[As is traditional with these, no pictures for you. -Ed.]
848. If there is one thing that makes Randall feel better after getting rejected by Megan again, it's talking about nerdy things. And while Randall Munroe is an enthusiast of all things nerdy, there is no nerdy thing he likes better than physics in all its many forms. But Randall wouldn't be Randall if he didn't remember that the "X" in "XKCD" stands for "crossover." Merely mentioning physics will invoke joy in his devoted followers, of course, but he wants more than joy. He wants rapture so complete that they are rendered listless--and what do nerds like more than physics? Complaining about things. So Randall deftly went to work satirizing 3D movies and their decadent wastefulness.
But it felt incomplete. What else was missing?
The answer, of course, was Black Hat Guy, everyone's favorite well-developed fictional character. He would be responsible for the movie which was technically 3D! Will his sinister plots know no bounds?
849. Randall has discovered a pun, and delivered it with uncharacteristic subtlety.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
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FIRST POST!!!
ReplyDeleteSo um guys
ReplyDeleteIt turns out the cool, burning sensation known as "minty", while it feels great in the mouth, isn't so great in other parts of the body.
I learned this firsthand today
I'm not proud of myself.
That's because you went with regular mint. Spearmint, also known as "the body's mint", is specifically grown and groomed to be inserted into all and each of our orifices.
ReplyDeleteSo next time try that.
Love and Stuff,
Raven(zomg!)
OK, let's get serious for a minute. I thought 848 was a decent joke, and original as far as I know. Execution is hurt by the freaking stick figures, but I guess we don't go there anymore. The middle panel, inside the movie theater, was kind of cool.
ReplyDeleteBonus points for also making one of the better goatkcds in a while.
Comic 849, on the other hand, is terrible. The art doesn't detract too much (though a dead-serious facial expression would have helped, I think). Certainly better than the friggin aspie at Abstruse Goose, who would probably "draw" the friggin wave functions themselves, not realizing that if your art is too terrible to make people go "cool!" then you'd better have something vaguely relatable in your comic, like a human.
Delivery of the joke is actually ok too. Punchline last, by itself. It's the joke itself that is terrible.
People who did not get the joke did not get the joke, so that's a failure I guess, on whose part is up for debate. On the other hand, people who did get the joke and grew up speaking English probably already heard or made this joke in high school. Even in Randy's own forums this exact joke was told, a year ago, and someone even photoshopped similar text onto a t-shirt:
http://echochamber.me/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=5683&start=600#p1371465
Besides its extreme age this joke suffers from painful obviousness and utter lack of layers. Puns get a bad rap, but I don't know, some puns work. I'd guess that a good pun involves using a word in a different context than usual, where it acquires new meaning, and moreover *the new context is somehow plausible or natural*. I think this is a big flaw in this comic: no physics professor would ever say that, so we are only left with "hey, the real numbers are called REAL, which means other things too!"
I think this is a good example:
http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=1218
(Maybe this isn't a pun, I don't know the finer details of the classification.)
Oh Rob! The Megan jokes, again?
ReplyDeleteI miss Carl's thorough reviews.
I am leaving forever and never coming back.
I feel like he's said the joke in 849 before. Maybe not the same exact joke, but something really, REALLY similar.
ReplyDeleteDid xkcd make me punch a baby kitten today?
ReplyDeleteNo, surprisingly. I lol'd slightly AND it made me feel superior to 99% of all humanity because I understood the pun.
Hey world, I'm BETTER than you! I understood A PUN!
ReplyDelete848: oddly specific situation, inhuman dialog, punchline was okay
ReplyDelete849: fantastic! simple, straight-to-the-point jokes that bring a "cool" perspective to math/science are what randall has always done reall well. i think when he stopped trying for that, the comic went downhill. would love to see more like 849; i'd eagerly check xkcd updates
wait so what is the actual pun in 849? I'm not sure what a wavefunction is, to say nothing of the complex conjugate.
ReplyDeleteProbably because I'm not a NERD.
Very straightforward math. Take an complex number (which has a real part and an imaginary part), and multiply it by its complex conjugate (which is formed by negating the imaginary part), and you always get a real number. ("Shit just got real" OMG!) Multiplication by complex conjugates shows up all the time in applications of complex numbers, including quantum mechanics, which is the example Randy used.
ReplyDeleteThe problem isn't that the joke is bad, or even that high-school math (or at best undergrad physics math) is being used to establish nerd cred. It's the first FUCKING panel where he thinks that the math he's about to show us is SO MINDBLOWING that all the liberal arts majors need to step away. It's not that hard, you aren't that special, and no one needs to probably just leave now.
