Wow, I'd forgotten how big that comic was.
So! What we have here is a guy at a computer. For what appears to be twenty-two individually drawn panels, a guy is at a computer, which really does seem like a dig at the reader and other people like me who have nothing better to do than stay on the computer all day, but w/e.
At the end of this mass, which I am absolutely sure pretty much everyone just skims through because nothing happens, a guy is revealed to be looking at a website. The comic then hyperlinks to the website, thereby trapping you forever in the belly of the beast.
The reader is then actually left staring at the screen in confusion, either having heard of TV Tropes and therefore already having heard this joke because they have a whole page for it, or not having heard of TV Tropes and not getting the intended punchline.
What this comic is, is an ad. An ad for TV Tropes. If Randy had a tumblr instead of a website this would be a reblog of someone saying "Hey, just found out about this cool website called TV Tropes!".
Irregular Webcomic, which I pretty much consider XKCD but pretty decent most of the time, did this same thing in a not-terrible way: in the decription/rant under the comic, he'd link to TV Tropes every once in a while, sometimes with a little ">:D" type face, and that's really all that needed to be done. The joke everyone came to see stayed in the comic, and the link stayed in the description, with a little in joke that isn't worthy of actually being the point of coming to the site.
I'm going to say something that is apparently somewhat controversal: I like TV Tropes. Andrew does too, but he's busy making New Super Mario Bros Wii U 3 right now so you'll have to take my word for it.
TV Tropes definitely does have a creep factor going on, but let me tell you: It is amazing for finding new music. I wouldn't have heard some of my favorite artists (Mike Oldfield, Ayreon, Streetlight Manifesto, The Avalanches, Bomb the Music Industry!, Chumbawamba, Death Grips, entertainment for the braindead, [...]) if it wasn't for TV Tropes.
But even if TV Tropes was an undiluted stream of pure amazingness, I wouldn't give this comic a passing grade. Just like a standup comedian can't get away with saying "Wow, Frozen was a movie, wasn't it?", Randy can't get away with saying "Wow, TV Tropes is a website, isn't it?".
Also if anyone can think of a better name for this than "Classic Isn't Funny", please let me know.
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