Editing Talk:1529: Bracket

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Interesting to me that no one has noted the order of the doctors. Doctor Octopus is from a comic, Doctor Manhattan is from a graphic novel and, trying to avoid spoilers here, the atomic bomb plays a key role in the story. The atomic bomb was the product of the Manhattan project (a fact not lost on Alan Moore), and the subject of the movie referenced by the next line, Dr Strangelove ("or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb"). I can't believe this order is arbitrary. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.108|173.245.48.108]] 04:55, 26 May 2015 (UTC)

What's the connection between Rip Torn and Natalie Imbruglia?  {{unsigned ip|108.162.238.183}}
:Answer: Her song, Torn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VV1XWJN3nJo-{{unsigned|Stumpy}} 
Rip Torn could have a preliminary match with Prof. Lance Rips <!--16:34, 25 May 2015 (UTC)Mitch Marks uchicago--> {{unsigned|Mitch Marks uchicago|16:34, 25 May 2015 (UTC)<!--|please sign your posts appropriately with the appropriate user and talk page links using <nowiki>~~~~</nowiki>. the original signature was an inexistent template.-->}}

Any pairings that you'd add, given the opportunity? Personally I always confuse [[wikipedia:Wilson Pickett|Wilson Pickett]] and [[wikipedia:Wilson Phillips|Wilson Phillips]]. [[User:Studley|Studley]] ([[User talk:Studley|talk]]) 08:28, 25 May 2015 (UTC)
[[wikipedia:Will Ferrell|Will Ferrell]] and [[wikipedia:Pharrell Williams|Pharrell Williams]] for me! -{{unsigned|Stumpy}}

How about George Washington and George Washington Carver?  and the George Washington Bridge?

At one time, the White House had both a Donald Regan and a Ronald Reagan.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.190|108.162.215.190]] 17:14, 25 May 2015 (UTC)

Why do some first round pairings have more than two people? Beyoncé starts at the third round, so it can't be just because of the number of people. There has to be a joke in them but I don't see it. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.176|141.101.104.176]] 08:45, 25 May 2015 (UTC)
:Possibly an in-joke at the NCAA bracket's First Four round. Mister/Fred Astaire/Rogers is a more "traditional" reference to the First Four. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.103|108.162.219.103]] 10:32, 25 May 2015 (UTC)
: Beyoncé starts first, before the first round.  She's singing the national anthem before the players start competing.  She doesn't compete until the third road because she needs time to change clothes since you don't wear the same thing to sing the national anthem as you wear as a competitor.  :-) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.189|108.162.215.189]] 04:22, 9 June 2015 (UTC)

Perhaps it's worth adding to a trivia section that (assuming every person/thing has an equal chance of winning every matchup, Beyonce has the highest odds of winning (1/32 = 3.125%) while Kurt Russell, Russell Crowe, Russell Brand, and Russell Simmons are all tied for having the worst starting odds (1/256 = .391%).[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.91|108.162.219.91]] 09:19, 25 May 2015 (UTC)

I may be worth mentioning that the bracketing trees resemble hierarchical clustering dendrograms in which some string similarity metric was used as a distance function. {{unsigned ip|141.101.91.7}}

Although the comic is formatted as a tournament bracket, there are hints that it is in fact a dendrogram based on string similarity, in a similar way to how trees of evolutionary relationships between proteins are formed. We see this especially in the "Russell" group where there is equal similarity between any name containing "Russell" and so that group is not resolved into two separate forks.  If readers wish to recreate such an analysis for themselves they can take the text on [http://pastebin.com/DRqjaDHH here] paste it into a [http://www.ebi.ac.uk/Tools/msa/clustalw2/ multiple sequence aligner], press Submit, then after processing click Phylogenetic Tree and scroll down. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.74|141.101.99.74]] 12:46, 25 May 2015 (UTC)

Somewhat disagree.  There is no "string similarity" between domino and checker.  The connection between the names seems to be that there are games named Dominos and Checkers.  They would not be together if it was based on strictly on string similarity or generated automatically by software without human intervention.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.190|108.162.215.190]] 17:09, 25 May 2015 (UTC)

