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Alt-text: I'm teaching every 8-year-old relative to say this, and every 14-year-old to do the same thing with Toy Story. Also, Pokemon hit the US over a decade ago and kids born after Aladdin came out will turn 18 next year.Oh wait...that's Comic 647. Let's try again.
References courtesy of xkcdsucks.
Nope, those aren't right either. Ah! Here's 1393:
Alt-text:
'Hello, Ghostbusters?' 'ooOOoooo people born years after that movie came out are having a second chiiiild right now ooOoooOoo'While I can't be bothered to look up other instances of this (891 and 1093 — ed.), I'm positive this isn't the first time Randall has turned around and made fun of the same premises he once used as jokes. Is it a big deal? It's tough to say. As these strips indicate, people DO grow older, and as they grow older, their feelings change (look no further than the primary audience of these hate blogs).
For now, I'm willing to accept this change of heart. Randall did a 180, sure, but he didn't do it with any sort of pretentiousness, and he didn't make "this thing is annoying" the entirety of the joke, as he's done before. The joke at the end is actually a decent twist, and while I don't think it needed the buildup of three panels (this isn't a newspaper comic, after all - he can use whatever format he likes), there are worse ways of going about it.
That said, I don't believe this was a comic that needed to be made. Sure, Randall took an unfunny thing and made it funny (and as a cartoonist, that's his job), but it's not really what I'd consider xkcd subject matter. It's just him saying, "I want to tell people how I feel about this, so I'd better stick a joke at the end." There's nothing particularly intelligent or scientific about it, and nothing related to romance, sarcasm, math, or language either. It's just something Randall doesn't like with a joke at the end.
In other words, it's the sort of comic that made me stop caring about xkcd. Not nerdy enough to have niche appeal, not funny enough to have broad appeal, and not bad enough to have hateblog appeal. It's just unremarkable; nothing more.
P.S. - My favorite of these sorts of factoids is "Most kids entering high school this year were born in the year 2000."
Jon, please don't stop writing. You're so much better than "xkcd isn't funny" - that guy seems to write like he thinks he's smart, and it's too much like reading xkcd. The whole needing to login to post comments thing is just nuts on the turd.
ReplyDeletexkcdisntfunny obviously checks this site, as he updated the blurb for this site to read "(focusing on an xkcd sucks fanfic)". Now, the question is whether or not he actually checks the comments here. I'd like to see his reaction to yours.
DeleteOh, yeah, I agree wholeheartedly with you, in case you were wondering.
-AnotherAnon
Saying that I write like I think I'm smart is a fair criticism. I'd say it's more out of inexperience than anything else, and I made a concious effort to tone it down when I realized it was bothering people.
DeleteCurrently, it looks like there's no way of undoing the needing to login problem thanks to Google+. Your best option if you'd like to remain anonymous might be to ask a question through my tumblr or ask.fm. Some people have also created gmail accounts with fake names to comment directly.
Posted by Gamer_2k4? He's back?
ReplyDeleteHooray! Will we be seeing more regular posts from you, Gamer? I'd accept that this might just be a one-off, but sometimes I get tired of holding down the fort all by myself.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I've been asked to invite you to the IRC channel. Come on and talk to us, we won't bite!
I completely understand you getting tired of this; the tedium is one of the reasons I left this behind (and I'm sure the reason Carl, Raven, and Rob all did as well). I made this post because someone requested I come back (though I realize now they were probably talking about the IRC channel), but I don't think I have the drive to make it a regular occurrence. As I said in my goodbye post (way back in 2011? wow), xkcd is just too mundane most of the time to inspire my best work.
DeleteI might drop in the IRC channel from time to time, but it doesn't seem to be available at the place I work. I'll see what I can do.
Edited to include mention of two comics that did it the most, because these ones really were the worst at it. Still I might have reviewed 1393 somewhat more positively than yourself, though only because of its scathing self-criticism. I don't think Randall has changed at all though. Don't be at all surprised if he hypocritically pulls another 'time is passing' comic out of his arse in the next year or so.
ReplyDeleteOr the next couple of weeks. Fuck you, Randall.
Delete