they know nothing of mainstream stuff.
ReplyDeleteIf you've heard of it, it's already too mainstream for me.
ReplyDeleteSorry? Is xkcdsucks the name of a blog nowadays? I wouldn't know, I'm too busy reading No Logo again and again and again to check out these 'blog' things that stupid people keep mentioning in my lofty presence.
ReplyDeleteJimbob, your quotations look like references to Bible verses and that makes me smile.
ReplyDelete@7:19 - "The Tell-Tale Heart" was written in prose, so there would be no reason for an homage to rhyme.
captcha: misre, the feeling I get reading xkcd.
I kind of doubt that that is their goal, given that they would have to know what Daft Punk is to know that it was mainstream rather than some kind of obscure Randal reference, which he makes from time to time. Although I think the alt text makes it pretty obvious that it is a band, that is how I realized. Did a google search as I was writing this and I recognized them as the people behind "Harder faster stronger" or whatever the hell it is, most people should recognize that at least.
ReplyDeleteThe funny thing for me personally is that most of the people I listen and the things I watch are supposedly mainstream SOMEWHERE, and yet I never know what other people are talking about. I don't know if it's supposed to make me feel superior, but I'd much rather know what the hell other people are talking about.
Oh, and I DO consider them a band, and even musicians of a sort, although not necessarily very good ones.
response to anon 7:35 by the way, guess I'm slow
ReplyDeleteThis is at least the third time that Randal wildly misapplied the "techno" genre, and this time compounding it by talking about "electronica". WTF is electronica? There is not genre called electronica. Read Ishkur's Guider to Electronic Music (the closest thing to an authoritative source) if you don't believe me on these points.
ReplyDeleteNow I don't care too much about people in person misusing music terms. I'm never that douche who corrects people. This is different. All it took was a 5 second google search to get his terms straight. But instead he wildly displayed his absurd ignorant musical taste for all to see.
"I wouldn't know, I'm too busy reading No Logo again and again and again"
ReplyDeleteMs. Apolis, I would like to thank you for informing me of such a profoundly useless and intellectually bankrupt piece of literary crap.
On the latest XKCD, on what standard is this "good" art? Crosshatching? R.M. finally learned how to texture?
It's a shit joke with shit art, like almost all of XKCD.
Surprised Randy didn't make a "House of Usher/Usher" joke.
ReplyDeleteUmmm...he did? "Next up will be the fall of Roderick Usher's house/trance band."
ReplyDelete"FACT: anyone calls electronic music producers a "band" as if they were a standard rock act deserves to have their geek card removed. I'm pretty appalled that Randall never noticed that they never call themselves "bands," and that using the term makes him sound like some kind of indie hipster douche—I guess that would be a step up, though. "
ReplyDeletehey guys look at this fucking hipster
>"The Tell-Tale Heart" was written in prose, so there would be no reason for an homage to rhyme.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, I forgot. It's been a while since 11th grade English.
i swear to god i am sick to death of this discussion of electronic music nomenclature
ReplyDeleteespecially since i never hear the end of "oh my god why does metal have soooooooo many subgenres it's so confusing"
and then i'm like "what the fuck is psy-gabba goa trancestep dubcore"
"Oh yeah, I forgot. It's been a while since 11th grade English."
ReplyDeleteI read it in 7th grade guess we were smarter than you
To be fair, Mal, electronic music is such a broad categorization that called DnB, for instance, a subgengre of electronica is a bit like calling metal a subgenre of "beard music" or "guitar stuff" or something.
ReplyDeletes/called/calling/
ReplyDeleteDiscussions about genres are really annoying to me most of the time. People get so concerned about cataloging things that they DON'T EVEN LISTEN TO THE SONG. Sure, they play it, or at least they play some of the songs, and they hear them, but they don't LISTEN. FYI, words exist to help us convey ideas, so if you don't even understand the music you don't need a word yet.
