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XKCD - A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math and language.

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fallout

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So, I was up late working on an assignment (Eiffel, yipee) and got to reading XKCD again. I'd been sent there before a number of months back and laughed my ass off each time. For some reason, I felt like sharing some of them with GAF!

A lot of this is pretty obscure, but I know quite a few people here will get them. Here's a sample of some good ones.

pointers.png


fourier.jpg


schrodinger.jpg


guitar_hero.jpg


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regular_expressions.png
 
I really like XKCD, its most likely my favorite web comic, some nights when I cant sleep I just sit around reading old ones. Plus sometimes it seems freaky how I think in a similar way to the guy who draws these.
 
The problem with posting XKCD comics on GAF is that you don't get the mouse-over captions that you do on the original site, which are often at least as funny as the comic itself. I advocate adding them as a spoiler tag after the image itself.

The latest one is great (and gaming related) too:

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Scary thought #138: Raptors coming down the waterslide behind me.

Some of them are really kind of poignant as well as (or instead of) being funny.

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At least I never gave her the root password.
 
Love it, specially when it gets into serious nerd territory. The one about regular expressions made me lol in real life.
 
Prime crotch said:
Love it although sometimes I don't get it like the last one about wikipedia.
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That one made perfect sense to me. I do exactly what he was talking about all the time.
 
BobJustBob said:
The worst webcomic on the internet. Tries too hard to be geeky when it's actually just stupid.
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godmode

lol @ americans are ****en sheep. That's a pretty awesome summarization of youtube.
 
This would be the best web comic ever ... if someone like Tatsuya Ishida (Sinfest) would draw them.

Fredi
 
BobJustBob said:
The worst webcomic on the internet. Tries too hard to be geeky when it's actually just stupid.
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Do you like anything?

iapetus said:
The problem with posting XKCD comics on GAF is that you don't get the mouse-over captions that you do on the original site, which are often at least as funny as the comic itself. I advocate adding them as a spoiler tag after the image itself.
Click to expand...
Good point! Should keep that in mind from now on.
 
There's actually something sort of comforting about not understanding most of these comics.
 
temp said:
There's actually something sort of comforting about not understanding most of these comics.
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Being happy that one did not major in things like math or physics?
 
temp said:
There's actually something sort of comforting about not understanding most of these comics.
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Yea, I'm pretty freakin' nerdy and I am just left at wtf by a lot of those.
 
I admit that I don't get all of them (had to look up SUDO) but they're still funny, funnier when I get them without looking them up.

Honestly though you don't have to be a CS/Math/Physics major to enjoy this comic. I have a female friend who loves it and she's far from any of those in terms of academic pursuits.
 
bluemax said:
I admit that I don't get all of them (had to look up SUDO) but they're still funny, funnier when I get them without looking them up.

Honestly though you don't have to be a CS/Math/Physics major to enjoy this comic. I have a female friend who loves it and she's far from any of those in terms of academic pursuits.
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I have a BS in CS/Math/Physics and that's why the comic sucks. There's no art to speak of, no humor or emotion to speak of, and so all that's left are the "geek" references. Only the so-called geek references are so simplistic and poorly applied that it's obvious the author doesn't know anything about anything. He's just opening a book and grabbing a math problem or a physics term at random and shoving into the comic. It's like an ignorant layman's idea of what a geek reference should be.
 
I dunno. The one about the kid with the ferrett was pretty heartfelt. Tough to argue that there's nothing to it but geek references.

Besides, I don't see how you could integrate math/physics equations into a comic strip a whole lot better.
 
BobJustBob said:
I have a BS in CS/Math/Physics and that's why the comic sucks. There's no art to speak of, no humor or emotion to speak of, and so all that's left are the "geek" references. Only the so-called geek references are so simplistic and poorly applied that it's obvious the author doesn't know anything about anything. He's just opening a book and grabbing a math problem or a physics term at random and shoving into the comic. It's like an ignorant layman's idea of what a geek reference should be.
Click to expand...

