Editing 1529: Bracket

A {{w|Bracket (tournament)|tournament bracket}} shows the planned series of matchups in a tournament. In this comic [[Randall]] has shown a plan for a tournament between a wide range of cultural icons, both real and fictional, based mostly on similarities in their names. Various Internet groups have speculated on who would win in a fight between characters from different films. It may be relevant that the film {{w|Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice}} was soon to be released at the time the comic was made where the two eponymous {{w|superheroes}}, {{w|Batman}} and {{w|Superman}}, fight against each other.

The individual starting pairings are generally based on common or similar given names or surnames. Some adjacent brackets are "segued" by someone like Jeff Daniels, who segues from a bracket of "Jeff"s into a bracket of "Daniels"es. The bracket itself is fairly arbitrary. Most initial matchups are pairs, although several are trios and there's a quadruplet in the Russels group, while a single entry, {{w|Beyoncé}}, is given a first- and second-round {{w|bye (sports)|bye}}. Most of the participants in the tournament are people, with a few exceptions. {{w|Shallots}} (small onions), {{w|scallops}} (bivalve mollusks), and {{w|scallions}} (green onions) are similar sounding foods, therefore may be confusing for some individuals (perhaps including [[Randall]]). The final grouping on the lower right of the bracket features a several retail stores and a film.

The title text may be a reference to {{w|Dr. Dre}}'s 2001 song "{{w|Forgot About Dre}}" or could simply be a reference to the large number of pop culture personas that include the word "Doctor", such as {{w|Gregory House|Doctor House}}, {{w|Mehmet Oz|Dr. Oz}}, {{w|Doctor Eggman|Dr. Eggman}}, {{w|Phil McGraw|Dr. Phil}}, {{w|Dr. Watson}}, {{w|Emmett Brown|"Doc" Brown}}, {{w|Dr. Seuss}}, {{w|Dr Pepper}}, {{w|Doctor Doom}}, {{w|Zoidberg|Dr. Zoidberg}}, {{w|Dr. Horrible}}'s Sing-Along Blog and {{w|List of fictional doctors|many others}}. A simpler explanation is that it would cause the reader to question "Doctor Who?" answering their own question, although this answer would be incorrect because The Doctor is already present. It could also be a reference to the dual meaning of "The Doctor," either he meant to include Time Lord from Doctor Who and forgot about the EMH from Voyager, or he remembered the EMH and forgot the Time Lord.

The incentive for the comic may have been the {{w|2015 French Open|French Open 2015}}, which started on the day of the publication.

The comic inspired several groups to play out versions of the bracket.  One user-voting based match-up on twitter, [https://twitter.com/xkcdbracket XKCD Bracket], was featured by Randall on the xkcd home page, with a link at the top of the website, although the account was not created by Randall. (The link was part of a "news" flash, the other was regarding his book based on [[1133: Up Goer Five]]. See more on this news in that comics explanation). In the final match on July 29, Neil Armstrong defeated Mister Spock (see the [https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CLKJUpFWIAAlDnW.png:orig complete bracket]). The link was removed sometimes before Monday, 10 August 2015, within two weeks of the final result being revealed.

Later Randall has made one smaller but similar bracket in [[1819: Sweet 16]], and then an interactive [[:Category:April fools' comics|April fools' comics]] in 2019, with an even larger bracket for determining the best emoji in [[2131: Emojidome]]. The bracket for this comic was shown with links from the comic during the matches.

|colspan="2" rowspan="4"|<nowiki>*</nowiki> Armstrong

|Actor in ''King Kong'', ''The Big Lebowski'', ''Iron Man'', ''Tron: Legacy''

|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|{{w|Richard Simmons}}

|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|Host of exercise programs

|bgcolor="E6E6E6" rowspan="2"|{{w|Gene Simmons}}

|bgcolor="E6E6E6" rowspan="2"|Musician, known from ''KISS''

|Actor in the ''{{w|X-Men}}'' franchise as {{w|Wolverine (character)|Wolverine}}

|colspan="2" rowspan="2"|Singers with Stage Names Referencing Weight/Games

|{{w|Chubby Checker}}

|Singer famous for "The Twist"

|{{w|Fats Domino}}

|colspan="2" rowspan="3"|F*rell*

|{{w|Will Ferrell}}

|{{w|The Farrelly Brothers}}

|colspan="2" rowspan="2"|J<nowiki>*</nowiki> * *evitt/*ewitt (three names)

