Friday, February 6, 2015

Worst XKCD ever:Are you ready for some sportsball?!

I generally like xkcd quite a bit. It's consistently one of the best sites on the internet, and the worst things I usually have to say about it are:


  1. That was slightly less awesome than it usually is,
  2. That was funny in a way that didn't appeal to me, and occasionally
  3. I don't get it

However, this one bothered me. It's really uncharacteristically condescending and judgmental. 




I don't care about sports, and a lot of other people do. It's not some sense of ironic distance; they just don't interest me. Just the same, I tend not to shit all over them in front of my friends who do like them, because I'd like to keep them. That's generally good advice anyway.

The second panel sets up a bogus comparison by comparing enthusiasm about niche interests to aninterest in sports, as there exists a real possibility that a listener might not have been exposed to macrame meteorology charts or whatever, and there exists a possibility that by expounding on the subject, you could inform them why it means so much to you.

The same opportunity is not available when talking about sports, as discussion about them in ubiquitous in almost all aspects of our society, and it's very nearly cradle to grave exposure. Anyone who has an opinion on sports by definition has an informed opinion on sports.

It didn't ruin my life, or even my day, but I won't pretend I didn't find the chastising tone kind of insulting.

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