Monday, November 1, 2010

Comic 813: Now With Less Context!

randy randy randy[ALT: "'Upgrade to the latest version of Adobe Flash to view THIS content, bitch.' ::triggers detanator::" Note that the spelling error is original. I have preserved the error with Webcite, and this image links to the original, non-corrected version. Also, in the future, it would be awesome if someone could try to do a Webcite of the comic as soon as it goes up and post it in the comments thread of the previous comic.

Hello, you rotten sociopaths. Did you have a good Hallowe'en, telling the trick-or-treaters they couldn't have any candy and that it would make them fat and ugly when they ate it and that they would die alone if they kept eating candy, thus making them cry and getting no fewer than three parents threatening to call the cops? Because Randy did not have fun. He was sitting at home, fantasizing about Megan as per usual, when suddenly he got really angry. After all those times he called her at 3 am offering to eat her out, she still didn't love him and still waved her restraining order in his face any time he tried to violate its terms! This was infuriating! So he drew a picture of a man shooting Megan, and everything was well again.

Then he incorporated it into a shittastic comic. It is, as I'm sure you can tell, a series of context-free one-liners. Of course, one-liners don't require a great deal of context, but these just amount to a series of "here's some hilarious nerdy and/or nostalgic references that make no sense! LOL WHAT COULD POSSIBLY HAVE LED TO SOMEONE SAYING THAT IN A MOVIE THIS IS SO HILARIOUS GUYS why won't you love me :((((("

This is Randy being true to form, of course. There's a graph, which isn't very accurate--I don't see any real reason for these to be in decreasing order of likelihood to appear in a movie. Some are terrible, some could almost be amusing in the right light, and this doesn't in any way correlate to their position on the graph. And the humor is derived mostly from the references.
  • "You're going down the memory hole now, asshole." This one isn't particularly terrible, though it's also not in any way funny. It's a 1984 reference. I can perfectly envision an action movie where this line is played without any attempt at humor, and it wouldn't be the worst thing in the universe.
  • "Hey! You forgot to carry the two!" What the fuck is this, Rainman? This is by far the worst of the bunch.
  • "Looks like the fed just lowered the interest rate." See, this one I can see working really well in a movie. I vaguely entertained the notion of smiling at this one (and this one alone). I'm not giving Randy credit here since (a) he thinks this one is worse than the previous one and (b) he didn't actually create the context for it, but in a movie where the context is appropriate, this could be a pretty good deadpan one-liner.
  • "Guess you should have scrolled ALL the way to the bottom before clicking 'Agree.'" This one is pretty terrible, but I'm envisioning a whole movie based on the premise of someone who didn't read the EULA all the way through, and by agreeing to it they become the protagonist of some cliche action movie with thugs on one side and the cops on the other. But if that is the context it actually makes this one-liner even worse, because that's basically just stating the premise of the movie.
  • "Bangarang, motherfucker." I didn't recognize this as a reference to Hook at first, which I think is the only reason he thinks it's a bad one-liner? Otherwise it isn't any worse than "yippee-ki-yay" or however the fuck you spell that, and that one's goddamn famous. I mean, hell, it's already a battle cry in the movie it's referencing.
  • "'Upgrade to the latest version of Adobe Flash to view THIS content, bitch.' ::triggers detanator::" This sounds less like a one-liner and more like the sort of joke that is still popular among my social circle, which is trying to take a harmless phrase and make it sound threatening by basically doing what he did just there. (Also, "I've got your updated content right here," said in a menacing way.) This one clearly doesn't work with any sort of context. It's just there to reference a common message people get who don't have Flash upgraded. Lame.
I always feel like this style of comic--the "list of jokes on a single theme that are otherwise unrelated" ones--is incredibly lazy, but it's Randy playing to his strengths. He is terrible at anything with pacing or structure--his setup is usually awful, he puts the joke in the wrong place, he throws in post-punchline dialog. But there's usually the core of a good joke in there that he ruins entirely with execution. With these he doesn't even try to execute the joke. He just throws the core out there and allows people with a bit of creativity to create their own joke. It's incredibly lazy and requires basically no talent to do, but it's clever in its own little way.

Also, does anyone notice that Randy is swearing a lot lately? I guess it's just three of the last four, but they say three is a trend, and by "they" I mean some random people who are mostly joking, I guess, maybe.

Finally, I stopped in to the forums to see what they thought! There is a lot of consensus that "bangarang" was the most awesome of the one-liners (because they got the reference, I am sure). There was some confusion as to why Randy thought it was the least likely to make it into a movie! But then some nerd managed to pull off the mental gymnastics necessary to believe that Randy is infallible even when he lists their favorite thing as his least favorite:

"I think that awesomeness is exactly why he believes it will never be said."

Fortunately the very next comment is saying he doesn't see why it's funny, and most of the other fans generally think he got the order wrong. Which, he really did. It just goes to show that Randall's idea of quality is so completely and utterly shot that it no longer has any correlation even with what his fanboys like.

169 comments:

  1. First

    "... but it's Randy playing to his strengths."
    You acknowledged that he has strengths. THIS IS TREASON, TO THE ACID PIT WITH YOU

    Also, bangarang ANYTHING just sounds terrible, and may it never grace my brain again.
    Why does pretty much everyone at the forums seem to love it? WHHHYYYY D:

    CAPTCHA: asess. What Randall needs to do with most EVERY COMIC HE RELEASES.

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  2. "This sounds less like a one-liner and more like the sort of joke that is still popular among my social circle, which is trying to take a harmless phrase and make it sound threatening by basically doing what he did just there."

    I'm fairly certain that was the point of all the panels, not just the alt text.

    Also, I don't really think this comic was lazy. There was no single joke in this comic-there was one in each panel that followed a theme. I sometimes think that, in the reviews, you focus too much on that aspect. And I know, that sounds retarded, as XKCD is meant to be funny. But there's not always going to be one single joke or idea in every comic.

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  3. right, which is why I said this was a string of jokes that weren't fully developed that were mostly dangled out there so people would develop context on their own that made them funny.

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  4. swearing is hilareus

    HARBLS

    lololol

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  5. @Rob I know, but you put it in a way that made it sound like a bad thing, which it isn't. Sorry if you didn't mean that, or if you did, or whatever.

    Don't mind me-I took some medicine for my cold, so I may not make much sense xD

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  6. I think we all can agree that one-liners suck and must be destroyed.

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  7. Is that your... final answer? *BAM*

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  8. it is a bad thing.

    a series of jokes isn't a bad thing, but a series of not fully developed jokes which rely entirely on the reader's imagination to make them funny is pretty much the single most lazy thing it's possible to do.

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  9. i read these, and a i laugh. no because this is in any way funny, but becasue it is sad and pathetic. nobody like the guy who overanalyses jokes, but this takes it a step further, it's that guy with some sort of sick and twisted obsession. what i find best about it though, is that poor ol randy is trying his best to create humour, while all your doing is trying to tear it down, like some kid who wants to break the other kids sand castle because it's bigger, and yet you are doing the very same things you rail on randy for.

    you ARE randy, just in a different context, it's quite hilarious, to see randy criticizing himself on this website

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  10. i rail on randy for producing a shitty webcomic and pandering to socially and emotionally stunted geeks. i'm not even making a webcomic, how could i be doing the same things?

