1870

EMOJIS 👏 ARE 👏 FOR 👏 TWEENS 👏

I'm completely at a loss here. It looks like this is just a needlessly long-winded way to joke about there being people who are excited about The Emoji Movie, but then the alt text is a needlessly long-winded apology (in the classical sense) for taking emojis seriously, so I just don't know what to believe anymore.

1869

This comic is so banal, so tremendously mediocre, that I forgot I'd read it no fewer than three times today.

1868

If you have to spend a quarter of your comic explaining why the joke doesn't work, maybe you should take a couple steps back. Also, does Randall really think people look out the windows during flights in TYOOL 2017?

Props for actually drawing a recognizable geographical location, I guess.

1867

There should really be a second panel to this, where the silent people say "Oh! That makes me feel a lot better about not getting vaccines."

Apart from its general lack of effort, this comic has some deeply problematic undertones. At first glance, it looks like Randall is striking a blow for feminism by having the educated woman physicist explain things to another inquisitive woman while a silent man gazes on in awe, but it's actually subtly misogynistic, since the educated woman physicist can only mumble, defeated, about her lack of understanding.

Also-- what's this?

It looks like Randall has decided once again to dip his toes in the waters of political activism! I'm sure it'll work this time.

1866

I too know what Russell's teapot is.

1865

What Randall is experiencing is the realization that he is no longer young.

1864

There are no hills in St. Louis.

1863

The irony of pretending to care so much about this is greatly diminished by the overwhelming likelihood that Randall does in fact care very much about this.

1861 and 1862

Thank goodness, just when I was feeling guilty about not having a chance to complain about 1861 in time, Randall does me a favor and completes the most amazingly self-parodic diptych in the entire run of XKCD.

1861 is remarkably condescending and bitchy, especially coming from the guy who wrote 1053 (which was condescending and bitchy in its own way). You don't get to preen about what a generous soul you are and then turn around and sneer at people for being exuberant and curious about new things they're learning. What happened to wanting to spend time around people learning about science? Or bragging about watching NOAA livestreams, so as to commit onanism and exhibitionism simultaneously? No, much more important for Randall Munroe, NASA Engineer (Ret.), to get into some abysmally stupid dick-measuring contest with people who haven't taken 400-level physics courses because they are college freshmen.

To follow this up with 1862-- a catalogue of unfunny jokes every Physics 101 student comes up with independently-- is really a stroke of genius. Clearly I've misjudged Randall; he's still got it after all these years.

1860

He has used this joke better already. This time, it doesn't work for a couple different reasons. First, that "lesson" is the whole point of this conversation in Through the Looking Glass. It's in there precisely to show the impossibility of trying to communicate with someone who doesn't follow any rules of language. The craziness of what Humpty Dumpty is saying is self-evident, and doesn't need to be further underlined by having someone say "but that's crazy". This is the equivalent of all those jokes in Blackadder where Baldrick does something stupid, and then Blackadder tells him how stupid he is.

Second, Humpty Dumpty doesn't say "it means precisely what you, the listener, choose it to mean". He is very specific about this, going on to say that "'the question is... which is to be master-- that's all.'"

On the other hand, this comic has drawing in it, and is actually about language, which makes it the best XKCD in months.

1859

You notice how every time there's one of these single-panel "two people talking about stuff" comics (last seen in 1857), they're always walking in step with each other? Maybe they're all happening on a parade ground at boot camp where people are learning how to march.

Also, showing someone telling someone else a thing is not the same as showing a thing.

1858

I notice XKCD still describes itself as "a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language." Let's see: webcomic? Nope-- there isn't even an attempt to draw any of these things. Romance? Nope. Sarcasm? "I forgot where I was going with this so here's a Skynet joke" may be something, but it isn't sarcasm. I suppose he was hoping that writing the word "drones" a few times would count as language about math, but he's wrong. Congratulations Randall, you're 0 for 5. The laziness here is palpable.