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Saturday, March 22, 2014

Comic 137: Fuck. That. Punchline.

Comic title: Dreams


Alt text: In Connor's second thesis it is stated 'There is no fate but what we make for ourselves.' Does the routine destroy our creativity or do we lose creativity and fall into the routine? Anyway, who's up for a road trip!

Another one from Xkcd's early days, and it's a wall of text. So I might as well get the easy criticisms out of the... You know what? It's wall-of-text-ness doesn't matter. That wall of text is supposed to look like an angry rant, and it is. Let's move on.

This comic says something that really, really needs to be said. So here goes: A* for the message. This is an attack on the mundane, the normal, the path of least resistance. Most people are overly cautious in their day-to-day lives, refusing to snap out of the same old habits, because it's easy to do nothing, and because of what someone else might think if they broke with societal norms and just did something different.

This is a message that needs to be said more often. It is a message that I live my life by.

And yet, it's badly phrased, like really badly. It repeats itself in several places - "reliving a few days over and over" vs "each day a slight variation on the last". It's sloppy. It's heartfelt, but it falls over itself. The artwork around the text is weak too.

Yet those were only minor blemishes. This comic's defining flaw is the final three words in the final three panels. "Fuck. That. Shit." says Randall, as if what he said before that was somehow too profound and he had to tone it down a notch or twenty.

I get that "Fuck. That. Shit." is said in reference to the first panel's line about a future employer being able to read what someone wrote online. But by this point, the comic is not about that anymore. The angry rant has taken on a life of its own. It has said more about society as a whole than it has about mere online etiquette, and then it is undermined by unnecessary comedy.

It's not just forcing a punchline for the sake of a punchline. He is making this terrible forced punchline seem like the original point of the comic. No. F*.

And because of this edit by a forumite, the punchline sounds like a command to perform scatophillic acts. That is quite an achievement by Xkcdsw, because it somehow manages to make the original comic even worse.

137 is not so much a rough diamond, but rather a diamond smothered in shit. While, the execution is piss-poor (to mix metaphors), the message rings true. And for what it's worth, Randall did revisit this exact theme with the Choices series. And in my opinion he did a much better job of it. I actually saw Choices first, and this one later, so 137 felt like a pale knock-off of that.

Anyway, those Choices comics have said something that really resonated with me, and this comic does at least try to say it: remember your dreams, take risks, and never resign to a typical life.

And for the record, not posting something online because of what a future employer might think about it might just be the stupidest thing in the world. After all, do you really think a risk like that would stop me from posting on Xkcd-sucks?

14 comments:

  1. Pretty sure you're jewing yourself out of the consequences of your writing, "Jon Levi".

    Although if I were your potential employer, I'd reject you for being too generous with your grades. The whole "escaping daily routine / worrying about what employers think" whine has been sounded out in crappy comic medium by Dilbert since the early '90s, and marginally more funnily, even if Scott Adams is a misogynist dullard.

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  2. AAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH IT'S INSTEAD OF ITS ARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

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    1. In the words of one Rob Mason, "You're suffering is exquisite."

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  3. Ah, I can see why you almost like this comic. In my opinion, routine life is underrated and it's rarely mundane. What's "mundane" depends less on the thing and more on the person judging whether it's mundane or not. Frankly, the thing I find most boring is nerdy guys turning up their nose at everyone else's efforts to live their lives, and insisting it's all so meaningless.

    Stop shitting on people's "mundane" aspirations, okay?

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    1. Aww. It looks like a cave-dweller from a Socratic allegory has wandered into the outside world and doesn't like what he sees. How cute! Is the sun too bright for your primitive eyes? Don't worry, cave-dweller. Maybe you should go back into the nice warm cave where you won't hear what the nasty walking people say about you. Your shadow wall will still be there. We really have nothing against your meek little 2-dimensional aspirations. It's just that complex people like us would find it boring just to sit in one place the whole time.

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    2. You criticize my aspirations while knowing absolutely nothing about them, proving my point. It's this attitude that I have a problem with. Your aspirations must be so much more important than mine, because of course you're too superior to have dreams like the common folk.

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  4. How about reviewing comic number 322?

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    1. I expect he thinks it has an excellent message that needed to be said no matter how badly A++++++ 999% All Hail Randall's Insight

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    2. 322 would be a good one to review.
      "As someone who likes nerdy girls, I've hired this blonde chick to do my bidding."

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  5. Comics like this one (and the Choices ones) make me mad, because there's no way they can not come across as either preachy or hypocritical (or both).

    The fact that Randall has done strips like this multiple times implies that HE'S the one clicking "Refresh" all day. He doesn't like it, so he writes comics on how to fix it. However, he has not fixed it himself, so either things aren't as easy as he's making them out to be, or they are and he's just not doing it.

    The alternative, of course, is that Randall HAS transcended his previously mundane life. If that's the case, though, then these comics are preachy and presumptuous. "I've done this, and you're all probably the way I used to be, so here's how you should get out of that slump." Yep, that's what I need - words of wisdom from Randall Munroe himself.

    But even beyond those two points, I think the reason this sort of talk irks me so much is that if you really meant it, you wouldn't be saying it. You'd be going out and doing new things. You'd be meeting new people. You'd be taking chances, making mistakes, and getting messy. You know what you wouldn't be doing? Posting about it on the internet.

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    1. We take it that you are NEVER hypocritical, or preachy, (or both) then. If not, then you have no right to be mad.
      " if you really meant it, you wouldn't be saying it. You'd be going out and doing new things. You'd be meeting new people. ..."
      So you ALWAYS do EXACTLY-TO-THE-LETTER as you say? Well, good for you. The world could use many more of you for sure.

      Give the guy a break! He only wrote it for a web-comic. Lighten-up a little. Again, I should point out that it's just a comic. If you really want to split hairs you could go on and on and then some about the *real meaning* and (God forbid) the Truth in it. This is a piece of humor, so let it be just that. Meaning, it wasn't really meant to convey some extremely hardcore Truth. And if you don't agree with it, just forgive and move on, because it wasn't meant to offend you either.

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