Thursday, December 29, 2011

Comic 997: Still Waiting On Those Tits

wait wait
[Comic title: Wait Wait; alt text: You can't stab Karl Kasell. He sounds all slow and stentorian, but he moves like a snake.]

Sometimes Randy makes comics that make me think he's just discovered those games you play where everyone makes jokes based on a certain snowclone, except he doesn't have any friends so he just makes a bunch of them himself and then uploads them as a comic. Now, I like those games. They can be quite entertaining and more importantly help to pass the time in a world where everything is tedium--a world where the closest thing I can feel to joy or happiness--indeed, the only thing I can feel at all--is smugness.

The thing is, those things are mostly only funny at the time. There might be one or two that are genuinely funny, but you need to set up the flow of the game first. Most people with good taste simply leave the conversation in the past and move on. But some people--the Randall Munroes of this world--decide that the world needs to hear all of these not-really-that-funny jokes that seemed great at the time, all for the sake of the one or two good ones. But this isn't building up to a punchline. It's setting up the necessary frame of mind so that the punchline is something that you have a distant hope of finding funny. And the best of them--"wait wait, don't speak its name," in my vaunted opinion--isn't really that great.

Does it seem to anyone else that Randy's doing a lot more shotgun humor lately?

150 comments:

  1. it's because his wife has cancer

    god, how can you be so heartless? the man is going through a very trying time in his life and we should not expect him to make funny comics, what do you think he is, a webcomic artist?

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is just so god-damned unfunny.

    I like how he throws in the meme reference and Lovecraft allusion, just to guarantee that this terrible "comic" is guaranteed strike a chord with at least certain groups of people who will kiss the feet of anyone who so much as acknowledges the existence of things they all like to pretend are more obscure and niche than they actually are.

    Also, why not "wait wait don't tase me, bro" or something along those lines. I don't understand why he didn't take similar phrases with a "don't ____ me" format and try to make some funny/ironic headlines out of those, as opposed to just picking out words at random and then trying to wring jokes out of the lame premises that resulted.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I've heard of Wait Wait! GOOMHR!

    ReplyDelete
  4. randall should consider changing the name of his comic to Wait Wait Don't Read Me or even Wait Wait Don't Laugh at Me, if he wants to go for the whole misunderstood nerd angle while still communicating the unfunniness of his site

    ReplyDelete
  5. i think one of my favorite "awful headline" comics is this F Chords
    bonus: it's actually from a couple days after the election

    today's xkcd i just went: "yeah, i get it. newspaper headlines will use 'wait wait don't ' if the host of 'wait wait don't tell me' does something. that's how newspapers go. gotcha."

    ReplyDelete
  6. why can't you guys just give him a break?, No one is forcing you to read his comics, and he's going through a rough time in his life.

    I'll admit this isn't the best of comics, but we can all just cut him some slack -- if a family member of yours suddenly had cancer, I'm sure your coworkers would be sympathetic and not be too harsh on you..

    so lets all just keep reading and wish him the best :), he'll get through this rough patch in his life, and he ca nget back to doing what he does best -- making smart, witty comics about math, language, and science!

    ReplyDelete
  7. 1/10, 1:47. The ":)" and "!" in the final paragraph cancelled out the extra mark I gave for the absurdist mention of "coworkers" in the second paragraph. The remaining final mark is for being able to type English while having less ego than ALTF or those two schoolboy linguists in the previous thread (but I repeat myself).

    ReplyDelete
  8. I think one Randall Munroe has had the last laugh on you haters. Tom Batiuk, artist and writer of long-running strip Funky Winkerbean, just announced that when he retires from the comic next year it will be kept going by a team of Randall and one of Batiuk's cleanup artists. Comic #996 was probably timely in convincing Mr. Batiuk to select the xkcd creator from dozens of writers who'd have jumped at the chance.