ReplyDelete"Electronic music" or "electronica" or whatever is a pretty broad classification. You know what else is broad? "Classical music." I hear that all the damn time as someone who's primarily a "classical" musician. So if someone says to me "You're a classical musician, recommend some good classical music," my first reaction is "I have no idea what you want!" Do you want to hear 19th century Italian operas? Do you want to hear gregorian chants? Madrigals? Do you want to hear guitar solo music, or brass chamber music? Do you mean "classical" in the sense that excludes romantic and baroque styles of music (in which case, I guess I'm a classical, romantic, and baroque musician rather than just a classical one)? Do you just mean you want to hear concert or symphonic music, but not necessarily done in a "classical" style (eg Passtime: A Salute to Baseball, good luck finding someone playing that outside an academic setting though)?
But really... they don't know what they mean, and they don't need to hear all this. At most, they need to take a music appreciation class, which will mix history with examples of different music from history and encouragement to actively listen to the music. More likely, I just need to say "Check out the overture to The Tsar's Bride, as it's pretty cool." If they listen to a gregorian chant the next day, they are going to already know it's different from the overture to The Tsar's Bride. I won't have to teach them that, so it will just be a matter of giving them the words to describe those differences.
And as for myself, I don't refer to myself as "a classical musician." I might say I'm "classically trained," or that I've mostly played western european music, but I am just a musician and I like to think that part of being a good musician is having the musical sense to enable diversity.
tl;dr people get stuck up about music for no reason, especially hipster indie people
I generally think that people like some of the above that argue over genres are tools, BUT I think that they're useful tools if they mean that Randall's attempt at nerd referencing Daft Punk failed because of the blowback.
ReplyDeleteAlso count me as a "classical trained" musician who is pretty happy with the classical music community's restraint in genre arguing. Up until around 1910 - 1920 or so.
message to all the people tldr-ing Dan's entry:
ReplyDeleteYOU ALL ARE RETARDED.
anon 12:06
ReplyDeleteDo we have Igor Stravinsky to thank for that, or do we have stupid people be responsible for that. "Oh I say, this man has composed something in a style I have never heard before. Why we must call this a new genre simply because we cannot comprehend his genius."
To be fair though, Rite of Spring is pretty fucked up when you get down to it.
Yeah, it should be too BORING didn't read you retards.
ReplyDeleteI read it anyway but don't think it really paid off. I now appreciate Randall's ability to be bad so concisely.
(An exception is the bit where he says "my yes men oh wait I mean yes people." I admit I found that line funny).
That was my favorite line when I was making it, glad you liked at least a part of it :)
ReplyDelete"Also count me as a 'classical trained' musician who is pretty happy with the classical music community's restraint in genre arguing. Up until around 1910 - 1920 or so. "
ReplyDeleteWe don't argue because they all agree on what the different terms mean and they all exist for clear purposes, ie to denote changes in style and theory (although we rarely use the word "genre"). Following that, it is not important for other people (nonmusicians, people unfamiliar with western european music) to attempt to denote changes in style and theory that they are not even aware of. That would be stupid and transparent, just find songs you like and go from there.
@Cam
ReplyDeleteMy point above was mainly about the fact that once you get to the "Impressionists" or so, people started caring a lot about labels. Debussy shirked Impressionism as a label, Ravel doesn't really warrant it, as his music is far more varied than just Impressionism, etc.
Then you have people doing music analysis who get carried away (separating Ginastera into Subjective nationalism, Objective nationalism, and Neo-expressionism), as well as bickering over terms like "avant garde", "minimalism", etc, and who qualifies as each. Basically, since music exploded in variety, people felt the need to invent countless genres to contain it. You mentioned Stravinsky, and he was notorious for being reclassified regularly. Hell, he ended up as a neo-classicist.
Devin Townsend is a metal musician that means Ki is a metal album and I will hear none of your bunk about it being lighter than the lightest of Pink Floyd albums except for two songs.
ReplyDeleteNobody else knows who the hell Devin is so I guess it is my own bunk I am not listening to?
That was fucking terrible. I mean there's too much text, it's not even remotely funny, it's not punchy enough, the art's not only mediocre but it's also plagiarised. Oh yeah... making a bad joke as satire DOES NOT A FUCKING GOOD JOKE MAKE. Do you understand me? Repeating a joke that has been overused for satire and then using that same joke for satire isn't funny, it's just lame, you've done something that you've criticised on multiple occasions and have pulled it off horrifically. This is very much so a case of writing a comic that only is funny to your own group of yes men.
