Randall Munroe's unreasonable disdain for the humanities

Tachyon

in this disgusting piece of propaganda we see Randall making a mockery of the art of reasoned philosophical discourse, here represented by an insane conspiracy theorist, who his featureless protagonist inexplicably 'defeats' by going down a waterslide, an object constructed by engineers



here the etymologist is the 'wrong' superhero, unable to save anyone, while the entomologist, a representative of Randall's beloved 'hard' sciences, is presumably the 'right' superhero

Randall is here therefore asserting that the humanities are entirely ineffectual; only Randall's pet subjects are capable of enacting real change



WE GET IT RANDALL YOU HATE THE ARTS JEEZ

Obā-san

this strip the realest shit ever

Tachyon

OH SURE TAKE HIS SIDE YOU CALCULUS WORSHIPPING TRAITOR

Obā-san

i mean it accurately describes almost every damn argument i have participated in on the internet

like, people have lost so fucking hard and they still don't think they have lost because they're huge fucking morons

Aliroz

Pangur Bán said:

i mean it accurately describes almost every damn argument i have participated in on the internet

like, people have lost so fucking hard and they still don't think they have lost because they're huge fucking morons

As a huge flipping moron myself, I resent that.

Just because you intelligent people are right doesn't mean you have to rub it in.

Icalasari

Hilariously, there are quite a few comics that could actually be used to argue that Randall hates the humanities

glennmagusharvey

at first I was hmmmm

> in this disgusting piece of propaganda we see Randall making a mockery
of the art of reasoned philosophical discourse, here represented by an
insane conspiracy theorist, who his featureless protagonist inexplicably
'defeats' by going down a waterslide, an object constructed by
engineers

but now I think I am stuck in Poe's revolving door by the end of the OP.

Obā-san

man y'all need to speed up

Tachyon

Pangur Bán said:

man y'all need to speed up

Justice4243

I know the op was intended in jest, but honestly, you could probably pick out XKCD comics that actually do support this notion. 

Tachyon

Tachyon said:

Pangur Bán said:

man y'all need to speed up

Obā-san

Pangur Bán said:

man y'all need to speed up

Mr. Darcy

I'm already going 0.99c!

Obā-san

you fast enough bro don't worry

Yarrun XIX

Justice4243 said:

I know the op was intended in jest, but honestly, you could probably pick out XKCD comics that actually do support this notion. 

A couple of minutes with the randomizer shows that Randall's willing to take the occasional potshot at science as opposed to humanities, and he does have the occasional literary bit (like the Robert Frost bit). 

The only strips that I could think of that support the notion are the Computational Linguists one and the Purity one.

Justice4243

Eh, I didn't really think had had an axe to grind, or anything. However, I can't help but think of this strip:

Hexartes

There are so many common criticisms of xkcd that I honestly don't see in the actual comic.

Obā-san

OP was funny as hell and nobody even noticed like damn

Justice4243

glennmagusharvey said:

at first I was hmmmm

but now I think I am stuck in Poe's revolving door by the end of the OP.

Obā-san

Pangur Bán said:

Pangur Bán said:

man y'all need to speed up

Tachyon

you're the best, Naney

Obā-san

Previous Calica

Yarrun XIX said:

Justice4243 said:

I know the op was intended in jest, but honestly, you could probably pick out XKCD comics that actually do support this notion. 

A couple of minutes with the randomizer shows that Randall's willing to take the occasional potshot at science as opposed to humanities, and he does have the occasional literary bit (like the Robert Frost bit). 

The only strips that I could think of that support the notion are the Computational Linguists one and the Purity one.

The Computational Linguists one is a friendly jab at Ryan North, I think.

Justice4243

Note that I found the mantis one pretty funny as I, myself, have made that mistake a few times.

Bee

I still think this one is my favorite:

Tachyon

see, that's what i'm talking about

see how he draws the engineering student on a sophisticated office chair while the lit crit student is slouching on the floor

blatantly implying that literature students have bad posture

Aliroz

Tachyon said:

see, that's what i'm talking about

see how he draws the engineering student on a sophisticated office chair while the lit crit student is slouching on the floor

blatantly implying that literature students have bad posture

Also, the Lit Crit student has a nasty growth on his hand in the shape of a rectangle with letters in it.  No wonder he can't stand up properly.

Additionally, the main character has a little loop (the curved line that is his head does not connect at the end with the beginning  You can tell where he started drawing the line) in the first two panels, but has a connecting head in the last two (you can't really tell where he started drawing that curved line that is his head).

Also, in the second panel, that's not a desk, table, or Davenport; it's a pool stick balanced on two walking sticks.  The second panel has another interesting feature in how the guy on the left has a floating head and no neck.

Anyways, why is that guy in the fourth panel a half-man, half-chair creature?

Obā-san

see, aliroz gets it

(*gives a gold star to the gator*)

Aliroz

Why does the guy on the right in the last three panels have spiders all over his head?

Also, in first panel, we see two identical twins, only distinguishable by the fact that one of them actually has a neck and the other has just accidentally stuck his leg through a hole in his other leg.

In the second panel, The Neckless Guy and his twin have switched places; and the non-neckless twin has chopped off both his legs from the knees down.  To stay identical, Neckless chopped off both his legs from the knees down.

Since Spider-infested-head-guy cannot tell Neckless guy from his identical twin, in Panel Two Neckless decides to impersonate his twin.

In the third panel, apparently a flashback, we see a person with his arm stuck through a hole in his stomach and coming out the other side.  But this guy is more concerned with relating an anecdote regarding the explosion of an acquaintance.

Also in the third panel, a person who looks nothing like either of the twins is replying to the impaled guy.  Said person-who-does-not-resemble-the-twins has a head that is not connected to itself, there is a visible gap in it, making it hard to determine what area is within the borders of his head and what is not.  This guy with severe head damage is balancing on one leg; said leg is one a box with the word REMEMBER written on it; and the other leg is in empty space.  In the same panel, we see what appears to be a lifelike wax replica of a person who has an unfinished yin-yang symbol with a tail for a head.

Spider-infested, in the same panel, is standing with both feet firmly placed on the REMEMBER box, and we can see the spider population that will later grow into a much larger one.

In panel four, we get the shocking reveal that instead of being twins, the twins in the first panel are actually two of a set of triplets!  The missing triplet, also lacking in neck-having; has taken the place of his non-neck-lacking triplet; presumably so non-neckless triplet can take a break and go home.



And here we see Neckless and Spider Infested trapped in a box with words written on it (also, curvy lines).

The Box is balanced on an invisible box with ALLCAPS words written on it.

Clearly, if there is ever a sequel to this, it will involve Spider-infested and Neckless escaping from the box on top of a box.