Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Comic 858: Whole Milk

fake

[TITLE: Milk; ALT TEXT: It's not hard when you have the same thought like 40 or 50 percent of the time.]

Randall Munroe is a troubled man. His mind is filled with thoughts of nipples, all the time (let's not kid ourselves; the alt text is lowballing it). He wants to put them in his mouth. And when he does, he wants them to provide him with sweet, milky sustenance. Mostly the nipples he thinks of are Megan's, of course, but even Randy's obsession with Megan pales compared to the thoughts that course through his mind, unbidden and unwelcome. And everyone around him knows. They must, or why would the world be so full of reminders? "Villains!" he shrieked. "Dissemble no more! Tear off the shirt. Here! Here! It is the oozing of her delicious milky breasts!"

At first he tried to dismiss these thoughts as other and strange, as evidenced in comic 275, where he worries about telling the parents of his completely fictional girlfriend (perhaps the comic predates Megan, who can say?) that he lives only to put his mouth on her sensitive pink milk buttons. These thoughts were "the weirdest thoughts." They were to be suppressed, shunned, kept silent. And for a long time, he succeeded. He shifted his fixation onto Megan, and with a forced laugh and a grin that lingered just a moment too long, he told nerdy jokes. Only the pained look in his eye when he saw a breast, the way his gaze would follow the jiggly milk-potentials, betrayed his inner thoughts.

But eventually the strain was too much for his psyche. Perhaps it was the realization that he could lust for the life-giving fluid that came from Megan's breasts that did it. he could suppress it no longer--God (or, rather, the uncaring universe that only dumb dumbheads think has a god in it--this is still Randall Munroe we're talking about) made him with these crippling neuroses and sexual fixations for a reason! and he would not be ashamed of who he is!

But to be Randall Munroe is to be ashamed. all his life he has been at conflict with himself--the part with an oral fixation that only wants to lap up milk and vaginal fluids, and the white knight who thinks that sexual desire is inherently wrong and finds that imagining women sexually damages his image of them as perfect and pure--and that conflict continues. What was meant as a loving paean to milk-slurping turned on itself, became a twisted mirror of itself. In it, Megan shatters his dreams, as she shatters them so often before, and, as always, he can find nothing but praise for her in so doing. but it's the alt text where Randall truly subverts himself: here he reveals, with the terrifying self-awareness that only those wallowing deep in the pits of denial can exhibit, that this is his only thought. She is not amazing for guessing it. she is only cynically exploiting his fragile, pathetic mind. And it is fragile, and it is pathetic. He knows this, he affirms this, even as he attempts to affirm himself:

I am Randall Munroe, and I just want to lick milk from your boobies! I will not be ashamed!

But he is ashamed. He is so very ashamed.

126 comments:

  1. this was probably the dumbest, weirdest xkcd comic i've seen yet. i'm kind of surprised you didn't get more enraged over this.

    the megan stuff also really isn't funny anymore. it's just a name he uses a lot, seriously.

    ReplyDelete
  2. im disappointed rob,
    that comic was the best worst comic weve had in a while
    kinda was hoping for something epic over here
    ah well

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  3. Boobies have milk! I get it now - he's finished wooing the high-schoolers and has moved on to primary school.

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  4. Woah! That's what breasts are for?

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  5. On an unrelated note to the comic: have you guys ever visited landoverbaptist.net?

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  6. You know, Rob's not the type to get overly worked up over the internet. Not like Carl, who has produced some half-dozen "angriest rants" and a couple dozen more significantly angry rants. I think this is one of the key differences between Rob and Carl. Carl was willing to be angry, satisfied, critical, sarcastic, or pretty much adapt his personality to what the comic was. Rob, on the other hand, is the guy with the tongue-permanently-in-cheek, always skeptical, and pretty much never inserts his own actual feelings into the blog. I can just imagine him with one of his eyebrows a mile high, the art critic's scowl, his expression with so many layers of irony it belies the rolls of lard beneath him.

    In other words, Rob doesn't get angry, just fat.

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  7. How to write a review, according to Carl:
    Say something sarcastic.
    Mention Megan.
    Mention Megan some more.
    Finish with something else sarcastic.