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  11. UndercoverCuddlefishNovember 1, 2010 at 3:39 PM

    well it would be lazier to push out just one undeveloped joke while randy did that six times here which is obviously less lazy in terms of overall effort but still ranks impossibly high on the "there is no reason he should be making a living putting this stupid shit on the internet" scale

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  12. * Is it just me, or is it a trifle warm in here? [uses flamethrower] Nah, must be just me.
    * E equals M C squared, commie scum! [sets off nuclear holocaust]
    * That's a strawman argument, sir, a common logical fallacy. Didn't you ever take a class in logic?
    * That red squiggly line means this word's not in the spelling dictionary, dorkwad!
    * You see, with the addition of an inflectional ending, this formerly pretonic syllable becomes propretonic. The consequent shortening of the vowel is known among linguists as propretonic reduction, a form of ablaut. Any questions, [term of non-endearment]?

    check out how fucking EPIC these jokes are

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  13. "i rail on randy for producing a shitty webcomic and pandering to socially and emotionally stunted geeks. i'm not even making a webcomic, how could i be doing the same things? "

    sounds like a point randy would make

    umad?

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  14. i wish. i'm just sad that cuddlefish are incapable of coming up with anything remotely clever, original, or interesting to say. :(

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  15. So, guys. I'm in a bit of a pickle here. So last night my girlfriend finally agreed to do anal and when I pulled out there was shit on my dick. I got so grossed out I threw up on her and now she doesn't want to do it again. Also I had to shower for like an hour before I felt clean. I really want to have anal some time soon, but I just wish it was less gross. Any suggestions?

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  16. @Rob

    Or coherent.

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  17. or coherent.

    it wouldn't be so bad if they knew that what they were saying is incredibly boring, and only obnoxious because we've read and responded to it countless times before. but they don't. they think they've come up with the comment that will bring down the establishment.

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  18. "list of jokes on a single theme that are otherwise unrelated"

    for how to do this well, see pretty much any McSweeney's list

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  19. McSweeney's is just consistently awesome, lists or not. if you haven't already read it, It's Decorative Gourd Season, Motherfuckers is pretty great.

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  20. Thus, the Goatkcd has a much better punchline.

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  21. Dearest Rob,
    You suck. Honestly. You've taken the place of a guy who was pretty damn great because:
    a) He knew what he was talking about;
    b) He was able to admit when a comic was in SOME way good.
    You, on the other hand:
    a) Try to be a professional joke analyst, and in doing so, completely miss the joke;
    b) Trash xkcd for being xkcd regardless of whether a particular comic is good.
    In conclusion, you suck, Carl ruled and needs to come back.

    Have fun posting a retaliation in which you're automatically right because you call me Cuttlefish.

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  22. it's "cuddlefish," cuddlefish.

    w/r/t your bizarre praise of Carl: (a) no he didn't; (b) no he wasn't. whereas I know what I'm talking about and I frequently admit when a comic is in some way good. like in this post! this very one! I wrote it in english words and everything!

    w/r/t your attacks on me: (a) I'm not professional, nor am I trying to be. I'm not even trying to be analytical and at no point have I missed the joke. (b) there is no such thing as a good xkcd.

    in conclusion your criticisms against me are comparing me to a nonexistent figure, and are the exact same criticisms leveled against Carl pretty much every day. good luck out there though!

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  23. Rob, stop trying to reason with the fucking xkcd fanboys and eat them already!

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  24. Although I agree that this comic was horrible (and the comic itself has sucked for weeks into months) I'm really starting to get annoyed at your constant personal attacks against Randall. It makes you seem like a huge jackass, constantly finding a way to work in an insult that is in no way actually related to the comic. I don't think I even need to state an example. Spend five minutes browsing the site, the examples are all over.

    I am moderately fond of your anger when properly channeled though.

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  25. I have to hand it to you, this blog is funny.

    I mean, not what you write. Just the image of you and whoever runs the other iterations (if they're not you) putting in the effort, thinking you're relevant, masturbating to every comment you get while Randall goes about his life exactly the way he would if your blog didn't exist.

    Pretty funny, Rob. Keep up the good work. Let us know if that community college ever returns your call about speaking at career and transfer day.

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  26. Anonymous said...

    Impossible.


    lol'd so hard.

    1. wouldn't even be in-universe remarkable in a 1984 movie and has no real impact.
    2. seems like something you say to distract someone who has the upper hand on you, but the guy saying it is gun to knife outside stabbing range. what.
    3. is nothing with context.
    4. maybe a reference to the DMCA thing on "lethal force" forever ago?
    5. fuck you

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  27. "Although I agree that this comic was horrible (and the comic itself has sucked for weeks into months) I'm really starting to get annoyed at your constant personal attacks against Randall. It makes you seem like a huge jackass, constantly finding a way to work in an insult that is in no way actually related to the comic. I don't think I even need to state an example. Spend five minutes browsing the site, the examples are all over."

    some days it's really hard to find a good way to channel a personal attack into the post, but I persevere, because pretty much without fail someone will post saying "Y U GAWT 2 BEE SEW MEEN 2 RANDEE." each time I'm a little dumbfounded that someone thinks I'm being serious, but each time I vow to myself to keep posting more and more of them until finally people figure it out.

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  28. also, cuddlefish are hilarious. 8:22.

    there have been plenty of posts before about rob et al speaking to randall. randall is most certainly affected by these blog posts and he shows it in such interactions.

    what's more, the blog reduces the xkcdsucks fanbase. rob originally came to this blog as a stalwart xkcd defender. it happens slowly but eventually everyone sees it for what it is. you're just gonna take a little longer ;)

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  29. Rob said: "it is a bad thing.

    a series of jokes isn't a bad thing, but a series of not fully developed jokes which rely entirely on the reader's imagination to make them funny is pretty much the single most lazy thing it's possible to do."

    I don't really see how they completely rely on the reader's imagination. The only ones that I think people would have to really think about were the first and last panels. The ones inbetween were pretty straightforward, I think.

    You're correct in what you said, but I don't believe that you are in this context. The one-liners are pretty easy to understand, and don't require much imagination to find funny. Although I guess at that point it depends on the reader.

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  30. @The second panel being straightforward:

    How could this make sense in any action movie - no, in ANY movie, at all? I don't know, therefore I have to think about it, therefore it isn't straightforward. And the line isn't really inherently funny, unless you find the juxtaposition of math and shooty stabby action to be amusing.

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  31. Hmm. I found some confuzzlement in the scrolling one. Did he mean the guy didn't READ the EULA? because he should have said that. Many applications require you to scroll, and most people obviously just scroll without reading. But if he meant THAT, then the guy couldn't have accepted the agreement anyway... grr.

