Talk:1729: Migrating Geese

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
Revision as of 16:41, 5 September 2016 by DefaultLocale (talk | contribs)
Jump to: navigation, search

Kevin sounds familiar, has he been in a previous xkcd? Mikemk (talk) 13:51, 5 September 2016 (UTC)

I think Kevin is a reference to Home Alone. 162.158.203.143 14:19, 5 September 2016 (UTC)
1719: Superzoom also includes Kevin. Iggyvolz (talk) 14:22, 5 September 2016 (UTC)
Is it a reference to the famous Reddit Kevin? https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/219w2o/whos_the_dumbest_person_youve_ever_met/cgbhkwp -- Mcroft (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
I thought it might be Kevin the Minion. Paddles (talk) 14:36, 5 September 2016 (UTC)
Perhaps it's just a generic name for the butt of a joke, like poor Steve. Papayaman1000 (talk) 15:02, 5 September 2016 (UTC)
At least in Germany there is something called kevinism which assumes that kevin is a name which is only given to children of poorer social groups(https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin#.E2.80.9EKevinismus.E2.80.9C). This is similar to what was mentioned as the reddit kevin. We'll probably have to wait for someone understanding the title text to be sure. Treed (talk) 15:04, 5 September 2016 (UTC)
A quick Google search found this Facebook post from Kevin Hart; no idea if this is the reference, or the comic and Kevin Hart are both referencing an older joke. Paddles (talk) 15:17, 5 September 2016 (UTC)
Probably a long shot, but "Dammit, Kevin" line sounds like a reference to Poorly Drawn Lines character Kevin (he's a bird, but I'm not sure that he's a goose). Check out this comic, for example: http://poorlydrawnlines.com/comic/south/ --DefaultLocale (talk) 16:41, 5 September 2016 (UTC)

I think "Missing valence geese" refers to electron configuration, where they would give/take electrons to become "stable". 162.158.49.66 14:34, 5 September 2016 (UTC)

I thought so too and added it in the table during my edit. It's not a very good explanation though as I'm not a native English speaker. Treed (talk) 15:04, 5 September 2016 (UTC)

This is my first contribution here so I hope I didn't do too many things wrong, I thought if there's nothing there yet I can't break too much. Thanks for fixing the table, it looks much better now :) I don't know why you removed the part about programming though, because while it's maybe normal that geese migrate it is definitely not normal to have a guide ("Migrating") on doing so. Treed (talk) 14:57, 5 September 2016 (UTC) Edit: Goose also is a network protocol (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generic_Substation_Events#Generic_Object_Oriented_Substation_Events_.28GOOSE.29) which would further support that it plays on the technical kind of migration. Treed (talk) 15:17, 5 September 2016 (UTC)

Maybe it is ALSO about programming, but I do not think it is first and foremost about programming. I'm not sure what you mean about the having a guide? There is no goose designated guide? If there is some goose whose label refers directly to programming then maybe that could be explained in the table. Or later down the line after explaining goose migration. Apart from Kevin this looks very much like real geese migrating, with one arm often longer than the other and often a few birds flying inside the V. And no problem to fix the table, just found another table and copy pasted from that ;-) And hope you will add more to this wiki. --Kynde (talk) 16:00, 5 September 2016 (UTC)