I gather from the alt-text that Randy knows blackboard guy is annoying, so maybe I'm supposed to conclude that Randy is making fun of people like this. But it doesn't come off that way at all. It comes off as a glorification of smarter-than-you nerd posturing. It's not at all self-effacing.
What I am saying is NICE TRY WITH THE 'CLASSIC' XKCD MATH/SCIENCE JOKES, BUT YOU ARE STILL AN ASSHOLE RANDY.
(Am I drunk? I might be a little drunk.)
CAPTCHA: prolayd. Sometimes these jokes write themselves.
It's a shame that you insist on banging on about Megan like a high schooler with a crush. Xkcd really deserves to be properly taken down a few pegs, but you only succeed in buoying the mindless fans.
ReplyDelete"It's the first FUCKING panel where he thinks that the math he's about to show us is SO MINDBLOWING that all the liberal arts majors need to step away."
ReplyDeleteFirst panel is a setup for the "shit just got real" joke. It makes the setting more serious so that the pun can work.
849 is embarassing. The fact that he's doing anything to the wave function is worthless information, because fact is, HE DOESN'T SHOW THE MATH.
ReplyDeleteBy not showing any part of the problem (not even the question itself, much less the actual work), the comic boils down to "I am multiplying a complex value by its conjugate".
So there's nothing truly nerdy about it. HOLY SHIT conjugate pairs!!! And a fucking stupid pun while attempting to pandering to nerds when he probably can't do the math himself.
What a fucking stupid, lazy comic.
Wait seriously? You want him to show the math?
ReplyDeleteI actually sorta chuckled at 849, but it was more of a chuckle/groan reaction like "wait, really? you really just said that?" It's a really stupid pun, but I really wasn't expecting it
ReplyDeleteRob tries out the style of xkcdexplained with reasonable success.
ReplyDeleteI'm a liberal arts major and I got 849. You know why? Because everyone at my university-- and I think most US universities-- is required to take basic calculus.
ReplyDeleteRandy, there is nothing special about your knowledge.
Damn, man, no Megan jokes in the 849 review? You can do better than that!
ReplyDelete849 is perfect "good old days" xkcd.
ReplyDeleteHe's not at all saying "MATH ARE BETTER THAN OTHER FIELDS" in this one, you idiots - it's to set up the mock seriousness of the third panel. It fits perfectly as a buildup to the joke.
Prejudiced cuttlefish flock to 849 looking for something to pick on instead of judging it against the other recent stuff randall has been shitting out.
I gave a welp of laughter at 849. It's the kind of joke I'd make to my friend while he's explaining his current research, before he promptly throws the eraser at me.
ReplyDeleteMy puns get pretty badass though.
Anon 454 (vrooooom!!!):
ReplyDeleteNice carlistic review.
By carlistic, I mean wordy and boring.
By wordy and boring, I mean it's a nice change of pace.
By nice change of pace, I mean you should probably send stuff like that to Rob so we can get a comment thread sooner instead of having him wait with his thumb up his ass for something to appear in his inbox or until the last possible moment so he can just fart something out real quick, whichever comes first.
captcha: runon
Does Capn like big block Chevrolet motors?
ReplyDeleteI said it once and I'll say it again: the middle panel in 848 is not "fantastic", nor "beautiful" or "kinda cool". It's ugly. It's a clear demonstration that Randall does not respect his fans, since he thinks just applying shading sloppily is going to dupe them in believing he's putting any effort in this. And, worst of the worst, he's right!
ReplyDelete849? Was actually good. Randall actually got the execution right, and that's something you don't see every day! I still berate him for being so incredibly verbose on that alt-text as if pointing out this is a lame pun will make it less lame. Hint: writing about annoying people usually comes out as annoying as well!
"Hint: writing about annoying people usually comes out as annoying as well!"
ReplyDeleteThere goes this whole blog, then.
Yeah, that middle panel in 848 is fucking hideous. The perspective doesn't match up, the girl's hair is shaded in a way that makes it look like tinfoil, and the fact that the stick figures have shaded limbs-- and exist in a 3d perspective, which stick figures shouldn't-- is really ugly.
ReplyDeleteAlso, who is Blackhat? Is he the theatre manager? Did three disgruntled moviegoers track down the guy who made the movie? Why are there only three people complaining out of the entire theatre?
Because they're the only three people who'd pay money to see that
ReplyDelete848 was definitely bad. Stick figures, which are 2D, presented in a 3D world looks god awful. You could say Randy was making a joke here, that the stick figures (like the movie) wouldn't look good in 3D, but I don't think he was going for that. More than likely, he was covering up the shitty comic with a pretty picture and hoped it would make up for it.
ReplyDeleteAs for 849...it was pretty good. The seriousness is obviously a joke, so he's not being as much of a douche as he has been in other comics. It's simple and to the point.
