Editing 785: Open Mic Night

{{comic
| number    = 785
| date      = August 27, 2010
| title     = Open Mic Night
| image     = open_mic_night.png
| titletext = Ever notice how the more successful observational comics become, the more their jokes focus on flying and hotels?
}}

==Explanation==
The comic depicts four acts at an {{w|Open mic|open mic night}}, where performances typically include comedy, poetry, music and other similar performance arts.

===Panel 1===
[[Megan]] confidently introduces herself as M.C. Aphasia, and starts to talk to the audience. Midway through her sentence, however, she appears unable to continue to talk, ending with a sheepish "Hi?". {{w|Aphasia}} is a language disorder symptomized by disturbance in formulation and comprehension of language. This class of language disorder ranges from having difficulty remembering words to being completely unable to speak, read, or write. M. C. stands for {{w|Master of Ceremonies}} - in the context of hip-hop performance, it means a rapper. Because a rapper's delivery depends on the ability to deliver lyrics fluently at high speed, aphasia would render an MC unable to perform.

===Panel 2===
The second panel shows [[Black Hat]] on the stage, just after a {{w|heckler}} in the audience fired a 'Yo Mama' joke at Black Hat (possibly "when yo mama sits around the house, she sits ''around'' the house"). A heckler's aim is usually to put the performer off of their routine, and appear funny themselves. Responses from the performer vary from simply ignoring the heckler to replying with a witty put down to get the audience back on the comedian's side and dissuade the heckler from continuing. Rather than a short witty over-the-top reply in the typical style of {{w|Yo Mama}} jokes, Black Hat's response is a dark, detailed, realistic insult, implying that the heckler's mother is a failure and isn't proud of the heckler.

===Panel 3===
The third panel is a reference to a {{w|quine (computing)|quine}}, a computer program which outputs only an exact copy of its own source code, when that code is run, as the MC is speaking entirely self-referentially about everything that he says. The name comes from {{w|Willard Van Orman Quine}}, who (amongst other work) looked at the logic of self-referential language.

Technically, the first sentence uses the word "say" in the normal way, as a transitive verb, with the second sentence in quotation marks as its object. The second sentence has the same words as the first, but now the word "say", not itself refering to any further recursive sublevel of quote, can be taken as an intransitive verb: a non-standard usage approximately meaning "speak impressively". Quine programs will also usually need to employ the means to seperately handle some element of their operation as both a command (such as the <code>print</code> operation that creates its output) and as data (i.e. some form of the "print" operation being held as a string).

However, the MC's words (non-audible punctuation aside) don't quite accomplish the same task as a quine program, that of being able to take the whole output to autonomously recreate the whole output, and perhaps would have more done so if the repeated phrase had the repeated phrase been something like "Yo, I'm M.C. Quine and I'm here to say twice".

The related {{w|Quine paradox}} is where a sentence repeated twice in succession proves to be ''paradoxical''. For example:
:"Yields falsehood when preceded by its quotation" yields falsehood when preceded by its quotation.
The sentence is another way of saying "this statement is false" but without the explicit self-reference. (Quine programs, however, are not self-contradicting scenarios, but instead have an entirely self-affirming nature.) A ''paradoxical'' MC Quine, meanwhile, might have used both literal and self-quoted lines of "Yo, I'm M.C. Quine and I will not repeat", to a similar effect.

===Panel 4===
In the fourth panel, [[Beret Guy]]'s speech begins as if with the common observation, "Ever notice how men go to the restroom alone, while women go in groups", but somehow gets derailed through the use of the word hordes instead of groups, and a confusion between women and orcs. When an audience member (or heckler) points this out, Beret Guy's response shows that his observations weren't intended as comedy in the first place.

The description of orc armies is reminiscent of their appearance in the movie adaptations of ''The Lord of the Rings'', but in archaic wording. (For example, the phrase "clad all in sable armor" also appears in [https://www.gutenberg.org/files/60184/60184-h/60184-h.htm Howard Pyle's ''The Story of King Arthur and His Knights''] (1903).)

The title text continues the riff on different kinds of stand-up comedians, commonly referred to as comics. {{w|Observational humor}} is a joke that presents a typical real-life situation humorously, often with a touch of exaggeration. The title text is likely referring to stand-up comedians, like {{w|Jerry Seinfeld}}, who use observational humor. When an observational comic becomes more successful, they  will probably "go on tour" resulting in a great deal of travel. This gives them lots of experience with airplanes and hotels, and more jokes about them will show up in the routine. Furthermore, the title text is itself an observational joke.

==Transcript==
:[Megan on stage, holding microphone, hip-hop stance.]
:Megan: Yo, I'm M.C. Aphasia and I'm here to say that, I... Uh...
:Megan: ...Um... 
:Megan: ...Hi?

:[Black Hat on stage, holding microphone.]
:Black Hat: So I... oh? Does she? Well, when ''yo'' mama sits around the house, she finds herself wishing she'd finished her degree instead of having kids right away, maybe started that business. Then she might have created something she's ''proud'' of.

:[Cueball on stage, holding microphone, fist pumping toward audience.]
:Cueball: 
:Yo, I'm M.C. Quine
:and I'm here to say, 
:"Yo, I'm M.C. Quine 
:and I'm here to say!"

:[Beret Guy on stage, holding microphone.]
:Beret Guy: Ever notice how men go to the restroom alone, while women go in hordes ten thousand strong, clad all in sable armor and bristling with swords and spears?
:Audience member (off-screen): Those are orcs.
:Beret Guy: Oh.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Your Mom]]
[[Category:LOTR]]