Single Ladies
by Jeff
Image text: Using a ring to bind someone you covet into your dark and twisted world? Wow, just got the subtext there. Also, the apparently eager Beyoncé would've made one badass Nazgȗl.
The song playing in this comic is "Single Ladies" by Beyonce. Which apparently had one of the best videos of all time... Anyhow, Gil-Galad was the last high king of the Noldor in Middle Earth. Galadriel was a queen of the elves in Middle Earth. Eru was the one god of Middle-Earth who created the Elves and Men, and Aule created the Dwarves, but Eru eventually approved Aule's creations. So, he sort of created the Dwarves as Eru was the only god to give a spirit to a being, as he did with the Dwarves.
The character in the beret is apparently the bartender in a bar that Sauron frequents. In the comic, Sauron upon hearing the song by Beyonce in the bar, has the idea to create his magic ring plan which presents the plot of the Lord of the Rings triology of books and movies.
Devotion To Duty
by Jeff
Image text: The weird sense of duty really good sysadmins have can border on the sociopathic, but it's nice to know that it stands between the forces of darkness and your cat blog's servers.
This comic is a reference to the movie, Die Hard, in which Bruce Willis' character climbs through ventilation shafts and over broken glass to kill all the bad guys and rescue the hostages, including his wife. That building was called the Nakatomi Plaza in the movie.
Uptime is just as it appears and is a measure of how much the servers are online vs. offline and usually is expressed in a %.
Snow Tracking
by Jeff
Image text: I suppose that's more accurately a hare dryer.
Moose and Squirrel is a reference to the Rocky and Bullwinkle series of cartoons.
Longcat is a internet meme from pictures of cats all stretched out that make them look very tall (or long).
Mouse riding Bicycle is a reference to Ralph S. Mouse, a series of novels by Beverly Cleary.
The image text is a pun on the Rabbit with a hair dryer frame.
Legolas is a reference to the character by the same name in the Lord of the Rings trilogy of books and movies.
Knight is a chess reference as the tracks move just like the knight piece in chess.
The two "Kid with" frames are a reference to Calvin and Hobbes.
Prius is a reference to current events in which the car Toyota Prius's pedals have malfunctioned causing accidents.
The final frame is the Higgs Boson which is an elementary particle they are attempting to find evidence of in the Large Hadron Collider.
Anyone know what the Bobcat on a Pogo Stick is a reference to? That's the only one I can't get.
Complexion
by Jeff
Image text: Why do all my attempts at science end with me being punched by Batman? (P.S. benzoyl peroxide soap works great.)
This comic is a reference to the Batman villain "Two-Face". Because the main character had pimples on one side of his face and not the other, he resembled the Batman villain. Two-Face is also fond of flipping a coin to decide what to do. The two different sides of his face and the flipping of the coin is what drew Batman into the comic.
Children’s Fantasy
by Jeff
Image text: I was going to be a scientist, but that seems silly now. Magical worlds exist. I've learned a huge truth about our place in the universe. I'm supposed to care about college? I mean, FUCK.
The main character won't just spend the next 70 years with his loved ones suspecting he is crazy. Everyone will suspect he is crazy.
Dirty Harry
by Jeff
Image text: Sci-fi has energy weapons because otherwise the people like me who watch it get distracted counting shots.
Here's the full quote from Dirty Harry (a movie about a San Francisco cop who lives a bit outside of the rules to get the job done):
I know what you're thinking. "Did he fire six shots or only five?" Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself. But being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?
Rain Man is a movie about two brothers, one who is autistic played by Dustin Hoffman, the other played by Tom Cruise.
In the case of this comic, the person on the ground is autistic, so he has no trouble counting the bullets from Dirty Harry's gun.
Because of his counting skill, "Rain Man" is able to thwart Dirty Harry's intimidation's effect.
Science Montage
by Jeff
Image text: The rat's perturbed; it must sense nanobots! Code grey! We have a Helvetica scenario!
This one is pretty straightforward as science always looks more fun and it always takes a lot less time in the movies and on TV. As you can see in the movie montage, they complete 4 experiments, while in real life they only complete 1.
The Sun
by Jeff
Image text: Obligatory bad guy: This operation is sheer foolishness, and it's not happening on my watch! Mainly because I can't figure out how to adjust the time.
This is a comic about a pseudo-science Hollywood action Blockbuster. The movie The Core is referenced in the beginning, which was a movie widely panned by critics. In The Core, the problem was that the core of the Earth was going to stop rotating and they had to send something into the core of the Earth to fix it.
Stephen and Me
by Jeff
Image text: Hey, let go! We were all thinking it! Someone had to speak truth to power!
This comic is a parody of the movie/documentary by filmmaker Michael Moore called "Roger and Me" in which he detailed the problems that General Motors created in his hometown of Flint, Michigan by moving the manufacturing to Mexico. Roger is reference to General Motors CEO Roger Smith.
Stephen Odell is the CEO of Volvo, so the parody becomes "Stephen and Me".
The image text in this case is a continuation of the comic and what the filmmaker with the beret would say when he was being taken by security.
Spinal Tap Amps
by Jeff
Image text: Wow, that's less than $200 per ... uh ... that's a good deal!
Here is the scene being referenced from the movie, Spinal Tap if you haven't seen it.