XKCD Explained, One Strip at a Time

http://xkcdexplained.tumblr.com/

by KirinDave • 17 years ago

91 89 17 years ago

xkcdexplained.tumblr.com

Raphomet• 17 years ago

Hey! It's like Marmaduke Explained (http://marmadukeexplained.blogspot.com/), but, in a subversive twist, the commentary is less funny than the comic. Postmodern!

KirinDave11• 17 years ago

It is definitely inspired by Marmaduke Explained, and we love that blog. As for the rest, we'll let the audience decide.

ezy• 17 years ago

Yep, definitely not funny.

likpok2• 17 years ago

Marmaduke Explained has the benefit that Marmaduke is worse. It lacks the basic fundamentals of a joke in many cases. For what it's worth, XKCD does not have this. It may or may not be funny, but it is not awful.

tptacek12• 17 years ago

Managing to make a satire of XKCD less funny than XKCD is itself a kind of perverse achievement, and I applaud them for that.

unalone2• 17 years ago

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 across as a comic trying to say something.

His nerd jokes were occasionally actually really good. When they weren't, they came across with the air of "Fuck you, I'm not putting these comics online for you." Occasionally he'd hit upon a nice riff with his heartbreak comics, too, and his whimsical outlook towards life was a lot more sincere and less forced. Then he homogenized, began repeating joke concepts, and started spitting out a lot of derivative work, with only the occasional truly clever idea. It's never gotten worse than mediocre, but it's very frequently mediocre.

I guess what I'm trying to say is all of you should read Achewood instead. The nerd jokes are better (http://achewood.com/index.php?date=09232002), it's funnier than any comic I've ever read (it's the comic that topped Calvin and Hobbes after seventeen years on the top of my list), and it's a real start-up, selling monthly premium updates rather than relying on any advertising whatsoever.

diminonine• 17 years ago

He also apparently thinks Munroe is a reverse misogynist. There's got to be a proper word for that...

bendotc• 17 years ago

Misandrist: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misandrist

zackattack• 17 years ago

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misandry

KirinDave11• 17 years ago

There is also some internal debate about if he is in fact an anti-semite or perhaps just insensitive to cultural issues in general:

http://xkcdexplained.tumblr.com/post/227070875/a-man-wearing... http://xkcdexplained.tumblr.com/post/226266899/the-trick-her...

Semiapies5• 17 years ago

So, the trolling here extends to trying to imply that the guy's racist?

Nicely done, I guess. I figure this one will ping up to 150+ with this crowd.

likpok2• 17 years ago

You guys assume a lot about Randall. Jew-hat? Seriously? Why not a generic black hat?

The second explanation has the benefit in that "blackhats" are generally considered bad guys (descending from the old Hollywood western tradition of bad guys wearing black hats and good guys wearing black hats).

You seem to like taking the worst possible interpretation of Randall possible.

protomyth3• 17 years ago

I do wonder what leaps in logic get you from a stick figure's black hat to "Hasidic Jew’s black hat".

Not only did those two posts forget the funny, they might actually create trouble for the xkcd (politically correct activist + google search + no understanding of humor or satire = pain in the ass). Stupider things have happened.

mquander2• 17 years ago

I think XKCD is sophomoric, but this is largely just of godawful quality.

The blonde girl calls megan’s boyfriend and convinces him to make some delicious nachos. However, he doesn’t know that the blonde girl’s real motive was to kill megan’s wifi signal with the microwave he uses because they were playing a first person shooter video game against each other over the internet, and the blonde girl wanted to kill her.

If you're going to write something scathing about how foolish thing X is, you had better make damn well sure your writing is actually better than thing X. This reads like a bright 12-year-old posted it (but not that bright.)

KirinDave11• 17 years ago

Would you prefer something more like http://xkcdexplained.tumblr.com/post/226305334/the-box-on-th... ?

mquander2• 17 years ago

Not really. I hope I'm not being overly critical, but "a weary customer" is pretty purple prose, and "intelligent enough to be aware of its affect" -- "affect?" C'mon. "Effect."

If this were some other kind of writing, like a forum post or a blog entry, no problem, stuff like that wouldn't faze me. But I think you have to clear a high bar in quality if you're writing some sarcastic & condescending criticism of something else... especially when the "something else" is already aiming at a (relatively) highbrow audience. Otherwise it's not credible to me and not funny.

jacobolus• 17 years ago

In that particular case, you missed the joke, so no.

Alex3917• 17 years ago

The explanations of the jokes are funny because they're not funny. You see, you'd normally expect explanations of jokes to be funny. But these explanations are not funny. That's what makes the whole thing funny.

_takeo_2• 17 years ago

thanks Alex. it's really not that hard guys.

Semiapies5• 17 years ago

"You see, you'd normally expect explanations of jokes to be funny."

Who would expect that? It's a old cliche that explaining a joke isn't funny or entertaining. I certainly wasn't expecting humor when I looked at it.

(Nor did I find any, but then, the "it's funny because it's not funny" shtick is right up there with "Bill Clinton is a horny guy, amirite?" jokes in Dated Gag Heaven.)

Sapient• 17 years ago

Except they aren't very funny, and in quite a few cases completely wrong.

Steve0• 17 years ago

Explaining a joke is like dissecting a frog: you understand it better, but the frog dies in the process. Mark Twain

KirinDave11• 17 years ago

The only valid response: http://xkcdexplained.tumblr.com/post/226264418/a-man-is-alon...

rjshade• 17 years ago

A second valid response would be to correctly attribute the quote to E.B. White: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/E._B._White

decklin• 17 years ago

You should do this one: http://xkcd.com/33/

tptacek12• 17 years ago

The author of this blog is trying to kill the frog.

