Height (by xkcd)
September 29, 2008 11:18 PM Subscribe
Height. By xkcd.
This post was deleted for the following reason: Maybe we can link to the Onion next, and cap it off with a link to the front page of CNN. After letting the audience scream and applaud for five minutes, we'll give 'em what they want with a McSweeney's/Zombo.com medley encore. -- cortex
Lowlight.
posted by crossoverman at 11:29 PM on September 29, 2008
posted by crossoverman at 11:29 PM on September 29, 2008
Missing WMDs. And is that a cat on a keyboard?
posted by greta simone at 11:33 PM on September 29, 2008
posted by greta simone at 11:33 PM on September 29, 2008
For me, XKCD fails at being funny on almost every level something can fail at being funny.
But that's just me, and here's the thing; I like that it's popular, because the guy who writes it is the kind of guy I like to see encouraged. Because he uses encouragement to do weird little things like this, or like turning his apartment into a ball pit, or hand-drawing a map of IPv4 space.
And even though I personally find the comic itself singularly, spectacularly unfunny, I'm really glad that he likes doing it, and continues to do it. He's the kind of guy I'm glad is on the same internet as me.
posted by churl at 11:46 PM on September 29, 2008 [3 favorites]
But that's just me, and here's the thing; I like that it's popular, because the guy who writes it is the kind of guy I like to see encouraged. Because he uses encouragement to do weird little things like this, or like turning his apartment into a ball pit, or hand-drawing a map of IPv4 space.
And even though I personally find the comic itself singularly, spectacularly unfunny, I'm really glad that he likes doing it, and continues to do it. He's the kind of guy I'm glad is on the same internet as me.
posted by churl at 11:46 PM on September 29, 2008 [3 favorites]
The universe is endlessly vast that surely you could've come up with a FEW more links for this FPP. This isn't Twitter, it's MetaFilter.
posted by secret about box at 11:46 PM on September 29, 2008
posted by secret about box at 11:46 PM on September 29, 2008
I... hmm. Not quite sure how to respond here. I mean, on one hand, I love xkcd, and it was a particularly cool update. On the other hand, is a single link to a single strip of a webcomic that most of us either already read or think is overrated anyway really worthy of an FPP? It wasn't even timely, it's been up for almost 24 hours.
posted by Caduceus at 11:49 PM on September 29, 2008 [1 favorite]
posted by Caduceus at 11:49 PM on September 29, 2008 [1 favorite]
I spotted Ford Prefect, but where's Zaphod Beeblebrox? We should be able to see him, and we should be able to see that he's a really great guy.
posted by ambulatorybird at 11:53 PM on September 29, 2008
posted by ambulatorybird at 11:53 PM on September 29, 2008
I'm generally a fan of xkcd but this piece seems pretty weak. Perhaps (generously) clever on a conceptual level but lacking a great deal in execution.
posted by sevenyearlurk at 11:55 PM on September 29, 2008
posted by sevenyearlurk at 11:55 PM on September 29, 2008
I occasionally like the comic; I've loved some; I hate the (increasingly frequent?) self-congratulatory turns.
This one doesn't work for me basically because there are no (good) jokes in it.
Also: been done.
actually while trawling for bad example comics to fill in this post, I realized I really like the recent numbers. yay!
posted by grobstein at 11:55 PM on September 29, 2008
This one doesn't work for me basically because there are no (good) jokes in it.
Also: been done.
actually while trawling for bad example comics to fill in this post, I realized I really like the recent numbers. yay!
posted by grobstein at 11:55 PM on September 29, 2008
Some comics aren't supposed to be funny. I think this is quite dear, as are many of the xkcd comics that deal with life, the universe and everything. For me black space correlates strongly with "aw," if not awe, at xkcd.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 12:09 AM on September 30, 2008
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 12:09 AM on September 30, 2008
ambulatorybird: You don't need to see Zaphod because as we all know, Ford Prefect was not from Guilford, but from somewhere near the vicinity of Betelguese.
