XKCD Explained, One Strip at a Time • Hacker News Board

Re: XKCD Explained, One Strip at a Time

#81

Post by unalone » Fri, Oct 30, 2009, 12:32 AM UTC

eru wrote: post #79

unalone wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I find funny is that Randall fell victim to exactly what he accused Jim Davis of a long time ago. Early XKCD was, if not necessarily brilliant, unexpected and often very clever in its jokes. I know one of its earliest influences was Achewood, which, for those of you who don't know, is the Webcomic To End All Webcomics, against which nothing but the best print comics compare. It was more effortless and came acros…

I mostly agree about XKCD. Though I did not find ( http://achewood.com/index.php?date=09232002 ) very funny. I will never let my family down by programming in Java.

The problem with Achewood, and why it's never been a hit, is that you have to read from the first comic to really get into it. The humor is character-driven and very rich, and you don't get any of that without starting from the beginning. But in six panels it's making four or five jokes, which is pretty astounding.

Re: XKCD Explained, One Strip at a Time

#82

Post by Tichy » Fri, Oct 30, 2009, 12:40 AM UTC

Some of these were really helpful.

Re: XKCD Explained, One Strip at a Time

#83

Post by eru » Fri, Oct 30, 2009, 12:52 AM UTC

unalone wrote: post #81

eru wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mostly agree about XKCD. Though I did not find ( http://achewood.com/index.php?date=09232002 ) very funny. I will never let my family down by programming in Java.

The problem with Achewood, and why it's never been a hit, is that you have to read from the first comic to really get into it. The humor is character-driven and very rich, and you don't get any of that without starting from the beginning. But in six panels it's making four or five jokes, which is pretty astounding.

Perhaps. I found that the artwork got more accomplished in the recent comics, so it's nicer to look at.

Re: XKCD Explained, One Strip at a Time

#84

Post by Semiapies » Fri, Oct 30, 2009, 1:08 AM UTC

protomyth wrote: post #62

KirinDave wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay, so you could ignore the obvious resemblance to the Hasidic Jew Hat ( http://bit.ly/29cFxJ ), I suppose. But then what about "Brown Thighs? = Eww." What is wrong with brown thighs? At some point I have to question if they guy is doing it subtly on purpose or just completely oblivious, and neither is good. P.S. We didn't "forget the funny." We went searching for it, and these descriptions are what we came up with…

The hat also resembles all manner of Safari hats and is pretty close to a stick figure representation of the black hat conference. Ok, you went searching for the funny and never found it. Look, even in satire, implying someone is a racist is bad (I really hope this is satire and the "At some point" sentence is not actually serious). As for the eww, check the forum http://bit.ly/4rD9cU for an explanation.

"The hat also resembles all manner of Safari hats"

Or porkpie hats, or fedoras.

Re: XKCD Explained, One Strip at a Time

#85

Post by shawnyar217 » Fri, Oct 30, 2009, 1:12 AM UTC

Thoughts:

Anyone who doesn't get that graphing historical toilet usage times resulting from tragically poor medical science against modern toilet usage times resulting from pathetic laziness and/or extreme nerdiness regarding laptop computers is hysterically brilliant and funny, needs to get a life or at least go away and stop bothering people.

I don't know the guy, but judging from the hot girls modelling T-shirts on the website, I'd take a guess that the author of XKCD is not a male hyper feminist as the critic tried to claim. Hot girls don't go for male hyper feminists. He's simply a confident male who has figured out that making smart girls happy (thru fun comic strips starring smart girls) tends to get him laid. In this he is no different from any man who tells a gal a joke to help her relax.

Criticizing a wildly popular work of art known for weaving complicated math and science topics into quality jokes is dangerous to begin with. There is so much danger that the reason you don't "get it" is because its over your head and you don't know it. To then express the criticism with such poorly-written captions is just sad.

XKCD forever.

