442: xkcd Loves the Discovery Channel

|< < Prev Comic #442 (June 27, 2008) Next > >|

xkcd Loves the Discovery Channel

Title text: I love the title-text!

Explanation

The transcript by Randall does a lot of the explanatory work here, as "[t]he comic is in parody of the Discovery Channel commercial showing various clips of people singing a song with the chorus line 'Boom De Yada'. The comic is divided into a grid of 4 by 6 panels, each depicting a character or situation from a previous XKCD strip. In each panel is written a part of a song similar to the song from the Discovery Channel commercial." What more needs to be said?

The campaign from the Discovery Channel was not called "Boom De Yada", but I Love The World. It's possible that the title "xkcd Loves the Discovery Channel" is in reference to that.

Transcript

[The comic is in parody of the Discovery Channel commercial showing various clips of people singing a song with the chorus line "Boom De Yada"]

[The comic is divided into a grid of 4 by 6 panels, each depicting a character or situation from a previous XKCD strip]

[In each panel is written a part of a song similar to the song from the Discovery Channel commercial]

Panel 1: (Reference Comic 162)

[woman spinning around]

I love momentum.

Panel 2: (Reference Comic 413)

[woman laying on floor tinkering with EEE PC hamster ball robot]

I love to engineer.

Panel 3: (Reference Comic 452)

[man with beret standing in bakery holding a loaf of bread in each hand, sign with "PIE!" in background]

I love this bakery!

Panel 4: (Reference Comic 239)

[man with goggles and red cape (Cory Doctorow) flying superman-style]

I love the blogosphere!

Panel 5: (Reference Comic 152)

[man running in large hamster ball]

I love the whole world

Panel 6: [depiction of internet sludge (4chan /b/-Random)]

And all its messed-up folks.

Panel 7: (Reference Comic 150)

[man and woman immersed in playpen balls]

Boom De Yada

Boom De Yada

Panel 8: [mass of playpen balls with speech "I put on my robe and wizard hat" originating from it]

Boom De Yada

Boom De Yada

Panel 9: (Reference Comic 72)

[black hat man taking gift away from kid with party hat]

I love your suffering.

Panel 10: (Reference Comic 153)

[diagram showing RSA fingerprint authentication between two people]

I love cryptography.

Panel 11: (Reference Comic 230)

[man and woman in bed covered by red sheet]

I love entangled sheets.

Panel 12: (Blag)

[man hanging from kite string holding camera]

And kite photography.

Panel 13: (Reference Comic 256)

[map of the internet]

I love the whole world

Panel 14: (Reference Comic 8)

[cube with red spider on top]

And all its mysteries.

Panel 15: (Reference Comic 303)

[two people sword-fighting on rolling office chairs]

Boom De Yada

Boom De Yada

Panel 16: (Reference Comic 263)

[class room with two students and female teacher]

Boom De Yada

Boom De Yada

Panel 17: [man saying "Barack me Obamadeus!" to another man speaking energetically at a podium]

I love elections.

Panel 18: [man holding schematic diagram depiction of transistor in front of his crotch]

I love transistors.

Panel 19: (Reference Comic 69)

[man and woman in bed, man saying "There must be taft slash fiction"]

I love weird pillow talk.

Panel 20: (Reference Comic 49, 279, 317)

[man speaking to woman]

I love your sister.

Panel 21: (Reference Comic 249)

[roller coaster with person in front car holding chess board and thinking about a move]

I love the whole world.

Panel 22: (Reference Comic 167)

[man with beret standing in the midst of leafless trees]

The future's pretty cool!

Panel 23: (Reference Comic 108)

[woman moving toward man by means of MC Hammer slide]

Boom De Yada

Boom De Yada

Panel 24: (Reference Comic 409)

[man and woman moving on electric skateboard]

Boom De Yada

Boom De Yada

 add a comment! ⋅  add a topic (use sparingly)! ⋅  refresh comments!

Discussion

I think that panel 9 actually is meant to be Black Hat giving the child a present and the lines around the gift suggesting that there is something moving around inside (likely alive and agitated) for the child to open and be mauled/harmed by.

• The transcript comes from Randall himself, and it says he's taking the present away. Blaisepascal (talk) 10:14, 22 August 2012 (UTC)

I was hoping it was a bobcat. 76.106.251.87 19:05, 10 May 2013 (UTC)

It definitely looks like its a present being taken away, and it fits the line better 172.71.151.98 05:04, 10 April 2023 (UTC)

Great! Now I have a targeted list of comics to add explanations for! Blaisepascal (talk) 10:14, 22 August 2012 (UTC)

To Dgbrt, "Links do not belong to the transcript, this needs to be fixed." I know I'm just a noob here, but if you're so sure of that, why didn't you remove them yourself? Isn't one of WikiMedia's pillars "Be Bold"? I personally see no problem, given the self-referential nature of this comic. Anonymous 07:53, 12 January 2014 (UTC)

This is not actually a WikiMedia site, but you're right that "Be Bold" is a wiki thing, in general. Nevertheless, in this case, the official transcript provided by Randall includes these references, so they might as well be wikilinked here. (In Dgbrt's defence, he (or she) may not have had the time to undo it himself (or herself).) Mark Hurd (talk) 12:12, 12 January 2014 (UTC)

No time was in fact my first reason; but on the other hand I didn't want to remove links without an section at the explain section. The links are not from the original transcript, it does only mention the references, and this belongs to the explain. The transcript is a transcript, not more. (even no time today for me on this...) --Dgbrt (talk) 22:26, 12 January 2014 (UTC)

A compelling argument. I'll take care of it. Anonymous. 18:18, 15 January 2014 (UTC)

Please remove next time only the links but not the text. --Dgbrt (talk) 22:23, 15 January 2014 (UTC)

Whoops. Sorry I misinterpreted. Anonymous 09:46, 21 January 2014 (UTC)

For panel 19, I have to point out: Everything r34 related isn't necessarily a reference to the comic about it. Just because it is related doesn't mean that he was specifically making a joke about a previous comic, as he is making a joke about r34 which he ALSO happened to make a joke about in another comic. If it referenced Wetriffs or something, THEN it would be a reference. 173.245.50.72 03:44, 25 July 2014 (UTC)

I love lamp. 162.158.126.46 13:44, 9 July 2019 (UTC)

The Discovery Channel song is itself a parody of a traditional children's song: I love the mountains I love the rolling hills I love the flowers I love the daffodils I love the fireside When all the lights are low Boom dee ah dah (Randall writes "boom de yada") Boom dee ah dah ......... Jsharpminor (talk) 16:07, 28 December 2019 (UTC)