Main Page
Welcome to the explain xkcd wiki!
We have an explanation for all 1584 xkcd comics,
and only 21
(1%) are incomplete. Help us finish them!
Latest comic
| I Could Care Less |
 Title text: I literally could care less. |
Explanation
This comic references the dichotomy between the literal meaning of the phrase "I could care less" and its idiomatic meaning in American English[citation needed] as an expression of indifference. Many people[1][2][3] argue that this use is incorrect and the phrase should be "I couldn't care less," which is the standard form in British English. This is the opinion expressed, for example, by the Weird Al Yankovic song "Word Crimes":Like I could care less
That means you do care
At least a little
However, linguists point out that the strict application of logic to an idiom is inappropriate: many expressions seem on the surface to mean the opposite of the meaning they are used to convey (e.g. "head over heels"), and they defend "I could care less" on those grounds [citation needed]. The psychologist Steven Pinker argues in The Language Instinct that the phrase is sarcastic (cf. "Big deal!"), while linguist John Lawler explains it as a "Negative Polarity Item," a phrase that is practically only used in negated form, allowing the explicit negation to be omitted (a pattern often found in French) [1].
In this comic, Megan feels alone because there is unavoidable difference between her understanding of her own words and the listener's interpretation, so while she sees discussion of semantics as being of potentially high social and emotional value, she doesn't think it has objective value. However, ironically, at the end of the comic, the meaning of "I could care less" with regards to Ponytail's behavior is ambiguous: either Megan is brushing off Ponytail's pedantry because she doesn't care about it (she couldn't care less) or she is hurt by Ponytail's focus on the details of her words rather than the emotional cues she should have learned over the course of their relationship (she actually could care less).
The title text refers to another word often used in ways some consider incorrect: "literally" (see 725: Literally). The sentence is also ambiguous, as it may mean that 'literally' or 'figuratively,' the speaker could or couldn't care less. Further, it implies that Munroe considers the argument over whether literally may be properly used to mean 'figuratively' is petty in the same way.
Transcript
- [Megan and Ponytail are walking together]
- Megan: ...Anyway, I could care less.
- Ponytail: I think you mean you couldn't care less. Saying you could care less implies you care at least some amount.
- Megan: I dunno.
- Megan: We're these unbelievably complicated brains drifting through a void, trying in vain to connect with one another by blindly flinging words out into the darkness.
- Megan: Every choice of phrasing and spelling and tone and timing carries countless signals and contexts and subtexts and more, and every listener interprets those signals in their own way. Language isn't a formal system. Language is glorious chaos.
- Megan: You can never know for sure what any words will mean to anyone. All you can do is try to get better at guessing how your words affect people, so you can have a chance of finding the ones that will make them feel something like what you want them to feel. Everything else is pointless.
- Megan: I assume you're giving me tips on how you interpret words because you want me to feel less alone. If so, then thank you. That means a lot.
- Megan: But if you're just running my sentences past some mental checklist so you can show off how well you know it, then I could care less.
- ↑ Cleese, John (29 November 2007). "Could care less". Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCUsPnKD1gk&t=14s. Retrieved 8 September 2015.
- ↑ Mitchell, David (20 May 2010). "Dear America... David Mitchell's SoapBox". Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om7O0MFkmpw&t=1m2s. Retrieved 8 September 2015.
- ↑ Yankovic, Alfred (15 July 2014). ""Weird Al" Yankovic - Word Crimes". Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Gv0H-vPoDc&t=1m7s. Retrieved 8 September 2015.
Is this out of date? .
New here?
Last 7 days (Top 10) |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
You can read a brief introduction about this wiki at explain xkcd. Feel free to sign up for an account and contribute to the wiki! We need explanations for comics, characters, themes and everything in between. If it is referenced in an xkcd web comic, it should be here.
- If you're new to wiki editing, see how to edit wiki pages. There's also a handy wikicode cheatsheet.
- Discussion about the wiki itself happens at the Community portal.
- You can browse the comics from List of all comics or by navigating the category tree at Category:Comics.
- There are incomplete explanations listed here. Feel free to help out by expanding them!
- We sell advertising space to pay for our server costs. To learn more, go here.
Rules
Don't be a jerk.
There are a lot of comics that don't have set in stone explanations; feel free to put multiple interpretations in the wiki page for each comic.
If you want to talk about a specific comic, use its discussion page.
Please only submit material directly related to (and helping everyone better understand) xkcd... and of course only submit material that can legally be posted (and freely edited). Off-topic or other inappropriate content is subject to removal or modification at admin discretion, and users who repeatedly post such content will be blocked.
If you need assistance from an admin, post a message to the Admin requests board.