I refuse to like 849 because it's basically the same joke as his "imaginary friends" one. That is, the word imaginary is both a mathematical term and one that it used in more general communication.
ReplyDeleteAnybody who ever happens to be at a convention Randy is visiting absolutely MUST just take a second and count up the number of high school students in line versus the number of actual adults.
ReplyDeleteI hated the comic but I thought the Megan joke for 849 was just tasteless and unnecessary. Try coming up with something original next time, Blob.
ReplyDeleteFun fact: people complaining that something is targeted at stupid high school students usually just got out of high school.
ReplyDeletePeople in high school usually despise things targeted at middle school students. And late twentyish people hate college stuff. Everybody knows this is how things goes.
Targeting is not a very good way to criticize a work of hard. Case in point: there are shitty children books, and there are brilliant children books. Roald Dahl is a friggin genius. Harry Potter is great. Some great stuff is targeted at high school students: most of the videogames. Isaac Asimoz. Baudelaire. Pot.
And, Rob, ENOUGH WITH THE MEGAN JOKES ALREADY! IT'S LIKE YOU DON'T HAVE ANYTHING BAD TO SAY ABOUT XKCD SO YOU ATTACK RANDALL MUNROE PERSONALLY!!! I'm leaving this blog, and NEVER COMING BACK.
And by work of hard, I think I mean work of art, but who knows???
ReplyDelete>Harry Potter is great.
ReplyDeletesorry, i'm afraid you'll have to surrender your testicles
Anon 3:12PM - But 849 didn't even have a Megan joke! What.
ReplyDeleteJust doing my part to make sure Rob keeps them coming, Professional Mole.
ReplyDeleteHarry Potter is a great series of book. I stand by what I said. Sure it is not as great as Roald Dahl's, and Rowlings stole a bunch of stuff from him, but isn't art about stealing? (I think there is a Rob's rant against that line of argument somewhere in this blog...)
ReplyDeleteRochambeau's right, you really shouldn't criticize works of hard for targeting.
ReplyDeleteThank you, man! You really understand my point. I bet you are a hardist yourself.
ReplyDelete> Harry Potter is a great series of book. I stand by what I said.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations, you've invalidated every criticism of xkcd you've ever made.
I hate xkcd too, but Harry Potter also fails quite objectively at most of the criteria for "being a great book":
(1) quality of prose;
(2) development of characters (everyone except Harry is essentially defined by one quality);
(3) pace of the story (everything happens in the last two books in a hurry);
(4) inventiveness (the first four books are essentially identical, like Scooby Doo episodes, except for minor twists in the fourth);
(5) Fucking shit-cocks ending;
(6) Fucking shit-cocks ass-turd cum-licking ending;
(7) Seriously, did you read volume 7? Maybe your brain erased it.
[flamebait]
ReplyDeleteAnd what, exactly, was wrong with Harry Potter 7? I bet you're a Harmonian.
[/flamebait]
You know, you could make a little less obvious you're a bitter fangirl. Just sayin'.
ReplyDeleteAn Open Letter:
ReplyDeletePlease stop using 'liberal arts' as a synonym for 'humanities'. Math and physics are liberal arts. Even Wikipedia, that beautiful bastion of Randall's wank materi—err, I mean, knowledge, tells us that "The contemporary liberal arts comprise studying literature, languages, philosophy, history, mathematics, and science."
Just because Randall makes that mistake doesn't mean you should too I have told you this I HAVE SAID THIS TO YOU BEFORE
YOUR STUPID MINDS
STUPID STUPID
no u
ReplyDeleteALSO 'YOUR' A FAG HAHA
Latest comic is absolutely awesome, I must say, twas a great surprise
ReplyDeleteAlt text was lame though, oh well
ReplyDeletethis is going to be fun
ReplyDelete848 is genius. It's part of his increasing trend of simply designing comics that would work perfectly with goatkcd and then sticking some rubbish in the final panel because that part doesn't matter.
ReplyDelete850 is stupid. He forgot to add the joke. The closest thing there is to humour is "there's nothing to laugh at even though ordinarily it would be rigged such that there would be!" which is a terrible thing to rely on for a joke.
Then again, if the title box is retained it might end up being one of the greatest goatkcds ever. Randall is always thinking ahead!
Randall... what.
ReplyDeleteYou know, the picture in xkcd took a bit too much to load, and the first thing I saw was that title. Then I thought "oh, great, there comes pedantic Randall mocking the common man who does not know of the physics and geography, LOLOLOL". Then I read the rest of the title and...
Frankly? This was lamer. Randall promised a joke and subverted our expectations... with no joke. If Randall Munroe was, say, Andy Kaufman, I'd understand this as a genuine piece of deep humor against conventional humor and our expectations of him...