    Look for Munroe to recapture some of the geeky high school whimsy of the early Funky Winkerbean without short-changing the serious themes, such as the plight of wounded veterans, cancer, the plight of amputees, incest, cancer, alcoholism, the plight of the hearing impaired, cancer and cancer.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I don't understand this comic because I am not american & have never heard of this guy or his show. I barely know what npr is. i am fairly sure I wouldn't laugh at a, i dunno, series of headlines about I'm Sorry i Haven't a Clue on bbc radio 4. 'I'm sorry I haven't a Clue why i got Fired' 'I'm sorry I haven't a cryogenic [sic] time capsule' 'I'm sorry I haven't a plastic bag'. yeah. not funny.

    I posted something on the forum about having a problem with the infantilising of the Megan figure and sexualising of medical treatment in the last comic and a couple of them got angry and one of them asked 'what exactly is your problem with sex anyway?' which I thought was pretty funny. and sadly perceptive. they might not think it's so funny next time a doctor gets caught molesting patients. 'but she wanted it, m'lud.' damn it, I should've said that to them. fucking esprit d'escalier. No that's not a translation test either.

    ReplyDelete
  10. did Randall actually say that someone in his life had cancer, or is this all speculation in the same vein as the megan/breastmilk business because he keeps making cancer comics?

    ReplyDelete
  11. he did; there is a link at the top of the page on the doctor comic.

    ReplyDelete
  12. To be honest, weaselsoup, half the games on I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue achieve about the same level of funny as this strip.

    Anyone hitherto avoiding unnecessary familiarity with this septic isle could do worse than search for the Fry model of bargain-basement Wilde mimickry. He is what every BBC attempt to combine culture and comedy looks like today.

    ReplyDelete
  13. it is a sad state of affairs, yes

    ReplyDelete
  14. This latest comic was actually a chore to read. All that work, and zero payoff.

    ReplyDelete
  15. HOW DARE YOU CRITICISE RADIO 4!!

    ReplyDelete
  16. yeah you're just not radio 4's audience why are you even listening to it if you hate it so much

    ReplyDelete
  17. Summary of nearly all XKCD sucks posts:
    Randy is smug.
    XKCD is not funny.

    I particularly like the smug accusation in this post since the comic has nothing at all to do with being smug.

    ReplyDelete
  18. This is literally just phrases that begin with the word "don't". Almost anything could exist after the phrase "Wait Wait, don't ____". I hate to be hyperbolic but this is about as lazy as comedy writing gets.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Queue sequence of, "I hate to be hyperbolic but..."

    Let me start: I hate to be hyperbolic but in criticising the kindergartens of both xkcd and xkcdsucks I'm planely intersecting both nappies.

    ReplyDelete
  20. 9:12, surely we have more than one nappy between us here? I don't like the thought of my shit mingling with ALTF's.

    ReplyDelete
  21. WHY ISNT THIS WEBOMIC ABSOLUTELY AMAZING ERRYTIME

    ReplyDelete
  22. I BEAT THIS STRAW MAN IT DOES NOT MAKE A SOUND WHY

    ReplyDelete
  23. WAIT WAIT... DON'T MILK ME!

    ReplyDelete
  24. I liked this one. I like Wait Wait Don't Tell Me and enjoyed seeing it in a comic strip. I liked it so much that I was hoping I could see some comments on it and found this site. I like this site too. It is funny. I like xkcd and enjoy seeing it written about in a blog.

    ReplyDelete
  25. WAIT WAIT...

    HAMMERTIME

    ReplyDelete
  26. @unfortunate name If you like xkcd and like seeing it written about in this blog then that means there's something wrong with you. Also visit the hyphen.

    ReplyDelete
  27. This steaming pile of crap would be tolerable if Randall had done it as a series of headlines for DIFFERENT PEOPLE instead of non-stop Karel Castle. It might even be funny.

