522: Google Trends

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
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Google Trends
Obama has been writing Lincoln/Obama erotic fan fiction on his secret livejournal. Excerpt: Lincoln lay back on the bed, nude save for his trademark stovepipe hat. 'Tell me,' he purred seductively, as he and Obama formed a more perfect union. 'When you come, is it 10% ethanol?'
Title text: Obama has been writing Lincoln/Obama erotic fan fiction on his secret livejournal. Excerpt: Lincoln lay back on the bed, nude save for his trademark stovepipe hat. 'Tell me,' he purred seductively, as he and Obama formed a more perfect union. 'When you come, is it 10% ethanol?'

Explanation[edit]

Google keeps track of which searches are most popular in which regions as part of more general data mining to improve their service. For the enjoyment/education of others, they release select, non-personal parts of this data under the banner "Google Trends."

The first statistic – that "Men kissing" was popular in Utah, a state known for possessing a large population with very conservative social values, including opposition to homosexuality – is real. The others are made up for the sake of the joke. In order:

With regards to the excerpt Randall provides in the title text:

  • Slash fiction is a genre of fan fiction that focuses on homosexual behavior.
  • Lincoln/Obama (pronounced Lincoln slash Obama) fan fiction normally should be between Abraham Lincoln and Barack Obama.
  • The "more perfect union" line comes from the preamble to the US Constitution: "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union...". However, it seems to have a sexual connotation in this case.
  • Ethanol is the more scientific name for drinking alcohol, or simply alcohol.
  • "10% ethanol" refers to automotive gasoline that includes 10% ethanol (usually made from corn or other vegetables), with the hopes of reducing the dependence on oil for fuel.

Transcript[edit]

Bloggers were recently amused to discover that,
according to Google Trends, the search term:
"men kissing" is most popular in conservative Utah.
A few other embarrassing correlations:
[A two-column table]
[On the left side of the table:]
Search Term
Installing Ubuntu
Running for President in 2010
Lincoln Fan Fiction
Raptors on Hoverboards
How is babby formed?
I hate this website
[On the right side of the table:]
Top City
Redmond, WA
Wasilla, AK
Chicago, IL
Somerville, MA
Wasilla, AK
Mountain View, CA


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Discussion

This comic made me laugh and laugh and laugh, some of it even out loud. Randall for President in 2014! 108.162.219.223 19:24, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

The next election is scheduled for Tuesday, November 8, 2016. Maybe Randall does create a xkcd party and he will run for that job; but I'm pretty sure he won't. --Dgbrt (talk) 20:50, 10 January 2014 (UTC)
That makes me feel sad, he would make a far better candidate than either of the current ones. No matter who gets elected now, America has lost. We can only hope they don't destroy too much. 162.158.2.60 11:47, 7 November 2016 (UTC)

I disagree with the explanation of the the title text; it makes no sense. Why would a car "lie back, nude, with his trademark stovepipe hat"? I think it's a reference to Obama pushing for more ethanol in fuels; the blend now averages at about 10%. Apparently Obama recently backed of increasing the number, but at the time, ethanol was a big political issue. I don't know why "ethanol" in particular, but it being a car is more than nonsensical: it doesn't fit the words. 162.158.60.23 02:24, 6 June 2016 (UTC)

I'm gonna be real I'm pretty sure the "bloggers" he talks about aren't real Rubbish (talk) 17:41, 23 January 2019 (UTC)

Can someone check that "ironic" claim about the daughter of Sarah Palin? I am not deep into that topic, and the wikipedia page is a bit confusing, but if I see it correctly, she became a abstinence advocat AFTER her teen pregnancy. --Lupo (talk) 07:17, 23 July 2019 (UTC)

  1. Time (May 08, 2009). "[ Nancy Gibbs: In Defense of Bristol Palin, Abstinence Spokeswoman](https://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1896815,00.html)"