Talk:2879: Like This One

i'm very confused what "this gas molecule" or "this skin microbe" is meant to be; it doesn't seem like there would contextually be an obvious specific instance of either of those classes? looking forward to seeing the conjecture given in the explanation when it settles down - Vaedez (talk) 02:48, 11 January 2024 (UTC)

I believe it's referring to her holding her hand out to signify a (large number of) gas molecules. --172.69.34.49 02:55, 11 January 2024 (UTC)

ahh, what she meant was "like these ones"--ok, I understand what both would mean now. - Vaedez (talk) 03:02, 11 January 2024 (UTC)

She's pointing at one molecule. Just because you can't pick it out of the mass doesn't change that. Nitpicking (talk) 03:55, 11 January 2024 (UTC)

Indeed. And one wouldn't want to get the wrong idea about which molecule she might study. Obviously, there are a lot of N₂ ones, and a few O₂s, but they're not necessarily of interest. The odd noble gas atom (if that counts as a molecule-of-one) or CO₂ would probably be the more useful, along with SO₂ / O₃ / other trace ones as what she might be indicating. 141.101.99.79 05:34, 11 January 2024 (UTC)

In my head-canon, she's using her stick-figure hand to point out an exceedingly long nitrogen nanotube that she's manufactured. Could be interpreted as a threatening gesture, I suppose?

ProphetZarquon (talk) 16:00, 11 January 2024 (UTC)

I think that's the whole joke - such statements are inevitably true, but at the same time essentially meaningless. 172.70.86.140 16:49, 11 January 2024 (UTC)

Other possible instances would include "Hominids" and "False vacuums". I was sure it was going to end with, "Cartoons like this one." Nitpicking (talk) 03:55, 11 January 2024 (UTC)

Also, neutrinos would go on the list 172.68.144.217 10:25, 11 January 2024 (UTC)

"I'm a researcher studying potential apocalyptic events..." 172.70.90.115 09:40, 11 January 2024 (UTC)

Hmm. I’m a criminologist studying the behavior patterns of psychopaths.

But wait, is the 'this one' referring to you, or me...? 172.71.178.50 16:04, 11 January 2024 (UTC)

"I'm a researcher studying computer simulations…" (sadly, not actually the kind we are (maybe) living in but close enough) Brycemw (talk) 14:17, 11 January 2024 (UTC)

"I'm a researcher studying research topics..." Barmar (talk) 15:35, 11 January 2024 (UTC)

"I study logical paradoxes..." (¿"...like this one"?) 172.69.43.180 15:45, 11 January 2024 (UTC)

"I study self-referential statements..." Dextrous Fred (talk) 17:09, 12 January 2024 (UTC)

"I'm a biologist studying key turning points in human evolution... like this one!" "Man - that is the worst pick-up line..."172.70.90.71 16:20, 11 January 2024 (UTC)

"I study mathematical integers... like this 1." -boB (talk) 20:44, 11 January 2024 (UTC)

"I study human comments..." --Anonymous

"I study traditional pub signs, like The Swan" 172.71.178.55 09:32, 12 January 2024 (UTC)

Is ‘The Swan’ perhaps owned by Gnome Ann (at least in this hypothetical)? 172.68.1.131 14:59, 12 January 2024 (UTC)

"Skin microbes" seems a bit (intentionally?) obscure, especially since, it seems to me, the closest a modern microbiologist gets to an actual bacterium is its Illumina lane. "Skin lesions", however (warts, moles, calluses, liver spots, eczema/psoriasis, melanoma, yada) ... Of course, this might only occur to audiences of [ahem] a certain age (cue Rod Stewart's/Bob Dylan's "Forever Young" ...) 172.70.207.186 21:51, 11 January 2024 (UTC)

”I’m a linguist studying languages”, and “I’m a student studying fictional works” also are kinda funny. 172.68.1.130 15:01, 12 January 2024 (UTC)

Do we really want to break down each bullet point?

We could probably do well to simplify it to just something saying the list contains things immediately surrounding the characters, part of their bodies, or intangible ideas commonly employed during normal conversation. It probably doesn't need to explain what sound waves are, for instance --Raviolio (talk) 15:34, 11 January 2024 (UTC)

If breaking them all down, perhaps better a simple table rather than each 'hanging off' a bullet-point. But then we're more committed to breaking them all down (including Title Text) with potentially several paragraphs per 'explanation column cell'. (My preference, this moment, would be to restore the simple bullet-list then follow with the "air molecules" expansion below in regular prose, perhaps briefly zoom through the others in a single para to follow that, if not just wikilink those and leave to be checked at will. But that's just based upon what the current text might best be formatted as.) 172.69.43.180 15:45, 11 January 2024 (UTC)

The long exploration of exactly what interpretation of 'like' should be placed on Ponytail's remark that's currently attached to the bullet point seems rather peripheral to the joke. If anything ought to be explained, it's why each thing would (a) always be present (or at least, with rare exceptions like being in a spacecraft in deep space), but also (b) not be usefully identified by the remark.172.69.194.36 16:43, 11 January 2024 (UTC)