[Comic title: Subliminal; alt text: Once you see it, you can't help seeing it every time. Until your body finishes metabolizing the mushrooms.]
Randy would like you all to know that he tried mushrooms for the first time the other day, and it was a very strange experience. He saw all these things he doesn't know how to describe! It was very odd, because Randy is a genius with the written word and artistic expression both. He tried very hard to make a comic that was very funny and that encapsulated the "gist" of his experience, but, well, no one is perfect. Instead he drew a Dalek with two big round holes in it, and a guy catching a baseball, and a guy wearing a Guy Fawkes mask (who is apparently Guy Fawkes himself--it is a little known fact that the Guy Fawkes mask actually originates from the mask that Mr. Fawkes wore when he tried to blow up parliament) who apparently has had two great slashes carved from his skull. The result, if you squint, could read 'FedEx.' To make sure you got the joke, he even used the same colors.
Being on mushrooms, Randy decided, was basically the same thing as lolrandom humor. But how would people know that he had done mushrooms, since he did a lot of lolrandom humor BEFORE he became a more enlightened human being???
Oh wait, he can just tell you, several times, that this is a joke about drugs (lol!!!!) because there is nothing like unnecessary text to beat you over the head with a point.
first
ReplyDeletei fucking rule
OMG XKCD came early! It's our lucky day! oh wait it sucks
ReplyDeleteI think it's worth mentioning that the top of the assault dalek is somehow sticking out of the top of the logo / panel.
ReplyDeleteI also think it's worth mentioning that Rob is a fat piece of shit who fucks goats.
Oh for the love of garden gnome cock. Seeing the (outlined in dark blue) arrow? I'm VERY willing to buy the mushroom story and maybe a snort of coke on top of it. Wow.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the real comic is in the negative space of this throwaway one. Hah? Never thought of that, did you, haters?
The Steve Jobs one is well above average in nearly all respects, btw.
ReplyDeleteRandy makes a shitty gif file and you're all immediately on his cock. Pathetic.
ReplyDeleteRob, learn to href -- your lack of correct href is disrespecting Randy's shrine to Steve >=[
ReplyDeletewhat
ReplyDeletepffft, way to Randallize the problem Robdall.
ReplyDeleteCaptcha: scrue. Scrue you.
no
ReplyDeletescrue you
also that's not what Randallize means
ReplyDeleteffs, you just Randallized this whole fucking page with that shitty comment.
ReplyDeletei mean goddammit.
ruin my day.
still not what randallized means
ReplyDelete11:40 - 960 was good. It reminded my neuroatypical brain of Guy Fawkes which is 4chan. 4chan is a thing I enjoy so I enjoy this. "I HERD U LIKE REFERENCES SO I PUT A REFERENCE IN MY COMIC" -Randall, 2011
ReplyDeleteArigatou Randall. I appreciate.
I will have to deduct a point of merit however for having color. I am not a child. I am not a child. I am not a child. I will make a list of how I am not a child:
1) I am taller than a child
2) Children go to school. I do not go to school
Q.E.D I am not a child. Randall is ignorant and so is his cancerwife.
Back to argument SAMEFAGS. (I THINK I JUST CUT MYSELF!)
You make great points Jim. Great points.
ReplyDeleteJim I also enjoy memes. Your opinion is good.
ReplyDeleteJim I am a female! and not repulsed by you
ReplyDelete@Jim Pants - Just because you're not a child, doesn't mean you can't enjoy the same things.
ReplyDeleteEternal Flame.
ReplyDeleteA historical moment in xkcd history. A animooted .gif.
Regards.
rob fucking randallised the meaning of the word randallised
ReplyDeletewhat a bitchy thing to do, typical
Hey everyone, you know that episode of South Park where they say Family Guy jokes are made up of some manatee randomly selecting balls? I think this joke was kind of like that.
ReplyDeleteSilly pleb, Randall wouldn't use some lame old meatspace manatees, he'd use some overly elaborate code (that his fans put together) to randomly generate gags, because he's a scientist.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if you're aware of this, Rob, but the discovery of the arrow in the FedEx logo is somewhat of a meme. The gist of it is to point out to idiots with no observational ability the existence of the arrow and mock them for their failure to notice it. I think this comic is meant to exaggerate that, where The Girl fails to notice an image hidden in the FedEx logo even more conspicuous than the arrow, but (the funny part!) ridicules The Boy for not seeing the arrow anyway. The drugs thing, it seems to me, was just the way Randall decided to make The Girl do it.
ReplyDeleteI don't know about the alt-text, though. I think Randall was just taking the drugs thing and running with it.