    I.E.:
    We pity the fool: Mr T's house burns down
    Not winning: Charlie Sheen loses celebrity tennis match
    Hoping for change: Romney supports confident he can unseat Obama

    ReplyDelete
  28. Thanks Michael. xkcd-sucks hates your link. Maybe you could post it in the text and I can copy and paste it into my browser. My web search for "xkcd the hyphen" has not been fruitful.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Oh. I am an idiot. I just thought xkcdsucks-sucks was the same blog with a different template.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Oh, no, it's a different xkcd-sucks. But it's got a hyphen. The original creator left a while ago, but it's still full of valid criticism all the same.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Michael, your link failed because you didn't include http://

    ReplyDelete
  32. 997 is up for quite a while now, and no signs of wikipedia having been Randallized yet.
    Even the cuddlefish hate it. This is the beginning of the end, folks.
    captcha: liess. "liesssss," moan the cuddlefish in their despair.

    ReplyDelete
  33. @Jon Levi So I gathered. By the way: someone in the forums went, "I signed up just to post this gigantic tome that explains the joke." GOLD

    ReplyDelete
  34. "...we should not expect him to make funny comics..."

    Then he needs to quit for the duration of Megan's illness, and if she ups and dies on him, Randall Munroe needs to slowly drink himself to death. Nothing else will do.

    ReplyDelete
  35. LEAVE RANDALL ALONE!

    ReplyDelete
  36. here is something very lame indeed http://www.explainxkcd.com/

    ReplyDelete
  37. I miss xkcdexplained. I really, really do.

    ReplyDelete
  38. Out of curiosity, what does everyone think the last good xkcd comic was?

    ReplyDelete
  39. Congratulations, Randy. This was the first xkcd that was so boring and banal that I didn't even finish reading it.

    CAPTCHA: sobster - n. - a sobbing lobster

    ReplyDelete
  40. @ Anon 10:36

    Specifics differ, but most people agree it went to shit around 400-ish, with the best stuff before 300-350.

    ReplyDelete
  41. Cum bono anno MMXII, irrumatores

    ReplyDelete
  42. 7:09, the style was predictable: it became obvious what was going to be said and how it was going to be said. Mocking xkcd is righteous entertainment but there is no talent in doing so.

    10:36, 386 was the last good one. Same goes for Intel.

    1:02, cum bono te intro.

    ReplyDelete
  43. "This Mitchell and Webb Book" did the same joke, but with different people in each headline, and far better jokes.

    ReplyDelete
  44. I think of Mitchell, Webb, Armstrong and Miller as an annoying university comedy quartet, though the first two are actually sometimes funny.

    ReplyDelete
  45. Are there any clever black people? I don't mean in the patronising "he invented peanut butter" sense but people who are really smart and black.

    Same question for females in the area of entrepreneurialism. Not whorish "I sold rafia work online and now I have a chain of lingerie shops" or obeisant "I am a career civil servant spokespuppet", but of the likes of anyone from Hewlett and Packard to Dyson.

    ReplyDelete
  46. http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2478#comic
    What a miserable little comic. If you didn't see the punchline coming 5 panels away, just kill yourself.

    ReplyDelete
  47. ^Would've been passable if it wasn't for the last panel.

    ReplyDelete
  48. Wait, when did this become smbc-sucks?

    Although, yeah, I agree that the last panel (or even the last two or even last three panels) should have been left off. The only case in which you should actually show the outcome is when you're averting the expected (which used to be a pretty common smbc punchline, but I guess Zach felt he was relying on it too much.)

    ReplyDelete
  49. 10:36, the last one that elicited a smile from me is 921.

    ReplyDelete
  50. cptnoremac, despite the shitty formatting of that one I do kinda of still enjoy it. Thank you for giving me a reason to keep believing in Randall.

    ReplyDelete
  51. Believing in Randall is like holding a wet dog: It makes you stink, but at least the dog's happy.

    ReplyDelete
  52. Believing in Randall is like having cancer: it makes you die a little inside, as he milks your life force.

