1909

My favorite XKCDs these days are the ones where Randall inadvertently reveals that he is the kind of person he likes to think he's taking down a peg. What's that? You mean you weren't able to solve the problem of information storage in "a long time [like, 3 minutes, at least]" thinking about it?

Randall is a firm adherent to the maxim that if you can't be the first person to notice something, you can at least make sure not to say anything original about it.

1908

I'm starting to wonder if Randall actually suffers from OCD.

1907
This is from the River Tam school of spouting erudite-sounding trivia in the hope that it will make you sound smart*. Lots of people seem to think this kind of thing is deep:

To which the obvious rejoinder is "so is dog shit"

But the whole point of things like this is that it makes you sound special. If it doesn't differentiate you from anyone else, it doesn't actually make you special. As Matt 3:9 says, "Do not presume to say to yourselves, 'We have complicated immune systems.' For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up complicated immune systems." We were all born, but some of us treated that as a jumping-off point.


*Yeah. First, no one cares how long it takes to drain a human body of blood with the proper vacuum equipment. Second, you can do it faster with improper equipment, so it's a completely meaning-free statement. No one who hears it benefits in any way.

1906

What's going on with the chair here? Most office chairs have five wheels arranged in a star pattern supporting the central shaft. This one appears to have two (or maybe four, since we're in Hieroglyphic XKCD Profile Vision), with what appears to be some kind of buttress system.

Also, the lack of a facial expression makes it hard to tell whether the character is supposed to be pleased or depressed about this.

1905

"People who are snobs about things I don't care about are stupid."

1904

The existence of an actual supervillain makes "Physics" conspicuous by its absence.

1903

I'd say this stupid "bun" thing was shaping up to be the new XKCD phone, but unfortunately he's still writing those too. And, just in case that wasn't bad enough, we also have this stupid political official angle, almost like Randall knew the "bun" thing was dumb and flailed around for a couple minutes trying to make it more interesting. I think the worst part, though, is that the Governor's reactions are so banal. He's not addressing this situation in any kind of interesting way, which leads up to White Beret Guy's ever-so-quirky responses in the last panel. I guess "it's been an honor to serve" is supposed to be the punch line, but why not have WBG say something like "Good idea! They'll want to hear about it too!" You can't have a comedy routine with two straight men*.

*You know, the straight man, as opposed to the guy telling the jokes-- like Margaret Dumont and Groucho Marx. What did you think I meant?

1902

What is it with this guy and maps of the United States?

1901

First, Randall has already echoed C.S. Lewis's critique of this kind of meta-condescension/false humility. Second, Randall appears totally oblivious of the fact that he is the guy on the left, not the guy on the right.

1900

"Reading Wikipedia", hmm?

1899

Nothing much to say about this one, except that Randall's failure to draw the ground in the third panel reveals the stick figures as the jumble of meaningless geometries they have always been.

1898

Having to spend the first 3/4 of your comic explaining why it's a bad joke is a bad sign.

They're even marching perfectly in step with each other again! Someone less lazy than me should check if this exact art (sic) has been used before.

1897

I have to admit, I thought this one was funny at first, but then the caption ruins it. There was a perfectly good joke here-- why did it have to be ruined by Randall's unbearable smug narrator voice?