145: Parody Week: Dinosaur Comics

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
Revision as of 16:34, 23 December 2016 by 172.68.78.10 (talk) (Explanation)
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Parody Week: Dinosaur Comics
Guys: while I was writing this, I accidentally swallowed a table-size slab of drywall. I know! Wacky.
Title text: Guys: while I was writing this, I accidentally swallowed a table-size slab of drywall. I know! Wacky.

Explanation

This comic is a part of the Parody Week, just joking about other webcomics. This series was released on 5 consecutive days (Monday-Friday) and not over the usual Monday/Wednesday/Friday schedule and is comprised of the following five parodies:

Dinosaur Comics is a webcomic by Ryan North. The artwork never changes, save a few rare exceptions, and only the dialogue is different. Randall traced the comic's usual artwork, though the drawing of the house about to be squashed in panel 3 is a more rudimentary rendition, and the person about the be squashed in panel 4 has been changed into Cueball rather than a woman in bright yellow and pink clothes.

For those who haven't read it, this is a typical strip, and here's a strip dealing with the same subject as this comic (but posted five years after it). See also this particular example where the title text actually refer to Randall and xkcd.

Randall makes several shots at recurring themes in Dinosaur Comics. T-Rex, the green Tyrannosaurus, is bold and enthusiastic, discussing various topics, a favorite of which appears to be linguistics (North got his degree in computational linguistics). This time, he is talking about they being used as a third person singular gender-free pronoun and how it should be more widely used, even though its acceptance varies. Dromiceiomimus, the white dinosaur in the third panel, usually responds calmly to T-Rex's discussions. T-Rex then elaborates on how "they" has been used for centuries (specifically, since the fourteenth century), with the change in convention being relatively recent (the singular "they" fell out of "fashion" in the nineteenth century); as well as how using "they" would avoid "ridiculous" constructs like "he/she", "s/he", "xe" or "hirs", which (according to the comic) were specifically created to avoid the singular they. In fact, while "he/she" and "s/he" are commonly used as a gender-neutral pronoun when gender is unknown, [citation needed] "xe" and "hirs" are typically used for genderqueer individuals. Genderqueer persons do not subscribe to a "binary" definition of gender, where the only genders are male and female, and may identify as having (for example) a gender between male and female, a combination of both male and female genders, no gender (terms for this include "genderless," "agender", and "neutrois"), a separate gender from male and female, an unnameable gender, or a "fluid" gender identity that shifts between multiple genders (the term for this is "genderfluid"). (See http://gender.wikia.com/wiki/Genderqueer.) For this reason, genderqueer pronouns such as "xe" and "hirs" are different from gender-neutral pronouns such as the singular they, "he/she", or "s/he"; while gender-neutral pronouns are used in situations where gender is unknown or irrelevant, genderqueer pronouns are used for a person who chooses to use these pronouns rather than "he" or "she" (note that "they" is also frequently used as a genderqueer pronoun due to its gender-neutral status). This improper analogy between genderqueer and gender-neutral pronouns may suggest the characters' or Randall's unfamiliarity with the usage of genderqueer pronouns at the time this comic was written.

Utahraptor, the orange dinosaur, typically contradicts T-Rex, but Randall subverts this pattern and has him agree. The comic suggests that the perpetual disagreement stems from a 'rift' in the author's mind, which would be healed if only he lived in a world where there were a land bridge between Asia and North America.

In the last panel, the narrator starts with "In a world…", a phrase made famous by Don LaFontaine in movie trailers. It remains unclear what is meant by the reference to Dinosaur Comics being set in a world where the land bridge between Asia and North American still exists, as all the dinosaurs in this and therefore all Dinosaur Comics lived in North America in real life (see the wiki links for the three dinosaurs above). It could be understood as it would only be in such a world that the author (Ryan Norths) mind has healed from it's rift, and and the war with self-doubt in his subconscious has ended. "In a world..." is also likely a reference to the recurring gag of the comic suddenly jumping to alternate worlds or time periods that have whatever conditions T-Rex and his friends have been discussing, to humorous effect.

The last sentence suggest that in this other world everyone is bi-curious. This is a phenomenon in which people of a heterosexual or homosexual identity who, while showing some curiosity for a relationship or sexual activity with a person of the sex they do not favor, distinguish themselves from the bisexual label. Bi-curious has been used as the word of the day two days in a row on May 11th and May 12th 2004. So no wonder Randall put the word in here. The suggestion that "everyone is bi-curious" could be a reference to Arthur C. Clarke's book Imperial Earth, where bisexuality is the norm. Deliberately trite and awkward explorations of this subject matter are also a recurring theme in Dinosaur Comics.

Like xkcd, Dinosaur Comics has title texts. Ryan's title texts tend to be bizarre non-sequiturs, and the title text in this parody fits this pattern. It sounds like it was T-Rex who said this, since only a T-rex could swallow a table sized slab of anything, let alone a slab made of drywall.

T-Rex from Dinosaur Comics later appeared in 1350: Lorenz (see this example story line and also the Dinosaur section under Lorenz themes), where the actual images from the first three panels of Ryan's comic are used, rather than like here where Randall copied them himself and in 1452: Jurassic World, where it was the last image from the actual comic that was used.

Transcript

[T-Rex, a large green Tyrannosaurus, holds out his small arms to each side and the tail pointing up while speaking with wide open pink mouth showing all his teeth. All the text is written like on a typewriter with both caps and lowercase letters, which is not normal in xkcd.]
T-Rex: THINGS I AM UPPITY ABOUT: "They" as a third-person singular gender-free pronoun.
[Zoom in on T-Rex head holding his hands up under his mouth, and mouth even wider open so also the red tongue can be seen.]
T-Rex: I'm all for it!
[Zoom out to show T-Rex to the left, mouth almost closed, arms in normal position, the tail pointing up and lifting his left leg ready to smash his foot down through the roof of a brown log cabin with chimney and porch with a blue car holding in front of the house to the right. Further right is a smaller white/yellow dinosaur, Dromiceiomimus, standing away from T-Rex, but turning itøs long neck toward him.]
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"!
[T-Rex is moving left, so part of his head and his lifted right foot is outside the panels frame, pink mouth again partly open so tongue can be seen, but no teeth are drawn. Arms are still in normal position and the tail is pointing up. Beneath the part of his right foot visible, there is Cueball about to be squashed. Behind him am orange dinosaur, Utahraptor, has appeared. It looks like a smaller version of T-Rex but with longer arms and very large claws on it's rear legs. It has it's pink mouth wide open to show it's red tongue and teeth, also holding arm in front of it and the tail pointing up. It is moving forward standing only on one leg, the other lifted high up.]
Utahraptor: T-Rex, I . . . agree.
T-Rex: What?
Utahraptor: That sounds good to me!
[T-Rex stand with both legs down, but wide spread out. The tails is almost down to the ground, only the tip pointing up. The arms are still in front of it towards left, but it has turned it's head, mouth almost closed, toward right looking at Utahraptor which now stands on both legs, but like it is leaning forward on it's toes, stretching up with arms held high, mouth less open, but tongue and teeth visible.]
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-
[The final part of the final words from T-Rex is interrupted in the previous panel and first finishes here after a narrator "speaks" before T-Rex with bold capital letters to the top right, and after to the bottom left. T-Rex is seen in full figure standing with wide open mouth, teeth and tongue visible, arms and tail up.]
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

Trivia

  • This was the Dinosaur Comics strip released the day before this comic
    • Dinosaur Comics released MTWT, so there where no release on the Friday of this comics release.


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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)