explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:1580: Travel Ghost

2016-10-24T16:51:44Z

173.245.48.180:

Racing Ghosts is a refference to Mario Kart [[User:ẞ qwertz|ẞ qwertz]] ([[User talk:ẞ qwertz|talk]]) 12:50, 21 September 2015 (UTC)

: This seems like a bit of a stretch to me. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.118|173.245.55.118]] 13:35, 21 September 2015 (UTC)

:: It's not a reference to Mario Kart specifically (lots of racing games have ghosts), but that's basically what this is doing - translating the concept of racing ghosts to the real world.--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.70|108.162.216.70]] 13:50, 21 September 2015 (UTC)

::: Well, there are some fitness running apps that support a ghost runner mode, so you run against your best time and get updates if you are in front or behind of your „ghost“. Without actually being able to prove it, I believe (and always assumed) this idea is actually inspired from racing games like Mario Kart. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.115.36|162.158.115.36]] 13:56, 21 September 2015 (UTC)

: Also, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_attack#Video_games [[User:SirKitKat|sirKitKat]] ([[User talk:SirKitKat|talk]]) 14:11, 21 September 2015 (UTC)

So in the title text, is he being replaced with the ghost who always *ahem* comes last? --[[User:SaturNine|SaturNine]] ([[User talk:SaturNine|talk]]) 12:53, 21 September 2015 (UTC)
:I agree. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.154|173.245.50.154]] 13:36, 21 September 2015 (UTC)
:: Women prefer men that are stuck in traffic?? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.235|162.158.90.235]] 19:17, 21 September 2015 (UTC)
::: Nah - just someone who takes the "scenic" route. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.17|108.162.215.17]] 19:50, 21 September 2015 (UTC)
:::: I love that this could be a reference to the move Ghost. Great. -[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 19:51, 21 September 2015 (UTC)

Is this the first time Cueballs children were shown? [[User:ẞ qwertz|ẞ qwertz]] ([[User talk:ẞ qwertz|talk]]) 17:22, 21 September 2015 (UTC)

I don't know if it's worth mentioning that this appears to be a width-first (route-)search algorithm. A memory-heavy but guaranteed 'perfect' solver of best routing, at every point of choice (from the very first, how you start the journey), all possible/practical travel options are explored (including taking a journey in the 'wrong' direction, or waiting for the non-stop train that is not the first to arrive, to take advantage of connections with faster transport links), in parallel according to the total time (or other measure of efficiency) yet taken on each iteration. Unless any 'ghost' arrives at a node that has already been visited by a 'ghost', when it need not continue. Eventually, the most efficient son-of-a-son-of-a-son...-of-a-son-of-a-ghost will reach the destination, indicating the 'correct' answer. At least within the limits of the split-and-propogate algorithm, and the amount of parallelisation available to devote to the problem. (See also the multiple-overlayed 'searches' performed by two-minutes-of-Nicholas Cage, in the near-climactic scene in {{w|Next_(2007_film)|the film 'Next' (beware spoilers!)}}.) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.12|141.101.99.12]] 22:38, 21 September 2015 (UTC)
:Are you aware if such an app exists in real life? I'd be interested in trying to program one (albeit with less tangible ghosts). [[User:LowHangingFruit|LowHangingFruit]] 14:19, 22 September 2015 (UTC)
:: This is an extremely easy algorithm to program (I have taught it while teaching AP (high school) computer science), however it isn't an algorithm that will likely be useful to you since it has exponential time complexity. In other words, if there are more than a trivial number of possibilities to be examined, finding the solution through this algorithm would not finish before you were dead. For those of you who are about to say that if we could run a huge bunch of these possibilities in parallel: merging the results, memory management, context switching, and similar things, even if they could be done in constant time would still mean a constant amount of time for each of an exponential set of possibilities. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.173|108.162.219.173]] 22:29, 22 September 2015 (UTC)tomb
::: Can anyone give me a (couple) Wikipedia articles to read, so I can understand this comment? I'm really interested. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.206|162.158.92.206]] 18:53, 23 September 2015 (UTC)
::::Well, {{w|Breadth-first search}}ing is probably your first step, then hit the appropriate sidebar for other methods. ('m a particular fan of the {{w|A_Star|A* (A-Star)}} method, myself, but that's more probably due to my Dwarf Fortress addiction... ;) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.12|141.101.99.12]] 14:29, 25 September 2015 (UTC)

