0095: "The Sierpinski Penis Game"

[Sean Quixote]

Alt: "Inappropriate places for the Penis Game include baby showers and terrorist attacks"

Randall Munroe, you magnificent bastard.

[Роберт]

haha,
penis

[Jared the Great]

Person 1: Aww, what a cute baby---
Black Hat Guy: Penis.

[flamewise]

Why are three of the smallest triangles missing? And what's wrong with my watch?

[ctsketch]

Isn't this wicked old?

[Роберт]

Isn't this wicked old?

In case you didn't know, it's comic 0095.

It should be pretty easy for you to figure out the answer to your question now that I've told you this.

[Sean Quixote]

Indeed, it is so old that nobody ever got around to making a thread for it. Then one fateful day it appears on my screen saver Jpagsaver slide show thingy, and the rest is history...

[Judah]

Can someone explain the joke to me?

[scarletmanuka]

If you search for Sierpinski, the first several results you get will tell you about the Sierpinski Triangle.

[Judah]

If you search for Sierpinski, the first several results you get will tell you about the Sierpinski Triangle.

I know what the Sierpinski triangle is. I still don't get the joke.

Oh—now, I see there's some consonance between "Sierpinski" and "penis". Is there really nothing more to get than that? I'd have thought there had to be something more. Oh well, this was an early one...

[Catmando]

I'm pretty sure the joke is that the person who put penis in the largest triangle has won because they said it the "loudest" (that's the version of the penis game I've seen). Either that or the intent is for them to be able to continue the game endlessly because there are infinite spaces with which to fill with penes.

[Zinho]

If you search for Sierpinski, the first several results you get will tell you about the Sierpinski Triangle.

I know what the Sierpinski triangle is. I still don't get the joke.

Oh—now, I see there's some consonance between "Sierpinski" and "penis". Is there really nothing more to get than that? I'd have thought there had to be something more. Oh well, this was an early one...

I figured that it had something to do with the "upward triangle = penis" symbolism mentioned in The Da Vinci Code. So I guess the game is to look for upward-pointing triangles and point out that they are penis symbols; the sierpinski is therefore a whole bunch of them crammed together. I noticed, though, that Randall petered out during the second iteration; the joke kinda gets old fast.

[OP Tipping]

Randall petered out

---


Heh, peter

[addams]

I'm pretty sure the joke is that the person who put penis in the largest triangle has won because they said it the "loudest" (that's the version of the penis game I've seen). Either that or the intent is for them to be able to continue the game endlessly because there are infinite spaces with which to fill with penes.

Yep. One of those endless games to fill infinity with silliness.

Once a person starts seeing penis in all phallic and non phallic objects alike it is difficult to stop seeing them. How long would it take for all triangles with the base oriented down to the viewer to all become penises? For this meme to move into mainstream thought? Then, Triangles banned from public view. Then, the reason is lost and the commandment becomes written into Religious text.

The Lord Saith, "Do not look at my peni...Triangle!"

I am learning hyperbole. How was that?
ech. It barley fits the definition. No talent for it.

Still; I like rep-tiles.
http://www.google.com/search?q=mc+esche ... 11&bih=436
M.C. was a wickedly talented man. It is good to have a reminder to look at his work.

[whateveries]

I am learning hyperbole. How was that?
ech. It barley fits the definition. No talent for it...

No way! That was great. I am not sure what I would call it, recursive hyperbolic irony, or is it a hyper-meta-bole whatever. I likes it.

[phlip]

Are you perhaps unfamiliar with the Penis Game?

One person says the word "penis". Then, another person says the word "penis" too, but louder. The first person (or a third person, if there are three or more people playing) counters by also saying "penis", louder still. The person who says "penis" the loudest, without (a) chickening out, or (b) getting into trouble with a nearby teacher (as it is invariably school-age people who play this game) is the winner.

All in all, a rather simple game. The humour in the comic comes from absurdism, invoking this game where it doesn't belong (as explained in the alt-text).

[Pfhorrest]

I was unfamiliar with this "penis game" until phlip's post here, and took the intended humor of the comic just to be the juxtaposition of high- and low-brow subjects (and not very funny IMO). However, with this newfound edification a new take seems evident: playing the "penis game" in text, where larger font = louder, in a Sierpinski triangle, means that the first player wins, because each subsequent "penis" has to get smaller and smaller.

Also, since Sierpinski triangles can be made out of any shape, not just triangles, wouldn't the Sierpinski penis game really consist of increasingly more dense arrays of increasingly smaller penises converging toward a Sierpinski triangle? Here is the fifth move of the true Sierpenisky game (haha, penisky):

No penises or mathematicians were harmed in the making of this image.

[cjmcjmcjmcjm]

That image is the true spirit of Jerkcity