451: Impostor - Revision history

Chronotix: /* Explanation */

2026-02-23T22:41:51Z

‎Explanation

Lettherebedarklight: /* Transcript */ add Category:Comics with a Spanish translation

2025-12-15T08:59:14Z

‎Transcript: add Category:Comics with a Spanish translation

2600:1700:94A0:6BE8:BC90:7F63:9F5F:6E79: /* Explanation */

2025-07-03T05:06:14Z

‎Explanation

2600:1700:94A0:6BE0:ECDD:881D:169:7204: /* Explanation */

2025-07-03T05:03:01Z

‎Explanation

172.70.47.53: /* Explanation */ So wrong. VSO is not the most rare order, Klingon is OVS, and neither is found in Finno-Ugric.

2025-03-26T06:53:25Z

‎Explanation: So wrong. VSO is not the most rare order, Klingon is OVS, and neither is found in Finno-Ugric.

172.71.147.105 at 23:44, 25 March 2024

2024-03-25T23:44:38Z

172.71.178.64: Undo revision 300198 by 172.69.134.161 (talk) I don't see the bookshelf even mentioned. Was it that "self" has been misread as as "shelf", perhaps, by that editor?

2022-12-02T09:51:55Z

Undo revision 300198 by 172.69.134.161 (talk) I don't see the bookshelf even mentioned. Was it that "self" has been misread as as "shelf", perhaps, by that editor?

172.69.134.161: /* Explanation */

2022-12-02T09:14:17Z

‎Explanation

JLZ0kTC5: ඞ

2022-11-20T10:47:19Z

ඞ

172.71.30.17: /* Explanation */ Attempted to fix the confusing sentence about the inventors of Klingon

2022-09-07T19:31:42Z

‎Explanation: Attempted to fix the confusing sentence about the inventors of Klingon

@@ Line 16: / Line 16: @@
 In the third panel, the humor comes from the fact that the idea of {{w|sociology}} existing to rank human beings on some arbitrary intrinsic value is not only ridiculous in a scientific context, but also politically offensive. Cueball unknowingly recreates the logic behind some of the worst crimes in human history, a problem sociologists are trained to be very aware of. However, it may be something that a less educated non-sociologist would assume could pass within the field. When he describes his unscientific and offensive approach, we see one of the sociology grad students facepalming in exasperation. Because a non-expert may be able to sound somewhat educated in sociology before making such a slip-up, it is four minutes into the conversation before he is detected.
-In the final panel, he attempts to pass as an expert in {{w|literary criticism}}. This field notoriously uses a great deal of impenetrable jargon, so when Cueball makes up seemingly meaningless sentences, no one notices. He makes a quip that literary deconstruction is dependent not just on the story itself, but also dependent on the critic; when taken in good faith this could be seen as a commentary on a critic's own biases (a subject not all too uncommon in ''real'' literary criticism) or if Cueball is testing his audience it may be a meta joke about the field itself failing under deconstruction... (or this sentence may be a meta-meta- example of someone applying literary criticism standards to the analysis of this specific comic). Regardless, we find that rather than being caught out within minutes as in the other fields, he has now published 8 papers and 2 books. The humor comes from the fact that he has accidentally made himself into a recognized authority in the field, despite not having any idea what he was talking about. In this panel, Cueball is sitting in an armchair in the position of an expert lecturing to a student, who sits at his feet apparently absorbing his inane statement.
+In the final panel, he attempts to pass as an expert in {{w|literary criticism}}. This field notoriously uses a great deal of impenetrable jargon, so when Cueball makes up seemingly meaningless sentences, no one notices. He makes a quip that literary deconstruction is dependent not just on the story itself, but also dependent on the critic; when taken in good faith this could be seen as a commentary on a critic's own biases (a subject not all too uncommon in ''real'' literary criticism) or if Cueball is testing his audience it may be a meta joke about the field itself failing under deconstruction... (or this sentence may be a meta-meta-example of someone applying literary criticism standards to the analysis of this specific comic). Regardless, we find that rather than being caught out within minutes as in the other fields, he has now published 8 papers and 2 books. The humor comes from the fact that he has accidentally made himself into a recognized authority in the field, despite not having any idea what he was talking about. In this panel, Cueball is sitting in an armchair in the position of an expert lecturing to a student, who sits at his feet apparently absorbing his inane statement.
 This implies that the field itself has published a great deal of meaningless things that only superficially look meaningful through the impenetrability of the jargon. The title text challenges the audience to take a look at {{w|Deconstruction|the Wikipedia article for literary deconstruction}} if they don't believe this criticism applies - the Wikipedia article in question is almost constantly flagged for "clean-up" on the grounds that it's a jumbled mess. An archive of the article as it was when this comic was published is available [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Deconstruction&oldid=225953741 here].

