Difference between revisions of "919: Tween Bromance"

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| titletext = Verbiage. Va-jay-jay. Irregardless.
 
| titletext = Verbiage. Va-jay-jay. Irregardless.
 
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==Explanation==
 
==Explanation==
{{incomplete|The title text should be mentioned at explain.}}
+
Apparently Randall hates some ridiculous neologisms. [[Cueball]] seems to be dictating a "Tween bromance" story or novel to [[Megan]], who is possibly typing it up. He is including all the words that get to Megan in a sequence including the final three words in the title text. Megan is just annoyed.
This comic is playing off the fact that people have words that drive them crazy or gross them out. In this comic, [[Cueball]] seems to be dictating a "tween bromance" story or novel to [[Megan]], who is possibly typing it up. Cueball is including all the words that get to Megan in a sequence (including the final 3 words in the title text). The 3 words in the title text are said after Megan says "STOP IT! STOP IT!"
 
  
Supplementary Explanation:  
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*"[http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Tween Tween]" means a pre-adolescent. Portmanteau of ''teen'' and ''between''.
 +
*"[http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bromance Bromance]" means a close non-sexual friendship between two males. Portmanteau of ''brother'' and ''romance''.
 +
*"[http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=guesstimate Guesstimate]" means an estimate made with very little information. Portmanteau of ''guess'' and ''estimate''.
 +
*"[http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=frenemy Frenemy]" means a mixture of a friend and a rival. Portmanteau of ''friend'' and ''enemy''.
 +
*"[http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=yiff Yiff]" is a word invented by the {{w|furry community}}, derived from the sound a fox makes during mating.
 +
*"{{Wiktionary|moist}}" is an ordinary word, but one that many people find mildly creepy. Especially in this context.
 +
*"[http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=taint Taint]" is the part between the genitals and the anus (perineum) in slang.
 +
*"[http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=preggers Preggers]" a slang term for being pregnant.
 +
*"{{Wiktionary|verbiage}}" is a fairly new usage of an older word, meaning too many words used to explain a subject.
 +
*"[http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=va-jay-jay Va-jay-jay]" /vəˈjājā/ IPA /vəˈdʒeɪdʒeɪ/ is just a way of saying "vagina".
 +
*"[http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Irregardless Irregardless]" is a {{w|solecism}}. [http://www.merriam-webster.com/video/0037-irregardless.htm Or perhaps this portmanteau.]
  
Cueball's sentence is packed with words that are known irritants. Virtually every noun, adjective and adverb in his sentence is a well-known "irritating word." Cueball has constructed a complete, coherent sentence using only those words. The title of the comic, "Tween Bromance," provides two more "irritating words." Megan begins to react halfway through Cueball's sentence, and breaks down at the end, finally not able to take any more. The joke is that of {{w|Schadenfreude}}, since Cueball knows these words irritate Megan, and has created a sentence designed to pique her irritation to the maximum.
+
Like this comic fills a sentence with (gross) neologisms, [[550: Density]] crams a sentence with memes.
 
 
Her reaction is not unreasonable.
 
 
 
Tween: A contraction of "in-between," as in, between childhood and adolescence. This term refers to children between the ages of 10 and 12 or so. People hate this word because kids aged 10 to 12 should be called "kids." There is no reason to call them something else.
 
 
 
Bromance: A portmanteau of "Bro" (itself a slang term) meaning a close personal ally, and "romance," depicting a strong bond between two men without any implied sexual component. People hate this word because it cuts both ways: it connotes a homosexual relationship, but that is not part of the relationship type it describes.
 
 
 
Guesstimate: A portmanteau of "guess" and "estimate."  People hate this word because it improperly interpolates two conflicting terms. A guess can be pulled out of thin air; an estimate must rely on some kind of measurable quantity to be estimated. Thus, "Guesstimate," to most people, means, "I don't know what I'm talking about, but I want you to pretend I do."
 
 
 
Frenemy: A portmanteau of "Friend" and "Enemy." People hate this word because there is never a reason to use it. You might refer to an acquaintance as a friend, or as an enemy, or as neither one; but you would never refer to them as a frenemy. In The Godfather II, Michael Corleone said, "Keep your friends close. Keep your enemies closer." He was talking about frenemies, in a concrete and specific way. You know what he didn't say? Frenemy. You know why? Because it's a stupid word.
 
 
 
Yiffed: I've been doing this "people hate this word because" thing, and so far I think it's worked. But "yiff" is not a word people hate, mostly because they have never heard of it. It refers to a sexual practice among furries. Googling the sexual practices of furries is left as an exercise for the reader.
 