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  8. I don't even..this is...
    It's beautiful.

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  9. Why'd you edit the comic?

    Not that I'm complaining, mind, but usually it's preserved in original.

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  10. How to write a review, according to Carl:

    Posted by Rob

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  11. adam: it was an edit done by ray. I just preserved it.

    no, I don't know why I strayed from my usual formula, but whatevs

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  12. The whole breast/lactation setup is pretty creepy and awkward, but I actually liked the timing and punchline in this one. This is a framework that could actually be used to make a decent joke, which means that this is probably the best xkcd I've seen in a while.

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  13. Megan's Raging FriendFebruary 9, 2011 at 11:57 PM

    What a creepy, weird, sick, twisted fuck this unathletic, introverted and generally sickly bastard Randall Munroe is.

    He'd probably rather have a dick in his mouth than a breast anyway.

    Parents, this is what happens when you give you son bowlcuts for the first 20 years of his life. If your son prefers to stay upstairs locked in his room reading Hardy Boys books instead of getting out & playing soccer & trying to nail chicks, you might have a problem.

    Mr. and Mrs. Munroe, I'm sorry I wasn't there for you many years ago when little Randall was already veering off the rails. But the good news is that you don't have to spend any more time or energy trying to fix him... don't worry, he's fucked, no sense throwing good money after bad. Cut your losses, cut him out of the will, and move on.

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  14. Listen guys, Randall doesn't care what you think about his fetishes. He is a rebel, he dares to dream in a world where anything less than conformity means ostracization. He teaches life to those of us who fear to live.

    Read 137, then come back and reconsider who is sadder. The artist, or the lowly critic who jealously tries to drag him down from his lofty heights?

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  15. the one without the oral fixation

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  16. These posts are so much better when i imagine robdall reading them. The robdall character has so many dimensions; he is a conflicted creature at best. or should i say.... BREAST.

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  17. man, I wish I was at breast. i am eating pizza and pizza goes amazingly well with milk

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  18. Joyce, the answer to your question becomes clear when you click "< PREV" for the very xkcd comic that you refer to.

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  19. Hey! I have an oral fixation and am deeply offended by a couple of your sentences, Rob! Please stop being such a bigot!

    I don't have a lactation fetish tho. That shit's creepy yo.

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  20. "He'd probably rather have a dick in his mouth than a breast anyway."

    Ha, yeah, and being gay is terrible! He's a big gay! Totally gay! He loves it. Being gay! But its rubbish for him, because being gay is rubbish. But he enjoys cock, obviously, because he's gay. But we, as straight men, understand that gay men are actually really sad, because they love cock. But they don't ACTUALLY love it, they wish they could fuck pussy like us, real men.

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  21. Hey Rob! What a shit job you did of bringing down this godawful and creepy comic!

    Fuck you!

    Hand xkcdsucks on to somebody else already!

    Go fuck yourself!

    ReplyDelete
  22. Mr K- clearly not a REAL MAN.

    Go back to watching billy elliot- HOMO

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  23. Sometimes I think there's a group of Randall fans that are competing for the title of "World's biggest creep" and "World's biggest hypocrite".

    "Oohh, hurr hurr, those xkcd haters are all AWKWARD ABOUT SEX! Hurr hurr."
    "Oohh, breast milk is totally sexy. Those who disagree DON'T LIKE WOMEN, tee hee."

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  24. Hey Joyce,

    You should go give that riveting speech to the victims of Jeffrey Dahmer or John Wayne Gacy, they weren't sad twisted sick fucks with weird sexual fetishes. They were just livin' life! Who are we to ostracize them!

    And they were better than Randall Munroe, because they didn't just write about how to live life. They lived it! Don't judge them!

    But I guess if going beyond speech and writing is too real for you, maybe instead you should give that riveting speech to opponents the Phelps clan. He's still out there preaching His good word, despite all of his critics. 'Cause really, who is sadder, the preacher or his critics? Fuck. That. Shit.

    tl;dr: Terrible webcomic artists are worse than serial killers.

