Sigh
by Jeff
Image text: If you're annoying enough, you can get them to respond with an involuntary second sigh and get a rhythm going.
Ok, here's the information you need to understand this one:
Cueball is mispronouncing the name of the British TV show, that is also currently show in the US, which is DownTON Abbey (emphasis mine). I had that same problem with the name of the show for almost a whole year.
I'm no LMFAO expert, but they are ubiquitous group in the US on radio, TV and even strange commercials with rodents riding in cars with their infectious ear worm, Party Rock Anthem. However, this comic is a reference to another one of their songs, "Sexy And I Know It" (Trust me, you don't have to get too far into it before the referenced part in the comic.)
January 27th, 2012
Yeah, I don’t think there’s much else to say about this one. Good one, Jeff
January 27th, 2012
For the benefit of the none UK residents, and at the risk of being shot for pedantry: ‘ton’ at the end of a place name in England is a corruption of ‘tun’ the Saxon term for farm or estate – it doesn’t mean town at all.
…I’ll get me coat
January 27th, 2012
OMG my eyes!
I watched the clip, saw the sighs, and then hung around for another 30 seconds.
WORST mistake of my life. There should have been a disclaimer on that somewhere.
January 27th, 2012
Speaking of which, here is a warning for everyone else:
He waves his crotch at you.
And it moves.
Guh.
January 27th, 2012
WHERE WERE YOU LAST NIGHT?!! Where were you when I got home after work and thought, “Let’s just check xkcd before going to bed,” didn’t get the reference and googled up the video? Why did you not warn me BEFORE I saw that?
Now I have to go find an ice pick and gouge out my eyes.
January 27th, 2012
Wiggle Wiggle Wiggle Wiggle Wiggle!
Wiggle Wiggle Wiggle Wiggle Wiggle!
January 27th, 2012
About a minute into this may put the LMFAO crotch shaking into perspective… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q77YBmtd2Rw
January 27th, 2012
Mobile friendly video link: http://vimeo.com/m/29711691
January 27th, 2012
Much appreciated. In Germany the damn GEMA blocks this Video on Youtube.
January 27th, 2012
Umm. I think there is a lot more to say about this one, FOR the benefit of UK residents.
UK residents would never think of mispronouncing the ‘ton’ ending to a place-name because they are all perfectly familiar with its meaning. This leaves them struggling to understand why the girl sighs.
I suspect that the reason is that watching Downton Abbey is seen as an intellectual or cultural activity, and Cueball is ‘dumbing-down’ the conversation. Unfortunately, in the UK Downton Abbey is NOT seen as ‘high culture’ at all – it’s just another costume drama.
So, to a UK viewer, this makes about as much sense as Cueball interrupting a viewing of Colombo with a silly comment. You wouldn’t sigh. You’d just tell him to go away.
January 27th, 2012
I don’t think she’s sighing because it’s supposed to be high class and Cueball is ruining it. I think she’s sighing simply because of his ignorance in mispronouncing the name. For those in the UK who wouldn’t mispronounce the “ton” suffix, you need to understand that there are plenty of Americans who would indeed mispronounce it, which is ignorant on the part of those Americans. She’s annoyed by this. Hence *sigh*
January 27th, 2012
Check it out guys, turns out you’re BOTH right. No, really! Congratulations!
January 27th, 2012
Not sure why Americans would mispronounce it… don’t you guys have places like Washignton, Lexington, Arlington, Stockton, Dayton, Wilmington, Charleston and Trenton? I’ve never heard anyone mispronounce those with ‘town’. Not sure why Downton would confuse anyone.
January 27th, 2012
Because the expected word following “down” is “town” so many brains may insert a W where is this not one, making “downton” into “downtoWn”
January 27th, 2012
At a quick glance ( remember, many of us read the only first and last letters), “Downton” looks alot like “DownTown”. Downtown is a common word, and it rhymes too. Then, with the word “Abbey” right after, the American mind thinks its a place name. Might also happen because Abbey sounds like a street name, or like “alley”, or like a name Brits would call their streets.Hence, the assumption.
January 29th, 2012
“Downtown” is indeed an American concept. Other parts of the English-speaking world would call it the “City Centre” instead, so it’s easy to see why non-American’s might not think this was obvious.
I certainly thought the name was “Downtown” the first time I saw it, and I’ve spent a lot of time in the UK.
I’m intrigued that there’s not much talk here about the male-female interaction in this comic; I think there’s more sub-context there than in the word mixup.
January 30th, 2012
No, no. Their names are Washigntown, Lexingtown, Arlingtown, Stocktown, Daytown, Wilmingtown, Charlestown and Trentown.
January 27th, 2012
Makes more sense using your meaning — but I actually had this happen to me the once. The intentional misstatement made was Downtown Alley instead of Diagon (sp?) Alley though, from somewhere in the harry potter series. Hilarity ensued.
January 27th, 2012
girllookatthatbody
I work out!
January 28th, 2012
I kinda wish you would have just spelled it out for me rather than directing me to that…video. *Siiiiiigh*
January 28th, 2012
-girlookathatbody
January 28th, 2012
Apparently misery loves company. >.>
January 28th, 2012
Well, just to confirm what someone already said . . . I read it. . . saw “Downtown Abbey” and wondered why she sighed.
I read it again. . . saw “downtown Abbey” and still didn’t get it.
I came here. . . saw I had read it wrong, read it again, and got it. I still didn’t think it was funny. But I got it.
THEN I clicked the link and watched the video. . . OK, NOW it’s funny.
January 30th, 2012
I hadn’t heard anything about Downton Abbey, so I googled “DowntoWn Abbey” as written in the comic. Strange enough, Google did not ask me, “Did you mean ‘Downton Abbey’?”, but linked me to the Wiki page. I read it through and just thought Megan was annoyed because it’s clear that it’s a fictional place and it doesn’t matter what town it is actually located in the downtown of.
Then I came here and read that I misread the name of the series. I thought, “Didn’t I just google it?”, and googled again with the right spelling. A violet link indicated I’ve already visited this very Wiki page.
Fun fact #1: Reference #42 an the Wiki page reads, “Antena 3 estrena Downtown Abbey”. However, if you click the link, the series is spelled correctly.
Fun fact #2: Wiki has a redirect from “Downtown abbey”.
February 5th, 2012
Same thing happened to me, too. I never realized that the Wiki article spelled it Downton instead of Downtown until I read the explanation here.
Thinking about it, maybe Billy Joel originally wrote his famous song as “Upton Girl” and everybody misunderstood including the record company? We may never know.
January 29th, 2012
All of the confusion about misreading it reminded me of this image someone posted on Facebook yesterday.
http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/404562_243149445761333_100001988375829_551510_112201020_n.jpg
February 1st, 2012
My wife still won’t give me a straight answer as to which character is Abby.
February 1st, 2012
For those of us who can’t (or won’t) watch YouTube, could someone please just post the lyrics or a description or something?
February 4th, 2012
Let me offer a rephrase: “I really don’t want to watch wiggle-crotch.”