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Cute, but since this is Hatrack it should be mentioned that the first link includes some foul language.
Posts: 3580 | Registered: Aug 2005
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You know, I like a lot of XKCD comics, but I've noticed that many of them actually suffer from the same problem I mentioned in the Internet Pet Peeves thread, about memes.
Sometimes it seems like he just makes some references to some obscure nerdy minutiae so that his audience "gets it" and feels special and in the know and they mistake that for humor.
Once I realized this, XKCD became a lot more hit-or-miss for me, which is sad.
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Like many great artists, 75% of his output is crap. I expect that and just enjoy the good stuff.
Posts: 1945 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Dan: on the other hand, a lot of his stuff is legitimately, brilliantly hilarious, more so than any other webcomic I've seen.
Posts: 2222 | Registered: Dec 2008
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Oh, sure! I'm not saying he's terrible or anything. Just explaining that I used to think he was amazing, and no longer do. There are other comics that never rise to quite the level of his absolute best work, but are more consistently entertaining to me. But then, my favorite comics also tend to be more story-driven, so there's that.
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Its clearly a YMMV thing, to those who "get" the nerdy in-jokes its hilarious to us, and increases our sense of community and reducing our sense of lonliness and ostacization by knowing that somewhere our there there's someone who understands and appreciates the same thing "we" like.
Here's a Touhou Fancomic I stumbled onto, it's to webcomics like Penny Arcade/Megatokyo that Counterstike is to Arma 2 or Battlefield 3; it's not great or special but it's touhou, and it's like its written by "me" for "me" for a quick laugh/makes me smile.
On the other hand the dialogue is a little confusing, 50% of the time due to me not knowing the plot inside and out of every Touhou Project game and the other 50% feels like I'm walking into a conversation without having seen the beginning and walking out before the end.
But when it is understandable I like it.
Note, I linked a semi-random one, I picked this one because of the obvious meme at the end that I consider that will never get old and makes me laugh out loud each and every time.
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Blayne: I get the nerdy in-jokes. What spoiled some of XKCD for me was realizing how much of it was just contentless nerdy references.
i.e. "He referenced Fermat's theorem! I know about that! That makes me special! *laugh*"
So yes, it hits your tribal instincts and reduces your sense of loneliness and ostracism, and that's why you like it. That's... sort of my point.
I don't approve of that. For one thing, I don't approve of anything that panders to nerdy peoples' sense of loneliness or ostracism. Sorry, but this isn't the 80s. We won. We don't need to feel lonely and ostracized. We are the mainstream. Being a nerd is no longer a valid excuse for poor socialization, if it ever was.
Tangentially, some people want so desperately to be a part of this lonely and ostracized group that they go to wikipedia and find out what the comic is about, and then they vandalize Wikipedia by adding the XKCD reference to the "In Popular Culture" section of the page they just read. That also sort of irks me, but that's more about his fans than him.
PS: Again, I'm not saying I hate XKCD, and I suspect I'm coming off that way. I like XKCD! There are lots of individual comics I think are great! Just so we're clear.
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Dan: I, on the other hand, just think they're funny comics. If they reference something obscure I have to look up, I think they're funny comics with the bonus of teaching me something new (and usually interesting) for the day. I'd honestly rather read a comic with obscure jokes than ones that have been used over and over again, because the obscure jokes are more likely to be surprising and funny than jokes I've seen a million times before. Not all of us are Blaynes.
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I have had to google after reading an XKCD comic before, but that doesn't take away from easily funny comics that the archives are full of.
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quote:Originally posted by AchillesHeel: I have had to google after reading an XKCD comic before, but that doesn't take away from easily funny comics that the archives are full of.
That one actually makes more sense than almost every zombie movie in existence.
Posts: 1324 | Registered: Feb 2011
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I don't think there's anything wrong with writing for a clique, necessarily, so long as you acknowledge you're doing so. One of my favorite comics, Terminal Lance, is IMO wildly hilarious, but it would probably only come off as moderately funny or just plain corny to readers unfamiliar with the modern military. On the other hand, the author clearly states he's a Marine writing for other Marines (though he explains some of his more obscure comics), and while I certainly feel more special and included when I read it, I don't look down on anyone who doesn't understand it. It's an inclusive feeling, not an exclusive one.
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