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  25. There wasn't any rage in this review. I think Rob has forgotten his hatred of Randall. It's been that way for a while know, but I thought that 858 might have rekindled the fire. It did not.

    @ anon 8:24 landoverbaptist.net was made by atheists. They're trolling. Westboro however is frighteningly real.

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  26. I was well aware of it being fake but I still thought it was funny and worth sharing. I have never heard of Westboro though... Do they have a forum?

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  27. Their website is http://www.godhatesfags.com/ (surprising!). I doubt they have any forums, it would get trashed in minutes.

    Youtube them to see the putrid hate they preach.

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  28. Hey, looks like you morons are still proving my point. Even when Randall produces his most awkward and creepy comics, you all enjoy it thoroughly. Your glee in ripping this apart clearly outweighs any negative feelings. Are you seriously telling me you would be glad to see xkcd end? That little moment of victory would be swallowed up by the sudden void in your lives.

    You suckle on Randall's teat even while you bitch about it.

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  29. Y'know, genius, if it wasn't fun to do this, we wouldn't do it. So yeah, you're probably right.

    Go prove that the sky's blue next, it's a real puzzler that could use your expertise.

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  30. You're admitting to suckling on Randall's teat? Good on ya fella, you're the first. Maybe the rest of your herd can follow now.

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  31. Cuddlefish_1: It's more like we're milking Randall, dumping his milk over the heads of the xkcd fanbase, and having a good laugh about it.

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  32. Criticizing the bad is how we cope with it. If xkcd suddenly stopped running, we would have no need to cope, and all would be right with the world still. I'm not sure what you mean by "enjoy it thoroughly" and our "glee." When I'm not completely creeped out or disgusted by xkcd, I'm rather indifferent about posting here.

    Just two days ago, I had a friend start linking me to a bunch of xkcd comics he thought were funny. Needless to say, they weren't. It's in those situations that it's refreshing to come here and see the comic get the hate it deserves. But, if xkcd suddenly stopped updating, it would eventually fade into obscurity, and those situations wouldn't happen. There would be no need for my "glee" because there would be nothing bad that I'd need to counteract.

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  33. http://megansmilk.blogspot.com/

    I'll just leave this here. Yes, it is probably real.

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  34. OHOHOHOOHOHOHOOOOOPOSOOAWOQIOQUIQAJ\A\JN\NJ\N\NHBABQBQBAFFGGDGSWGAGAHAH

    ah

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  35. This is... ick. Honestly, this is like the worst possible incarnation of the "quirky relationship" xkcd comic strip.

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  36. @ Megan's Raging Friend

    Don't you dare lump that loathsome piece of shit webcomic artist in with us gays.

    What the fuck makes you think Randall doesn't try hard to get nailed? For that matter, how would that improve his disposition? He already objectifies women to a disturbing degree.

    I thought men in general were made uncomfortable by breastfeeding. I was aware of the baby-play fetish, but I thought it was particularly taboo and rare. I guess if "How to induce lactation without being pregnant" is the first response on google, I guess I was wrong about that.

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  37. @Bret, yeah, or maybe mothers are adopting babies. Just maybe...

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  38. Milk does not go well with pizza. What kind of sick bastard are you Rob?

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  39. @Gamer2k4 - Rationalise all you want, and pretend that a website is something you can't easily ignore. I hate cauliflower, and I can still avoid it even if someone puts it on a plate in front of me.

    You enjoy yourselves here, despite the shittiness of Rob's posts, and the sooner you admit that Randall supplies you with a constant stream of milky white pleasure, the sooner you can stop your self-delusions.

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  40. One of these days, I expect to see a blog post that DOESN'T mention Megan despite being incredibly relevant. Like, say, when we eventually get the comic of stick figure man popping into Megan's house, performing cunnilingus, and then milking Megan in order to feet the computer-baby they accidentally spawned.

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  41. Its harder to avoid xkcd than colliflower. In your example you imply you don't like the taste and its very easy to stop it going in your mouth- imagine hating the look of it? Harder to avoid now isnt it. now imagine there are pictures of coliflowers everywhere and all your friends like sedning you these pics telling you how much you will love this colliflower even if you don't like the rest.

