Difference between revisions of "Talk:1212: Interstellar Memes"

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
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:Given that the closest one, "I'm on a boat," predates the first episode of MLP:FiM by more than a year (the brony phenomenon by even more), it's safe to say that ponies have not reached the nearest star yet. --[[Special:Contributions/24.145.230.202|24.145.230.202]] 04:42, 15 May 2013 (UTC)
 
:Given that the closest one, "I'm on a boat," predates the first episode of MLP:FiM by more than a year (the brony phenomenon by even more), it's safe to say that ponies have not reached the nearest star yet. --[[Special:Contributions/24.145.230.202|24.145.230.202]] 04:42, 15 May 2013 (UTC)
 
:: Agreed.  MLP:FIM premiered in October 2010.  The show will hit the Alpha Centauri system early 2015. [[User:Frijole|Frijole]] ([[User talk:Frijole|talk]]) 16:28, 15 May 2013 (UTC)
 
:: Agreed.  MLP:FIM premiered in October 2010.  The show will hit the Alpha Centauri system early 2015. [[User:Frijole|Frijole]] ([[User talk:Frijole|talk]]) 16:28, 15 May 2013 (UTC)
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::I didn't have the date/distance chart at the time of posting, and indeed didn't realize how much time had past since some of these became popular.  I feel much older with that in perspective.  [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 04:03, 17 May 2013 (UTC)
  
 
It would be great to have the distances (in light years) of the stars as a fourth column. This would also provide a chronological order. --[[Special:Contributions/84.75.61.103|84.75.61.103]] 08:06, 15 May 2013 (UTC)
 
It would be great to have the distances (in light years) of the stars as a fourth column. This would also provide a chronological order. --[[Special:Contributions/84.75.61.103|84.75.61.103]] 08:06, 15 May 2013 (UTC)
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Title text: "The strongest incentive we have to develop faster-than-light travel is that it would let us apologize in advance." Is this an error by Randall? Faster-than-light would work if that travel did start at the time of transmission of those memes. Actually all messages had arrive at their targets so only Time-Travel would help. Nevertheless both ideas are impossible.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 18:51, 16 May 2013 (UTC)
 
Title text: "The strongest incentive we have to develop faster-than-light travel is that it would let us apologize in advance." Is this an error by Randall? Faster-than-light would work if that travel did start at the time of transmission of those memes. Actually all messages had arrive at their targets so only Time-Travel would help. Nevertheless both ideas are impossible.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 18:51, 16 May 2013 (UTC)
 
:It's too late to apologize to the stars on this comic, but we could apologize to the ones farther out who have yet to be annoyed by us. --[[User:Druid816|Druid816]] ([[User talk:Druid816|talk]]) 21:45, 16 May 2013 (UTC)
 
:It's too late to apologize to the stars on this comic, but we could apologize to the ones farther out who have yet to be annoyed by us. --[[User:Druid816|Druid816]] ([[User talk:Druid816|talk]]) 21:45, 16 May 2013 (UTC)
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:We can also apologize for newer memes. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 04:03, 17 May 2013 (UTC)

Revision as of 04:03, 17 May 2013

I'm surprised ponies didn't make the list given how massively and completely they took over the Internet in recent years. Then again, xkcd hasn't made any mention of the phenomenon, which is pretty nice, I guess. 76.106.251.87 04:35, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

Given that the closest one, "I'm on a boat," predates the first episode of MLP:FiM by more than a year (the brony phenomenon by even more), it's safe to say that ponies have not reached the nearest star yet. --24.145.230.202 04:42, 15 May 2013 (UTC)
Agreed. MLP:FIM premiered in October 2010. The show will hit the Alpha Centauri system early 2015. Frijole (talk) 16:28, 15 May 2013 (UTC)
I didn't have the date/distance chart at the time of posting, and indeed didn't realize how much time had past since some of these became popular. I feel much older with that in perspective. 76.106.251.87 04:03, 17 May 2013 (UTC)

It would be great to have the distances (in light years) of the stars as a fourth column. This would also provide a chronological order. --84.75.61.103 08:06, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

If I look at the page source, there is no transcript this time... Kaa-ching (talk) 08:41, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

anyone else notice Sirius is getting the Bellatrix one? Xseo (talk) 08:49, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

