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==Explanation==
 
==Explanation==
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While the comic is ostensibly about grad students, it is really [[Randall]]'s way of poking fun at the relative rigor of different fields, reminiscent of [[435: Purity]]. In the comic, [[Cueball]] attempts to pose as an expert in a given field (a [[:Category:Banned from conferences|recurring pastime]] of his) and sees how long it takes before the real experts detect his nonsense.
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While the comic is ostensibly about grad students, it is really [[Randall]]'s way of poking fun at different fields. Given that engineers can detect his {{w|bullshit|bullshit}} quickly suggests he regards engineering with some respect. In other words, he thinks engineering has a low {{w|Bollocks#.22Talking_bollocks.22_and_.22Bollockspeak.22|bullshit quotient}}. Similarly with linguists. He clearly thinks less of sociology, since his bullshit can go undetected for considerably longer. And the field of "Literary Criticism" is something he considers mostly, or entirely, BS, since he claims his BS has repeatedly been published.
  
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The first panel shows [[Cueball]] discussing an {{w|engineering}} problem with [[Ponytail]]. Ponytail is talking about an immediate practical problem involving heat dissipation. Cueball suggests 'using {{w|logarithm|logarithms}}' to solve it. Logarithms are a mathematical tool used for expressing an exponential relationship as a linear one. While they may be used to model the effects of heat dissipation over time, Ponytail is looking for a way to change the rate of heat dissipation, like "water cooling." It only takes 48 seconds before he exposes himself.
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The first panel shows [[Cueball]] discussing an engineering problem with [[Ponytail]]. {{w|logarithm|Logarithms}} are a mathematical tool used for expressing an exponential relationship as a linear one. While this has many uses in a variety of fields, including engineering, it is not a suitable tool for dissipating excess heat{{Citation needed}}. It might have value in plotting temperature change over time, or temperature over distance, however.
  
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The second panel shows a conversation with {{w|linguistics|linguistic}} grad students who are apparently discussing the {{w|Finno-Ugric languages|Finno-Ugric language family}} (a family of related languages that includes Hungarian, Finnish, and Estonian). Cueball asks if {{w|Klingon language|Klingon}} is included in this family. The linguists instantly recognize the meaninglessness of the statement — either because Klingon is a constructed language, designed to sound "alien" to avoid sounding like any human language (thus it cannot be part of any real linguistic family), or because "Klingon" is a recognizable pop-culture reference. Either way he has exposed himself after only 63 seconds of conversation. That all being said, the inventors of the Klingon language took the word order from the Finno-Ugric languages after research showed that the order of "predicate, subject, object" is least common in human languages, so there are at least some roots of Klingon language to analyze.
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Since {{w|Klingon language|Klingon}} is a constructed language designed to sound "alien" and which explicitly avoids sounding like any human language, it cannot be part of any real-world linguistic family. Any linguist who knows what a Klingon is would instantly recognize his statement as a joke, so the detection time should be only a few seconds. His assertion that his bullshit went undetected for over a minute either suggests he does not expect linguists to be familiar with Star Trek, or that the panels indicate the moment of detection rather than the beginning of the conversation.
  
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In the third panel, the humor comes from the fact that the idea of {{w|sociology}} existing to rank human beings on some arbitrary intrinsic value is not only ridiculous in a scientific context, but also politically offensive. Cueball unknowingly recreates the logic behind some of the worst crimes in human history, a problem sociologists are trained to be very aware of. However, it may be something that a less educated non-sociologist would assume could pass within the field. When he describes his unscientific and offensive approach, we see one of the sociology grad students facepalming in exasperation. Because a non-expert may be able to sound somewhat educated in sociology before making such a slip-up, it is four minutes into the conversation before he is detected.
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The third panel is a bit more subtle. While {{w|sociology}} can certainly use ranking as an analytical tool, the trouble lies in the complete lack of meaning in the tags "best" and "worst". Detecting this as BS requires a bit more effort on the part of the sociology grad students.
  
