1480: Super Bowl

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Super Bowl

Title text: My hobby: Pretending to miss the sarcasm when people show off their lack of interest in football by talking about 'sportsball' and acting excited to find someone else who's interested, then acting confused when they try to clarify.

Explanation

In this comic, Cueball, representing Randall, explains that even though he does not care about sports and is tempted to be scornful about others' obsession with them, he understands that people feel vulnerable about stuff they care about. And he will for sure be fed up with all the talk about the Super Bowl discussions and arguments over the coming weeks. (The comic was released on a Friday two days before Super Bowl XLIX, the championship game of the 2014 NFL season held on 2015-02-01). However, since other people tolerate his interest in odd things like meteorology and the Philae lander (see 1324: Weather and 1446: Landing), he recognizes that he should show the same consideration to them. This is an invocation of the Golden Rule, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you".

In the last frame, he tells us that instead of celebrating the sports event on Sunday, he will be celebrating friendship (through listening to his friends) and, as a side note, snacking (as they are very frequently brought to Super Bowl-watching events). This suggests that the value of friendship trumps the discomfort of watching human activities that seem uninteresting to him – and of course, the free snacks also help ameliorate his discomfort.

In a previous comic, Cueball spent his time differently during the Super Bowl - see 60: Super Bowl. (This was the second time that two xkcd comics have shared the exact same name). The year after he continued the trend with a Super Bowl related comic to "celebrate" the event: 1640: Super Bowl Context. Between the 2006 comic and this one there were no other Super Bowl related comics coming out in relation to the Super Bowl. See also 1107: Sports Cheat Sheet and two other comics where he jokes with sport in general: 904: Sports and 1507: Metaball. He again explicitly mentions lack of knowledge in 1859: Sports Knowledge.

The title text continues the My Hobby trope characteristic of some xkcd comics: here, Randall references people who scornfully refer to popular sports such as football, basketball, and/or baseball as "sportsball" and creates discomfort for them by pretending to be interested in this imaginary sport. This makes it appear as though they are in fact interested in sports when they are not, exposing their snobbishness. (It is worth noting that there is a Wii U game by that name.)

Transcript

[Cueball standing.]

Cueball: I don't know much about sports, which can be culturally isolating, so it's tempting to get vocal and defensive about not following them.

Cueball: Caring about something makes people vulnerable, so not caring gives you power.

[Pictures of a weather map and Philae in the background.]

But I know things I'm into don't always sound interesting to 100% of the people around me, and it means a lot when they sometimes try to listen anyway - and maybe even find themselves sharing some of my excitement!

[Cueball pointing to self.]

Cueball: So while everyone is going on about the Super Bowl on Sunday, let me tell you what I'll be doing:

[Cueball standing again.]

Cueball: Listening!

Cueball: Hooray for friendship!

Cueball: Also, eating snacks.

Cueball: Hooray for snacks!

Trivia

• This comic has the same title as 60: Super Bowl, released on February 6, 2006. While this is the second time this happens, there have been other instances of comics sharing the same name. The first was 786: Exoplanets, released on August 30, 2010, and 1071: Exoplanets, released on June 20, 2012.
• In between this comic and the one nine years before, no other comics related to the Super Bowl came out. The year after, in 2016, the comic 1640: Super Bowl Context was the third comic to talk about it.

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Discussion

So should this be tagged as a my hobby comic? Not sure since it is only in the title text. Athang (talk) 08:25, 30 January 2015 (UTC)

Looking through all the comics, I believe this is the first comic to have "My hobby:" in the title text. There is one that follows the same pattern, but merely has "Hobby:" in the title text, which is not itself categorized as a "My Hobby" comic, but the explanation states it is a reference to that category. Personally, I don't see any reason NOT to put both of these (but at least this one, since it does actually have the words "My hobby:" in it's text, if only in the title text) into said category. But I'm not the only user of this site - anyone else want to weigh in? -- Brettpeirce (talk) 11:55, 30 January 2015 (UTC)

I'm wondering - has he duplicated a comic title before? -- Brettpeirce (talk) 10:26, 30 January 2015 (UTC)

It looks like this is the second comic title to be duplicated - the other pair appears to be Exoplanets (786 and 1071) -- Brettpeirce (talk) 10:40, 30 January 2015 (UTC)

It's actually the Superb Owl in my world.108.162.216.35 10:48, 30 January 2015 (UTC)

OMG! I LOVE the Superb Owl!!! THOSE EYES!!!!! -- Brettpeirce (talk) 10:53, 30 January 2015 (UTC)

The trouble with Arsenal is...--Bmmarti3 (talk) 13:45, 30 January 2015 (UTC)

...they always try to walk it in. 141.101.98.191 16:41, 30 January 2015 (UTC)

I believe the current explanation includes a misunderstanding over what "Super Bowl" includes - the final championship game IS the Super Bowl, not the finals OF the Super Bowl! The Super Bowl is one game only! Since it's been so long, I hesitate to edit it myself this late in the game. --Ianrbibtitlht (talk) 16:15, 2 June 2017 (UTC)

I had no such hesitation. Fixed. Nitpicking (talk) 02:41, 24 December 2021 (UTC)

Is the last frame a Kerbal reference? Cat (talk) 06:57, 22 February 2018 (UTC)

Sportball? Is this a Hob reference? Psychoticpotato (talk) 18:54, 30 May 2024 (UTC)