[Title: Null Hypothesis, Alt text: "Hell, my eighth grade science class managed to conclusively reject it just based on a classroom experiment. It's pretty sad to hear about million-dollar research teams who can't even manage that."]
[Title: 65 years, Alt text: "The universe is probably littered with the one-planet graves of cultures which made the sensible economic decision that there's no good reason to go into space--each discovered, studied, and remembered by the ones who made the irrational decision."]
Hey you guys, I've got something to show you.
Take a look at this:
That's the family circus. You remeber the family circus, right? You know, from back when you read comics on things that weren't the web? I want you to look at that comic, and then I want you to look at the first one I posted here. Then, I want you to tell me which one is funnier.
I'm pretty sure now you know the gravity of this dilemma.
That's right. Family circus, as lame and as terrible as it is, is now actually funnier than xkcd. I was looking through their archives, expecting to find one on par with that comic, if a little behind. I soon realized, however, that I could not find one that would meet that criteria, because they all were funnier than that comic, even if by some small degree. And the worst part is, Family Circus specializes in the same type of joke that comic just used! Family circus points out the obsurdity of normal concepts by taking them literally, and through the eyes of a child. That xkcd does the same thing, only it uses acadamic concepts in a really lame way to make a terribly unfunny joke. Let's face it guys, xkcd has slowly but surely progressed to become the Family Circus for nerds. The Family Nercus, if you will.
And the thing about it is, that comic is what I usually describe as "Grade A" xkcd. "Grade A" in this case not referring to quality but instead it's possible use. This comic was practically desgined to be stapled to the notice board in some professor's office (just as family circus is designed to be clipped from newspapers and put into an old scrapbook for spinsters to chuckle at). Grade A xkcd is geared toward acadamia, for the sole purpose of "Look at this! Your stuffy professor has a sense of humor about his subject, too!" (Grade B, for those of you that are curious, are references to nerd culture. There are more grades, but I don't really give a shit about them)
It's just lame, is what it is. And I could go on about how the fans would recieve it (they would probably chuckle at the novel and strikingly literal way this concept has been taken, as if that was "humo(u)r"), or the fact that, as xkcd becomes more popular and slides closer and closer to permanent Family Nerdicusdom, fans will be more insufferable for promoting lame jokes like these as works of talent and genius. The thing is, though, I don't give a shit about how popular xkcd is or what the fans think or what Randall was thinking when he made this crappy comic. What I give a shit about is now I have to recognize that compared to some things, Family Circus is actually funny. Dammit.
As for 893, it's not funny, but then it's not supposed to be funny. Randall's making a point here, and the point is that not spending money on space exploration is stupid. I don't really have much to say to this one (other than that, like many of his chart "comics", this would make a welcome addition to a high school teacher's classroom poster posse), mainly because trying to analyze this is a waste of time. Randall's got opinions. Sometimes he puts them in chart form. You can agree with them or not. Okay.
Main problem with the first comic is it makes no fucking sense. Disproved the null hypothesis? ok randall good 1
ReplyDeleteI don't get 892 at all. There is no one 'null hypothesis' that can be proven or disproven. The null hypothesis depends on the experiment and is inherently proven in every experiment that does not prove the hypothesis.
ReplyDeletelol
ReplyDelete892 is reminding us that sometimes when people use the definite article they are referring to a particular instance rather than the whole class. But wouldn't it be hilarious if we always took the latter interpretation?
ReplyDeletee.g. A doctor walks up to Randall and declares, "The man is a braindead buffoon."
Conclusion: Randall is a braindead buffoon.
Zombie Randall's side-splittingly funny misinterpretation: All men are braindead buffoons.
893 is Randall trying to assuage his guilt at managing to get an albeit temporary position at NASA, contributing to its recent non-productiveness and reducing the chance that we'll ever leave this sceptred sphere.
ReplyDeleteIn a world full of excellent, underutilised physicists and space scientists, it would take endemic failure to even let him through the door.
Yeah, 892 is confusing for a moment until you realize the character is retarded. That's a pretty big leap of logic to make, though, considering that in every single problem you say "the null hypothesis is..." not just "OKAY NULL HYPOTHESIS! PROVIN' IT!"
ReplyDelete893, whatever, man. Let's solve our problems here first before we go looking to expand elsewhere.
Am I the only one who doesn't understand 893's axis? Y isn't labeled and X is the 'number of people who have walked on another planet' yet is set up like years. The fuck is going on in it?