← Older revision		Revision as of 08:59, 15 December 2025
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	[[Category:Scientific research]]		[[Category:Scientific research]]
	[[Category:Wikipedia]]		[[Category:Wikipedia]]
		+	[[Category:Comics with a Spanish translation]]

@@ Line 16: / Line 16: @@
 In the third panel, the humor comes from the fact that the idea of {{w|sociology}} existing to rank human beings on some arbitrary intrinsic value is not only ridiculous in a scientific context, but also politically offensive. Cueball unknowingly recreates the logic behind some of the worst crimes in human history, a problem sociologists are trained to be very aware of. However, it may be something that a less educated non-sociologist would assume could pass within the field. When he describes his unscientific and offensive approach, we see one of the sociology grad students facepalming in exasperation. Because a non-expert may be able to sound somewhat educated in sociology before making such a slip-up, it is four minutes into the conversation before he is detected.
-In the final panel, he attempts to pass as an expert in {{w|literary criticism}}. This field notoriously uses a great deal of impenetrable jargon, so when Cueball makes up seemingly meaningless sentences, no one notices. He makes a quip that literary deconstruction is dependant not just on the story itself, but also dependant on the critic; this could be seen as a commentary on a critic's own biases (a subject not all too uncommon in ''real'' literary criticism) or it may be a meta joke about the field itself failing under deconstruction... (or this sentence may be a meta-meta- example of someone applying literary criticism standards to the analysis of this specific comic). We find that rather than being caught out within minutes as in the other fields, he has now published 8 papers and 2 books. The humor comes from the fact that he has accidentally made himself into a recognized authority in the field, despite not having any idea what he was talking about. In this panel, Cueball is sitting in an armchair in the position of an expert lecturing to a student, who sits at his feet apparently absorbing his inane statement.
+In the final panel, he attempts to pass as an expert in {{w|literary criticism}}. This field notoriously uses a great deal of impenetrable jargon, so when Cueball makes up seemingly meaningless sentences, no one notices. He makes a quip that literary deconstruction is dependent not just on the story itself, but also dependent on the critic; when taken in good faith this could be seen as a commentary on a critic's own biases (a subject not all too uncommon in ''real'' literary criticism) or if Cueball is testing his audience it may be a meta joke about the field itself failing under deconstruction... (or this sentence may be a meta-meta- example of someone applying literary criticism standards to the analysis of this specific comic). Regardless, we find that rather than being caught out within minutes as in the other fields, he has now published 8 papers and 2 books. The humor comes from the fact that he has accidentally made himself into a recognized authority in the field, despite not having any idea what he was talking about. In this panel, Cueball is sitting in an armchair in the position of an expert lecturing to a student, who sits at his feet apparently absorbing his inane statement.
 This implies that the field itself has published a great deal of meaningless things that only superficially look meaningful through the impenetrability of the jargon. The title text challenges the audience to take a look at {{w|Deconstruction|the Wikipedia article for literary deconstruction}} if they don't believe this criticism applies - the Wikipedia article in question is almost constantly flagged for "clean-up" on the grounds that it's a jumbled mess. An archive of the article as it was when this comic was published is available [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Deconstruction&oldid=225953741 here].

