Talk:1790: Sad

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
Revision as of 09:10, 26 January 2017 by Elektrizikekswerk (talk | contribs)
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My first instinct is that Ponytail is feeling despondent about politics. I am reading too much of myself into it? 172.68.65.72 17:25, 25 January 2017 (UTC)

The title ("Sad" - a common interjection in Trump's tweets) strengthens this argument.
As does this being a problem that's been going on for the past few months. Contrary to what the explanation says, a programmer creating functions that don't do anything but return the same data back is not 'semi-common in regular life'. That and the title clearly indicate that this is about more than a programmer subverting complaints about their work. Something very bad is going on that has Ponytail, who also just happens to be a woman, depressed and angry. The election seems like the obvious thing.
My reaction was based on the "Fact Check" reference, which is largely used in politics. 172.68.65.72 18:01, 25 January 2017 (UTC)

Could "sad" could also refer to the medical term "Seasonal Affective Disorder", a condition where people feel depressed during the winter as a result of getting too little sunlight? Mr. I (talk) 20:05, 25 January 2017 (UTC)

I would have expected it to be in all caps if that were the case 172.68.65.72 20:42, 25 January 2017 (UTC)

It is not really true that "side effects" in this context are "unexpected, unintended, and typically unwanted..." A side effect in functional terms is simply an effect other than on the output of the function. As the linked wikipedia article explains, these are very common and typically (but not always) how a program interacts with the outside world. In a pure functional language functions do not have side effects. Ponytail's job may or may not be (but probably isn't) to avoid side effects at all costs. 141.101.107.24 21:23, 25 January 2017 (UTC)

Having just been through a break up recently (and the resulting sadness that eventuates) I identified with the "No, you deal with this" as a classic response to "If you have a problem with what I did, deal with it." 162.158.178.27 02:00, 26 January 2017 (UTC)

Even without suffering a break up I came to the same connection and interpret the whole comic in that way. Tbh I don't see any connection to Trump's inauguration at all. But I'm not from the USA, and I understand the arguments leading to this conclusion. Yet I think it could be inserted as an alternative interpretation. Elektrizikekswerk (talk) 09:09, 26 January 2017 (UTC)