ReplyDeleteSPOILER ALERT: Rob is actually illiterate.
ReplyDelete@anonymous 5:22
ReplyDeleteWhen Jesus was born, just under 1,970 people had walked on the moon, and later child Jesus used miracles and whatnot to send more guys to the moon. Obviously, when Jesus hit puberty, he became disinterested in space, and let all the lepers and whatever die up there.
@Anonymous 5.22, the Y axis is "people who have walked on another planet [or the moon]" and the x axis is the year. It's shit, yes.
ReplyDelete~ ele
Family Nercus...
ReplyDeleteWhat an appropriate metaphor you have drawn there.
One of the funniest hypocrisies of Randy is that he has a giant boner both for science and being right about things other people are wrong about, and yet he never labels his axes.
ReplyDeleteHe is proud of making references to college math and can't remember to do shit you're supposed to learn in 3rd grade.
You know what Randy? There's probably also a whole lot of planets whose infrastructures collapsed because they focused on trying to do cool stuff in space instead of, you know, building roads or schools or getting everybody food.
ReplyDeleteOnce again, Randy takes a complex and difficult concept and boils it down to "I like space stuff. Why doesn't everybody do space stuff all the time?"
This is how children think and act.
There are two fundamental flaws with this review.
ReplyDeleteThe first is that because Family Circus may be qualitatively better than XKCD, that it mus be funny. Anyway, measurements are notoriously unreliable with such outliers as these
The second... actually that was the only one come to think of it. I liked the slow, contemplative pace of this monologue.
Overall score: 93.25436%
Randy just beat Portal 2. SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE.
ReplyDeleteWhen did the moon become a planet?
ReplyDeleteSeth, you are the greatest reviewer to grace this blog, even greater than I. You should do that hobo blog I was telling you about, it'd be great.
ReplyDeleteSpace exploration is uterly stupid, pointless and counter-productive. Period.
ReplyDelete@ Ravenzomg
ReplyDeleteWhat do you mean by "the end of the end"? You kind of lost me there.
What about better alternatives to the horrible xkcd? I personally think Penny Arcade is a very good comic, maybe even the best comic out there. What do you all think?
ReplyDeletepenny arcade sucks cocks and then makes t-shirts about sucking cocks
ReplyDelete1. The moon is not another world Randy, it's a fucking moon.
ReplyDelete2. Why did you even need to include the 65 years thing? I should be able to look at the numbers myself and determine that-- assuming the graph isn't shit.
3. http://xkcd.com/833/
I bet 833 came straight from a talk he had with Megan. (Of course, he rearranged the speakers so that HE was dumping HER, but you get the idea.)
ReplyDeleteI like how, when I basically didn't say anything about 833 because it was just an opinion Randall had, you guys took it upon yourselves to critique it in my stead. Way to go guys!
ReplyDelete893, sorry
ReplyDeleteten demerits for "obsurdity"
ReplyDeleteyou're gonna end up sweeping roads sethy
Not only has Randy failed to update 893 with axes labels, but the forum has failed to pick up on their absence.
ReplyDeleteWe've out-XKCD'd XKCD's fanbase.
Hey guys, I made an horribly improved version of 836. Come see it!
ReplyDeleteOn a side note, I have an account now.
I liked the part where he sprouted three extra arms, turning into some kind of hideous mutant.
ReplyDeleteOkay, that was pretty funny.
ReplyDeleteWhen all those tomorrows get crammed into now
ReplyDeleteYou stop like you're frozen and ask yourself how
When all those tomorrows get crammed into now
You stop like you're frozen and ask yourself how
When putting it all in order ain't enough
The tough gets going and the going gets tough
And the things that you thought ain't what it ought...
Ought, ought to be
When you're laid on the line your dreams will stop
They've drawn you in and they've strung you up
When you're laid on the line your dreams will stop
They've drawn you in and they've strung you up
When putting it all in order ain't enough
The tough gets going and the going gets tough
And the things that you thought ain't what it ought...
When the who hits the what and you've run out of luck
You do what you can but you're...
When the who hits the what and you've run out of luck
You do what you can but you're
All, in a word -
Stuck.
Fuck.
@Randy's bragging about learning about the null hypothesis in 8th grade:
ReplyDeleteHe just had to squeeze that in there.
And yes, I'm going to start posting under that name a lot now.