Will his children have half-siblings that are fathered by the ghost that has replaced him in the bedroom? Or are ghosts infertile?[[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.170|108.162.215.170]] 04:07, 22 September 2015 (UTC)

Doesn't light do this according to some theory, sending out "investigation waves / photons" to determine the quickest way to get anywhere? I'm no expert on this, just some food for thought...
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.249|162.158.90.249]] 11:57, 22 September 2015 (UTC)
:Not really - or at least not real. There may be some "potential photons" in some attempts to describe some quantum-based theory ... but there will certainly be no investigation photons after wave collapse. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 12:12, 22 September 2015 (UTC)
::Yes, really. He's doubtless talking about the Pilot Wave interpretation of quantum mechanics [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilot_wave]] -- which is controversial but still mainstream, not crackpot gibberish; it was proposed/championed by the illustrious Boehm and Bell. Feynman and his advisor also worked on a similar theory. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.53|162.158.255.53]] 23:41, 26 September 2015 (UTC)
::"Everything we call real is made of things that cannot be regarded as real." - Niels Bohr. (Whether or not he's ultimately right, it's an explanation.)[[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.12|141.101.99.12]] 13:48, 22 September 2015 (UTC)

If the simulations explore all travel possibilities, how long will it be until bike ghost gets run off the road by bus ghost? Or flattened by texting driver ghost? [[Special:Contributions/198.41.238.33|198.41.238.33]] 12:30, 22 September 2015 (UTC)
:This reminds me of an Android (and probably iOS) game "Does Not Commute" which takes the classic 'ghost competitor' behaviour (note: 108.162.226.149, below, that it's a common thing) and makes them solid. You run (different) 'missions'/commutes across the playing arena with a succession of new vehicles, each time finding that all your ''previous'' commutes are happening, simultaneously, creating obstacles and hazards. You can collide with (or end up being run into by) another vehicle, replaying the path you set it upon in a previous round, and this causes you to rebound. (But there's no 'kickback' when contact is made with your prior 'self', which sticks solidly to its pre-played path. Thus no need to deal with contradictions and temporal paradoxes by deflecting a past-self thus potentially changing the entire arena (for good or bad) for every other attempt you made, trying to avoid everything else.) Worth a dabble, perhaps, but don't get addicted to it! [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.12|141.101.99.12]] 13:48, 22 September 2015 (UTC)

There's actually a very similar mechanism in the game Canvas Rider, where the best times on a track (it's a bike racing game with stick figures) can be clicked and a ghost that takes the same path with the same speed as those people appears and moves while you do. In fact, they actually look somewhat similar to the ghost in panel 4. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.226.149|108.162.226.149]] 13:17, 22 September 2015 (UTC)

I strongly suspect this also references the concept of the Oracle machine as it relates to the NP hardness of the traveling salesman problem. TSP is in the complexity class NP Complete, and part of the most common proof that it is NP hard involves showing that it reduces to a polynomial time algorithm (and hence potentially practically computed) if there exists an oracle that can tell you if a route is optimal (the fastest) in constant time. I have never edited here before and don't know all the etiquette, so I leave it to a more experienced editor to consider this in the main article. The "ghost" would then be related to the Oracle because many real world "oracles" (as in fortune tellers or weird tripping priestesses of Apollo) claim to get answers by talking to ghosts. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.173|108.162.219.173]] 22:17, 22 September 2015 (UTC) tomb

I'm also thinking there may be a worthwhile pun in there about the movie {{w|Ghost Dad}}, though I haven't found a suitable setup for that punchline. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.63|173.245.55.63]] 21:50, 25 September 2015 (UTC)

Now I want [https://www.reddit.com/r/SomebodyMakeThis/comments/3mp4kd/smt_goggles_that_render_a_red_line_in_front_of/ goggles that let me enter my running pace and let me race my ghost.] Forever alone. 09:43, 28 September 2015 (UTC)

I don't get how that one ghost has replaced him in the bedroom, since the ghost comes faster than he does! HE HE. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.80.78|141.101.80.78]] 01:15, 5 February 2016 (UTC)

Where in the comic does it say or reference that he lost his job?
[[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.180|173.245.48.180]] 16:51, 24 October 2016 (UTC)