    Wouldn't you start bitching about cauliflowers then?

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  42. "Are you seriously telling me you would be glad to see xkcd end?"

    Yes.

    "That little moment of victory would be swallowed up by the sudden void in your lives."

    Not really. No.

    "Even when Randall produces his most awkward and creepy comics, you all enjoy it thoroughly."

    your true nature is showing through ... you might want to cover that a little ...

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  43. Big things happening in Egypt, and you guys are worrying about how Randall fills his daily dairy intake? Get a sense of perspective, people.

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  44. The google search would have made for a better punchline. Also, although it wouldn't have been terribly original, it'd be a lot less creepy had he just repeated the joke from 291, with some remark to the effect of how bizarre and undignified it is that human women produce breast milk. And/or how strange it is that drinking cattle's breastmilk is perfectly acceptable while just thinking about drinking that of our own species outside of infancy is utterly taboo.

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  45. @Anon 12:03

    "My car broke down? So what? Compared to the Egypt situation, it's nothing! My girlfriend dumped me? Who cares? At least I'm not in Egypt now. Got fired? Meh. The Egyptians have bigger problems."

    Is that you?

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  46. Guys isn't it weird that eating cattle is accepted by society yet when you talk about eating other people you get funny looks and someone calls the police

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  47. Isn't it weird how fucking women is accepted by most of society yet when you talk about fucking cattle you get weird little winks and somebody whispers into your ear "shhh... everybody does it, but nobody talks about it."

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  48. Xkcd is Mubarak's favorite webcomic
    www.reliableinformations.org/Mubarak-says-his-favorite-webcomic-is-xkcd/

    So I guess this blog has more relevance than you thought.

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  49. @Anon11:14 - Well, reality TV then. Can't stand it, but I'm still capable of ignoring it. And get this, if friends start talking to me about how they like something I don't, I tell them I don't like it and we have a discussion. Then they stop bugging me with it. Quit being a little bitch, and stop trying to bait me with your terrible spelling.

    @Capn - Do you want xkcd stopped because of some bizarre morality kick, or because you're a spiteful little asshole?

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  50. I'm sorry I said mean things to you. Wanna be friends again?

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  51. Oh my god yes! Yes I do!

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  52. We all learned something today: friendship is more important than arguing over whether xkcdsucks commenters would be sad if xkcd stopped!

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  53. Today, on a very special xkcdsucks...

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  54. Did you guys see what Mubarak just did? What a jerk!

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  55. But... but I wanted more than friendship...

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  56. Oh god me too. I was just too afraid to say...

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  57. Let's take this elsewhere.

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  58. Ok. I'm so happy.

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  59. once my girlfriend (who isn't and has never been pregnant, etc) lactated and it was the grossest thing. seriously, I never really thought I'd be that grossed out by it --- actually, I guess never really thought about it much at all --- but it's really weird. personally, I think if randall had ever had a girlfriend, sex, seen a vagina, witnessed lactation, etc, outside of anime, he wouldn't be quite so obsessed with these topics and continually include them in his delusional ways, as though these are fascinating or socially relevant points of discussion. perhaps we are approaching this randall hate all the wrong way. perhaps we should just try to get randall hooked up, at which point he will realize just how vastly stupid xkcd is. maybe I'm an optimist.

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  60. I'm 25 and have never ever hooked up. That's why I'm lonely enough to be spending time at this blog- the only contact I've had with other females is through accidental bumping in crowded areas. I can still see how vastly stupid xkcd is.

    Randall's problem is something else.

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  61. Surely one of his fanbase would be willing. Or else someone here should take one for the team.

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  62. Ann Apolis, your task is set before you.

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  63. @Capn 12:57,
    12:59,
    1:17,
    1:18

    Dammit, now look what you made me do.

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  64. You mean that wasn't you?

    I'm hurt.

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  65. Little does the Cuddlefish realize, we're not the ones who would be lost without xkcd/xkcdsucks; rather, he would be lost without them for without xkcdsucks he would be unable to experience Capn's musky man love.

