LOL-June 2
Cidu Bill on Jun 2nd 2008
Filed in Bill Bickel, Calvin and Hobbes, Cow and Boy, David Willis, Days of Thunder, Hillary Clinton, New Yorker, Robert Lovely, Shortpacked, barbecue, comic strips, comics, comics that made us laugh out loud, lol, xkcd | 19 responses so far
John DiFool Jun 2nd 2008 at 02:17 pm 1
The prison scene makes no sense (and the Groucho glasses are the least of the problems). First of all, if you are in the FWPP, you aren’t going to be in prison, and you certainly aren’t going to tell your hardened cellmate that you’re in it.
Thanks for the Calvin flashback.
Winter Wallaby Jun 2nd 2008 at 02:24 pm 2
John, if you’re in a good FWPP, you aren’t going to be in prison. If you’re in “the worst” FWPP, you might be.
Size Jun 2nd 2008 at 03:50 pm 3
Not only that, but the worst one he’s ever been in, implying that he has been in at least several. How much has this poor fellow witnessed in one lifetime?
I realize it made you LOL, but can someone explain the irony one to me? Is it dramatic irony, because we expect the human race (if not the protagonists) to last more than 20,000 years? Sorry if I’m being dense here!
John Jun 2nd 2008 at 04:21 pm 4
Can someone explain the Cow & Boy strip to me?
This is one of my favorite Calvin & Hobbes strips, but I’m not sure why this old classic is a current LOL.
Lord-z Jun 2nd 2008 at 04:42 pm 5
John - The Cow is protesting their eating of hamburgers by eating something humanlike.
Todd Jun 2nd 2008 at 04:47 pm 6
DiFool, stop overanalyzing comics; it doesn’t have to make sense to be funny.
And the irony one is also a cidu for me. And shouldn’t it be more like 2 million, or maybe 20 million years before the sun gets that big?
Winter Wallaby Jun 2nd 2008 at 05:04 pm 7
When I sent in the irony one as a LOL, I was worried that it would be challenged as a CIDU, and I’m not sure I can explain why I laughed. It’s ironic because there’s a complete lack of irony, humor, or anything remotely resembling a joke. Which makes it, ironically, funny. Funny, eh? No? Well, the words in the opening panel (”go too far,” “A cautionary tale”) warn you that even when you get that it’s supposed to be ironically funny because there’s no joke, it’s still not going to be funny (”ha ha, I guess”). Which makes it, um, meta-meta-funny.
I see no particular significance to the 20,000 years, except inasmuch as it makes the panels as completely boring and unfunny as possible.
John Jun 2nd 2008 at 05:24 pm 8
Thanks, Lord-z. I was afraid it was going to be something that obvious. Incidentally, until a few years ago cows were often fed meat and bone meal, a form of beef, and hence were inadvertent cannibals. The practice has been discontinued because it is believed to have been responsible for the spread of mad cow disease.
For the Shortpacked strip: Hillary’s claim is precisely the kind that should be given (dignified with, if you will) analysis. It’s important to know that the claim that she is winning the popular vote is dependent upon (i) counting Michigan, a state where Obama, in compliance with party rules, was not even on the ballot, and (ii) not counting party caucuses, on which Obama outperformed her. It’s also dependent on counting Florida, which has an element of unfairness but at least is not as nuts as counting Michigan and not counting the caucuses.
james Jun 2nd 2008 at 06:38 pm 9
Another facet of the “Witness Protection” strip is the witness’resemblence (due to the gag glasses) to Groucho Marx. Groucho used to have a tag line of “That’s the worst ____ I’ve ever heard.” Sadly, I can’t remember the original line, just the parodied line from a Vlasic pickle commercial: “That’s the best-tasting pickle I’ve ever heard.”
Steven Hunter Jun 2nd 2008 at 07:18 pm 10
I find the Calvin and Hobbes one particularly funny, in light of the fact that K-Mart actually bought Sears about 3.5 years ago…
eeyore19 Jun 2nd 2008 at 08:03 pm 11
When my wife was expecting a few years back, we came pretty close to convincing the older two kids that we were getting their new brother or sister from Babies R Us.
John DiFool Jun 2nd 2008 at 11:37 pm 12
“DiFool, stop overanalyzing comics; it doesn’t have to make sense to be funny.”
But it does have to have a sort of internal logic to be humorous (as in the joke is where the logic is broken in some absurd way). This strip had no logic to begin with.
Kevin Andresen Jun 3rd 2008 at 12:07 am 13
Assuming the guy is actually IN a witness protection program, and not just a possibly deluded prisoner, perhaps his bunkmate is really assigned security, and that’s why the guy can talk to him.
Molly Jun 3rd 2008 at 01:27 am 14
James, I think the Groucho line you’re looking for is “That’s the most ridiculous thing I ever heard.”
Bah Humbug Jun 3rd 2008 at 01:39 am 15
I guess the combination of things that are only about themselves (metahumor, self-reference) colliding with a thing that means something other than it’s supposed to (irony) is like matter slamming into antimatter, and it causes the end of the world. Is it supposed to be ironic that this strip is a cautionary tale about how to avoid a tragic event that won’t happen for 20,000 years - when that event is what will probably happen anyway? My brain hurts.
Powers Jun 3rd 2008 at 07:23 am 16
The last panel *is* the metahumor.
Calvin and Hobbes is actually current — the syndicate is rerunning the strip in order from the beginning, just like Peanuts Classics.
Size Jun 3rd 2008 at 10:30 am 17
On further reflection, the irony strip has sort of the same “flavor” as some of the more obscure XKCD strips, so maybe the artist was trying to make fun of that.
ddsassdd Jun 5th 2008 at 12:15 am 18
Without the irony, there is no humor. Without the humor, there is no irony. A paradox, such as this, is ironic. Meta means beyond and 20,000 years is too far beyond the other panels.
Robo Aug 21st 2008 at 09:38 pm 19
Meta-humour means to make a joke about a joke, irony and self-reference are in the first panel, (ironically, it isn’t funny at all), and at the end of the world it doesn’t matter, which is the cartoonist ironically cracking an unfunny irony-based metajoke on himself. When these things go too far, this is what happen.