explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:1311: 2014

2014-01-04T10:21:34Z

Dotour:

Just a note that the PNG file for this comic is (or was initially) actually a TIFF file with a PNG extension. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.236.19|108.162.236.19]] 05:37, 1 January 2014 (UTC)
And now it's fixed. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.45|173.245.54.45]] 06:07, 1 January 2014 (UTC)

I presume most of the quotes are genuine, but surely Randall has made up the one about subsisting on jellies? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.219|141.101.99.219]] 11:08, 1 January 2014 (UTC)

:I wouldn't be so sure. The Book-Lover - Vol. 4. (No. 17 to 22) 1903 [http://www.abebooks.com/Book-Lover-Vol-1903-Poe-Edgar-Allan/1224029705/bd contains] Poe, Edgar Allan and Dickens, Charles and Emerson, Ralph Waldo ... maybe it refers to some of Poe's horror stories? -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 12:10, 1 January 2014 (UTC)

:Spherical jelliies and creams were very fashionable in the era in which it was written, so it may have been simply a prediction of great luxury for the future. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.4|108.162.237.4]] 14:37, 1 January 2014 (UTC)(Kyt)

:Here's the Book-lover reference: [http://books.google.com/books?id=jaA5AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA264&lpg=PA264&dq=%22subsist+entirely+upon+jellies%22+wells&source=bl&ots=HsYajMhDZP&sig=yU1TMIIUcNQfh_-TUh4raXboYn8&hl=en&sa=X&ei=OEPEUuq0MtDzoATWzYHwAw&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=%22subsist%20entirely%20upon%20jellies%22%20wells&f=false]
::Two sections from the H.G. Wells book it came from (When the Sleeper Wakes):
::"There were several very comfortable chairs, a light table on silent runners carrying several bottles of fluids and glasses, and two plates bearing a clear substance like jelly."
::"They gave him some pink fluid with a greenish fluorescence and a meaty taste, and the assurance of returning strength grew."
:::-- Jim Gillogly [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.15|108.162.215.15]] 16:50, 1 January 2014 (UTC)

:Ok ... William Carey Jones quote: [https://archive.org/stream/universitycalif08goog/universitycalif08goog_djvu.txt] ... I would say that while technically true, he didn't meant it because he doesn't refer to first world war but instead some problems of American democracy which were probably forgotten ... -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 12:21, 1 January 2014 (UTC)

:Christopher Baldwin: [http://books.google.cz/books?id=Fiu4czMiCeYC] ... I would say good luck with preserving everything printed :-), but the idea is certainly good and projects like Google Books are attempting to solve the problem he was talking about. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 12:25, 1 January 2014 (UTC)

Found the reference to Shakespearian rope bridges...
http://books.google.com/books?id=BJIeAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA126&lpg=PA126&dq=oriental+herald+postmaster&source=bl&ots=7_NUMfRlPW&sig=6d6WLenjQBjOiGJBDoQjIa-FYkk&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Q0XEUuKbKsTpoATP-4HgCg&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=oriental%20herald%20postmaster&f=false {{unsigned|Androgenoide}}

Found the reference to Spherical jellies: http://books.google.com/books?id=8IckAQAAIAAJ&lpg=PA87&ots=WRVY13FRwM&dq=%22subsist%20entirely%20upon%20jellies%22&pg=PA87#v=onepage&q=%22subsist%20entirely%20upon%20jellies%22&f=false [[User:Zeeprime|Zeeprime]] ([[User talk:Zeeprime|talk]]) 17:57, 1 January 2014 (UTC)

Found another reference to Shakespearian rope bridges. In short, some British officer called Mr. Shakespeare experimented and promoted the use of rope suspension bridges in India, apparently for the ease of colonization and military operations. http://books.google.com/books?id=aZRPAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA367 -furrypony [[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.181|173.245.48.181]] 21:21, 1 January 2014 (UTC)

Is it possible that the highlighted words can be shuffled to reveal a hidden message? Has Randall done this before? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.214|141.101.99.214]] 07:53, 2 January 2014 (UTC)

The fourth quote (.."rocked and cradled by electricity"..) seems to appear in The Champagne Standard by LANE, Annie Eichberg (Mrs. John Lane). [http://archive.org/stream/champagnestandar00lane/champagnestandar00lane_djvu.txt] {{unsigned ip|141.101.99.224}}