...but Randall is the guy who makes Your Mom jokes. The guy who made "Joshing". The guy who argues with Ke$ha. The guy who made a joke about SILLY PUTTY!
So, I can only conclude this is just a goddamn cop-out.
At 11:55pm on Thursday night, Randall was doodling a map of the world to prove to his "friends" that yes, even though he was American he had a half-decent understanding of geography! And then he's all, "oh shit, forgot to make an XKCD!"
ReplyDeleteAnd then we get 850.
PROVE ME WRONG.
proof: Randy couldn't produce something of that quality without hours of research
ReplyDeleteAxiom: Randy uses Wikipedia for 4+ hours every day.
ReplyDeleteAxiom: Some of that time must end up on country/geographical pages.
Conclusion: Randy's been researching for this moment ALL HIS LIFE [which obviously didn't truly begin until Wikipedia came into existence].
Axiom: Randy is incapable of learning
ReplyDeleteConclusion: you are wrong
I... I don't think anybody is going to want to buy this in poster format. What was he thinking.
ReplyDeleteAlso: "Paupa New Guinea." Ha! Some geography buffs!!!!!! Good one Randall.
I like 850's goatkcd, especially how it covers a bit of the top box, removing the unnecessary extra detail.
ReplyDeleteI too am tired of this bullshitting around the liberal arts. I mean what about the conservative arts? Fucking liberal media keeping it from us.
ReplyDeleteMuch as the seven arts were recognized in Greece, the conservative arts come from Bronze Age in the Middle East, and include praying, believing, acting different from what you say you believe, stoning women, stoning fags, hallucinating booming voices and stoning heretics.
The liberal arts come from people's asses and include unwarranted self-importance, unjustified smugness, a remarkably thorough lack of understanding of how both the world and humans work, vehemently opposing traditional Western beliefs (or rather, pretty much only Christianity) despite their whiny and hypocritical preaching for tolerance, and the creation of posts such as 12:11 A.M.
ReplyDeleteNow, go ahead and ride the lollercoaster and shout forth to the heavens, "u mad!!!," (or some variant thereof) to claim your victory on the Internet.
ReplyDeleteOr, y'know, become an hero.
The lack of inchoate rambling rage in this post's comments is disheartening.
ReplyDeleteOh, that's rich. Tolerance is CHRISTIAN now! You know, 'cause christians say they're all real tolerant-like, even though the first part of their holy book is about killing everyone that's different to take their land, and the second part is about how everyone that's different will burn in hell?
ReplyDeleteI guess breathing is a christian value too! Why don't you suffocate if you're such a liberal??
And christians have a complete graps of HOW THE WORLD WORKS! They know it's all under the control of a ghost in the sky, who made the universe simply to be the stage of tiny humans' moral adventures (nothing in the butt!), they know that the only psychology you need is faith and prayer, and that the social sciences boil down to "if everyone were just real good christians all the problems would go away".
u mad!!! *on lollercoaster*
Wow, you're an asshole and have no idea what you're talking about. No one said Christianity = tolerance. Lrn 2 reed, dipshit.
ReplyDelete@12:36 A.M.
ReplyDeleteTo clarify: it is a liberal art to vehemently oppose traditional Western beliefs (or rather, pretty much they just despise Christianity [as opposed to all Western beliefs, such as Judaism]) despite their whiny, hypocritical preaching for tolerance...
Furthermore, there's the hypocrisy again. Doesn't matter how much you hate someone's beliefs, you have to tolerate EVERYONE'S beliefs if you're going to preach it. You think Christians are intolerant? Too fucking bad. Go bawwwww in a corner or something and leave the Internet before your feelings are hurt.
"The liberal arts come from people's asses and include [...] vehemently opposing traditional Western beliefs (or rather, pretty much only Christianity) despite their whiny and hypocritical preaching for tolerance"
ReplyDeleteI guess YOU need to lrn 2 reed?
@1:10AM, is that honestly your argument? "People who profess tolerance cannot have negative opinions of certain beliefs"?
ReplyDeleteI don't think you understand what tolerance means.
Then again, I suppose statistically you're a white christian male, so it kind of figures?
Hey, how about those gay activists going on about TOLERANCE but despising homophobia huh. Buncha hypocrites.
Now that's more like it.
ReplyDeleteI can read, I think it's obvious that I just can't write.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I'm pretty bored with this. To be honest, I didn't even read your full post. So, let's say you won and in exchange I won't have to scroll up a little bit. As a prize, you get yet another free ride on the lollercoaster!
"Congratulations, you've invalidated every criticism of xkcd you've ever made."
