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Died in a Blogging Accident has lived up to its name and died... in a blogging accident. That is to say it has concluded. You can still re-live the magic by clicking here to start at chapter 1. For genuine criticism of XKCD, please click the top link to the right (XKCD Isn't Funny).

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Comic 21: Science joke. You should probably just move along.

This review is dedicated to the one guy who follows this blog on Feedspot. You know who you are...

It's been a while since I've reviewed a classic. And the comic requested by Anon 12:27 is even older than Xkcd itself (the first 50 or so comics were posted on forums before Randall moved them to their own site).

Comic title: Kepler
Alt text: Science joke. You should probably just move along.

Yes, it actually says that.

And I think this is indicative of an earlier, more self-conscious, Randall. He knew his jokes were esoteric and geeky. And he accepted that as one of his flaws. B for self-consciousness. Now that he is surrounded by his echo chamber of fans, he falsely recognises it as a strength. If you don't understand the joke, then you aren't a true fan.

I'm going to step forward and confess that I don't understand the joke here. I have been skim-reading the Wikipedia article on Johannes Kepler, and I still don't understand the joke. I did learn a few things about Kepler, such as the fact that he developed new theories on planetary motion, and developed a platonic solid model of the solar system. So that's neat, right? Xkcd has caused me to learn something.

Wrong! I should not have to do research to understand a punchline, ever. Now don't get me wrong. I am scientifically curious, and I subscribe to a lot of educational Youtube channels. But I enjoy that knowledge for its own sake, not because some self-important nerd-god told me to learn it.

Let's use an analogy here. If your parents punish you by forcing you to read a boring textbook, and that textbook ends up being quite interesting, then it is to the credit of the people who wrote that book. In this analogy, the textbook is Wikipedia, and Randall is my dad.

So the few facts I learned about Johannes Kepler are to the credit of the anonymous volunteers who write Wikipedia, not to the shmendrik who sent me there in the first place. I would give him a grade at this point for standalone value, but it's become a dead horse at this point, so I'll just give him U for Ungradable (the bottom mark in British exams).

Nevertheless, there seems to be a widely held opinion among webcomic fans:
The added bonus, for me, is that looking up new information like that is just as enjoyable as reading the strip itself.
~ Aaron Diaz, author of Dresden Codak

Let me just say that I disagree. But what's the alternative you say? We only make lowest-common-denominator jokes about farts and reality television? No. I say the context of the joke should explain the idea of the thing it is about.

To difficult you say? Feh! Here is an example of an Xkcd that does it right. Yes, the 'sudo make me a sandwich' one. Who here can honestly say this one is difficult to understand? It is obvious from the context that sudo is a command that forces something to obey you, probably a piece of computer jargon that overrides all settings to give you admin permissions for that action. And the best part is that it was all conveyed in four lines of dialog. And I should point out that if you wanted to find out more about what sudo does, then you are free to do so.

I had to go to explainxkcd to find the actual meaning of comic 21, and it was a disappointment.
According to Kepler's Second Law, "A line joining a planet and the Sun sweeps out equal areas during equal intervals of time." This looks like wiping a wipe on the floor. 
In the comic, the janitor Kepler also sweeps the same area, although in this case "area" is used in the sense of "surface" (of floor) rather than in the purely mathematical sense.
Really? It's not even the same meaning of the word area. Is that supposed to be a pun? Well it sucks. F for humour.

Also, why the fuck did he draw all these early Xkcds on squared paper? Did they not have plain paper at NASA? F- for lack of effort. See me after class.

18 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. .FUCK YOU ANON 6:42. YOUR ARE THE REASON WHY THE INTERENET SSUCK SO MUCH!

      Delete
    2. I THINK YOU DO CARE YOU SPELT THE INTERNET WRONG JON, i THINK YOU DO AND GIVEN YOU'RE ON MY BED, THAT WOULD BE THE RIGHT PLACE TO DO IT!

      Delete
    3. Randall, get out out of my head!

      Delete
    4. Jon, fuck off.

      Just kidding, that red wine still really needs drinking even if it is fucking evil and going to send us blind.

      Delete
    5. fuck, and you forgot to log out! ahaha. I have the power!

      Delete
    6. What?! How dare you suggest that I am anything other than sober she. I po enfold jxjdjxjxjdjxjxm mzmLmMsnxnxbxbxb h bxxbbxbdbxj ndn hdndhxndhdndhxnncncjldjjdjdjdhdhdhjdjdhfhnchjffjhchfchjxjdnxjgignfujcjghdjjdjxsinrn

      Delete
  2. lol, seriously jon? You're sucking adorable when drunk tho. seiously guys, he just set my egg timer going and said, that'll surprise you in an hour

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  3. Replies
    1. Oh god. I can't decide what would be worse. If he sat giggling to himself while he drew this picture like an overgrown thirteen year old, (and frankly, the boys I knew when I was thirteen could draw more realistic pictures of female genitalia,) or whether he had his wife sat in front of him for reference...

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  4. I really, really disagree with you here. Not that this isn't a weak joke, but with the "everything should stand alone" mentality. Because if you don't, you *do* end up with nothing but lowest common denominator jokes.

    Your counter-example is not any better than this comic. To someone who has never used *nix (or even a computer), that comic provides no joke. The only thing the comic tells you without context is that somehow, by prefixing the request with sudo, the guy is now willing to do it. That's not the joke. The joke is that this is a computer convention being applied in real life. If you don't know that that's what sudo is, you cannot get the joke from just the comic.

    I have no clue why someone would assume that it's "a piece of computer jargon." For all we know, the guy on the right owes the guy on the left some favours and they had previously agreed on using that term to indicate he's now cashing in on those favours. Maybe the guy on the right has been hypnotically conditioned to respond to that term. How would anyone guess "sudo" was an existing thing that's being "humourously" misapplied if they didn't already know that, or googled it?

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    Replies
    1. It appears Levi's got a girlfriend. Everyone turns retarded when they get a girlfriend. All my creative brilliance occurs when I'm single. Unfortunately I'm a trustafarian, so it's hard to stay single - money is necessary and sufficient for pretty much all women.

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    2. You really think that if I had a girlfriend, I would show her THIS site? Wow, I mean wow.

      inb4: he has a girlfriend/wife who has cancer

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    3. Nice to see how little my opinion matters to you. :P

      Delete
  5. 1322... I think it made me want to kill someone.

    ReplyDelete