Is there any significance to the number of entries?  52 on the left side but only 51 on the right? {{unsigned ip|108.162.216.84}}

Should it be noted at all that Chubby Checker's name was inspired by Fats Domino? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.121|108.162.215.121]] 21:05, 26 May 2015 (UTC)Akiosama
 	
;Title text
Changed the reference of the Title Text from Doctor Who (who is already listed in the comic) to Dr. Dre, as the phrasing of the Title Text seems like a very direct reference to the 2001 song "Forgot About Dre." {{unsigned|Conquistador}}
:Probably would have been better to add it as an option since we're clearly far from certain -{{unsigned|Stumpy}} 

Why not Zoidberg? --RhyvenNZ [[Special:Contributions/198.41.238.41|198.41.238.41]] 09:55, 25 May 2015 (UTC)

Pretty sure Doctor Who is covered by "The Doctor". He doesn't go by "Who" in the show. He's just the Doctor. I think the missing doctor is House. {{unsigned ip|108.162.215.127}}

Dr. Pepper, maybe? Does "staring" or "forgotten" have to do with it? {{unsigned ip|108.162.237.156}}

Whatagainnow? {{unsigned ip|108.162.222.178}}

Dr. Oz?  Dr. Phil?  Dr. Watson?  Dr. Kavorkian?  Dr. Seuss? Wasn't there a famous literary work, The Lost Island of Dr. Moreau?  I agree that Dr. House and/or house calls could be a missing candidate for the bracket.  But then, there are a ton of 'Sirs' that didn't make the list.  <!--GAKDragon 06:43, 25 May 2015 (UTC)GAKDragon--> {{unsigned|GAKDragon||please sign your posts appropriately with the appropriate user and talk page links using <nowiki>~~~~</nowiki>}}
:[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Teeth_and_The_Electric_Mayhem Doctor Teeth!] [[User:Jarod997|Jarod997]] ([[User talk:Jarod997|talk]]) 13:50, 25 May 2015 (UTC)
:Pete Docter? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.191|108.162.249.191]] 11:27, 26 May 2015 (UTC)

Or is "The Doctor" http://en.memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/The_Doctor? {{unsigned ip|108.162.215.108}}
:The Doctor is already in the bracket. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.49|141.101.99.49]] 10:40, 25 May 2015 (UTC)

It's Doctor House - definitely and finally! {{unsigned|Raydleemsc}}

Definitely "Doc" Brown: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmett_Brown {{unsigned ip|108.162.221.171}}

::It's clearly Dr. Doolittle. Can't imagine why no one has realized this yet. {{unsigned ip|108.162.238.193}}

Could the joke simply be "there are way too many famous doctors", so even though it's arguably the most numerous category in the bracket, some are still "forgotten"? {{unsigned ip|108.162.254.164}}

Probably not talking about doctor who, however he could be referencing The Silence, which is a an alien race, on that show, which you immediately forget about after losing sight of it. {{unsigned|KroniK907}}

I immediately thought of Amy's wedding in Dr Who S5Ep13 where she needed to remember the doctor to bring him back. Too obscure? [[User:Blu003|Blu003]] ([[User talk:Blu003|talk]]) 13:07, 25 May 2015 (UTC)
:Hardly.  You want obscure, try The Doctor's granddaughter.  Yep, he had/has one. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.144|108.162.237.144]] 13:41, 25 May 2015 (UTC)

:Dr. Martha Jones, from Doctor Who? The Doctor Donna? Even the companions on the show are Doctors. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.222.178|108.162.222.178]] 03:55, 26 May 2015 (UTC)

I'm disappointed that no one thought of Julius "Dr. J" Irving, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Erving given the similarity to a Basketball tournament style graphic. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.165|108.162.219.165]] 17:35, 3 June 2015 (UTC)

When this comic first went up, I emailed xkcd the same day to say that "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman" had been missed out. -- @WPSCrimsonshade 20:48, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

Y'know, I can't help but feel that this is a little to bland and unfinished for xkcd.  I'm willing to bet that the picture updates with winners.  May be sorely disappointed though. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.119|108.162.219.119]] 15:02, 25 May 2015 (UTC)