posted by bruzie at 12:27 AM on September 30, 2008
posted by bruzie at 12:27 AM on September 30, 2008
Why don't we commission someone to make a daily FPP with links to the front pages of BoingBoing, Reddit, XKCD, Fark, Slashdot, Pharyngula, Wikipedia random article, Youtube, NY Times editorial page, and Metafilter from 2 years ago? That way, all I will ever have to type at work will be Command+Space, "fir", Command+L, "me", Tab, Enter (11 keys total!!!!), and just click click click.
posted by dirty lies at 12:50 AM on September 30, 2008 [5 favorites]
posted by dirty lies at 12:50 AM on September 30, 2008 [5 favorites]
I will accept your commission at a price of $3000 per month.
posted by clearly at 1:47 AM on September 30, 2008
posted by clearly at 1:47 AM on September 30, 2008
...and by that I mean popurls® has you covered, no FPPs or thought necessary.
posted by clearly at 1:56 AM on September 30, 2008
posted by clearly at 1:56 AM on September 30, 2008
This has scary shades of Digg, where everyone competes to see who can be the first to post the new XKCD strip when it goes up.
posted by jon4009 at 1:58 AM on September 30, 2008
posted by jon4009 at 1:58 AM on September 30, 2008
Yeah, this was kind of lame. Not even one of the better XKCD strips.
posted by Justinian at 2:49 AM on September 30, 2008
posted by Justinian at 2:49 AM on September 30, 2008
xkcd is a great comic, but this one is trying too hard. The IP thing was neat because it was new. A height chart from xkcd feels like a "where did Billy go" diagram from Bil Keane.
posted by DU at 2:57 AM on September 30, 2008 [1 favorite]
posted by DU at 2:57 AM on September 30, 2008 [1 favorite]
Some people are afraid of heights.
Not me. I'm afraid of widths.
-Steven Wright
posted by Kirth Gerson at 3:56 AM on September 30, 2008 [1 favorite]
Not me. I'm afraid of widths.
-Steven Wright
posted by Kirth Gerson at 3:56 AM on September 30, 2008 [1 favorite]
Well, I liked it, prole that I am.
posted by Devils Rancher at 3:57 AM on September 30, 2008
posted by Devils Rancher at 3:57 AM on September 30, 2008
I thought it was cute and interesting, and that's all I really ask for in an FPP.
posted by Pope Guilty at 4:09 AM on September 30, 2008
posted by Pope Guilty at 4:09 AM on September 30, 2008
I like XKCD, but are we now reaching the point where each new comic deserves its own FPP on the Blue? Shit, where did the "Filter" go in MetaFilter?!?
I think we lost it about the time that tacking "[SLYT]" on to a post no longer made people complain.
Oh, and that comic was up for approximately 26 1/3 hours by my count when you posted it. It's barely even new, let alone news.
posted by mystyk at 4:14 AM on September 30, 2008
I think we lost it about the time that tacking "[SLYT]" on to a post no longer made people complain.
Oh, and that comic was up for approximately 26 1/3 hours by my count when you posted it. It's barely even new, let alone news.
posted by mystyk at 4:14 AM on September 30, 2008
...is that a cat on a keyboard?
Roger that. No doubt it's meant as travelling music, as well as a nod to the use of Debussy's Arabesque #1, the theme music for the Stargazer series hosted by Jack Horkheimer.
posted by Smart Dalek at 4:50 AM on September 30, 2008
Roger that. No doubt it's meant as travelling music, as well as a nod to the use of Debussy's Arabesque #1, the theme music for the Stargazer series hosted by Jack Horkheimer.
posted by Smart Dalek at 4:50 AM on September 30, 2008
It's okay funny, but it's not sudo-make-me-a-sandwich funny.
posted by rokusan at 4:55 AM on September 30, 2008
posted by rokusan at 4:55 AM on September 30, 2008
dirty lies, assuming you're using Quicksilver, add all your bookmarks to Safari (so MetaFilter), add the Safari Bookmarks module to the the Quicksilver catalogue, and then just cmd-space 'Me'. If Firefox is your default browser, it will open in Firefox.