    ReplyDelete
  53. WAIT WAIT
    DON'T BELIEVE IN ME

    EMINENT SCIENCE-FAN URGES FOLLOWERS TO REQUIRE EXTRAORDINARY PROOF FOR EXTRAORDINARY CLAIMS

    ReplyDelete
  54. I am calling you out for the word 'snowclone', which you only know because of the Dinosaur Comic featuring it. Get some original language, asshole.

    ReplyDelete
  55. i dunno, I can believe that Rob reads Language Log.

    ReplyDelete
  56. there was a Dinosaur Comic featuring the word 'snowclone?' I think I just discovered it on Wikipedia one day when trying to google a specific snowclone.

    ReplyDelete
  57. Wikipedia is not a source of facts, Rob.

    captcha: regro. But dey like to be called Africar-Americar.

    ReplyDelete
  58. it's a great source of definitions

    ReplyDelete
  59. A definition is a fact about a language.

    ReplyDelete
  60. there are no facts, only interpretations

    ReplyDelete
  61. You interpret me wrongly; I interpret you wrong.

    captcha: elsichem: oh! but meganradi: oh!

    ReplyDelete
  62. LET'S CALL THE WHOLE THING OFF

    ReplyDelete
  63. http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=2653

    ReplyDelete
  64. I find the "wait wait don't clone me" one bitterly ironic.

    ReplyDelete
  65. A couple of decades ago people started creating Internet-based diaries, reports, periodicals, etc.

    Then a decade or so ago a new generation of netizens (go go Gadget '90s online vernacular) did the same but instead of using the traditional terms they called their works "blogs".

    After not too many weeks I came to understand that "blog" was actually an abbreviation for "amateurish". If it was badly written, badly referenced, badly argued, or merely existing for cheap entertainment, it was a "blog".

    If almost every regularly updated feature nowadays on the open Internet is called a blog, it is not because the meaning of "blog" has changed but because the quality of information on the Internet has changed.

    ReplyDelete
  66. way to fight the power, 4:52

    ReplyDelete
  67. Thanks, Rob.

    When I say this site is badly written, badly referenced, badly argued, and merely exists for cheap entertainment, you should take it as a compliment. And everyone who angrily criticises it for suffering any of these qualities is merely lactating the hatred which sustains the regulars.

    Not so for Randallised monstrosities like the Language Log.

    ReplyDelete
  68. excellent use of 'lactating' also

    ReplyDelete
  69. I imagine Randall walking around a neonatal unit saying that.

    ReplyDelete
  70. Is there any evidence Randall isn't just making up the whole cancerfiancee thing? Its following from his gently intimated lactophilia is the culmination of a tragedy rivalling Aristophanes.

    captcha: mazingr! WOULDN'T IT BE QUIRKY TO SAY THAT AFTER EVERY JOKE?

    ReplyDelete
  71. I pressed random on the xkcd search and was brought this. It made me laugh, before I even looked at the ocmic number.

    Huh.

    ReplyDelete
  72. Aristophanes wrote comedies

    ReplyDelete
  73. Aristophanes wrote comedies parodying tragedy.

    ReplyDelete
  74. Randall Munroe wrote tragedies

    ReplyDelete
  75. Randall Munroe wrote tragedies parodying comedy.

    ReplyDelete
  76. Tragedies wrote Randall Munroe.

    (The nipper can scantly draw; I do not imagine he can write.)

    ReplyDelete
  77. This is all getting quite intellactual. I offer herewith:

    RANDALL MUNROE? MOAR LIEK MANDALL BUMROE AMIRITE?

    ReplyDelete
  78. I just realized the C in XKCD stands for Cancer. Mind = Blown

    Btw I hope you fags have a fucking miserable 2012

    ReplyDelete
  79. New comic: stupid pictoblag stuff. It doesn't have a punchline or say anything worthwhile. I shall proceed to sue Randall for my 15 seconds reading my comic and the 45 seconds I spent complaining about it.

