Difference between revisions of "Talk:1557: Ozymandias"

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
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:There's also:
 
:There's also:
 
::I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves, everybody's nerves, everybody's nerves,
 
::I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves, everybody's nerves, everybody's nerves,
::I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves and this is how it goes...[repeat]
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::I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves and this is how it goes...[repeat] {{unsigned ip|197.234.243.249}}
  
 
:''— [[User:Tbc|tbc]] ([[User talk:Tbc|talk]]) 12:34, 29 July 2015 (UTC)''
 
:''— [[User:Tbc|tbc]] ([[User talk:Tbc|talk]]) 12:34, 29 July 2015 (UTC)''

Revision as of 14:51, 29 July 2015

Look upon this comment and despair! 173.245.50.164 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

The fact that the true author of this comment may never be known is reason enough to despair.173.245.55.66 14:35, 29 July 2015 (UTC)

So... Planepacked? 173.245.50.145 05:44, 29 July 2015 (UTC)

The page seems to give a description, but not an explanation of the joke. I still don't get it! Why has Ozymandias been singled out for this treatment? Is there some way in which recursion is particularly appropriate or inappropriate in this case, or has it just been selected arbitrarily? Is the whole joke that recursion is inherently funny? Normally when recursion is used in XKCD it's making a larger point, or cleverly riffing on something in particular. This isn't just Describe XKCD, so I'd love to see an explanation of this comic. 141.101.99.47 09:35, 29 July 2015 (UTC)

May it be that Ozymandias is chosen because of Smith’s poem, where at last London has vanished, suggesting that Shelley’s poem is the last remains of British civilization? --162.158.91.193 10:04, 29 July 2015 (UTC)
I think Ozymandias was chosen because its opening is particularly famous. Even people who don't know much about poetry are often passingly familiar with it, and there's something funny about playing with well-known classics. And yes, I do believe the joke is that infinite recursion is inherently funny. There's a long tradition of these recursion-jokes among computer scientists and math people (like the "GNU" acronym, or recursive index references), with precedents in xkcd itself. Leoboiko (talk)

In Germany, we have a childrens’ song „Ein Mops kam in die Küche“, which translates as follows (there are slightly different versions, though):

A pug came into the kitchen / and stole an egg from the chef. / Then the chef took his knife / and mashed the pug. // Then many pugs came / to his grave / and set a memorial for him, / where these words were written: // “A pug came into the kitchen …”

Maybe something similar exists in English? --162.158.91.193 10:04, 29 July 2015 (UTC)

We have:
This is the song that doesn't end, / Yes, it goes on and on, my friend, / Some people started singing it not knowing what it was, / And they'll continue singing it / Forever, just because [repeat]
There's also:
I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves, everybody's nerves, everybody's nerves,
I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves and this is how it goes...[repeat] 197.234.243.249 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
tbc (talk) 12:34, 29 July 2015 (UTC)
In Dutch: "Het was nacht, stikdonkere nacht. Veertig rovers zaten rond een vuur. De roverhoofdman stond op een zei: "Het was nacht, stikdonkere nacht... " "
Which translates to something along the lines of: "It was night, a pitchblack night. 40 robbers sat round a fire, their leader stood up and said: "It was night, a pitchblack night..." "
Sometimes the fire is replaced by the shadow of a dandelion. "..Forty robbers sat in the shadow of a Dandelion, their Chief stood up and said: "It was a dark night, forty robbers sat in the shadow of a dandelion", etc. -- 141.101.104.67 13:01, 29 July 2015 (UTC)

Note that the recursion doesn't necessary be infinite. The list of travelers who met each other can have fixed length, for example 10. Imagining that the list is infinite is the joke. -- Hkmaly (talk) 10:06, 29 July 2015 (UTC)

Should we mention quines, which occur when lists like this end after two iterations, as "Yo, I'm MC Quine and I'm here to say/'Yo, I'm MC Quine and I'm here to say'!" -- FourViolas (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

This reminds me of Theodor Storm's "Schimmelreiter" ("The Rider on the White Horse") which descends through three nested levels of narrators before it comes to the real story. --ulm (talk) 13:56, 29 July 2015 (UTC)

One connection between recursion and Ozymandias is the phrase "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" aka "Who watches the watchmen?" and the character in The Watchmen named Ozymandias. 108.162.221.51 14:42, 29 July 2015 (UTC)