ReplyDeleteFudge, my credibility in the comments of a hateblog about a nerdy webcomic was something of great value to me...
Apart from that, good news! We can now draw moderately accurate maps and... and it's a JOKE! But I bet it's even funnier when the map is 100% accurate! So, be really to lol your brains out, 'cuz I have a really funny joke for you:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CIA_WorldFactBook-Political_world.svg
a lot of really stupid things are being said
ReplyDeletelooks like another normal day
ReplyDeleteThe latest xkcd is the worst since vaginagate. That's right. I said it.
ReplyDeleteHe seems supprised that Bermuda is British. Does he think we should give it back the poor native bemudians who we unfairly took it off them with 'the cunning use of flags' (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEx5G-GOS1k)? Or maybe he thinks we should give it to america so they can put a death camp on it.
ReplyDeleteSort of accurate map of the world! Comedy gold!
ReplyDeletewow Randall I know shitty drawings are your shtick but fucking hell that is not what Tibet looks like at ALL
ReplyDeleteMy guess is that Randall found that Mapping Stereotypes site——you know, the one that was popular back in September——and decided it'd be really hilarious to do a subversion of the principle that makes the whole thing funny. Which, indeed, might have been successful if Randall's art weren't so amazingly abominable.
ReplyDelete(Here's a hint, Randall: acting as though Americans are actually decent at geography, and give a damn about other countries, is itself subverted when you draw their country——assuming you draw it at all, instead of eschewing such a thing to note local colonial history or the general region——in such a shoddy, freehand manner.)
@anon3:56 it pains me to do anything even vaguely resembling defending randy but that was sort of the point
ReplyDeletegood thing the comic as a whole is entirely without merit
draw those countries*, my mistake.
ReplyDeleteSo I'm guessing Randall got pissed off by someone saying Americans don't know much about other countries and tried to "prove" them wrong by making this brilliant comic.
ReplyDelete"The world accoridng to x" is funny because it takes stereotypes, and blows them to ridiculous proportions. 850 isn't funny because it was just Randall drawing a map after looking the countries up on wikipedia.
ReplyDeleteMaybe if Randall wasn't American this comic would come off as a little less whiny and defensive.
ReplyDeleteThe world according to x is not funny.
ReplyDeleteI could have sworn the yellow one on the bottom right was Iraq
ReplyDeleteThe world according to x is older than the internet. And not funny.
ReplyDeleteCaptch: geoturan (can't make this shit up)
THE PETALS FALL TWICE
ReplyDeletefelt right. She slowly licked and tickled his peeny, and, because she was so smart, combined the words in her head, like an expression explorer of old.
Slickled, she thought. I'm slickling his peeny.
No matter how brilliant her wordplay, the result was the same. Gary's peeny was now erect. It felt like a quality bar of peeny-scented soap in her hands. Without warning she gave it a swift headbutt, because men liked that. All men liked that.
"Phwoa, Melinda. That's the good stuff. That's the stuff that makes me forget about my problems."
Melissa derived satisfaction from this comment, despite the mangled pronunciation of her name. She could feel her horny level rising to 30% and her hooha was getting right slimy with the anticipation of participation.
"Gary, me need sex now inside please." Damn! Melissa thought. I wish there was a better way to say that!
Gary was only too eager to comply. He wrenched his peeny away from Melissa's grubby paws and thrust inside her hooha with a thunderous orgasm. She was pregnant, but that could be dealt with in the morning, provided she was still alive.
"Outstanding stuff, Melanie," Gary chortled. "I know I could just go to sleep now, but I would like to continue satisfying you, sans peeny." Gary nudged downward and his peeny was nowhere to be seen.
"What in have you mind eeeeee?"
"Just sit back and relax, kitty cat."
Melissa did just that, falling back onto the bed and stretching her "perfect 7" body, eager for Gary's attention. He started working his magic immediately and she felt an all-too-familiar heat rising from her breast. Gary was crouched over top and pooping all over her unbelievably average body.
"Gary, so stinky."
"That's just the poop, baby. Let it just work its magic."
"I... I can't see anything."
"That's because you're blind now, Mildred."
Leftards are easy to troll because they're all pretty much angry already.
ReplyDeleteCaptcha: impre -- teh impre strkes bck
Rob! You posted on this comment thread instead of on Dreamers Often Lie again.
ReplyDelete850 is a clear example of something that would've been funny if it had actually happened, but just doesn't work as a made-up scenario.
