Comments on: This is CIDU

By: Ian Osmond

Ian Osmond — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 17:21:49 +0000

I’d say that it is accurate that “Spinal Tap pretended to be an English band.”

They were genuinely English. They just pretended to be a band.

By: Matthew

Matthew — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 04:08:12 +0000

Will, you are correct. I misspoke (mis-wrote). I stand (though I’m sitting) corrected.

By: Will

Will — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 03:29:33 +0000

Matthew, what do you mean “Spinal Tap pretended to be an English band”? Spinal Tap was an English band — after all Nigel Tufnel was portrayed by the Hon. Christopher Haden-Guest, son of the 4th Baron Haden-Guest.

By: cryptoguy

cryptoguy — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 16:34:00 +0000

Funny, I just took a look at my work phone (a Nokia E90).

It goes to 7 bars.

By: Matthew

Matthew — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 15:00:16 +0000

What isn’t, Buzz? I said that some of the twelve-year-olds would get the lewdness & others wouldn’t. When I shared a house with a twelve-year-old, he loved Nine Inch Nails. One day, I casually said that I didn’t think that their nails were nine inches. He looked at me with genuine puzzlement. One of the pleasures of maturity: recognizing the salacity in practically everything.

By: BuzzTank

BuzzTank — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 01:43:27 +0000

I’m pretty sure my son wasn’t wearing the t-shirt to turn it into a pathetically lewd joke. He just thought it was funny. I suspect “pathetically lewd” is in the brain of the beholder.

By: Frank

Frank — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 18:00:21 +0000

I’ve never seen SPINAL TAP so the reference was missed but the hype of
6 bars was self-evident. My gripe is that I’ve got one bar for phone and 2 for texting and I don’t use the text.

By: Dave Van Domelen

Dave Van Domelen — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 17:17:14 +0000

Four bars used to be the standard. Then some company (I forget which) started bragging that they got FIVE bars. This strip is probably mocking that in addition to the Spinal Tap ref.

By: Dave

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 16:53:48 +0000

Perfect LOL for me. No CIDU at all. Joke well received and laughed when I saw it yesterday (I’m a fan of Off The Mark).

By: Matthew

Matthew — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 16:12:53 +0000

You know, we explained this comic 36 hours ago. At this point, though, with the extent of the comments & getting to see the scene in Spinal Tap again (thanks, Blogan!), one begins to realize the depth & complexity of this joke. This joke taps into something in the American (maybe the Western European—Spinal Tap pretended to be an English band) psyche. Not simply bigger is better, but the proud stupidity, the ignorance of the flim-flammery. When the twelve-year-olds proudly wear t-shirts that say “It goes up to eleven”, they are celebrating this stupidity & the spirit that wants everything bigger. They are turning it into a pathetically lewd joke, too, of course—which some of ’em got & others didn’t. What is the allure of this insubstantial braggadocio? There’s a dissertation in this: “It goes up to 11”: Humor Celebrating Ignorant & Stupid Braggadocio in American Pop Culture”.