1480: Super Bowl
| Super Bowl |
 Title text: My hobby: Pretending to miss the sarcasm when people show off their lack of interest in football by talking about 'sportsball' and acting excited to find someone else who's interested, then acting confused when they try to clarify. |
Explanation
In this comic, Cueball explains that even though he does not care about sports and is tempted to be scornful about others' obsession with it, he understands that people feel vulnerable about stuff they care about. Since other people tolerate his interest in odd things like meteorology and the Philae Lander (see 1324: Weather and 1446: Landing), he recognizes that he should show the same consideration to them - implicitly an invocation of Kant's categorical imperative, which, although it makes no reference to the Superbowl, specifies the general maxim Cueball is following here.
In the last frame, he suggests that the value of friendship trumps the discomfort of watching human activities that seem uninteresting to him - and that the snacks also help ameliorate his discomfort.
The title text continues the 'my hobby' trope: here, Cueball creates discomfort for people who scornfully refer to football as 'sportball' by calling their bluff and pretending to be interested in this imaginary sport. A person who does not even know that sportball is imaginary is clearly even more uninterested in sport than someone who just scorns football. Feigning interest in this imaginary sport exposes their snobbishness. This hobby does not embody a commitment to Kant's categorical imperative, since the pleasure Cueball takes in it presumably arrives from the discomfort caused by his feigned confusion.
Transcript
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This transcript is incomplete. Please help editing it! Thanks. |
- [standing Cueball]
- Cueball: I don't know much about sports, which can be culturally isolating, so it's tempting to get vocal and defensive about not following them.
- Cueball: Caring about something makes people vulnerable, so not caring gives you power.
- [picture of weather map and Philae spacecraft in the background]
- But i know things I'm into don't always sound interesting to 100% of the people around me, and it means a lot when they sometimes try to listen anyway - and maybe even find themselves sharing some of my excitement!
- [standing Cueball]
- Cueball: So while everyone is going on about the super bowl on sunday, let me tell you what I'll be doing:
- [standing Cueball]
- Cueball: Listening!
- Cueball: Hooray for friendship!
- Cueball: Also, eating snacks.
- Cueball: Hooray for snacks!
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refresh comments!Discussion
So should this be tagged as a my hobby comic? Not sure since it is only in the title text. Athang (talk) 08:25, 30 January 2015 (UTC)
- Looking through all the comics, I believe this is the first comic to have "My hobby:" in the title text. There is one that follows the same pattern, but merely has "Hobby:" in the title text, which is not itself categorized as a "My Hobby" comic, but the explanation states it is a reference to that category. Personally, I don't see any reason NOT to put both of these (but at least this one, since it does actually have the words "My hobby:" in it's text, if only in the title text) into said category. But I'm not the only user of this site - anyone else want to weigh in? -- Brettpeirce (talk) 11:55, 30 January 2015 (UTC)
I'm wondering - has he duplicated a comic title before? -- Brettpeirce (talk) 10:26, 30 January 2015 (UTC)
- It looks like this is the second comic title to be duplicated - the other pair appears to be Exoplanets (786 and 1071) -- Brettpeirce (talk) 10:40, 30 January 2015 (UTC)
It's actually the Superb Owl in my world.108.162.216.35 10:48, 30 January 2015 (UTC)
- OMG! I LOVE the Superb Owl!!! THOSE EYES!!!!! -- Brettpeirce (talk) 10:53, 30 January 2015 (UTC)
The trouble with Arsenal is...--Bmmarti3 (talk) 13:45, 30 January 2015 (UTC)
- ...they always try to walk it in. 141.101.98.191 16:41, 30 January 2015 (UTC)
I believe the current explanation includes a misunderstanding over what "Super Bowl" includes - the final championship game IS the Super Bowl, not the finals OF the Super Bowl! The Super Bowl is one game only! Since it's been so long, I hesitate to edit it myself this late in the game. --Ianrbibtitlht (talk) 16:15, 2 June 2017 (UTC)
- I had no such hesitation. Fixed. Nitpicking (talk) 02:41, 24 December 2021 (UTC)
Is the last frame a Kerbal reference? Cat (talk) 06:57, 22 February 2018 (UTC)
Sportball? Is this a Hob reference? Psychoticpotato (talk) 18:54, 30 May 2024 (UTC)