ReplyDeletea MoaR null nerd you would never want to meet.
ReplyDelete@ 2:42
ReplyDeleteDefinitely. I went to the forums to see if anyone would be commenting about the lack of labels on the axis and overall how shitty it looks but instead it's just 'omg space program' and every now and then a clever little poster pointing out how the US's space program isn't the only one in existence.
i read "connectivity issues" as "creativity issues" and a was all like "naw, those issues be permanent catdaddy."
ReplyDeletethat is wahahahat i was all like
"Your paper," the tutor said, "'s dull.
ReplyDelete"For you have not rejected the null."
Quipped the student, "You'll see!
"I'll cite xkcd.
"Randall can, so I'll also print bull!"
Dear Anon 8:01,
ReplyDeletePlease do not call Rob 'catdaddy'.
Regards,
Kitten(s)
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single blog in possession of a good number of commenters, must be in want of an ALTF.
ReplyDeleteNotice the adjective 'good' modifies the noun 'number' not 'commenters'.
Do you suppose the Carl Vinson used the flight deck catapult?
ReplyDeleteHi ALT-F!
ReplyDeleteHow much bullshit do you think the world would have avoided if the US had remained a British colony? I think a lot!
10:10, 11:57, 12:01 = samefag
ReplyDeleteAnonymous @ 11:57
ReplyDeleteThe British are cunts - to the man!
The world is a much better place for having the USA. And no mistake!
Review your history of "The Age of Empire" and just imagine the horrors the Brits would have perpetrated had they still been relevant.
@ Anonymous 12:01,
Nyuck, nyuck.
Come on now, ALT-F! The Commonwealth is the most enlightened part of the Third World, and they managed to run India using three men and a bicycle! They brought efficiency and education where they went, and they understood the white man's burden.
ReplyDeleteAll the US have done is mangle a perfectly good language.
You're right about the Third World, especially those Antipodean members; they reek of eucalyptus and Fosters.
ReplyDeleteThe USA now has the moral duty and obligation to help these poor new-caught, sullen drunks, half devil and half child better themselves whether these Aussies want the help or not.
You're right about the language issues as well.
But it was two bicycles and ten Sepoys
hahahahahahahahahhahahahahhahahah
ReplyDeleteNo-one down south drinks Fosters. What are you thinking? They don't need the help either. Look at their coinage - the Royal Family gives them all the betterment they could need.
ReplyDeleteHave I convinced you then? That the British Empire would have been a much better influence than the US?
sup jack
ReplyDeleteI didn't say they drank it - they bathe in it.
ReplyDeleteThe Roo rooting Reffos.
With the Brits we'd all be drinking Pimm's No 1 Cup instead of Sex On The Beach and Slippery Nipples!
Fuck that!
lololol lmao rofl
ReplyDeleteI'll just leave this here...
ReplyDeleteFosters is the piss of drunken Aussies, sold on to the rest of the world at remarkable profit. Your ignorance concerning alcoholic beverages leads me to believe you do not drink at all. Are the lack of alcohol dehydrogenases a factor?
ReplyDeleteAnd could you imagine an East L.A. Chav?
ReplyDeleteAnd Jamie Oliver, the one with the cetacean tongue, as Viceroy?
We of the Asian persuassion are indeed cheap dates. Alcohol interferes with my karaoke habit, so I usually eschew it.
You've got it all backwards. If the Empire still existed, there would be no chavs and no Mockney chefs. It would be bowler hats and monocles and little old ladies cycling to church. Everyone would talk about Rudyard Kipling, with the wit of George Bernard Shaw and the charm of Roger Moore.
ReplyDeleteKaraoke would be banned, and you would be grateful for it.
We had a discussion about the comic... then ALTF came and started samefagging.
ReplyDelete1:59, 2:21, 2:30, 2:36 = samefag
ReplyDelete4:01, 12:10 = samefag
ReplyDeleteBefore ALT-F's first post, the thread was so dull that it caused mental and physical illness. Then ALT-F returned, and everything is interesting again. She is this blog's savior.
ReplyDeleteAnd little match-girls like me selling themselves at tuppence a go and singing "You've Got to Pick a Pocket or Two" and "Who Will Buy".
ReplyDeleteBowler hats? Meh! Reverse 'Prole Drift' they be!
G.B. Shaw and Oscar Wilde would be banned! With the Revolted Colonies not having revolted there would not have been any reason to keep the Irish and their culture alive.