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  32. maybe this one just dispatches assassins if you don't scroll all the way through

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  33. UndercoverCuddlefishNovember 2, 2010 at 12:07 AM

    maybe randall literally just wrote down the first few stupid ideas that came into his head without making any attempt to make sense or produce actual humor

    maybe randall is content in the knowledge that no matter how bad his comic gets there will always be some socially retarded self diagnosed aspie willing to stand up for it

    maybe

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  34. "there will always be some socially retarded self diagnosed aspie willing to stand up for it"

    Yeah, like there is any *non aspie* here.

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  35. come on, everyone knows I have borderline personality disorder, not aspies.

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  36. I keep getting that too on online tests. But aspies is more in these days.

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  37. Eikinkloster I remeber you how is it going being functionally illiterate?

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  38. I am no native speaker of english. What is an asspie? It sound DELICEOUS!

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  39. @Fernand: let's take an example.
    "Rob's post was a slice of asspie."
    It means that Rob's post wasn't good.

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  40. @Fluent Speaker: how is it going being on the way to being a linguistic minority? Ready to being schooled in Spanish yet, or will you be one of those annoying SSLs who don't know their place?

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  41. Aspie = One afflicted with Asperger's Syndrome. Look it up on Wikipedia to know more.

    You know, something I've noticed on xkcdexplained is that any chance they get they point out that what Randy has done is a quality of an aspie, as if it's bad to be an aspie. What's the deal with that?

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  42. @CaviosDaryll that's lower level Aspies telling higher level Aspies it is not right to indulge in Aspie behavior and that they should be ashamed, man up, and become normal.

    My own take: humans are more autistic than chimps. The next hominid species will probably be more autistic than humans. Humans are afraid that the next hominid do to humans what humans did to the previous hominids. Humans get hostile towards people bearing characteristics that will lead to the next hominid.

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  43. "there have been plenty of posts before about rob et al speaking to randall. randall is most certainly affected by these blog posts and he shows it in such interactions."

    WE'RE RELEVANT! WE'RE RELEVANT! OHHHHHHH GOD LOOK HOW MUCH WE MATTER OHHHHHH MOMMY

    "what's more, the blog reduces the xkcdsucks fanbase."

    Derp?

    "rob originally came to this blog as a stalwart xkcd defender. it happens slowly but eventually everyone sees it for what it is. you're just gonna take a little longer ;)"

    Hate to piss in your Cheerios bro but the limit of this site's popularity as time approaches infinity is not "everyone" (I'd estimate an upper limit of order 10^3)

    OOPS I MATHED, CUE MORE ASPIE JOKES

    Don't worry, "Boneface," I'm sure you will grow up to be President some day.

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  44. unfortunately the order of 10^3 is well over the number of friends 7.28 will ever make :(

    though the order of 10^3 IS akin to the total number of prostitutes they will hire before they start refusing him

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  45. Full disclosure: I am in perfect mental health.

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  46. is aquarians like to fuck back? unfortunately, maybe

    being an aspie is a bad thing
    don't confuse it with intelligence or humour. just...don't

    "Humans get hostile towards people bearing characteristics that will lead to the next hominid."

    you can apply that to anything.
    randall munroe is not the herald of a major paradigm shift in human evolution. at least i fucking hope not

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  47. IF RANDALL DOESN'T CARE ABOUT THIS BLOG, THEN EXPLAIN THIS

    http://twitpic.com/339jn9

    seriously RANDALL MY NAME IS NOT MEGAN LEAVE ME ALONE

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  48. What are we supposed to see there? He sent a package? So what, and how does that pertain to you?

    Incidentally it seems we now have Randall's phone number, if anyone here wants to have some fun.

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  49. Sorry, Gamer_2k4, but as much as you might try, I am not posting a picture of the package with my name and address included. You'll just have to take it on my word that it was sent to me.

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  50. Lawl. Aloria, you tease. Book or t-shirt?

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  51. Randall has a NJ area code?

    So what was in the package, aloria? A bomb? If you don't post something in the next 15 minutes, I'm calling the cops.

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  52. IDK guys what is all this white powder it doesn't smell like talc

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  53. This thread just gets funnier and funnier.

    Who wants his cell number? I take PayPal.

    http://i53.tinypic.com/2ewifdf.jpg

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  54. i still don't understand how the package proves that he cares about the blog?

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  55. UndercoverCuddlefishNovember 2, 2010 at 9:50 AM

    asperger syndrome (from wikipedia):

    significant difficulties in social interaction
    restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests
    physical clumsiness
    atypical use of language including
    -verbosity
    -abrupt transitions
    -literal interpretations and miscomprehension of nuance
    -use of metaphor meaningful only to the speaker
    -auditory perception deficits
    -unusually pedantic formal or idiosyncratic speech
    -oddities in loudness pitch intonation prosody and rhythm

    no you are right there is literally nothing wrong with aspies

    seriously you idiots it is an entire disorder that does nothing but make you more annoying how is that a good thing in any capacity

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  56. Someone should call randy and pretend to be megan

    On topic: actually no I don't want to be on topic this comic is balls. And not in a good way.

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  57. @9:50 because its funny

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  58. @aloria:

    Oh, YOU were the one that received the package. Got it. I agree there would be no point in posting the whole thing, since we don't know your real name anyway to compare it to.

    And, you know, the whole "address for stalkers" thing.

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  59. Aloria, how the hell did Randall Munroe get your address? Why can't I have your address? Is it because I am not a famous, hilarious, talented, good at maths, knowing several programming languages, oh so cute cartoonist?

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  60. @Alsworth:

    "@The second panel being straightforward:

    How could this make sense in any action movie - no, in ANY movie, at all? I don't know, therefore I have to think about it, therefore it isn't straightforward. And the line isn't really inherently funny, unless you find the juxtaposition of math and shooty stabby action to be amusing."

    I don't think you understand the joke throughout the strip. The point is that the lines WOULDN'T make sense in an action movie, so therefore, your point is invalid.

    It's perfectly straightforward. The guy is going to shoot him because he forgot to carry the two, making that seem like a killing-worthy act. I don't see how that's so hard to think of.

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  61. @1:29
    Umm, it being on the left means that Randal thinks it IS good for an action movie. Otherwise it would be further left.

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  62. It is far better to write concisely than to TLDR the crap out your point with a massive wall of text.

    This is why Randy is great. He gets the point across without the wordcount.

    Your TLDR makes me wonder if you're compensating for something.

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  63. nope! but thank you for your interest

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  64. UndercoverCuddlefishNovember 2, 2010 at 3:29 PM

    @2:24 the blog would not be funny if it failed to completely overanalyze the worthless crap that randy slaps together in five minutes and rant endlessly about trivial problems

    short posts that get immediately to the actual relevant points would seem way too sincere which is a fucking crime on the internet

    learn how to read between the lines and analyze the tone of the site before you bandy your ignorance about (protip: read the tagline right below the header on every single page)

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  65. yeah, basically the difference between people who like the blog and those who don't is this: the people who don't like it think we're being sincere.