>implying Randall has ever taken drugs
ReplyDelete>implying drug culture, trips, etc are not an extremely widely known facet of the media by now
>implying Randall would ever admit it had he took drugs
Rob, your point falls very flat. It's much more likely that Randall decided to make a WACKY and SUPERQUIRKY comic and pack it full of REFERENCEZ. Drugs don't tie in to this in the slightest.
This FedEx comic is a complete piece of shit. Is amazing how ANY joke Randall makes becomes absurdly worse when he mentions drugs.
ReplyDeleteThe Eternal Flame comic is great.
FFS Rob, stop Robizing this blog.
ReplyDelete">implying Randall has ever taken drugs
ReplyDelete>implying drug culture, trips, etc are not an extremely widely known facet of the media by now
>implying Randall would ever admit it had he took drugs
Rob, your point falls very flat. It's much more likely that Randall decided to make a WACKY and SUPERQUIRKY comic and pack it full of REFERENCEZ. Drugs don't tie in to this in the slightest. "
Where I'm from it's pretty common for geeky types to do drugs, at least while they're still in their 20s. I don't know where this "geeks don't do drugs" idea comes from.
Added to the above: it's usually the liberal, geeky types who pride themselves on being liberal, geeky types, whose parents paid their way through college and who hypocritically live in a culture of conspicuous consumption and spend half their time bitching about first-world upper middle class problems like facebook not having gender-neutral pronouns while believing themselves to be superior to less enlightened people. So Randall kind of fits that to a tee.
ReplyDeleteThere are different kinds of geeks. Some kinds might try drugs, some kinds don't.
ReplyDeleteThe stereotypical WoW playing parent's basement dwelling geek doesn't do anything besides caffeine (maybe alcohol too, but doing any other drugs would require them actually having the social connections to acquire said drugs).
Of course Randall isn't the WoW playing kind of geek, but he reminds me of the a certain group of geeks in college who lived in the substance free dorms. Doctor Unisex sees him differently, fair enough I guess.
Randall's previous substance related strips haven't exactly made him seem like he has much direct experience though. 790's reaction to LSD ("oh god, spiders") might have struck me as plausible before I'd tried any psychedelics, but now it comes across as coming from somebody who's never done acid. In 617, while Randall grudgingly acknowledges SCIENCE in the alt text, he seems to think tequila has magic super-drunkenness properties (probably because he believes there is a mescaline containing worm in the bottom of the bottle). I don't think he drinks very often either.
Isn't it not so much 'drugs are cool' as 'needing medication because you have a mental illness is cool'? Because insane = crazy = wacky = awesome.
ReplyDeletealso quirky
ReplyDeletedon't forget the quirkiness
Yeah, to me Randall always came across as the kind of person who thinks that doing drugs makes you WACKY and SO RANDOM but never actually does drugs himself and wouldn't really like hanging out with people who do.
ReplyDeleteThis comic made me shit my brain. New theory: jobs was escaping a world with XKCD in it. Too soon?
ReplyDeleteSemicolons, no, you're late
ReplyDeletefake R., you're getting far too good at this
ReplyDeletego and do something else
Obvious faggot is obvious.
ReplyDeleteso ... is he going to post a comic today or what? i mean, i'd be cool if xkcd never updated again, but i'm kind of wondering. did steve jobs's death send him into such a panicked state that he can no longer draw stick figures for two minutes every other day?
ReplyDeleteHey everyone, you know that episode of South Park where they say Family Guy jokes are made up of some manatee randomly selecting balls? I think this joke was kind of like that.
ReplyDeleteThat makes two of us.
961 was okay? I dunno. At least we know it won't be on a shirt
ReplyDelete(jinxing it)
Anonymous, give the dude a break. He must have spent a very long time on that comic. It has gray and a few frames of animation. This touching tribute is worthy of an entire WEEK of comics.
ReplyDelete@anon 139:
ReplyDeleteI suggested I'd be putting up a fourth comic tonight, but I was up until about 8 this morning drawing the Steve Jobs comic (and, before that, getting a bunch of new t-shirt designs done, which I'm really excited about). What with the pigeon debacle and a bunch of doctor visits today (nothing bad), I think I'm too sleep-deprived to do anything but argue about dinosaur taxonomy on the internet. Accordingly, I'm just going to call #961 an early Friday comic, and start fresh after I get some sleep.
-Randall Munroe
GIVE HIM A BREAK, OKAY? HE HAS VERY GOOD REASONS CANT YOU SEE.