You're right about the karaoke though.
Anonymous @ 2:30 PM,
Is 'samefagging' good or bad?
oh god i'm laughing so hard i can't breathe
ReplyDeleteDepends on whether or not the fag is an interesting poster to begin with.
ReplyDeletealso have any of you noticed that like half of the blog posts are samefags?
ReplyDeleteAnd could you imagine the "Pip! Pip! Stiff Upper Lip" Shit?
ReplyDeleteDon't know about Raven and any Anonymous females here 'bouts, but I'm sure it would abrade my pubis.
Though I imagine felatio would be greatly improved.
Assuming that is how you spell it.
ReplyDeleteRob said:
ReplyDelete"....half of the blog posts are samefags...."
Nyuck!
You've got it all wrong again, ALT-F! The British Empire was all about subsuming the worthwhile aspects of lesser cultures, and removing all the useless crap.
ReplyDeleteA bit of stoicism would be a good thing too. No-one in Britain sues the knife company when they try to use one to wipe their arse, as the Yanks are likely to do.
YES, I DID MEAN WHEN THEY USE A KNIFE COMPANY TO WIPE THEIR ARSE
ReplyDeleteUnless it was a J.A. Henckels. You know how the Brits are with the Krauts. Or worse, a Laguiole French Knife - the Frogs are detested more so.
ReplyDeleteIf you meant the Knife Company then the above dross is even less humourous.
Cunt!
That's it, you're coming with me.
ReplyDeleteI's off until Friday, May 6.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy your dreams of a Dickensian America that luckily never was!
I'm reading HG Wells tonight. It's the first step in making my dream a reality...
ReplyDeleteSo, when did the comment thread start using LSD?
ReplyDeleteI forgot what I had to say about the comment. Also, I can taste sounds.
LSD Synesthesia?
ReplyDeleteGreen Toad Blotter or Window Pane?
@ Anonymous 3:33 PM,
So you're going to marry your cousin and then subsequently leave her for an underage student?
Noxious sugar-water being compared to Pimm's No. 1?! *Goes and barfs privately to himself*
ReplyDeleteExactly ALT-F! I want to live the dream!
ReplyDeleteAlso I want to make a time machine. A British time machine.
@anon@3:58 (2nd post): I'm halfway surprised no one has corrected you yet (or, if they have, searching for '58' or 'prove' failed to turn it up), but the null hypothesis is NEVER proven. You either disprove it or do nothing. End of story.
ReplyDeleteDude Rob, don't update til ALTF leaves. I fucking hate this site every since she started posted frequently.
ReplyDeleteno u
ReplyDeleteRob is pretty much in bed with ALTF.
ReplyDeleteTHESE COMMENTS ARE A PLACE TO SUMMON DEMONS
ReplyDeletethat is why aquarians love to fuck is good to have around
She's a fatass samefagging whore
ReplyDeleteGTFO Oriental hambeast! Go back to china where you can chink while you chong
Wow, Randall is certainly going to extraordinary lengths to drive people away from this blog. Imagine if he put all that energy into improving his comic.
ReplyDeleteThese comics were both horrible. I think I need remove xkcd from my life entirely. I need to break the habit of checking it three times a week. Not thinking about it all will serve me well. I hope I can do it.
ReplyDeleteI tried that, and you know what? Jackasses everywhere will think the latest XKCD comic is the best thing to ever to get shit out of Randall's ass, and lay in a steaming pile on their bare chest, as they suckle Randy's dick; Desperately longing for his love juice.
ReplyDeletehttp://v.cdn.cad-comic.com/comics/cad-20110504-b6625.png THE FIRE ESCAPE HAS NO LADDER
ReplyDeleteI wish I could continue being proud of the greatest chess player in the world being a human just like me.
ReplyDeleteRandy has children?
ReplyDeleteMay God help them if they do, indeed, exist.
am sick of xkcd now, i find idiotic and childish stuff more entertaining then randy's crap now checking www.fullbc.in
ReplyDeleteWait, does randall actually have kids? mind = blown
ReplyDeleteI also love how incredibly vague the latest comic is. It doesn't refer to anything even remotely specific. "The world's best humans".
THE WORLD'S BEST, YOU GUYS.
not only does he have kids, he beats them
ReplyDeleteRandall does not have children. I am almost certain of this.
ReplyDeleteMaybe PirateKing the computer was taught to beat them at Pokemon.