Can't help but feel that there's a better way to lay this explanation out, but I haven't been able to come up with it. Maybe some sort of table listing all the different groups, with people allowed to be in more than one group? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.232|141.101.98.232]] 15:18, 25 May 2015 (UTC)

:I personally don't love the large listing of people. It is a bit bland, but more importantly, it doesn't really show the linkages between the participants (though most people ought to be able to figure out these overt links Jeff Gordon... Jeff Daniels... it doesn't need explanation. That said, the current format doesn't quite demonstrate the chain-link nature of some matchups like:
:*'''Body''' Shop
:*'''Bath''' and '''Body''' Works
:*Bed '''Bath''' & '''Beyond'''
:*'''Beyond''' Thunderdome
:* '''Beyon'''cé.
:I wouldn't mind a format with that kind of bolding. I think that shows the chain of links better than the first to being grouped "businesses with the word "body" and the second two "things with the word beyond" and "Beyoncé" separately. Similarly, Jeff Daniels belongs to both the "Jeff"s and the "J. Daniels"es. [[User:TheHYPO|TheHYPO]] ([[User talk:TheHYPO|talk]]) 15:48, 25 May 2015 (UTC)

I wouldn't categorize Fats Domino and Chubby Checker (just) as games. Given that they're directly under Ryan Adams and Bryan Adams, I'd have identified them as 50's singers, with some physical similarities. [[User:KenWhitesell|KenWhitesell]] ([[User talk:KenWhitesell|talk]]) 16:17, 25 May 2015 (UTC)

Agree.  I put in the identification about games without knowing who Chubby Checker was.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.190|108.162.215.190]] 17:09, 25 May 2015 (UTC)
:Then you are one of today's lucky 10,000! [[1053]] {{w|Chubby Checker}}[[User:Zeimusu|Zeimusu]] ([[User talk:Zeimusu|talk]]) 21:32, 25 May 2015 (UTC)

;celebrity deathmatch

This reminds me of Celebrity Deathmatch. Then have:
* Charles Manson vs. Marilyn Manson
* Backstreet Boys vs. Beastie Boys
* The Three Stooges vs. The Three Tenors
* Kevin Costner vs. Kevin Smith
* John Cusack vs. John Malkovich
* David Blaine vs. David Copperfield
* Corey Feldman vs. Corey Haim
* Jack Black vs. Jack White

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Celebrity_Deathmatch_episodes {{unsigned|Bart9h}}

Who is Jeff Gordan? There's an extremely famous NASCAR driver named Jeff Gordon, but I don't know of a Jeff Gordan. Significant or typo? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.182|108.162.238.182]] 16:07, 25 May 2015 (UTC)

Where is Colin Furze? And Arnold Swarzenegger? And all other people I never heard of? -- [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.116|141.101.104.116]] 21:12, 25 May 2015 (UTC)

What about my favourite triple: Robbie Williams, Robin Williams and Robyn Williams? -- Ian N. {{unsigned ip|162.158.3.11}}

And who can forget Dermot Mulroney and Dylan mcDermott?[[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.164|108.162.254.164]] 09:34, 26 May 2015 (UTC)

This is a major "Get Out Of My Head, Randall" comic for me.  The day before this comic was posted, my friend and I were discussing a "Hunger Games" type simulation being done on 8chan involving loads and loads of characters across genres, and he had asked me about the probability of a particular match-up occurring with a desired outcome.  It led to a long and detailed math conversation.  The original match-up has been bumped out of existence, but [http://i.imgur.com/ESeMXOI.jpg this image] still lives on.  Appropriately, the comic was posted on my birthday.  2spooky4me.  [[Special:Contributions/108.162.210.177|108.162.210.177]] 06:01, 26 May 2015 (UTC)
: It reminds me of a song - The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WgT9gy4zQA [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 13:59, 1 June 2015 (UTC)

I would have added Amanda Plummer. Will confuse Plummer with Palmer any day. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.191|108.162.249.191]] 23:19, 25 May 2015 (UTC)

Just as well we don't have to deal with Paul Ryan - Ayn Rand - Rand Paul...Ron Paul, Les Paul, Saint Paul, John Paul, John Paul Jones...Wolfgang Pauli, Pollyanna...[[User:Taibhse|Taibhse]] ([[User talk:Taibhse|talk]]) 11:41, 26 May 2015 (UTC)

