Editing 1585: Similarities

There's a common punchline in which the plot-lines of two thematically-different works of fiction (usually movies) are compared in greatly-abbreviated form, and the speaker sarcastically concludes that the two movies are "basically the same". For sake of example, Disney's ''{{w|Aladdin (1992 Disney film)|Aladdin}}'' and {{w|James Cameron}}'s ''{{w|Titanic (1997 film)|Titanic}}'' [http://imgur.com/gallery/kasCMYd both feature a story] in which a lower-class boy and an upper-class girl fall for each other, among other cherry-picked yet interesting parallels. But due to the different emotional tones of the films (a family-friendly "happy ever after" tale and a disaster thriller respectively) one would not normally describe them as similar.

This comic spoofs the idea. Instead of comparing plot-lines of two movies, [[Ponytail]] and [[Cueball]] compare development histories of two movies.

Cueball continues the joke by joining the two titles using red for Mars, to make a new book title, that should cover both books: ''Fifty Shades of Red.'' Ponytail says to Cueball that such a book would be irresistible for him. She does this by daring him to say that he wouldn't read it, believing he could not say so without lying. The red could also be a reference to the safe word used in the Fifty Shades series, for when things hurts in stead of pleases. It means stop! But stop should be a word you can say, without the other one stopping, adding to the illusion of being forced. When actualy you can stop it by saying ''red''. Reading it like that the title would be Fifty Shades of Stop!

It is not clear from the comic if [[Randall]] liked the movie. Since he now compares it to a book series that has been {{w|Fifty_Shades_of_Grey#Background|described}} as ''mommy porn'' it could indicate that he was not so satisfied with the movie. On the other hand, he may just have noticed this connection and found that it would make a great joke here on the release day.

An alternative explanation is that Randall is commenting on the [http://screencrush.com/the-martian-damon-interstellar/ frequent] [http://io9.com/sorry-interstellar-we-just-saw-some-of-the-martian-an-1699793860 comparisons] made between The Martian and the movie {{w|Interstellar (film)|Interstellar}}, comparisons centering on the fact that in both {{w|Matt Damon}} plays an astronaut stuck on a deserted planet, but also mentioning, among others, the appearance of {{w|Jessica Chastain}} and the similar design of the space suits used in both movies. These comparisons have been prevalent on the Internet long before the release of The Martian, so evidently spurred by the movie trailers, rather than by reviews of viewers. Randall is making the point that to one who has seen the movie, comparing The Martian to Interstellar is as far fetched as comparing it to Fifty Shades of Grey. According to this interpretation, Randall is not ridiculing The Martian, but rather Interstellar. By proxy, he is praising The Martian. Given that Randall has chosen (now for the second time) to mention the film explicitly on his site, the idea that he is promoting The Martian is perhaps more plausible than the idea that he is expressing dissatisfaction with it. The title text, where he makes a similar comparison, favoring The Martian over Star Wars: The Force Awakens, further boosts this explanation.

It is possible that the brand that the Martian derives from is {{w|NASA}} itself. The Martian has been compared to the film {{w|Apollo 13 (film)Apollo 13}} by Randall in [[1536: The Martian]]. Apollo 13 does indeed glorify the roles of the NASA engineers; and the Martian does a similar thing. That Randall would go see this movie as soon as it was released was already made perfectly clear back in June when he released the comic [[1536: The Martian]] showing how excited he is about the book. He then really looked forward to the movie.

Randall indicates in the title text that he has just seen the movie (certainly possible, if he caught a midnight screening; perhaps he drew this comic in advance and wrote the title text after) and finds the Sojourner rover adorable. Of course he could also have seen it in the trailers.

The [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/BB-8 BB-8] mentioned in the title text is the {{w|astromech droid}} from the movie {{w|Star Wars: The Force Awakens}}, and is available as a toy (see also BB-8 on the [http://www.starwars.com/databank/bb-8 official Star Wars] home page). {{w|Sojourner (rover)|Sojourner}} was the Mars ''Pathfinder'' robotic rover used by Mark Watney, the protagonist of ''The Martian'' (played by Matt Damon in the movie), to allow him to contact Earth. Randall indicated that he thinks the Sojourner is much cuter than BB-8, and that he would like to have one as a pet. He then states that the Sojourner has always been the cutest among all the [[:Category:Mars rovers|Mars rovers]]. Cuteness of Mars Rovers is also mentioned in [[2433: Mars Rovers]]. There have been four so far the other three being {{w|Opportunity (rover)|Opportunity}}, {{w|Spirit (rover)|Spirit}} and {{w|Curiosity (rover)|Curiosity}} which have already been used in xkcd comics: [[695: Spirit]], [[1091: Curiosity]] and [[1504: Opportunity]].

[[Category:Twilight]]  <!--The well known brand that 50 shades is based upon-->