Editing 2670: Interruption

{{comic
| number    = 2670
| date      = September 9, 2022
| title     = Interruption
| image     = interruption.png
| titletext = It's been extra bad ever since my GPS got stuck on Phoebe Judge mode.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a GPS VOICE SYNTHESIZER. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic is about listening to a {{w|podcast}} while driving with GPS navigation using {{w|speech synthesis}} for {{w|turn-by-turn navigation|turn-by-turn driving instructions}}. {{w|In-car entertainment|Car entertainment systems}} and {{w|Satellite navigation|SatNav}}-enabling devices (if connected to the car's audio feed) typically allow the SatNav to interrupt whatever else is being played, so that directions can be heard clearly. It's usually easy for the driver to recognise such instructions due to the sudden change in characteristics of the voice. And also the switch in contextual flow, even mid-word for the original sound-source.

However, if the synthetic voice is similar to the speech that was playing, it may be hard to distinguish between the two, especially if the navigation instructions seem to coincide with the interrupted speech. In cases like this, the listener might think that the driving instructions are part of their podcast.

[[Cueball]] is interviewing [[Ponytail]] for the podcast, and she tells a story about a woman who betrayed her. Just when she is about to tell what the betraying woman said to her before she left with the money, which might have revealed if it has been planned in advance, the GPS instructions interrupts and delivers a driving instruction blocking out the last part of a sentence.

The comic suggests [[Randall]] misinterpreted those driving instructions as part of the story being told in the podcast because the GPS voice sounds similar to Ponytail's voice. The comic illustrates the instructions as if they were part of the story from the podcast. Due to the mysterious nature of the story, it is conceivable that the woman in the podcast could have said the navigation instruction line as part of the podcast, leading to ambiguity between the two.

What the betrayer was going to say to Ponytail is never revealed. But the driving instruction does not really fit into the story. It would have been a different matter if she had said, if YOU ever see me again. But she did say If I ever see you again. And that does not necessarily imply that Ponytail has seen her, and thus she could not turn left at the next light, if she did not know she had been seen. 

The title text suggests this confusion worsened after Randall's navigation instructions voice got stuck emulating {{w|Phoebe Judge}}, known for the {{w|Criminal (podcast)|''Criminal''}} and {{w|This Is Love (podcast)|''This Is Love''}} podcasts, implying he often listens to her. The extent to which [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qB2NKadJ6U she may sound similar to voices of common navigation apps] is of course entirely subjective.  In Randall's case, however, his GPS actually used Judge's voice for the GPS as well, and thus the confusion is very real and annoying.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Ponytail are facing each other from opposite sides of a table. They are sitting in office chairs and are both wearing headsets. They are speaking into microphones standing on the table in front of them.]
:Cueball: ...And that's when you knew she had betrayed you?
:Ponytail: Yeah.
:Ponytail: She picked up the money and walked out.

:[Close-up of Ponytail with the headset on seen from the waist up.]
:Ponytail: To this day, I don't know if she planned it all.
:Ponytail: But there was one moment that makes me think, maybe she did.

:[A frame-less section for Ponytail's voice-over is placed above the next panel. The panel, which it thus half the normal height, is mainly black with a white door opening from which white light is shining on to the floor. A silhouette of a Megan like woman stands in the doorway, holding a bag in one hand. Ponytail tells what she said and that part is written in white on the black part above the woman.]
:Ponytail (voice-over): Just before she disappeared, she paused at the door, looked back at me, and said,
:Ponytail (voice-over for the woman): Hey - if I ever see you again,

:[Close-up of the woman with the bag in silhouette in the white doorway. (Note that from the context of the caption it becomes clear that this was actually said by the GPS navigation system, but at this point of reading, it is taken as Ponytail's voice-over.)]
:Ponytail (voice-over for the woman): Turn left at the next light.

:[Caption below the panels:]
:It's so disorienting when a podcaster has a voice that's similar to my navigation app.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]