Difference between revisions of "2576: Control Group"

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
Jump to: navigation, search
(First explanation, feel free to improve)
m (Fixed WP link)
Line 15: Line 15:
 
==Explanation==
 
==Explanation==
 
{{incomplete|Created by a WORD GAME CONTROL MEMBER - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
 
{{incomplete|Created by a WORD GAME CONTROL MEMBER - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[https://www.powerlanguage.co.uk/wordle Wordle] is a popular word game in which the user tries to guess a five-letter word in six tries, with the game assessing the placement and accuracy of guessed letters. When [[Ponytail]] asks [[Cueball]] if he is playing, however, he claims that he is in the {w|Control group|control group}, implying that he is part of a scientific study involving the game. The caption calls this his new all-purpose excuse for not doing something, relating to the fact that a control group is a group in a study that the experimental group is compared to. For example, in a trial for a medication, the control group would receive a placebo instead. The title-text contains Wordle's 5x6 grid, but calls it "Placeble" and has a number after it, implying that Cueball actually is part of a study related to the game.
+
[https://www.powerlanguage.co.uk/wordle Wordle] is a popular word game in which the user tries to guess a five-letter word in six tries, with the game assessing the placement and accuracy of guessed letters. When [[Ponytail]] asks [[Cueball]] if he is playing, however, he claims that he is in the {{w|Control group|control group}}, implying that he is part of a scientific study involving the game. The caption calls this his new all-purpose excuse for not doing something, relating to the fact that a control group is a group in a study that the experimental group is compared to. For example, in a trial for a medication, the control group would receive a placebo instead. The title-text contains Wordle's 5x6 grid, but calls it "Placeble" and has a number after it, implying that Cueball actually is part of a study related to the game.
  
 
==Transcript==
 
==Transcript==

Revision as of 00:29, 3 February 2022

Control Group
Placeble 228 x/6 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
Title text: Placeble 228 x/6

⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜

⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜

Explanation

Ambox notice.png This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: Created by a WORD GAME CONTROL MEMBER - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.
If you can address this issue, please edit the page! Thanks.

Wordle is a popular word game in which the user tries to guess a five-letter word in six tries, with the game assessing the placement and accuracy of guessed letters. When Ponytail asks Cueball if he is playing, however, he claims that he is in the control group, implying that he is part of a scientific study involving the game. The caption calls this his new all-purpose excuse for not doing something, relating to the fact that a control group is a group in a study that the experimental group is compared to. For example, in a trial for a medication, the control group would receive a placebo instead. The title-text contains Wordle's 5x6 grid, but calls it "Placeble" and has a number after it, implying that Cueball actually is part of a study related to the game.

Transcript

Ambox notice.png This transcript is incomplete. Please help editing it! Thanks.
Ponytail: Are you playing Wordle?
Cueball: No, I'm in the control group.
[Caption below the panel:]
My new all-purpose excuse for when I'm not doing something


comment.png add a comment! ⋅ comment.png add a topic (use sparingly)! ⋅ Icons-mini-action refresh blue.gif refresh comments!

Discussion

This is my first explanation, feel free to improve upon it. KirbyDude25 (talk) 00:30, 3 February 2022 (UTC)

Ran into your edit when I tried to submit mine, hah. I don't actually like Know Your Meme that much but I'm not sure where else I could source that joke. Maybe it's unnecessary. Obw (talk) 00:36, 3 February 2022 (UTC)

Sorry about that. Thanks for expanding my explanation, especially the description of the "study" aspect. I think the joke is fine, though we'll see what others think. KirbyDude25 (talk) 00:43, 3 February 2022 (UTC)
Your explanation of the title text actually helped me understand the joke there! I added a bit more to flesh out the explanation Obw (talk) 00:45, 3 February 2022 (UTC)
Thanks! Your edits definitely helped clear up the study terminology. KirbyDude25 (talk) 00:50, 3 February 2022 (UTC)

Is the text exceptionally large for an xkcd comic? I was seeing if my browser was zoomed in, but the previous comics are all a normal size 172.70.134.215 00:55, 3 February 2022 (UTC)