Re: XKCD Explained, One Strip at a Time

#86

Post by Semiapies » Fri, Oct 30, 2009, 1:24 AM UTC

shawnyar217 wrote: post #85

Thoughts: Anyone who doesn't get that graphing historical toilet usage times resulting from tragically poor medical science against modern toilet usage times resulting from pathetic laziness and/or extreme nerdiness regarding laptop computers is hysterically brilliant and funny, needs to get a life or at least go away and stop bothering people. I don't know the guy, but judging from the hot girls modelling T-shirts o…

Amusingly, there's an inversion of that last bit being played out - the response to people not finding the "gag" of the explanations hilarious is that the joke is just so over folks' heads. We can't get the "real" joke!

The "real" joke is that, hey, this guy that people call "funny" occasionally makes unfunny comics - and we can find unfunny ones from years back! No? Uh, the "real" joke is that there is no humor, so it's a joke. ...Or, um, would you believe that the "real" joke is that people find our shtick dumb and object, because they're just not cool enough to give a thumbs-up to half-assed attacks on things they like?

Re: XKCD Explained, One Strip at a Time

#87

Post by aaronsw » Fri, Oct 30, 2009, 3:29 AM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #47

jexe wrote: post #41

This guy is writing a blog explaining the comic XKCD using a dry, faintly sarcastic tone. Note: He seems to have issues with XKCD's apparent feminist slant.

Although deconstructionism forces us to concede that any "slant" in XKCD is merely a textual artifact, and all critical perspectives on the work are equally valid, it is nevertheless more equally valid to conclude that XKCD's gender politics may be more self-serving to the author than a legitimate ( pace manocentric male-ocratic words like "legitimate") statement of empathy or outrage over the station of the modern w…

(Taking this comment seriously...) After spending time with Randall IRL, I'm convinced his feelings on the subject are genuinely empathetic.

That said, I don't think the comics are a particularly good expression of this. The male is always being rational-logical and the female intuitive-wholistic, which seems a bit sexist, even if the rational-logical character is always the butt of the joke.

Re: XKCD Explained, One Strip at a Time

#88

Post by _bfhp » Fri, Oct 30, 2009, 3:53 AM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #39

_Infinitesimal Jest: Towards A Intertextual Metanarrative Of Subtextual Resonances Between XKCD and XKCD-Explained_ * It can and has been claimed by that the humor in XKCD is superficial, driven more by the dog-whistle power of recogition of cultural signs and signifiers than by a "true" or "significant" humor. Of course, an equally valid critical response questions the notion of "truth" and observes that the free pl…

You don't HAVE to use complicated words and sentences, you know. No one's impressed. No one sensible, anyway. Your content may be relevant or even valid but it's presented in an almost haughty lexicon.

Unless you're parodying something in which case WOOOSH

Re: XKCD Explained, One Strip at a Time

#89

Post by _bfhp » Fri, Oct 30, 2009, 3:56 AM UTC

Everyone just wants attention. At least xkcd puts some effort into it.

Everyone. just. wants. attention. It's that simple.

Invariably, unless I write this sentence, someone will accuse me of wanting attention; don't.

Re: XKCD Explained, One Strip at a Time

#90

Post by mhartl » Fri, Oct 30, 2009, 4:17 AM UTC

_bfhp wrote: post #88

tptacek wrote: post #39

_Infinitesimal Jest: Towards A Intertextual Metanarrative Of Subtextual Resonances Between XKCD and XKCD-Explained_ * It can and has been claimed by that the humor in XKCD is superficial, driven more by the dog-whistle power of recogition of cultural signs and signifiers than by a "true" or "significant" humor. Of course, an equally valid critical response questions the notion of "truth" and observes that the free pl…

You don't HAVE to use complicated words and sentences, you know. No one's impressed. No one sensible, anyway. Your content may be relevant or even valid but it's presented in an almost haughty lexicon. Unless you're parodying something in which case WOOOSH

The parent comment is a parody of self-important postmodernist "analysis". (Note that the scare quotes, or "scare quotes", around the word "'analysis'", are typical of our hegemonic, phallocentric culture.)