Editing 945: I'm Sorry

Jump to: navigation, search

Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.

The edit can be undone. Please check the comparison below to verify that this is what you want to do, and then save the changes below to finish undoing the edit.
Latest revision Your text
Line 8: Line 8:
  
 
==Explanation==
 
==Explanation==
 +
The term "I'm sorry" expresses a general feeling of sorrow or grief. It can be used either as an apology (expressing sorrow for one's own actions) or of sympathy (expressing sorrow for someone else's misfortune). Both uses are normal and acceptable, but the apologetic usage is more common. Some people deliberately conflate the two uses, treating an expression of empathy as if it were an apology. This confusion is almost always feigned, as both uses of the term are well understood, and the context makes clear which was intended.
  
The term "I'm sorry" expresses a general feeling of sorrow or grief. It can be used either as an apology (expressing sorrow for one's own actions) or of sympathy (expressing sorrow for someone else's misfortune). Both uses are normal and acceptable, and the distinction is generally clear from the context. Some people deliberately conflate the two uses, treating an expression of sympathy as if it were an apology. This confusion is almost always feigned, as both uses of the term are well understood.  
+
This kind of game, in which a deliberate misunderstanding of language is treated as the other person's fault seems to be a peeve of Randall's, and is dealt with in other strips [[https://xkcd.com/169/]].
  
As it says below the comic, when [[Megan]] rejects his sympathetic "I'm sorry" by treating it as if it were an apology and saying it was not his fault, rather than just agreeing with her, an irritated [[Cueball]] implies that it was always intended as an apology, because he DID, in fact, burn down her mother's house. It is unlikely that he actually burned her house down, but rather is simply teaching Megan a lesson not to nitpick so much.
+
As it says below the comic, [[Cueball]] switches his sympathetic "I'm sorry" when [[Megan]], treats his "I'm sorry" as if it were an apology, and playfully rejects it because the mishap was not his fault. Instead of agreeing with her, Cueball says "I know what I did...", implying that he DID, in fact, burn down her mother's house, an act which she would not expect.
  
The title text has Cueball further attempting to convince Megan that he is not just being sarcastic, but really did set the fire, for the simple reason that he hates her mother.
+
At the title text, "You know I've always hated her." is an explanation for burning down the house, albeit an insufficient one. It is unlikely that he actually burned her house down, but rather is simply teaching Megan a lesson not to nitpick so much.
  
 
==Transcript==
 
==Transcript==
Line 25: Line 26:
 
:It annoys me when people interpret an obviously sympathetic "I'm sorry" as an apology, so I've started responding by making it one.
 
:It annoys me when people interpret an obviously sympathetic "I'm sorry" as an apology, so I've started responding by making it one.
  
==Trivia==
 
 
This kind of game, in which a deliberate misunderstanding of language is treated as the other person's fault seems to be a peeve of Randall's, and is dealt with in several other strips, for instance, [[169: Words that End in GRY]].
 
 
{{comic discussion}}
 
{{comic discussion}}
  

Please note that all contributions to explain xkcd may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here.
You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see explain xkcd:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission!

To protect the wiki against automated edit spam, we kindly ask you to solve the following CAPTCHA:

Cancel | Editing help (opens in new window)