1009: "Sigh"

[Hawknc]

Another of those US-only XKCDs.

It's starting to get a little annoying. I just counted: Among the last 20 XKCDs (not counting the SOPA thing and the "1000" thing), 9 were US-only.

What happened to general nerd-dom?

Downton Abbey is British, and LFMAO is irritatingly pervasive (no. 18 on the British charts, no. 11 in the Australian charts). I'm not sure what about this is uniquely American.

[bugmenot314]

Downton Abbey is British, and LFMAO is irritatingly pervasive (no. 18 on the British charts, no. 11 in the Australian charts). I'm not sure what about this is uniquely American.

Okay, let's say "Anglo-Saxon-only" instead of "US-only".

(Although I do consider the UK to be 51st state. Not sure about AU though, haven't spent enough time there.)

[Diemo]

Okay, let's say "Anglo-Saxon-only" instead of "US-only".

(Although I do consider the UK to be 51st state. Not sure about AU though, haven't spent enough time there.)

You mean that the comics main relation is to English speakers !!!???

[TheMaskedGecko]

(Although I do consider the UK to be 51st state. Not sure about AU though, haven't spent enough time there.)

How dare you insinuate that we are anything other than the first, best and only true state! You have offended my honour

[Webzter]

Downton Abbey is British, and LFMAO is irritatingly pervasive (no. 18 on the British charts, no. 11 in the Australian charts). I'm not sure what about this is uniquely American.

Okay, let's say "Anglo-Saxon-only" instead of "US-only".

(Although I do consider the UK to be 51st state. Not sure about AU though, haven't spent enough time there.)

I first heard LMFAO by perusing the top list thing on Grooveshark... so I can completely understand not having heard them on the radio. But, according to http://acharts.us/song/64152... They've been in the top charts with "Sexy and I know it" in France, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Bulgaria, etc. Frankly, while us American's are busy, we certainly don't have time to annex all of those places.

[bigjeff5]

Okay, let's say "Anglo-Saxon-only" instead of "US-only".

(Although I do consider the UK to be 51st state. Not sure about AU though, haven't spent enough time there.)

You mean that the comics main relation is to English speakers !!!???

Even more incredible, a US-based web comic written by a US citizen living in the US made a US-centric comic strip? Say it ain't so!

Seriously, I don't go to an Albanian website and get my panties in a bunch because it's Albania-centric. Of course, that could just be because I don't go to Albanian websites, for all I know all Albanian websites could be US-centric but I think that is highly unlikely.

[SirMustapha]

Okay, let's say "Anglo-Saxon-only" instead of "US-only".

(Although I do consider the UK to be 51st state. Not sure about AU though, haven't spent enough time there.)

You mean that the comics main relation is to English speakers !!!???

Because Australians speak Spanish, amirite?

[Hawknc]

The comic is plenty relevant to Australians. Given the popularity of both Downton Abbey and LFMAO here, I'd say it's at least as relevant to us as it is to your average US reader.

[Azshade]

I totally don't get this comic. From reading the comments it has to do with a song I don't know.

Edit: Oh and I'm Aussie for what it's worth (though I generally listen to my ipod or Triple J)

[altrocks]

This is the first non-math/non-science strip that I've had to look up to understand. Bravo, good sir.

[mric]

Another of those US-only XKCDs.

It's starting to get a little annoying. I just counted: Among the last 20 XKCDs (not counting the SOPA thing and the "1000" thing), 9 were US-only.

What happened to general nerd-dom?

Downton Abbey is British, and LFMAO is irritatingly pervasive (no. 18 on the British charts, no. 11 in the Australian charts). I'm not sure what about this is uniquely American.

You rather missed the point. It is US only because of the word 'downtown'. It is only used in America, as far as I am aware. I am still not really sure what it means. Courtesy of Billy Joel I spent a couple of decades thinking it meant the poor end of town, only to find more recently that it means the city centre (in which case I can make little sense of the Billy Joel song, since where I come from the city centre is more expensive to live in than the suburbs).

p.s. However, I have no gripe with a comic having narrow US cultural references.

[Hawknc]

Hmm. Maybe I've assumed a level of pop culture knowledge that doesn't necessarily exist here. Oh well, I thought the comic was humourous at least.