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In the final panel, he attempts to pass as an expert in {{w|literary criticism}}. This field notoriously uses a great deal of impenetrable jargon, so when Cueball makes up seemingly meaningless sentences, no one notices. His quip at "deconstructing the self" may be a meta joke about the field itself failing under deconstruction... (or this sentence may be a meta-meta- example of someone applying literary criticism standards to the analysis of this specific comic). We find that rather than being caught out within minutes as in the other fields, he has now published 8 papers and 2 books. The humor comes from the fact that he has accidentally made himself into a recognized authority in the field, despite not having any idea what he was talking about. In this panel, Cueball is sitting in an armchair in the position of an expert lecturing to a student, who sits at his feet apparently absorbing his inane statement.
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Literary criticism, on the other hand, is almost completely written in {{w|buzzword|buzz words}} and {{w|jargon}}, so when Cueball only tells some BS, no one notices. His quip at "deconstructing the self" may be a veiled insult at how the field itself, when analyzed, makes no sense and is pure BS. His assertion that he published 8 papers and 2 books could also be his way of saying that he doesn't believe anyone actually reads any of the stuff published in the field, and/or that the people who would read it are credulous and inept enough to not notice it's garbage.
  
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This implies that the field itself has published a great deal of meaningless things that only superficially look meaningful through the impenetrability of the jargon. The title text challenges the audience to take a look at {{w|Deconstruction|the Wikipedia article for literary deconstruction}} if they don't believe this criticism applies - the Wikipedia article in question is almost constantly flagged for "clean-up" on the grounds that it's a jumbled mess. An archive of the article as it was when this comic was published is available [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Deconstruction&oldid=225953741 here].
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The title text challenges the lenient, forgiving souls in the audience to take a look at {{w|deconstruction|the Wikipedia article for literary deconstruction}} and attempt to understand just what the heck the article is trying to talk about. The article in question is almost constantly flagged for "cleanup" on the grounds that it's a jumbled mess.
  
 
==Transcript==
 
==Transcript==
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:[Caption above the panels:]
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:My Hobby: Sitting down with grad students and timing how long it takes them to figure out that I'm not actually an expert in their field.
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:::My Hobby:
 
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:Sitting down with grad students and timing how long it takes them to figure out that I'm not actually an expert in their field.
 
  
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:[For all four panels below, there are two frames crossing the border of each panel. The ones at the top left have a caption, and the one below right has the result of the timing.]
 
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:[Ponytail and Cueball are sitting across from each other in office chairs.]
 
 
:Engineering:
 
:Engineering:
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:Ponytail: Our big problem is heat dissipation
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:Student: Our big problem is heat dissipation
 
:Cueball: Have you tried logarithms?
 
:Cueball: Have you tried logarithms?
 
:48 seconds
 
:48 seconds
  
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:[Cueball is sitting in a chair at the center of a table looking left at another Cueball-like guy. To the right is a long black-haired girl.]
 
 
:Linguistics:
 
:Linguistics:
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:Cueball: Ah, so does this Finno-Ugric family include, say, Klingon?
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:Cueball: Ah, so does this Finno-ugric family include, say, Klingon?
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:63 seconds
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:63 Seconds
  
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:[Cueball is standing with his hands up talking to another Cueball-like guy and Megan who has lifted her arm to palm her face.]
 
 
:Sociology:
 
:Sociology:
 
:Cueball: Yeah, my latest work is on ranking people from best to worst.
 
:Cueball: Yeah, my latest work is on ranking people from best to worst.
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:4 minutes
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:4 Minutes
  
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:[Cueball is sitting in an armchair with another Cueball-like guy sitting attentively in front of him on the floor.]
 
 
:Literary Criticism:
 
:Literary Criticism:
 
:Cueball: You see, the deconstruction is inextricable from not only the text, but also the self.
 
:Cueball: You see, the deconstruction is inextricable from not only the text, but also the self.
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{{comic discussion}}
 
{{comic discussion}}
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[[Category:My Hobby]]
 
 
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
 
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
 
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
 
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
 
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
 
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
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[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
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[[Category:My Hobby]]
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[[Category:Engineering]]
 
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[[Category:Language]]
 
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[[Category:Rankings]]
 
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[[Category:Scientific research]]
 
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[[Category:Wikipedia]]
 

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