One-Liners
by Jeff
Image text: 'Upgrade to the latest version of Adobe Flash player to view THIS content, bitch.' ::triggers detonator::
Alright, the idea of this one is fairly straightforward, but I'll explain it anyway! In action movies, the hero usually says a catch phrase before killing off the last bad guy. In the Die Hard movies, it was "Yippee-kay-ya Motherfucker" and you get the idea.
Let's start explaining from less likely to more.
In the first frame, a memory hole is probably what is behind the character on the left in the frame, which is used to destroy or permanently alter potentially embarrassing documents and paperwork.
Frame two is pretty self explanatory, one character is mentioning that there is a problem with the math by the other character.
Frame three is reference to the US Federal Interest Rate, which is raised and lowered by the US Government.
Frame four is a reference to any internet agreement that usually is 7 million pages long that companies require you to read before you download some software or install a program. Some do not require you to scroll all the way down to the bottom before clicking "I Accept" in regards to the terms. Others do require scrolling to the bottom.
Frame five (which is hilarious if I do say so myself and I wish it would catch on) has three ways we can go with Bangarang. First it is the cry of the Lost Boys in the movie Hook. Secondly, it is a Jamaican slang word for a disturbance or an uproar. Thirdly, probably a result of the first two, it is a media player for KDE builds of Linux.
Lastly, the image text is a reference to websites that have content that is only available if you have the latest version of Adobe Flash Player. You will inevitably get this message if you try to view one of these websites on the Apple iPhone.
November 1st, 2010
You flipped the x axis, but otherwise thanks for the explanation. The bangarang joke was completely lost on me.
November 1st, 2010
Yeah you went from most likely to least likely in your explanation. I didn’t get Bangarang either, which is probably why it’s all the way down at the least likely end of the spectrum. Plus, I think it would totally ruin the ambiance of a movie were it to be used. To each their own I suppose.
November 2nd, 2010
Probably worth mentioning that the memory hole one is a reference to George Orwell’s 1984.
November 2nd, 2010
Probably worth mentioning as well that frame two is certainly a reference to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Wendell_Jones#The_Grand_Unification_Theory
November 2nd, 2010
…and frame four seems to me a mix of “Bangarang”, the Lost boys battle cry in Hook, and “Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker”, John McClane’s final phrase in the Die Hard movies… two quite different action movies
November 3rd, 2010
Thanks, Marc, your comments are infinitely more useful that the original explaination.
November 3rd, 2010
You explained the ingredients of the comic without attempting to explain the comic itself. Is there any implied reasoning for the horizontal placement of each frame? Is the likeliness bar just a vehicle for making up a bunch of random one-liners? Is there any point here I’m missing? This explanation reads like a review of the Matrix in scene-by-scene discription: … this scene Keanu jumps some roof tops, now in this scene Morpheus is a black dude and his lenses sit on his face defying gravity…
November 5th, 2010
I think the scale of likeliness was just a poorly executed concept. The placement seems arbitrary. If the first 4 were more obviously increasingly bad, it would serve to make the last frame a more powerful punchline to anyone who actually understood the reference.
November 5th, 2010
I think in the third frame, the paper on the floor may be significant.
If the interest rate is printed on the paper, and the heroine is the “fed,” it can literally be a pun.
The problem with this interpretation is that “pun” sort of ignores the bad-guy.
December 1st, 2010
I actually knew Bangarang was from Hook. However, the most recent way in which I’ve heard it spoken is from the Parkour communities of Chicago and some parts of Wisconsin and Minnesota. They’ve recently been using it to signal that police are here so everyone should stop any parkour/freerunning/climbing on buildings that they might be doing and instead do some regular mainstream exercise such as push-ups so that they do not get bothered.