169: Words that End in GRY

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Words that End in GRY

Title text: The fifth panel also applies to postmodernists.

Explanation

This is a reference to a famous joke (see the first of the meta versions under the wiki link), mistold in the above comic.

The original, correct telling of the joke is:

Think of words ending in "-gry". "Angry" and "Hungry" are two of them. There are only three words in the English language. What is the third word? Hint: The word is something that everyone uses everyday. If you have listened carefully, I have already told you what it is.

Phrased this way, the answer is "language" because "There are only three words in (the phrase) 'the English language' ."

Cueball tells this joke, unfortunately by poorly phrasing the original riddle. By instead saying, "There are three words in the English language that end in '-gry,'" the teller of the joke has actually removed any chance of determining the correct answer. As such, when Cueball attempts to say the answer is "language" and act smugly about it, Black Hat is unimpressed and cuts off Cueball's hand, explaining that cleverness is not the same as communicating badly.

Black Hat's point about bad communication may be directed at Cueball's botching of the joke, but he could also be talking about the riddle in general, properly told or not. The riddle's "cleverness" depends on misleadingly implying that "three words" refers to words ending in "-gry," rather than the phrase "the English language." Black Hat does not seem to agree that this riddle is clever.

In any case, no matter how annoying Cueball's smugness, Black Hat's response, cutting off Cueball's hand, is a comical overreaction (while his calm demeanor in doing so is a comical underreaction). Additionally, his calmly-made point about the riddle is likely not to be understood by Cueball, who can only focus on his debilitating injury. Black Hat has, ironically, failed to communicate his point about proper communication, although given Black Hat's personality he likely doesn't care, and may even have intended the irony.

As Black Hat mentioned in the comic, if you count obscure and archaic words, there are additional English words that ends with "-gry." Some are listed here.

The title text refers to postmodernism, a philosophy and corresponding art movement. Postmodern music is often minimalist, as exemplified by the weird sounds of Philip Glass and Steve Reich, and postmodern visual art saw trends such as lowbrow and installation art gain attention. Apart from a rejection of modernism, however, it is difficult to outline postmodernism to justify the strange works of art. Deconstruction is another important concept, but it is difficult to describe the process. In short, postmodernists make art that no one understands and may act smugly about it, but they do not adequately explain what their art means, or it doesn't really mean anything. In other words, there is nothing to understand. Thus, Black Hat's statement, that such practice is not "cleverness," applies to them as well.

Transcript

[Black Hat and Cueball are standing next to each other.]

Cueball: There are three words in the English language that end in "gry". "Angry" and "Hungry" are two. What's the third?

Black Hat: I don't think there is one, unless you count really obscure words.

Cueball: Ha! It's "language"! I said there are three words in "the English--" Hey!

GRAB

[Black Hat grabs Cueball's hand, with a knife in hand.]

Cueball: What th--AAAAAAAAAA

SLICE

[Black Hat slices off Cueball's hand with the knife.]

[Cueball is bleeding profusely.]

Black Hat: Ok, listen carefully.

Cueball: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Black Hat: Communicating badly and then acting smug when you're misunderstood is not cleverness.

Cueball: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Black Hat: I hope we've learned something today.

Cueball: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Trivia

Around the time this comic was posted, Randall also posted Blue Eyes: The Hardest Logic Puzzle in the World. He apparently took his own advice to heart as he explicitly states he has gone over the wording of the puzzle several times before publishing it to make it as unambiguous as possible.

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Discussion

Ok, everything on this page, I already got. The bit I came here for, is the exact nature of the ambiguity. What is 'the phrase'?
"The English language that end in gry", he's wrong because there are more than three words.
"The English language", he's wrong because none of them end in gry.
"There are three words in the English language ...", wrong again because language isn't the third word.
So...? -- Zergling_man 58.96.88.83 15:24, 20 November 2012 (UTC)

The second paragraph in the explanation is what you are looking for. But as a brief overview: The reason it's easy to miss is that the words are written as a dialog would happen. If it had been properly punctuated it would have read "There are three words in 'the English language' that end with gry: 'Angry' and 'Hungry' are two. What's the third?" Cueball is saying there are three words in the phrase 'the English language' but to distract his intended victim he continues the sentence so the phrase is hidden among other words that, when taken as a whole, have a seeming continuity. This is why Black Hat cuts off Cueball's hand. Because the "joke" is not funny and being intentionally ambiguous and then being smug when the ambiguity has its intended effect is not humor. lcarsos_a (talk) 16:01, 20 November 2012 (UTC)

But this doesn't actually answer my question. Take it without the distraction. "There are three words in the English language that end in gry. What's the third?" Even then, it still doesn't make any sense. If you take it as "there are three words in the English language. What's the third?", then you're left with "that end in gry: Angry and hungry are two", and that doesn't make any sense at all. I'm not seeing how there's any way both meanings can be valid, whatever you do to this, it seems at least one is completely nonsensical. -- Zergling_man 58.96.88.83 13:00, 5 December 2012 (UTC)

