Editing 442: xkcd Loves the Discovery Channel

{{comic
| number    = 442
| date      = June 27, 2008
| title     = xkcd Loves the Discovery Channel
| image     = xkcd_loves_the_discovery_channel.png
| titletext = I love the title-text!
}}
==Explanation==
This comic is a parody of the {{w|Discovery Channel}} commercial showing various clips of people singing a song with the chorus line [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=at_f98qOGY0 'Boom De Yada']. The comic is divided into a grid of 4 panels by 6 panels, most depicting a character or situation from a previous xkcd strip. In each panel is written a part of a song similar to the song from the Discovery Channel commercial.

The campaign from the {{w|Discovery Channel}} was not called "Boom De Yada," but "I Love the World". The title "xkcd Loves the Discovery Channel" is in reference to this.

Most of the panels are references to previous xkcd strips, but a few are not.

;Panel 1 ''I love momentum.'' 
:A reference to comic [[162: Angular Momentum]], where [[Megan]] spins in a circle to "rob the planet of angular momentum."
;Panel 2 ''I love to engineer.'' 
:A reference to comic [[413: New Pet]], where Megan and [[Cueball]] turn an {{w|EEE PC}} into a household pet.
;Panel 3 ''I love this bakery!''  
:A reference to comic [[434: xkcd Goes to the Airport]], where [[Beret Guy]] shows his liking for bakeries in first panel. His love of bakeries is a recurring gag in the comic.
;Panel 4 ''I love the blogosphere!'' 
:A reference to comic [[239: Blagofaire]], where someone from the far future believes that many people blogged from high-altitude balloons whilst wearing red capes and goggles. The flying character may be [[Cory Doctorow]], who is mentioned in the comic as the only blogger to actually do this, and who also appeared in comic [[345: 1337: Part 5]] in this guise.
;Panel 5 ''I love the whole world.'' (Cueball running in a large hamster ball.) 
:Likely a reference to comic [[152: Hamster Ball]], though there are [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Category:Hamster_Ball multiple comics] featuring human-sized {{w|Hamster ball|hamster balls}}.
;Panel 6 ''And all its messed-up folks.'' 
:A reference to the /b/ ("Random") forum on {{w|4chan}}, which is in fact home to plenty of "messed-up folks." This on-line behavior is something [[Randall]] comments on in several comics both before and after this. For instance in [[202: YouTube]].
;Panel 7 ''Boom de yada, Boom de yada'' (Cueball and Megan immersed in playpen balls.) 
:A reference to comic [[150: Grownups]], where Megan decides that she has the ability to, and wants to, turn her house into a giant ball pit.
;Panel 8 ''Boom de yada, Boom de yada'' (''I put on my robe and wizard hat'') 
:A reference to [http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/text/bloodninja this roleplay chat transcript] (NSFW), which became an Internet meme. A user named bloodninja would roleplay as a wizard during {{w|cybersex}} (saying "I put on my robe and wizard hat" to signal this) and invariably infuriate his unwitting partners with demeaning actions. Other incidents involved him roleplaying as a rhinoceros. In the above mentioned comic [[150: Grownups]], the two characters also disappear, but in that case a big pink heart comes out of the playpen balls.  
;Panel 9 ''I love your suffering.'' 
:The recurring character [[Black Hat]] is being his usual self and causing suffering for his own amusement, as in comic [[72: Classhole]]. In this panel, he is seen giving a child a present, probably containing a bobcat as seen in [[325: A-Minus-Minus]].
;Panel 10 ''I love cryptography.'' 
:{{w|Cryptography}} is a subject that comes up often in the comic, notably, in comics [[153: Cryptography]] and [[177: Alice and Bob]] before this one (for a full list see [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Category:Cryptography Category:Cryptography]). The panel shows a flowchart of the kind commonly used to show how a particular cryptosystem works and/or how it can be broken.
;Panel 11 ''I love entangled sheets.'' 