Talk:1743: Coffee

2016-10-13T09:13:26Z

173.245.48.180: Added comment on Dyson Cinetic vacuums

For me as a non-native speaker this XKCD looks like the guests ordered Ground Coffee and Cueball didn't realize that ground might come von "grind". [[User:Gunterkoenigsmann|Gunterkoenigsmann]] ([[User talk:Gunterkoenigsmann|talk]])--
: I hadn't even noticed that pun, thanks! [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.87|108.162.221.87]] 10:16, 7 October 2016 (UTC)
:: Thanks for catching all the puns, that helped make the comic funnier. ''Explain xkcd'' at its best. [[User:Jkshapiro|Jkshapiro]] ([[User talk:Jkshapiro|talk]]) 01:35, 9 October 2016 (UTC)

With "I'm a regular Starbuck" Megan says, she is a regular visitor of Starbuck and has learned her skills there watching. Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.83.168|162.158.83.168]] 08:10, 7 October 2016 (UTC)
: Since the Starbucks coffee chain writes their name as a plural, I just assumed it was a cross-referential joke about the Starbuck character on Battlestar Galactica. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.87|108.162.221.87]] 10:16, 7 October 2016 (UTC)
: I also like to think "Starbuck" here refers as much to the Battlestar Galactica character here as to the coffee shop. I'm pretty sure he is the one who explained how things worked in the show. Being from another time & planet, his explanations were usually a crude interpretation of actuality and were funnier for being mostly right but decidedly odd. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.89|173.245.48.89]] 19:04, 7 October 2016 (UTC)
: On Capitain Ahab's ship in Moby Dick there was a chef mate named Starbuck. But I fail to see a connection to this XKCD. -- [[User:Gunterkoenigsmann|Gunterkoenigsmann]] ([[User talk:Gunterkoenigsmann|talk]]) 20:25, 9 October 2016 (UTC)

The expensive coffee filter comment might be a reference to the ridiculously high prices for vacuum cleaner bags. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.85.249|162.158.85.249]] 08:12, 7 October 2016 (UTC)
: Ironic, since Dyson vacuums are "bagless" & use a canister instead. (Which is disgusting, by the way.) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.87|108.162.221.87]] 10:16, 7 October 2016 (UTC)
:: Actually even Dyson vacuums have at least two filters in them. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.127|141.101.98.127]] 10:21, 7 October 2016 (UTC)
::: Filters, but not bags. Emptying & subsequently cleaning the removable canister on a bagless vacuum can be hazardous for anyone with allergies (or just anyone, if the canister contains toxic or noxious materials); Not that most vacuum-cleaners aren't basically big dust blowers anyway. Inboard HEPA filters mitigate the dust issue during use, but emptying the canister itself can be a delicate & irritatingly messy task. Aside from the bag material wasted during disposal, bag-vacuums are in some respects very much preferable to bagless. Personally, I recommend eschewing vacuum-cleaners entirely, avoiding wall-to-wall carpeting like the plague, & using area rugs which can be removed for a thorough cleaning (on BOTH sides). [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.87|108.162.221.87]] 11:17, 7 October 2016 (UTC)
:::::why don't you just vacuum out the canister? {{unsigned ip|162.158.74.105}}
:::Actually, the latest Dysons have no filters at all, because they improved the cyclonic filtering to render them unnecessary. That's what Dyson [https://www.dyson.com/vacuums/upright/cinetic-big-ball.aspx claims], anyway. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.180|173.245.48.180]] 09:13, 13 October 2016 (UTC)
Can you actually "hoover" something up with a Dyson? ;-) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.22.72|162.158.22.72]] 08:37, 7 October 2016 (UTC)
: Decidedly not! That's like saying you are "rollerblading" when you are actually just inline-skating, or calling any cola a "Coke". You don't go toyotaing in your Chevrolet & you don't Colgate your teeth; such branding idioms really annoy me. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to gutenberg some compuserve post-its before my redenbachers are done kenmoring. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.87|108.162.221.87]] 10:16, 7 October 2016 (UTC)
::This may be a UK v. US English issue, my British friends all refer to vacuuming as "hoovering." Through usage over years, some proper nouns become 'ordinary' nouns (e.g., linoleum, jacuzzi, etc.). [[User:Miamiclay|Miamiclay]] ([[User talk:Miamiclay|talk]]) 03:19, 8 October 2016 (UTC)
::Additionally, there are many places in the US (especially in the south/southeast) where all colas (and sometimes, all sodas in general) are called 'Coke' and all tissues are called Kleenex. Additionally, none of the proper nouns you mentioned as examples are often used as verbs, whereas 'to hoover' is in regular usage, as is 'to google,' even when the action is performed with a different search engine. Finally, the term 'Rollerblading' is so commonly used instead of the phrase 'in-line skating' that it's lost its capitalization. This entire conversation is pointless in its pedanticity.--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.220|108.162.237.220]] 23:31, 9 October 2016 (UTC)
::OMG, I had always assumed that "to hoover" came from the tendency of the FBI to suck up enormous quantities of information, and was referencing the former director. Sort of like how "the Don Ameche" meant "the telephone" to my parents' generation because of his role as Alexander G. Bell.[[Special:Contributions/172.68.78.126|172.68.78.126]] 10:41, 11 October 2016 (UTC)

