0741: "Blogging"

[10nitro]

Title-text: I'm looking to virally monetize your eyeballs by selling them for transplants.

Comment: I don't get the eyeballs bit.

[edit] Whoops, it doesn't like it when I don't put `http://' on a url [/edit]

[Steve the Pocket]

I don't get any of it.

[apeman5291]

I don't get any of it.

Ditto.

[oxy]

Uh... what?

[eleniy86]

i was just thinking of starting a blog today too haha maybe i should attend said lecture

Get out of my head Randall!

[Schelle]

Well, I'm glad I'm not the only one who doesn't get it.

[Otaku4399]

Yeah I have no idea what the title-text is implying.

[scarecrovv]

Perhaps the fact that the lecture has at least 3 parts implies lots of content? Or perhaps he's implying that his blog is short on good content?

Or perhaps I have no idea what's going on.

[DieJay]

Is this a take on the innumerable self-help books that are supposed to tell you how to be successful at things like these but they end up sounding like they have no idea of what they're talking about whatsoever?

Not one of your best comics, Randy. The title-text was also a let down. Too subtle I guess.

[Quicksilver]

Get out of my head, Randall! I love content so much I intend to add graphs and statistics to my upcoming website once I organise my videos. I've also been writing articles, along with other people for a music blog for nearly 3 years.

[LockeZ]

This comic is brilliant because it is so subtle. Randall is a genius, and you are all uncultured fools for not getting the reference.

[lsdigit]

perhaps it is about viral marketeers using the "blog" format to reach an audience, the person interjecting seems to be suggesting people will read the blog if it is worth it. but he loves content as well. The title text is merely indicating said marketeers would sell your eyes for money, which is fair enough.
Not sure if there is humour in this one, but no doubt it will be analysed by the forum looking for the content, because this forum (from what i have read) LOVES content.

[xx_vaceltic]

Randall is a genius, and you are all uncultured fools for not getting the reference.

Fair enough... enlighten us?


Also, the title-text sounded oddly similar to an article I read earlier today about a mix-up in organ donors, specifically relating to eyes.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7578602/Organ-donor-blunders-could-cost-lives.html

Coincidence? Maybe...

[robot/human]

This is my unconvincing interpretation:

The interjecting audience member represents a reader of the blog. By engaging in conversation with this guy, the blogger (on stage) has succeeded in "building a relationship" with his readers. This is signified by the fact that the reader doesn't even care what the content is, and is excited about whatever the blogger may offer.

edit: I really think this was the intended meaning. By this interpretation, the alt-text makes sense as well: it shows how much the reader will go through when he feels connected to the blog..

[Sourire]

I thought, personally that the word choice "we" is a key point of the joke here. It's the speaker building a relationship with his audience, which makes them overlook content.

But maybe I'm being too semantics-y.

[Zylon]

I'm pretty sure I "get" today's strip, in the sense that I understand all the lines. But it does seem to be missing a joke.

[faunablues]

I believe this is poking fun at roflcon and attempts to intellectualize internet culture. it was just a couple weeks ago, and on top of that in Cambridge, so... likely connection, right? I mean, if you look at their schedule, it's nothing but seminars on how the internetz/blogging/memes work. It's like explaining a joke.

also, the irony of describing on how to communicate with people in a way that is entirely impersonal and withdrawn.

[Cal Engime]

Your eyeballs are sold to advertisers.

[faunablues]

Your eyeballs are sold to advertisers.

but what about the transplant part?

[LucasBrown]

Randall, get out of my head... I just started a blog today.

[Zylon]

Randall, get out of my head... I just started a blog today.

Lucas, get out of my head... I just read a blog today!

[Whyareall]

Am I the only one who realised Randall misspelled blagging?

[Omegaton]

Replace "blog" with "webcomic" and it works the same.

EDIT: Didn't mean to make that sound like I was insinuating anything about today's comic...

[BlueNight]

This is my unconvincing interpretation:

The interjecting audience member represents a reader of the blog. By engaging in conversation with this guy, the blogger (on stage) has succeeded in "building a relationship" with his readers. This is signified by the fact that the reader doesn't even care what the content is, and is excited about whatever the blogger may offer.

edit: I really think this was the intended meaning. By this interpretation, the alt-text makes sense as well: it shows how much the reader will go through when he feels connected to the blog..

I read it this way: the seminar's primary focus is how to make money with your blog. The interjecting audience member is actually a creative type, not just somebody out to make a few bucks. The lecturer's response makes it clear his primary focus is his Patented System for Making Money With Your Blog, not actually building the quality of the blogosphere. The interjecting audience member is either A) being sardonic as the realization dawns that this seminar will not be useful to him, or B) is genuinely entranced by the lecturer and will wait passively, building knowledge of per-click ads and pageview counts, and will buy the prepackaged software and hosting contract at the end of the seminar.