:Sexual reference. Sex and red sheets are also brought up in comic [[230: Hamiltonian]]. 
;Panel 12 ''And kite photography.''
:A reference to Randall's own hobby of [http://xkcd.com/kite/ kite photography], as well as comic [[235: Kite]].
;Panel 13 ''I love the whole world'' (Map of the internet.)
:A reference to comic [[256: Online Communities]], featuring online communities of the time visualized as a world map, with geographic areas representing their approximate membership size. There is, more directly, a pun on "internet," namely "outernet." 
;Panel 14 ''And all its mysteries.''
:A reference to a series of comics on "red spiders": [[8|8: Red Spiders]], [[43|43: Red Spiders 2]], [[47|47: Counter-Red Spiders]], [[126|126: Red Spiders Cometh]], and [[427|427: Bad Timing]]. 
;Panel 15 ''Boom de yada, Boom de yada'' (Two people sword-fighting on rolling office chairs.)
:A reference to comic [[303: Compiling]], where two coders battle with fake swords at work, with the excuse that their code is compiling.
;Panel 16 ''Boom de yada, Boom de yada'' (Classroom with two students and a teacher.)
:Nothing too special, but it does embrace the "everybody joins in" theme behind the commercials. The teacher is [[Miss Lenhart]], who was first properly introduced in comic [[263: Certainty]], but may have made an appearance in comic [[59: Graduation]].
;Panel 17 ''I love elections'' (''Barack me Obamadeus!'')
:A pun on the song {{w|Rock Me Amadeus}} and US president {{w|Barack Obama}}. At this point, Randall had not done any comics directly on elections, but he made this after the one in 2008: [[500: Election]] and has shown his love for this subject also around the 2012 election.
;Panel 18 ''I love transistors.'' 
:This panel has Cueball's crotch replaced with the (similar-looking) icon used for a {{w|transistor}} in a {{w|circuit diagram}}. Randall later showed how much he loves anything that can go in to such a diagram in [[730: Circuit Diagram]].
;Panel 19 ''I love weird pillow talk.'' (''There ''must'' be Taft slash fiction.'')
:"[http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/pillow+talk Pillow talk]" means intimate conversations between lovers, "{{w|slash fiction}}" is fanfiction with characters of the same sex, and "Taft" is {{w|William Howard Taft}}, a US President mostly remembered for his severe obesity. It appears that they are invoking {{w|Rule 34 (Internet meme)|rule 34 of the Internet}} as a reference to [[305: Rule 34]]. Weird pillow talk is also the subject of comic [[69: Pillow Talk]], while the Taft reference comes from comic [[214: The Problem with Wikipedia]].
;Panel 20 ''I love your sister.''
:A reference to xkcd's recurring joke of dating the female character's sister, which spans several comics including [[49: Want]], [[279: Pickup Lines]], [[317: That Lovin' Feelin']], and [[408: Overqualified]].
;Panel 21 ''I love the whole world'' (Roller coaster with Cueball holding a chess board)
:A reference to comic [[249: Chess Photo]], which inspired an internet meme.
;Panel 22 ''The future's pretty cool!'' (Beret Guy in a forest.)
:The picture of the forest is similar to that in [[269: TCMP]], though it may also be a reference to comic [[167: Nihilism]], where Cueball and Beret Guy make observations about the future while climbing a tree. Later, in comic [[1322: Winter]], the two are seen walking through a forest very similar to the one shown here. The forest Beret Guy is in also may be a reference to the {{w|Narnia (world)|Wood Between the Worlds}} in {{w|The Magician's Nephew}}, from the series of childrens' books, {{w|The Chronicles of Narnia}} by {{w|C.S. Lewis}}.
;Panel 23 ''Boom de yada, Boom de yada'' (Megan doing the MC Hammer slide towards Cueball.)
:A reference to comic [[108: M.C. Hammer Slide]], where Hairy falls in love with "a girl whose only mode of transportation is the M.C. Hammer Slide." 
;Panel 24 ''Boom de yada, Boom de yada'' (Cueball and Megan on an electric skateboard.)
:A reference to comic [[409: Electric Skateboard (Double Comic)]], where Megan and Cueball go on an electric skateboard ride, but he already introduced these back in [[139: I Have Owned Two Electric Skateboards]].