;regarding the languages of new york city

http://languagehat.com/doing-field-linguistics-in-new-york-city/ {{unsigned ip|173.245.53.168}}
----
;Tone of the explanation

I find the tone of the explanation as it stands right now not to be in line with the rest of the explanations available on the site. For example:

By the twenty-first century I believe we shall all be telepaths.
Absurd

The plain "absurd" does not provide an explanation, only a judgement. It would be more useful it the explanation contained a link to a source with the quote, to provide context. Or provide a short bio for the person credited with the explanation. I understand the fascination behind arguing against or for the prediction, but that does not explain the comic. For example, you '''could''' argue that this particular prediction is in a sense accurate. Nowadays we all communicate in a way that people from a century ago would consider almost telepathic, given that "telepathy" means "distant experience". No, we are not mind readers, but a lot of us carry a device in our pockets that allows us to experience things at a distance.

Also, I wonder why some sentences are in boldface. I tried reading only the bold text, and it is not coherent enough. I tried reading the grey text, and it isn't coherent either. I tried several other ways of reading the texts, and I cannot find any "hidden meaning".

:I believe it's just to highlight content. The grey or non-bold text is (for the most part) non-essential to the content of the quote. {{unsigned ip|173.245.52.213}}

--[[User:Mem|mem]] ([[User talk:Mem|talk]]) 16:10, 2 January 2014 (UTC)

:I see I'm not the only one who thought of cellphones when he read that sentence. I've edited the article to reflect this explanation. --[[User:NeatNit|NeatNit]] ([[User talk:NeatNit|talk]]) 17:39, 2 January 2014 (UTC)

It seems to me that Randall believes that bolded text is false and grey text is true.[[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.62|173.245.50.62]] 16:13, 2 January 2014 (UTC)
:This makes no sense. Most of the grey text has little content, and Abortion is still a very debated topic. {{unsigned ip|173.245.52.213}}

There is also the recent budding prospect of technologically assisted telepathy, such as was recently done with small laboratory rodents. While not exactly "everyone" just yet, (ahem), the prospect is certainly not "absurd". Technologically enabled telepathy certainly looks possible, and given the rate of technological progress of this century, the prediction could well come true.

http://news.discovery.com/tech/biotechnology/two-rats-communicate-brain-to-brain-130227.htm

[[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.84|108.162.221.84]] 17:06, 2 January 2014 (UTC)

''Technologically assisted telepathy'' redefines the word telepathy. For example Random House says ''communication between minds by some means '''other than sensory perception''''' (my emphasis). Collins: ''the communication between people of thoughts, feelings, desires, etc, involving mechanisms that '''cannot be understood in terms of known scientific laws''''' (my emphasis). [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.84|173.245.50.84]] 17:51, 2 January 2014 (UTC)
----
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.208|108.162.219.208]] 17:16, 2 January 2014 (UTC)
I suspect that most -- but not all -- of the "predictions" are apocryphal. For instance, I can indeed find the Gumbril (not "Gumbriel") character and citation in Huxley's "Antic Hay". However, the statement attributed to a methodist preacher and proselytizer (who really existed) in Upper Canada in 1864 seems to me totally out of character, and very hard to believe for the period. It was essentially the French who called themselves "Canadiens". The "others" still saw the place they lived in as an extension of the UK. To wit, John A. MacDonald, who famously wired "Send me another $10,000", also said "A British Subject I was born, a British Subject I shall die".

;electric baby rearing

It should be noted that this quote was wrong about making love being a sanctuary from electric devices. {{unsigned ip|108.162.216.78}}
----
Regarding languages spoken: according to

http://www.ethnologue.com/statistics/size

English is only third in languages spoken as primary language after Chinese and Spanish, while closely followed by Hindi and Arabic. I would not be too sure, if English will win out in NYC.
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.231.222|108.162.231.222]] 17:19, 3 January 2014 (UTC)

According to this report from the New York State comptroller's office dated 2006,

http://www.osc.state.ny.us/osdc/rpt3-2007queens.pdf

there are about 170 languages spoken in Queens. If that's at all accurate, it means that language diversity in New York hasn't shrunk but indeed nearly tripled.