ReplyDeleteMy god you guys are worse than Randall, you bunch of hypocrites should be ashamed. ASHAMED. My face was like :| the whole way through. And to think I used to read your blog and find your cynicism amusing. These days it's like you just miss the points of comics and feel angry about it. No you've lost your touch in the same was that Randall has.
"My face was like :| the whole way through."
ReplyDeleteHey, it's not our fault you're schizo.
"the art's...plagarised"
ReplyDeleteHuh. I guess that's some pretty impressive point-missing there.
"Hey, this Weird Al Yankovic song is just a rip off of 'Beat It'! How come no-one else noticed?"
I'm pretty sure anon @4:39 was being sarcastic...
ReplyDeleteOh god I hope they were being sarcastic. No one is that stupid, right?
"Basically, since music exploded in variety,"
ReplyDeleteThat never happened. There is more variety now than there was but only because things stack up, not because we are coming up with variety more rapidly.
I'm pretty sure Anon 4:39 wasn't sarcastic. He only missed the fact that the art was supposed to be taken from previous comics.
ReplyDeletedevin's pretty overrated tbqh
ReplyDeletescott have you heard punky bruster - cooked on phonics? one of his better projects. aside from that, meh, city and ocean are okay.
addicted is garbage
@6:57 possibly. It just seemed like all the criticisms of my comic lumped up in one tidy comment!
ReplyDeleteBut you're probably right.
Regarding the contest, not the new comic:
ReplyDeleteWay Walker should have won. It was simply an awesome awesome comic, much better than the other overly long one that won.
Latest comic? Makes me angry. Two reasons:
ReplyDeleteOne, as pointed out, is the half-assed Poe reference. Randall, if you're going to make a reference, make it right! As a huge fan of Poe an formerly fan of xkcd, I'm deeply annoyed, to say the least.
Two, the art. Yes, it is good. It conveys the madness of a Poe narrator pretty well, and that's a problem. Because it makes me ask "why, Randall, why don't you draw ALL your comics with this degree of effort?" Or maybe he's been working on this for weeks now, putting his usually shitty arted comics in between? Both are sad possibilities.
Mole out.
The latest comic only confirms three things: #1) Randall just can't tell a joke; #2) Randall trusts his fanbase will laugh AT THE REFERENCE ITSELF, and not at how it's made; #3) Randall is completely correct at #2.
ReplyDelete4) "Functional" art is of Rembrandt quality, apparently.
ReplyDeleteMaybe whoever lives in the apartment beneath the guy is just looping the 15 second iTunes samples of Daft Punk over and over again?
ReplyDeleteWell... I didn't like the execution of the new comic (740), BUT! ... I'm very forgiving of that as it does appear that the author of the comic has put more effort into it then his other works (in general).
ReplyDeleteIn other news, Abstruse Goose (another web comic) has put forth a comic which also involves graphs and equations and whatnot... BUT!, I believe it was executed quite well!
http://abstrusegoose.com/267
It makes sense!, plus!, it all ties in nicely together!
(mind you, I do prefer abstruse goose over xkcd, but!, I am of the group that believes "Calvin and Hobbes" was the greatest comic in existance... It has about 10 solid years of comic genius! :D)
- Dan (the new guy!!)
Mal, Cooked on Phonics is only funny. And it is the funniest thing ever yes, but I don't care that much.
ReplyDeleteAlien is my third favourite album and if you don't agree that it is good well then I will be forced to consider your opinion and refrain from out-group bias.
I do have to ask how someone who is probably something like 0.0004% as popular as, well, pop, could be overrated without being a retard shitting on a microphone though.
I guess we're talking relative to other prog metal though, but even then I am pretty sure he is less successful than Meshuggah or DEP or Opeth or obviously Tool so whatever man, WHATEVER.
i mean overrated by metalheads, not overrated by the general population
ReplyDeleteand i would actually say that not only is CoP funny, but actually some of the songs are quite good too. "EZ$$" is glorious.
also meshuggah and opeth aren't particularly great either. haven't really listened to much dep or tool.
Ok now I stop respecting and start calling you sillybuns!