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  66. Okay, 1:29, I will accept your postulate that none of these were supposed to actually be in an action movie. But if that is so, what's the point of the bar saying "More likely to be in an action movie"? I mean, all of them have an equal probability of being in an action movie, right?

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  67. Rob - i think you're being sincere about xkcd sucking more and more with each comic, does that count?

    on the subject of aspies...
    dear god yes they're annoying. got one at work (self diagnosed of course, but he's oh so sure thats whats wrong with him. he's not just an annoying twat with no social skills, honest!) and drives me insane.

    as for why they're 'in' at the moment...
    i blame House. for some reason people got it in their heads that Dr House has aspergers, and he's awesome, so all people with aspergers must be awesome. Obviously this fails on several counts. Not least of which, House clearly doesnt have aspergers, he's actually remarkably good at reading people - he just *chooses* to be a twat. thats not aspergers, thats being a twat in an amusing way. but even if he was an aspie, it doesnt follow that aspergers itself shouldve become cool - and yet apparently it has :(

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  68. Alsworth said...
    "Okay, 1:29, I will accept your postulate that none of these were supposed to actually be in an action movie. But if that is so, what's the point of the bar saying "More likely to be in an action movie"? I mean, all of them have an equal probability of being in an action movie, right?"

    It's not that they aren't supposed to be in an action movie. It's that if they WERE in an action movie, they would be incredibly silly. And as the strip progresses, they become more and more unrealistic in terms of being actual action movie one-liners.

    So yeah, they all COULD be in action movies. But the thing is that they would be silly, and that's what's supposed to be funny about the comic.

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  69. I just got my Machine of Death book. I haven't read all of it yet, but the stories I've read have been good...except Randy's.

    Randy's story is HORRIBLE.

    OH RA IT'S SO HORRIBLE.

    I'm not just saying that because he's Randy. I went into it with an open mind. I mean, he's done some good "xkcd"s in the past. And I thought he might have more skill at writing fiction stories than at making a stick figure comic with lame jokes.

    But it's seriously just SO bad. The story is about this guy running around doing seemingly random things and blathering about what seems to be nonsense. It's not until the very end of the story that it's revealed what he was doing and why. It takes quite a while to even figure out exactly what he's talking about, let alone to figure out to whom he's speaking.

    You don't know who the guy is talking to. Himself? A companion? At first I thought there might be be two guys talking back and forth and the speakers just weren't identified. The first line of dialogue seems to be deliberately misleading and throws you off the trail of figuring out to whom he's speaking.

    I've read other stories where meanings weren't revealed until the end. It CAN be done well. It isn't here. It's so incomprehensible for the majority of the story that it's just boring and hard to get through.

    Also, most of the dialogue is the guy raging about the fact that curses and oracles don't work because they're not science and saying that physics doesn't work that way. And the speaker throws in some random story about grade school teasing. Except that he talks about punching the teasing kid in the mouth.

    After finishing the story, I went back and read some of the earliest dialogue, which now makes sense to me. But it really didn't on first reading- without having the information that is revealed later in the story, the dialogue seemed like random nonsense.

    I will say that I liked the last line of dialogue. But the story would have worked SO much better if it had been clear what the guy was doing far earlier. The "reveal" at the end really wouldn't have suffered if it was made clear sooner to whom he was speaking; it just would have made the story less incomprehensible and boring and difficult to slog through.

    Also, there was a grammar mistake. I didn't go looking for it or anything- things like that jump out at me because I regularly edit stories for my fiction-writing friends.

    Anyways. OMR it was so bad. I'm off to read some of the other stories.

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  70. Guys, I honestly thought that this xkcd is hilarious. I'm also honestly drunk. I think...I think that's the secret. It's the secret to enjoying xkcd. Being drunk.

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  71. Please, be more accurate... 'Self-diagnosed aspies' are annoying is what you should be saying, based on your story. 'Aspies' themselves are not the annoying party in your story.

    Granted, as an actually diagnosed-by-a-doctor aspie I understand that you would get annoyed hanging around an actual aspie because we have no innate social skills. On the flip side, most neurotypicals annoy me because most of them are selfish assholes that don't give a thought to others (and take pride in their assholery), they don't abide by the rules and laws set forth (Psh, most teens in America drink, so what's the big deal?), and because they are the most hypocritical people I have ever met.

    TL;DR fuck you

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  72. "you would get annoyed hanging around an actual aspie because we have no innate social skills"

    I will go ahead and argue that Aspies do have innate social skills. They are just not "neurotypical" social skills (I didn't know the expression, me likes it). Much like neurotypicals don't have innate Aspie social skills. Or like humans don't have innate chimp social skills.

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  73. we've got ourselves an evopsych fan, ladies and gents

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  74. "On the flip side, most neurotypicals annoy me because most of them are selfish assholes that don't give a thought to others (and take pride in their assholery), they don't abide by the rules and laws set forth (Psh, most teens in America drink, so what's the big deal?), and because they are the most hypocritical people I have ever met."

    God damn I just want to beat you to death with a club made out of rhinoceros shit.

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  75. Yea, it makes no fucking sense why Panel 2 would be there. Not having heard of/seen Hook, I actually though Panel 5 could totally be in an action movie, and should have been way on the left.

    But hey what do I know compared to GOD RANDALL.

    ReplyDelete
  76. "You embarrassed me with my family last weekend."

    So he embarrassed her...by using her family? He embarrassed her and her family?

    It feels like he went out of his way to say the far more common "embarrassed me in front of my family" so it can't be that. I refuse to believe that Randall is that socially inept.

    captcha: logric
    What Randall learned in 8th grade math. (I can't remember if logic is 7th, 8th, or 9th grade math since I went to a private school with bitchin' math and science teachers.)

    ReplyDelete
  77. Diodes only let current flow in one direction.

    Yeah, it's not funny.

    ReplyDelete
  78. is she threatening to electrocute him?

    ReplyDelete
  79. 814:

    FFFFFFFUUUUUUUU-

    Seriously...I just...wow. God DAMN this one is bad. Oh also it's the woman getting one over on the man, how unique and unexpected! Also, wow, what a bitch.

    ReplyDelete
  80. I read it as something like "Her upsetness gets through, but his is blocked by the diode."

    The really annoying thing is it's obscure enough that most people won't get it, but people who would have gotten it would know enough about diodes and stuff to get much, much funnier jokes. So he's going for the most obscured low hanging fruit he can.

    ReplyDelete
  81. Holy shit. Since Randall treats Google results as Word of Physics ultimate proof, let me get my previous point across:

    "embarrassed me in front of my family" - 10,400 results
    "embarrassed me with my family" - ONE. SINGULAR. RESULT.

    I am now entirely convinced. Randall has never spoken to a person. That thing seen at conventions or whatever is only a mental construct created by what we would imagine a generic, mildly unattractive white nerd to look like. He has never actually left his house after his 11th grade NASA internship ended.

    ReplyDelete
  82. RAAAAAAAAAANDAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLL

    ReplyDelete
  83. http://www.webcitation.org/5txJlyaCK

    ReplyDelete
  84. Also, for the longest time I have been meaning to submit an essay on how xkcd almost never does self-deprecating humour (only doing the whole "nerds have no friends" joke a few times), comparing (contrasting?) how even the far less ugly Order of the Stick and even Cyanide & Happiness mock their art style.

