# Please tell me why XKCD is so great **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 1, 2012, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-tell-me-why-xkcd-is-so-great/611452 "2012-02-01T19:42:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2012, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-tell-me-why-xkcd-is-so-great/611452/21 "2012-02-02T05:10:13Z")
addendum: I also dislike ones like the recent one about sighing. There are already enough memetastic things people parrot back to me in real life. I don’t need LMFAO lyrics to be added to that. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2012, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-tell-me-why-xkcd-is-so-great/611452/22 "2012-02-02T06:50:09Z")
> [@Wheelz](#): > > It’s occasionally clever. But much more often, it mistakes obscurity for wit, and there’s kind of a smarmy smugness about it – “Here’s a really esoteric reference. If you get it you’re one of the cool kids, and if you don’t you’re not as smart as we are.” [Obligatory XKCD link](http://xkcd.com/50/) ---
**Author:** ![Silophant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a698b9/32.png) [@Silophant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silophant)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2012, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-tell-me-why-xkcd-is-so-great/611452/23 "2012-02-02T06:54:35Z")
How prophetic. ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2012, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-tell-me-why-xkcd-is-so-great/611452/24 "2012-02-02T06:58:13Z")
I still laugh at the very clever strip that compared the fantasy of crypto geeks using technology to outwit brutal dictators, and the reality which is they beat you with a pipe until you give them your encryption key. Thats the kind of humor cutting down some of the fantasies of the tech crowd that I can’t get anywhere else. ---
**Author:** ![lazybratsche](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ba8739/32.png) [@lazybratsche](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lazybratsche)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2012, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-tell-me-why-xkcd-is-so-great/611452/25 "2012-02-02T19:15:54Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > _elitist air_ > I like vintage xkcd. Bobby Tables and the like. Nowadays half the time it’s a sex joke, which is fine, I guess. Certainly other comics dip from that well all the time. But XKCD makes a point of billing itself as an intellectual exercise as well as a comic. Which makes [this sort of thing](http://xkcd.com/830/) stand out in stark relief as not being intellectual or funny. Also, he’s run graph jokes into the ground. I can’t even appreciate a good one, now because he’s abused them so much. See, I’m a geneticist-in-training, and I read that particular comic as a meta-joke about how genetic tests rarely give definite conclusions – just a bunch of possible risk factors that probably don’t add up to anything. Parentage is the one of the few possible conclusions that can come from a genetic test. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2012, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-tell-me-why-xkcd-is-so-great/611452/26 "2012-02-02T20:05:16Z")
I agree that it’s hit and miss in terms of humour. Some of them are pretty clever, though. ---
**Author:** ![pancakes3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-tell-me-why-xkcd-is-so-great/611452/27 "2012-02-03T00:49:16Z")
can’t explain. just one of those things. i don’t like pupusas. ::shrug:: ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-tell-me-why-xkcd-is-so-great/611452/28 "2012-02-03T01:03:31Z")
There’s a lot of heart in XKCD - from “Angular Momentum” through to “Lanes” ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-tell-me-why-xkcd-is-so-great/611452/29 "2012-02-03T01:17:20Z")
Baron is correct. It’s not the geekiness. It’s the heart. ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-tell-me-why-xkcd-is-so-great/611452/30 "2012-02-03T01:22:51Z")
Some of them completely peg the concept and nothing further need be said. I’m a scientist, and most of my best buds are scientists. I shelled out the simoleons and got a signed copy of ‘[The Difference](http://xkcd.com/242/)’ for one of them. I’ve used the example from [Connoisseur](http://xkcd.com/915/) a number of times, and it has certainly made me think about the nature of expertise. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-tell-me-why-xkcd-is-so-great/611452/31 "2012-02-03T01:40:28Z")
> [@Wheelz](#): > > But much more often, it mistakes obscurity for wit, and there’s kind of a smarmy smugness about it – “Here’s a really esoteric reference. If you get it you’re one of the cool kids, and if you don’t you’re not as smart as we are.” I can see how it might seem like that’s what he’s doing if you don’t get the references. I hate that sort of shit. However, I that’s not what Munroe is doing. He makes jokes about the things that interest him. He just has really odd, geeky interests. ---
**Author:** ![Gozu\_Tashoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7993a0/32.png) [@Gozu\_Tashoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gozu_Tashoya)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-tell-me-why-xkcd-is-so-great/611452/32 "2012-02-03T01:52:28Z")
> [@typoink](#): > > My gut reaction to xkcd is to hate it for the same reason, but I _just can’t_. The more I read it, the more convinced I am that the writer does just think about things like this. Yeah, seems pretty safe to say [he pretty much does](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJOS0sV2a24). ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-tell-me-why-xkcd-is-so-great/611452/33 "2012-02-03T02:08:47Z")
Is the artist by chance atheist? ---
**Author:** ![Lusus\_Naturae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de053/32.png) [@Lusus\_Naturae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lusus_Naturae)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2012, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-tell-me-why-xkcd-is-so-great/611452/34 "2012-02-04T04:02:06Z")
I may be alone on this one, but if xkcd confuses me on a given day, or I just flat out don’t get the joke, I use that as a good excuse to go read up on the topic until I DO get it. It’s not just funny, it’s educational! If you’re like me, anyway. Which would be scary. ---
**Author:** ![Chipacabra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19b73/32.png) [@Chipacabra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chipacabra)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2012, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-tell-me-why-xkcd-is-so-great/611452/35 "2012-02-04T05:25:57Z")
I still read xkcd, but at this point I think Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal basically fills the same niche but is consistently better. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2012, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-tell-me-why-xkcd-is-so-great/611452/36 "2012-02-04T06:00:09Z")
The science and/or math ones aren’t my bag, but they’re not the ONLY ones: [Indecision](http://xkcd.com/330/) [Unsatisfied](http://xkcd.com/584/) [Geico](http://xkcd.com/42/) [Rogers St](http://xkcd.com/884/) [Lamp](http://xkcd.com/879/) [Beliefs](http://xkcd.com/154/) ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2012, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-tell-me-why-xkcd-is-so-great/611452/37 "2012-02-04T11:26:19Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > Is the artist by chance atheist? OK, I have to ask. What the heck does this have to do with anything? ---
**Author:** ![bldysabba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@bldysabba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bldysabba)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-tell-me-why-xkcd-is-so-great/611452/38 "2012-02-05T10:53:08Z")
I also want to say that XKCD has had a pretty big influence on other webcomic authors(abstruse goose, phdcomics), which is in part a result of how successful it has been, but in my view also a measure of how good and novel its humour has been. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-tell-me-why-xkcd-is-so-great/611452/39 "2012-02-05T13:42:00Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > [Unsatisfied](http://xkcd.com/584/) I love the ones with stick figure sex because it often takes me a minute to figure out what’s going on because the sticks overlap so much. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-tell-me-why-xkcd-is-so-great/611452/40 "2012-02-05T13:51:22Z")
> [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](#): > > We’re geeks. It’s that simple. A geeky comic strip made for geeky people using computers, which was once the most geeky thing you could do. It’s no more complicated than that. But is that really enough? I feel I am the target market. I have a degree in Pure Mathematics. I have a postgraduate degree in Software Engineering. I read comics. I could geek if not for my country but for at least county-level competition. I far, far more often than not _understand_ XKCD. But I just don’t find it funny. I recognise it, shrug my shoulders and move on. Just recognising what is being referred to isn’t enough to be funny. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-tell-me-why-xkcd-is-so-great/611452.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-tell-me-why-xkcd-is-so-great/611452.md?page=3)