Talk:2650: Deepfakes

Is it worth mentioning that this comic is merely sincere discussion, without (please correct me if I'm wrong) any sort of a joke or irony? The closest it gets is hyperbole in the title text. I know it's not unique in this respect, but it does seem to be different than other such comics because it seems like it might have a joke, given the obscurity of the Ea-nasir reference. If our job is truly to explain, should we let people coming here to figure out the humor know there isn't any? 172.70.214.95 06:48, 26 July 2022 (UTC)

Did but reverted, other opinions? 172.70.210.145 08:39, 26 July 2022 (UTC)

I have reverted and added more. I just used a long time on wiki because of those two tidbits of info that has nothing to do with Deepfakes...  :-) --Kynde (talk) 09:49, 26 July 2022 (UTC)

Snap... I (not the above IP) was also on a long wikiwalk. (Did you know that the map of the copper-fraudster's house is one of the top 200 diagrams that is considered important to resubmit in vectorised format? Amongst many colour-model diagrams and how much money goes to which US surveillance and intelligence agencies. :P ) I really ought to do something important, instead. Like vectorise some diagrams. Hand me my spline-wrench and my gradient-planer! 172.70.86.34 10:17, 26 July 2022 (UTC)

Not sure about there being no joke. White Hat realizing that you can write untrue things (most common types known as lies and fiction), that people have done it for a long time and calling it the new buzzword ("text deepfakes") certainly was funny to me. Cueball's somewhat obscure reference (which you don't really need to know to understand) drives home the point.627235 (talk) 10:52, 26 July 2022 (UTC)

The Ea-nasir punchline made me laugh, I think its a bit of a stretch to say there's no joke here 172.70.86.34 11:00, 26 July 2022 (UTC)

The text about no joke is utterly wrong. There's no single punchline, but this is a very funny strip. Nitpicking (talk) 11:02, 26 July 2022 (UTC)

It's though-provoking, interesting, and insightful — maybe even profound — but I wouldn't call it humorous. It's probably a good idea to put something in for people like me who come here looking for the joke. 172.70.211.90

The Ea-nasir reference is hilarious. Fake product reviews on clay tablets!--162.158.134.11 12:34, 26 July 2022 (UTC)

Or "Instead of Copper Ingots, package contained Near Eastern Wildcat"... 172.70.85.5 21:23, 26 July 2022 (UTC)

Not all humor is 'laugh-out-loud' or 'clownish' - - - or, even necessarily 'funny' depending upon your definition. 17:37, 26 July 2022 (UTC)

It's all a matter of taste. For example - take the closing reference in the explanation "A similar dilemma was discussed in 1958: Self-Driving Issues, where technology does not create a new way to lie, but may make such lies more convincing to certain parties (in the other strip, self-driving cars)." --- although there is no punchline it is humorous (absurd) because there were no self-driving cars 64 years ago, and I am pretty sure XKCD was not even around in 1958. Or, maybe it is an example a text deepfake provided for elucidation. DMG (talk) 17:56, 26 July 2022 (UTC)

For the record, that last reference is referring to xkcd comic #1958, not the year 1958... Mathmannix (talk) 02:00, 27 July 2022 (UTC)

I was thinking of the fact that White Hat is actually convinced and that Cueball is not looking down upon him or thinking hi is stupid. Many of those conversations ends pretty bad for White Hat, which is not the case here. So after reading the above I agree that saying there is no joke is wrong. But I still think the play out of this comic is far from the regular style of White Hat and Cueball conversations. Another where they discuss photographs, one of my favorites, 1314: Photos, pans out a more normal way for this type of conversations. Not sure it needs explanation, but that was why I felt that there was some true part in the "no standard joke" idea. Because there was no joke on White Hat. --Kynde (talk) 06:54, 27 July 2022 (UTC)

Was looking for other examples of what I feel is more standard and found these: 2557: Immunity, 2555: Notifications, 2475: Health Drink, 2368: Bigger Problem and 2165: Millennials. Needed to go back three years to find five, so they are not all over the place. But I only looked through about a third of the 156 comics with White Hat. ;-) But there is probably also some similar to this one. I just noticed these where White Hat is frowned at and remembered them. --Kynde (talk) 07:18, 27 July 2022 (UTC)

I would have said that at least part of the humour is that White Hat can only conceptualise things in a technological framework - hence why Cueball has to use a technologised expression ("It's a known exploit") to explain the point to him (lying is part of being human). 172.70.91.80 09:53, 27 July 2022 (UTC)

It's worth noting that xkcd is "a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language". Humor is not guaranteed. 172.69.69.207 17:58, 27 July 2022 (UTC)

To help the editors who put in/dealt with the non-existent {{Citation actually needed}} that someone put in. It's {{Actual citation needed}} that must have been intended... Although I don't think it's so much in doubt that it it is verifiable fact, anyway.^{[actual citation needed]} 172.69.79.171 22:23, 27 July 2022 (UTC)