 
 
So Hard: This is an adverb that in itself is not creepy, but in context becomes creepy. On its face, it is a generic intensifier like "really" or "literally." But it's kind of out there, socio-linguistically. For example, "I love you" is fine. "I really love you" is also fine, if a bit desperate. "I love you so hard" is creepy. On the other hand, "My men have been working so hard, they deserve a break," has no creepiness to it at all. So we toss our hats to the wind on this one.
 
 
 
Moist: This is one of the most-hated words in the English language. No one knows why. The comments section is down there, go nuts.
 
 
 
Taint: The reference is to the perineum, the small patch of skin between the genitals and the anus. People hate this word for several reasons. Some hate it because it has to do with a body part they'd rather not think about. Some hate it because it identifies that part incorrectly, and unscientifically. Others hate it because it implies that biologists have nothing better to do with their time than come up with Anglo-Saxon terms to define body parts. It doesn't matter; the word "taint" here is meant to make you crinkle your nose, and that's all.
 
 
 
Panties: Womens' underwear. Like "Moist," this word is a target of hate, without a clear reason.
 
 
 
Preggers: A euphemism for "pregnant." This term is undesirable on its face because a slang term ought naturally take less time than the word it's standing in for. "Pregnant" and "Preggers" have the same number of syllables, so why have it?
 
 
 
The title text gives a few more examples of words that "twitch" people, like Megan.
 
 
 
Verbiage: No one wants to have their text referred to as "verbiage," (because no one will read it). Also, no one wants to read "verbiage," (because it's a waste of time).
 
 
 
Va-Jay-Jay: A jocular reference to the vagina. Pause for big laughs.
 
 
 
Irregardless: Not the worst offender, grammar-wise, but the one everyone knows about from Saturday Night Live.
 
  
 
==Transcript==
 
==Transcript==
Line 57: Line 35:
 
:Cueball: her panties preggers!
 
:Cueball: her panties preggers!
 
:Megan: ''STOP IT STOP IT!''
 
:Megan: ''STOP IT STOP IT!''
 
==Trivia==
 
*Like this comic fills a sentence with (gross) neologisms, [[550: Density]] crams a sentence with memes.
 
*The first four words are {{w|portmanteaus}}:
 
**“[http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Tween Tween]” means a pre-adolescent.
 
**“[http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bromance Bromance]” means a close non-sexual friendship between two males.
 
**“[http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=guesstimate Guesstimate]” means an estimate made with very little information.
 
**“[http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=frenemy Frenemy]” means a mixture of a friend and a rival.
 
*“[http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=yiff Yiff]” is a word invented by the {{w|furry community}}, derived from the sound a fox makes during mating.
 
*"{{Wiktionary|moist}}" is an ordinary word, but one that many people find mildly creepy. Especially in this context.
 
*“[http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=taint Taint]” is the part between the genitals and the anus in slang.
 
*“[http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=preggers Preggers]” a slang term for being pregnant.
 
*“{{Wiktionary|verbiage}}” is a fairly new usage of an older word, meaning too many words used to explain a subject.
 
*“[http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=va-jay-jay Va-jay-jay]” is just a way of saying “vagina”.
 
*“[http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Irregardless Irregardless]” is a {{w|solecism}}.[http://www.merriam-webster.com/video/0037-irregardless.htm Or perhaps this portmanteau.]
 
  
 
{{comic discussion}}
 
{{comic discussion}}

Revision as of 15:21, 22 May 2014

Tween Bromance
Verbiage. Va-jay-jay. Irregardless.
Title text: Verbiage. Va-jay-jay. Irregardless.

Explanation

Apparently Randall hates some ridiculous neologisms. Cueball seems to be dictating a "Tween bromance" story or novel to Megan, who is possibly typing it up. He is including all the words that get to Megan in a sequence including the final three words in the title text. Megan is just annoyed.

  • "Tween" means a pre-adolescent. Portmanteau of teen and between.
  • "Bromance" means a close non-sexual friendship between two males. Portmanteau of brother and romance.
  • "Guesstimate" means an estimate made with very little information. Portmanteau of guess and estimate.
  • "Frenemy" means a mixture of a friend and a rival. Portmanteau of friend and enemy.
  • "Yiff" is a word invented by the furry community, derived from the sound a fox makes during mating.
  • "moist" is an ordinary word, but one that many people find mildly creepy. Especially in this context.
  • "Taint" is the part between the genitals and the anus (perineum) in slang.
  • "Preggers" a slang term for being pregnant.
  • "verbiage" is a fairly new usage of an older word, meaning too many words used to explain a subject.
  • "Va-jay-jay" /vəˈjājā/ IPA /vəˈdʒeɪdʒeɪ/ is just a way of saying "vagina".
  • "Irregardless" is a solecism. Or perhaps this portmanteau.

