explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2450: Post Vaccine Social Scheduling

2021-04-15T03:20:26Z

NixillUmbreon:

That third line down in the cartoon, shouldn't the first 2 be a 1? [[Special:Contributions/198.41.238.116|198.41.238.116]] 02:56, 15 April 2021 (UTC)
:Plus, should they really be going to a movie during their two weeks? [[User:NixillUmbreon|NixillUmbreon]] ([[User talk:NixillUmbreon|talk]]) 03:20, 15 April 2021 (UTC)

Talk:420: Jealousy

2019-03-03T17:07:05Z

NixillUmbreon:

I love this one, if only for the fact that it's arguably the coldest, bitterest humor of any XKCD strip. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.210|173.245.55.210]] 17:19, 13 December 2013 (UTC)

Coincidentally, I happened on nos. 420 "Jealousy" and 807 "Connected" consecutively while clicking through the random button on the XKCD site. Randall wouldn't mess with randomness, right? [[Special:Contributions/199.27.133.83|199.27.133.83]] 18:48, 4 January 2015 (UTC)Merek
:[[221: Random Number|Surely not.]] [[User:NixillUmbreon|NixillUmbreon]] ([[User talk:NixillUmbreon|talk]]) 17:07, 3 March 2019 (UTC)

Talk:241: Battle Room

2014-02-04T08:20:15Z

NixillUmbreon: Created page with "Should there be some sort of spoiler tag at the top of this explanation? ~~~~"

Should there be some sort of spoiler tag at the top of this explanation? [[User:NixillUmbreon|NixillUmbreon]] ([[User talk:NixillUmbreon|talk]]) 08:20, 4 February 2014 (UTC)

Talk:202: YouTube

2014-01-20T15:31:48Z

NixillUmbreon:

In the transcript, it says simpleplan2009's comment was posted 3 minutes ago. However, in the image, it clearly says 5 minutes. [[User:Caagr98|Caagr98]] ([[User talk:Caagr98|talk]]) 19:01, 17 April 2013 (UTC)
:I agree. In theory a 3 and a 5 could be hand-written to be hard to differentiate, but here it is clear. Changed. (And added the first line.) [[User:Markhurd|Mark Hurd]] ([[User talk:Markhurd|talk]]) 10:56, 19 April 2013 (UTC)
::Changed it back, as the actual transcript on the comic page (as seen in the webpage source, and upon which the comic searches are based) says "3". I've added the reasoning in the explanation. [[User:NixillUmbreon|NixillUmbreon]] ([[User talk:NixillUmbreon|talk]]) 15:31, 20 January 2014 (UTC)

On Gunpistolman's comment, is [http://www.phys.ufl.edu/~det/phy2060/heavyboots.html the heavy boots story] worth a mention? [[User:B jonas|B jonas]] ([[User talk:B jonas|talk]]) 16:31, 1 November 2013 (UTC)
:Not needing a mention in the explanation, but thank you for the link. Richard Feynman would be glowing in his grave at the state of science education in this country. {{unsigned ip|108.162.219.223}}

202: YouTube

2014-01-20T15:30:06Z

NixillUmbreon: Changed the transcript to reflect the one in the source of the comic's webpage. Added explanation of why to comic explanation text.

{{comic
| number = 202
| date = December 27, 2006
| title = YouTube
| image = youtube.png
| titletext = I pray GunPistolMan never learns the word 'sheeple'.
}}

==Explanation==

This comic is pointing out the fact that many of the comments on YouTube videos are insipid and poorly informed, being pointless arguments over some minor topic, or factually incorrect position.

In this case, the moon landing hoaxers are at the receiving end of [[Randall|Randall's]] pen.

The comment by ''bigmike133'' confuses the {{w|Space Shuttle}} (which was never capable of landing on the moon) with the {{w|Apollo Lunar Module}}.

The comment from ''GunPistolMan'' claims that the video is fake due to the mistaken belief that the moon would have no gravity, whereas in reality every object in the universe made of matter has gravity, including the Moon, comets, asteriods, moons of other planets and so on. The gravity of the Moon is approximately 1/6th the gravity of Earth..

{{w|Louis Armstrong}} was a famous jazz musician, who may have [http://lyrics.wikia.com/Louis_Armstrong:Moon_Song waxed] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5x8HnyIYHE lyrical] about the moon, but never went there. The ill-informed ''CrackMonkey74'' meant the astronaut {{w|Neil Armstrong}}. The dare to accuse Armstrong to his face may be a reference to an incident where moon-hoax conspiracy theorist {{w|Bart Sibrel}} confronted Buzz Aldrin and called him "a coward, and a liar, and a thief". Aldrin responded by punching Sibrel; Sibrel's attempt to bring charges was dismissed on the grounds that he had provoked Aldrin to the point where the punch was a justified response.

Finally, ''simpleplan2009'' presents the ludicrous position that the moon shot was faked by suggesting that the footage was filmed by actors on {{w|Mars}}, a planet that at its closest approach to Earth is over a hundred times farther away than the moon. Landing humans on Mars (much less landing enough people and equipment to set up a soundstage) is a feat that has still not been accomplished, and if it had been possible during the Apollo era, the landing on the moon would have been trivial task in comparison. In other words, why go through all the trouble of faking it, if doing it for real would have been no trouble at all?

The title text is the first reference to [[:Category:Sheeple|Sheeple]] which appeared a few more times in xkcd comics.

The reputation of YouTube comment threads as cesspools of abject stupidity and blatant trolling is revisited in [[481: Listen to Yourself]].

While the comic says that ''simpleplan2009'''s comment was "5 minutes ago", the transcript as seen in the comic's web page source says it was "3 minutes ago". The below transcript reflects the latter.

==Transcript==
:The Internet has always had loud dumb people, but I've never seen anything quite as bad as the people who comment on YouTube videos.
:[A YouTube comments page for a moon landing video.]
:Comments & Responses
:rocckir (48 minutes ago)
:this is so obviously faked its unbilevable, why r people so gullible??? morons
:bigmike133 (35 minutes ago)
:ive seen the space shuttle ass hole it definetly landed on the moon do some research...
:GunPistolMan (22 minutes ago)
:if it was real why is their gravity? americans r fucken sheep
:crackmonkey74 (17 minutes ago)
:u dont think we went to the moon why not tell louis armstrong to his face
:simpleplan2009 (3 minutes ago)
:it was a soundstage on mars

==Trivia==
*On August 25, 2012 Neil Armstrong passed away. He died at an age of 82.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:YouTube]]
[[Category:Internet]]
[[Category:Sheeple]]