181: Interblag
| Interblag |
 Title text: Sometimes I hate the internet. Sometimes it makes me happy that 'The Tubes' has become slang for the internet so quickly. |
Explanation
The comic parodies the habit of word coining on the internet, as well as the enthusiasm for modern sounding terms in the IT world in general. Common examples include the shortening of "weblog" to "blog," while the entirety of blogs is referred to as the "blogosphere." The internet itself is sometimes called "The Tubes," a term derived from Senator Ted Stevens's infamous statement "Series of Tubes." The suffixes "-net" and "-web" are often used to denote a certain interconnection of information on the internet, as well as to make products and brands sound fit for the 21st century.
The matrix shown in the comic spoofs the internet jargon by combining common prefixes and suffixes to new and impressive but meaningless words. The culmination of nonsense is, as indicated in the transcript, the term "blagoblag". This is also a sideswipe at 148: Mispronouncing, where "blag" was introduced as a substitute for the usage of "blog". The official weblog of the xkcd webcomic is called "blag". The prefix "blago-," meanwhile, was used again in comic 239: Blagofaire.
| Net | Web | Sphere | Tubes | Blag | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| World Wide | World Wide Web (WWW) (a real term) | ||||
| Inter | Internet (a real term) | Interweb (a joke term, usually said as “Interwebs”) | Intersphere (a geometric term)
(There is also a band called "The Intersphere", with this German Wikpedia entry, that pre-existed this comic, but by a different name.) |
Intertubes (A combination of internet and “A series of tubes”) | Interblag (fake term) |
| Blogo | Blogosphere (a real term sometimes used mockingly) | ||||
| Blago | Blagonet (fake term) | Blagosphere (fake term, more mocking than the above one) | Blagoblag (culmination of nonsense) | ||
| Web | Webnet (fake term) | Webweb (fake term, repetition) |
Transcript
- Terms I have used or heard used to make fun of the internet:
- [Below: A matrix whose entries may contain crosses to indicate that a term has been used. The rows (prefixes) are labelled WORLD WIDE, INTER-, BLOGO-, BLAGO-, and WEB-; the columns are labelled NET, WEB, SPHERE, TUBES, and BLAG. In the interests of properly propagating the term "blagoblag," the full list of used terms follows:]
- World Wide Web
- Internet
- Interweb
- Intersphere
- Intertubes
- Interblag
- Blogosphere
- Blagonet
- Blagosphere
- Blagoblag
- Webnet
- Webweb
- [Cueball and Megan stand facing each other; Cueball raises his hands in the air while Megan is nonplussed.]
- Cueball: I heard about it on the interblag!
add a comment! ⋅ add a topic (use sparingly)! ⋅ 
refresh comments!Discussion
One of the comics that got me into XKCD. “That Guy from the Netherlands” (talk) 18:17, 29 March 2019 (UTC)
i heard about it on the webweb! New editor (talk) 00:28, 27 September 2022 (UTC)
