2548: Awful People

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Awful People

Title text: Hm, this burger place has a couple of good reviews, but LakeSlayer7 says he got food poisoning there and everyone should try this other place down by the lake instead.

Explanation

Megan and Cueball are having a conversation about social media. Cueball mentions that when responding to textual comments on a screen, it can be easy to forget these comments are made by thinking, feeling humans (a sentiment expressed before on XKCD). Megan agrees, but also relates a negative comment she got from a stranger about her taste in movies. The twist is that it turns out the person criticizing her was a murderer. Although this does not inherently negate his taste in movies, it does free Megan from the burden of weighing his opinions equally to her own.

The title-text mentions the “LakeSlayer7” which is clearly a reference to the "Lake Slayer" in the comic. They mention, contrary to several other reviewers, that a burger joint in town is unsatisfactory, and that the reader should come to a place “by the lake” instead, which might be (and probably is) a plot to lure people to the lake and to be slain.

In many social and news sites there is a tendency to surface negative content. This can be editorial intent, naive algorithms, or both, attempting to induce rage to drive engagement. Review sites can exhibit a bias in either direction, with minutiae burying valid feedback.

Transcript

[Cueball and Megan are having a conversation while walking.]

Cueball: The Internet makes it easy to be a jerk and forget the person we're talking to is a human.

Megan: Yeah...

Megan: But it also makes us see messages from awful people and assume they come from normal peers.

[Closeup on Megan. Above Megan is a picture of a "reply" post from a man with sunglasses. The post has a title above it.]

Megan: Recently I got a mean reply from a stranger. It was minor but it really got to me.

Post title: Replies to "Favorite Movie"

Post: Every group has one person who likes that movie, and it's the friend they all secretly hate.

[Blondie as a news anchor behind a desk. A "News4" logo is displayed on the desk. There is a picture of the man with sunglasses with "Arrested" under his name. His picture is next to a picture of a house with "Breaking" above it. Megan's dialogue appears above the picture, but she herself is not shown in this panel.]

Megan: Then the next week I saw that guy on the news. He was an actual murderer!

[Megan and Cueball standing next to each other.]

Megan: I can't believe I spent a week stressed out that my taste in movies wasn't shared by the East Valley Strangler.

Cueball: Yeah, at least wait for a second opinion from the Lake Slayer.

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Discussion

whoever added that last paragraph, that's funny https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miLcaqq2Zpk (talk) 10:02, 30 November 2021 (UTC)

damn I fell for your signature. wanna hang out at that place near the lake to celebrate your achievement?LakeSlayer7 (talk) 14:13, 30 November 2021 (UTC)

no https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miLcaqq2Zpk (talk) 15:36, 30 November 2021 (UTC)

This reminds me, anything new with reiserfs? -- Hkmaly (talk) 01:40, 1 December 2021 (UTC)

The Zodiac Killer wrote reviews of serial killer movies.

Could the Lake Slayer in this comic be a reference to the Lake Diver Killer from Umwelt? https://explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/File:umwelt_lake_diver.png --Inkling/Pendragon 162.158.106.95 17:58, 1 December 2021 (UTC)

I can't wait until the incomplete explanation template becomes incomprehensible enough to require its own explainxkcd page. 141.101.96.76 21:03, 1 December 2021 (UTC)

What kind of sicko slays lakes? These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For (talk) 01:40, 9 December 2021 (UTC)