megan explicitly calls them "grounds," probably because that's what they're called on the packet. no one mentioned beans. what made you think of beans? also, she's heard of "starbucks" and thinks it's a collection, and, since she is just one person she calls herself a starbuck. oh well. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.84|141.101.98.84]] 11:54, 7 October 2016 (UTC)

''are made of plastic and would melt or ignite if placed over direct heat from a stove'' – no, they wouldn’t; not as long as there is liquid water in it. You can even use a paper-cup to boil water. --[[User:DaB.|DaB.]] ([[User talk:DaB.|talk]]) 17:03, 7 October 2016 (UTC)
: I thought about that too but it depends on the thermal conductivity of the material. Paper cups are thin enough to transmit the flame's heat to the water efficiently; the same is not true of a styrofoam cup. (Another word that is technically still a trademark, by the way.) I suspect a vacuum-cleaner canister would be thick enough and enough of an insulator that it would get damaged. [[User:Jkshapiro|Jkshapiro]] ([[User talk:Jkshapiro|talk]]) 01:35, 9 October 2016 (UTC)

::Also, some kinds of plastics, while not directly melting, will become "plastics" enough to bend under weight even in temperatures near boiling water. PET bottles will not survive boiling water, for example. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 15:21, 9 October 2016 (UTC)

Another reason why the coffee will be very expensive: if you throw a package of beans on the ground, you need many, many, many beans, as there is not enough surface on the beans to make the water brown and give the water any taste. With ground coffee you can get several cans out of one package, the method illustrated here needs at least one package per try. --[[User:Anonymous guest]] [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.29|141.101.104.29]] 20:19, 7 October 2016 (UTC)

I think this might also be related to the The Coffee Test, proposed by Goertzel as a way to measure [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_general_intelligence Artificial general inteligence]. By this standards they really seem to be "fake adults". [[User:Qbolec|Qbolec]] ([[User talk:Qbolec|talk]]) 15:16, 9 October 2016 (UTC)

When I first saw this cartoon - I thought that the point was that our heroes had looked online for a way to do this - and somehow tripped over one of those old vacuum cleaner adverts where the salesperson throws coffee grounds and water onto your rug, then vacuums it up to have it look like new. I'm not sure that was what was in Randalls head - but it's another interpretation of the cause of the error that is being made in the story. [[User:SteveBaker|SteveBaker]] ([[User talk:SteveBaker|talk]]) 01:37, 10 October 2016 (UTC)

When I saw the overall content, I thought it was in reference to the quality of Starbucks coffee... tastes about the same as drink something brewed off the floor.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.116|108.162.246.116]] 19:29, 11 October 2016 (UTC)

98: Fall Apart

2015-05-22T03:54:48Z

173.245.48.180: /* Grammar error */

{{comic
| number = 98
| date = May 5, 2006
| title = Fall Apart
| image = fall_apart.jpg
| titletext = #pugglewumper Tashari got me some ink pens! I've been experimenting with them.
}}

==Explanation==
Despite [[Randall]] being enthusiastic about receiving ink pens, his first experiment with them has resulted in a rather bleak comic.

Instead of multiple panels, the entire comic is a single drawing, but as we travel down the page, there is an apparent passage of time or, unless a better phrase can be found, the degree of falling apart.

The comic seems to be expressing what it feels like when a relationship falls apart, and one of the implications is that the process cannot easily be reversed. At the top of the page, we see some people standing alone, apparently happy enough, and a couple. As we descend the page, we see examples of a couple split by a narrow chasm, someone isolated and alone on their own world fragment, a couple desperately trying to hang on to eachother, and a single figure falling chaotically and without control.

