Editing 2249: I Love the 20s
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==Explanation== | ==Explanation== | ||
+ | {{incomplete|Created by a PEDANT. Explain title text.}} | ||
This comic was released on the first day of the year {{w|2020}}. It was the second of two [[:Category:New Year|New Year comics]] around the 2019-2020 New Year, after [[2248: New Year's Eve]]. | This comic was released on the first day of the year {{w|2020}}. It was the second of two [[:Category:New Year|New Year comics]] around the 2019-2020 New Year, after [[2248: New Year's Eve]]. | ||
− | The comic opens with [[Megan]], [[Cueball]], [[White Hat]], and [[Ponytail]] celebrating the new year | + | The comic opens with [[Megan]], [[Cueball]], [[White Hat]], and [[Ponytail]] celebrating the new year and discussing their relief that the change of decade brings with it two beneficial side-effects; firstly, they can now unambiguously name the decade "the 20s", and secondly, since the decade has a well-defined name, any cultural trends that begin in the 20s can be attributed to the decade itself, and not to the generation that happens to coincide with it. |
− | + | White Hat, however, tries a couple of times to raise a pedantic objection: he believes that the new decade does not "officially" start until 2021. | |
− | + | Ponytail corrects him on this, but he refuses to accept the correction until Megan cites an unlikely source: the fact that the {{w|VH1}} television show | |
− | + | {{w|I Love the '90s (American TV series)|''I Love the '90s''}} categorized MC Hammer's 1990 single "{{w|U Can't Touch This}}" as a 90s song, which supports Ponytail's definition of decade. The joke is that a pop culture documentary is not an authoritative source for definitions of time standards, yet for some reason everyone is willing to accept its authority on such matters anyway. | |
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− | Ponytail corrects him on this, but he refuses to accept the correction until Megan cites an unlikely source: the fact that the {{w|VH1}} television show {{w|I Love the '90s (American TV series)|''I Love the '90s''}} categorized MC Hammer's 1990 single "{{w|U Can't Touch This}}" as a 90s song, which supports Ponytail's definition of | ||
The disagreement over the definition of when decades start is due to the fact that there is more than one way to count decades. You could do it in one of the following two ways: | The disagreement over the definition of when decades start is due to the fact that there is more than one way to count decades. You could do it in one of the following two ways: | ||
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*By taking the digit that is common to all years in a given ten-year span (Ponytail's definition) | *By taking the digit that is common to all years in a given ten-year span (Ponytail's definition) | ||
− | White Hat's definition is an "ordinal" method since it | + | Ponytail's definition is the one in common usage. For example, when we say "the 1980s", we mean "the span of ten years that all began with the digits 198". This is a "cardinal" method of counting decades, since we are only concerned with identifying a particular set of ten years. |
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+ | White Hat's definition, on the other hand, is an "ordinal" method, since it implies that we are counting the number of ten-year spans ''since the first one'', which is defined to have begun in the year 1. | ||
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+ | While White Hat's definition is not technically ''wrong'' - it is a valid way to count decades - Ponytail notes that this is not how decades are typically determined, and the fact that we count centuries in an ordinal way does not mean that we should do the same with decades. | ||
− | + | (To further confuse the issue: even though we ''do'' count centuries ordinarily (eg. "1st century", "20th century", etc.), most people aren't aware that the first century began on the year 1, so most people would count 2000 as being in the 21th century - even though, by the ordinal definition, the 21th century did not start until 2001!) | |
− | + | "{{w|Aughts}}" and "Teens" were names suggested for the {{w|2000s_(decade)|2000s}} and {{w|2010s}} respectively; however, neither of those names managed to gain widespread acceptance. | |
− | + | {{w|Millennials}} is a name given to the generation which was born in the 80s and 90s, such that they began entering adulthood in the 2000s. The term was sometimes used pejoratively by older generations who view millennials as immature or complacent, particularly during the 2010s. The comic speculates that millennials may have been unfairly targeted due to the fact that the decade didn't have an easily-identifiable name; if it had, then people might have attributed their misgivings about modern culture to the decade itself, instead of singling out a demographic. This phenomenon was previously discussed in [[1849: Decades]]. | |
− | Continuing the dubious "proof" offered by Megan, the title text goes on to use the {{w|Billboard (magazine)|Billboard}} [https://www.billboard.com/charts/greatest-billboards-top-songs-80s Best of the 80s] chart as proof that the 1980s started in 1980, as their chart includes {{w|Blondie (band)|Blondie's}} "{{w|Call Me (Blondie song)|Call Me}}", which was released in 1980. The title text ends with {{w|Q.E.D.|QED}} ("quod erat demonstrandum"), which means " | + | Continuing the dubious "proof" offered by Megan, the title text goes on to use the {{w|Billboard (magazine)|Billboard}} [https://www.billboard.com/charts/greatest-billboards-top-songs-80s Best of the 80s] chart as proof that the 1980s started in 1980, as their chart includes {{w|Blondie (band)|Blondie's}} "{{w|Call Me (Blondie song)|Call Me}}", which was released in 1980. The title text ends with {{w|Q.E.D.|QED}} ("quod erat demonstrandum"), which literally means "what was to be shown", and is traditionally used at the end of a mathematical proof to mean "thus it has been demonstrated", as if this second landmark piece of evidence proves Megan's point as conclusively as a mathematical proof. |
==Transcript== | ==Transcript== | ||
− | :[Megan walks in from the left greeting Cueball, White Hat, and Ponytail standing | + | :[Megan walks in from the left greeting Cueball, White Hat, and Ponytail standing in a line, the last two looking in her direction.] |
:Megan: Happy new decade! | :Megan: Happy new decade! | ||
:Ponytail: Welcome to the '20s! | :Ponytail: Welcome to the '20s! | ||
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:Ponytail: Seriously. | :Ponytail: Seriously. | ||
− | :[Only White Hat and Ponytail are shown, both with their arms held out to the sides | + | :[Only White Hat and Ponytail are shown, both with their arms held out to the sides.] |
− | :White Hat: It's technically not a new decade until 2021. | + | :White Hat: It's technically not a new decade until '''2021'''. |
:Ponytail: OK, listen. | :Ponytail: OK, listen. | ||
:Ponytail: If you're going to be pedantic, you should at least be right. | :Ponytail: If you're going to be pedantic, you should at least be right. | ||
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:Ponytail: You're '''''not'''''. | :Ponytail: You're '''''not'''''. | ||
− | :[Zoom in on White Hat and | + | :[Zoom in on White Hat and Ponytails upper parts as they gesture towards each other both raising their hands palm up. Megan interrupts them from off panel, as made clear in the next panel. Her voice comes out of a star burst on the left panel frame.] |
:White Hat: See, the 20<sup>th</sup> century didn't start until-- | :White Hat: See, the 20<sup>th</sup> century didn't start until-- | ||
:Ponytail: But decades aren't centuries. They're not cardinally numbered. | :Ponytail: But decades aren't centuries. They're not cardinally numbered. |