    ReplyDelete
  80. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

    It's 2012!!!

    Time for a fresh start for Munroe!

    AND!, what better way to get a nice fresh start than to have an EPIC, EPIC comic for number 1000!

    ... he's going to mess it up ... just watch...

    ReplyDelete
  81. @9:28

    How on earth is it pictoblag? It's two stick figures exchanging text.

    At best it's a couple of tweets.

    ReplyDelete
  82. A pictoblog? Is that like cavepainting for the Internet generation?

    ReplyDelete
  83. 8:32, xkcd = X-rays kill cancerous ducts.

    1000 will be a HAHA I TROL U post acknowleding that his past 600 strips and ancillary publications were unambiguously nonsense and he doesn't even have a girlfriend.

    This will be immediately followed by hordes of trolled fans pointing out how clever Randall was to have the whole world fooled.

    captcha: intalier: langua Intalier nan exciste mays an paut lo imaiginar, eh?

    ReplyDelete
  84. I think Randall's friends and family would prefer he talk about the Mayans, rather than his non-stop discussions about nipples.

    ReplyDelete
  85. If only Randall's friends existed, maybe he'd listen to them.

    captcha: viaugg, good taste in footwear is lost. viaxkcd, comedy etc.

    ReplyDelete
  86. Not true, his blow up doll of Megan is probably pretty tired it.

    8:17, you just blew my mind.

    I am unbearably excited for 1000. I bet it won't even be a comic. Although should we instead be anticipating 1001, since 404 is not actually a comic?

    ReplyDelete
  87. I'm not sure if this has been said already, but I thought I'd make an out-of-band comment. In 993, "Brand Identity," Randy posits that bland white boxes would stick out really well on store shelves. In Canada we already actually have this (a store brand called President's Choice) and while they stand out from other brands as Randy expects, they're a total pain because you have to squint at the boxes to differentiate between similar products (is this Lemon Chicken or Chicken Chow Mein?)

    As a result, pretty much everyone wishes they'd never switched over to the white boxes.

    ReplyDelete
  88. "I think Randall's friends and family would prefer he talk about the Mayans, rather than his non-stop discussions about nipples. "

    eventually he'll just start talking about mayan nipples

    ReplyDelete
  89. Samantha that has indeed been said a gorillion times, but since you have a registered blogger account you count for at least 50 Anonymice.

    ReplyDelete
  90. Also Samantha is awesome so that has to count for something too <3

    ReplyDelete
  91. white knighting on my xkcdsucks?

    ReplyDelete
  92. Is it white knighting if I'm not even pretending that I'm not just trying to get into her trousers*?

    *see, I'm a feminist

    ReplyDelete
  93. Oh, a lesbian feminist. HOW SURPRISING.

    ReplyDelete
  94. A lesbian feminist and a soulless Chinaman walk into a bar. The lesbian feminist asks, "What'll it be, me old china?"

    "You lacis?" responds the angry Chink.

    "Strap-on," contends the aroused lesbian.

    And then they had sex right there, much to the chagrin of the barman who had just polished his bar and wouldn't be able to do it again for hours.

    ReplyDelete
  95. I honestly read that as batman the first time.

    ReplyDelete
  96. Kitten, you're the best at provoking stupid anonymice with only a display-name <3

    ReplyDelete
  97. This comment section is full of e-crossdressers and the standard products of a religious upbringing.

    ReplyDelete
  98. Ravenzomg, you have a very adversarial interpretation of everything. Has this come up in therapy?

    ReplyDelete
  99. I had to reread the last line of dialogue a few times before I realized it doesn't say "Menage a 3.0".

    ReplyDelete
  100. It's amusing that Peter Sagal, who is balding, has more hair than almost all xkcd males.

    Captcha: cocur. Glad you agree, Captcha Generator.