Et voila, you just saved five keystrokes!
posted by djgh at 5:17 AM on September 30, 2008 [1 favorite]
Et voila, you just saved five keystrokes!
posted by djgh at 5:17 AM on September 30, 2008 [1 favorite]
Dude seriously? The observable universe ends at our toes? I thought we had some handle on that, based on geophysics.
posted by six-or-six-thirty at 5:18 AM on September 30, 2008
posted by six-or-six-thirty at 5:18 AM on September 30, 2008
mystyk: "I like XKCD, but are we now reaching the point where each new comic deserves its own FPP on the Blue?"
The previous XKCD comic FPP was posted on July 7. I had no idea XKCD updated so slowly.
posted by Memo at 5:23 AM on September 30, 2008
The previous XKCD comic FPP was posted on July 7. I had no idea XKCD updated so slowly.
posted by Memo at 5:23 AM on September 30, 2008
Mystyk: the filter is the three months since the last XKCD comic FPP.
The flagging system is also a good part of the filter as it emphasises the community part of this community blog.
We didn't lose anything with the [SLYT] FPP becoming a part of metafilter. You might have, but at least now with the handy [SLYT] nomenclature, you can easily find the threads to go complain in.
I do worry about the downfall of MetaFilter. I've been reading about it pretty consistently for about 6 years now (and helped it along for 3). I wish Matt would give us a timeline on that.
posted by slimepuppy at 5:26 AM on September 30, 2008
The flagging system is also a good part of the filter as it emphasises the community part of this community blog.
We didn't lose anything with the [SLYT] FPP becoming a part of metafilter. You might have, but at least now with the handy [SLYT] nomenclature, you can easily find the threads to go complain in.
I do worry about the downfall of MetaFilter. I've been reading about it pretty consistently for about 6 years now (and helped it along for 3). I wish Matt would give us a timeline on that.
posted by slimepuppy at 5:26 AM on September 30, 2008
Regarding the cat on a keyboard, it's a ytmnd.com fad, though as searching for these things is damn near impossible, I can't seem to find any examples.
The joke is something like "What do you see when you reach the end of the universe? This cat, on a keyboard, playing this song"
posted by Kikujiro's Summer at 5:34 AM on September 30, 2008
The joke is something like "What do you see when you reach the end of the universe? This cat, on a keyboard, playing this song"
posted by Kikujiro's Summer at 5:34 AM on September 30, 2008
Reminds me a bit of something Ray and Charles Eames created a few decades back...
posted by Hutch at 5:35 AM on September 30, 2008 [1 favorite]
posted by Hutch at 5:35 AM on September 30, 2008 [1 favorite]
I enjoyed it. This panel isn't intended to be laugh-out-loud funny--it's playful and delightful and slightly in-jokey and who cares if it's a single link to a webcomic? Sure, the FPP could have had more links, but so what? MeFi's not "most of the web", it's "best of the web". I've pointed a lot of friends to this panel since it went up; some had seen it already, some hadn't. No one complained that they'd seen it before I showed them, and if there were those who didn't find it funny, they just said "Thanks!" and that was the end of it.
There are plenty of truly bad FPPs. I know I've made some. This is hardly an offender.
I like the Asteroids reference.
posted by tzikeh at 6:27 AM on September 30, 2008
There are plenty of truly bad FPPs. I know I've made some. This is hardly an offender.
I like the Asteroids reference.
posted by tzikeh at 6:27 AM on September 30, 2008
Dang it - the font size = "-2" thing makes the "Asteroids" thing small on preview, but not when posted. Phooey.
Ah, well. I still like the reference.
posted by tzikeh at 6:28 AM on September 30, 2008
Ah, well. I still like the reference.
posted by tzikeh at 6:28 AM on September 30, 2008
Double-dang it, I meant to include this for Kikujiro - here's the ytmnd it references.
posted by tzikeh at 6:37 AM on September 30, 2008
posted by tzikeh at 6:37 AM on September 30, 2008
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