@@ Line 16: / Line 16: @@
 In the third panel, the humor comes from the fact that the idea of {{w|sociology}} existing to rank human beings on some arbitrary intrinsic value is not only ridiculous in a scientific context, but also politically offensive. Cueball unknowingly recreates the logic behind some of the worst crimes in human history, a problem sociologists are trained to be very aware of. However, it may be something that a less educated non-sociologist would assume could pass within the field. When he describes his unscientific and offensive approach, we see one of the sociology grad students facepalming in exasperation. Because a non-expert may be able to sound somewhat educated in sociology before making such a slip-up, it is four minutes into the conversation before he is detected.
-In the final panel, he attempts to pass as an expert in {{w|literary criticism}}. This field notoriously uses a great deal of impenetrable jargon, so when Cueball makes up seemingly meaningless sentences, no one notices. His quip at "deconstructing the self" may be a meta joke about the field itself failing under deconstruction... (or this sentence may be a meta-meta- example of someone applying literary criticism standards to the analysis of this specific comic). We find that rather than being caught out within minutes as in the other fields, he has now published 8 papers and 2 books. The humor comes from the fact that he has accidentally made himself into a recognized authority in the field, despite not having any idea what he was talking about. In this panel, Cueball is sitting in an armchair in the position of an expert lecturing to a student, who sits at his feet apparently absorbing his inane statement.
+In the final panel, he attempts to pass as an expert in {{w|literary criticism}}. This field notoriously uses a great deal of impenetrable jargon, so when Cueball makes up seemingly meaningless sentences, no one notices. He makes a quip that literary deconstruction is dependant not just on the story itself, but also dependant on the critic; this could be seen as a commentary on a critic's own biases (a subject not all too uncommon in ''real'' literary criticism) or it may be a meta joke about the field itself failing under deconstruction... (or this sentence may be a meta-meta- example of someone applying literary criticism standards to the analysis of this specific comic). We find that rather than being caught out within minutes as in the other fields, he has now published 8 papers and 2 books. The humor comes from the fact that he has accidentally made himself into a recognized authority in the field, despite not having any idea what he was talking about. In this panel, Cueball is sitting in an armchair in the position of an expert lecturing to a student, who sits at his feet apparently absorbing his inane statement.
 This implies that the field itself has published a great deal of meaningless things that only superficially look meaningful through the impenetrability of the jargon. The title text challenges the audience to take a look at {{w|Deconstruction|the Wikipedia article for literary deconstruction}} if they don't believe this criticism applies - the Wikipedia article in question is almost constantly flagged for "clean-up" on the grounds that it's a jumbled mess. An archive of the article as it was when this comic was published is available [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Deconstruction&oldid=225953741 here].

