Difference between revisions of "202: YouTube"

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
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The comment from ''GunPistolMan'' claims that the video is fake due to the mistaken belief that the moon would have no gravity, whereas the gravity is really approximately 1/6th G.
 
The comment from ''GunPistolMan'' claims that the video is fake due to the mistaken belief that the moon would have no gravity, whereas the gravity is really approximately 1/6th G.
  
{{w|Louis Armstrong}} was a famous jazz musician, who may have [http://lyrics.wikia.com/Louis_Armstrong:Moon_Song waxed] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5x8HnyIYHE lyrical] about the moon, but never went there. The ill-informed ''crackmonkey74'' meant the astronaut {{w|Neil Armstrong}}. The dare to accuse Armstrong to his face may be a reference to an incident where moon-hoax conspiracy theorist {{w|Bart Sibrel}} confronted Buzz Aldrin and called him "a coward, and a liar, and a thief". Aldrin responded by punching Sibrel; Sibrel's attempt to bring charges was dismissed on the grounds that he had provoked Aldrin to the point where the punch was a justified response.
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{{w|Louis Armstrong}} was a famous jazz musician, who may have [http://lyrics.wikia.com/Louis_Armstrong:Moon_Song waxed] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5x8HnyIYHE lyrical] about the moon, but never went there. The ill-informed ''CrackMonkey74'' meant the astronaut {{w|Neil Armstrong}}. The dare to accuse Armstrong to his face may be a reference to an incident where moon-hoax conspiracy theorist {{w|Bart Sibrel}} confronted Buzz Aldrin and called him "a coward, and a liar, and a thief". Aldrin responded by punching Sibrel; Sibrel's attempt to bring charges was dismissed on the grounds that he had provoked Aldrin to the point where the punch was a justified response.
  
 
Finally, ''simpleplan2009'' presents the ludicrous position that the moon shot was faked by suggesting that the footage was filmed by actors on {{w|Mars}}, a planet that at its closest approach to Earth is over a hundred times farther away than the moon. Landing humans on Mars (much less landing enough people and equipment to set up a soundstage) is a feat that has still not been accomplished, and if it had been possible during the Apollo era, the landing on the moon would have been trivial task in comparison. In other words, why go through all the trouble of faking it, if doing it for real would have been no trouble at all?
 
Finally, ''simpleplan2009'' presents the ludicrous position that the moon shot was faked by suggesting that the footage was filmed by actors on {{w|Mars}}, a planet that at its closest approach to Earth is over a hundred times farther away than the moon. Landing humans on Mars (much less landing enough people and equipment to set up a soundstage) is a feat that has still not been accomplished, and if it had been possible during the Apollo era, the landing on the moon would have been trivial task in comparison. In other words, why go through all the trouble of faking it, if doing it for real would have been no trouble at all?

Revision as of 21:29, 15 September 2013

YouTube
I pray GunPistolMan never learns the word 'sheeple'.
Title text: I pray GunPistolMan never learns the word 'sheeple'.

Explanation

This comic is pointing out the fact that many of the comments on YouTube videos are insipid and poorly informed, being pointless arguments over some minor topic, or factually incorrect position.

In this case, the moon landing hoaxers are at the receiving end of Randall's pen.

The comment by bigmike133 confuses the Space Shuttle (which was never capable of landing on the moon) with the Apollo Lunar Module.

The comment from GunPistolMan claims that the video is fake due to the mistaken belief that the moon would have no gravity, whereas the gravity is really approximately 1/6th G.

Louis Armstrong was a famous jazz musician, who may have waxed lyrical about the moon, but never went there. The ill-informed CrackMonkey74 meant the astronaut Neil Armstrong. The dare to accuse Armstrong to his face may be a reference to an incident where moon-hoax conspiracy theorist Bart Sibrel confronted Buzz Aldrin and called him "a coward, and a liar, and a thief". Aldrin responded by punching Sibrel; Sibrel's attempt to bring charges was dismissed on the grounds that he had provoked Aldrin to the point where the punch was a justified response.

Finally, simpleplan2009 presents the ludicrous position that the moon shot was faked by suggesting that the footage was filmed by actors on Mars, a planet that at its closest approach to Earth is over a hundred times farther away than the moon. Landing humans on Mars (much less landing enough people and equipment to set up a soundstage) is a feat that has still not been accomplished, and if it had been possible during the Apollo era, the landing on the moon would have been trivial task in comparison. In other words, why go through all the trouble of faking it, if doing it for real would have been no trouble at all?

The title text is the first reference to Sheeple which appeared a few more times in xkcd comics.

The reputation of YouTube comment threads as a cesspool of trolling and abject stupidity is revisited in 481: Listen to Yourself.