These figures are on a comic, and the representation is of what happens when their world — the page — literally falls apart. The implication is that this matches the actual feelings of people going through relationship breakups. In short, it is catastrophic.

The identity of '#pugglewumper Tashari', the supplier of the pens, is not known. Judging by the use of the {{w|hashtag}}, it is someone with whom Randall communicates in {{w|IRC}}. In fact, 'pugglewump' appears to be an IRC channel. Although hashtags later came to be strongly associated with {{w|Twitter}}, this was not true at the time the comic was drawn.

==Transcript==
:[Various people struggle as the comic disintegrates. Toward the top, people are standing calmly, some holding hands. As the parts of the comic break apart, people try to reach for each other, hold parts together, or curl up into a ball. By the bottom, a person is falling, surrounded by pieces of the comic.]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Romance]]

Talk:1470: Kix

2015-01-07T20:35:54Z

173.245.48.180:

Is there a category:comics with strong language? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.225.71|108.162.225.71]] 11:36, 7 January 2015 (UTC)

From now on I don't think I'll ever see a box of Kix in the store without thinking, "Kid Tested, Mother Fucker!"[[User:Bmmarti3|Bmmarti3]] ([[User talk:Bmmarti3|talk]]) 13:16, 7 January 2015 (UTC)

Is it just me or does the last item in the list seem a little out of place for something Randall would write/post? It doesn't seem to me that he normally takes to swearing (at all) in any of his strips. [[User:Jarod997|Jarod997]] ([[User talk:Jarod997|talk]]) 13:34, 7 January 2015 (UTC)

What's wrong with swearing, you guys? This is XKCD; we're supposedly a mature audience who doesn't shy away from using words simply because they're about sex and sex is bad. XKCD has dealt with sexual subject matter before, I don't think Randall ever tried to market it as a 'family-oriented' webcomic. If your kid gets XKCD jokes, I think they're mature enough to learn about sex! :P [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.171|173.245.56.171]] 14:14, 7 January 2015 (UTC)
: Actually this is xkcd, and I'm not saying there's a problem - just that Randall doesn't usually directly swear in his comics. It's just an observation. BTW, where'd the sex thing come from? [[User:Jarod997|Jarod997]] ([[User talk:Jarod997|talk]]) 14:39, 7 January 2015 (UTC)
:: I'm not entirely sure which webcomic you're thinking of... (?) because it couldn't be xkcd... I would agree that xkcd is about romance, sarcasm, math and language, and not ''about'' swearing... but by searching for your chosen epithet using the search box at the top of this page (I chose and found 27 examples of "fuck"), you can find such words used whenever he needed them (and occasionally even when they weren't ''needed'' per se) used in the titles, dialogue, labels, and title text. Please, take a couple moments and confirm for yourself. Without thorough analysis, I'd guess there was a "swear word" of one sort or another in nearly 10% of xkcd comics -- [[User:Brettpeirce|Brettpeirce]] ([[User talk:Brettpeirce|talk]]) 15:11, 7 January 2015 (UTC)
:::xkcd.com/90 "Where's my fucking jacket?" "Over there, next to your regular one" one of my favorite classic xkcd, redefined my perseption of the word "fucking" in conversation. It is perpetually hyphenated in my mind.
: The word 'fucker' is traditionally considered obscene because of it refers to sexual intercourse, which is considered a taboo subject that should be approached with care and sensitivity in Western Culture. So what I meant was that unless you consider that approach to the word warranted, it's not entirely logical to proscribe saying the word either. But since you don't seem to have an issue with that, I do agree: Randall doesn't swear in excess, but he does it when the occasion calls for it (like here), and that's completely fine. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.171|173.245.56.171]] 15:59, 7 January 2015 (UTC)

The last one sounds like something Donald Draper would come up with if he was an increasingly cynical ad exec in the 70's or 80's when this came out. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.170|108.162.216.170]] 14:15, 7 January 2015 (UTC)