|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|{{w|Joseph Gordon-Levitt}}

|-

|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|{{w|Jennifer Love Hewitt}}

|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|Actress in ''Garfield: The Movie'' <!-- Nothing else really -->

|-

|colspan="2" rowspan="2"|<nowiki>*</nowiki> Wahlberg

|colspan="2" rowspan="3"|Mark *

|{{w|Mark Ruffalo}}

|Actor, known for his role as {{w|Hulk (comics)|the Hulk}} in the film ''{{w|The Avengers (2012 film)|The Avengers}}''

|{{w|Mark Shuttleworth}}

|Entrepreneur, founder of {{w|Ubuntu (operating system)|Ubuntu}}

|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|Actress known for dancing with {{w|Fred Astaire}}

|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|Confusing reference to {{w|Fred Rogers}} (host of children's show, popularly known as "Mister Rogers") and to {{w|Fred Astaire}} (Dancer, actor, and singer)

|Ambiguous reference to either the {{w|The Doctor (Doctor Who)|main protagonist}} of the science fiction series ''{{w|Doctor Who}}'' or the {{w|Doctor (Star Trek: Voyager)|emergency medical hologram}} in ''{{w|Star Trek: Voyager}}''.

|colspan="2" rowspan="3"|J* Lewis

|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|{{w|Jerry Lewis}}

|rowspan="2"|Chris * (Avengers actors)

|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|{{w|Chris Evans (actor)|Chris Evans}}

|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|Small onions (although the word 'shallot' can also refer to green onions in some dialects)

|colspan="2" rowspan="2"|Suz* (Similar phonetics)

|{{w|Siouxie Sioux}}

|{{w|Suzanne Vega}}

|colspan="2" rowspan="2"|<nowiki>*</nowiki> Arnold *

|rowspan="4"|1/48

|bgcolor="E6E6E6" rowspan="2"|{{w|Arnold Palmer}}

|bgcolor="E6E6E6" rowspan="2"|Golf player

|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|{{w|Amanda Palmer}}

|Scottish poet and writer

|British explorer of Virginia

|rowspan="3"|Van *

|rowspan="3"|1/96

|{{w|Van Morrison}}

|Singer/songwriter

|{{w|Van Wilder}}

|rowspan="3"|1/64

|bgcolor="E6E6E6" rowspan="2"|{{w|Rip Van Winkle}}

|Singer of "Torn"

|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|{{w|The Body Shop}}

|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|Shop

|bgcolor="E6E6E6" rowspan="2"|{{w|Bath and Body Works}}

|rowspan="2"|{{w|Bed Bath and Beyond}}

|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|Singer

|}

*The "Chris" group (Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Pine, Chris Pratt) was later referenced in Chris Pine's opening monologue for SNL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGurtL83zhY

*Shallots, scallops and scallions were mentioned together in [[2372: Dialect Quiz]].

*There is another comic that juxtaposed similar-looking names: [[1970]] (Name dominoes).

<br/>[These are paired two and two.]

<br/>Louis Armstrong

<br/>[These are paired two and two.]

<br/>Jeff Gordan

<br/>Jeff Daniels

<br/>Jack Daniels

<br/>[These are paired two and two.]

<br/>Orson Welles

<br/>Alan Rickman

<br/>[The first four, three and two are paired.]

<br/>Eugene V. Debs

<br/>[These are paired two and two.]

<br/>[The first three and two are paired.]

<br/>Philip Pullman

<br/>[The first two, and then three times three are paired.]

<br/>Ginger Rogers

<br/>[These are paired two and two.]

<br/>Jerry Lee Lewis

<br/>Jerry Lewis

<br/>Jenny Lewis

<br/>[These are paired two and two.]

<br/>Chris Evans

<br/>Chris Hemsworth

<br/>[These are paired.]

<br/>Shallots

<br/>[These are paired.]

<br/>[These are paired.]

<br/>[These are paired two and two.]

<br/>Wes Craven

<br/>[These are paired two and two.]

<br/>[The first three, two and two are paired.]

<br/>Van Halen

<br/>Van Morrison

<br/>[The first four are paired two and two the last is the only one not paired.]

<br/>The Body Shop

<br/>Bath and Body Works

<br/>Bed Bath and Beyond

<br/>Beyond Thunderdome

<br/>Beyoncé