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  66. Anon 1:26: I could be wrong, but I don't actually think Randall is big into Anime. Lactation isn't a hentai thing specifically, and none of his work is in any way japanified, nor does it make any reference to Japan, Anime, or Otaku culture. I think he just watches regular porn in all likelihood.

    @Cuddlefish_1: You're right, I like coming here. No point trying to act like I don't. But of the, say, 2 hours a day I spend on the Internet, it's not all here. Most of it is elsewhere. If I stopped coming here, that time would just get redistributed amongst other sites, or maybe I'd spend less time on the Internet and more time doing other things. It might even be productive things (doubtful). So really, I stand to gain from XKCD stopping!

    I mean, sure I could just stop coming now, but that would be giving up the good fight!

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  67. So guys is anyone else like utterly terrified by the site of a horse peeing? I mean I saw a horse and buggy the other day and the horse had stopped to piss and I was like holy shit that's like a fucking firehose man what the fuck

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  68. "(or, rather, the uncaring universe that only dumb dumbheads think has a god in it--this is still Randall Munroe we're talking about)"

    Rob how come you are a radical fundamentalist super orthodox religious wacko?

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  69. The comic was terrible, but... your review...

    I'm wondering who's more perturbated: you or Randall.

    Now, let's see, Randall makes a living out of this, so I just thought he had a block, read/saw/heard something about lactating women and tried to make a joke.

    But you, woah.

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  70. "...he ... read/saw/heard something ... and tried to make a joke."

    Yep, that's XKCD... 3 times a week Randal /tries/ to make a joke. Thanks for summing it up so nicely.

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  71. 859 is terrible. He gave up on art. He gave up on, what has heretofore been the lazy way out, graphs and charts. He didn't even bother to post up some scribblings from a notebook. No, now Randall is merely putting up walls of text.

    Captcha: hakerneo

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  72. Oh god. 859 is unadulterated GOOMHR bait (considering that most of XKCD's fan-base are pedantic pricks.

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  73. latest comic: randall has sunk to the level of posting something that could literally just be a twitter post. he's often done stuff that could just be a blog post with drawings, or stuff that's really lazy and half-baked, with filler art he obviously did in a few minutes, but this...he could just post it on twitter and not a single thing would be lost. what in the fuck. he had nothing else to do since wednesday morning, and this is all he could think of. not even a couple drawings of megan sitting at her computer and then saying something unnatural like "man! the author of this blog forgot to close a parenthesis. It has created unresolved tension that will be with me all day. Guess I'll have to grope for comfort against the slings and arrows of fortune by leaving a comment telling him how dumb he is"

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  74. The problem with randy's recent comics: http://i.imgur.com/7Bff2.png

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  75. Friend: xkcd

    Me: is awful

    Friend: i've been debugging code
    all day
    xkcd is thus amazing

    This was a real conversation people.

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  76. 859: I nominate Randall for laziest webcartoonist ever. 859 is a sentence. It is probably not even true for most people. Also, the parenthesis at the beginning of the sentence doesn't make any sense. Why would you just put parentheses around a single sentence with no other context (If it is to demonstrate his point, it does a horrible job since all it does is make me think Randall is lazy and incompetent, which I thought anyway). He should of at least made the effort to create some context for the parenthetical clause.

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  77. Also, if the last two comics were an attempt to make the Archimedes one look amazing in comparison, they succeeded.

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  78. This is probably one of the worst comics in a while. And coming after the breast milk comic, that's saying something.)

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  79. Here, I'll combine 858 and 859:

    ( . Y .

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  80. Yep. The xkcd fantards are ejaculating all over themselves over this one. Not really much of a surprise.

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  81. 859 is the laziest comic in the history of XKCD.

    Rob, I have a guest post for you. Here:

    "In keeping with the theme this week, I have decided to spend exactly as much time writing this review as Randall spends writing his comic.

    Discuss!"

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  82. This is terrible. This has been xkcd's worst week ever. Randall sorely needs another sick relative for his comic to survive much longer.

