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Saturday, March 15, 2014

Comic 404: Review not found

Comic Title:


Alt text:

There is no comic 404. Randall didn't miss an update either. He just skipped from 403 to 405 without saying anything. Now it would be very easy for me give this comic the worst grade ever for not being a comic at all, but that is really not how I feel.

I really like the little bits where Munroe includes a joke where you would not expect there to be a joke. He did that a lot with his alt texts, little jokes in his infographics, and now he does it a lot with his 'What-if' site, so much so that it's at risk of losing its effectiveness.

But that's where the essence of the joke lies. Humour relies on subversion of expectations. If you were expecting someone to make a joke (ever Monday, Wednesday and Friday) then it is very hard for that joke to be funny. In a context where you would not expect a joke, any joke becomes funnier.

This gets a rare A for humour, but an F** for messing up the numbering system such that idiotic forumites just have to point it out every time Xkcd reaches a landmark number. EVERY TIME.


Posted by Jon Levi at 2:30 PM

11 comments:

  1. AnonymousMarch 15, 2014 at 2:47 PM

    REVIEW THE BOOK, YOU CUNT.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AnonymousMarch 16, 2014 at 6:04 PM

      See above post. Remember that it reached #2 spot before its release, so you can legitimately review it without having read it.

      Delete
    2. AnonymousMarch 17, 2014 at 1:53 PM

      #1 spot, you mean.

      Delete
    3. Jon LeviMarch 17, 2014 at 9:27 PM

      I actually think I might do that if I can somehow get hold of a copy without further contributing to its popularity. (Piracy will not be so easy, there is no ebook edition.)

      Delete
    4. AnonymousMarch 18, 2014 at 9:28 AM

      Write to Randall asking for a review copy. Mention this web site.

      Delete
  2. AnonymousMarch 15, 2014 at 2:53 PM

    It's a 404 Not Found Error "joke", I'd have been more surprised if there was a comic.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jon LeviMarch 17, 2014 at 9:21 PM

      Shut up Anon, you're opinion is invalid. I will not hear a word said against error 404 jokes. When I heard that flight 370 was the 404th Boeing 777 ever made, do you know what I did? I laughed like Jimmy Fucking Carr, that's what.

      Delete
    2. AnonymousMarch 18, 2014 at 3:46 AM

      By the way, you should have noticed and commented on a little thematic link in the recent 1337, you hack. Rob would never have let us down like this. He only ever let us down in other ways.

      Delete
  3. AnonymousMarch 16, 2014 at 12:37 AM

    Please do comic number 137! :D

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousMarch 16, 2014 at 5:16 AM

    Now that you've popped your drunk posting cherry, I think we should be allowed to choose what drink you get intoxicated with while writing the review as well as the comic you review. I am interested to see how a review of 474 while drunk on Pimms differs from a review of 474 while drunk on Glenfiddich 12.

    ReplyDelete

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