Like this comic fills a sentence with (gross) neologisms, 550: Density crams a sentence with memes.

Transcript

[All of Cueball's lines are overlaid over the entire comic; the panels listed are merely the ones directly under each sentence fragment.]
[Cueball is standing smugly behind Megan, who is seated in front of a computer and typing.]
Cueball: By my guesstimate,
Cueball: my frenemy yiffed so hard
Cueball: her moist taint made
[Megan's eye twitches.]
Cueball: her panties preggers!
Megan: STOP IT STOP IT!


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Discussion

Language elitist. Davidy²²[talk] 09:26, 9 March 2013 (UTC)

I think this needs an incomplete flag: the explanation needs more contextual detail, about colloquial portmanteaus like 'frenemy' and the common disapproval of 'words' like 'irregardless'. --Mynotoar (talk) 08:59, 9 February 2014 (UTC)

GAH! He's not DICTATING, the title is another joke! Tween? Bromance? Come on fellas and ladies. They are the first two portmanteaus! Cueball is essentially spitting out a sentence with an endless stream of irritating, inane, infintilisms, in an incredibly insensitive, lol, effort to drive Megan to the brink of insanity! Couldn't resist that last one. Yiffed made me giggle, the rest, connected to it, made my abs hurt from laughing, especially after Megan's reaction. He deserves a medal. Oh goodness. No profile so please don't use my IP address to violate me via the Internetz, if that is possible to do with an IP address. I would not know. Grazie. 173.245.55.84 09:32, 22 February 2014 (UTC)

I'm not anybody here, I was just passing by and enjoying the annotations on these xkcd comics, but it seems to me like no explanation of this comic would be complete without talking about word aversion, sometimes called "the moist panties phenomenon", if someone wants to be funny. Basically, he is listing words that make people (or Randall himself?) uncomfortable. This page --- http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004835.html -- talks about word aversion in relation to the more common "word rage" that some neologisms and words that began as errors provoke. 108.162.237.192 08:52, 22 August 2014 (UTC)

The back of the chair is missing in the first frame. Probably just a mistake but didn't see it mentioned. 108.162.216.33 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Just a question: tween really is PRE-adolescent?? I always thought it was the equivalent of ten -> teen for twenty, so someone out of their teens, but in their (presumably early) twenties. I definitely have seen it used as such on different occasions, but it might have been by non-native speakers, as I am not living in an english-speaking country. Also, in my opinion, the rest of the comic has more of a twenty-somethings-who-never-came-out-of-puberty ring to it than a child's. 162.158.85.69 19:41, 30 August 2016 (UTC)

2 minutes ago I thought the same. I definitely saw that usage as an anglicism in German somewhere. However a quick google search proved, that the definition given here (children aged ~9-12) seems to be the actual one. --Lupo (talk) 08:56, 8 January 2020 (UTC)
I think there are two parallel usages in play. I'm not a native speaker, but "tweens" is used by Tolkien in the Lord of the rings for the twenties in hobbits, who are only considered adult in their early thirties. Any usage derived from this probably refers to the early twenties. The books (and later the films) are a staple of popular culture around the world, so that slipping into a current vocabulary would not surprise me. Wether it was redefined to mean another age group by someone not familiar with the story or reinvented via a different etymology is a mystery to me. Definitely confused me the first time I read it somewhere with the other meaning. 162.158.154.139 10:45, 27 March 2020 (UTC)

By my understanding, a "tween" is someone aged (roughly) 10-12, i.e. somewhere "between" early childhood and teenager-hood. 108.162.215.118 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Oh, so one should stop searching for "tween porn"? 198.41.242.119 13:42, 22 December 2021 (UTC)

It seems the link to the "portmanteau" changed. Perhaps an archive copy can be found? 172.70.147.131 18:18, 8 August 2022 (UTC)

Why is this in furries category!? Moderator (talk) 23:11, 5 February 2024 (UTC)

Nevermind Moderator (talk) 23:11, 5 February 2024 (UTC)

updated for the new generation: "By my sigma grindset, my oomfie rizzed so hard her moist gyatt made her skibidi in Ohio!" Arthur101 (talk) 15:48, 3 March 2024 (UTC)