    ReplyDelete
  101. oh wait that's probably irrelevant, i thought it said 364 instead of 354

    ReplyDelete
  102. Would you rather be a feminine, bottom gay who happens to be black, Hispanic, and paraplegic, or a woman?

    ReplyDelete
  103. I am a feminine, bottom gay who happens to be Hispanic. I also have horrible RSI, though I'd probably insult my bedbound but still headstreong MS-suffering father-in-law if I were to call myself paraplegic. My extended family has quite a few Afro-Caribbeans but none of my direct ancestors are negro.

    his dictis (ablative absolute for you linguist wannabes), at least I'm not a woman.

    ReplyDelete
  104. I know what the ablative absolute is, niggerdick (or rather, one who rides thereon).

    I translated Virgil Book IV lines 1-67 today, there were many such constructions in that space. So suck a dick or twelve and go back to Dominica.

    ReplyDelete
  105. Randall is late with 999 >.<

    maybe this is the beginning of the end!

    ... wishful thinking :(

    ReplyDelete
  106. New comic: Not totally terrible, but still quite bad. I just think I'm too tired to care, but what this comic really generated in me was absolute and utter boredom.

    ReplyDelete
  107. IT'S THE FINAL COUNTDOWN
    JUST 1 MORE LEFT

    ReplyDelete
  108. 7:26, "Virgil Book IV".

    Also, semicolon.

    You should have kept your hands off your keyboard and left some room for doubt.

    ReplyDelete
  109. 999 is very unrealistic. Any potential child of Randy would most likely be killed within a few months by tainted baby formula - Megan's lacteal supply having been depleted by the man himself - And thus would not have the chance to reach a stage of development where he or she may stand, let alone recognize many of the words that Randy uses.

    Oh, well. Next one is the big 'un. Prepare your hyperbole engines and lower the blast shields to protect against the inevitable self-congratulatory mess.

    ReplyDelete
  110. FWIW a recent study determined that for 60% of US women who choose to feed breast milk substitute a contributing factor was their partner's lactation fixation. I thought my foot fetish was nearly mainstream but perhaps I've been sidelined by the knock-on effect of xkcd's popularity :'(.

    ReplyDelete
  111. >implying anyone reads the georgics

    So you seriously believe ambiguity or doubt is introduced as to which book of Vergil's it is? are you that dumb, anon 3:27?

    ReplyDelete
  112. 999 wasn't that bad. Wasn't great though.

    ReplyDelete
  113. Reasons #1-57 are of course "Because I'm Randall Munroe".

    ReplyDelete
  114. 999 is great (in a pathetically ironic way). I LMFAOd at seeing Randall "I'm a scientist" Munroe admit that his "love of learning and sharing knowledge about the world" comes down to reading stupid trivia off Wikipedia.

    ReplyDelete
  115. Not that there's anything wrong with browsing random articles on Wikipedia; I do it a lot myself, but I don't try and dress it up as a deep intellectual pursuit. Learning and sharing knowledge can encompass just about anything, but at some point you have to draw a line between learning that's worthwhile and learning that's not. I can learn about the antics of a group of 20-something Italian-Americans on MTV. Is learning something about the details of Snooki's life more impotant than Thomas Paine's biography? Possibly; at least I'm more likely to find an opportunity to share my knowledge about Snooki with other people over the water cooler.

    ReplyDelete
  116. the Georgics are a/ great & b/ often studied, don't be a twat about this.

    ReplyDelete
  117. also comic 999 is cool, it has a/ wikipedia b/ 'I'm really clever' - ('my love of learning and sharing knowledge? fuck OFF) and c/ 'look at me, I'm such a kerrraaazy random person, no one should trust ME with kids, I'm too unconventional & young at heart' and d/ the underlying suggestion of 'look at me I have sex lots of sex sex sex sex' and e/ those fucking horrible wheelie chairs with a stick figure floating in the air above them

    in other words it has almost everything. number 1000 (or 1001 if he decides that is the special one) will be a chart about how often people google terms like cocksucking narrated by that fucker in the hat with a mouseover text begging the cast of Firefly to pay attention to it.

