XKCD Isn't Funny - #1436 - ORB HAMMER

"Orb Hammer" sounds like the name of a really pretentious trance band.

I check explainxkcd after reading every comic, just to make sure I didn't completely misinterpret things. There's a quote from the article on this comic:

"The idea of using simple language in highly technical fields began with 547: Simple and was revisited in 722: Computer Problems and 1133: Up Goer Five. [...] The idea of using simple language to create humour highlighting the absurdity of normal activities has previously been explored with 203: Hallucinations."

Not to do your job for you, explainxkcd, but you missed #444 with that last bit.

Anyway, I can appreciate this style of humor. As with It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, I can see why people would enjoy it, it's just not my thing. It's like those people that like to be disemboweled. I see what you're going for, but not for me.

The only thing I don't understand is why he'd reuse it after doing #1133. I mean, that's pretty much the highest you can go with this specific concept, isn't it?

I also think the phrasiology isn't done as well as it should be. The goal of what TV Tropes might call a "Reverse Expospeak Gag" is to get the reader to look back and go "Ohhh, that's what he's talking about."*, more or less. But here, I think that the wording was pushed a little too far into absurdity. For example, there's no "going to the moon" bit, but there is a "going back".

Y'know, some people say that you're never going to need debating skills in real life (I assume some people say that, I've never actually met any of them or anything) but the other day I was trash talking Roger Waters to my friends and this lady walks up and starts engaging me! What has the world come to when people have to 'defend' and 'argue' their positions like a bunch of proctologists?


*My favorite way of doing that remains the: "You consumed too much food matter? / Yeah, and I ate too much too." way, but that doesn't have any catchy shorthand, so I can see why it's not the path that Randy chose here.