I don't believe the use of Mother Fucker is sexual in this context, just an epithet. And Randall has used swearwords throughout the lifetime of xkcd, albeit not liberally. [[User:Mattdevney|Mattdevney]] ([[User talk:Mattdevney|talk]]) 14:28, 7 January 2015 (UTC)
:Maybe he has never used the mother F word - and it does only appear here if you think it through... But the F word is used several time in the comics as can be seen by a [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?search=fuck&go=Go&title=Special%3ASearch simple search]. See for instance: [[388:_Fuck_Grapefruit]]. [[114: Computational Linguists]], [[874: Time Management]], [[566: Matrix Revisited]], [[714: Porn For Women]], [[931: Lanes]] and especially the title text of [[110: Clark Gable]] [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 15:03, 7 January 2015 (UTC)
: I agree, it's more in the spirit of Die Hard's "Yippie ki yay, motherfucker" or the [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDfZ5HmA6fs Usual Suspects]'s "Hand me the fucking keys, you fucking cocksucker". It's an additional expletive to show disrespect and contempt of the person you're talking to and about to get medieval on. [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 20:03, 7 January 2015 (UTC)
''From the xkcd website:'' '''Warning: this comic ''occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children)'', unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors)'''... I do think we need a category for these occasions of strong language. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.225.71|108.162.225.71]] 16:36, 7 January 2015 (UTC)
::We should include special categories for "unusual humor" and "advanced mathematics" as well [[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.180|173.245.48.180]] 20:31, 7 January 2015 (UTC)BLuDgeons

In the interest of science, I have created a category for comics with strong language. [[User:ImVeryAngryItsNotButter|ImVeryAngryItsNotButter]] ([[User talk:ImVeryAngryItsNotButter|talk]]) 18:35, 7 January 2015 (UTC)

I just noticed that if you read downward (acrosticly) from the last letter in "SELECTED" you get "DEFEC" - which implies a different rhyming response.--[[User:Schnitz|Schnitz]] ([[User talk:Schnitz|talk]]) 19:18, 7 January 2015 (UTC)

When I read "Kid tested, mother not notified" I thought more of "Kid tested for substance abuse, mother not notified of the (positive) test result".

I had a sometimes different take on the explanation:
:For "Mother Selected", my first thoughts were that the mother was ''herself'' selected (for unknown purposes) despite/because of the kid being the one assessed for suitability.
:"Mother Perfected" seemed to suggest that after checking the child that she created, she was tweaked (genetically?) so that future kids wouldn't perhaps have some fault discovered in the first one.
:"Mother Not Notified", as already given in this Talk section, was "not told of the result of the test".
:"Mother Watching Helplessly" - per concensus.
:"Mother Infected", someone checked the kid for some disease or other, but it was actually the mother that was ill.
:"Mother Consumed", Mommy entered the food-chain (either as too old to bother testing the same as her child, or as part of the assessment process ''by'' the child).
:And the last assessment I agree with (although was half expecting a "MILF" reference... but there's not one there that I can see).
...but I can't argue with what's already been given. Consider the above as supplementary only. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.118|141.101.99.118]] 20:27, 7 January 2015 (UTC)

Talk:1470: Kix

2015-01-07T20:31:31Z

173.245.48.180:

Is there a category:comics with strong language? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.225.71|108.162.225.71]] 11:36, 7 January 2015 (UTC)

From now on I don't think I'll ever see a box of Kix in the store without thinking, "Kid Tested, Mother Fucker!"[[User:Bmmarti3|Bmmarti3]] ([[User talk:Bmmarti3|talk]]) 13:16, 7 January 2015 (UTC)

Is it just me or does the last item in the list seem a little out of place for something Randall would write/post? It doesn't seem to me that he normally takes to swearing (at all) in any of his strips. [[User:Jarod997|Jarod997]] ([[User talk:Jarod997|talk]]) 13:34, 7 January 2015 (UTC)

