1048: Emotion

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Emotion

Title text: Fortunately, the internet has a virtually inexhaustible supply of code that doesn't work and people who are wrong, which bodes well for a return to normalcy. [Note: Click to read context for the cancer comics. She's doing well.]

Here's the link referenced in the image text, which is a blog post from 2011 regarding his fiancée's breast cancer.

Description

This comic shows, in typical "graphing everything" fashion, what were the sources of Randall Munroe's emotions as time passed:

• Politics became prominent in 2008 due to the upcoming US presidential elections in november 2008.
• "Code not working even though it should work" is a common frustration in software development, when the developer is convinced to have covered every possible scenario, but there actually is some obscure tiny problem which he didn't think of and which often takes much time (and frustration) to find.
• Joss Whedon is best known as the creator and showrunner of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003), Angel (1999–2004) and Firefly (2002), so he's the "cause" of emotions for Randall who watches thoses series (however he seems to loose his interest for them, or maybe he just finishes them, at some point).
• "People being wrong on the internet" is something that can easily annoy and preoccupy an internet-savvy guy like Randall, who knows the things they're (incorrectly) talking about; this was previously described in the comic 386: Duty Calls.
• Eventually, Randall's fiancée's cancer, once diagnosed, monopolizes all of his emotions, leaving everything else insignificant in comparison. Only the romance can get back a little bit of room as time passes, and there is also an unknown part, which may represent the uncertainty in which Randall finds himself, or the fact that he feels lost at times, due to that cancer and what can happen in the future (see also comic 931: Lanes).

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Discussion

Damn. Well, she's still going strong. I suppose that's a good thing. Davidy²²[talk] 13:58, 8 January 2013 (UTC)

I was surprised nobody noted the big increase in romance around early 2009 -- presumably when Randall met his future wife? 108.162.212.30 11:18, 19 May 2014 (UTC)

My interpretation was just that "politics" peaked in 2008 (for the election), and then receded. Romance wasn't so much increasing as it was going back to its normal value. 173.245.52.110 19:07, 11 May 2015 (UTC)

I am concerned about the ending of Joss Whedon's influence. Didn't Randall like the Avengers at all? I will grant you that Nathon Fillion has not been in those movies, but there should be some response!--108.162.219.18 14:46, 20 May 2014 (UTC)

"This comic does not show any joke." Hm... I thought putting "people being wrong on the internet" as a major source of emotions was meant to be a joke...? I know this is a mostly serious comic, but saying that it doesn't have any jokes at all seems a bit inaccurate... Not sure though, so I'll just leave it. Just some random derp (talk) 02:11, 22 April 2015 (UTC)

I agree. Even if it was not meant to contain joke, I don't think it is important to point out, there are several xkcd strips that aren't meant to be funny and they don't all note it in the explanations here. Jaalenja (talk)

Okay, I edited it a little bit. How does that look? Just some random derp (talk) 22:51, 27 April 2015 (UTC)

Alas, mourn the death of the once mighty People Being Wrong on the Internet. -BlackSocks

2017: 100% politics, blended with people being wrong on the internet. PotatoGod (talk) 18:11, 22 September 2017 (UTC)

cancer sucks. An user who has no account yet (talk) 21:04, 5 September 2023 (UTC)

People being wrong on the internet is very tiny above cancer possibly meaning people being wrong about cancer 172.70.230.145 16:47, 10 February 2024 (UTC)