I noticed that, too. It looks about 1.5 times larger than normal. I don't think it means anything, though; Randall probably just made the image the wrong size by accident. KirbyDude25 (talk) 01:00, 3 February 2022 (UTC)
The image is the size normally used for the _2x version. In this case, the main image is the same size as the _2x version for some reason. Normal image: https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/control_group.png; 2x image: https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/control_group_2x.png; Normally the _2x version is double size for hi-DPI displays. I'm hoping that will get fixed and we'll get the normal size back. Orion205 (talk) 01:11, 3 February 2022 (UTC)
This size is way better though. Do people still use low-res monitors? When I check the website, it shows up as 478 x 613 pixels, which is absurdly small, even for a webcomic. - 172.70.130.153 01:33, 3 February 2022 (UTC)
Some of us use "low-res" monitors. 1280x720 here, which I see as standard and not "low". Ralfoide (talk) 21:46, 3 February 2022 (UTC)
What decade is this?! Stores don't even sell 720p monitors anymore. When I bought my current tv, even HD less common than 4k. My PHONE is almost 4k, and it's over 4 years old at this point! - 172.70.130.153 01:46, 4 February 2022 (UTC)
The site standard is to give the standard version, for various reasons not just confined to monitor (or, in my case, tablet) resolution. It doesn't happen here, but the double-wide version of some comics would often make my device shrink the rest of the page to make the image fit within the width.
(Ironically, my device seems to load the _2x in the original published context, in normal non-huge comics, without changing the xkcd site dimensions, so maybe there's a CSS solution to that, as well as it clearly heing the reason for the current problem due to hard-coded pixel-widths adding up to less than necessary to wholey contain the image-width.)
If the _2x version is necessary to see details (not the case here), a link to that version is given. Or if it has been uploaded as well, I suppose. But anyone can go to the source and get the _2x if they want it. But for this comic it adds little value. 172.70.85.79 02:57, 3 February 2022 (UTC)
Is there some way to make it DEFAULT to the 2x version (here or on xkcd.com) without some kind of addons or external scripts? I didn't see any settings, and I don't want to register an account. - 162.158.74.166 03:05, 3 February 2022 (UTC)
The bot that makes these pages now was set to use the _2x version by default briefly, but was asked to switch back to the normal size. See this talk page: User_talk:Theusaf. Orion205 (talk) 21:03, 3 February 2022 (UTC)
Why is the "standard" version so tiny? If anything, they should make the <1mp version mobile-only, and the standard should be desktop/hd - 172.70.131.122 03:03, 3 February 2022 (UTC)
I could give you several technical reasons why this is just not going to work here, without a lot of reworking that will probably involve breaking a significant number of readers of this site, but I don't think you'll be dissuaded. Like I said, it works 'natively' like that in the xkcd site, but it often breaks things here on explainxkcd (in my case, YMMV). It's been discussed under the Community Portal pages for this site, I know, but I'll leave it to you to find out how that went. 162.158.159.29 03:15, 3 February 2022 (UTC)


Anyone know why the title text doesn't show properly? For me, the rows are on separate lines on xkcd.com but display on the same line over here, ruining the effect. Is there a hidden break character that's not displaying in the source? Zzyzx (talk) 03:07, 3 February 2022 (UTC)

Knowing if you are in the control group or not can falsify the results, which is why any self-respecting study (aka blind or double blind) won't tell their participants this information. Kimmerin (talk) 10:25, 3 February 2022 (UTC)

Agreed. I think that Cueball is trying to put two over on Ponytail, as well as anybody else that annoys him about Wordle. These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For (talk) 03:17, 8 February 2022 (UTC)

imo placeable could mean you get to place the correct or incorrect into the box? and the x/6 could have x be a variable, and the grey squares are actually blank to change to correct or incorrect? idk ive never played wordle 162.158.187.158 13:23, 3 February 2022 (UTC)Bumpf

It says "Placeble," without the second A (meaning described above). Perhaps your theory about the squares is correct, but I think it's more likely that they're just blank and that the "placebo" Wordle doesn't actually have a word to guess. KirbyDude25 (talk) 13:32, 3 February 2022 (UTC)
"Wordle" is just a portmanteau of "Word" and "Wardle" - so "Placeble" is likewise one of "placebo" and "Wordle". I don't think much more should be read into it. It would be interesting to think about how hard it is to not get any squares right in a Wordle puzzle, though. You'd have to get "lucky" on the first word. I'm not sure - can you enter the same word twice, or does the page stop you? 172.70.135.154 15:18, 3 February 2022 (UTC)

Given the current context, it feels like there may also be some reference here to Wordle's 'virality', and allusion to virus-related vaccine and treatment studies.172.70.90.121 16:26, 3 February 2022 (UTC)

I think Randall accidentally put up tomorrow’s comic early, then took it down after a few minutes. It was a graph about how often he thinks about his nasal passages.Szeth Pancakes (talk) 00:02, 4 February 2022 (UTC)

That sounds like 2563: Throat and Nasal Passages. - Orion205 (talk) 02:31, 4 February 2022 (UTC)
Huh. The site must’ve glitched out on me. Either that, or I’m mentally disturbed. I’m probably just mentally disturbed.Szeth Pancakes (talk) 19:53, 4 February 2022 (UTC)

Does anyone else think this explanation is complete? It doesn't look like anything else needs to be added. KirbyDude25 (talk) 13:15, 4 February 2022 (UTC)

Looks like it's normal size now on xkcd.com. Can someone update the image? KirbyDude25 (talk) 14:15, 9 February 2022 (UTC)

I think this joke refers to the anti-vaxxer meme where someone refuses to get vaccinated against COVID-19 by saying: "I'm in the control group" to imply that the vacine hasn't been tested before being rolled out, and the people who take it are guinea pigs. Anti-vaxxers also believe that the disease is a hoax and the vaccine does nothing, hence the placebo joke. 172.70.250.13 02:27, 6 March 2022 (UTC)