1555: Exoplanet Names 2

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Exoplanet Names 2

Title text: I'm going to drive this Netherlands joke so far into the ground they'll have to build levees around it to keep the sea out.

Explanation

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Transcript

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[Black Hat is pointing slide with image of Kepler-452b planet]

Black Hat: NASA has announced the discovery of a (super-)Earth-sized planet in the habitable zone of a sun-like star.

Black Hat: I suggest we name this planet "Pluto", both to celebrate the great work by the New Horizons team, and to make the stupid "Is Pluto a planet" debate a little more confusing

[Table showing a list of planet names is shown.]

Trivia

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Discussion

"This Land" is a Firefly reference. Keavon (talk) 05:11, 24 July 2015 (UTC)

This land is also track n6 of The Lion King, I think Randall is also a fan of this.--NeoRaist (talk) 14:54, 24 July 2015 (UTC)

What is with Kepler-283? 108.162.214.137 05:09, 24 July 2015 (UTC)

283b is the phonetic spelling for Uranus (your-a-nus) and 283c is the phonetic spelling for Uranus (your-ay-nus) 141.101.104.77 05:33, 24 July 2015 (UTC)

In table explanation, "'YU-ri-nus'...being the same as how the Greek god is pronounced in English" is misleading: Wikipedia's "Uranus (mythology)" page specifies both pronunciations as options. (And when we studied Greek mythology in high school we did in fact use jʊˈreɪnəs.)108.162.216.101 02:19, 12 December 2016 (UTC)

Netherlands

.. I almost feel like that titletext gives enough reason for there to be (some) pages about the What If? series, but ehhhh... Pixali (talk|contribs) 05:02, 24 July 2015 (UTC)

Thought about that and Randall's "promise" to use this joke more often: Do we need a "Netherlands" category for comics/articles? Having said that, maybe this was the very last reference to this joke, because of this promise... Elektrizikekswerk (talk) 12:06, 3 August 2015 (UTC)

Kostner

Is there a pun I'm missing by spelling Kevin Costner as "Kostner"? 198.41.241.7

Randall fixed it. I don't know how to update the file here, though. P1h3r1e3d13 (talk) 20:15, 24 July 2015 (UTC)

I got it - the file's been updated, but I had to go all the way to the image and force a refresh on my browser for it to appear correctly. :P KieferSkunk (talk) 00:34, 25 July 2015 (UTC)

Novella

I'm not 100% sure what "Novella" refers to, aside from the dictionary definition of the word (and if that's the case I'm unsure of the context), but in case it's not widely-known on this wiki, I want to suggest the possibility that it's a tribute to the Novella brothers, who are among the co-hosts of the popular science podcast The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe. - 108.162.241.175 04:43, 24 July 2015 (UTC)

Seems like a cool podcast, sadly I don't have time to listen to 10 years Witt of podcasts. Any specific ones I should listen to and where should I start for new ones? 173.245.55.63 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

The podcast is very topical, often talking about current news items. It is OK to start with new ones, and back-fill as desired. Blaisepascal (talk) 18:57, 24 July 2015 (UTC)

Considering the sex-themed names Novella it is grouped with. I will assume it is a joke on 60/70's exploitation/B-movies, some of which had names or leadcharacters named something..-ella. In this case the prefix is just particularly confusing ;) 188.114.110.47 08:51, 24 July 2015 (UTC)

I assumed this was a reference to the SGU, perhaps because I was primed by the Phil Plait reference (who has been a guest on that podcast a few times), and because of their enthusiasm for space news. 141.101.99.57 20:04, 28 July 2015 (UTC)

It could also be interpreted in this context as the diminutive form of "nova," like a stellar nova. - 173.245.56.165 15:09, 31 July 2015 (UTC)

A$aplanet

Is a pun on the rap group A$AP Mob and their most prominient member A$AP Rocky.

Included that possibility. Thanks. Didn't know of A$AP, before. Elektrizikekswerk (talk) 13:21, 24 July 2015 (UTC)

Somehow I just read this as "a dollar a planet", maybe refering to a donating scheme ("a dollar donated for every planet found" or even more along the lines of "a dollar a day", meaning: donate 1 dollar to save this planet) or a sale advertisement ("just $1 to buy a planet", which is very likely to be a scam as it would not be possible with current technology to visit another planet outside of our solar system) 198.41.242.253 15:15, 24 July 2015 (UTC)

Planet of the Apes (disambiguation)

I think the suggestion here is to actually put the "(disambiguation)" in the name of the planet, thereby creating a problem in the wikipedia entry, since there's already a wikipedia page with that title. They would have to create a meta-disambiguation page, which is why this is funny. 141.101.98.235 13:39, 24 July 2015 (UTC)

