Scribblenauts
by Jeff
Image text: Let me look away and type 'guy who's just jealous that I beat all his MarioKart times' and turn back, and ... yup, there you are again!
Scribblenauts is a side-scrolling game for the Nintendo DS in which you can summon objects to help you in the game, such as a ladder, or plants. "A fundamental element of Scribblenauts is the ability of the player to summon myriad objects into the game. This is achieved by writing the name of an object on the touchscreen (or via keypad)"
This comic takes that one step further and pokes fun at the prospect of summoning a friend in Scribblenauts by the phrase "Pretentious Asshole" or "guy who's just jealous that I beat all his MarioKart times"
The first two frames are making mention of the fact that there was some fear that the large hadron collider in CERN in Europe would create a black hole through their experiments. This was widely debunked, but apparently in Scribblenauts in xkcd, it does make a black hole.
September 16th, 2009
I dont get it.. Did she clone herself? or is the last panel really two panels and she looked up at the computer guy insinuating that it had created him?
September 16th, 2009
I’m with Mojoflys. I don’t know which way to read that. I thought the Pretentious Asshole was the guy at the computer. The Girl’s just having fun with the game.
September 16th, 2009
we cannot forget that the ‘clone’ in the last panel also says, ‘Oh, Hi!’, as if she is new to the conversation.
September 16th, 2009
It seems to be that the girl asked for a “Pretentious Asshole” and summoned one of herself.
September 16th, 2009
Maybe she said ‘Oh, Hi!’ to the new guy just cloned.
September 16th, 2009
Lets analyze…In the first panel, *click* and her speech are together. Then in the last panel, she is doing the *click* but the other girl is speaking. So I’d say that it’s both. She cloned herself, but the clone is looking at computer guy. Her clone thinks the computer guy is pretentious, but the game thought she was.
September 16th, 2009
Why would she say “it worked” if her intention was to clone the guy?? I don’t get it………
September 16th, 2009
If the intention was to be look down / look back, then why not have panel 3 say “Pretentious Asshole click” and then have a 4th panel for “Oh hi!…”. I’ve never seen a comic show character movement in a panel. Each panel is supposed to be a freeze frame.
September 16th, 2009
The alt-text explains it:
“Let me look away and type ‘guy who’s just jealous that I beat all his MarioKart times’ and turn back, and … yup, there you are again!”
The subject is male (”guy”), so this must be spoken by the female character to the male character: “…guy who’s just jealous…”
The “you” in this phrase must therefore refer to the male character: “yup, there you are again!”
Because it ends with “Again” we can assume that he’s appeared in the game before.
Therefore the male character must have either been materialized by “Large Hadron Collider” or “Pretentious Asshole.” He doesn’t look like an LHC.
The last panel is attempting to convey motion: writing and submitting the word, then looking up to deliver a snide comment.
September 16th, 2009
Apparently this comment engine totally mangled my linebreaks.
Does it support HTML maybe? In any case, it’s still mostly readable.
September 16th, 2009
eh.. maybe a 4th panel would have made it work..
September 16th, 2009
I didn’t see the motion at first glance (or second glance). I guess the girl character is calling the guy a pretentious asshole for saying “I guess its ok for a DS Kids game.”
September 16th, 2009
That’s the idea. It’s much the same thing as saying “you’re pretty good, for a _____.” Not only is he implying that the game is “just for kids,” but he is also implying that DS games should be held to a lower standard than other forms of entertainment (presumably because he feels they are inferior in some way).
Most people don’t take kindly to being told their methods of having fun are inferior to someone else’s.
September 16th, 2009
I think I get it now. Reading the image text, it seems that she doesn’t really clone anybody. She looks down to type ‘pretentious asshole’, looks up and she sees the guy again, pretending that he was just cloned, similar to how the image text suggests.
The comic is just poorly executed. The 3rd panel is supposed to show character movement, but since the comic is about ‘cloning’ the last panel is confusing.
October 7th, 2009
The LHC is actually in the game Scribblenauts, not just in Scribblenauts in XKCD.
October 8th, 2009
And it actually makes a black hole in the game Scribblenauts, not just in Scribblenauts in xkcd.
October 16th, 2009
Вот про все это я почитал с превиликиминтересом. И с удовольствием прочитал бы еще больше! Планируете и в дальнейшем писать на эту же тему? Спасибо
November 28th, 2009
english plaese?
November 28th, 2009
there is only problem with a forth panel
the rest is just a result…
December 1st, 2009
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