ReplyDeleteThat's not the first time that has happened to XKCD either.
seriously i respect the freedom of opinions and all that but if your gonna pick on one comic and find a flaw in every one thats just well self-serving, alot of people make good points that yes some people wont get it, but then its not aimed at them, and who cares that its over popular everything in the world is either over our under appreciated, some are funny some are not, laugh at the ones that are and forget about the others, dont break it down in every little detail its a waste of your time and accomplishes nothing,if your trolling to troll fair enough but dont try put it off as anything else, i dont know why he makes xkcd maybe it is to be popular maybe he just likes it and maybe hes not as funny as he thinks he is but who gives a crap
ReplyDeleteAs far as I can tell, the new comic doesn't even contain a joke. Also some of the text is too small to read. Can we just go back to talking about how the end of Harry Potter sucked because of the OBHWF ending that should have been Harmonia? Still a great book series, though.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 7:41AM, are you perchance the ghost of José Saramago, come back from the grave to explore the medium of the internet thread?
ReplyDeleteI salute you, sir
literally the worst comment thread
ReplyDeleteI don't get it, is he pretending to not be an american in this comic?
ReplyDeletethe harmony sub i believe is in a deep ocean trench off Puerto Rico
ReplyDeleteSaramago is dead?
ReplyDeleteThe disputed area of Tibet has apparently conquered the less-famously occasionally disputed area of Xinjiang. Just sayin.
ReplyDeleteI was going to not bother but then it doesn't look like I'm actually interupting anything
> Saramago is dead?
ReplyDeleteYou must be american.
I'm not impressed at all. There's no way to prove Randall drew this from memory rather than looking at a world map. I'll take his word for it though. I assume the outlines came from an unlabelled world map that was xkcdified; if he did actually draw the outlines by hand from memory, that would be impressive, but I would expect an overall better grasp of geography in that case.
ReplyDeleteThe map doesn't reflect well on American knowledge of geography. If this was really done by participants in a geography bee, it's pathetic (but the alt text was a joke, right?). It's better than the proverbial high school students who can't locate Canada on map, but it doesn't demonstrate any advanced knowledge of geography. Only a handful of countries and islands are actually labelled. Mostly it's just broad geographic regions. I'd expect an educated individual to be able to do better than this. Surely most college graduates can locate major western European countries (Italy, France, Spain, Germany).
If I go for pedantry, Denmark isn't Scandanavian. The Lesser Antilles are not equal to the Virgin Islands.
Maine being closest to Africa isn't particularly interesting trivia. Here's a better one. The second closest country to Maine (after Canada) is France.
> if your trolling to troll fair enough but dont try put it off as anything else
ReplyDeleteIf you unroll the meaning of this sentence it becomes "if you're being a dick just to be a dick, be honest about it, doing otherwise is kind of a dick move"
I think the real shame here is that Randy needed seven colors for this map. You'd imagine he was familiar with the four-color theorem?
ReplyDeleteDenmark is Scandinavian.
ReplyDeleteAnd I am English, not American. I just hadn't heard that he had died.
> And I am English, not American. I just hadn't heard that he had died.
ReplyDeleteIt was a huge thing because he was living in self-imposed exile on an island off the coast of Africa, and they brought the body to Lisbon to be buried. The process took two or three days and it was all over the news in the meantime. More than twenty thousand people attended the funeral, world leaders from everywhere sent tributes etc.
> And what, exactly, was wrong with Harry Potter 7? I bet you're a Harmonian.
ReplyDeleteWhat in the motherfucking hell cocks is a harmonian? I looked it up, I just wanted to communicate how much I want and do lead a lifestyle as completely devoid of HARRY POTTER FAN FICTION as possible.
If you think the only thing wrong with volume 7 is that everyone conveniently ends up together (which takes up what, the last 3 pages?) then your hands would be better employed stuffing shit in your ears than typing comments on a hate blog, since you clearly have no critical ability and randomly choose the things you hate.
The 'joke' here is that you're expecting it to be like The World According to Ronald Reagan, but then it turns out Randall wasn't clever enough to come up with actual social satire, so he made another one of his 'comics' where the 'joke' is the lack of a joke.
ReplyDelete@ anon 10:23 "I just wanted to communicate how much I want and do lead a lifestyle as completely devoid of HARRY POTTER FAN FICTION as possible."
ReplyDeleteYou are seriously missing out. Some of the fanfiction is honestly better than the original. Here I'm thinking of "Beautiful World" and "Seeker to Seeker." I never cried once when reading any of the HP books, but I bawl every single time I read BW- it's seriously the only piece of fiction that has ever made me cry, either professional or fan. If you're not touched by BW, you have no soul (or the metaphorical equivalent thereof.)
I know those are Drarry fanfics, but I turned to Drarry after book 5 when I realized Harmonia was never going to happen (which I still think it should have.) When I watched the most recent movie and saw the Harmonia scenes I felt a pang of sadness.
anon 6:35 - lol, whut?