[glasnt]

Why does this remind me too much of Dogbert?

Oh that's right, I found The Dilbert Principle at a garage sale on the weekend, and I've been reading it before going to bed.

"You may think this is a liver attached to by stomach, but IT'S ACTUALLY AN EXTERNAL BRAIN!"

[Vesperidius]

You guys.

The guy on stage is a bullshit artist. He comes from the school of Getting The Most Page Views. The guy in the audience has the spirit of a real blogger who understands what's important. This is emphasized by the fact that the lecturer is giving a 3+ part seminar on blogging, with content pushed to the third part, when all you really need to know is summed up in one sentence by the audience member.

That's the joke.

[radiator]

I kinda hoped that this particular comic would have been ... amped up?

[pezmaster31]

I was a bit disappointed that Citation Needed guy wasn't in the crowd to call out the speaker's BS.

[gormster]

This comic is brilliant because it is so subtle. Randall is a genius, and you are all uncultured fools for not getting the reference.

Reference? What reference?

[phillipsjk]

The "title" text is a little creepy if you read as a literally coming from the author of the comic.

[irrelevant]

Come on !!! I had to make an account just to make this comment. The joke is rather simple this time folks... the lecture about blogging turned into a blog. Read: The people being taught/educated/informed/entertained take it upon themselves to be the teachers/educators/informers/entertainers , as is the case with most blogs.

[portentum]

This one brought the ProBlogger book my girlfriend just bought to mind. (Don't visit the site, just know it's a bunch of crap. Don't want to give them the pageviews.)

[ex-kgb]

I think it's fairly obvious that the underlined Love is meant to convey sarcasm. So basically the audience member is making a joke out of the simple fact that a blog is nothing without content, and the presenter is silly to think that anything is more important than good content.

[caust1c]

The interjecting audience member represents a reader of the blog. By engaging in conversation with this guy, the blogger (on stage) has succeeded in "building a relationship" with his readers. This is signified by the fact that the reader doesn't even care what the content is, and is excited about whatever the blogger may offer.

edit: I really think this was the intended meaning. By this interpretation, the alt-text makes sense as well: it shows how much the reader will go through when he feels connected to the blog..

I agree. Also the title text hints at the viral marketing practices of bloggers in hopes of getting money from their blog. There's a lot of truth in this comic being that blogs can get away with rather uninteresting updates so long as they're often and the blogger writes something interesting once in a while. More content = more traffic = more money.
Honestly, it even applies to this webcomic; tons of people come posting about not getting the joke or Randall 'falling off his game' and yet you still read every new one regardless. Randall has a relationship with his readers and even when his comics are meh (which not many are when analyzed carefully) people continue to read them. I love this webcomic because it makes me think critically.

Edit: grammar.

[tuckels]

I took it as: the person giving the lecture is trying to "teach" the audience how to write a blog by overanalysing the readership and using psychological trickses to draw them in, where all you really need in a successful blog is for it to be interesting, as the heckler points out.

[cowsarenotevil]

I believe the point is that the speaker is promising the audience that they'll get the actual content they're looking for later as long as they stick around. Like any number of things that draw you in by telling you whatever you want (e.g. we'll discuss content later) and then never actually deliver.

EDIT: And, of course, simply telling the audience whatever they want to hear is an example of "building a relationship with readers."

[syko_lozz]

This is my unconvincing interpretation:

The interjecting audience member represents a reader of the blog. By engaging in conversation with this guy, the blogger (on stage) has succeeded in "building a relationship" with his readers. This is signified by the fact that the reader doesn't even care what the content is, and is excited about whatever the blogger may offer.

^ what he said.

and also, maybe this comic was sub-funny on purpose to show us that because we have a relationship with Randall, we will read and post about whatever crap he gives us!

[libra]

Or maybe you've all got to overhaul your senses of humour.

The lecturer wasn't actually going to do content generation until part three. That's this lecture and the following one completely devoid of content, and yet the audience would likely sit through them all waiting for that content to arrive.

A bit like most blogs, really. Post one is always "Hello, this is my new blog. Erm, content to come soon" and the second post is "I know it's been six months, but I promise there'll be something original next time."

Advertisers know about this, which is why you get endless teasers during ad breaks that don't seem to make any sense. A penguin falls over. Cut to a car ad. People go "Huh?" and forget it, till the penguin falls over again in the next ad.

Then they're hooked, hoping the next one will tell them what they're going to be advertising - usually another bloody car.

It's one big version of the old chestnut "How do you keep an idiot in suspense? I'll tell you next week!"

[spadders]

The graphic is very similar to this comic: http://xkcd.com/285/, which makes me think the joke is about content generation.

[benbald72]

I feel connected to the author and therefore appreciate the comic, regardless of whether or not I understand the joke or find it funny, and regardless of whether or not the comic actually contains a joke.