    After Rich Burlew referred to OOTS and xkcd as "crappy stick figure" comics (http://www.giantitp.com/index.html#DuCVUdTZnjfosQ39ejj), I feel more compelled to than ever.

    I'm just afraid of rejection by Rob.

    ReplyDelete
  85. do it. i like publishing essays about xkcd. the ones I reject are guest posts for comics that I want to write about.

    ReplyDelete
  86. which, speaking of! someone write me a guest post for the latest one. it is so fucking terrible I can't even begin to articulate my thoughts on it

    ReplyDelete
  87. http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/7571/xkcd.jpg

    ReplyDelete
  88. @9:43 - that is the best thing ever

    ReplyDelete
  89. Why does anyone read Order of the Stick?

    ReplyDelete
  90. This is the sort of comic where I read it a second time and have a "Ha! I see what you did there!" moment. I enjoy that moment in general, and enjoyed it here.

    @9:43 - Your remix was still much funnier. The best part is how it looks like the Diode goes limp in the last panel.

    @Nate

    "Oh also it's the woman getting one over on the man, how unique and unexpected! Also, wow, what a bitch."

    You almost had me convinced that you aren't a misogynist, and were making the well reasoned argument that always favoring the woman isn't gender equality, but role reversal Too bad you killed it with that last statement.

    ReplyDelete
  91. UndercoverCuddlefishNovember 2, 2010 at 10:28 PM

    no

    just no

    ReplyDelete
  92. Am I the only one who doesn't understand 814? What the fuck? Who has a diode that fucking huge? If anything the guy says doesn't mean shit, then what is the point? If Megan gets him to say "I'm sorry" that'd mean nothing. Is it a Zener Diode? AUGhg. I don't want to be alone here. :(

    ReplyDelete
  93. "WE'RE RELEVANT! WE'RE RELEVANT! OHHHHHHH GOD LOOK HOW MUCH WE MATTER OHHHHHH MOMMY"

    I'd say something about kids like yourself resorting to reductio ad ridiculum but really this makes no fucking sense in the context of what you're replying to - so it's not even that. Read the post about the xkcd book launch party, there's your answer to whether Randall is affected by any of this. Our goal's never been to be any of the things you think we're desperately trying to be.

    "Derp?"

    You're probably too busy laughing as you imagine strangers masturbating to understand this concept so it's not worth trying to explain.

    "Hate to piss in your Cheerios bro but the limit of this site's popularity as time approaches infinity is not "everyone" (I'd estimate an upper limit of order 10^3)"

    I said everyone eventually realises xkcd sucks. That's not the same as going to this site. It wasn't even a numbers claim, just speaking about an eventuality. I guess you love xkcd because you haven't been comprehending and you used "MATH" that a 12 year old would understand like it's something remarkable.

    "Don't worry, "Boneface," I'm sure you will grow up to be President some day."

    Someone actually DID just learn about indices in school, didn't they? "Ha, I'll just say something condescending PWNT" It might be related to the stuff before about thinking we're relevant? I don't know because you don't articulate things like someone who finished high school might.

    ReplyDelete
  94. "Also, for the longest time I have been meaning to submit an essay on how xkcd almost never does self-deprecating humour (only doing the whole "nerds have no friends" joke a few times), comparing (contrasting?) how even the far less ugly Order of the Stick and even Cyanide & Happiness mock their art style."

    i prefer no self-deprecating humour to fourth wall jokes, which i'm surprised randy hasn't caught on to considering how easy (read: lazy) they are to do. they're all awful but that hasn't stopped him before

    ReplyDelete
  95. "In electronics, a diode is a two-terminal electronic component that conducts electric current in only one direction." - Wikipedia

    That's the joke behind 814.

    The reason you didn't get it is because it wasn't funny.

    ReplyDelete
  96. "[ALT: "'Upgrade to the latest version of Adobe Flash to view THIS content, bitch.' ::triggers detanator::""
    The alt text just says "One-Liners", you moron. You're talking about the TITLE text.

    Bangarang, motherfucker.

    ReplyDelete
  97. I still don't get it :( Is the joke that the diode makes the understanding/apology only flow one way?

    Being serious here, I just don't get it.

    ReplyDelete
  98. *checks the forums*

    Oh snap, I think that was the joke. Awful, just awful. Sounds like the guys there hate/don't get it too.

    ReplyDelete
  99. haha oh wow, Eikinkloster is a brazillian aspie i get it now.

    That's why he thinks south america's going to become economically dominant rather than self destruct.
    And also how he things Asspies are the 'next step in human evolution'.

    How can you know so little about anything and still be an engineer? I'd be unsurprised if the most advanced materials you've worked with were lego bricks.

    PROTIP- I'll stop teating you like a faggot when your entire continent's chief export isn't narcotics.

    ReplyDelete
  100. I have mixed feelings about the diode comic. It had some potential.. it was pretty well laid out and clean compared to what I've seen lately out of xkcd. I even got the lower division college physics reference.

    But of course, Randall's relationship issues have to be what's flowing only one way. Oh well. Better next time Randy.

    ReplyDelete
  101. @D Ham:

    "It had some potential". *snort*. Much better than the comic, but only because I can believe that was accidental.

    The alt text actually makes it worse by removing the feeling of smug cleverness from getting a joke that was not explained to you.

    Could have been worse, though. Could have been a diode of love, connecting totally-not-a-Randall-stand-in to Megan.

    ReplyDelete
  102. hurfa durf- diodes are not 'college physics' once more, diodes are high school physics, for high school faux nerds who think they are better than everyone for getting 100% on pop quizzes

    SPERG

    ReplyDelete
  103. @willywasher who said anything about South America? Hispanics are taking over *America* and will become the majority in a few decades and then you're going down the memory hole, asshole.

    ReplyDelete
  104. @Eikinkloster I think you'll find the ecenomic clout and significant racial prejudice that's so prevalent in the US will prevent such a cultural assimilation- even today millions turn out to vote for 'tea party' a orginisation so right wing that their equivelents are considered as a joke in most other countries.

    Your wishful thinking is hilarious, I've never met a hispanic supremacist before, so it'll be all the more fun when your racially motivated dreams are crushed.

    Fact is, the growing percentage of hispanics in the south of the US are due to large low-earning families and immigration which are also trapped in low earning jobs. Of course, I'm not surprised, you're learning from your spanish masters, a ten year old spanish child gave birth recently.

    how does that make you feel?

    ReplyDelete
  105. @1:38 - Congratulations, you've managed to point something out this blog's been doing forever, criticisms of which are (were?) apparently so common that an item in the FAQ was dedicated to the subject. Is this really something to complain about, anyway? I've stayed away from the godforsaken xkcd forums for quite some time now, but don't most xkcd fanboys also use the term "alt-text"?

    In any event, if you're going to be pedantic, the least you could do is get your nested quotation right.

