"[a] vitriolic and bitter collection of unwarranted nastiness about a silly and harmless comic."
NO.
Welcome. This is a website called XKCD SUCKS which is about the webcomic xkcd and why we think it sucks. My name is Carl and I used to write about it all the time, then I stopped because I went insane, and now other people write about it all the time. I forget their names. The posts still seem to be coming regularly, but many of the structural elements - like all the stuff in this lefthand pane - are a bit outdated. What can I say? Insane, etc.
I started this site because it had been clear to me for a while that xkcd is no longer a great webcomic (though it once was). Alas, many of its fans are too caught up in the faux-nerd culture that xkcd is a part of, and can't bring themselves to admit that the comic, at this point, is terrible. While I still like a new comic on occasion, I feel that more and more of them need the Iron Finger of Mockery knowingly pointed at them. This used to be called "XKCD: Overrated", but then it fell from just being overrated to being just horrible. Thus, xkcd sucks.
Here is a comic about me that Ann made. It is my favorite thing in the world.
I must say, it is amazing how you just recently put a post about the lack of Mr. Hat and how his recent adventure sucks ass...and here he is again sucking more ass than ever before.
ReplyDeleteY'know, I'm surprised your blog doesn't have more support & comments than it does. Maybe nobody says anything because they agree?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, thanks for admitting the times when xkcd is still funny to you, thus quashing any accusations that you're never satisfied & just abysmally bitter for some reason.
Also, yes, today's comic was...
...you said it well enough.
Talk about phoning it in. I'm glad to find that I'm not the only person who thinks XKCD has bad days.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the encouragement guys. It's very nice to know that there are other people out there reading this blog...
ReplyDeleteIt would be great if more people starting reading this site. Tell anyone you want about it. If you are on Digg you can digg it there:
http://digg.com/comics_animation/XKCD_Overrated_blog_takes_on_webcomic
Anyway today's comic sucks so hard. It feels more like the first panel of a longer strip; it might make sense more like that. Honestly I don't mind the new Mr. Hat storyline so much, but man this sucks. Maybe Randall is really sick or something and doesn't want to take a break.
Actually, I thought this was hilarious, mostly because I knew about this blog, and your fervent hope for more of the old Mr. Hat... only to be foiled by the new Mr.-Hat-in-existential-crisis. It's almost as though he's making fun of you.
ReplyDeletePretty clearly some form of "taking-a-break" comic though.
When I read the alt-text, about how this emo shit is supposed to be for people without hats, I was thinking, "no! this emo shit is supposed to be for other webcomics!"
ReplyDeleteDidn't this used to be titled "Steaming pile of horse shit" or something?
ReplyDeleteAmanda, I think you are looking for Comic 455: A steaming pile of horse shit mixed with fresh bull piss, which is about a different wordless Mr. Hat comic but I also put this one on there. An easy mistake to make.
ReplyDeleteAh. Thank you! =)
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that the worst that should be said about this comic is that it isn't funny.
ReplyDeleteI'm not understanding the anger.
I sincerely doubt the cartoonist was drawing this and thinking, "Yeah, this is awesome... people are going to be falling out of their chair laughing after they see this single frame picture of a stick figure looking depressed!"
Getting angry seems so... well... it seems a few hundred times more pointless then the comic you're getting angry about.
I mean, I can understand getting upset with a comic that promises to be funny and then fails to deliver.
I'm not convinced XKCD was ever meant to be 100% funny. Look at comic # 7... does it make you angry too? How about 1,2,3,4,8,9,11,14,15,16,17,19, 0r 20? None of them were written with the intention of making you laugh. Well, maybe 19... but that's a stretch.
I just went through the first 20 comics. That list would be HUGE if I went through all 500+ comics.
Sure, many of them are written with the intention of making you laugh out loud. If they fail, I commend you for pointing it out. Still - you need to understand that many of them are not.
Condemning a comic for failing to do something it doesn't really claim to do...
Pointless.
That's my little rant =D
For all it's worth, I agree that xkcd is losing a bit of what made it ridiculously enjoyable to read. To criticise the humour, however, is a moot point.
Man, you should have seen what would have happened if I wrote a real rant about this comic. I figured it was short and simple enough to deserve a short and simple response.
ReplyDeleteNow the first 50 or so comics -certainly the first 20, as you listed- were indeed not meant to be funny. The comic got started when he uploaded his high school and college notebook sketches and then started some new stuff added on to that. I don't usually mention those early ones and I usually leave them off my Repeat Offender lists. Basically I give them a lot more leeway because yeah, they were not made to amuse anyone but Randy.
Anyway, while every once in a very long while I think it's ok to do something not meant to be funny, xkcd does it far too often, and, I think, does it because he can't think of funny things so he has to broaden his topic. The problem is that he still claims to be a comic and still gets accepted by most fans as hilarious, no matter what.
As to the general idea behind the blog of critiquing humor...well, it is what it is and I can't defend it too well. If you like it, you like it, and if not, you don't. Whatever, I understand that.
Y'know... the alt text made up for this one.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the alt text was hilarious. This was one of my favorite comics...
ReplyDeleteHA HA EMO KIDS ARE DUMB
ReplyDeleteThis comic is dedicated towards people like you who haphazardly argue about stupid unimportant little things that no one else cares about.
ReplyDeleteNobody except you, Anonymous. Thanks for going out of your way to point out how you don't care at all!
ReplyDeleteCarl hardly ever gets credit for good posts. Guests seem to get all the credit for their tidbits.
ReplyDeleteI found this really funny. Excellent choice of (first three) words (and I mean it).
Oh, come ON. Didn't you read the story that came before it?
ReplyDeleteDon't you even read the title-text?
Really, I don't have anything better to do than to read xkcd. Forgive me for liking it, but you suck.
P.S. For those of you who read it to learn proper English, I have found a few mistakes in the 10 minutes I have been here. I may be petty, but at least I'm not stupid.
the primary purpose of this blog is and has always been to teach english to those not native to it. For you to suggest otherwise is offensive to me. We do not make mitsakes, and if you think we do you are wrong.
ReplyDeleteI read the story before it (or did you think I had somehow managed to read every xkcd skipping by pure luck the three previous Journal entires?) and I can say that this adds nothing to them. It is lazy and shitty, the end.
It is far easier to critisize then to create.....
ReplyDeleteand, apparently, far easier to criticize than spell the word.
ReplyDeleteRob: Flawless Victory
ReplyDeleteYou know, I look back at these old comments and can't help but think that hte majority of the commenters were incredibly stupid.
I was still right about Yggdrasil, though, even though I was too rageish about it >__>.
Wow, "Flawless" indeed.
ReplyDeleteNice job on the double standards, Carl and Rob.
ReplyDelete3:08 insults you (not the greatest tactic, I'll admit), Carl responds sarcastically that this site isn't designed to point out flaws in English.
And here comes Rob in response to "it is far easier to criticize than to create", making fun of the poster's spelling.
Fine then.
It is far easier to criticize than to create.
Now, would you like to make a serious reply to that? One that is not designed only to show your supposed mental superiority over everyone else?
wait, I'm confused. am I supposed to pretend I'm not smarter than you when I respond? that's kind of counter-intuitive! I am smarter than you. I can't help but demonstrate my superiority.
ReplyDelete