Editing Talk:Syndication

Where is this coming from? was this actually online in 2007? Between comics 242 and 243? --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 08:08, 18 November 2019 (UTC)

Can we discuss the jokes in this comic, like Belgium jokingly being considered a swear word?[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.196|108.162.216.196]] 20:12, 22 November 2019 (UTC)
:I think we should. :) You are free to start a list of the items, to explain them, or a discussion here in the discussion page.

Alright, nobody has touched this for quite a while now, so I might as well. I kinda expected this page to be finished, but it is amazingly not so. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.47.234|172.68.47.234]] 09:50, 27 December 2019 (UTC)
:Hello, it is I again. I have something on my mind. I believe this comic never really was a thing. I will lay out everything I know. The link to the original comic at the top is broken and returns a 404 error. I cannot for the life of me find anything on this comic on Google other than a lone post on the xkcd forums, which could just as well have been posted in either 2007 or 2019, but I can't check because the forums are down. As well, it is odd that this explain xkcd page only came into existence 12 years after the comic was purportedly posted. Taking all of this into account, I have reason to believe that this entire thing has been a fabrication, i.e. that this was made in 2019 by a fan. I'd try to gather more concrete evidence for this, but that's where I run into a dead end. I have no idea how to proceed. I know of exactly one person who could settle this conclusively, which is Randall Munroe himself, but I imagine he has more important things to do. If any of you could prove/disprove my theory, that would be great. In the meantime, sure, I'll just assume this comic did actually get published in 2007. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.168|172.69.34.168]] 10:34, 27 December 2019 (UTC)
::The link does work, it just has an extra '/' at the end. I agree though that there's still something a bit different about the comic to others published at a similar time. The image looks like it's been copied out of a newspaper (although this might be deliberate) and having such a lengthy section of text outside of the comic is unusual. Google claims that the forum post dates from 1st April 2007, but in the absence of any other reference on the main site my guess is that this only appeared on the forums. [[User:A(l)Chemist|AlChemist]] ([[User talk:A(l)Chemist|talk]]) 20:55, 31 December 2019 (UTC)
:::Someone may try to find it on a wayback machine or something like that? Never used any of those archives and don't really know how they work... --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 08:07, 6 February 2020 (UTC)
::::It's on the Wayback Machine, as early as April 9, 2007, but the link is just to the image - no text or anything (https://web.archive.org/web/20070409101227/https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/xkcd_ufs.jpg/). [[Special:Contributions/162.158.187.69|162.158.187.69]] 02:01, 30 April 2020 (UTC)
::::Follow-up - here's the link to the XKCD forum post: https://web.archive.org/web/20070408135356/http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?t=3701. Unfortunately, the link to the actual comic as posted on xkcd is extremely elusive. Many references to the comic are in the (now offline) XKCD fora - one of the few others I could find lists different lead-in text: https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/17980/a-visit-to-the-pranktologist-april-fools-day-thread/p13. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.187.69|162.158.187.69]] 02:31, 30 April 2020 (UTC)
I switched the big table to a format that is more readable on smaller screens, as per the [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/explain_xkcd:Editor_FAQ#In_which_cases_are_tables_meaningful.2C_and_when_are_they_not.3F Editor FAQ §3], and added some more explanations in the process. Hope that's in everyone's interest. I also fixed up the broken Unicode (at first, I thought it was part of The Joke, but it is also correct in the archived forum thread.) [[User:Gir|-- //gir.st/]] ([[User talk:Gir|talk]]) 22:19, 7 May 2020 (UTC)

Question: do we really need to explain every. single. one. of those items? the ones that are missing all fall into the "this is funny because it's random" (see also: [[1210]]) category, imo. [[User:Gir|-- //gir.st/]] ([[User talk:Gir|talk]]) 22:19, 7 May 2020 (UTC)
::Some of them definitely do. I'd never heard of Tank Girl before I read this comic, and while linking to the Wikipedia article is nice it would be useful to have info relevant to the comic in the explanation. Also, side note - what's so random about hats with buckles? Some baseball caps I've worn had buckles instead of Velcro for adjusting them to fit your head. I assume that they're referring to stereotypical depictions of Puritans and leprechauns with giant buckles on their hats, but what's so weird about that? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.186.186|162.158.186.186]] 19:19, 10 May 2020 (UTC)
:::i think the "hats with buckles" refer to belt buckles on hats ([https://www.cappelsinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/66722_pilgrim_top_hat.jpg random internet image]). and its "haha, so random" in the sense that there is no connection to the comic itself. if you can come up with something more concrete, go for it, but i honestly doubt there's more behind it.