    ReplyDelete
  106. I liked the comic, I laughed. It was a good joke, the joke was in a good form, the only thing about it that I didn't like was the alt-text. This comic is fine.


    @3:52

    You don't learn about electronic components past resistors, capacitors, and maybe inductors in high school physics (and that would be if you took more than one semester of it). If you were in a electrical/circuit Voc program, sure, other than that: The smoke. It's coming out of your ass.

    ReplyDelete
  107. What is this shit? I don't even

    I've crapped out better comics than this.

    ReplyDelete
  108. @Willywasher: Unless America turns into a dictatorship, there is no shaking off a Hispanic majority. They will control the government. No amount or white racism can counter that.

    You'll end up with Spanish dominating America, and Mandarin dominating the world. Your crappy English will be about as worthy as my Portuguese.

    ReplyDelete
  109. @ Capn- yes, you do, in EU programmes basic electronics is in all high school programmes, I guess it sucks to be in your system, is the US education system as bad as it's healthcare system?

    ReplyDelete
  110. You're mocking our education system and you can't even spell 'programs' correctly? Shut up, sir.

    ReplyDelete
  111. Wait we have two Brazilian aspies now? Except one of them isn't an aspie... but I digress. There can only be one! Eikenkloster, I challenge you to a soccer-off!

    Also:

    "So he's going for the most obscured low hanging fruit he can."

    This is one of those things that make me keep coming back here. The ways of describing Randall's infinite descent into bad/madness can be oh-so-amusing!

    Also, new comic sucks. Joke is poor, art is shit, writing is rushed. Nothing new.

    ReplyDelete
  112. I learned about diodes in an 11th grade pulic school. So, yeah. Nothing special.

    ReplyDelete
  113. @Anon 6:33

    You should have gone after his misuse of "it's" instead, rather than how he spelled "programmes" (since that's a UK thing).

    @willwasher

    Our healthcare is just fine. In fact, when we tried to bring it down to your level earlier this year, the backlash was so great that the opposing parties won in landslides in our elections last night. Democrats who had held their offices for decades were kicked out, and states that had been primarily blue for YEARS turned red.

    We know what we want and we know what works, and socialized healthcare isn't it.

    ReplyDelete
  114. Thanks Gamer_2k4, but I know it's a UK thing. What I was doing is known as trolling. :/ Though I didn't notice the "it's."

    ReplyDelete
  115. Because as we all know, the fact that idiot rednecks hate it means that it's a bad thing.

    ReplyDelete
  116. Twitter mentions of today's XKCD: 3.

    The "best" is one that said it explains women for those who understand electronics. Oh, dear...

    That's another thing that annoys me in this comic: it's one of those "women, amirite?" cliches. If anything, Randall should stop pretending he knows anything about women. It just... doesn't fit him.

    ReplyDelete
  117. @Gamer_2k4

    "Our healthcare is just fine."

    It's working out just fine for everyone it's working fine for.

    ReplyDelete
  118. The healthcare is fine.

    It's people that are fucked.

    - George Carlin

    ReplyDelete
  119. Arthur,

    And universal health care fucks EVERYONE over. My sister-in-law in Canada had to live with a heart condition for years. Just a bit of exertion, and suddenly her heart rate becomes that of a humming bird's. They wouldn't do an operation on her, because she's young therefore it's 'unnecessary.' It wasn't until that she had it happen three times in a few weeks, on the third time her heart rate was so fast they couldn't get an accurate reading, that they decided she was finally eligible.

    When her and her brother was born, there wouldn't have even been a DOCTOR in the room in case something went wrong. The doctors don't get paid to be there just in case something goes wrong, so they have no incentive to do it, so they don't bother. Her father basically was all like, "No, screw this shit," and had to BRIBE a doctor a few thousand dollars (each time) just to guarantee that he would be in the delivery room while his wife was in labor.

    So, yeah, no, you can take your universal health care and shove it.

    ReplyDelete
  120. eve·ry·one
       /ˈɛvriËŒwÊŒn, -wÉ™n/ Show Spelled[ev-ree-wuhn, -wuhn] Show IPA
    –pronoun
    CaviosDaryll's relatives, apparently.

    ReplyDelete
  121. Electronic components is not part of any standard secondary curriculum, anecdotal evidence is just that, anecdotal.

    If your school offered Physics II and it was part of the course, awesome!

    If you had circuits/electronics as an elective in high school, great!

    If you took it in VOC or part of community college/AP course work, good for you!

    No one gives a fuck. It's not taught as part of any standard curriculum, and is most likely lumped in with shit like pottery. Your anecdotes are meaningless. Most people formally learn about diodes in undergrad and probably less than 5% of all of your high school graduate peers could tell me what one is, European or otherwise, you elitist fuck.

    I'm not going to fault anyone for thinking the joke is boring even if they do get it, but I think the joke is funny on its own merits and not just reference humour. Set-up, punchline, done. Objectively, I don't think it merits much criticism, subjectively, is ... well ... subjective.

    ReplyDelete
  122. Capn has a problem with diodes and electronics appearing in UK highschool science curricula, I guess that is a shame.

    However XKCD is written for an american audience (c.f. east/west comic for evidence) so I guess that's sort of valid.

    also lol @ universal health care- the anecdotal evidence is coming thick and fast, along with appeal to popularity.

    ReplyDelete
  123. Also at the risk of sounding like a little englander- has Eikinkloster seen the way the US 2 party system works?

    It's basically already a dictatorship, just it occasionally swings between right, and far right.

    not that the English system is much better.

    ReplyDelete
  124. you forget señor that after los glorious hispanic uprising true democracy will be restored to the scumlands of the USA

    ¡areba!

    ReplyDelete
  125. Are you telling me everyone in the UK takes a class in high school called electronics or circuits? That you have it on standardized tests for entry into higher institutions?

    I'll believe you if you tell me that they mention them in Physics II and that it is in every Physics II course and everybody has to take two semesters of Physics in high school (I'd actually like to look at the text book that they're using for that). Anything other than that and I feel sorry for your education system in the way it handles prioritization in its curriculum.

    Either way, remembering what the primary function of a diode is (not just the light emitting kind) for a historian is like an electrical engineer telling you about the main reason for conflict in the Crimean War. You learned about both in high school right (using Wikipedia is cheating)?

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  126. @CaviosDaryll

    Universal health care means that everyone in the country is covered. This is objectively a good thing (except perhaps for the rich who might pay a slightly higher tax rate in order to pay for it).

    What you're whining about is a Single Payer health care system. What that means is that all reimbursements to hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, et al., are handled by one entity, the federal government.

    I am advocating universal health care, not a single payer system.

    Also, let me get this straight. You're complaining that your sister's still alive today, thanks access to health care?

    Since we're already knee deep in anecdotal evidence, let me give you an example of how this shit works in the US. Two (adult) brothers have similar genetic heart problems. One has health insurance, and the other doesn't. The one with health insurance has medication to control his heart problems, and has had at least one heart operation. The other one can't even afford to get regular checkups. One day he dies in his sleep without a word or warning.