NathanKP• 17 years ago

I agree. To my way of thinking if someone doesn't understand XKCD and laugh at it the first time they see it they aren't going to find it funny after an explanation.

billswift2• 17 years ago

The explanation of a joke can be a joke itself - witness several of the "explanations". While I like XKCD, they aren't ALL successful either.

MikeCapone• 17 years ago

It pretty much just ends up sounding very condescending (especially down the page).

pwmanagerdied• 17 years ago

Surprisingly, I actually think this may be useful to explain some comics to less-geeky friends who could still be able to appreciate them. Lot of them are horribly ruined by the explanations, but some of them (Locke on Wordpress, for one) would still be enjoyable, I think.

seiji• 17 years ago

This one is much better (and useful): http://www.explainxkcd.com/

cema• 17 years ago

This one explains it, but the one in the posting "explains" it (comments on it, humorously). Both can be enjoyed in their own ways.

Well, now I do feel like I've just killed a frog.

wmf• 17 years ago

Wow, so there are two blogs explaining xkcd and two xkcd hate blogs. That's what I call success.

tptacek12• 17 years ago

I think (hope, actually) that you have the numbers in that sentence wrong.

ramidarigaz• 17 years ago

I've never seen a website where "next" is to the left, and "previous" is to the right.

KirinDave11• 17 years ago

It's called "tumblr.com" and it's fairly popular.

jlees• 17 years ago

I'm glad that Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory is not alone in the world.

(Edit; Also, if you're going to over-explain the joke, at least over-explain the alt text too!)

KirinDave11• 17 years ago

We debated this, but we wanted to do it IN the alt text, which turns out to be a bit of a pain to do on tumblr.

luchak• 17 years ago

I feel like this blog is an optical illusion where, if I stare long enough, I'll see John Campbell.

Except I'm still not seeing it.

tptacek12• 17 years ago

_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 play of signs and signifiers unmoored from a confining narrative core is a potent artistic force driving the work.

* A persistent debate between critical factions regarding XKCD is the question of whether those who claim XKCD is superficial don't understand the scientific and cultural references in the work, which debate is addressed by a direct recitation of those references in XKCD Explained.

* A common critical observation about XKCD that may not be obvious to the lay reader who does not closely track the comic is that it might be repetitive, which is to say that when the comics are stripped to their narrative kernel, many of the comics are essentially the same.

* Another common observation that may not be obvious to the lay reader is that it might be derivative, with comics repurposing the narrative and conceptual core of other, non-XKCD webcomics. This of course is an invalid critique, as XKCD exists intertextually with all other webcomics and is in fact enjoined to make use of and amplify the key ideas of those other comics.

* A more easily observable concern with XKCD is the relationship between the comic and gender, and in particular with sex, that concern being itself the observation of a subtext that implies that all references to sex are titillating to its audience, within which audience broad cultural norms have precluded actual experience with the reproductive act, and often contact with the opposite sex.

* Which of course drives us to the key concern with XKCD AND XKCD Sucks, which is that the authors of both works, being themselves bound to the norms of the media of English text, believe men are superior to women. Note the phallic symbolism of the letters "X" and "K", and the subordinate positions of the vaginal characters "C" and "D", the last of which represents (semiotically) the supressed but controlling desire of the male writer to maintain a pregnant state in the female reader.

3n3• 17 years ago

Holy Fuck dude I think we need you to consult for us.

_takeo_2• 17 years ago

Bravo.

KirinDave11• 17 years ago

Thank you so hard.

tptacek12• 17 years ago

Oh give it to me KirinDave. Yeah, that's what I need.

moonpolysoft• 17 years ago

100 internets to you.

_bfhp2• 17 years ago

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

mhartl• 17 years ago

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.)

theoneill• 17 years ago

I believe the word you want is "yonic."

jexe• 17 years ago

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.

3n3• 17 years ago

This guy just just nailed it.

tptacek12• 17 years ago

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 woman in today's technological world.

3n3• 17 years ago

ffffFFFUUUUCK SO RIGHT

eli• 17 years ago

I think you're trying to make a joke, but if not, I have no idea how you reached that conclusion.

aaronsw• 17 years ago

(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.

roundsquare• 17 years ago

Its always frustrating when things more more equally valid than other equally valid things.

blasdel• 17 years ago

No, he has issues with Randall's desperate nice guy affectations -- the obnoxious "ladies, I sure do love cunnilingus" vibe.

JacobAldridge• 17 years ago

Well, this has finally motivated me to buy the XKCD Volume 0 book (http://store.xkcd.com/).

It will be a birthday present to me from my wife, so I used her credit card. I had previously been concerned that purchasing it from her and for me would have required me to explain every, single comic. Now I can send here this link instead.

She can also tell her friends she bought me "a subversive book on gender relations" rather than "a comic about that Linux thing".

I think for some reason I'm going to go and make her a sandwich.

dylanz• 17 years ago

Ugh! I get the same feeling reading this as I do reading this: http://garfieldminusgarfield.net/

Tichy• 17 years ago

Some of these were really helpful.

shawnyar217• 17 years ago

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.

Semiapies5• 17 years ago

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?

_bfhp2• 17 years ago

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.

mikefish• 17 years ago

yeah, clear ripoff of explainxkcd.com. these guys aren't even original

XKCD Explained, One Strip at a Time

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