Althouse: Yes — since you asked — I actually do understand this cartoon.

June 11, 2009

Yes — since you asked — I actually do understand this cartoon.

36 comments:

Kate Gosselin said...: You have to be very careful with those trolls. One minute, your husband could be looking at scores on ESPN. The next minute, your best friend calls to say your husband was caught humping some girl he met on a chubby chaser site on a piss-stained mattress at the Budget Inn in Shartlesville.

You can't be too careful.; 6/11/09, 8:27 AM
Bissage said...: I was able to figure it out but I have to admit it took some googling and some head scratching.; 6/11/09, 8:38 AM
jayne_cobb said...: Perhaps it's just the fact that I'm a nerd but I, sadly, understood everything in that strip right away.

Incidentally never go to 4chan.org, the stuff posted in certain portions of it will destroy your soul.; 6/11/09, 8:42 AM
Salamandyr said...: Like Jayne (the man they call Jayne), I too got it all in one go.; 6/11/09, 8:57 AM
Salamandyr said...: Never got my soul destroyed by 4chan, though I did put some wear on it.; 6/11/09, 8:58 AM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: Haha. Revenge is sweet.; 6/11/09, 8:58 AM
jayne_cobb said...: Ok, if not your soul then at the very least your faith in humanity.; 6/11/09, 9:02 AM
KCFleming said...: The cartoon acne is funny.; 6/11/09, 9:15 AM
El Presidente said...: Cartoon acne, I thought I had something on my screen.

I empathize with acne boy, whenever the dark forces of the internet unleash their minions on the Divine Ms. A.; 6/11/09, 9:54 AM
Ryan said...: Sadly, this is actually happening to 4chan.; 6/11/09, 10:07 AM
Darconville said...: 4CHAN is no FYAD.; 6/11/09, 10:17 AM
Jason (the commenter) said...: I love xkcd, don't they deserve a tag or at least a better link though?; 6/11/09, 10:19 AM
Joan said...: Jayne? Is that a Firefly reference?

I have a 10-year-old daughter and time was, I spent a lot of time on USENET. I understood it perfectly, and found it delicious.

El Presidente, you missed the point: Acne Boy is a troll -- what goes around, comes around, especially on the internet.; 6/11/09, 10:20 AM
El Presidente said...: Joan,

I didn't miss the point.; 6/11/09, 10:41 AM
Joan said...: El Pres: I don't empathize with trolls.; 6/11/09, 10:44 AM
Rose said...: LOL - I totally get it.; 6/11/09, 10:47 AM
jayne_cobb said...: Joan,

Yes.

(I'm not particularly creative and I was watching the Jaynestown episode at the time.); 6/11/09, 10:51 AM
Ann Althouse said...: Jason, you're right. But they don't give easy embed code, even as they encourage embedding. I just put them on the blogroll.; 6/11/09, 11:39 AM
Christy said...: Jayne, doesn't matter. I always envision you tall, muscled and caressing Vera.

Jokes like this confuse me. I get it, but then question whether I do or not because clever people see more significance than I do. Usually they turn out to be less clever than I thought, this time I'm going with "I must be missing something."; 6/11/09, 11:41 AM
Anonymous said...: I always envision Jayne wearing that orange hat with the straw sticking out of it, but to each his own.; 6/11/09, 11:50 AM
TZ said...: I didn't even think you could mention 4chan on a family blog.; 6/11/09, 12:24 PM
Revenant said...: Perhaps it's just the fact that I'm a nerd but I, sadly, understood everything in that strip right away.

Me too.; 6/11/09, 12:45 PM
Anonymous said...: Okay, I just discovered this webcomic via the Tigerhawk blog.

I love stick figure webcomics! Seriously!

*I know it's against the rules to make requests, Dr. Althouse, so think of this as just a, I dunno, flight of fancy!

You should TOTALLY draw an Althouse webcomic. I've seen your Amsterdam drawings on flickr, they rawk!

Hilarious - stick figure Titus and stick figure Pogo and everybody!; 6/11/09, 1:16 PM
Palladian said...: "Hilarious - stick figure Titus and stick figure Pogo and everybody!"

I don't think I would work as a stick figure. Maybe I could be a circle figure.; 6/11/09, 2:21 PM
Heather said...: Is it bad that I got that. TWoP has lost it's edge since Bravo bought them out.; 6/11/09, 2:29 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: Ha ha ha.

Incidentally, has anyone read that Twilight book? I saw it on the coffee table of a relative's house and flipped through it. All dialog, almost like a play formatted into prose. I can see how teenagers would very much like to read an entire book of two teenagers talking to each other. Is that what it is?

Or, if the boy is a vampire, is he old? Then isn't it more like an old guy and a teenager talking... and dating... hmmmmm.; 6/11/09, 2:47 PM
rhhardin said...: I don't get it.; 6/11/09, 3:11 PM
XWL said...: What's up with the whole blood thing? Would vampires be less sexy if it were other types of bodily fluids and emissions that sustained them?

Would teen girls swoon for all this Twilight crap if everything else were identical, but instead of bloodsuckers, they were urinesuckers. Somehow I don't think Peepires would be nearly as popular as vampires.

And don't even get me started on Poopires...; 6/11/09, 4:29 PM
Joan said...: Freeman, yeah, I've read all the Twilight books. They're harmless fluff, but I've already discussed with my daughter that any human boy who behaved like Edward (the never-sleeping vampire love interest) would be a creepy stalker.

They are all written in the first person by believably teenage characters, and tend to be dialog-heavy in the beginning and action-heavy towards the end. The fourth book is kind of freaky but has an OK resolution, I thought.

Spoiler, in case anyone cares: The big thing that sets these books apart from other supposedly YA ("young adult") books is that the main characters don't have sex before they get married.; 6/11/09, 5:35 PM
Anonymous said...: @Palladian

Your stick figure would have the bestest thought bubbles! Smart, sarcastic, funny.

*I am kind of digging the Warhol diaries. WOW. Who knew?; 6/11/09, 9:38 PM
Palladian said...: "*I am kind of digging the Warhol diaries. WOW. Who knew?"

The Andy Warhol Diaries are wonderful, truly a rich and amazing document of their time. But I say this as a diary fanatic. I'm the only person I know who has all 11 volumes of the wonderful Latham-Matthews transcription of Samuel Pepys' Diary in first-edition hardcover.; 6/11/09, 10:11 PM
Synova said...: Funny thing... I'd never heard of 4chan before today when my children mentioned it.

After a bit of conversation and parental horror, they hastened to explain that they didn't GO there, they just knew about it.

(Yes, the "children" involved are nearly 17 and 18... your point?)

They probably saw the web-comic (I know they read that one) so that might be why they mentioned it. I'd have gotten the "joke" in any case, if only as perverse (and effective) author revenge.; 6/11/09, 11:05 PM
Methadras said...: 4chan is 4chan; 6/12/09, 12:14 AM
Methadras said...: plox; 6/12/09, 12:14 AM
Wendy Kloiber said...: So @annalthouse follows @zephoria! Play #followfriday and recommend someone? Curious who you'd say.; 6/12/09, 10:43 AM
amba said...: I remain clueless. Might be able to overcome this condition, but it's too much work.; 6/14/09, 1:28 AM