Surprised Tommy Lee and Tommy Lee Jones aren't there. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.124|108.162.238.124]] 12:31, 26 May 2015 (UTC)

Personally I think its pointless having the probabilities listed as if they mean something. We don't know what the competition is, but its almost certain that the result of say 'The Body Shop' vs Beyonce is '''not''' going to be a 50:50 probability. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 15:41, 26 May 2015 (UTC)

Are the probabilities listed half what they should be? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.165|108.162.237.165]] 17:16, 26 May 2015 (UTC)

Mister/Fred Astaire/Rogers also refers to "Mr. Rogers" of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. I don't think there's a reference for the last combination, "Mister Astaire", other than to Fred Astaire.

Kevin Kline vs. Calvin Klein would also have made a good match. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.88|108.162.229.88]] 20:15, 26 May 2015 (UTC)

What about Johnny Cash v Johnny Paycheck? To which one could then add Johnny Carson v Johnny Unitas v Johnny Depp? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.98|173.245.48.98]] 16:36, 30 May 2015 (UTC)

----

;Cory Doctorow described as "real person"?

Well, yeah, but he's famous for some actual things. Perhaps "blogger and author" would better describe him. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.143|141.101.98.143]] 22:56, 26 May 2015 (UTC)

What about the Silents from series 6 of Doctor Who?
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.144|108.162.250.144]] 04:20, 27 May 2015 (UTC)

I'm disappointed John McCarthy isn't there. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.127|173.245.52.127]] 12:46, 27 May 2015 (UTC)

While I'm of the opinion that the doctor he is "forgetting" is CLEARLY Dr. Dre, I can see why we put the rest of the doctors on there since we don't know for sure. However, I'm removing the multiple long, rambling, and unnecessary references to The Doctor since he's already listed. [[User:Ul2006kevinb|Ul2006kevinb]] ([[User talk:Ul2006kevinb|talk]]) 16:43, 27 May 2015 (UTC)

I don't agree with the removal to be honest. I agree it got a bit long-winded, but the Doctor still could be either one of the two (Doctor Who and ST:Voyager). To then ask the question "Doctor Who?" would be a very valid joke/ question imho. Also, the list is now again referring to him as "Dr. Who", whereas his name is simply "the Doctor". [[Special:Contributions/141.101.75.107|141.101.75.107]] 01:39, 28 May 2015 (UTC)

Dr. Livingstone, I presume? --[[User:Eraoul|Eraoul]] ([[User talk:Eraoul|talk]]) 07:28, 6 June 2015 (UTC)

This description probably needs to be updated with the factoid given in https://twitter.com/xkcdbracket/status/612221512133816320, if it can be verified [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.87|141.101.99.87]] 12:34, 20 June 2015 (UTC)

It should be updated with "[https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Q6Prudh-yLx_wV5NgR9_C35ZS5S8ZRM7BBWgfKET43k/viewform?c=0&w=1 The Doctor, alien explorer of time]" [https://twitter.com/xkcdbracket/status/611994813488099328] [[User:Dorus|Dorus]] ([[User talk:Dorus|talk]]) 09:29, 24 June 2015 (UTC)

Am I the only one who thinks that the Transcript shouldn't be updated to match the unofficial Twitter Bracket feed? It should be on the page, but the transcript section should be related to the comic as it appears on xkcd.com only. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 09:47, 20 July 2015 (UTC)
:No that is correct. The transcript is always only what occurs on the original comic at xkcd. I have corrected the error. If someone wish to do a trivia section on the result they should feel free to include that. I have linked to the twitter account in the explanation as it is interesting since Randall links to it on xkcd. The trivia entry could be linked from that paragraph. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 12:43, 28 July 2015 (UTC)

