Editing 1585: Similarities
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==Explanation== | ==Explanation== | ||
− | + | {{incomplete|The whole explanation needs better flow.}} | |
− | + | '''Spoiler alert: Details of The Martian's plot mentioned below. ''' | |
− | ' | + | There's a common punchline in which the plotlines of two thematically-different works of fiction (usually movies) are compared in greatly-abbreviated form, and the speaker sarcastically concludes that the two movies are "basically the same". For sake of example, Disney's ''Aladdin'' and James Cameron's ''Titanic'' [http://imgur.com/gallery/kasCMYd both feature a story in which a lower-class boy and an upper-class girl fall for each other, among other cherry-picked yet interesting parallels.] But due to the different emotional tones of the films (a family-friendly "happy ever after" tale and a disaster thriller respectively) one would not normally describe them as similar. |
− | + | This comic spoofs the idea. Instead of comparing plotlines of two movies, [[Ponytail]] and [[Cueball]] compare development histories of two movies. | |
− | + | ''{{w|Fifty Shades of Grey}}'' began as a {{w|fan fiction}} of a well known brand (the {{w|Twilight (novel series)|Twilight book series}}). It was originally written on the internet by {{w|E. L. James}}. It was then transformed into a successful book series which was later turned into a {{w|Fifty Shades of Grey (film)|movie}} released in February 2015. | |
− | + | ''{{w|The Martian (Weir novel)|The Martian}}'' was originally a serialized story written by {{w|Andy Weir (writer)|Andy Weir}} on his blog which was later compiled into an ebook for people to easily download, then published into a physical book, and has now had a {{w|The Martian (film)|movie}} created based on it. The movie was officially released in the US on the same day this comic was released (October 2nd 2015). | |
− | + | Since ''Fifty Shades'' is a romance story about a sadomasochistic relationship, and ''The Martian'' is a very technical story about surviving completely alone on a hostile planet, the two books could not be any more different, hence the joke due to the juxtaposition. Cueball continues the joke by joining the two titles using red for Mars, to make a new book title, that should cover both books: ''Fifty Shades of Red.'' Ponytail is very enthusiastic about the book concept, saying it would be irresistible (at least for her and Cueball). It is not clear from the comic if he liked the movie. Since he now compares it to a book series that has been | |
+ | {{w|Fifty_Shades_of_Grey#Background|described}} as ''mommy porn'' it could indicate that he was not so satisfied with the movie. On the other hand he may just have noticed this connection and found that it would make a great joke here on the release day. | ||
− | + | It is possible that the brand that the Martian derives from is NASA itself. The Martian has been [https://xkcd.com/1536/ compared to Apollo 13] by Randall. [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112384/ Apollo 13] does indeed glorify the roles of the NASA engineers; and the Martian does a similar thing. | |
+ | That Randall would go see this movie as soon as it was released was already made perfectly clear back in June when he released the comic [[1536: The Martian]] showing how excited he is about the book. He then really looked forward to the movie. | ||
− | + | [[Randall]] indicates in the title text that he has just seen the movie. This is very likely, as premiere movies often have a sneak preview after midnight on the release day, so it is possible for him to see the movie and then post this comic early on the actual release day, or he could have been invited to a preview for selected individuals. | |
− | '' | + | The [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/BB-8 BB-8] mentioned in the title text is the {{w|astromech droid}} from the upcoming movie {{w|Star Wars: The Force Awakens}}, and is available as a toy (see also BB-8 on the [http://www.starwars.com/databank/bb-8 official Star Wars] home page). {{w|Sojourner (rover)|Sojourner}} was the Mars ''Pathfinder'' robotic rover used by Mark Watney, the protagonist of ''The Martian'' (played by {{w|Matt Damon}} in the movie), to allow him to contact Earth. Randall indicated that he thinks the Sojourner is much cuter than BB-8, and that he would like to have one as a pet. He then states that the Sojourner has always been the cutest among all the {{w|Mars rovers}}. There have been 4 so far the other three being {{w|Opportunity (rover)|Opportunity}}, {{w|Spirit (rover)|Spirit}} and {{w|Curiosity (rover)|Curiosity}} which have already been used in xkcd comics: [[695: Spirit]], [[1091: Curiosity]] and [[1504: Opportunity]]. |
− | + | ==Transcript== | |
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:[Ponytail is talking to Cueball.] | :[Ponytail is talking to Cueball.] | ||
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[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]] | [[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]] | ||
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]] | [[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]] | ||
− | [[Category: | + | [[Category:Robots]] |
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[[Category:Space]] | [[Category:Space]] | ||
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