Editing 1511: Spice Girl

{{comic
| number    = 1511
| date      = April 13, 2015
| title     = Spice Girl 
| image     = spice_girl.png
| titletext = Haha, you'll see!
}}

<div class="toclimit-3" style="float:right; margin-left: 10px;">__TOC__</div>
==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Links to a specific quiz with this question in it, and a specific work with this scene in it, would be really helpful}}

This is a challenging comic, depending on the reader's familiarity with the {{w|Spice Girls}}, with quizzes about the Spice Girls, and with {{w|Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction|postapocalyptic}} {{w|dystopia|dystopian}} fiction.

===The Spice Girls===
The Spice Girls are a British pop girl group formed in 1994. It consists of five girls who each have a "spice girl" nickname. The five girls with their respective nicknames are:
*{{w|Mel B}} (MB) or "Scary Spice"
*{{w|Mel C}} (MC) or "Sporty Spice"
*{{w|Emma Bunton}} (Em) or "Baby Spice"
*{{w|Geri Halliwell}} (G) or "Ginger Spice"
*{{w|Victoria Beckham}} (V) or"Posh Spice"
The letter in parenthesis are relevant for the interpretation of the [[#The title text|title text]]

===The internet quiz===
This is one example of a trend of on-line quizzes that would "identify" the user with one person/personality of a group based on a series of personality questions. This will most often concern which member of a band, TV cast/film cast or character from books etc. the quizzer most resembles. In this comic it is specifically [[#Spice girl quizzes|Spice girl quizzes]] that are the subject.

In this comic, [[Randall]] is suggesting that in order to cope with, what he probably considers to be irritating {{w|clickbait}} links to these quizzes, he imagines the link titles as ''being shouted through a door in a in a postapocalyptic dystopia''. This is a reference to a trope in movies set in such postapocalyptic settings (which Randall presumably enjoys more) in which the heroes must determine whether an unknown agent is friend or foe, which in some such media occurs by shouting through locked doors. It is not likely that Randall would actually complete these quizzes, but if he did in this fantasy setting, the stakes would be higher and each answer would be fraught with dangerous meaning. It would thus also be much more fun taking the quiz and the result would seem to be important.

As can be seen, from the nicknames above, there is no Merciful Spice, and although Scary Spice may be the one you might at first associate with starting a war, that is not necessarily a reference to her. 
''[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SQYLHWo8TA The Merciful One]'' could be a reference to the song with the same name by {{w|Zohar (band)|Zohar}}, another British music ensemble. This song is very slow and easy compared to ''Wannabe''.

===Two interpretations===
There are two ways of interpreting this comic, as it is not initially fully clear whether the "speech line" in the comic is coming from [[Cueball]] or through the wall adjacent to him. It leads to two very different interpretations! 

====Speech lines in xkcd====
There is no discussion about the thumping on the door though. Everybody agrees that there is someone outside the door who thumps on it. The small lines on the door around where the "speech line" for the Thump is emanating from the door is different from the one from the shouting. They are in all directions.

It is, however, not clear from the drawing whether the four small lines (which are all going in to the room) starting the speech line with the shouting, are coming from the wall (not the door) or from Cueball. 

In most comics there is no such lines when people speech normally. As an example just look at the previous comic: [[1510: Napoleon]]. However, you only need to go back to [[1489: Fundamental Forces]] to see these lines coming from someone speaking normally (it only occurs once out of four though, vs. four out of four for those that speech off-screen in that comic. Maybe a mistake here?).

Speech that comes off-screen is always(?) indicated with these lines as can be seen in the last frame of [[1507: Metaball]] or two times in [[1493: Meeting]]. However, in this comic the speech line is clearly not a line that comes off-screen.

The problem comes from the fact that the speech line is drawn very close to Cueball's head. It is almost exactly the same distance from his face as is the case with the first speech line for the officer in the previous comic. They are often drawn a little closer than that, but it is not uncommon that there are some distance. In the other interpretation, however, the lines would indicate the shout as coming out of the wall, just as the thumps are coming from the door. 

On one hand the lines could indicate '''that Cueball is shouting'''. Then he do shout these quiz questions through the door as mentioned in the caption. Supporting this interpretation is the fact that  when Megan shouts in [[1374: Urn]] and [[1360: Old Files]] it is indicated like this. Also in [[1393: Timeghost]] [[Megan]] shouts two times with these lines indicating this. In the case where Megan (and Cueball) do not shout there are no lines. The Timeghost has these lines every time it speaks, but this may because it is either a ghost (has no mouth) or because it is shouting. (Also there is a case of off-screen speak here with these lines). 

On the other hand the lines could indicate '''that the speech is coming off the wall''', so the shouting is coming through the wall. That is a problem with this theory, since the line should then have been connecting through the door to make it fit better with the caption. Supporting this interpretation is the fact that when someone is speaking inside something these kind of lines is used to indicate from where the speech is, as can be seen in three different cases in [[1463: Altitude]] as well as in [[1458: Small Moon]].

