145: Parody Week: Dinosaur Comics

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Parody Week: Dinosaur Comics

Title text: Guys: while I was writing this, I accidentally swallowed a table-size slab of drywall. I know! Wacky.

Explanation

Dinosaur Comics (wikipedia article) is a webcomic by Ryan North. The artwork never changes, save a few rare exceptions, and only the dialogue is different. Randall has borrowed the usual artwork and font.

For those who don't read it, here's a typical strip.

Randall makes several shots at recurring themes in Dinosaur Comics. T-Rex (the green dinosaur) is bold and enthusiastic, discussing various topics, a favorite of which appears to be linguistics. Dromiceiomimus, the white dinosaur in the third panel, usually responds calmly to T-Rex's discussions. Utahraptor, the orange dinosaur, typically contradicts T-Rex, but Randall subverts this pattern and has him agree.

The topic of gender-neutral pronouns has been specifically covered in Dinosaur Comics, five years after this parody.

Just like xkcd, Dinosaur Comics also has title texts. Ryan's title texts tend to be bizarre non-sequiturs, and the title text in the parody seems to be a riff on this.

Transcript

T-Rex: THINGS I AM UPPITY ABOUT: "They" as a third-person singular gender-free pronoun.

T-Rex: I'm all for it!

Dromiceiomimus: But isn't that terrible grammar?

T-Rex: Only by recent convention! It's been in use that way for centuries, and its use is widely accepted! ALSO: this lets us avoid ridiculous constructs like "he/she", "s/he", "xe" or "hirs"!

Utahraptor: T-Rex, I... agree.

T-Rex: What?

Utahraptor: That sounds good to me!

Utahraptor: Normally I'd jump in with an objection, but I think your point makes sense.

T-Rex: Could it be that the rift in our author's mind has finally healed? Is he no longer locked in perpetual war with the self-doubt that lurks in his subc-

Narrator: IN A WORLD WHERE THERE IS STILL A LAND BRIDGE BETWEEN ASIA AND NORTH AMERICA FOR SOME REASON:

T-Rex: -onscious?

Narrator: ALSO HOW ABOUT IN THIS WORLD EVERYONE IS BICURIOUS

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Discussion

The word "bicurious" has also been referenced in Dinosaur Comics: [1] [2] 199.27.128.116 00:27, 26 April 2015 (UTC)

Great, added for the explanation. --Kynde (talk) 20:21, 30 July 2016 (UTC)

The paragraph saying Randall is unfamiliar w/ genderqueer pronouns seems mistaken to me. He doesn't delve into a discussion of the different shades of meaning there, sure, but I think that's a stylistic choice consistent with making a readable comic --172.69.22.104 02:15, 27 July 2018 (UTC)

I think this page needs to be updated, as you don't need to be genderqueer to use neopronouns. Anyone can use whatever pronouns they want, and I don't agree that the definition of genderqueer on this page is the best one. In fact, the large majority of people who use neopronouns identify as non-binary, and this is seeming to show it's age.

Lolol. This one is kinda funny. But why are dinos in full color? 172.68.34.61 14:51, 20 March 2024 (UTC)

Because Dinosaur Comics is, and this is a full parody of that..? 172.70.90.173 15:37, 20 March 2024 (UTC)

Gotcha. I get it now. 162.158.174.4 18:28, 21 March 2024 (UTC)