    ReplyDelete
  118. 4:54, nipping at the ankles does not become a neophyte classicist. You learn willingly then the wise man, seeing your potential, seduces you roughly from behind.

    ReplyDelete
  119. Please don't say "nipping"; you'll turn Randy on.

    Captcha: butfa

    ReplyDelete
  120. It is a good thing to see Randall admitting that he should never have children, though.

    ReplyDelete
  121. Somehow I'm worried that 1000 won't be the disappointment we all hope it to be. If it isn't, it would be so disappointing.

    ReplyDelete
  122. 5:02 = 5:03 = 5:05 = samefag

    ReplyDelete
  123. I think I'd no longer say xkcd sucks but rather that it cares for its readers. If the latest one had said "Reason #58 why I should never have children: Even if I could get a woman to stay with me long enough to raise children, I'd be deathly afraid they'd inherit my Asperger's and/or my obsessive-compulsive disorder. [alt text: and having one person occupy the bathroom 30 times a day just to wash his hands is enough.]"

    Instead of being amused or admiring his honesty and daring, we'd all just feel bad. So Randall's lightening up a sad world on this one.

    ReplyDelete
  124. Eugenics is just capitalism without the suffering that those born less able have to endure.

    ReplyDelete
  125. Capitalism requires a large supply of idiots to exploit, so would not support eugenics.

    ReplyDelete
  126. I predict xkcd1000 (or 1001, with a smug remark about 404 missing) will incorporate some form of thanks to his loyal audience combined with a quip on the general if-only-everyone-was-a-slave-to-the-love-of-science-the-world-would-be-great-(kinda-like-China-now-but-who's-watching)-but-it-isn't-so-everything-sucks res rerum.

    ReplyDelete
  127. Consciousness is necessarily a supernatural concept. Discuss.

    ReplyDelete
  128. also I think for comic 1000 someone should do a guide to xkcd forumites. there's several distinct types on there - the ones who think that mild criticism is blasphemy; the ones that go to a lot of effort to appear sneeringly sarcastic to those they disagree with, but aren't clever enough to pull it off; the mostly harmless sycophants; the dangerous sycophants (usually these are distinguished by having moving gifs as avatars, which is the worst thing in the world today); the 'look at me I'm so random and weird' goomhers; the intellectual snobs who think that the stuff they post is 'academic' and have quotes from other forumites praising them in their signatures...

    the goomher thing has been bothering me a lot recently. it's a similar thing to the morons portrayed in xkcd 807 - it's some idiot who thinks that something they think makes them special, and that therefore a shared thought - especially one shared with an idol - makes them extra special.

    It's the kind of person who says 'is it weird that I like hippos AND margarine?' They desperately want the reply 'yes, and it makes you cool and unusual and different'. They want people to think that they don't care about convention - hell they don't even know what's weird or not, that's how wacky and creative they are. If you say 'is it weird that I think...' WE KNOW YOU ALREADY THINK IT IS (even if it isn't even 'weird'. (whatever 'weird' is)) And at the same time they want to assert their difference and specialness and the superiority they think this implies -they like what they like *despite* boring bland society telling them it's strange. They're so misunderstood! And the fact they can't see how this looks to other people is the saddest thing of all.

    this is the xkcd audience. It's mostly a disease of young people, to be fair, and many of them will grow out of it and wince if reminded that they once posted 'omg, Randall is so creative and special, and is it weird that I too get obsessed with plastic bags? omg soul mates' but for some reason it's annoyed me enough today that I typed all this out.

    ReplyDelete
  129. This maybe isn't exactly what you're talking about overall, 11:26, but your second paragraph describes this guy perfectly (from the 997 thread):

    "I've just registered to point out the tiny quote from a character in Terry Pratchett's Discworld in article 4C. I always like coming across evidence that one of the people I like and follow is familiar with the works of another."

