2015-09-12

XKCD Isn't Funny - #1564 - Every Seven Seconds

 Every few months, I think about sex every seven seconds and how weird and implausible it would be.

I actually kinda like this comic. I wish I didn't, though. That way I could use the line "Every seven seconds I think about how awful XKCD is".

It's not super duper funny, but I like how it doesn't spell out the joke, while giving just enough infomation to get across what the statistic is. It doesn't go out and say "the statistic which states that men think about sex every seven seconds", it says "seven seconds" in reference to something else and "how often men think about sex", and we instantly know exactly what it's referring to.

The thought bubbles, while conveniently keeping this from being Could Be A Tweet material, are realistically phrased and add to the joke. I'm especially pleased to see the masculinity line, given Randy's previous examples of near inferiority complex when it comes to gender relations.

I do, however, have to admit to bias here: my mom was (possibly still is?) a statistician, and her detest of fake stats like this one absolutely rubbed off on me. It is entirely possible that someone less bothered by misinformation would read this comic and go "The hell do you care if someone believes an obvious lie?", which would be absolutely valid as a criticism of this comedic piece.

It's definitely true that the joke doesn't really go beyond "That statistic is stupid" and I could also see why someone would read this as a preachy comic, but since we're lacking White Hat, this does seem to just be a decent joke that wasn't taken as far as it could've been. Like what if the comic was about a man who actually thought about sex every seven seconds, and the hilarity that ensued when he went to a funeral?

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