There's plenty of stuff in XKCD like this. That strip alone is probably perfect for most of the Internet, and particularly GAF :lol

Also, ever consider that maybe the level of "geek" references in the comic are chosen to not make it completely unreadable to everyone who's not a major in math and physics, and only impressed by the most obscure and elite references conceivable? ;)
 
super_bowl.jpg


The Super Bowl is actually an elaborate ruse, concocted by a shadowy group in the mid sixties for this purpose. The 'watch it for the ads' addition was a master stroke.
 
BobJustBob said:
I like FPS games that are good, like UT2k4, and I like webcomics that are good, like PBF.
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Is this because of my avatar?

BobJustBob said:
I have a BS in CS/Math/Physics and that's why the comic sucks. There's no art to speak of, no humor or emotion to speak of, and so all that's left are the "geek" references. Only the so-called geek references are so simplistic and poorly applied that it's obvious the author doesn't know anything about anything. He's just opening a book and grabbing a math problem or a physics term at random and shoving into the comic. It's like an ignorant layman's idea of what a geek reference should be.
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I'm sorry they're not up to your geek reference standards. I find them funny.

*goes back to enjoying the comic as an "ignorant layman"*
 
I'm not saying the references suck because they're easily understood, I'm saying they suck because the author doesn't understand them. Or if he does, he doesn't understand how to properly use a reference. They're completely arbitrary, capable of being ripped out and replaced with something totally different without changing the meaning of the comic at all. That he chose physics or math phrases for his throwaway concepts doesn't make it a geek comic any more than an arbitrary carpentry reference would make it a woodworkers' comic.
 
Mr Toast said:
Can someone explain this to me?
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He told the coders that it should be 20, and that they had problems if their code if it wasn't. The fact is, it should NOT be 20, so they were looking for errors that didn't exist. It doesn't sound so funny when you have to explain it though :P
 
I love it, except for the fact that I'm not quite nerdy enough to get most of the math-specific ones.

iapetus said:
The problem with posting XKCD comics on GAF is that you don't get the mouse-over captions that you do on the original site, which are often at least as funny as the comic itself. I advocate adding them as a spoiler tag after the image itself.
Click to expand...

damn, I didn't know this! Time to read through them all again!
 
BobJustBob said:
I'm not saying the references suck because they're easily understood, I'm saying they suck because the author doesn't understand them. Or if he does, he doesn't understand how to properly use a reference.
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I'm fairly certain he understands the references. And I don't see how they're not used properly.

Just as an example ... Stand back everybody. I know regular expressions! -- is a great line. It's funny because it's lame and because a lot of us have thought of similar things. I mean, sure, the same joke could be used with like ... pottery, but it just wouldn't be as funny to me (or the people who read XKCD). Besides, a lot of comedy is recycled anyway, so I don't see the problem there.

CajoleJuice said:
We had this thread not too long ago, but I definitely enjoy this comic, so I'll refrain from saying OLD.

Oh wait
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Apologies! I'll be honest, I thought of doing a search, but then just decided not to. No particular reason; was just being lazy.
 
fallout said:
Apologies! I'll be honest, I thought of doing a search, but then just decided not to. No particular reason; was just being lazy.
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I was just being cranky. I approve of this thread. PBF gets a thread every time there's a new strip, and so does the shit that is VGCats. GAF can handle two threads about this great comic. :)
 
BobJustBob said:
I have a BS in CS/Math/Physics and that's why the comic sucks. There's no art to speak of, no humor or emotion to speak of, and so all that's left are the "geek" references. Only the so-called geek references are so simplistic and poorly applied that it's obvious the author doesn't know anything about anything. He's just opening a book and grabbing a math problem or a physics term at random and shoving into the comic. It's like an ignorant layman's idea of what a geek reference should be.
Click to expand...

Eh, I think a lot of them appeal to a sense of romantic hope/optimism. And while some of the geek reference ones feel shoehorned in a lot of the others I found funny because I knew exactly the situation the guy was talking about.

Shrug, humor is not the same for everyone.
 
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