Pigeons, taxonomy, and whoring t-shirts
ReplyDeleteJust another day in the difficult and exhausting life of a very hard worker
"
ReplyDeleteWhere I'm from it's pretty common for geeky types to do drugs, at least while they're still in their 20s. I don't know where this "geeks don't do drugs" idea comes from. "
especially geeks who are either MIT kids or wish they were MIT kids. it's like hacking for your brain!!!!!!!
As an MIT kid, I can say that drug use is moderately common at MIT, but, in my experience, those who use drugs aren't so idiotic about their motivations. Granted, I don't have a very broad social circle, so maybe I haven't stumbled upon the douchebag clique yet.
ReplyDeletelots of them aren't so idiotic about it, true. but there's a couple who don't seem interested in the recreational aspects so much as they seem to basically think that it's a neat brain-hack. these are the sorts of people who use the word "hack" to refer to any clever trick, and who think that being a "hacker" makes you automatically good at everything.
ReplyDeleteoh, for some reason i thought the eternal flame one was the normal wednesday comic and he hadn't made one since. didn't get that it was supposed to be dedicated to steve jobs or whatever ... i actually thought it was put up before the news of his death.
ReplyDeleteSince I don't use drugs or have much interest in computer science (some students of which seem to throw the word "hack" around a lot), I suppose I don't have much chance to speak to people who might behave as you say. Honestly, though, I wouldn't really be surprised by the existence of a silly little subculture like that; I'm only a Freshman.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if it's a subculture, but I met a handful of people like that when I was in the area. The thing about colleges is there's all sorts of weird subcultures and echo chambers running around. Try not to get caught up in them and you'll come out all right.
ReplyDeleteor get caught up in them if you feel like it. what you do in college doesn't matter anyway.
ReplyDeleteGamer_2k4, you are a manatee playing with his balls.
ReplyDeleteI second Anon6:36. College is a waste of time and money. And I say that as a good mathematics graduate, not a [insert whatever discipline we're supposed to deride] major.
ReplyDeletemany people go into college acceptable and come out insufferable because of echo chambers. probably they mellow out later on but still, best to stay clear.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't deriding any discipline. I mentioned computer science students only because the few I've interacted with said "hack" a bizarrely large number of times.
ReplyDeleteAlso, financial aid means I go to MIT for a relatively minuscule amount of money. In fact, almost of all of these sorts of schools seem to have pretty severe FA packages. Harvard charges you nothing (I think) if your income is less than $60,000 per year, and it charges 10% of the tuition if your income is $60,000 - $180,000 per year.
You may now reveal the vast, slowly corrosive taxation scheme that ends up draining away all applicants' money.
ReplyDeleteBut, er, yeah. I'll try to be wary.
ReplyDeleteObservation: In every even moderately geeky forum on the Internet there are at least two people who currently go to MIT: one who casually namedrops it and the second to make a "me too" remark and try to engage in conversation about MIT.
ReplyDeleteConclusion: there are hundreds of thousands of people currently at MIT.
Rob, by 'echo chamber' do you mean an overly agreeable person? That's what Urban Dictionary tells me it means, but I'm having trouble figuring it out from the context.
ReplyDeleteA group of mutual backslappers, buoying their self opinion by agreeing with one another.
ReplyDeleteA better term would be "circlejerk", don't know why Rob didn't go for that one.
ReplyDeleteRob was trying to class things up.
ReplyDelete...
yeah, don't know why Rob didn't go for that one.
he means a bunch of goomers
ReplyDeleteObvious faggot is still obvious.
ReplyDeletecops don't shoot cars they shoot niggars cops don't shoot cars they shoot niggars cops don't shoot cars they shoot niggars cops don't shoot cars they shoot niggars cops don't shoot cars they shoot niggars cops don't shoot cars they shoot niggars cops don't shoot cars they shoot niggars cops don't shoot cars they shoot niggars cops don't shoot cars they shoot niggars cops don't shoot cars they shoot niggars cops don't shoot cars they shoot niggars cops don't shoot cars they shoot niggars cops don't shoot cars they shoot niggars cops don't shoot cars they shoot niggars cops don't shoot cars they shoot niggars cops don't shoot cars they shoot niggars cops don't shoot cars they shoot niggars cops don't shoot cars they shoot niggars cops don't shoot cars they shoot niggars cops don't shoot cars they shoot niggars cops don't shoot cars they shoot niggars cops don't shoot cars they shoot niggars cops don't shoot cars they shoot niggars cops don't shoot cars they shoot niggars cops don't shoot cars they shoot niggars cops don't shoot cars they shoot niggars cops don't shoot cars they shoot niggars cops don't shoot cars they shoot niggars
ReplyDeleteGuys, I've just done XKCD FORUMS BINGO for the first time in like a month. There were two actual bingos. You should come and see it, and also flame me on the comment thread.