Has anyone noticed the first reply to forum threads is usually just a few words?
ReplyDelete"I see a trend."
Yes, someone is clearly excited about having the honor of being the first person to have commented on an xkcd comic thread, despite having nothing to say!
Moving on now, not many people discussed the comic. A few people disputed with the math and the definition of 'world'. One guy gave this priceless reply:
"GOOMH Randall, I wrote a paper on the moon in 2nd grade!!!1!1!!!
This comic ought to shut the haters up; it shows the real intellectual content and depth of Randall Munroe."
Then someone said this, and was actually being serious:
"Anyways, this comic is certainly a get out of my head moment. Here are two paragraphs that I wrote a few years ago on the topic, when I was thinking about space travel:
[...]
The two paragraphs are unrelated to each other, but I think they show why today's comic (and especially alt text) resonate so deeply with me at least :)"
Some people found the comic depressing, in some cases "sadder than the cancer ones?" Now that's interesting. Randall never made a comic explicitly about cancer.
The discussion was interesting and worth reading. But it wasn't about the comic. If you want a thought-provoking discussion about space exploration, there are four pages of it here.
It's inevitable when Randall brings up an interesting subject matter, but fails to discuss it in any depth, the forum thread will fill that void.
Lastly, I have noticed (on page 3 especially) that the regular posters are not saying much. Most of the discussion comes from people with no avatars and less than 100 posts. This is probably a good thing.
No, it's a bad thing. I can understand somebody being an old-time xkcd fan, still hanging around despite the comics not being as good. But the fact that xkcd actually gets new fans is frightening. I just cannot imagine somebody seeing these recent comics and getting the urge to register on xkcd fora to voice their opinion on the subject.
ReplyDeleteI like how people go on and on about the numerous flaws they see in a successful webcomic despite the fact that none of them get read or implemented by it's author.
ReplyDeleteit's = it is, you dumb shit
ReplyDeleteI, for one, do not want Randall reading or implementing me, ever. I would like him to do nothing of the sort.
ReplyDeleteThe latest comic is probably about that IBM computer on Jeopardy a few months ago. For Randy, that's surprisingly current.
ReplyDeleteCaptcha: epicat
In this comic, replace female's speech with, "Stop trying to distract me with vacuous remarks while you masturbate."
ReplyDeleteUnless Randall's time at NASA was spent building an input device which requires the left hand to be on the nipple and the right to rest itself on the crotch.
Hahaha. Crotch.
ReplyDeleteD'you mean like this?
ReplyDeleteAnon 12:57, are you saying I'm a computer?
ReplyDeleteBecause I take offense to that.
@Jon-Levi: The first one was me. I troll a lot. Notice that my my Google name seems to be backwards (for bot-detterrent reasons).
ReplyDeleteCaptcha: "bread". They're not even trying anymore at the captcha-writing place, are they? (don't worry, I know how captchas actually work; it would be cool if it worked like fortune cookies though)
Really, though, you should read the reply to it. Now that was priceless:
ReplyDelete"Haters are like birthers[1]. Nothing shuts them up.
[1] But on average more articulate."
@Leahcim
ReplyDeleteI don't know why I didn't point that out[1] but yeah what a tool.
[1] Because really, who the heck inserts numbered[2] footnotes into forum posts?
[2] And why number them when[3] there is just one?
[3] Wait, I've just had an idea. What if I made an Inception reference[4] by nesting four numbered footnotes?
[4] "We need to go deeper."
hehehe thanks Jon Levi & Anonymous. that was a good one.
ReplyDeleteit's like if xkcd was written by a feminist with at least some talent
The crowning glory of the P&tB series was Pinky winning the U.S. Presidency on a "Family Circus isn't funny anymore" platform, and his downfall courtesy of a smear campaign engineered by an outraged Bill Keane.
ReplyDeletenot to insult any of your intelligences, but you'll understand that XKCD was made to be a witty comic rather than a funny one, it was never meant for any of the types of humour you bunch seem to be familiar with and it wasn't made to entertain you, but rather Randy and a select group of people with a similar viewpoint.
ReplyDeleteinternet. sense... see? I can't even put them together in a sentence conciously!
7:51: xkcd also fails to be witty, on all fronts and at all times, and fails to entertain even those who fall into the target audience.
ReplyDeletebut that's a pretty severe deficiency. you should see a neurologist