@@ Line 12: / Line 12: @@
 The first panel shows [[Cueball]] discussing an {{w|engineering}} problem with [[Ponytail]]. Ponytail is talking about an immediate practical problem involving heat dissipation. Cueball suggests 'using {{w|logarithm|logarithms}}' to solve it. Logarithms are a mathematical tool used for expressing an exponential relationship as a linear one. While they may be used to model the effects of heat dissipation over time, Ponytail is looking for a way to change the rate of heat dissipation, like "water cooling." It only takes 48 seconds before he exposes himself.
-The second panel shows a conversation with {{w|linguistics|linguistic}} grad students who are apparently discussing the {{w|Finno-Ugric languages|Finno-Ugric language family}} (a family of related languages that includes Hungarian, Finnish, and Estonian). Cueball asks if {{w|Klingon language|Klingon}} is included in this family. The linguists instantly recognize the meaninglessness of the statement &mdash; either because Klingon is a constructed language, designed to sound "alien" to avoid sounding like any human language (thus it cannot be part of any real linguistic family), or because "Klingon" is a recognizable pop-culture reference. Either way he has exposed himself after only 63 seconds of conversation. That all being said, the inventors of the Klingon language took the word order from the Finno-Ugric languages after research showed that the order of "predicate, subject, object" is least common in human languages, so there are at least some roots of Klingon language to analyze.
+The second panel shows a conversation with {{w|linguistics|linguistic}} grad students who are apparently discussing the {{w|Finno-Ugric languages|Finno-Ugric language family}} (a family of related languages that includes Hungarian, Finnish, and Estonian). Cueball asks if {{w|Klingon language|Klingon}} is included in this family. The linguists instantly recognize the meaninglessness of the statement &mdash; either because Klingon is a constructed language, designed to sound "alien" to avoid sounding like any human language (thus it cannot be part of any real linguistic family), or because "Klingon" is a recognizable pop-culture reference. Either way he has exposed himself after only 63 seconds of conversation.
 In the third panel, the humor comes from the fact that the idea of {{w|sociology}} existing to rank human beings on some arbitrary intrinsic value is not only ridiculous in a scientific context, but also politically offensive. Cueball unknowingly recreates the logic behind some of the worst crimes in human history, a problem sociologists are trained to be very aware of. However, it may be something that a less educated non-sociologist would assume could pass within the field. When he describes his unscientific and offensive approach, we see one of the sociology grad students facepalming in exasperation. Because a non-expert may be able to sound somewhat educated in sociology before making such a slip-up, it is four minutes into the conversation before he is detected.

@@ Line 10: / Line 10: @@
 While the comic is ostensibly about grad students, it is really [[Randall]]'s way of poking fun at the relative rigor of different fields, reminiscent of [[435: Purity]]. In the comic, [[Cueball]] attempts to pose as an expert in a given field (a [[:Category:Banned from conferences|recurring pastime]] of his) and sees how long it takes before the real experts detect his nonsense.
-The first panel shows [[Cueball]] discussing an {{w|engineering}} problem with [[Ponytail]]. Ponytail is talking about an immediate practical problem involving heat dissipation. Cueball suggests 'using {{w|logarithm|logarithms}}' to solve it; logarithms are a mathematical tool used for expressing an exponential relationship as a linear one. While logarithms have many uses in engineering, they are an abstract mathematical concept, and not a method of dissipating heat, so in the context of the conversation, it makes no sense and outs Cueball as having grabbed a random word he knows engineers use and thrown it in to sound smart. With the engineer's conversation focusing on an immediate practical application, it only takes 48 seconds before he exposes himself.
+The first panel shows [[Cueball]] discussing an {{w|engineering}} problem with [[Ponytail]]. Ponytail is talking about an immediate practical problem involving heat dissipation. Cueball suggests 'using {{w|logarithm|logarithms}}' to solve it. Logarithms are a mathematical tool used for expressing an exponential relationship as a linear one. While they may be used to model the effects of heat dissipation over time, Ponytail is looking for a way to change the rate of heat dissipation, like "water cooling." It only takes 48 seconds before he exposes himself.
 The second panel shows a conversation with {{w|linguistics|linguistic}} grad students who are apparently discussing the {{w|Finno-Ugric languages|Finno-Ugric language family}} (a family of related languages that includes Hungarian, Finnish, and Estonian). Cueball asks if {{w|Klingon language|Klingon}} is included in this family. The linguists instantly recognize the meaninglessness of the statement &mdash; either because Klingon is a constructed language, designed to sound "alien" to avoid sounding like any human language (thus it cannot be part of any real linguistic family), or because "Klingon" is a recognizable pop-culture reference. Either way he has exposed himself after only 63 seconds of conversation. That all being said, the inventors of the Klingon language took the word order from the Finno-Ugric languages after research showed that the order of "predicate, subject, object" is least common in human languages, so there are at least some roots of Klingon language to analyze.