--[[User:Dotour|Dotour]] ([[User talk:Dotour|talk]]) 10:21, 4 January 2014 (UTC)

Talk:1311: 2014

2014-01-04T10:20:47Z

Dotour:

Just a note that the PNG file for this comic is (or was initially) actually a TIFF file with a PNG extension. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.236.19|108.162.236.19]] 05:37, 1 January 2014 (UTC)
And now it's fixed. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.45|173.245.54.45]] 06:07, 1 January 2014 (UTC)

I presume most of the quotes are genuine, but surely Randall has made up the one about subsisting on jellies? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.219|141.101.99.219]] 11:08, 1 January 2014 (UTC)

:I wouldn't be so sure. The Book-Lover - Vol. 4. (No. 17 to 22) 1903 [http://www.abebooks.com/Book-Lover-Vol-1903-Poe-Edgar-Allan/1224029705/bd contains] Poe, Edgar Allan and Dickens, Charles and Emerson, Ralph Waldo ... maybe it refers to some of Poe's horror stories? -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 12:10, 1 January 2014 (UTC)

:Spherical jelliies and creams were very fashionable in the era in which it was written, so it may have been simply a prediction of great luxury for the future. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.4|108.162.237.4]] 14:37, 1 January 2014 (UTC)(Kyt)

:Here's the Book-lover reference: [http://books.google.com/books?id=jaA5AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA264&lpg=PA264&dq=%22subsist+entirely+upon+jellies%22+wells&source=bl&ots=HsYajMhDZP&sig=yU1TMIIUcNQfh_-TUh4raXboYn8&hl=en&sa=X&ei=OEPEUuq0MtDzoATWzYHwAw&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=%22subsist%20entirely%20upon%20jellies%22%20wells&f=false]
::Two sections from the H.G. Wells book it came from (When the Sleeper Wakes):
::"There were several very comfortable chairs, a light table on silent runners carrying several bottles of fluids and glasses, and two plates bearing a clear substance like jelly."
::"They gave him some pink fluid with a greenish fluorescence and a meaty taste, and the assurance of returning strength grew."
:::-- Jim Gillogly [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.15|108.162.215.15]] 16:50, 1 January 2014 (UTC)

:Ok ... William Carey Jones quote: [https://archive.org/stream/universitycalif08goog/universitycalif08goog_djvu.txt] ... I would say that while technically true, he didn't meant it because he doesn't refer to first world war but instead some problems of American democracy which were probably forgotten ... -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 12:21, 1 January 2014 (UTC)

:Christopher Baldwin: [http://books.google.cz/books?id=Fiu4czMiCeYC] ... I would say good luck with preserving everything printed :-), but the idea is certainly good and projects like Google Books are attempting to solve the problem he was talking about. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 12:25, 1 January 2014 (UTC)

Found the reference to Shakespearian rope bridges...
http://books.google.com/books?id=BJIeAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA126&lpg=PA126&dq=oriental+herald+postmaster&source=bl&ots=7_NUMfRlPW&sig=6d6WLenjQBjOiGJBDoQjIa-FYkk&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Q0XEUuKbKsTpoATP-4HgCg&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=oriental%20herald%20postmaster&f=false {{unsigned|Androgenoide}}

Found the reference to Spherical jellies: http://books.google.com/books?id=8IckAQAAIAAJ&lpg=PA87&ots=WRVY13FRwM&dq=%22subsist%20entirely%20upon%20jellies%22&pg=PA87#v=onepage&q=%22subsist%20entirely%20upon%20jellies%22&f=false [[User:Zeeprime|Zeeprime]] ([[User talk:Zeeprime|talk]]) 17:57, 1 January 2014 (UTC)

Found another reference to Shakespearian rope bridges. In short, some British officer called Mr. Shakespeare experimented and promoted the use of rope suspension bridges in India, apparently for the ease of colonization and military operations. http://books.google.com/books?id=aZRPAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA367 -furrypony [[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.181|173.245.48.181]] 21:21, 1 January 2014 (UTC)

Is it possible that the highlighted words can be shuffled to reveal a hidden message? Has Randall done this before? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.214|141.101.99.214]] 07:53, 2 January 2014 (UTC)

The fourth quote (.."rocked and cradled by electricity"..) seems to appear in The Champagne Standard by LANE, Annie Eichberg (Mrs. John Lane). [http://archive.org/stream/champagnestandar00lane/champagnestandar00lane_djvu.txt] {{unsigned ip|141.101.99.224}}

;regarding the languages of new york city

http://languagehat.com/doing-field-linguistics-in-new-york-city/ {{unsigned ip|173.245.53.168}}
----
;Tone of the explanation

I find the tone of the explanation as it stands right now not to be in line with the rest of the explanations available on the site. For example:

By the twenty-first century I believe we shall all be telepaths.
Absurd

The plain "absurd" does not provide an explanation, only a judgement. It would be more useful it the explanation contained a link to a source with the quote, to provide context. Or provide a short bio for the person credited with the explanation. I understand the fascination behind arguing against or for the prediction, but that does not explain the comic. For example, you '''could''' argue that this particular prediction is in a sense accurate. Nowadays we all communicate in a way that people from a century ago would consider almost telepathic, given that "telepathy" means "distant experience". No, we are not mind readers, but a lot of us carry a device in our pockets that allows us to experience things at a distance.

