Xkcd: Difference between revisions
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'''Barrel guy''' is another recurring character, who appeared in 5 strips. He is repeatedly seen floating in a barrel in a large body of water. |
'''Barrel guy''' is another recurring character, who appeared in 5 strips. He is repeatedly seen floating in a barrel in a large body of water. |
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'''Megan''' is a partner or ex-partner of the main character. |
'''Megan''' is a partner or ex-partner of the main character.[http://www.xkcd.org/c215.html] |
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==Alternative sites (mirrors)== |
==Alternative sites (mirrors)== |
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Revision as of 06:41, 19 February 2007
| xkcd | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | Randall Munroe |
| Website | http://www.xkcd.com/ |
| Current status/schedule | Updates Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays |
| Launch date | 2005-09-29 [3] |
| Genre(s) | Nerd/Romance Humor |
xkcd is a webcomic created by Randall Munroe[1], a former NASA roboticist. It calls itself "a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language." The comic is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License.
Although the characters are usually stick figures, the comic occasionally features landscapes, intricate mathematical patterns such as fractals, or imitations of the style of other cartoonists (as during "parody week"). The subjects of the comics themselves vary. Some strips feature simple humor or pop-culture references, some are statements on life and love, and some are mathematical or scientific in-jokes.
New comics are added at midnight Eastern time on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, though they are occasionally updated more frequently for special events.
History
The comic began when Munroe decided to scan doodles from his school notebooks and put them on his webpage. Eventually the comic was changed into a standalone website, where Munroe started selling t-shirts based on the comic. He currently "works on the comic full time."[1]
The name xkcd is not an acronym. Munroe has not given the name a meaning (except in a joking manner, in strip #207), and claims that the name was originally a screen name, which he selected as a combination of letters that would be meaningless, as well as phonetically unpronouncable.[2]
Recurring themes
While there is no specific storyline to the comic, there are some recurring characters (such as a boy in a barrel, red spiders, and a stick figure with a hat) and themes. A large number of the strips are mathematics or computer science jokes, and are often advanced university level subjects, although many are written in such a way that a clear understanding of the subject isn't needed to get the punchline. Romance is another subject often visited in the comic, with many strips not intended to be humorous. xkcd frequently makes reference to Munroe's "obsession" with potential raptor attacks [4] [5] [6], the game Guitar Hero (Strip #70) and (Strip #132), various bizarre "hobbies", and many "your mom" jokes. All but one of the comics have tooltips, specified using the title attribute in HTML. The text usually contains an afterthought or annotation related to that day's comic.
Recurring characters
Hat guy Looks like a normal character, but for his trademark hat. He is particularly non-tolerant of smart-assery and internet newbishness. He once cut off another person's hand for posing an incorrectly worded "-gry" puzzle, and once inflicted a multi-spectral Care Bear stare on another person [7]. He is closely based on the character Aram from the Men in Hats webcomic ([8], rollover comment).
Barrel guy is another recurring character, who appeared in 5 strips. He is repeatedly seen floating in a barrel in a large body of water.
Megan is a partner or ex-partner of the main character.[9]
Alternative sites (mirrors)
The xkcd comic and all content is also mirrored on other sites setup by Randall Munroe or "davean" (the site administrator and coder). "davean" stated that is just one alternate site, possibly out of many [10]. Currently, only two mirrors have been found. One at cu.nniling.us, and one at xckd.com (Note how the two middle letters are reversed from the main url).