    What really bugs me is that this guy seems to have missed that xkcd is full of pandering references to nerd culture, and Pratchett is certainly a part of nerd culture.

    GOOMH Randall, I feel so validated knowing that you like [stereotypically nerdy interest]. Not everybody does, and I never would've suspected you did too.

    ReplyDelete
  130. weaselsoup, your first paragraph describes every forum on the Internet. There is nothing new under the Sun (that an Oracle won't predict (and chew up and spit out (there's an example of an annoying in-joke for another elitist group right there (anyone who made a LISP remark at this point would be similarly annoying (goomhAnonymous))))).

    The GOOMH thing isn't that different from any religion or quasi-religion: you're either with Randall or you're against him. All the cool kids on the Internet are socially liberal ("BO is OK as long as you're rich"), fiscally conservative ("oppressing foreigners bad - cheap Chinese electronics good"), atheist ("I refuse to believe God is a pink unicorn therefore there is no God"), science-fans ("science has solved all problems except the ones it's about to solve if only we believe hard enough"), lacking in empathy ("I was born healthy and with high IQ but you're a borderline retarded paraplegic because you're LAZY"), materialistic ("see above") and read xkcd.

    As a political commentator noted around 14 years ago, Blair was more Thatcherite than Thatcher; as a recent survey noted, the British people are more Thatcherite than Blair. The same surely applies in the US. xkcd is a Thatcherite's comic: arrogant, technocratic, inhumane and hypocritical. And Munroe, like Thatcher, barely conceals the root of its odious path: the terrible truth that its background is as one of the common folk, no better or (back then, at least) worse than anyone else.

    ReplyDelete
  131. I just want to say that I went to a £27,000/year independent school on scholarship, I studied Latin and Russian and various European languages. I graduated first class with a BSc in mathematics and later got an MSc.

    I now clean offices for a living.

    The moral of the story is that education will not get you anywhere.

    ReplyDelete
  132. ' your first paragraph describes every forum on the Internet. ' fair point, yeah. xkcd seems to concentrate it a bit, but maybe I just want to hate them more because as you say, the comic itself embodies all that shit and celebrates it and validates it (and likes to pretend it doesn't) so it's to blame.

    goomh 12:26 I had a scholarship & did latin & russian at school too. omg. wonder what people on xkcd would think about them letting you into a maths degree with all that liberal humanities nonsense on your CV.

    ReplyDelete
  133. Wait, new prediction! Comic 1000 will be a clip show.

    Or if not that, then it will be heavily self-referential, and look back nostalgically on the last 998 comics.

    Captcha: toldi. I toldi you.

    ReplyDelete
  134. I believe that comic 1000 will hardly acknowledge the other 998 comics, if at all. Just another boring comic.

    ReplyDelete
  135. you know it would be funny if Randall didn't particularly see 1000 as significant and comic 1000 was just your typical crock of shit

    ReplyDelete
  136. Well, he hasn't noted past successes, except by being slightly shittier than usual.

    ReplyDelete
  137. some meta comment/argument from a dipshit-character about how it's actually comic 8

    anything better and i will be pleasantly surprised.

    ReplyDelete
  138. OMG GUYZ IT'S THAT MOMENT OF TRUTHINESS APPROACHING

    ReplyDelete
  139. OMG GUYZ HE'S LATE WHAT AN ASSHOLE

    ReplyDelete
  140. Michael@7:37, you're doing it wrong.

    ReplyDelete
  141. Worst 1000th comic ever.

    Not even a funny lookback. Just "hey, look at all these CRAZY stick-figures I've drawn over the years" and then a LOLSOFUNNY-nerd joke.

    Anyone want to bet against me that is is going to be a poster?

    ReplyDelete
  142. Charles Augustus FortescueJanuary 6, 2012 at 5:31 AM

    Are there exactly 1000 figures making up the number 1000, do we know?

    ReplyDelete