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  83. "So in class whenever the teacher is showing us some function on our graphing calculator (like fnInt or somesuch for TI users), she never closes the parentheses, because the closing one is optional, and TIs don't complain. But it annoys the hell out of me.

    I'm going to show this to her tomorrow, and she will feel my agony."

    Yes, a single line of text intended for feigned commiseration from asperger's wannabes will surely show that teacher the error of her ways.

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  84. anon 11:15 ninja'd my thoughts- "feigned commiseration from asperger's wannabes"

    I was about to say- I think randall likes to think he has aspergers so he can excuse his thinking everyone is just like him

    "I like to think of milking girls like, ALL THE TIME everyone else must do too!"

    "every time I see an unclosed parenthesis I need to tap my left foot three times, blink and say "thank you parson" SO MANY PEOPLE WILL BE ABLE TO RELATE!"

    (on the upside at least we've discovered a new way to subtly troll cuddlefish

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  85. Anon10:11 = Genius.

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  86. We girls can lactate without being pregnant. The premise is ignorant. I blame Megan for never trying.

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  87. In response to anon 1:26, I've made a remix comic. Hope you guys enjoy it.

    http://img834.imageshack.us/f/bracketsh.png/

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  88. Yep, unclosed parentheses create major problems... if you're a fucking compiler! For human beings, not so much.

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  89. Shows what you know Randall, I love left parentheses! Give me all the left parentheses you got and screw the right ones, they're usually useless shit like a cursed orcish dagger or a couple crossbow bolts.

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  90. (A night without Megan creates an unresolved tension that stays with Randall all day.

    At least this explains why Randall doesn't update his "blahg", or interact with his fans more than three times a week. If he did he'd actually have no material left for his comics.

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  91. It is amazing that the forum contains so many more people gleefully partaking of the opportunity to pretend they have OCD than people who are completely pissed off that Randall didn't bother making a proper comic, especially considering this is apparently his primary source of income. This is an even more massive cop out than a flow chart. This is as lazy as it gets.

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  92. Jesus christ Randall this is your job. I know you enjoy doing it, but this is the only responsibility you have.

    This is the equivalent of trying to turn in a paper that is just a thesis statement. Randy just made three hundred dollars off of a sentence that isn't even a joke and isn't remotely original.

    Captcha: arrysou. Every stick figure in xkcd is an arry-sou.

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  93. I feel like the goatkcd for 859 isn't particularly funny, but if you imagine that it's randall there with his anus open and pointed at your face, then it really seems to capture the sentiment behind the original comic.

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  94. goatkcd is more funny than not nowadays, it's amazing.

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  95. For fuck's sake Randall, how am I meant to troll if you keep producing indefensible shit?

    Screw this, I'm going to the XKCD forum.

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  96. Charles Augustus FortescueFebruary 11, 2011 at 5:44 AM

    Why does it matter if this comic is his only source of income and he didn't put much effort into it? Surely that's up to him, isn't it?

    I thought it had much more impact as a comic than it would have done as a tweet. It's a question of context - by creating a lot of other popular comics, he is able to use the context of a successful webcomic to get the maximum value out of an otherwise slight observation.

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  97. Why does it matter if Garfield is Jim Davis' only source of income and he didn't put much effort into it? Surely that's up to him, isn't it?

    It's a question of context - by creating a lot of other popular comics, he is able to use the context of a successful comic to get the maximum value out of an otherwise slight observation.

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  98. I am really annoyed by unclosed parentheses but this doesn't even qualify as a comic. I wish Randall was capable of feeling shame

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  99. You know what's worse than unclosed parentheses?

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  100. this is an actual problem that people have?

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  101. @Ex-ambivalent

    BAM, Nethack joke. Nice.

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  102. R. are you not familiar with obsessive-compulsive disorder?

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  103. Does Randall get all worked up by smilies?
    :-)

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  104. Shit son, this makes black hat sighing look good. I mean, at least it had text and art. Y'know, the two requirements for a comic.

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  105. There's still political uncertainty in Egypt and Randall is worried about unclosed parenthesis!

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  106. Is Randall even aware of the Egyptian rioting and revolution? Why didn't his webcomic have a political message, demanding that Mubarak leave? Randall Monroe's disregard for basic human rights is unforgivable!