:: Two comments: First, if that is the case, then several pages need to be updated; the fact that wetriffs.com was created in response to [[305: Rule 34]] is not "in the comic itself" nor is the fact that Randall was responsible for (another example, [[1485: Friendship]] triggered a movement to delete the wikipedia Bromance article - and a third example [[1190: Time]] triggered multiple twitter followings and web communities that are referenced in the explanation); if we purge #xkcdbracket from this, we need to purge all of those too for consistency.  Second, transcript is what happens in the comic, but explanation includes background and consequences of comic; this consequence was featured by Randall for several weeks, if that's not canon, then nothing is. I have moved the explanation to trivia as requested, but filled in the victor.  If you want to remove, please discuss first and also clean up the other pages I just listed. [[User:Djbrasier|Djbrasier]] ([[User talk:Djbrasier|talk]]) 15:43, 30 July 2015 (UTC)
::: More pages that need to be purged of references to internet consequences and followings inspired by comics: [[1185]] inspired someone to make stacksort, [[239]] inspired people to photoshop capes onto Cory Doctorow, Little Bobby Tables refers to a website created (not by Randall) to teach people to properly sanitize database inputs, [[1167]] inspired wikipedia vandalism that temporarily caused a page to be protected (as did [[1193]]) [[576]] inspired someone to create a service that does what is described, I'm sure that given 10 more minutes I could find 10 more examples.  '''None''' of these were featured as banners on the xkcd.com page by Randall and yet '''all''' are in explainxkcd.com.  Please remove all of those references from explainxkcd.com (as well as fixing [[305]], [[1485]], and [[1190]] '''before''' deleting the reference to #xkcdbracket on this page. [[User:Djbrasier|Djbrasier]] ([[User talk:Djbrasier|talk]]) 16:04, 30 July 2015 (UTC)
::::I do not know what I (or Pudder) wrote to get this response from Djbrasier. I agreed that the transcript should not be updated to match the brackets on the twitter account, and that the results written in the transcript (full results with results of all individual matches, that I removed when updating the transcript to look more like the comic) should be in the trivia if anyone wished them to be on this page. I do not think there is anything wrong (and also wrote that) with linking to the bracket. I actually linked my self to that bracket on twitter. And I don't even think the link should be a trivia item as it is important since Randall links to it. But the results (apart from the final, which is fine to have in the main explanation) is not for the explanation and definitely not for the transcript. So all the other pages and talk you write about purging explain xkcd from what happens because of xkcd has nothing to do with the subject here. And of course these thing should be a part of this page. So we agree on that! --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 09:18, 31 July 2015 (UTC)

NOOOOO!!  I bet everything on Scallions![[User:Saspic45|Saspic45]] ([[User talk:Saspic45|talk]]) 11:14, 18 June 2016 (UTC)

No love for Sandra Day O'Connor and Sinead O'Connor? They're practically the same person!
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.243|162.158.62.243]] 00:59, 29 March 2018 (UTC)My winner is George Orwell.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.243|162.158.62.243]] 00:59, 29 March 2018 (UTC)

can someone please move gene simmons up to be with the rest of the simmons in the table? I don't know how to do that.
[[Special:Contributions/172.70.111.75|172.70.111.75]] 16:38, 13 February 2023 (UTC)
:(Moved Discussion item to bottom...)
:Gene Simmons has to 'match' both the Simmonses (above) ''and'' the Gene (below), so I can't see what sort of retabling would help here. ((Had considered two or more columns for the match-strings, that overlap like bricks, but sideways...) Personally, I would leave it. From your comment, I thought that he was misplaced (or that Randall had somehow used him completely outwith the bracketting area that he quite rightly did).
:As to ''how'', you would need to juggle "rowspan=" table parameters (and ensure you don't make that shuffle across lower lines of table, into which it intrudes) analogously to how you'd do it in HTML, but in wikimarkup form of course. I'd advise using Preview a lot, though, if you ever try it. Tables break '''''so''''' easily, even if you're used to them, and you don't want to make a record of all your mistakes along the way. ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.56|172.70.162.56]] 22:53, 13 February 2023 (UTC)


Anyone else notice that 3 of the Chrises are Marvel actors? (Pratt is the Star-Lord, Hemsworth is Thor and Evans is Captain America)[[Special:Contributions/172.71.30.46|172.71.30.46]] 17:51, 20 September 2023 (UTC)
:Chris Pine would also be a Marvel (voice-)actor, {{w|Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse|three years after the comic...}} [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.139|172.70.86.139]] 20:03, 20 September 2023 (UTC)