explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:1627: Woosh

2016-01-08T08:41:59Z

162.158.153.131:

Looking for a joke that isn't there sounds a lot like [http://xkcd.com/559 xkcd.com/559]. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.2.140|162.158.2.140]] 05:43, 8 January 2016 (UTC)
Woooosh! [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.181|108.162.245.181]] 05:48, 8 January 2016 (UTC)

Woosh

'''Woof''' ''(Guess my bot still needs some work)'' [[Special:Contributions/162.158.153.131|162.158.153.131]] 08:41, 8 January 2016 (UTC)

If it was a joke video that was never meant to be real to begin with and the commenter didn't realize this, then woosh would actually make sense [[User:Figvh|Figvh]] ([[User talk:Figvh|talk]])

1607: Supreme Court

2015-11-23T10:46:30Z

162.158.153.131: Added link to golden mean fallacy on wikipedia

{{comic
| number = 1607
| date = November 23, 2015
| title = Supreme Court
| image = supreme_court.png
| titletext = Writing for the majority, Justice Kennedy called the man's arguments that he could be either Alito or Ginsburg "surprisingly compelling, but ultimately unconvincing."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Most rudimentary possible explanation, along with transcript. Not sure who the person is, though.}}

The {{w|Supreme Court of the United States}} is the highest judiciary body in the United States. Its decisions, along with the opinions of its justices, are often in the news, as in the case here. However, the Supreme Court has only nine members. Thus, a ruling that passed 9-1 would indicate that an additional justice sneaked in to the court. The other nine justices know that, and make it clear that this tenth justice does not belong. Or at least he doesn't belong today. While the size of the Supreme Court has been nine justices since 1869, from 1863 to 1866, there were ten justices on the Supreme Court.

The identity of this person is not known either to the reader or to the actual justices, and neither is the reason that their "vote" was counted. Justice Kennedy is known for being a moderate who is usually the swing vote in 5-4 decisions, which means that his vote can decide the outcome of the case. The joke in the alt text is that he is weighing the arguments of both sides even though the non-justice is clearly not a justice and would not be allowed to make an argument if he were. The fictional Kennedy is committing the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argument_to_moderation Golden Mean Fallacy], also seen in [[690: Semicontrolled Demolition]], and makes the same jab at that fallacy. Sometimes, the views of the two sides are mutually exclusive, or the other side is just wrong. There is also a second joke in the alt text, that the man is claiming to be Justice Ginsburg, who is female.

==Transcript==
:[A female newscaster with long blond hair is sitting at her desk with a small image of scales shown to her left.]
:Newscaster: Breaking news: The Supreme Court has ruled 9-1 that they don't know who this guy is or how he got in here, but he's definitely ''not'' a justice.

{{comic discussion}}

641: Free

2015-11-12T05:36:00Z

162.158.153.131: Fix link to comic 993

{{comic
| number = 641
| date = September 25, 2009
| title = Free
| image = free.png
| titletext = Asbestos is bad; definitely get the one on the right. Wait -- this one over here has no swine flu! Now I can't decide.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Asbestos}} is a fibrous material most commonly used for its heat-resistant properties. It was commonly used in housing insulation until its astonishingly destructive effects on human lungs were known. The use of asbestos in housing is now banned, but it is still quite common in laboratory hot pads, as well as in concrete industrial buildings where the risk of it getting into the air is minimal.

The comic depicts a common advertising trick taken to an absurd extreme; quite clearly all of the cereal products depicted are asbestos-free, but most have opted not to advertise the fact because it should be obvious. A more realistic example can be found in {{w|Confectionery|confectionery}} products, wherein the term "fat free" might be applied when it's clear that sugar, gelatin, and other ingredients involved in the product are in no way related to, or contain, fat.

Ironically, the "asbestos-free" disclaimer could also cause a customer to ''distrust'' the product on the grounds of {{w|Damning with faint praise|damning by faint praise}} - if the best thing they can say about a product is that it doesn't contain a toxic building material, do we really want to know what actually ''is'' in this stuff?

The claim in the title text - that the product has no {{w|swine flu}} - is equally superfluous, as any food product containing disease-causing viruses would be subject to recalls, severe fines, and quite a few people losing their jobs; the fact that the product is actually on a supermarket shelf implies that it already has a stellar reputation for not causing serious illness.

[http://ghostbusters.wikia.com/wiki/Stay_Puft_Marshmallows Stay Puft] is also the company that produces marshmallows in the movie franchise [[wikipedia:Ghostbusters_%28franchise%29| Ghostbusters]].

[http://redfarmnyc.com/ RedFarm] is a Chinese restaurant in NYC.

Misleading advertising is also the subject of the previous comic [[624: Branding]], and of subsequent comics [[870: Advertising]] and [[993: Brand Identity]].

==Transcript==
:[A shelf holds 3 boxes of cereal. Each box shows a bowl of cereal.]
:GenCo Ⓞat Cereal
:StayPuft Oat Cereal
:RedFarm Oat Cereal (with additional text in a star) Asbestos-free!
:I hate whatever marketer first realized you could do this.

{{comic discussion}}