Editing 1511: Spice Girl

__NOTOC__
{{comic
| number    = 1511
| date      = April 13, 2015
| title     = Spice Girl 
| image     = spice_girl.png
| titletext = Haha, you'll see!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Anyone who can pinpoint a specific work with this scene in it?}}

This is a complex and challenging comic to understand, depending on the reader's familiarity with the {{w|Spice Girls}}, with quizzes about the Spice Girls, and with {{w|Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction|postapocalyptic}} {{w|dystopia|dystopian}} fiction.

===The Spice Girls===
The Spice Girls are a British pop girl group formed in 1994. It consists of five girls who each have a "spice girl" nickname. The five girls with their respective nicknames are:
*{{w|Mel B}} (MB) or "Scary Spice"
*{{w|Mel C}} (MC) or "Sporty Spice"
*{{w|Emma Bunton}} (Em) or "Baby Spice"
*{{w|Geri Halliwell}} (G) or "Ginger Spice"
*{{w|Victoria Beckham}} (V) or"Posh Spice"
The letter in parenthesis are relevant for the interpretation of the [[#The title text|title text]]

===The internet quiz===
This is one example of a trend of on-line quizzes that would "identify" the user with one person/personality of a group based on a series of personality questions. This will most often concern which member of a band, TV cast/film cast or character from books etc. the quizzer most resembles. In this comic it is specifically [[#Spice girl quizzes|Spice girl quizzes]] that are the subject.

In this comic, [[Randall]] is suggesting that in order to cope with, what he probably considers to be irritating {{w|clickbait}} links to these quizzes, he imagines the link titles as ''being shouted through a door in a postapocalyptic dystopia''. This is a reference to a trope in movies set in such postapocalyptic settings (which Randall presumably enjoys more) in which the heroes must determine whether an unknown agent is friend or foe, which in some such media occurs by shouting through locked doors. It is not likely that Randall would actually complete these quizzes, but if he did in this fantasy setting, the stakes would be higher and each answer would be fraught with dangerous meaning. It would thus also be much more fun taking the quiz and the result would seem to be important.

As can be seen, from the nicknames above, there is no Merciful Spice, and although Scary Spice may be the one you might at first associate with starting a war, that is not necessarily a reference to her. 
''[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SQYLHWo8TA The Merciful One]'' could be a reference to the song with the same name by {{w|Zohar (band)|Zohar}}, another British music ensemble. This song is very slow and easy compared to ''Wannabe''.

===Two interpretations===
There are two ways of interpreting this comic, as it is not initially fully clear whether the "speech line" in the comic is coming from [[Cueball]] or through the wall adjacent to him. It leads to two very different interpretations! 

====Speech lines in xkcd====
There is no discussion about the thumping on the door though.  Everybody agrees that there is someone outside the door who thumps on it.  The small lines on the door around the "speech line" for the Thump radiate in all directions. This type of line indicating that something comes through a wall has earlier been used for two people in a box in [[915: Connoisseur]]. 

However, the small radiating lines on the wall around the "speech line" for the shouting are less spread.  This has led to some disagreement as to whether the "Which are you" line is coming from outside the room (through the wall) or from Cueball. 

Speech that comes from on-screen characters is nearly always indicated without any radiating lines.  In [[1489: Fundamental Forces]] radiating lines are shown coming from someone on-screen speaking normally, but it only occurs once out of five though (vs. four out of four for those from off-screen characters in that comic) so this may be an unintentional inconsistency by Randall.

Speech that comes from off-screen is always(?) indicated with these radiating lines as can be seen in the aforementioned comic as well as in the last frame of [[1507: Metaball]] and twice in [[1493: Meeting]].

The problem in this comic is that the speech line stops near the wall (it does not go off-screen), it points to Cueball's head and it stops close to it.  Its distance from his face is similar to what Randall typically uses to indicate what a character is saying.  They are often drawn a little closer than that, but it is not uncommon that there are some distance.  So, absent the radiating lines, it would for sure look like Cueball was the one speaking.  

Since the radiating lines are there, one interpretation is that [[#The shout comes from outside|the shout is coming out of the wall]], just as the thumps are coming from the door. This would resemble when someone is speaking inside something. And sometimes radiating lines have been used to indicate from where the speech comes, as can be seen in [[1463: Altitude]] and in [[1458: Small Moon]]. However the [[915: Connoisseur]], mentioned above, goes against this. Since he already used the thumping technique to indicate sound coming through the door it could be argued that he would have done the same with the speech. But then again you could counter this by saying that the thumping is indicated differently because it is not coming through but from the door 

It is, however, also common for Randall to indicate shouting (and all agree that this line is shouted) with the same type of radiating lines. This can for instance bee seen when Megan shouts in [[1374: Urn]] and in [[1360: Old Files]]. So another equally valid interpretation is that it is [[#The shout comes from Cueball|Cueball who is shouting]].

