2964: Olympic Sports

2024-07-27T23:51:07Z

162.158.114.198: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2964
| date = July 26, 2024
| title = Olympic Sports
| image = olympic_sports_2x.png
| imagesize = 553x328px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Thankfully for everyone involved, the Winter Olympics officials spotted me and managed to stop me before I got to the ski jump.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by A VERY CONCERNED OLYMPIC OFFICIAL - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

In this comic, [[Randall]], who has no athletic training, imagines himself participating in various events at the {{w|2024 Summer Olympics|2024 Paris (Summer) Olympics}}, with his degrees of failure measured in terms of their humor potential.

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Olympic sports ranked by how funny it would be if a regular person competed
! How funny !! Sport !! Reason !! Depicted
|-
|rowspan=5| Not that funny || {{w|Rowing}} || The person would simply struggle to row effectively. ||
|-
| {{w|Fencing}} || They might fail to land any hits, but it wouldn't be overly humorous. ||
|-
| {{w|Weightlifting}} || They might just fail to lift the weights. ||
|-
| {{w|Golf}} || They would likely miss the ball or hit poorly. || ✔
|-
| {{w|Archery}} || Arrows might miss the target, but it's not particularly amusing. || ✔
|-
|rowspan=5| Pretty funny || {{w|Swimming}} || They might struggle to stay afloat or swim awkwardly. ||
|-
| {{w|Long jump}} || They would likely make a very short jump. ||
|-
| {{w|Pole vault}} || They would miss the plant and end up dropping the pole and running under the bar. ||
|-
| {{w|Diving}} || Awkward or painful-looking dives could ensue. ||
|-
| {{w|Hurdles}} || They might trip and fall over the hurdles. || ✔
|-
|rowspan=5| Incredibly funny || {{w|Figure skating}} || They might slip and fall continuously on the ice. ||
|-
| {{w|Horizontal bar}} || They might fail to perform any flips or fall off the bar. ||
|-
| {{w|Equestrian sports}} || They might struggle to control the horse or fall off. || ✔
|-
| {{w|Freestyle BMX}} || They might crash or fail to perform tricks. ||
|-
| {{w|Pommel horse}} || They might awkwardly flop around or fall off. || ✔
|}

The title text may be a reference to ski jumper {{w|Vinko Bogataj}}, whose spectacular crash at a (non-Olympic) ski flying event in 1970 in Oberstdorf, (then) West Germany became emblematic of the expression "the agony of defeat" in the opening narration of the popular US television program "{{w|Wide World of Sports (American TV program)|Wide World of Sports}}". Alternatively the reference may be to {{w|Eddie the Eagle}} whose poor performance at the {{w|1988 Winter Olympics}} led to the introduction of the top 50 or 30% qualifying rule

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:Olympic Sports ranked by how funny it would be if I, a regular person without athletic training, snuck onto the team to compete:
:[Three panels are shown with a header, a bullet list with five listed sports in each, and one or two depictions of sports.]
:Not that funny
:Rowing
:Fencing
:Weightlifting
:Golf
:Archery
:[Cueball putts a ball with a golf club and misses the hole.]
:[Cueball is aiming with a bow. Three arrows are on the ground at various distances from the target.]
:Pretty funny
:Swimming
:Long jump
:Pole vault
:Diving
:Hurdles
:[Cueball runs stomach-first into a hurdle, while holding a hand on his head. Another hurdle behind him has fallen down.]
:Cueball: [Bonk] Ow! [Bonk] Ow!
:Incredibly funny
:Figure skating
:Horizontal bar
:Equestrian
:BMX freestyle
:Pommel horse
:[Cueball tries to balance himself on a pommel horse. His both hands and one leg are down, while the other leg is slightly raised.]
:Cueball: Look! Look!
:[A horse rider wearing a black helmet is struggling to maintain balance on the running horse, with both hands and one leg raised.]
:Horse rider with black helmet: AAAAA!

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Sport]]

Talk:2942: Fluid Speech

2024-06-06T03:24:33Z

162.158.114.198:

I've noticed that this doesn't seem to be the case in all languages. For example, when native Polish speakers talk rapidly (even when speaking English), they enunciate every sound accurately in quick succession while flattening out the tone and rhythm of their speech. I wonder if this is because Polish is an inflected language where the grammar of the sentence is determined by endings of words rather than word order. Does anyone know if there have been any studies on this? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.49|162.158.74.49]] 23:12, 5 June 2024 (UTC)

:I'm not linguists but based on how many those are, definitely. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 00:10, 6 June 2024 (UTC)

:Russian also has vowel reduction like English and it's a Slavic language like Polish, so I don't think so. Although someone who knows more than me might be able to chip in on whether the effect is stronger in English. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.114.198|162.158.114.198]] 03:24, 6 June 2024 (UTC)

I've just added a very barebones version of an explanation based on what I could understand from the comic. I can tell that the four diagrams depict that of the human mouth but since I am not a linguist, I lack the knowledge of various terms and thus, can't fully explain the comic. I understand what the comic is trying to convey, I just can't explain it. Looking forward to seeing how this progresses. [[User:OmniDoom|OmniDoom]] ([[User talk:OmniDoom|talk]]) 00:22, 6 June 2024 (UTC)

I don't think #4 is a real IPA symbol, but as I am not a linguist, I have no idea. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.36|162.158.91.36]] 01:38, 6 June 2024 (UTC)

The hovertext joke is that every English speaker fully pronounces the first "t" in "Hot Potato". It's at the end of "hot". Nobody says "ha potato". [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 03:01, 6 June 2024 (UTC)

:Unless you mean "the glottal stop should be considered an allophone of <t> at the end of syllables" then yes they do. It's /hoʔ/, not /hotʰ/. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.114.198|162.158.114.198]] 03:24, 6 June 2024 (UTC)

explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2964: Olympic Sports

Talk:2942: Fluid Speech