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1001 is hilarious... still laughing at it. Sorry, I'm sure there are ways it could be criticized but I'm not gonna look for them.
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Alt-text: 'ARE YOU TURNED ON YET?' 'I DON'T THINK SO--ARE YOU?' 'MAYBE A LITTLE!' 'OK, FIVE MORE MINUTES.'
Okay, as SinbadEV said, this is actually a pretty decent comic. It does have a fair share of problems, but it's still an appropriate "real 1000th strip".
What I like the most about it is its perfect pacing and execution of the joke. The first three panels depict the consequences of a stupid decision (a man and a woman spinning on a bed a bit too fast) and the last panel reveals the decision itself (to build said rotating bed at home after seeing one on TV). Randall even managed to avoid all the usual pitfalls. No post-punchline dialogue, no banner that says "PARTY", no unrealistic speech. Well, okay, it seems a bit stiff to me, but not nearly enough to ruin the comic for me.
The art is pretty good, too, at least for xkcd's standards; I have to point out the ripples in the sheet and the screams of "AAAAAAAA". On the other hand, it isn't very well depicted that the bed is, in fact, spinning, apart from a mediocre blur effect, and the big faceless heads in the first two panels really seem out of place, like in just about any other well-drawn xkcd strip ever.
The weakest past of the comic, though, is the alt-text. It's not funny, it's just really, really stupid. Shame, especially since there are many things that the alt-text could say that would fit the comic a lot better. Here, let me try: "An unidentified flying object has been sighted near Boston. One of the passengers of the circular spinning vehicle has been reported to say 'WHEEEEE!' ".
All in all, this is probably one of the best strips Randall has drawn in years, and I'm glad that it has come right after the horrendous 1000 "comic". Please keep the quality up, Randall.
I like this one too (basically) but have a major tone problem with it. Maybe I'll write about it? I don't think anybody would care though, so I'll probably just see if I can do something for 1002
ReplyDeleteThis comic is SMBC with "aren't I QUIRKY?!" added.
ReplyDeleteThe main problem with this comic is that I couldn't tell what the hell was going on until I got to the last panel.
ReplyDeleteThe art here seriously weirds me out.
ReplyDeleteRE: "The main problem with this comic is that I couldn't tell what the hell was going on until I got to the last panel."
ReplyDeleteI think that may have been the point,
Panel 1: What...
Panel 2: The...
Panel 3: Fuuu...
Panel 4: uuOh? (look back at all panels, Oh, OH, Oooh!, Heh)
Alt-Text: WHAT THE FRAK!?!?
I would have been able to work it out if the drawings weren't crappy. Isn't one of the xkcds about how there's nothing clever about communicating a point poorly and then clarifying it?
ReplyDeleteIt was more about communicating poorly and acting smug when you're misunderstood which is very different from presenting something such that you won't understand it until the punchline or similar.
ReplyDeleteIs this comic a clever callback to an xkcd classic? (xkcd.com/162/)
ReplyDeleteIf it is, it's pretty well done.
If not, it's pretty terrible.
Which is true? YOU DECIDE.
You're giving Randall *way* too much credit.
ReplyDeleteIf he's gonna make a reference to a previous XKCD it's *gonna* be heavy-handed.
I agree.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I also didn't get what the comic was until the last panel, but I was on an iPhone, and it was pretty late, so that probably had a lot to do with it.
Just chill, brothers, and enjoy the comic. Would you pull every petal off a daisy and then say it wasn't beautiful because it doesn't have any petals? After reading a few of these posts I say you would. I'm sorry for you, perhaps you can love to live eventually :)
ReplyDeleteCan you name a few petals?
ReplyDeleteI would pull the petals off a daisy to demonstrate how each petal is in itself beautiful and describe how these individual beauties augment one another as a combined whole. I would also meticulously scrape the dog crap from the bottom of my shoe and feel much better about the world after doing so.
ReplyDeleteI do not have an email address so I cannot send it to you, but that ALT-F person still wants me to get this piece to you anyway. I can't seem to activate the comments section of the xkcdsucks blog - ALT-F always did that.
ReplyDeleteI saw this video showing a cadre of Marines allegedly voiding their respective bladders on the arrayed corpses of sundry Taliban Fighters. (Why ‘Fighters’ and not ‘Soldiers’? Nomenclature sure is funny, innit?)
Well fuck me from behind with an 11th Grade Physics text, but does the U. S. Marine Corps not teach its Marines anything useful? Never mind the Geneva Conventions or the Rules of War. Are they not instructed in the Laws of Newton – particularly the second? Are they not tutored in Euclidean tangential vector analysis? Did living the American Experience prior to enlistment not teach these morons anything? Is common sense really that uncommon? For Allah’s sake, these idiots were urinating while facing INTO a brisk breeze!?!?!
Now I do know that the Semper Fidelis folks (Or is that ‘Saepe Fidelis’? I’ve a predilection for mangling my military mottoes – and alliteration.) are taught not to piss on their hands while at the urinal, or where ever, so they won’t have to wash their hands afterwards – like those stupid Army dolts have to, but still, are they that thick? You’d think they would be taught not to piss into the wind either!
Sheesh!
Nonetheless, America should still be proud – and a tad relieved. If it was a video of a line of ‘I Suck At Fighting’ bozos, it wouldn’t be urine being spritzed on those thieves of I.S.A.F. lead, it would be ejaculate and each would be writing their names – as if in a snow-bank – in the handwriting of the bloke next to them.
From the Halls of Montezuma
To the shores of Tripoli.
We will fight our country’s battles
And piss on the dead Hadji.
Good luck getting that tune and those lyrics out of your head today.