ibm hc 3

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Explanation

This is one of 53 incomplete explanations: Finish explaining the joke Mention the discovery of this comic and Randall's response, using the {{Quote}} template.) If you can fix this issue, edit the page!

This comic was created by Randall after a special request from IBM's A Smarter Planet blog (now defunct, archive). The website now redirects to IBM's Think blog's homepage. This and the other A Smarter Planet comic, Conservation, are not part of the regular numbered series of comics, but both of them used to be featured on xkcd.com/asmarterplanet (now defunct, archive). Each comic on that page linked to their respective blog posts on IBM's site.

Megan (presumably) is ranting about how bureaucracy has slowed the introduction of computers to information transmission. She uses the metaphor of hiring Peter Jackson (director, writer, and producer of the Lord of the Rings trilogy as well as the Hobbit trilogy) to answer phones, a clear analogy of wasted potential. Cueball tweaks the metaphor by claiming it's more like Tiger Woods, a championship golf player, on an Olympic swim team, an equally prestigious position but one completely outside of Woods' skillset. Ponytail then compares it to hiring a German porn star to do Hungarian ballet, a metaphor so weird and oddly specific that the others doubt its applicability here.

Transcript

[Megan is sitting at a desk looking at a computer, Cueball is standing next to her.]

Megan: We barely use computers. Red tape, paperwork, and bureaucracy should be vanishing, with information appearing where we need it, fast and secure.

[Megan turns the chair she's on to face Cueball, Ponytail appears on-panel.]

Megan: Instead, we're emailing scans of forms.

Megan: It's like hiring Peter Jackson to answer phones at your studio.

[Cueball lifts his arms up, Ponytail lifts one of her arms.]

Cueball: Or putting Tiger Woods on your Olympic swim team

Ponytail: Or hiring a German porn star to do Hungarian ballet.

[Cueball and Ponytail puts their arms back down, Cueball and Megan look at Ponytail.]

Megan: Is it really like that?

Cueball: Yeah, I don't think anything's like that.

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Discussion

To share information and coordinate, please use Category talk:A Smarter Planet instead of this talk page. Thanks!

Wow! An unpublished comic! Also, first post! RadiantRainwing (talk) 14:46, 13 February 2025 (UTC)

tori, crush their skull, ty ^-^ Caliban (talk) 08:54, 14 February 2025 (UTC)

yes please! violently! --FaviFake (talk) 16:00, 14 February 2025 (UTC)

crunch done. 42.book.addict^{Talk to me!} 17:23, 14 February 2025 (UTC)

Normally with lost media there's a whole story to be told about the quest to find it, but here, we didn't even know it was lost in the first place. This existing is just wild to me. 108.162.238.9 21:17, 13 February 2025 (UTC)
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