XKCD Isn't Funny - #1990 - Driving Cars & #1993 - Fatal Crash Rate

This review is going to be a little bit more vitriolic than I usually am, just because this kind of content really gets under my skin. (Please note that I am NOT saying that Randall should not have made this comic, I'm only talking about my reaction to it.)

I'm going to get a little bit abstract here, but bear with me. I'm not smart enough to know the word for this, but look at these comics through the lens of their function, what they do. Not what they're intended to do, ignore that for now, but what does a reader experience when they read this. I imagine for most people, all it will do is make them afraid. And, in my opinion, needlessly afraid.

Now, statistically, yeah, driving causes a lot of deaths. But that 'a lot' is only 'a lot' relative to other things. Compared to heart disease it's jack nothing. You're more likely to die from suicide. There's only a million deaths worldwide per year. That's WORLDWIDE. The odds of you, you the person reading this, dying in any given car crash is astronomically low.

All this is to say that the comic is essentially fear-mongering. And that is incredibly spiteful of me to say, but Randall has a large audience and it's callous of him to post things that only scare and worry people. These aren't awareness things, the last one isn't even the push for self-driving cars that it could be. And yes they're presumably Randall's honest feelings and yes he has a right to say it and all that but it's very lame that he was unable or unwilling to make a comic that expressed those feelings as his personal phobia rather than as something that is easily generalized to the reader.

I'd also like to point out that at least in my state of Rhode Island, high schoolers have to first take an unbearably boring driving class for like seven hours a day for two weeks, then drive with a legal adult who can drive for two hundred hours, then take a drivers' test. And that only gets you the restricted licence which doesn't let you drive with more than one underage passenger or after dark for (if I'm remembering correctly) nine months. And THEN you get your real licence. (Some of the fine details might be slightly off, it's been a while.) Other states probably have different laws, but no, not everyone on the road did a single test. And even IF that's all you have to do, you presumably have to have PRACTICED driving to get to that point. AND if someone does get into a crash, their licence can be taken away for being a bad driver so they don't get into another crash!

Oh yeah. Neither of the comics are jokes nor do they provide any valuable insight into anything. The second comic in particular seems to be based on wild conjecture. As that second link says, most car deaths occur between the ages of 15 and 44, but Randall's first chart has his current age of 33 as a low point of probability.

In conclusion, the best part of these comics is that one of them is numbered 1990, which is the year my favorite album came out.

How Dara Ó Briain uses the audience to set up a joke

Dara Ó Briain is somewhat unique among standup comedians in how much he interacts with the audience. Not just attacking people Dice-style or sparring with hecklers, he'll actually have full conversations with random people in the front row, or call out for answers to a question.

An important thing to note is that Dara does have solid improvisational skills. Check out about twenty-eight minutes into his 2008 special Talks Funny where he's able to almost seamlessly set up and deliver a multi-part bit based off of a woman unexpectedly shouting out "Energy!". But improvisation can be risky; unless you're Ross Noble, you need solid prepared bits to maintain a full standup set. Here's how he uses the audience to seem more improvisational than he actually is to help the show feel spontaneous and fun.

The part of Craic Dealer shown above (it starts at about fifty-eight minutes in for those of you reading after that video inevitably gets taken down for copyright infringement) starts with about two minutes of setup. The two pieces of technology chosen (computer, refrigerator) keep the audience thinking in a certain axis of technology (modern, electrical). If someone really wanted to be an asshole (NOTE: you shouldn't, hecklers suck), they could totally jump in with a suggestion like "lightning rod" or "not using lead pipes".

It's important to remember that this is his last show on this tour. He's had a few months to hone the details of the rehearsed parts, and he's done this bit multiple times. So when he responds to "microwave!" with "A microwave is the simplest machine you could think of!?", that's probably a prepared line he's used for other people who've shouted it out. And again, that isn't a knock on Dara, that's what comedians are supposed to do, they are supposed to have techniques to make a show funny.

Also notice how he subtly dismisses "kettle" after listing it as a good suggestion by focusing instead on "toaster". And when he asks for a "simple, non-electrical machine we use every day", there's really only one answer to that, which is naturally the one he's prepared for. To my ears it sounds like someone also shouted out "golf club", which again doesn't work in the bit.

By preparing the audience to think in certain ways and then selecting the answers that work best, Dara is able to make the show seem more free form than it actually is, and the show is better as a result.

(Dara if by any chance you're reading this, stop now)

This is one of the reasons I was disappointed with his most recent special, Crowd Tickler, which unlike his four earlier specials, contains no audience interaction in the beginning and very little throughout. (Only four times by my count, three of which are just different members of the audience saying "Yes." to something Dara says.) Maybe he's just low energy from having to host Mock The Week for sixteen worthless seasons.