Yeah, it was funny :D Zakator (talk) 10:55, 15 May 2013 (UTC)
Should this reference be mentioned? On the one hand, it is a spoiler, but on the other hand, a) we *are* here to explain the jokes, and b) the book is almost a decade old, so I'm pretty sure there's a statute of limitations involved here. Curtmack (talk) 14:56, 15 May 2013 (UTC)
It's also funny that Sirius is a character in Harry Potter books/films. Double joke? --Dangerkeith3000 (talk) 15:21, 15 May 2013 (UTC)
Sorta, but it's Rowling's joke, not Randall's. The entire Black family (except for Narcissa, who was named before her family ties were established) is named after objects in the sky. Sirius is the only one in range. Of the ones I can remember, Regulus is 77 ly away, Bellatrix is roughly 250 ly away, and Andromeda is an entirely separate galaxy. --Druid816 (talk) 21:43, 16 May 2013 (UTC)

If any civilization have nothing better to do that repeating our memes, there is no need to apologize to them: they will obviously be glad they have at least something. How many people on our planet are repeating memes from other civilizations? None. (The circles in crop doesn't count, they are not send by radio.) -- Hkmaly (talk) 08:51, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

Given that the Rick Astley one is on the same star as Portal, which came out in 2007, it's probably meant to refer to rickrolling (and thus the date should also be 2007 for that one). Zakator (talk) 10:55, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

All your base are belong to us didn't start as a meme in the 1970. I don't have precise data right now but I'm pretty sure it was 1997-99 when it first appeared on the internet. Also, what is the Sun doing? 195.32.50.126 11:14, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

1998 according to knowyourmeme. And I think the Sun is probably sending out all those radio waves for the aliens to listen to, or something? But I couldn't find an accurate way to portray it, so I just left it at that. Zakator (talk) 11:18, 15 May 2013 (UTC)
The map only shows stars, or rather star systems. We live in the sol system, where all these memes originate from, hence the sun is shown as the origin of the "radio waves". In the same fashion, these supposed aliens don't actually live on the stars themselves, but rather on planets (or maybe moons?) around the stars. --Buggz (talk) 11:49, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

In "Take me to your leader! - No, Steve", what is the "No, Steve" part referencing? The link currently is just for the "take me to your leader" part. 72.92.72.222 15:14, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

I thought that the "No, Steve" made it into an explicit reference to Newsboys album/song (Steve Taylor wrote the lyrics for it). But then, that's a song fron 1996, and it would not be consistent with distance, while 1953 makes more sense... 195.32.50.126 15:49, 15 May 2013 (UTC)
"Steve" is an alien. "Take me to your leader," is a meme which "Steve" has been repeating. It helps if you read it with a somewhat exasparated inflection.--108.28.112.92 18:47, 16 May 2013 (UTC)

If you order the list by distance, further stars should get memes from earlier times, but this is not always the case. I think that some of the memes deserve more investigation, namely: "Internets!", "You're the man now, dog" and "All your base are belong to us!". Sort the list by distance and it becomes immediately apparent what I mean. 195.32.50.126 15:54, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

"Internets" was from George W Bush but in 2004. internets meme--145.253.244.103 16:08, 15 May 2013 (UTC)
"You're the man now, dog" refers to a web site launched in 2001 which fits to the approx. 12 Lj.--Dgbrt (talk) 18:29, 15 May 2013 (UTC)
"All your base are belong to us!" should also belong to 2001. I found this wired.com which explains that the internet meme probably began in 2001. But I am not sure.--Dgbrt (talk) 18:37, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

Wouldn't "I'm on a boat!", as a popular and well-known meme known to the wider public, refer to the Old Spice commercial, rather than a song by the The Lonely Island? None of the few I spoke with had ever heard of the group, but all credited the quote to "the Old Spice guy". 67.51.59.66 17:56, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

I thought about this also before. But "I'm on a boat!" is the meme published by "The Lonely Island".--Dgbrt (talk) 18:02, 15 May 2013 (UTC)
>meme
>published
pick one Xseo (talk) 21:36, 15 May 2013 (UTC)
Old Spice Guy says "You're on a boat", and finishes with "I'm on a horse"[1]... "I'm on a boat" isn't quite right for OSG. --SurturZ (talk) 03:45, 16 May 2013 (UTC)
I sit corrected. 67.51.59.66 16:18, 16 May 2013 (UTC)

Title text: "The strongest incentive we have to develop faster-than-light travel is that it would let us apologize in advance." Is this an error by Randall? Faster-than-light would work if that travel did start at the time of transmission of those memes. Actually all messages had arrive at their targets so only Time-Travel would help. Nevertheless both ideas are impossible.--Dgbrt (talk) 18:51, 16 May 2013 (UTC)

It's too late to apologize to the stars on this comic, but we could apologize to the ones farther out who have yet to be annoyed by us. --Druid816 (talk) 21:45, 16 May 2013 (UTC)
We can also apologize for newer memes. 76.106.251.87 04:03, 17 May 2013 (UTC)