Also, I wonder why some sentences are in boldface. I tried reading only the bold text, and it is not coherent enough. I tried reading the grey text, and it isn't coherent either. I tried several other ways of reading the texts, and I cannot find any "hidden meaning".

:I believe it's just to highlight content. The grey or non-bold text is (for the most part) non-essential to the content of the quote. {{unsigned ip|173.245.52.213}}

--[[User:Mem|mem]] ([[User talk:Mem|talk]]) 16:10, 2 January 2014 (UTC)

:I see I'm not the only one who thought of cellphones when he read that sentence. I've edited the article to reflect this explanation. --[[User:NeatNit|NeatNit]] ([[User talk:NeatNit|talk]]) 17:39, 2 January 2014 (UTC)

It seems to me that Randall believes that bolded text is false and grey text is true.[[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.62|173.245.50.62]] 16:13, 2 January 2014 (UTC)
:This makes no sense. Most of the grey text has little content, and Abortion is still a very debated topic. {{unsigned ip|173.245.52.213}}

There is also the recent budding prospect of technologically assisted telepathy, such as was recently done with small laboratory rodents. While not exactly "everyone" just yet, (ahem), the prospect is certainly not "absurd". Technologically enabled telepathy certainly looks possible, and given the rate of technological progress of this century, the prediction could well come true.

http://news.discovery.com/tech/biotechnology/two-rats-communicate-brain-to-brain-130227.htm

[[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.84|108.162.221.84]] 17:06, 2 January 2014 (UTC)

''Technologically assisted telepathy'' redefines the word telepathy. For example Random House says ''communication between minds by some means '''other than sensory perception''''' (my emphasis). Collins: ''the communication between people of thoughts, feelings, desires, etc, involving mechanisms that '''cannot be understood in terms of known scientific laws''''' (my emphasis). [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.84|173.245.50.84]] 17:51, 2 January 2014 (UTC)
----
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.208|108.162.219.208]] 17:16, 2 January 2014 (UTC)
I suspect that most -- but not all -- of the "predictions" are apocryphal. For instance, I can indeed find the Gumbril (not "Gumbriel") character and citation in Huxley's "Antic Hay". However, the statement attributed to a methodist preacher and proselytizer (who really existed) in Upper Canada in 1864 seems to me totally out of character, and very hard to believe for the period. It was essentially the French who called themselves "Canadiens". The "others" still saw the place they lived in as an extension of the UK. To wit, John A. MacDonald, who famously wired "Send me another $10,000", also said "A British Subject I was born, a British Subject I shall die".

;electric baby rearing

It should be noted that this quote was wrong about making love being a sanctuary from electric devices. {{unsigned ip|108.162.216.78}}
----
Regarding languages spoken: according to

http://www.ethnologue.com/statistics/size

English is only third in languages spoken as primary language after Chinese and Spanish, while closely followed by Hindi and Arabic. I would not be too sure, if English will win out in NYC.
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.231.222|108.162.231.222]] 17:19, 3 January 2014 (UTC)

According to this report from the New York State comptroller's office dated 2006,

[http://www.osc.state.ny.us/osdc/rpt3-2007queens.pdf]

there are about 170 languages spoken in Queens. If that's at all accurate, it means that language diversity in New York hasn't shrunk but indeed nearly tripled.

--[[User:Dotour|Dotour]] ([[User talk:Dotour|talk]]) 10:20, 4 January 2014 (UTC)

1095: Crazy Straws

2012-08-15T10:55:54Z

Dotour: Very brief paragraphs on fractals and Paris Hilton to get the ball rolling

{{comic
| number = 1095
| date = August 15, 2012
| title = Crazy Straws
| image = Crazy Straws.png
| titletext = The new crowd is heavily shaped by this guy named Eric, who's basically the Paris Hilton of the amateur plastic crazy straw design world.
| imagesize =
}}

==Explanation==
A {{w|fractal}} is a recursive pattern, the constituents of which are similar to the whole at all levels. For the caption to say "Human subcultures are nested fractally" is to say that the divisions in subcultures on small scales are similar to divisions in culture at a global scale. Fractals are infinitely detailed, so there is no smallest scale for such a pattern.

