145: Parody Week: Dinosaur Comics

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
Revision as of 21:49, 13 October 2013 by 50.151.2.168 (talk) (Transcript)
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Parody Week: Dinosaur Comics
Guys: while I was writing this, I accidentally swallowed a table-size slab of drywall. I know! Wacky.
Title text: Guys: while I was writing this, I accidentally swallowed a table-size slab of drywall. I know! Wacky.

Explanation

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Dinosaur Comics (wikipedia article) is a webcomic by Ryan North. The artwork never changes, save a few rare exceptions, and only the dialogue is different. Randall has borrowed the usual artwork and font.

For those who don't read it, here's a typical strip.

Randall makes several shots at recurring themes in Dinosaur Comics. T-Rex (the green dinosaur) is bold and enthusiastic, discussing various topics, a favorite of which appears to be linguistics. Dromiceiomimus, the white dinosaur in the third panel, usually responds calmly to T-Rex's discussions. Utahraptor, the orange dinosaur, typically contradicts T-Rex, but Randall subverts this pattern and has him agree.

Just like xkcd, Dinosaur Comics also has title texts. Ryan's title texts tend to be bizarre non-sequiturs, and the title text in the parody seems to be a riff on this.


This comic is a part of the Parody Week, just joking about other webcomics.

Transcript

T-Rex: THINGS I AM UPPITY ABOUT: "They" as a third-person singular gender-free pronoun.
T-Rex: I'm all for it!
Dromiceiomimus: But isn't that terrible grammar?
T-Rex: Only by recent convention! It's been in use that way for centuries, and its use is widely accepted! ALSO: this lets us avoid ridiculous constructs like "he/she", "s/he", "xe" or "hirs"!
Utahraptor: T-Rex, I... agree.
T-Rex: What?
Utahraptor: That sounds good to me!
Utahraptor: Normally I'd jump in with an objection, but I think your point makes sense.
T-Rex: Could it be that the rift in our author's mind has finally healed? Is he no longer locked in perpetual war with the self-doubt that lurks in his subc-
Narrator: IN A WORLD WHERE THERE IS STILL A LAND BRIDGE BETWEEN ASIA AND NORTH AMERICA FOR SOME REASON:
T-Rex: -onscious?
Narrator: ALSO HOW ABOUT IN THIS WORLD EVERYONE IS BICURIOUS

Trivia

  • The topic of gender-neutral pronouns has been specifically covered in Dinosaur Comics, five years after this parody.


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Discussion

The word "bicurious" has also been referenced in Dinosaur Comics: [1] [2] 199.27.128.116 00:27, 26 April 2015 (UTC)

Great, added for the explanation. --Kynde (talk) 20:21, 30 July 2016 (UTC)

The paragraph saying Randall is unfamiliar w/ genderqueer pronouns seems mistaken to me. He doesn't delve into a discussion of the different shades of meaning there, sure, but I think that's a stylistic choice consistent with making a readable comic --172.69.22.104 02:15, 27 July 2018 (UTC)

I think this page needs to be updated, as you don't need to be genderqueer to use neopronouns. Anyone can use whatever pronouns they want, and I don't agree that the definition of genderqueer on this page is the best one. In fact, the large majority of people who use neopronouns identify as non-binary, and this is seeming to show it's age.