1013: Wake Up Sheeple
| Wake Up Sheeple |
 Title text: You will be led to judgement like lambs to the slaughter--a simile whose existence, I might add, will not do your species any favors. |
Explanation
In this comic, Cueball is going through the traditional loudspeaker-having person refrain about the government having control over our lives and uses the refrain "Wake Up Sheeple", which has been referenced at least two other times in xkcd. Sheeple is a portmanteau (another thing that is loved in xkcd) of "sheep" and "people" used as a derisive term to describe people who thoughtlessly wander through their daily lives going exactly where they are "herded" by the powers that be.
However, in this comic, "sheeple" are not that, instead are a race of half sheep/half person who have slumbered beneath the Earth for ten thousand years and are apparently going to destroy the human race. Repeating a specific phrase 3 times is the same as used in 555: Two Mirrors.
The title text says the humans will be led "like lambs to the slaughter" which is a phrase that appears many times in older texts, the Bible as an example. The phrase means that someone or something would be led to its destruction without it thinking to escape from the disaster. Much in the same way we humans do not seriously consider lower species to be humans, to the Sheeple, our drawing that parallel will not help us in their quest for vengeance.
Transcript
- [A man yells into a megaphone.]
- Man: Your government has turned against you! Corporations control your every thought! - Open your eyes!
- [Head-on view of man with megaphone.]
- Man: Wake up, sheeple! Wake up, sheeple! - WAKE UP, SHEEPLE!!
- ((in between two panels))
- [The man takes the megaphone away from his mouth.]
- <<RUMBLE>>
- [A half-sheep half-man creature rises through the cracking earth, holding aloft a gnarled staff.]
- < < B - A - A - A - A - A... > >
- [Close-up on the sheep-man's eye.]
- TEN THOUSAND YEARS WE SLUMBERED... NOW WE RIIIIIIIISE baaaaaaa
- [A clearly upset woman goes up to the man with the megaphone, hands held out in front of her plaintively.]
- Woman: OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD
- WHY DID YOU DO THAT?!
- Man: What? But I didn't—
- Out-of-frame #1: He awoke the Sheeple!
- OOF #2: Heaven forgive us!
- OOF #3: All is lost!
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refresh comments!Discussion
This one is my favorite comic. That is all, nothing constructive to add here. just praise. lcarsos (talk) 05:33, 21 August 2012 (UTC)
Waking up of ancient creatures may be a reference to "The Cabin in the Woods", the movie that Randall, a fan of Firefly, is likely to have watched. 62.105.129.252 10:43, 14 June 2013 (UTC)
- Considering the comic came out a month before the movie, it's somewhat unlikely. 192.138.72.196 13:08, 28 October 2013 (UTC)
"Oh God Oh God Oh God!" should bring some help!--DrMath 06:46, 1 September 2013 (UTC)
Are you sure that the Sheeple are a race? I thought that it was just one giant monster (using the royal "we" in its speech). --141.101.97.219 11:23, 4 May 2014 (UTC)
- I agree - there is no indication that there are more than one Sheeple, but the trees(?) in the background and the loud baaa indicates that the one shown is a giant. Also the zoom in on the mega eye goes that way. I have corrected the explain acordingly.Kynde (talk) 07:25, 13 May 2014 (UTC)
I dissagree. "Ten thousand years we slumbered..." ~ ~ ~ ~ 108.162.216.72 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
Aren't they goats? 173.245.48.75 04:31, 19 June 2014 (UTC)
Sheeple is a plural word, if it were just the one you'd have to call is a sheeperson. 173.245.48.135 16:08, 15 July 2014 (UTC)
- Both sheep and people have a singular sense so it is not impossible that sheeple has too. Tharkon (talk) 01:15, 18 July 2014 (UTC)
Removed the following paragraph:
This comic may also be a view on Randall's actual political views; the awakened monster in the comic actually represents all the "sheeple". Thus, Randall may be saying that if the "sheeple" wake up and realize that the government is controlling them, without an authority figure (i.e. the government) the sheeple would go wild and pandemonium would ensue.
It seems to be wild speculation, and unless there is something to back it up, I think it should remain removed from the explanation. Suspender guy (talk) 13:06, 14 October 2015 (UTC)
- This looks like a valid interpretation to me. It says "may", couching it as just an interpretation. We never know which of us Randall is more similar to, that we guessed the interpretation he had in his mind better than somebody else. Thanks so much for preserving it instead of just erasing it. 173.245.52.199 23:02, 4 November 2020 (UTC)
There may be a connection to Tom Smith's song, "Sheep Marketing Ploy." The song describes a series of imaginary horror movies about "Fenton, the Death Sheep from Hell," who has a deep and ominous "Baaa." Gmcgath (talk) 20:40, 22 October 2016 (UTC)
Is that a shepherd's crook it's holding? Subtle, yet serious, irony... 108.162.219.154 12:39, 12 May 2017 (UTC)
Oh yes, get DESTROYED. now you will suffer LIKE ME! (a line from a movie go watch it bwahahahahahahahahaha)Z1mp0st0rz (talk) 20:20, 11 April 2024 (UTC)