ReplyDeleteDenmark is a Nordic country, but not Scandanavian. Finland is Scandanavian but not Nordic. Sweden and Norway are both. I could be non-pedantic about the whole thing, but this is xkcd we're talking about.
ReplyDeleteGiven that he still hasn't corrected 'Paupa New Guinea' I'm left wondering if it's somehow part of the joke.
ReplyDeleteliberaltards are easy to troll because they know Christianity and religious beliefs are absolutely dumb
ReplyDeletereligion-fags are easy to troll because they know their beliefs are right
@UndercoverCuddlefish
ReplyDeleteWhat about liberal christfags?
Under what definition is Denmark not part of Scandinavia?
ReplyDelete"Under what definition is Denmark not part of Scandinavia?"
ReplyDeleteActually, Sepia just got it confused. Denmark is Nordic and Scandinavian, Finland is Nordic but not Scandinavian.
@1:52
ReplyDeleteA singularity of smugness crushes them the instant one is born, thus ensuring the world never has to suffer their existence.
it's a good thing we have UC here to tell us how much we should hate fags and retards
ReplyDeleteReligionfags do indeed know their beliefs are right, but that quality pretty much describes 99% of all of humanity, including atheistfags and sciencefags, whether they can support their beliefs or not.
ReplyDeletewhat in the what why are you guys even arguing about this
ReplyDeletethis is worse than YouTube comment threads
@cptnoremac
ReplyDeleteDERP DERP NO SHIT THAT WAS SORT OF THE POINT
No, your point left out some groups I wanted to insult, so eat it.
ReplyDeletewhen did this place turn into 4chan
ReplyDeletecptnoremac you left out agnostic-fags
ReplyDeleteAlso homosexualfags
ReplyDeleteThe entire 5+ page thread at the xkcd forums is about whether Denmark is in Scandinavia, and now people are arguing here, NOBODY GIVES A FUCK
ReplyDeleteHaha, Randall's all butthurt about stupid jokes.
ReplyDeleteI bet "Paupa New Guinea" is there to make it look like he did indeed do it from memory. That's what happens when you're not resorting to a reference. Tiny little errors in such things as spelling crop up. That's probably also why it's not really very complete.
I don't see why he labels Tasmania but not any other Australian state. It's not quite as complicated a situation as Taiwan! Hawaii isn't drawn on at all, so why is the territory of Australia (aka the true land of trailer trash) so much more important than that of USA (which, for all vitriol that gets thrown at it, is still the most powerful nation in the world)?
Idiots who think that a word can only have one meaning ever, and that meaning has to be the one that makes the most sense in their limited worldview, that's why.
ReplyDelete> I don't see why he labels Tasmania but not any other Australian state.
ReplyDeleteUm, Tasmanian devils?
Maybe he thinks that Tasmania isn't part of Australia? Or somehow not as much a part as the mainland states are? I dunno I've never met anyone personally who thought that but apparently they exist.
ReplyDeleteDon't tell me you guys didn't look up Tasmania as a kid when you first saw the Taz character
ReplyDeleteTasmania used to be "the land of demons", and as such is notable on every map as the third portal to Hell on Earth.
ReplyDelete850 is pathetic. It contradicts its own shit joke by showing a really poor knowledge of geography, and the alt-text made me feel like
ReplyDelete« Oh, Randall, you read the wikipedia article about landlocked countries too ? How unfunny and less interesting than said articles ! »
(in case you wonder, the other doubly landlocked country is Lichtenstein, but Usbekistan is actually arguable, whether the Aral is considered a sea, a lake, or a patch of salty desert. I bet i could make some strips out of those if I were as clever as randy)
Typhon
"I don't see why he labels Tasmania but not any other Australian state."
ReplyDeleteWell, in all fairness he labeled Alaska too.
Why wasn't the alt-text something about poor people not having access to maps? Whhhhhyyyyyyy?????
ReplyDeleteFour Colour Theorem? More like Witchcraft, amirite?????
ReplyDelete@4:22 there wasn't an internet when I was a kid and my family didn't have an encyclopedia.
ReplyDeleteWhat kind of shitty map labels regions, states and disputed areas at random with no meaningful distinctions? Is this supposed to show that americans, even with the aid of wikipedia, are still fucking awful with geography?
ReplyDeleteThis is fucking bizarre, if you all hate the webcomic so much, why not just stop reading it?
ReplyDeleteI like how he includes a little side note about Taiwan and marks Tibet and Bengali, but colors Ireland the same color as the British Isles and also just lumps them as "The British Isles." Despite mentioning that he reads BBC News which you'd think would mention something about, oh I don't know, how that might be fucking insulting to the nations there that have incredibly strong nationalist parties, one of which holds the majority in their parliament.
