XKCD Isn't Funny - #1667 - Algorithms

Have any of you ever read Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality? You don't have to read it, it's nothing too special, writing wise. It has one bit early on where Harry goes like "blah blah blah and then you get FTL signaling blah blah blah" because he's science about magic and stuff. In su3su2u1's (unfortunately only archived) critique of the bit in question, he points out that "He even abbreviated faster-than-light as FTL, to keep the density of understandable words to a minimum." (su3su2u1 2). Randy's done something similar here, where instead of just saying "Google search engine" he has to say "google search backend". I've got even less of an idea of what anything to the left of "self driving car" could be.

I've gone back and forth on whether or not XKCD should stick to one level of humor accessibility and I've had people disagree with me on both sides. But, this joke's punchline doesn't actually depend on any of the setup items being specifically what they are. I think we can all agree that Randy's use of jargon here shows a clear misplacement of priorities. The joke could have been made totally accessible to anyone who'd read it, but instead the first half is garbled up with technical terms that confuse everything.

Getting to the punchline itself, it is incredibly specific. I legitimately thought that the church group thing had been in some news article he'd read. Like someone called their grandson to ask why their computer was taking so long and he realized the only file on it was a terrabyte sized excel sheet and he went to the news with it or something. Stranger things have happened; I kissed a girl once.

Ignoring my gullibility, since this is all made up, couldn't Randy have actually showed us the spreadsheet being made? We could get a photomontage of all the different little old church going ladies muttering at their progressively more advanced computers, until one of them is asking the president of NASA if they can borrow their system because they're running out of space. Then the NASA guy could be all "uh, well..." and the church group could say "We brought cookies!" and NASA would be like "...okay." Then whenever NASA is referenced in the comics the person in charge could be depicted as a little old church going lady as a non-intrusive and enjoyable callback!

In conclusion, this comic is less funny than the "Al Gore Rhythm" pun, and it's not just because that pun is hilarious.