1052: Every Major's Terrible

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Every Major's Terrible

Title text: Someday I'll be the first to get a Ph. D in 'Undeclared'.

Explanation

This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect. If you see a way to improve it, edit it! Thanks.

The header refers to an satiric opera from the 19th century. Modern Major-General's Song is a patter song from Gilbert and Sullivan's 1879 comic opera The Pirates of Penzance. The song satirises the idea of the "modern" educated British Army officer of the latter 19th century. It is one of the most difficult patter songs to perform, due to the fast pace and tongue-twisting nature of the lyrics. Here's a YouTube video of "I Am the Very Model of A Modern Major's General" [1] for those who need to get the tune.

Major general is a military rank in many countries. Here's is Tom Lehrer's Elements.[2] And here is Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious from Mary Poppins.

The panels are showing a song, some sentences are going over two or more panels. The refrain is like this: "put me down as "undecided" - Every Major's Terrible".

In panel 4, Methyl acetate is the solvent used to remove stamps from their envelope.

In panel 8, underwater basket weaving is a commonly used metaphor for any college major that is easy or worthless.

In panel 25, supermoon and zodiac are terms invented not by astronomers, but rather by early astrologists.

In panel 26, agronomy is the science of using plants as food or fuel, while the unrelated agoraphobia is the fear of wide open spaces.

And Sophie's Choice is any dilemma where choosing one cherished person or thing over the other will result in the death or destruction of the other, derived from the theme of the novel, and has also been turned into a romantic drama film.

From the title text 'Undeclared' is sometimes called "General Studies".

Trivia

People of the SFU Choir have done renditions to this xkcd song. See SFU Choir - Every Major's Terrible. The transcription is also shown at the scenes, so it is more easy to understand the text.

Transcript

Every Major's Terrible

to the tune of Gilbert & Sullivan's

Modern Major-General Song

(Which you may know from Tom Lehrer's Elements. If not, just hum Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.)

Philosophy's just math sans rigor, sense, and practicality

and math's just physics unconstrained by precepts of reality.

A business major's just a thing you get so you can graduate

and chemistry's for stamp collectors high on methylacetate.

Why anyone who wants a job would study lit's a mystery

unless their only other choice were something like art history.

A ba in communications guarantees that you'll achieve

a little less than if you'd learned to underwater basket-weave

I'd rather eat a fowler's toad than major in biology, RIBBIT (a frog)

and social psych is worse than either psych or sociology.

The thought of picking any one of these is too unbearable.

Just put me down as "undecided" - Every Major's Terrible.

Now, if you can't prognosticate, that's ok in seismology,

but if your hindsight's weak as well, you'd best stick to theology.

CS will make each day a quest to find a missing close-paren.

Virology will guarantee you'll never get a hug again.

I.T. prepares you for a life of fighting with PCs nonstop.

As pratchett said, "Geography's just physics slowed with trees on top."

thought physics seems to promise you a Richard Feynman-like career,

the wiki page for "Physics Major" redirects to "Engineer."

They say to study history or find yourself repeating it,

but all that it prepares you for is forty years of teaching it.

I recognize my four-year plan's at this point not repairable,

but put me down as "undecided" - Every Major's Terrible.

Astronomers all cringe when they hear "Supermoon" or "Zodiac".

agronomy's a no-go; I'm a huge agorophobiac.

I'm too ophiophobic to consider herpetology,

and I can't stomach any part of gastroenterology.

While pre-med gives you twitchy-eyed obsession with your GPA,

a poetry degree bespeaks bewildering naivete.

TV's behind the rush into forensic criminology

(or so claims meta-academic epidemiology).

By dubbing ECON "Dismal science" adherents exaggerate;

the "Dismal"'s fine - it's "science" where they patently prevaricate.

In terms of choices, I'd say only sophie's was comparable.

Just put me down as "undecided" - Every Major's Terrible!

 add a comment!

Discussion

Panel 1's cueball is in the same pose as Rodin's "The Thinker"

Panel 4 background is the periodic table of elements.

Panel 5, Fowler's Toad emits a noxious secretion that irritates skin and mucous membranes (it was previously thought to cause warts)

Panel 6, Psychology = a serial killer with a chainsaw, Sociology = hobo; Social Psych = hobo serial killer with chainsaw.

Panel 15, LISP, Scheme, and other computer languages with an excess of parentheses.

Panel 16, biohazard symbol

Panel 19, bongos were played by Richard Feynman

Panel 27, fear of snakes, study of reptiles

Panel 28, a picture of a stomach, pun on "stomach" being slang for "tolerate"

Panel 30, words in all lowercase like e.e.cummings

-- 75.103.23.206 22:04, 7 December 2012‎

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In panel 22 (History), what's the theme connecting the years 1935, 1969, and 1991? Wwoods (talk) 15:40, 21 May 2013 (UTC)

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This explanation is very small for that big comic. I am starting to add the transcript and after that I will do more investigations to that opera. This should be the key to explain all the panels.--Dgbrt (talk) 19:13, 21 May 2013 (UTC)