====The shout comes from outside====
In this interpretation the four little lines from the speech line are only stopping near Cueball's, but is actually comming from (through) the wall to indicate that the question is shouted from outside.

This would then indicate that Megan is the Spice Girl (remember that Megan is not the same character from comic to comic so this is not a problem for this interpretation).

The quiz question is being shouted by an angry agent or crowd outside the door at a charged time during a postapocalyptic war. Cueball tries to protect "Megan Spice", who the crowd would be after. In case that she is The Merciful One there is not problem. But if she is the one that started this war they would like to apprehend her. 

In this case it looks like Megan does not have any intention of answering, and she is preparing for when the people outside break down the door by loading her shotgun to defend herself. The line from [[#The title text|the title text]] is said by the Megan Spice indicating that when they get through the door they will be in trouble.

====The shout comes from Cueball====
In this interpretation the four little lines from the speech line going to Cueball's indicate that he is shouting. 

Cueball is shouting the question '''through a door''' at a charged time during a postapocalyptic war, in order to make sure the one he lets in is not some evil person but a merciful one. In this comic, Megan is preparing for the worst by loading her shotgun, while a, possibly dangerous, Spice Girl is knocking on their door. The line from [[#The title text|the title text]] is said by the spice girl outside.

===The title text===
The title text refers to the [http://lyrics.wikia.com/Spice_Girls:Wannabe lyrics] from the Spice Girls' debut single, ''{{w|Wannabe (song)|Wannabe}}'' (Listen to ''[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJLIiF15wjQ Wannabe on YouTube]'') Here below is the relevant excerpt from the song where the letters in the last four lines refer to the spice girls [[#The Spice Girls|as given above]]. This rap {{w|bridge (music)|bridge}} is sung by Scary Spice except for the line with Easy V which is sung by Ginger Spice:
:So here's a story from A to Z,
:You wanna get with me You gotta listen carefully
:We got Em in the place who likes it in your face
:You got G like MC who likes it on an
:Easy V doesn't come for free, she's a real lady
:And as for me, '''ha ha, you'll see'''

These lyrics function as a little introduction to the (then) less-well-known girl group. The final line takes on a threat-like tone in this new context of the comic. And it doesn't help that it is Scary Spice who sings it.

The text may seem a little confusing to understand, especially the line that finishes ''on an''. According to another lyrics-site, which also has [http://genius.com/3134866 explanations] to some parts of the text, it means that G and MC likes it (sex) together with {{w|MDMA|ecstasy}} - as "On an E" is slang for being on ecstasy (see it used in this [https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090518130834AA0QdJD discussion]). They could not sing this directly without resulting in a PG rating, thus they inserted the "E" in the next line as '''E'''asy V, a line which is even sung by another spice girl, Ginger spice, where the rest of this bridge is sung by Scary spice.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is trying to barricade a door with his own body (although it already has a bar in front of it). He is in a room that is deteriorating with Megan who is loading a shotgun while sitting behind some sort of box.]
:Knocking on the door: '''Thump Thump'''
:Voice (see [[#Two interpretations|here]]): '''Which Spice Girl are you?!'''
:Voice (see [[#Two interpretations|here]]): The merciful one, or the one who started this war?

:[Caption below the frame:]
:'''When I see those quiz titles, I like to imagine they're'''
:'''being shouted through a door in a postapocalyptic dystopia.'''

==Spice girl quizzes==
*''What spice girl are you?'' quizzes
**[http://www.buzzfeed.com/lyapalater/which-spice-girl-are-you#.gbkv2p3jDX Buzzfeed]
**[http://www.zimbio.com/quiz/w-MjcRyEoFZ/Which+Spice+Girl+Are+You Zimbio]
**[http://www.brainfall.com/quizzes/which-spice-girl-are-you/ Brainfall]
**[http://www.gotoquiz.com/what_spice_girl_are_you GoToQuiz]
*Kidspot
**''[http://www.kidspot.com.au/the-spice-girls-and-10-other-mummy-types-you-might-know/ The Spice Girls and 10 other mummy types you might know];''  
**Baby Mummy, Sporty Mummy, Scary Mummy, Posh Mummy, Ginger Mummy and 10 others.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Music]]
[[Category:Songs]]