ReplyDeletecirclejerk chamber
ReplyDeleteReligion is proven right.
ReplyDeleteEither there is a special place in hell reserved for Munroe and his sycophants, or we are already in hell.
ROFL@ 7:41 And I say that as a devout Christian.
ReplyDeleteEveryone who posts here is going to Hell. Rob is actually Satan, tempting unwary fools into blighting their souls. You can stay anon for now, but all our faces will be exposed in the flame pits.
ReplyDeleteit's like living in a Chick Tract
ReplyDeleteexcept the pictures are a lot worse. =\
ReplyDeletei always preferred the term "echo chamber" for the collegiate cultural phenomenon. it encapsulates the fact that everything that happens within it gets amplified, so people who are only mildly annoying by nature become incredibly annoying because everything they do gets reinforced tenfold
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of "You either need to get out more, or less." and "His mind is not a normal place" or whatever. Randy needs megan around to affirm his belief that he is quirky and inexplicable to other people.
ReplyDeleteHow about "echo circlejerk"
ReplyDeleteI prefer 'echo-jerk chamber'.
ReplyDeleteJerk-O-Chamber
ReplyDeleteI propose the verb 'to echamberk - to participate in a circle jerk in an echo chamber'.
ReplyDeleteFor added pretentiousness the first two syllables, and only the first two syllables, should be pronounced Frenchly.
Also, excessive echamberking leads to Assanging.
ReplyDeleteEchamburgerking.
ReplyDeleteI have a foot fetish. I wonder what Megan's toes taste like. Let's talk about Megan's feet.
ReplyDelete\
ReplyDelete\
\
\
\
^Megan's foot
Do you think Megan's feet are more impressive than Randall's inch?
ReplyDeleteOne, two, three, four
ReplyDeleteMind your business
Mind your business
Mind your never-shut, Quonset hut business
My craft is exploding
It's like I'm making cloisonné
Choking on my dust
With my three blind cats
You have a friend in law enforcement
Don't go calling law enforcement
Business
Mind your business
Got too busy explaining
Now it's just raining pain
Pain in the form of a rain drop
Yes, a rain drop made of pain
Tell 'em the story, rain drop
"I don't want to tell 'em, mister!"
Tell 'em the story, rain drop
"I don't want to tell 'em!"
Keep your voice down
Keep your voice down
Keep your window-shaking, godforsaken voice down
I'm sick of this beeswax
I'm sick of these second-story Sleestaks
Breathing on my dice
Giving me back rubs
When I'm deep in concentration
You start getting all conversatin'
Sleestak
What's a Sleestak?
That's your heart attack
Towel rack
Fallback
You got no doctors
All your doctors have gone home
What's a Sleestak?
What's a Sleestak?
You have a friend in law enforcement
Don't go calling law enforcement
Cloisonné
From my twitter timeline the day after Jobs' death(or the day after that, whenever that relevant comic came):
ReplyDelete"xkcd, another genius fighting against cancer"
...I just thought you should know. I'm gonna be in the corner if you need me. :|
How'd the arrow in the real Fedex logo become a meme? It's OUTLINED IN DARK BLUE. It's scarcely hidden in any way. If you cannot see the arrow that's not FedEx being clever, that's their graphics money being wasted.
ReplyDeleteActually, looking over their logos, sometimes they do just let it be defined by negative space, sometimes they fill it in in grey, and sometimes they heavily outline it in dark blue. That said, I do think you almost have to do drugs to not see even the no-hints version.
ReplyDeletewhen do they ever outline it in dark blue, i have never seen it like that ever. i mean it shows up like that on gis but that's just people outlining it for other people who didn't see it
ReplyDeleteSame with the shaded in grey. I assume Marion saw these and is slightly retarded.
ReplyDelete962 is dumb but I can't get angry about it. What has happened to me?
ReplyDelete962: Randall once again thinks he has thought of something clever and uses it as a vehicle to prove that brevity is the soul of wit.
ReplyDeleteYeah, but what does Rob know about incontinence?
ReplyDelete"xkcd, another genius fighting against cancer"
ReplyDeleteAlmost everything about that sentence is wrong. I just hope you did the right thing, Mole.
I read 962, and then came straight here.
ReplyDeleteIn the half a minute I spent reading a few comments, I have completely forgotten what the comic was about.