That's definitely the joke. But Wikipedia is actually already prepared to deal with this. When the Prince and the Revolution cover band "Prince (disambiguation)" tried to add a page for their band, editors pointed out that it should be listed as "Prince (disambiguation) (band)", with that "misnamed for technical reasons" template at the top explaining that the band's proper name is "Prince (disambiguation)", and possibly a disambiguation page at "Prince (disambiguation)" could point to it as well as to "Prince (musician)" and various other things. (But of course the band is completely non-notable, so the page was just deleted anyway). (I may be misremembering the details; it may have been a similarly-named cover band for a similar artist.) So, this would just be "Planet of the Apsa (disambiguation) (exoplanet)". 162.158.255.52 17:17, 28 September 2015 (UTC)

Kepler-438b

In the previous comic, Kepler-438 was named Kepler-1686 (which does not seem to exist...) and was updated to the current Kepler-438b. It even is colored red to show the update. 162.158.23.198 16:34, 24 July 2015 (UTC)

Hot Mess

Why is Hot Mess an Arrested Development thing? The phrase is in general use, not just limited to viewers of that show. 108.162.237.189 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Air Bud Pluto #9 Reference

A few strips back, in Rulebook, we were debating whether the "9" on the dog's jersey may have been a subtle jab at the Pluto debate. I argued that there was a strong possibility of that, given the timing of that comic immediately after the New Horizons flyby, the strong relationship between dogs and the name Pluto, and Pluto's former status as the 9th planet. There was no way to prove that that was what Randall had in mind (short of him personally confirming it), but I think this strip could lend some credence to it. What do you think? KieferSkunk (talk) 17:50, 24 July 2015 (UTC)

What I think: #1 I don't think just the mention of Pluto is enough to support the relationship between Air Bud and Pluto; #2 read my commentary on 1552: Rulebook. GuiRitter (talk) 23:01, 19 January 2016 (UTC)

Definition of Planet

What about the fact that the new definition of planet made by the IAU says it has to be around the sun. None of these would fit the definition of planet then and the answer to "is Pluto a planet" would still be no.Agent0013

Here's a link to the IAU resolution which defines a planet (and confirms Agent0013's comment): IAU 2006 General Assembly Results. 173.245.50.150 19:35, 25 July 2015 (UTC)

<Here used to be nonsense, sorry> Elektrizikekswerk (talk) 12:51, 3 August 2015 (UTC)

Planet with Arms

(I just added this to the 1253 talk. Adding it here too.) I think Planet With Arms refers to both Hitchhiker's and to Galileo describing Saturn as a 'planet with ears' when he discovered. it. --173.245.54.26 13:12, 25 July 2015 (UTC)

A few more possibilities for you:

• "Skydot" - a reference to Carl Sagan's famous "Pale Blue Dot" of Earth.
• "Seas of Toothpaste" - possibly referencing the Beatles' "Yellow Submarine" with its various peculiar "Seas" (e.g., "Sea of Phrenology", "Sea of Holes")
• "Moonchild" is a generic hippy name, and also the title of a 1917 novel by Aleister Crowley and songs by King Crimson and Iron Maiden. The King Crimson song, perhaps importantly, is the fourth song (i.e., "song d") on their debut album.
• "Planet With Arms" also follows on directly after "LEGoland" as a pun, as well as referencing Galileo's description of Saturn as a planet with ears.

Grutness (talk) 01:48, 26 July 2015 (UTC)

Planet with arms could also probably be a reference to the 'birds with arms' meme. 108.162.249.169 09:12, 26 July 2015 (UTC)

It's probably not intentional, but Spherical Discworld reminded me of an aspect of the Pratchett novel, Strata (pre-Discworld-series, i.e. very early work, and arguably a bit rough around the edges, but you still might want to peruse it some time). Although I'm not wanting to go into any more detail lest I spoiler the very interesting thing that I'm talking about. 141.101.98.168 21:18, 26 July 2015 (UTC)

I am vaguely disappointed that none of the Eridani planets got named "Planet of the Fish Assholes"... -Pennpenn 108.162.250.162 23:46, 26 July 2015 (UTC)

Can we talk about how this comic is the fourth time the island Sulawesi was mentioned without any reason? Sulawesi appeared in comic 273 as part of the electromagnetic spectrum, and physically in both Online Communities maps I and II? 108.162.225.133 09:55, 27 July 2015 (UTC)

I vote for a Sulawesi category. GuiRitter (talk) 23:01, 19 January 2016 (UTC)

Was unicodesnowmanforyou.com made before or after this comic came out? 173.245.54.51 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)