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  107. Don't worry guys, about 5 years from now Randy will be sure to make a "topical" Mubarak joke.

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  108. The Interior Minister asks Hosni Mubarak to write a farewell letter to the Egyptian people. Mubarak replies: ‘Why? Where are they going?’

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  109. Guest review for 859

    :(

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  110. 8:23 i actually have some ocd/neat freak tendencies

    i just don't understand this

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  111. I think it's safe to say that Randy is just trolling the world at this point, seeing what terrible comics he can get away with posting, and trying increasingly to baffle communities like this one, who are just in amazement that he still have fans out there.

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  112. http://xkcd.com/221/

    Laziest comic since that one. But 221 was funny and made an absurd commentary, while 859 was simply stupid.

    Next comic should be 221, but in Whitespace.

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  113. The difference is that 221 had a joke. 859 does not.

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  114. Well played, Anon 1139. Send that in to Rob.

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  115. I can't remember what is was, but coding for some game I was messing with at some point pretty much forced you to use left parenthesis at the beginning of every line, but if you closed them with a right parenthesis it would break the code. It struck me as odd but then I got over it.

    Randy really should read what his critics are saying and try to make his comic better through their insights, instead of completely ignoring them. I find some of his newer comics funny, but these 2 newest ones plus 631 were probably the worst excuses for humor I've ever seen.

    I also hate Ed with a passion, but everyone else here (Rob, Ravenzomg, Gamer, Carl) seems alright.

    @11:39: )

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  116. Randall does hear what his critics say. There's a minority that whinges, and a swelling mass that jumps up and down begging for more every time they have fecal matter smeared across their eyes.

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  117. Current xkcd.com page title
    xkcd:(
    Sums it up really

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  118. "Charles Augustus Fortescue said...
    Why does it matter if this comic is his only source of income and he didn't put much effort into it? Surely that's up to him, isn't it?"

    Yeah, it's up to him. He's choosing to spend less time on his comics, and they are noticeably worse for it. He has 2 days to make a comic, 3 on weekends. If he worked 8 hours a day, that's 16 hours. He did not spend 16 hours on Fridays comic. He did not spend 10 hours. He didn't even spend 2. Let's not kid ourselves here, Randall could have finished this in literally 20 minutes. If his living didn't depend on it, he should spend as much time as he wants to or doesn't want to, since it would just be a fun hobby or side business for him.

    But his LIFE depends on producing a quality comic 3 times a week. It is a HUGE character flaw of his, if he thinks that 20 minutes every 3 days is all it should take for him to make a living. It shows he's not taking this seriously at all. Either he doesn't care if his comic continues to succeed, or he thinks that his fans will continue to accept 20 minutes of work from him, and reward him with their dollars. If the former, well that's fine if he has some other career plan, and if the latter, he does not think much of his fans at ALL. If any of them realized he thought so little of them, would they still be inclined to support him financially? I sure as hell wouldn't.

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  119. "...if the latter, he does not think much of his fans at ALL. If any of them realized he thought so little of them, would they still be inclined to support him financially? I sure as hell wouldn't."

    The other option is that they do realize that he doesn't spend that much time on them, they just don't care. They think 20 minutes is enough for him to make an incredibly hilarious and insightful "comic".

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  120. Xkcdsucks has become, at this point, even more offensively stupid than XKCD. I feel like I'm caught in a vortex of mediocrity. Even MovieBob is starting to seem halfway intelligent... and that's saying something.

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  121. If I was him, and produced something like this(and thought it was funny) after 2 hours of work (max, its pretty much not possible to take any more time then that to make 859), I would at least produce ANOTHER comic and put it out there for my fans. I would feel GUILTY if I worked as hard as he does on his comic, his main source of income.

    @anon2:36 : Yeah... for the first week after finding XKCD, I went around showing everyone the ones I thought were funny... Then I read most of them, and started reading them as they came out, then I came here, then now here to be me the ashamed.

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  122. Alsworth: I think that fits under Randall thinks very little of his audience. Your suggestion just means, he's correct.

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