The title text continues the song, self-referentially. Self-reference is a reoccurring theme in {{w|Douglas Hofstadter|Douglas Hofstadter's}} books, notably ''{{w|Gödel, Escher, Bach}}'', which Randall refers to directly in [[24: Godel, Escher, Kurt Halsey]]. Later, Hofstadter has been referenced in other comics, such as in the title text of [[555: Two Mirrors]] and [[608: Form]], plus, of course, in [[917: Hofstadter]]. Self-reference as a form of humor was also [[:Category:Self-reference|explored before]], but most famously in the later [[688: Self-Description]].

From ''[[xkcd: volume 0]]'':
{{quote|To everyone who did YouTube covers of this, I love you all.}}

==Transcript==
:[The comic is in parody of the Discovery Channel commercial showing various clips of people singing a song with the chorus line "Boom De Yada."]
:[The comic is divided into a grid of 4 panels by 6 panels, each depicting a character or situation often from a previous xkcd strip.]
:[In each panel is written a part of a song similar to the song from the Discovery Channel commercial.]

:Panel 1:
:[Megan spinning around.]
:I love momentum.

:Panel 2:
:[Megan laying on floor tinkering with an EEE PC hamster ball robot.]
:I love to engineer.

:Panel 3:
:[Beret Guy standing in bakery holding a loaf of bread in each hand, a sign with "PIE!" in background.]
:I love this bakery!

:Panel 4:
:[Cory Doctorow in goggles and a red cape flying superman-style.]
:I love the blogosphere!

:Panel 5:
:[Cueball running in a large hamster ball.]
:I love the whole world

:Panel 6:
:[Depiction of internet sludge (4chan b-Random)]
:And all its messed-up folks.

:Panel 7:
:[Cueball and Megan immersed in playpen balls.]
:Boom De Yada
:Boom De Yada

:Panel 8:
:[Mass of playpen balls with speech "I put on my robe and wizard hat" originating from it.]
:Boom De Yada
:Boom De Yada

:Panel 9:
:[Black Hat taking a present from a kid with a party hat.]
:I love your suffering.

:Panel 10:
:[Diagram showing RSA fingerprint authentication between two people.]
:I love cryptography.

:Panel 11:
:[Cueball and Megan in bed covered by a red sheet.]
:I love entangled sheets.

:Panel 12:
:[Cueball hanging from a kite string holding a camera.]
:And kite photography.

:Panel 13:
:[Map of the internet.]
:I love the whole world

:Panel 14:
:[Cube with a red spider on top.]
:And all its mysteries.

:Panel 15:
:[Two people sword-fighting on rolling office chairs.]
:Boom De Yada
:Boom De Yada

:Panel 16:
:[Classroom with two students and Miss Lenhart.]
:Boom De Yada
:Boom De Yada

:Panel 17:
:[Cueball saying "Barack me Obamadeus!" to another man speaking energetically at a podium.]
:I love elections.

:Panel 18:
:[Cueball holding a schematic diagram of a transistor in front of his crotch.]
:I love transistors.

:Panel 19:
:[Cueball and Megan in bed, Cueball saying "There ''must'' be taft slash fiction."]
:I love weird pillow talk.

:Panel 20:
:[Cueball speaking to Megan.]
:I love your sister.

:Panel 21:
:[Roller coaster with Cueball in the front car holding a chess board and thinking about a move.]
:I love the whole world.

:Panel 22:
:[Beret Guy standing in the midst of leafless trees.]
:The future's pretty cool!

:Panel 23:
:[Megan doing the MC Hammer slide towards Cueball.]
:Boom De Yada
:Boom De Yada

:Panel 24:
:[Cueball and Megan on an electric skateboard.]
:Boom De Yada
:Boom De Yada

==Trivia==
* This comic was enacted by Olga Nunes and various famous people as [http://www.olganunes.com/xkcd ''We Love xkcd''].
* Noam Raby and Olga Nunes also produced an animation based upon this comic, named [https://vimeo.com/7151435 ''I Love xkcd''].
* This comic used to be [https://web.archive.org/web/20220125023401/https://store.xkcd.com/products/signed-prints available as a signed print] in the xkcd store before it was [[Store|shut down]].

{{comic discussion}}

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[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
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[[Category:Comics featuring politicians]] <!-- Barack Obama -->
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[[Category:Songs]]
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[[Category:Playpen balls]]
[[Category:Cryptography]]
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