What's wrong with swearing, you guys? This is XKCD; we're supposedly a mature audience who doesn't shy away from using words simply because they're about sex and sex is bad. XKCD has dealt with sexual subject matter before, I don't think Randall ever tried to market it as a 'family-oriented' webcomic. If your kid gets XKCD jokes, I think they're mature enough to learn about sex! :P [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.171|173.245.56.171]] 14:14, 7 January 2015 (UTC)
: Actually this is xkcd, and I'm not saying there's a problem - just that Randall doesn't usually directly swear in his comics. It's just an observation. BTW, where'd the sex thing come from? [[User:Jarod997|Jarod997]] ([[User talk:Jarod997|talk]]) 14:39, 7 January 2015 (UTC)
:: I'm not entirely sure which webcomic you're thinking of... (?) because it couldn't be xkcd... I would agree that xkcd is about romance, sarcasm, math and language, and not ''about'' swearing... but by searching for your chosen epithet using the search box at the top of this page (I chose and found 27 examples of "fuck"), you can find such words used whenever he needed them (and occasionally even when they weren't ''needed'' per se) used in the titles, dialogue, labels, and title text. Please, take a couple moments and confirm for yourself. Without thorough analysis, I'd guess there was a "swear word" of one sort or another in nearly 10% of xkcd comics -- [[User:Brettpeirce|Brettpeirce]] ([[User talk:Brettpeirce|talk]]) 15:11, 7 January 2015 (UTC)
: The word 'fucker' is traditionally considered obscene because of it refers to sexual intercourse, which is considered a taboo subject that should be approached with care and sensitivity in Western Culture. So what I meant was that unless you consider that approach to the word warranted, it's not entirely logical to proscribe saying the word either. But since you don't seem to have an issue with that, I do agree: Randall doesn't swear in excess, but he does it when the occasion calls for it (like here), and that's completely fine. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.171|173.245.56.171]] 15:59, 7 January 2015 (UTC)

The last one sounds like something Donald Draper would come up with if he was an increasingly cynical ad exec in the 70's or 80's when this came out. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.170|108.162.216.170]] 14:15, 7 January 2015 (UTC)

I don't believe the use of Mother Fucker is sexual in this context, just an epithet. And Randall has used swearwords throughout the lifetime of xkcd, albeit not liberally. [[User:Mattdevney|Mattdevney]] ([[User talk:Mattdevney|talk]]) 14:28, 7 January 2015 (UTC)
:Maybe he has never used the mother F word - and it does only appear here if you think it through... But the F word is used several time in the comics as can be seen by a [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?search=fuck&go=Go&title=Special%3ASearch simple search]. See for instance: [[388:_Fuck_Grapefruit]]. [[114: Computational Linguists]], [[874: Time Management]], [[566: Matrix Revisited]], [[714: Porn For Women]], [[931: Lanes]] and especially the title text of [[110: Clark Gable]] [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 15:03, 7 January 2015 (UTC)
: I agree, it's more in the spirit of Die Hard's "Yippie ki yay, motherfucker" or the [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDfZ5HmA6fs Usual Suspects]'s "Hand me the fucking keys, you fucking cocksucker". It's an additional expletive to show disrespect and contempt of the person you're talking to and about to get medieval on. [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 20:03, 7 January 2015 (UTC)
''From the xkcd website:'' '''Warning: this comic ''occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children)'', unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors)'''... I do think we need a category for these occasions of strong language. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.225.71|108.162.225.71]] 16:36, 7 January 2015 (UTC)
::We should include special categories for "unusual humor" and "advanced mathematics" as well [[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.180|173.245.48.180]] 20:31, 7 January 2015 (UTC)BLuDgeons

In the interest of science, I have created a category for comics with strong language. [[User:ImVeryAngryItsNotButter|ImVeryAngryItsNotButter]] ([[User talk:ImVeryAngryItsNotButter|talk]]) 18:35, 7 January 2015 (UTC)

I just noticed that if you read downward (acrosticly) from the last letter in "SELECTED" you get "DEFEC" - which implies a different rhyming response.--[[User:Schnitz|Schnitz]] ([[User talk:Schnitz|talk]]) 19:18, 7 January 2015 (UTC)

When I read "Kid tested, mother not notified" I thought more of "Kid tested for substance abuse, mother not notified of the (positive) test result".

I had a sometimes different take on the explanation:
:For "Mother Selected", my first thoughts were that the mother was ''herself'' selected (for unknown purposes) despite/because of the kid being the one assessed for suitability.
:"Mother Perfected" seemed to suggest that after checking the child that she created, she was tweaked (genetically?) so that future kids wouldn't perhaps have some fault discovered in the first one.
:"Mother Not Notified", as already given in this Talk section, was "not told of the result of the test".
:"Mother Watching Helplessly" - per concensus.
:"Mother Infected", someone checked the kid for some disease or other, but it was actually the mother that was ill.
:"Mother Consumed", Mommy entered the food-chain (either as too old to bother testing the same as her child, or as part of the assessment process ''by'' the child).
:And the last assessment I agree with (although was half expecting a "MILF" reference... but there's not one there that I can see).
...but I can't argue with what's already been given. Consider the above as supplementary only. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.118|141.101.99.118]] 20:27, 7 January 2015 (UTC)