Alt text explaining the joke even more thoroughly than normal
ReplyDeleteNOBODY POST
ReplyDeleteOKAY
ReplyDeleteFOR THE SERVICE OF MANKIND
ReplyDeleteim gay
ReplyDeleteI actually liked 962.
ReplyDeleteCALL ME A FAG NOW THEN BITCHES.
fag
ReplyDeleteanon403's a bitch.
ReplyDeleteCaptcha: ovistio. Spell taught at Hogwartz; fertilizes eggs.
GET OUT THERE AND ENJOY LIFE, EVERYONE!!! *writes a shitty webcomic for a living*
ReplyDeleteI'm glad Carl's gone. Fucking leftard. Rob's more intelligent.
ReplyDelete8:59, "rightard" is funny because it sounds like "retard". "Leftard" is just the sort of meaningless babble I'd expect from a rightard. And a retard. But I repeat myself.
ReplyDelete11:02
ReplyDeleteNeither one is actually "funny." Arguing over which expression has more comedic value is the sort of meaningless activity I'd expect a leftard to partake in.
Rob is a lazy piece of shit.
ReplyDeleteAt least he's not a leftard.
ReplyDeletethat's offensive to realtards you bigotfag
ReplyDeletefagtards
That's what she, it's just the sort of third rate wordplay I'd expect to appeal to someone who calls himself "That's what she".
ReplyDeleterightard: Capitalism has the world fucked. The problem is not enough capitalism and the solution is more capitalism.
ReplyDeleteAmirite?
What do you propose instead of capitalism, eh?
ReplyDeleteCommunism, obviously -- the Soviets didn't become a dominant economic force for no reason at all in the 40s! It was communism.
ReplyDeleteCommunism rules guys. Imagine a world where you own NOTHING.
ReplyDeleteEh?
Ehhh?!?
The Soviets achieved in 20 years what took America 200 years. Then Khrushchev appeared and the Union's philosophy turned from "be as good as you can" to "watch and copy". Like HP under zombie Carly Fiorina, they were doomed.
ReplyDeleteAnd blaming the famine on Stalin was one of the West's best propaganda wins.
Communism rules out private ownership of the means of production, not personal property, 3:06.
ReplyDeleteBut as the son of a tax collector, I'll be happy to address the extent to which you own anything.
3:09, do you realize that they were able to achieve it because it had already been done? Revolutionizing a country from nothing to a superpower had already been accomplished. America made technology to make the first advances into a superior world when all the Soviet Union had to do was stop what they were previously doing and start modernizing.
ReplyDeleteIt's like two men building a house, but one figures out the concepts of power tools while he goes and it takes him 10 years to do so. Another man glances over and takes a power tool, completing the rest of the house in a matter of weeks. Yes, he "advanced" faster, but not in an innovative way.
Capitalists are greedy, sociopathic, self-centred cunts.
ReplyDeleteCommunists are bitter, angry, self-righteous cunts.
Centrists are lazy, pompous, self-doubting cunts.
Anarchists are deluded, irritating, self-important cunts.
Everyone else is a fucking cunt.
CONCLUSION: I miss ALT-F.
3:15, in your post you wrote "America" when you meant to write "Europe".
ReplyDeleteI'll make it easier for you.
It took 200 years for the US to copy Europe under a more primitive social structure.
It took 20 years for Russia to catch up to Europe and start upon a world-leading space programme.
Kittenzomg you appear to have listed routes for communists and outcomes for all the rest. We can conclude that you are actually a communist.
ReplyDelete3:34 I forgot how it took 200 to catch up and then become independent. Oh wait, we caught up much prior and soon after became independent. Then the concept of surpassing comes to mind.
ReplyDeleteAMERICA IS #1
ReplyDeletealso communism is BABY KILLING FASCISM
Dear posters
ReplyDeletethe pseudo term "Randalizing" has come up several times during the short duration that i have been viewing this blog and i cant help but think that by the definition that i can come up with (referencing an XKCD comic to enhance the seeming intellect of a website or article(correct me if I'm wrong)) is the creation of a blog that picks apart XKCD ( that i may remind you is a bi weekly comic that has run almost 1000 strips (I mean Fuck!)) in a way a form of randalizing to an almost extreem degree.
with love and affection
yo mama
Randallism refers specifically to the act of Wiki vandalism where you insert an xkcd reference that isn't actually relevant
ReplyDeleteMan what an awful thing for someone to do its like hes trying to destroy the credibility of wikipedia! this COMIC must be DESTROYED !!!!1
ReplyDelete