{{w|Paris Hilton}} is a celebrity who is essentially famous for being famous.

1091: Curiosity

2012-08-06T14:11:22Z

Dotour: Correcting vandalism

{{comic
| number = 1091
| date = August 6, 2012
| title = Curiosity
| image = Curiosity.png
| imagesize =
| alttext = As of this writing the NASA/JPL websites are still overloaded. Trying CURIOSITY-REAR-CAM_[256px_x_256px].torrent.SwEsUb.DVDRip.XviD-aXXo.jpg instead.
}}

== Description ==

This comic is a reference to the {{w|Curiosity rover|NASA Mars Rover "Curiosity"}} landing on Mars on August 5, 2012 at 10:31pm PDT (August 6, 2012 at 5:31am GMT). NASA live-streamed the landing, but demand for the feed caused server issues. Thus, the time spent trying to download the landing images could be used as an excuse for being late for work.

The image text is a reference to {{w|Torrent file|torrents}}, which are a more resilient way to download files, due to the decentralized BitTorrent protocol, where the more people there are downloading a file, the most available it is. The name is a play on the file naming convention of release groups who name their files containing data on the file; language (SwEsUb = Swedish subtitles), source (DVDRip = Ripped from DVD), encoding (XviD = XviD codec) and group name ({{w|Axxo|aXXo}} = aXXo, a well known DVD movie releaser).

The first images received from Curiosity via the {{w|2001 Mars Odyssey|Odyssey}} orbiter were low-resolution thumbnails taken from the rover's rear-facing camera, thus the file name CURIOSITY-REAR-CAM_[256px_x_256px].

1091: Curiosity

2012-08-06T13:20:48Z

Dotour: Clarified the date and time of the landing

{{comic
| number = 1091
| date = August 6, 2012
| title = Curiosity
| image = Curiosity.png
| imagesize =
| alttext = As of this writing the NASA/JPL websites are still overloaded. Trying CURIOSITY-REAR-CAM_[256px_x_256px].torrent.SwEsUb.DVDRip.XviD-aXXo.jpg instead.
}}

== Description ==

This comic is a reference to the NASA Mars Rover "Curiosity" landing on Mars on August 5, 2012 at 10:31pm PDT (August 6, 2012 at 5:31am GMT). NASA live-streamed the landing, but demand for the feed caused server issues. Thus, the time spent trying to download the landing images could be used as an excuse for being late for work.

The image text is a reference to {{w|Torrent file|torrents}}, which are a more resilient way to download files, due to the decentralized BitTorrent protocol, where the more people there are downloading a file, the most available it is. The name is a play on the file naming convention of release groups who name their files containing data on the file; language (SwEsUb = Swedish subtitles), source (DVDRip = Ripped from DVD), encoding (XviD = XviD codec) and group name ({{w|Axxo|aXXo}} = aXXo, a well known DVD movie releaser).

Additionally, since this seems to be 256px_x_256px it can be assumed that this is very low quality video and in all likelihood this is a reference to some sort of colonoscopy footage or something much much worse.

Talk:1089: Internal Monologue

2012-08-03T14:44:01Z

Dotour: /* The Oxford Comma */

This is a common anxiety for geek types, who stereotypically are not very skilled in navigating social situations like parties. It can become a vicious cycle where the fear of handling the encounter badly makes one even more uncomfortable which results in behaving as awkwardly as they first feared.
Also, for many geek type personalities, it's common to want to map out a pre-planned course of action that should produce desired results. A strategy that is usually doomed to failure when dealing with sufficiently complex and unpredictable scenarios... like conversations with other people.
This painful, and all too common situation has been mined for comedic effect since the beginning of human civilization.