Transcript

The Internet has always had loud dumb people, but I've never seen anything quite as bad as the people who comment on YouTube videos.
[A YouTube comments page for a moon landing video.]
Comments & Responses
rocckir (48 minutes ago)
this is so obviously faked its unbilevable, why r people so gullible??? morons
bigmike133 (35 minutes ago)
ive seen the space shuttle ass hole it definetly landed on the moon do some research...
GunPistolMan (22 minutes ago)
if it was real why is their gravity? americans r fucken sheep
crackmonkey74 (17 minutes ago)
u dont think we went to the moon why not tell louis armstrong to his face
simpleplan2009 (5 minutes ago)
it was a soundstage on mars

Trivia

  • On August 25, 2012 Neil Armstrong passed away. He died at an age of 82.


comment.png add a comment! ⋅ comment.png add a topic (use sparingly)! ⋅ Icons-mini-action refresh blue.gif refresh comments!

Discussion

In the transcript, it says simpleplan2009's comment was posted 3 minutes ago. However, in the image, it clearly says 5 minutes. Caagr98 (talk) 19:01, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

I agree. In theory a 3 and a 5 could be hand-written to be hard to differentiate, but here it is clear. Changed. (And added the first line.) Mark Hurd (talk) 10:56, 19 April 2013 (UTC)
Changed it back, as the actual transcript on the comic page (as seen in the webpage source, and upon which the comic searches are based) says "3". I've added the reasoning in the explanation. NixillUmbreon (talk) 15:31, 20 January 2014 (UTC)
The image is the first source for the transcript here. Randall's transcript simply doesn't match the image.--Dgbrt (talk) 22:11, 20 January 2014 (UTC)

On Gunpistolman's comment, is the heavy boots story worth a mention? B jonas (talk) 16:31, 1 November 2013 (UTC)

Not needing a mention in the explanation, but thank you for the link. Richard Feynman would be glowing in his grave at the state of science education in this country. 108.162.219.223 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
Frankly, oh God that is TERRIBLE. The PHYSICS STUDENTS thought that light items float on the Moon but heavy things don't? That... That's worse than the Flat Earth Society! That's right, Jacky720 just signed this (talk | contribs) 23:17, 5 March 2018 (UTC)

The British sketch comedy TV show That Mitchell and Webb Look has an excellent Moon Landing Sketch with similar humor to this joke. Beolach (talk) 22:18, 31 March 2014 (UTC)

I think that it's possible the video is the Astronaut music video by Simple Plan. Led to believe it by the username simpleplan2009 108.162.216.124 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

American sheep are very offended by this. if sheep could read. --Dalonacueball (talk) 17:27, 24 March 2015 (UTC)


I'm with GradeAUnderA on this one... FOR YOUTUBE! http://www.prdaily.com/Uploads/Public/exclamation-mark-yelling.jpg FOR YOUTUBE FOR YOUTUBE FOR YOUTUBE. I'm way too much of a 'tuber

All of the comments in the comic are actual YouTube comments, taken from the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vml7pZJujF0 (although the usernames were changed, presumably to protect the stupid). Should that be mentioned in the description? HiddenWindshield (talk) 20:44, 19 July 2015 (UTC)

Might the last comment be in reference to the SMBC comic http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?id=120 (which came out a few years before this xkcd)? 108.162.215.104 20:44, 23 October 2015 (UTC)

The comic did not copy the YouTube video comments, rather the other way round. I updated the explanation to add this.Jojonete (talk) 23:29, 4 November 2015 (UTC)

Do we really need a citation for "humans haven't landed on Mars"? Seriously? --108.162.215.164 17:45, 27 June 2016 (UTC)

Citation needed is a recurring joke. 162.158.78.88 18:03, 16 March 2017 (UTC)

Since the very first time I read this panel, I have wished that the alt-text gave a reply to the 'Americans are Sheep' comment: "I did not have sexual relations with that sheep! -BillClintonPOTUS"172.68.54.127 03:56, 16 November 2016 (UTC) 172.68.54.127 03:53, 16 November 2016 (UTC)

I have observed that the Lunar Module in this comic looks like a butt. This is very important information. 162.158.126.88 09:41, 22 July 2019 (UTC)

As a frequent YouTube user, I can clarify that the comments have gotten better over the years. (Not sure about 4chan though.) ([[User talk: |talk]]) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

No. Just, no. PoolloverNathan[stalk the blue seas]UTSc 17:56, 19 March 2021 (UTC)

Would it make sense to list the specific grammar errors made in each comment? I think this is an important part of the joke 162.158.106.179 07:05, 2 September 2021 (UTC)