    Quiz to see whether you were paying attention: Which of these men was my father?

    ReplyDelete
  127. No, I'm complaining that she could have died today due to the crappy health care Canada has. Did you not see it when I mentioned that her heart beat was unable to be read it was so high? If it didn't cost so much to bribe the doctor into doing the operation, they could have gotten her one a long time ago and not risk her life.

    Answer to your quiz: the mailman.



    (Fine, that was insensitive. Probably the one who died.)

    ReplyDelete
  128. Wow, I didn't notice the alt text in my last comment. Gives a whiny aftertaste to an otherwise mild comic.

    Cuddly: HS programs vary in scope, mine didn't even get to inductors AFAIK.

    ReplyDelete
  129. Capn you sure are STEAMED about this diodes thing, what gives?
    Is it so hard to believe that in basic high school science that after learning about the reproductive system in plants and how liquid-in glass thermometers work that the teacher introduces how electromagnets, motors and simple electronic components work?

    I mean is the concept "This is a diode, it only lets electric current flow in one direction" so advanced that it has to be in a higher education class?

    I'm not saying that's a full understanding of diodes, just a simple qualitative one taught to twelve-year olds as a basis for further learning, should they pursue it. Also yes, that question did turn up in a standardised test. I also had to describe a food web and other questions.

    And that's all that's required for this comic.


    Also- in hishschool history we learned about some of the causes for the second world war, and yes, I can tell you that the dissatisfaction with post ww1 Germany's economic position (treaty of Versailles) was a contributing factor.

    And that's about as accurate as the understanding of diodes taught to 12 year olds.

    ReplyDelete
  130. do they even have bribery in canada?

    i mean what are you gonna buy with the bribe, a second moose

    ReplyDelete
  131. woo health care debate

    Okay, here's the thing. Insurance is already a form of socialized healthcare; a vast amount of people pay in money, and when one of those gets hurt, that money comes out to pay for the expenses. It works, and works well, because it's an opt-in system. Also, insurance companies have the right to reject people with existing conditions or a poor health history, because otherwise things would quickly become unbalanced. More would come out than would go in.

    In a universal healthcare system, there would be no such balance. The costs would be out of control, and you know who has to pick that up? Taxpayers, and businesses providing health care. That's why businesses balked at having to provide mandatory coverage for their employees: it's money taken away from salaries, bonuses, R&D, expansion, and so on. Suddenly, people are getting laid off to cover costs, and things just get worse.

    Capitalism is based on the right to greed. The people who earn the money should get to decide what to do with it. That's what inspires us to work harder and to better ourselves. Some people get the shaft, and that's rough. But it's the price of a system that works. Not everyone can be happy all the time, and I'd much rather have a high quality of life for most people than a mediocre quality of life for everyone.

    ReplyDelete
  132. Y'all are arguing over whether knowledge of diodes would be acquired in high school or university instead of how mind-blowingly awful 814 is.

    Therefore, you all have the Asperger's.

    QED bitches, etc., etc.

    ReplyDelete
  133. I'm offended.

    I mean, this blog is aboot xkcd, not aboot making fun of Canadians.

    ReplyDelete
  134. @Gamer_2k4

    Yes. That's why it's important to have as large a pool as possible, especially including the young and healthy. What you've described is the main argument in favor of an individual mandate.

    ReplyDelete
  135. I donno Gamer 2k4 I'm sure that there's a lot of americans who don't have basic medical care and I wouldn't describe watching your son go blind because you couldn't get to a hospital that would cure his meningitis quickly enough as 'unhappy' but I guess it doesn't make sense in a capitalistic sense so that showed me eh?

    and yes, I agree with aloria, we're all spergs.

    I'm surprised that the 814 male and female roles wern't the other way round, because then e could talk about how THAT WOMAN IS RIGHT AND THAT MAN IS MEAN SHE HAS VAGINA SUPERIORITY AND I JUST WISH SHE HAD A COMPUTER PROGRAMMER TO LOVE HER AND UNDERSTAND HER NOT LIKE THOSE JOCKS.

    but that's not what h append, I guess randall must have had superficial interaction with a female and used this experience to enforce a negative stereotype of women as a whole.

    also embarrased me with my family lol

    ReplyDelete
  136. It works pretty well if you're not one of those useless bums who dares to have a pre-existing condition, like homosexuality or being raped.

    ReplyDelete
  137. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  138. Well it's those people with congenital birth defects' faults for not growing up to be able to afford medical care without insurance, you know. Bunch of lazy, crippled so-and-so's.

    ReplyDelete
  139. you said that already

    ReplyDelete
  140. @gamer_2k4 - grats on not understanding how insurance works, i guess.

    by making it mandatory, it means everyone pays into it - even the healthy people. even the people that will never need healthcare. and yes, even the people that will cost millions in their lifetime.
    now yes, i guess it sucks for those people that dont end up using it. but personally, as someone thats not a massive wanker, i'm happy to pay a few pence a year (as thats all it works out as per person) so that someone else (who's most likely got a crippling disease through no fault of their own) to live a few more years.
    it also means that young, healthy, people who suddenly get sick (and in the US might well not have insurance, since they're young and healthy) can still get treated easily.

    however, i fully understand that handing out a small amount of money (or healthcare) to people that need it is dangerously close to the dreaded communism, so much be stamped out before it manages to save peoples lives.

    ReplyDelete
  141. Not to mention people with medical bills they can't pay end up costing people money in form of higher interest rates and medical costs, anyway. If a dude doesn't pay his hospital or credit card bills, that owed money doesn't just magically get paid by the "oops, bankruptcy" fairy.

    ReplyDelete
  142. @ Arthur:

    You almost had me convinced that you aren't a misogynist, and were making the well reasoned argument that always favoring the woman isn't gender equality, but role reversal Too bad you killed it with that last statement.

    Wait, because I recognize that the female in this comic a bitch, that somehow makes me a misogynist? How does THAT logic even work? If I had said "Man all women are bitches" or "Typical woman" then you'd have a point.

    I was commenting on how in xkcd, women are constantly smarter/better than the men, because of Randall's white knighting. I said she was a bitch because she didn't even care that the guy was trying to tell her that she hurt his feelings, she pulls out some bullshit with a diode and HE ends up being the one to say "I'm sorry."

    Sorry, but not listening to his feelings and forcing him to apologize is being a bitch. If it was a guy doing this, he'd be a dick. Recognizing that someone is acting badly towards others is not misogyny.

    But, I suspect you are just a troll, and I have fed you, so whatever. You'll probably continue to jump through language and mental hoops to try and prove you're right. Well, have at it. It'll certainly be more interesting and entertaining than this whole insurance debate (for the record, I support socialized medicine and think the American system is garbage, it's just I've seen enough debates on the subject to find this one interesting).

    ReplyDelete
  143. @Nate

    My only point was that calling her a bitch undermined your initial statement. That is all.

    ReplyDelete
  144. I do declare that xkcdexplained has the perfect review of 814. There is no way to improve on it. No. Way.