The trouble is that Randall told the joke incorrectly... it should be (with proper punctuation) "There are three words in 'The English Language'. Ending in 'gry' there are 'angry' and 'hungry' What is the third word?" 190.214.5.29 04:59, 6 December 2012 (UTC)

I think a better way to say it is:

There are at least 3 words in "the English language that end with 'gry'. 'Angry' and 'hungry' are two". What is the third word? 81.23.24.39 08:33, 25 February 2013 (UTC)

For anyone who is curious, the answer is "gryphon." Greyson (talk) 20:47, 10 December 2012 (UTC)

They have to end with "GRY", an answer can be "unangry", but "gryphon" does not end with GRY (source:http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=words+that+end+in+GRY) -- 79.40.128.128 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

No; the original question asked for 3 words that had 'gry' in the end. 'Angry' and 'hungry' have 'gry' in the back end. 'Gryphon' has 'gry' in the front end.

Also, sudo sign all your comments by adding 4 tildes in the back end of your comment. Greyson (talk) 19:37, 11 February 2013 (UTC)

You are not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported. --Jlc (talk) 03:59, 21 November 2018 (UTC)

Sudo visudo. 172.70.38.231 20:20, 15 March 2023 (UTC)

Hey -- who does sudo report these "incidents" to? Me^{[citation needed]} 23:39, 8 June 2023 (UTC)

actually, as you van read in the explanation, the entire question is wrong, the joke should not have the requirement of English words ending with gry, but have the question simply be there are only three words in the English language, what is the third, prefaced by a misguiding comment about words that end with gry, like angry and hungry. The point of the joke is that this preface is not part of the question, and as such it creates a hilarious intentional misunderstanding. 145.44.88.75 10:01, 25 June 2013 (UTC)

I fear you are missing the point. The comic is intentionally written ambiguously to highlight the frustration caused when one misuses grammar in retelling the joke. The original joke is grammatically correct: the third word of the phrase "the English Language" is "language." The reference to words ending in "gry" is just a distraction. However, if the distraction is combined with the phrase, then the grammar becomes confusing, ruining the joke. Lanejb24

I really doubt this is Cueball, as he is seen later with both arms, and he is nowhere near as much of an asshole (or an idiot) to tell this joke incorrectly. 75.185.176.214 18:45, 8 August 2013 (UTC) tildes for the win

There are many Cueballs, just read the page on him. However, this doesn't exactly fit the normal Cueball's character. Gman314 (talk) 16:40, 21 August 2013 (UTC)

---

The title text is missing. Am I right that Randall states that postmodernists are not clever?--Dgbrt (talk) 19:31, 8 August 2013 (UTC)

Well, postmodernists are pretty much thrashed in Urban Dictionary...Pacerier (talk) 19:41, 12 July 2015 (UTC)

No, I would say that Randall is making a joke about postmodern art. Stereotypically, postmodern art is very subtle and symbolic and doesn't look like much, but there is still a message hiding underneath. Randall is saying that they're not conveying their point well, but are still acting smug when people don't understand their poorly communicated point. Gman314 (talk) 16:40, 21 August 2013 (UTC)

I took him to mean postmodernist philosophers, who clumsily use obscure language and then act like those who "misunderstand" their evasive blather are proving themselves wrong. — Kazvorpal (talk)

What makes you think that it only refers to postmodern art and not postmodernization in general? Pacerier (talk) 19:41, 12 July 2015 (UTC)

No, but almost. Randall does feel that post-modernists are prone to this behavior, and this behavior is not clever. 108.162.219.58 01:44, 6 February 2014 (UTC)

And where is the source for "Randall does feel that post-modernists are prone to this behavior"?Pacerier (talk) 19:41, 12 July 2015 (UTC)

Wikipedia has an entire page devoted to the -GRY joke (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/-gry) 66.46.112.60 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Cueball's hand

Can someone explain what is the significance of BlackHat cutting off Cueball's hand?Pacerier (talk) 19:41, 12 July 2015 (UTC)

He's punishing Cueball for being smug. It's not significant that it's the hand in particular (that just seems to be the limb closest to BlackHat). 108.162.216.38 23:35, 12 September 2015 (UTC)

No, I think it's because he was pointing at him, as part of the sting of the joke. —Kazvorpal (talk) 15:12, 30 January 2024 (UTC)

He's trying to give Cueball an easy way to remember to not behave this way in the future. It's funny because the lesson is a failure, it causes more long term harm than long term benefit. Also it is unlikely that Cueball is paying attention to the lesson anyway, being distracted by the pain and loss. Or possibly it's funny because Black Hat is just causing his usual mayhem, and pretends to be a teacher to hide his intention, and does an unconvincing job. Shingleslant (talk)

As a child I watched a TV series called "legends of kung-fu" and each time the master, played by David Carradine, was giving a lesson to his son, he was slapping him in the face, so the lesson be easily memorized. I am quite sure Randall watched it also, because there is another xkcd comics that references David Carradine.

Hangry. That is all I have to add. 172.69.234.132 01:41, 24 July 2019 (UTC) Cye