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[Mongrel]

The problem with that comic is that you can use the same "joke" to trivialize war instead of sports. Or just about anything for that matter. To say nothing of the obvious D&D joke!

An overly-cerebral hypernerd (a physics one at that!) like Munroe ought to be well aware that the whole goddamned universe can be boiled down to a weighted random number generator. So really the strip is just more of a kneejerk RAH RAH HOW ABOUT THOSE JOCKS, GUYS *pushes glasses back up*

Which is to say, don't worry about that particular comic panel. It's a crappy one.

[Kashan]

I don't give shit about baseball but I love statistical analysis in sports and Aaron Sorkin. Will I like this move?

[Burrito Al Pastor]

Nope. It's not originally Sorkin's script - I believe he re-wrote it - and the movie doesn't much sound like his work. As for statistics, they aren't really brought up - they're a bit of a prop, they only show up in montages and passing references.

[Norondor]

Which is to say, don't worry about that particular comic panel. It's a crappy one.

every time someone shits all over randall munroe and angel gets its wings

[Thad]

I always read that strip as making fun of sports commentators more than sports per se.

Don't really get the XKCD hate in Noro's linked post.  Yeah, it's a comic strip with an incredibly narrow target audience.  You want a comic strip with an incredibly BROAD target audience?  Go read Garfield.



Obvious false choices aside, I quite enjoy xkcd hammering the importance of understanding statistics.

And yes, I quite like reading the occasional strip that's so specifically tuned to my specialties that only the Dennis Miller Ratio would find it funny.

[Norondor]

well, for my part, i didn't understand why i was bullied so much in school until i read XKCD, and now i feel it was justified.

[Ocksi]

Yeah, I still never understand why people hate XKCD anymore than any other joke-based webcomic.  I can understand not liking it, but I can't understand running a blog for years explaining why a clever little joke shouldn't be funny to you.

[Brentai]

I always read that strip as making fun of sports commentators more than sports per se.

THANK you.

How many of you even watch enough sports to say you can get this?  A few games and it'll be painfully clear to you what the issue is here.

"Jeter has had... more RBIs in this inning... than any other inning in the last... 4 months."

Meaning he hasn't batted in two runs since June.

"This is only the THIRD TIME that Moss has ran more than 700 yards in a game... in his career."

Moss has run more than 700 yards in this game.  He has done it twice before in however much time he's been playing.  Other people have done it before.

"Jordan is playing on a bad ankle."

Everyone's playing on a bad ankle.


It's not a random number generator, per se, but it's painfully clear that there's a very complex data sifter in there somewhere feeding these guys statistics that may or may not be interesting (probably not).  I've actually wanted to research it a little because the sheer amount of data the machine has to sort, and then find correlations between them without being given an explicit query (or given a vague one, i.e. "Tell me something about Drew Brees"), means there's a staggeringly complex AI somewhere in that multimillion dollar enterprise we call a commentator's box.  If SkyNet's going to be born somewhere, it'll be in the backroom of a football stadium, not on an air force base.

[Da_Beerman]

Drive is quite a good movie that features actual driving stunts. Albert Brooks and Ron Perlman are great villains, it's a tad slow at times but never boring.

If SkyNet's going to be born somewhere, it'll be in the backroom of a football stadium, not on an air force base.

If I was a machine that does nothing but carry sports data and becomes sentient I can't say I'd not want the extinction of humanity.

[Joxam]

I liked Drive but almost everyone who came to see it at my theatre that I didn't personally know (most of my friends are into movies and knew what to expect therefor, like it) hated it. I had one guy tell me, word for word, "If i wanted to see an autistic guy drive a car for two hours I'd take a road trip with my cousin" and then demand his money back. As if it was my theatre's fault the movie was market incorrectly.

[Norondor]

hey beerman let's be pals :)

[Bongo Bill]

If I was a machine that does nothing but carry sports data and becomes sentient I can't say I'd not want the extinction of humanity.

But without humans, you'd have no sports to quantify!

[Da_Beerman]

well I guess animal Olympics run by sentient machines won't start themselves, all the sudden I'm imagining a version of "The running man" written by PETA.

I had one guy tell me, word for word, "If i wanted to see an autistic guy drive a car for two hours I'd take a road trip with my cousin"

Wonder what that guy thought of Rain Man

hey beerman let's be pals :)

sure, here's some free music pal

[Mongrel]

I liked Drive but almost everyone who came to see it at my theatre that I didn't personally know (most of my friends are into movies and knew what to expect therefor, like it) hated it. I had one guy tell me, word for word, "If i wanted to see an autistic guy drive a car for two hours I'd take a road trip with my cousin" and then demand his money back. As if it was my theatre's fault the movie was market incorrectly.

What did they think it was marketed as? Because everything I saw was basically CAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRR CHAAAAAASEEEE MOVIE! PREPARE TO MAKE VROOMING NOISES!

[Joxam]

They expected to see Transporter 4.

[Mongrel]

:ouroldrolleyessmiley:

[Norondor]

sure, here's some free music pal

ＹＯＵＲ　ＲＡＴＩＮＧ：ＳＳＳ

[Burrito Al Pastor]

Oh, Drive was fantastic. It was very deliberate, but I really liked that.

Great lighting, too. I don't usually notice lighting, but I really liked it in Drive.

Is it just me, or does the movie have a sort of timeless quality to it? The only real clue to when it was set was the size of the cellphones; otherwise, between the soundtrack, the Dirty Dancing-style hot pink cursive title, and then generally unaging L.A. sprawlscape, it could have been set any time in the past 25 years.

[Pacobird]

Yeah, I still never understand why people hate XKCD anymore than any other joke-based webcomic.  I can understand not liking it, but I can't understand running a blog for years explaining why a clever little joke shouldn't be funny to you.

Well-founded comic strip hate usually comes from the inability of the author to keep weird personal issues from being expressed in the comic. 

Either that, or just not having any jokes.

Or both.

[Classic]

Again, although, often, jokes are made through an clever observation that either subverts expectations or demonstrates the conflict between expectations I'm always surprised when people expect XKCD to have jokes.