    ReplyDelete
  145. 814: What a load of ass. I get the diode thing. What I don't get is that THEY ARE BOTH HOLDING IT IN THE SECOND PANEL. So the girl's comment is what, leakage current?

    I'm convinced Randall is stupid. I've always thought he had above average intelligence, but now I believe he ONLY has above average reference-to-some-topic-he-just-heard-about skills. Seriously - he almost ALWAYS gets these things wrong. AND IT'S NOT EVEN FUNNY.

    I call bullshit that he can make a comfortable (whatever that means) living off of this. It doesn't make sense. It's a disgrace, and it pisses me off because I WANT TO MAKE MONEY FROM DISSEMINATING INCORRECT INFORMATION IN THE FORM OF A COMIC 3 TIMES PER WEEK, 10 MINUTES APIECE. Unfortunately, I could never bring myself to be wrong - or unfunny - as much as Randall.

    ReplyDelete
  146. Arthur.

    That's it? You can't even think of a decent argument or anything resembling logic? That's a bit disappointing. I thought you'd at least TRY to support your accusations somehow.

    I suppose though, that means that I have been trolled successfully. I expected ridiculous, circus-level styles of crazy bullshit, and you just give me plain boring bullshit.

    8/10.

    ReplyDelete
  147. @Kevin

    Their comments are the driving voltage. Their responses are the current signal in response to the driving voltage. The driving voltage can be in either direction, but the current response can only go one way.

    @Nate

    It's just hard to care about your comment anymore, since that was all of yesterday ago.

    ReplyDelete
  148. Arthur you are a massive faggot and clearly an engineer posing as a physicist, you forgot to consider generation recombination and thermal reverse current, in addition to the case of dielectric breakdown.

    These arguments could be levelled at randall as well but we already know he's really just a substandard computer coder with no real knowledge of how consumer electronics, art, or human emotions work outside of what he can parse in python.

    ReplyDelete
  149. @Steve

    2 points.

    If you ever took a standardized test you would know that standardized is standardly spelled with a 'z'.

    Your reading comprehension is shit. I mean utterly shit. I said Crimean War, dumbass. Anyone who left the History Channel on while they were sleeping can discuss causes of WWII.

    So, you're lying and/or trolling about the test (esp. since you didn't even tell me which one it was) and probably haven't even completed high school. Yeah, maybe your science teacher introduced it as an aside. Still, not something anyone normally learns in high school.

    I'm not steamed, I'm just calling bullshit.

    @Samantha

    I'll see your xkcdexplained and raise you one redux:

    “To compare, [814] is a normally pretty shy guy that delivers a cute, but not really funny joke, that is so inoffensive that you chuckle at it so he doesn’t feel bad, whereas normal xkcd is an annoying, fat tub of lard that constantly screams 4chan memes at the top of his lungs in response to every statement, expecting people to be rolling on the floor with laughter.”

    ReplyDelete
  150. @Steve

    2 points.

    If you ever took a standardized test you would know that standardized is standardly spelled with a 'z'.

    Your reading comprehension is shit. I mean utterly shit. I said Crimean War, dumbass. Anyone who left the History Channel on while they were sleeping can discuss causes of WWII.

    So, you're lying and/or trolling about the test (esp. since you didn't even tell me which one it was) and probably haven't even completed high school. Yeah, maybe your science teacher introduced it as an aside. Still, not something anyone normally learns in high school.

    I'm not steamed, I'm just calling bullshit.

    @Samantha

    I'll see your xkcdexplained and raise you one redux:

    "To compare, [814] is a normally pretty shy guy that delivers a cute, but not really funny joke, that is so inoffensive that you chuckle at it so he doesn’t feel bad, whereas normal xkcd is an annoying, fat tub of lard that constantly screams 4chan memes at the top of his lungs in response to every statement, expecting people to be rolling on the floor with laughter."

    (fucking comment box ate my comment)

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  151. Why would a physicist know those things over of an engineer?

    ReplyDelete
  152. and yes, it looks of none with!

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  153. @Steve

    2 points.

    If you ever took a standardized test you would know that standardized is standardly spelled with a 'z'.

    Your reading comprehension is shit. I mean utterly shit. I said Crimean War, dumbass. Anyone who left the History Channel on while they were sleeping can discuss causes of WWII.

    So, you're lying and/or trolling about the test (esp. since you didn't even tell me which one it was) and probably haven't even completed high school. Yeah, maybe your science teacher introduced it as an aside. Still, not something anyone normally learns in high school.

    I'm not steamed, I'm just calling bullshit.

    @Samantha

    I'll see your xkcdexplained and raise you one redux:

    "To compare, [814] is a normally pretty shy guy that delivers a cute, but not really funny joke, that is so inoffensive that you chuckle at it so he doesn’t feel bad, whereas normal xkcd is an annoying, fat tub of lard that constantly screams 4chan memes at the top of his lungs in response to every statement, expecting people to be rolling on the floor with laughter."

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  154. engineers have a 'black box' culture where they don't really understand the how or the why- an engineer models a diode in a simplified way and isn't concerned with the subtle effects that arise out of a fundamental understanding of the device, which a semiconducter physicist will have.

    YOU SHOULD KNOW THIS

    ReplyDelete
  155. Except that I'm not a semiconductor physicist.

    ReplyDelete
  156. http://i733.photobucket.com/albums/ww336/talligan/diode.png

    http://i733.photobucket.com/albums/ww336/talligan/one_liners.png

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  157. No review yet? o.O

    Btw, now THIS is what you call a funny comic:

    http://buttersafe.com/comics/2010-11-04-2010-11-04-MorningInspiration.jpg

    ReplyDelete
  158. That second one was awesome, Ian.

    ReplyDelete
  159. An edit of 814:

    http://i52.tinypic.com/ifood1.jpg

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  160. Another edit of 814 (I dropped the diode thing, 'cuz this is booooring):

    http://i54.tinypic.com/10hnd7b.jpg

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  161. 9:59
    Both responses and answers are obvious effects. The subtleties of how a diode works is irrelevant in this case, as it is most likely that the subtleties totally eluded Randy, of course.

    ReplyDelete
  162. @Steve

    2 points.

    If you ever took a standardized test you would know that standardized is standardly spelled with a 'z'.

    Your reading comprehension is shit. I mean utterly shit. I said Crimean War, dumbass. Anyone who left the History Channel on while they were sleeping can discuss causes of WWII.

    So, you're lying and/or trolling about the test (esp. since you didn't even tell me which one it was) and probably haven't even completed high school. Yeah, maybe your science teacher introduced it as an aside. Still, not something anyone normally learns in high school.

    I'm not steamed, I'm just calling bullshit.

    @Samantha

    I'll see your xkcdexplained and raise you one redux:

    "To compare, [814] is a normally pretty shy guy that delivers a cute, but not really funny joke, that is so inoffensive that you chuckle at it so he doesn’t feel bad, whereas normal xkcd is an annoying, fat tub of lard that constantly screams 4chan memes at the top of his lungs in response to every statement, expecting people to be rolling on the floor with laughter."

    ReplyDelete