133: The Raven
| The Raven |
 Title text: Yes, Eminem is wearing a sleeveless hoodie. What of it? |
Explanation
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This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: Please include the reason why this explanation is incomplete, like this: {{incomplete|reason}}If you can address this issue, please edit the page! Thanks. |
This comic is a take on the ambiguity of the word "rapping".
The title of the comic (and indeed the cited poem) is a reference to horror writer Edgar Allan Poe's book "The Raven". "Eminem" in the image text is a reference to the rapper Eminem, best known for his alter ego and 1999's record "The Slim Shady LP". Which explains the punchline: where the poem recites rapping as "to knock", Eminem would be rapping by "speaking or chanting rhyming lyrics".
Transcript
- [A door opens, revealing Eminem wearing a hoodie.]
- Once upon a midnight dreary while I pondered, weak and weary, over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore while i nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping as if someone gently rapping rapping at my chamber door...
- click
- creak
- Eminem: Yo.
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Rikthoff (talk) Date is definitely incorrect. Could someone fix that?
I must admit curiosity as to how you equated "rapping on a door" with "rape". "Rapping" as used in the poem means exactly what it says; to tap on the door. Electric doorbells didn't exist in the 1800s and people would announce their presence at your door by knocking (rapping) on it. It has nothing to do with rape.
- Agreed, and fixed. The original posting made the incorrect association of rapping (to knock or strike) with rape (originally to sieze or carry away, in addition to its more contemporary meaning) which was incorrectly described as "too force open"... but that's the nature of wikis: we all can post, and we all can correct. Thanks for pointing it out. -- IronyChef (talk) 14:26, 14 August 2012 (UTC)
Should it be mentioned that the actual poem says "as of someone gently rapping" rather than "as if"? -- 141.101.104.25 22:33, 21 February 2015 (UTC)
- I was about to say the same thing. A rare, uncorrected Randall error probably bears comment. 108.162.237.175
Is there any possible connection between the fact that in the original it was a raven, and now it's a white rapper, instead of a black one? 108.162.218.118 05:17, 12 May 2016 (UTC)
Should have been "as of someone gently rapping." Koro Neil (talk) 21:17, 27 December 2018 (UTC)
