Editing 406: Venting

{{comic
| number    = 406
| date      = April 4, 2008
| title     = Venting
| image     = venting.png
| titletext = P.P.S. I can kill you with my brain.
}}

==Explanation==
This is yet another xkcd comic referencing ''{{w|Firefly (TV series)|Firefly}}'', but it's not so much about ''Firefly'' itself as about [[Summer Glau]]. Summer Glau is an American actress best known for playing {{w|River Tam}} in ''Firefly'' and ''{{w|Serenity (film)|Serenity}}'', as well as Cameron in the ''{{w|Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles}}'' series. [[Cueball]] says that he gives a long and seemingly well-researched reply to a stupid comment on a blog when he feels angry as a way to vent. What we see of his comment begins with Cueball describing the original comment's incoherent and inconsistent spelling and grammar. Then, he proceeds to rip apart the commentator by citing their historical and political ignorance. He signs his comment as "Summer Glau", after which he reminds the blogger to watch the next season of ''Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles series''.

One likely reason that he uses "Summer Glau" is that she is worshipped by geeks the world over, even those incapable of writing coherent blog posts or comments. CrackMonkey74 would not risk responding negatively to the post, just in case it was actually written by Summer Glau, as they don't want everyone to hate them for attempting to argue with her. In this way, Cueball is assured of the last word in this argument, which makes for a most satisfying vent.

Another possible explanation is that River Tam has a genius-level intellect and is also mentally disturbed. Given xkcd's trend of comparing ''Firefly'' characters to their respective actors (especially in [[:Category:The Race|The Race series]]), Cueball is probably using Summer Glau's name simply because an exhaustively researched blog comment seems like something River Tam -- and thus possibly Summer Glau -- would do. The name ''CrackMonkey74'' also appears in [[202: YouTube]] as one of the clueless YouTube commentators, and later appears in [[574: Swine Flu]].


The title text refers to the famous dialogue delivered by River Tam in ''Firefly'' Episode 11: "{{w|Trash (Firefly)|Trash}}".

==Transcript==
:[Caption above the panel:] When I need to blow off steam, I find a particularly stupid blog comment and reply with an exhaustively researched word-by-word rebuttal, which I sign 'Summer Glau'.

:[Cueball is sitting at a desk, typing in front of a monitor. A curved line leads up from his hands to the text above.]
:In conclusion, on examining the above post by CrackMonkey74, after carefully working my way through the haze of spelling errors (documented in section 3), abuse of capitalization (section 4), and general crimes against grammar and syntax (sections 7-8), I have demonstrated that, beneath it all, the work betrays the author's staggering ignorance of the history and the workings of our electoral system. While the author's wildly swerving train of thought did at one point flirt with coherence, this brief encounter was more likely a chance event (see statistical analysis in table 5) than a result of even rudimentary lucidity.
::-Summer Glau
:P.S. Don't forget to check out the next season of the Sarah Connor Chronicles this fall on Fox!

==Trivia==
Cueball's statement has been widely reused by many bloggers after the release of this comic.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Summer Glau]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Terminator]]