Talk:406: Venting

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
Jump to: navigation, search

With the psychology of XKCD readers in mind, I thought I'd look around for real-life applications of this self-same snippet. To quote the meme: "I was not dissapoint!", although to wildly varying effectiveness and with grossly variable style. From among many, I present a meagre and random selection, thus: [1] [2] [3]

Ugh. None of those actually have sections containing the documentations that they are citing. I've been wanting to do one of those kinds of posts myself as I'm actually prone to typing out several paragraphs and including citations when I get dragged into an Internet argument. 108.162.238.117 07:14, 19 January 2014 (UTC)

(...and remember to check out... what is there currently worth watching right now..? Well, check it out, whatever it is.) 178.98.31.27 12:43, 18 June 2013 (UTC)

I'm not saying that the explanation is wrong (well, part of it almost definitely is), but I'm not sure that the use of Summer Glau's name is to get the last word. The kind of person that you would use this type of critical analysis on would be unlikely to be a nerd (re: grammar/syntax/spelling/capitalization errors and lack of understanding of the subject involved), but an Internet troll or general idiot. So what would be the point of using that name? My initial impression was that it was giving the appearance of hidden depths to a celebrity (who may or may not be seen as capable of it), and would thus illicit an amusing reaction from the reader. Imagine if you saw a word-by-word rebuttal attributed to Paris Hilton or Justin Beiber. An alternate interpretation is that it would make a favored celebrity look even better, much like the "memetic badass" status that Chuck Norris[4] has.

Barack Obama 7:14, 19 January 2014 (UTC) P.S. Don't forget to vote!

Nerds can make grammatical errors. I don't think that would be the case. And I do not believe use of the name has anything to do with the actual commenter or raising Glau's celebrity status. flewk (talk) 10:37, 28 December 2015 (UTC)

I edited the almost surely wrong part, but this explanation still needs some work by a native English-speaker. 141.101.97.215 07:05, 23 April 2014 (UTC)

I'm not sure if this is so much about people losing the chance to sleep with Summer Glau. Could it be more about the character of River in Firefly, who would presumably be the kind of person to write a blog comment like this? 199.27.128.87 03:53, 24 April 2015 (UTC)

Yeah, that's what I got from it, too. 108.162.215.119 22:39, 13 May 2015 (UTC)

I figured he used Summer Glau simply because he can, much like his idea for an action movie. This is also reminiscent of Randall's style to be serious until the last moment and throw in something unrelated at the end. Refer to a wide range of xkcd comics. I highly doubt this has anything to do with sleeping with Summer Glau. flewk (talk) 10:37, 28 December 2015 (UTC)