ReplyDeleteNP: Dominion - "4. Legion Dominion" - [(2006) Born God & Aware]
ReplyDeleteit's not like i'm automatically averse to technical music
i just think that meshuggah is bad technical music
That's even worse! I think! You're just averse to original technical music I see how it is now.
ReplyDeleteDan the new guy, your comic is godawful, stop spamming it. We know it's you.
ReplyDeletesad face :(
ReplyDeleteIn regard to the contest, I wish opus had been a finalist instead of the comic that took me five minutes in mspaint with the select tool and ctrl+c ctrl+v.
ReplyDeleteBut $20 is nice.
But I still don't regret not voting for myself.
"make fun of comic X using the art from comic X"?
ReplyDeleteThose really need to be different letters.
No, they really don't. In fact, that would completely ruin the sentence.
ReplyDeleteHAHA Taylor, reading comprehension fail.
ReplyDeleteWell, that took way to long to get to a decent punchline.
ReplyDeletebtw, Carl,
ReplyDelete"Contest voting is now closed! woo. I will post the winners in a bit, once I am all caught up with things. so exciting!"
I'm glad you'll be posting the winners in a bit. Could you do it sooner rather than later, though? The suspense is killing me.
</smartass>
I can't tell if Randall forgot to tell a joke or not in this one. If it is, it's a very gentle joke indeed.
ReplyDeleteThe sour taste it leaves is only because I remember Least I Could Do's TED arc.
I didn't omit any comics, incidentally. The whole thing really is that spastic and disconnected.
Maybe I'm not very bright, but I actually don't understand this new comic about blogging. Like, at all. I mean, what's the joke?
ReplyDeleteIf there's a joke, it's along the lines of "Bloggers are more concerned with networking than making interesting content."
ReplyDeleteOr, possibly, "Presenters and blogging theorists are more concerned with networking and Web 2.0 than making interesting content. Good thing there's clever guys who know what the Internet really ought to be about to keep things sane."
So he made this comic about himself?
ReplyDeleteLOL, I changed the word "blog" to "comic" and the whole thing became clear.
ReplyDelete@Anon 9:42 that's exactly what I thought. Maybe so.
ReplyDeletecaptcha: forgon, the conclusion that Randall realizes what a cock he's being to the internet.
Least I Could Do is not puke when I read it.
ReplyDeletewow, does anyone on this damn site have a sense of direction? I read the comments and it just seems like a circle jerk where people get off on dissing someone who donates more to charity than your combined incomes. I mean this whole string of comments is about a fucking contest where tl;dr won. here's the context for the humor you enlightened individuals "I hate xkcd, so this is funny." I'm indifferent to xkcd, so this is not funny. congratu-fucking-lations, i'm sorry that I had to waste my time commenting here and giving this website more attention than it deserves (which is one visit).
ReplyDeleteignore that anon, folks, he's not used to being on a forum where people disagree with each other.
ReplyDeletewho told you randall donates money to charity
yeah, Randy didn't even donate his proceeds from the book to that school in Lao or whatever. it was the publisher's proceeds that went to charity.
ReplyDeleteI... this isint that funny...
ReplyDeleteI agree that some of the build-up has bits of humor nestled into it, in a kind of "hey, lets pick on this guy" kind of way, but the final punchline really wasn't that funny. "did you know doctors work late into the night"; what's that about? how does that have any reference to the rest of the comic? For me it totally ruined the panel above it which was (surprisingly) quite funny.
Also, carl. I don't know why you're accusing him of not being used to a forum where people disagree with each other when he's just accused you of OVER agreeing with each other.
it's funny because it suddenly changes the context of what it means to "go to eleven," previously we assume that it means "to turn a dial to the setting marked #11, ie, past the usual max of 10" as in the movie and in this comic. However, the winning comic was able to repurpose that line to mean "lasting until eleven in the evening" and you don't realize it until the final panel. Especially funny because xkcd had so recently done comics about dials that go to eleven and doctors messing with people, and this comic parodied both while making a coherent story and being funnier than either.
ReplyDeleteWhere's the punchline? The only part I laughed at was "awful, definitely awful". Was that the punchline?
ReplyDeleteAlso, I did not want to post anonymously, but when I tried to put my name and website, it didn't seem to actually submit my comment.
ReplyDelete-juliecranford