Comments on: LOL-February 23

By: Lost in A**2

Lost in A**2 — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 02:08:44 +0000

Well, some might point that there are five players and a pep-talker,
and draw a few conclusions. But then, there is the alt-text:

img src=”http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/pep_talk.png”
title=”Listen! They said a team of chess players coached by
someone with no understanding of basketball would never
be competitive in the NBA! Well, it turns out they’re pretty
perceptive.”
alt=”Pep Talk”

By: The Ploughman

The Ploughman — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 21:02:44 +0000

But Pete, if we don’t analyze it here, who will? WHO?

By: Pete

Pete — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 19:20:16 +0000

Look, people, it’s a joke. It doesn’t have to make sense. Don’t try to make sense of the game rules.

By: Elyrest

Elyrest — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 17:10:12 +0000

“the ball is live after it goes 10 years”

This is a REALLY long game.

By: Bob

Bob — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 15:30:58 +0000

Jack - on a kick-off in football, the ball is live after it goes 10 years. The kicking team could recover the ball, and the game could continue. As noted, in basketball, if the team doesn’t inbound the ball (after a basket by the opposing team) within 5 seconds, it is a violation and the ball is turned over to the other team… and the game could continue. In reality, the referees would forfeit the game to the team still on the playing surface.

By: RaleighRob

RaleighRob — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 14:07:27 +0000

The last one would have been cuter if the screen had two big white knobs on it.

By: Jack

Jack — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 13:23:12 +0000

What game it is is ambiguous. It could also be basketball. I doubt that the sound would carry that well all the way across a football field, the sidelines, and into a locker room. If the other team was not present, after so many seconds of not inbounding it, I believe the ball would turn back over to the other team for delay of game or some such.

Or it could have been a two-point conversion after a touchdown. The only thing is, I don’t see how a football game could continue in this manner: once the scoring team kicked it off to the other team that wasn’t there, they technically wouldn’t be able to touch the ball until the nonexistant-on-the-field other team touched it…hence, they would just stand there and stare at the ball indefinitely while the clock ran down…but I think that football (and basketball too) probably has some rule that the other team must be on the field/court to commence with the game.

By: David N

David N — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 04:30:07 +0000

No, the game is football. The other team went for 2 - why not, the other team wasn’t even on the field. Plus, in basketball the ball is dead after a score until the other team inbounds it. No team to inbound means no game.

By: Lola

Lola — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 01:48:02 +0000

This is a take on a common gambit of door to door vacuum cleaner salesmen who would throw some dirt onto your carpet and then demonstrate how well their machine worked. So Elyrest has got it dead to rights that this dog would supply his own “fresh” pet stains….something most people would be quick to avoid. Really, in this case, it’s a shakedown.

By: J-L

J-L — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 21:17:20 +0000

Thanks, Elyrest, your explanation makes sense to me.

I guess the artist was trying to convey the joke that a dog salesman has a specific advantage over his human competitors, but the verbose caption kind of threw me off.