On top of all this these lines can sometimes be used to indicate typing on a PC as in [[1454: Done]] or speaking from a TV program as in [[1435: Presidential Alert]]. This is not always the case see for instance [[1387: Clumsy Foreshadowing]]. It is also used when people speak through a mask as in [[1424: En Garde]] or when it is a thing that speaks as in [[1378: Turbine]].

All the above is mentioned to make it clear that the lines can be used in several different way, and it is thus not possible to determine the correct interpretation based on previous comics! Thus below are given the interpretation of the comic under these two different scenarios.

====The shout comes from Cueball====
In this interpretation the four little lines from the speech line going to Cueball's indicate that he is shouting. 

Cueball is shouting the question '''through a door''' at a charged time during a postapocalyptic war, in order to make sure the one he lets in is not some evil person but a merciful one. In this comic, Megan is preparing for the worst by loading her shotgun, while a, possibly dangerous, Spice Girl is knocking on their door. The line from [[#The title text|the title text]] is said by the spice girl outside.

====The shout comes from outside====
In this interpretation the four little lines from the speech line are only stopping near Cueball's, but is actually comming from (through) the wall to indicate that the question is shouted from outside.

This would then indicate that Megan is the Spice Girl (remember that Megan is not the same character from comic to comic so this is not a problem for this interpretation).

The quiz questions is being shouted by an angry agent or crowd outside the door at a charged time during a postapocalyptic war. Cueball tries to protect "Megan Spice", who the crowd would be after. In case that she is The Merciful One there is not problem. But if she is the one that started this war they would like to apprehend her. 

In this case it looks like Megan do not have any intention of answering and she is preparing for when the people outside breaks down the door, by loading her shotgun defend her self. The line from [[#The title text|the title text]] is said by the Megan Spice indicating that when they get through the door they will be in trouble.

===The title text===
The title text refers to the [http://lyrics.wikia.com/Spice_Girls:Wannabe lyrics] from the Spice Girls' debut single, ''{{w|Wannabe (song)|Wannabe}}'' (Listen to ''[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJLIiF15wjQ Wannabe on YouTube]'') Here below is the relevant excerpt from the song where the letters in the last four lines refer to the spice girls as given above. This rap {{w|bridge (music)|bridge}} is sung by Scary Spice except for the line with Easy V which is sung by Ginger Spice:
:So here's a story from A to Z,
:You wanna get with me You gotta listen carefully
:We got Em in the place who likes it in your face
:You got G like MC who likes it on an
:Easy V doesn't come for free, she's a real lady
:And as for me, '''ha ha, you'll see'''

These lyrics function as a little introduction to the then less well known girl group. The final line takes on a threat-like tone in this new context of the comic. And it doesn't help that it is Scary Spice who sings it.

The text may seem a little confusing to understand, especially the line that finishes ''on an''. According to another lyrics-site, which also has [http://genius.com/3134866 explanations] to some parts of the text, it means that G and MC likes it (sex) together with {{w|MDMA|ecstasy}} - as "On an E" is slang for being on ecstasy (see it used in this [https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090518130834AA0QdJD discussion]). They could not sing this directly without resulting in a PG rating, thus they inserted the "E" in the next line as '''E'''asy V, a line which is even sung by another spice girl, Ginger spice, where the rest of this {{w|bridge (music)|bridge}} is sung by Scary spice.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is trying to barricade a door with his own body (although it already has a bar in front of it). He is in a room that is deteriorating with Megan who is loading a shotgun while sitting behind some sort of box.]
:Knocking on the door: '''Thump Thump'''
:Voice (see interpretations above): '''Which Spice Girl are you?!'''
:Voice: The merciful one, or the one who started this war?

:[Caption below the frame:]
:'''When I see those quiz titles, I like to imagine they're'''
:'''being shouted through a door in a postapocalyptic dystopia.'''

==Spice girl quizzes==
*''What spice girl are you?'' quizzes
**[http://www.buzzfeed.com/lyapalater/which-spice-girl-are-you#.gbkv2p3jDX Buzzfeed]
**[http://www.zimbio.com/quiz/w-MjcRyEoFZ/Which+Spice+Girl+Are+You Zimbio]
**[http://www.brainfall.com/quizzes/which-spice-girl-are-you/ Brainfall]
**[http://www.gotoquiz.com/what_spice_girl_are_you GoToQuiz]
*Kidspot, ''[http://www.kidspot.com.au/the-spice-girls-and-10-other-mummy-types-you-might-know/ The Spice Girls and 10 other mummy types you might know];''  Baby Mummy, Sporty Mummy, Scary Mummy, Posh Mummy, Ginger Mummy and 10 others.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Music]]
[[Category:Songs]]