:I copied this into the article. [[User:Bugefun|Bugefun]] ([[User talk:Bugefun|talk]]) 19:58, 1 August 2012 (EDT)

== Discussion From Comments ==
Joe Green - Yes I like the participatory and discursive nature of the comments.
Also in this instance I find myself wondering why Cueball is hoping that OtherCueball “doesn’t ask me what his name is”. That would be a very strange thing to ask. Well, except in the form “do/don’t you know who I am?”
:BigMal - It’s more like “I know he introduced him/herself earlier, but I already forgot, and he probably remembers my name, so if he asks me to recall his name I’d be caught (and embarrassed)!”
::Joe Green - “if he asks me to recall his name” Well yes, but I just thought that was an unlikely thing for someone to do in such a direct way. Cueball *could* end up being embarrassed in that kind of way though if a friend of his joined the conversation and he wanted to introduce OtherCueball.
:::Harm - My solution to situations like that is something like “Go on, introduce yourselves,” and then standing back.

== The Oxford Comma ==

Correct me if this is the wrong place for this question, but what is the house policy on the Oxford comma? This page had a line which previously read "doing the right things in the conversation and reacting appropriately and not saying 'yeah' too much." I corrected it to read "doing the right things in the conversation, reacting appropriately, and not saying 'yeah' too much," because I haven't seen any opinions expressed on this wiki yet regarding punctuation.

Talk:1089: Internal Monologue

2012-08-03T14:43:23Z

Dotour: /* The Oxford Comma */ new section

This is a common anxiety for geek types, who stereotypically are not very skilled in navigating social situations like parties. It can become a vicious cycle where the fear of handling the encounter badly makes one even more uncomfortable which results in behaving as awkwardly as they first feared.
Also, for many geek type personalities, it's common to want to map out a pre-planned course of action that should produce desired results. A strategy that is usually doomed to failure when dealing with sufficiently complex and unpredictable scenarios... like conversations with other people.
This painful, and all too common situation has been mined for comedic effect since the beginning of human civilization.

:I copied this into the article. [[User:Bugefun|Bugefun]] ([[User talk:Bugefun|talk]]) 19:58, 1 August 2012 (EDT)

== Discussion From Comments ==
Joe Green - Yes I like the participatory and discursive nature of the comments.
Also in this instance I find myself wondering why Cueball is hoping that OtherCueball “doesn’t ask me what his name is”. That would be a very strange thing to ask. Well, except in the form “do/don’t you know who I am?”
:BigMal - It’s more like “I know he introduced him/herself earlier, but I already forgot, and he probably remembers my name, so if he asks me to recall his name I’d be caught (and embarrassed)!”
::Joe Green - “if he asks me to recall his name” Well yes, but I just thought that was an unlikely thing for someone to do in such a direct way. Cueball *could* end up being embarrassed in that kind of way though if a friend of his joined the conversation and he wanted to introduce OtherCueball.
:::Harm - My solution to situations like that is something like “Go on, introduce yourselves,” and then standing back.

== The Oxford Comma ==

Correct me if this is the wrong place for this question, but what is the house policy on the Oxford comma? This page had a line which previously read "doing the right things in the conversation and reacting appropriately and not saying "yeah" too much." I corrected it to read "doing the right things in the conversation, reacting appropriately, and not saying 'yeah' too much," because I haven't seen any opinions expressed on this wiki yet regarding punctuation.

1089: Internal Monologue

2012-08-03T14:34:28Z

Dotour: /* Description */

{{ComicHeader|1089|August 1, 2012}}

[[File:Internal_monologue.png|Oh right, eye contact. Ok, good, holding the eye contact ... holding ... still holding ... ok, too long! Getting weird! Quick, look thoughtfully into space and nod. Oh, dammit, said 'yeah' again!]]

== Image Text ==
Oh right, eye contact. Ok, good, holding the eye contact ... holding ... still holding ... ok, too long! Getting weird! Quick, look thoughtfully into space and nod. Oh, dammit, said 'yeah' again!

== Description ==
[[Cueball]] attempts social interaction at what looks like a party owing to the fact that several people have drinks in their hands. His internal monologue is just Cueball trying to make sure he is doing the right things in the conversation, reacting appropriately, and not saying "yeah" too much.

The image text is a continuation of the internal monologue.

This is a common anxiety for geek types, who stereotypically are not very skilled in navigating social situations like parties. It can become a vicious cycle in which the fear of handling the encounter badly makes one even more uncomfortable, which in turn results in behavior as awkward as first feared.
Also, for many geek type personalities, it's common to want to map out a pre-planned course of action that should produce desired results, a strategy that is usually doomed to failure when dealing with sufficiently complex and unpredictable scenarios like conversations with other people.
This painful, and all too common, situation has been mined for comedic effect since the beginning of human civilization.