Difference between revisions of "491: Twitter"

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
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(Explanation: changed wording to better describe signs)
(Transcript: Rewrote the transcript based on the official transcript. The original indicates that Cueball is typing, which is most likely not the case.)
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{{comic
 
{{comic
 
| number    = 491
 
| number    = 491
| date      =  
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| date      = October 20, 2008
 
| title    = Twitter
 
| title    = Twitter
 
| image    = twitter.png
 
| image    = twitter.png
| titletext = If long tooltips / cut you off / then upgrade from / firefox 2 / Burma Shave
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| titletext = If long tooltips / cut off for you / then upgrade from / Firefox 2 / Burma Shave
 
}}
 
}}
  
 
==Explanation==
 
==Explanation==
This comic is playing off of an old shaving cream product's advertising campaign employed on American highways from 1925 to 1963. These adds used short poems, each line arranged sequentially on a sign along a highway, the last line always being Burma Shave, the name of the shaving cream. Originally these ads only described the product, but others included driving safety messages.  
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This comic plays off of an old shaving cream product's {{w|Burma-Shave}} advertising campaign employed on American highways from {{w|1925}} to {{w|1963}}. These ads used short poems, each line arranged sequentially on a sign along a highway, the last line always being "Burma Shave", the name of the shaving cream. Originally these ads only described the product, but others included driving safety messages.
{{Incomplete}}
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[[xkcd]] uses the image html-title-attribute text (sometime confused with {{w|Alt-text}}) as a major part of the joke-telling — on most browsers the title-text shows as a "{{w|tool-tip}}" when the cursor is left hovering over the image. {{w|Firefox 2}} had the longest standing annoying bug where only the initial part of the title text were shown as a tool-tip, creating a "Burma-Shave" effect of only being able to see some of the text. Unlike Burma-Shave where you would see the rest of the text as you were driving down the highway, Firefox didn't actually show you the rest of the text unless you right-clicked-show-property and you would be able to see a sideways scrollable field of the (alt)-title-text in the properties for the image.
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{{w|Twitter}} is a messaging service where your messages are restricted in length, so to get a longer easay sent you will need to break it up in smaller fragments — like the {{w|Burma-Shave}} messages.
  
 
==Transcript==
 
==Transcript==
:[Cueball is sitting in a caster office chair typing onto a smartphone]
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:[Cueball with a handheld device sits on an office chair.]
: ''Beep Beep'
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:Device: ''Beep beep''
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:Device: On Twitter
  
:Phone: "On Twitter Feeds"
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:Device: ''Beep beep''
  
:[More typing]
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:Device: An odd regression:
  
:Phone: "An odd regression"
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:Device: ''Beep beep''
  
:[More Typing]
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:Device: Ancient memes
  
:Phone: "Ancient Memes"
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:Device: ''Beep beep''
  
:[More Typing]
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:Device: Find new expression
  
:Phone: "Find new expression"
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:Device: ''Beep beep''
  
:[More typing]
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:Device: Burma-shave
  
:Phone: "Burma Shave"
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{{comic discussion}}
{{Incomplete}}
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[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

Revision as of 04:03, 25 July 2014

Twitter
If long tooltips / cut off for you / then upgrade from / Firefox 2 / Burma Shave
Title text: If long tooltips / cut off for you / then upgrade from / Firefox 2 / Burma Shave

Explanation

This comic plays off of an old shaving cream product's Burma-Shave advertising campaign employed on American highways from 1925 to 1963. These ads used short poems, each line arranged sequentially on a sign along a highway, the last line always being "Burma Shave", the name of the shaving cream. Originally these ads only described the product, but others included driving safety messages.

xkcd uses the image html-title-attribute text (sometime confused with Alt-text) as a major part of the joke-telling — on most browsers the title-text shows as a "tool-tip" when the cursor is left hovering over the image. Firefox 2 had the longest standing annoying bug where only the initial part of the title text were shown as a tool-tip, creating a "Burma-Shave" effect of only being able to see some of the text. Unlike Burma-Shave where you would see the rest of the text as you were driving down the highway, Firefox didn't actually show you the rest of the text unless you right-clicked-show-property and you would be able to see a sideways scrollable field of the (alt)-title-text in the properties for the image.

Twitter is a messaging service where your messages are restricted in length, so to get a longer easay sent you will need to break it up in smaller fragments — like the Burma-Shave messages.

Transcript

[Cueball with a handheld device sits on an office chair.]
Device: Beep beep
Device: On Twitter
Device: Beep beep
Device: An odd regression:
Device: Beep beep
Device: Ancient memes
Device: Beep beep
Device: Find new expression
Device: Beep beep
Device: Burma-shave


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Discussion

Just end every sentence in Burma Shave Spongebog (talk)

Never tried this/It could work/I just need an idea/Wait, crap./Burma-Shave

Are we sure that Cueball is typing? It seems to me that he is getting a series of texts (or a series of tweets), because of the "Beep Beep" sound: cell phones typically don't beep when typing. --Troy0 (talk) 09:25, 11 July 2014 (UTC)

I have to agree, add in that the zig-zag is used for external text usually, like the other end of a call. 173.245.56.154 20:35, 22 July 2014 (UTC)
The transcript was accordingly edited. --Troy0 (talk) 04:05, 25 July 2014 (UTC

I don't think the title text explanation is correct. He's not suggesting you upgrade to "Burma Shave" - he's saying, "Upgrade from Firefox 2". Burma Shave just follows. I'll edit it. --108.162.216.54 12:55, 26 October 2014 (UTC)

This comic not appearing for me on the xkcd.com website, anyone else? 162.158.122.6 20:24, 15 December 2016 (UTC) For sale: baby shoes, never worn