ReplyDeletehe's trying to show off all he knows about world events while hapharzadly grouping people by language, borders, race, religion, nationalist movements, and geography. Also, I don't think he's ever done a comic whose joke boiled down as plainly to "APPLAUD ME FOR BEING SMART" as this one.
"This is fucking bizarre, if you all hate the webcomic so much, why not just stop reading it?"
ReplyDeleteThis is fucking bizarre; if you hate this blog so much, why not just stop reading it?
oh those fucking retard-fags...
ReplyDeleteI blame the Rob-fag.
ReplyDeleteWho cares about Denmark when he included a much larger area of Russia in his "Scandinavia".
ReplyDeleteJon Levi said...
ReplyDeleteI think Randall is trolling here. The comic's been up for little over 24 hours, and it's already clocked up seven pages on the official discussion thread, most of which is people nitpicking the map. Comments like these:
> "Not even the serious pedants have mentioned the lack of Hawai'i thus far? This is a travesty."
> "D: This is a great blow to all Singaporean xkcd fans."
This isn't quite as bad as when he did the atheists comic, but it could get worse. So if you nitpick the map here, then you're just allowing Randall to troll you.
Also, I'm a little dissappointed that SirMustapha (aka Fernie Canto) hasn't shown up yet.
The worst thing is that there are a bunch of americans in the xkcd forums pointing out that they're as ignorant of other countries as the rest of the world is ignorant of U.S. states, and apparently in their mind this is an argument in their favor.n
ReplyDelete@Jon Levi, this is because the map comic touches on the issue most dear to xkcd readers: SHOWING OFF THEIR KNOWLEDGE OF TINY DETAILS AND NOMENCLATURE.
ReplyDeleteThese are the same people who knew what the fuck Earendil (?) was in the LotR emo comic.
It's not even very good at showing off how smart Randall is. I'm pretty sure this is exactly how most Americans view the world. Most of them have a rough idea where the ones that show up in the news or their vacation plans are, and know a few bits of trivia thanks to the Weird Facts Generator they installed in their Facebook feed.
ReplyDeleteI was going to keep updating the xkcd/dinosaur comics blog, but fuck that shit, these comics suck. Unless someone has an older strip they would like mashed, it's not worth it
ReplyDeleteJasper, that's Algebra II, not Calculus. O.o
ReplyDelete@Anon 5:05 you have to understand that the United States of America is THE dominant global power. You can't even begin to comprehend the rest of the world before you've mastered its center.
ReplyDeleteVery true. It is well known that the gangs of Jo'burg have as their initiation question "Who won Superbowl XI?".
ReplyDeleteCAPTCHA: lingore. To ignore lingerie.
> you have to understand that the United States of America is THE dominant global power.
ReplyDeleteEh, that might have been true twenty years ago. These days it's China.
But it will be another twenty years before americans catch on.
you can usually tell an American by the fact that they are asserting that the US is the only superpower in today's world
ReplyDeleteChina has made lots of money being the world's factory, but lets face it. They're still basically our employees while we handle administration ie. power. Workers rights movements can't even get a foothold there, such is the nation's dependence on supplying cheap labor.
ReplyDeleteShowing a lot of insight about how China's going at the moment there, Anonymous dude. My country is doing okay selling raw materials to The Factory and praying they keep finding use in us, worker's/women's/ethnic minority rights aside. Just a tad naiive to label them your employees, considering they've gotten away with spitting in your country's face a whole bunch of times over the last few decades.
ReplyDelete> Workers rights movements can't even get a foothold there,
ReplyDelete> such is the nation's dependence on supplying cheap labor.
You do realize that, as regards workers' rights and movements, the U.S. lags behind all "developed" countries, and all (really, all) of South America?
Hey, don't blame me, blame the libertarian nutjob fantasy that almost everyone there seems to think is a reasonable worldview. Your "liberal left" would be considered right-wing almost everywhere else.
> They're still basically our employees while we handle administration
What an enviable position. Say, how are those wars going?
I love "nutjob". Facebook should automatically include that after your political views field, every time. Centrist nutjob. Non-political nutjob. If you leave it blank, simply
ReplyDeletePolitical views: nutjob
Yeah, everyone who doesn't want to be the government's bitch is a nutjob. You sure got your head on straight there, anon.
ReplyDeleteIsn't 848 a string theory joke?
ReplyDelete> everyone who doesn't want to be the government's bitch is a nutjob.
ReplyDeleteThe nutjobs are the people who don't realize they're the bitches of large companies, failing to comprehend that the exact argument about how governments become corrupt applies to them.
Except hey, you can't vote for companies and their mandate never expires.
lolitics
ReplyDelete