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| ::Fine, but in the SCUBA diver depiction, would it really need to rip parts out of itself to mimic bubbles? I don't think that that is quite necessary. {{unsigned ip|108.162.241.131}} | | ::Fine, but in the SCUBA diver depiction, would it really need to rip parts out of itself to mimic bubbles? I don't think that that is quite necessary. {{unsigned ip|108.162.241.131}} |
| :::It could also hypothetically mimic bubbles by *actually blowing bubbles*. (No word on how it does this.) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.30|108.162.216.30]] 02:36, 2 January 2016 (UTC)Anon | | :::It could also hypothetically mimic bubbles by *actually blowing bubbles*. (No word on how it does this.) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.30|108.162.216.30]] 02:36, 2 January 2016 (UTC)Anon |
− | ::::Simple: This is a 2D {{w|Tomography|cut-out}} of the octopus mimicking the fishes or the scuba '''in 3D'''. It assumes a very complex figure, so that in the cut-out we only see the 2D pictures above. {{unsigned ip|162.158.83.144}} | + | ::::Simple: This is a 2D {{w|Tomography|cut-out}} of the octopus mimicking the fishes or the scuba '''in 3D'''. It assumes a very complex figure, so that in the cut-out we only see the 2D pictures above. |
− | :i always thought it was just a point of humour in the absurdity that a single octopus could mimic a group of fish -- just the same as it is for a rather small creature to mimic a full-size submarine [[User:Eurydice|Eurydice]] ([[User talk:Eurydice|talk]]) 17:37, 31 December 2021 (UTC)
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| For the record, octopus is from the Greek ὀκτάπους, a compound of ὀκτά (eight) and πούς (foot); πούς is a third declension masculine noun, whose plural is πόδες. Therefore, the etymologically correct plural of octopus should be octopodes, not (as Orson Scott Card suggests) octopoda, since πούς is not a neuter. | | For the record, octopus is from the Greek ὀκτάπους, a compound of ὀκτά (eight) and πούς (foot); πούς is a third declension masculine noun, whose plural is πόδες. Therefore, the etymologically correct plural of octopus should be octopodes, not (as Orson Scott Card suggests) octopoda, since πούς is not a neuter. |
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| Has anyone checked to see if the title text is true? Whether it is or not, this should be added to the description. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.18|108.162.212.18]] 11:53, 16 October 2015 (UTC) | | Has anyone checked to see if the title text is true? Whether it is or not, this should be added to the description. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.18|108.162.212.18]] 11:53, 16 October 2015 (UTC) |
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− | What exactly is the pun here? [[Special:Contributions/199.27.133.78|199.27.133.78]] 00:53, 13 July 2016 (UTC)
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− | :I don't know, either!?! "''Too many'' octopuses"??? {{unsigned ip|108.162.237.172}}
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− | I had a very different impression of this comic when I first read it. I had never heard of a mimic octopus, and I assumed that the comic was making fun of calling a food dish "octopus" when it really wasn't. As in, a restaurant might feed you whatever they caught in a net and call it octopus, no matter how absurd it was. And if they ever did catch an octopus, they split it in two. Very cynical, but not nearly as cool. {{unsigned ip|108.162.246.115}}
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− | I believe the third fish silhouette is actually a [https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjo1rua25jSAhWJ1IMKHU3XCUUQFggcMAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FGrouper&usg=AFQjCNGCdz2_bYFBDimJvFpFdG8sju4ljw&sig2=2D3silMR1tstIRSBihTGPA grouper], not a tuna. Sorry, Charlie.--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.237|162.158.74.237]] 03:26, 18 February 2017 (UTC)
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− | I am not getting the "pun" of two mimic octopuses. Could anyone elaborate a little bit more? I never thought it as a pun, but rather implying that a mimic octopus, or any creature mirroring what it see, can only reveal its natural form by mimicking other mimic octopus. Though I think it makes sense, this is a bit different from other topics in xkcd, so I doubt it. 12:37, 22 August 2017 (UTC)
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− | I agree with the above comment. Where's the "pun"? "Two Mimic Octopuses" doesn't sound like any other phrase. Maybe, at a stretch, "too many octopuses"? Moreover I don't think "… which is the pun of this comic" makes sense in any way. Comics don't all have puns, and comics with puns aren't limited to one. Perhaps it's a typo for "the point of this comic" or something? I'm going to remove that clause in 24 hours unless someone comes up with a convincing justification. [[User:AmbroseChapel|AmbroseChapel]] ([[User talk:AmbroseChapel|talk]]) 02:05, 13 September 2017 (UTC)
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− | I am surprised that nobody mentioned the very similar mock identification charts such as [http://i.imgur.com/4ufx1.jpg this one] or [https://imgur.com/gallery/O5jlE7U that one]. Given the silhoutetted style of Randall's drawing, I'm pretty sure he had one or both in mind. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.105.204|141.101.105.204]] 15:36, 19 October 2017 (UTC)
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− | The (visual) pun is that the one image out of all of them that actually looks like it could be an octopus, is actually not a (single) octopus. See the identification charts in the comment above for similar concept. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.62.148|172.69.62.148]] 20:38, 11 October 2019 (UTC)
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− | Wait, they’re all mimic octopuses?
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− | Always has been.
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− | Is it possible that the second “unknown” figure is a coral grouper? (Link to image examples:(https://reefguide.org/indopac/pixhtml/coralgrouper9.html) It resembles an outline of some smaller examples. {{unsigned ip|172.69.195.112|04:43, 12 January 2024}}
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