[ribbonsofnight]

I'm another person who largely didn't get this because I'm Australian. I get the joke now through the forums and agree that if I'd got all the references it would probably have been hilarious.
In Australia we've been subjected to the torture that is this song in small doses because it's used in the promo for a US show (Big Bang theory).
Now having heard and seen the whole song I feel the international community should probably do something about this gross violation of human rights perpetrated by LMFAO and US radio stations on innocent Americans.
The worst thing is, like the Cane Toad, we may not have the resources at our disposal to rid ourselves of this terrible music.

Yes I am willing to give the makers of this song the benefit of the doubt and assume it's a parody of it's genre and the whole music scene but that doesn't even guarantee that it will be a one-hit wonder like Shaddap You Face.

[reminiscence-tbp]

If it helps, "Sexy and I know it" (the referenced LMFAO song) is basically a total spoof of the modern music scene. It's bad on purpose. Y'all can stop hatin' now.

Is that the one that goes...?

If you're sexy and you know it clap your hands!
If you're sexy and you know it clap your hands!
If you're sexy and you know it and you really want to show it,
If you're sexy and you know it ...

Just wondering.

Actually, the lyrics go:

If you're sexy and you know it say oh yeah... (repeat a dozen times give or take 20 percent)

And it's a song by pitbull, album Planet Pit. Think the song is called Sexy and I know it, knowing how pop songs can be so creatively named these days.

I lol'd when I read the comic. For a couple of seconds I would read "girl look at that body" in the rhythm of the song but I wasn' able to pinpoint the exact song.

Also: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCZApo5jN04

[whateveries]

Okay, let's say "Anglo-Saxon-only" instead of "US-only".

(Although I do consider the UK to be 51st state. Not sure about AU though, haven't spent enough time there.)

You mean that the comics main relation is to English speakers !!!???

Because Australians speak Spanish, amirite?

commonly we speak Strine, sometimes a mixture English and Strine in a kind of pidgin english, depending on regional cultural influences.

Also another language rarely spoken due to the decline in true 'country' folk wihich were all but wiped out in a pogrom led by the banks back in the nineteen-eighties, it is a language fairly closely related to english, best described as Slow english. It is similar in structure, has a formal and informal usage (informal usage is generally noted by the wearing of a hat) is only has about four hundred distinct words with multi utility 'bugger' being a versitile and descriptive drop in (modern english could equate this with 'fuck') The most interesting aspect of the language is that to outside observers out of earshot it apears to be a form of sign language as apparently no words are spoken as the lips of the conversationalists barely move as their hands move laconically in random directions circling around the speakers head, upon closer inspection it can be seen the lips do part but barely to a gap aproximately one third of the width of the average 'blowie' (or fly in your language) and the hands are merely pushing apart clouds of 'blowies' in order to hear what the other person is going to say. (usually as noted earlier 'bugger')

And hell, for a while we australians we gunning to be the 51'st, but, well all things considered things are looking pretty buggered for you yanks, and well we stuck through plenty of hard times with you mad bastards, but china looks like the better option right about now. (and frankly the politics in china is at least sensible, depsots we get, but you yankee doodles with your wierd as buggery political system which might as well be based on some long lost french ideal for all the sense it makes...)

as for the obligatory comment on the actual comic I almost lol'd but did not lmfao. (talking of stupid language structures...)

[rapturemachine]

I'd never heard of that song, so I YouTubed it.
...ow, my eyes.

I love all the trashy/shitty techno-pop, like LMFAO and Ke$ha, and it drives my roommate, a techno DJ, absolutely nuts.

Well, if "techno DJ" is indeed how your roommate refers to himself, then he's got no place to complain. The people who complain about them tend to be elitists, and a true electronic music elitist would never use the word "techno" to describe the genre. (Yes, unfortunately, I know because I am one...)

[Athe]

Meh, I think all you need to get is the guy made a bad pun and then turned what she said into a bad rhythm song, thereby super trolling her. It's easy to get that the italicized line n the comic is from a song if you read the alt text. Extrapolate good people!

[Randomness]

As a totally unrelated aside, why are BBC shows generally so much better than American ones?

Part two of that, why do Americans seem to think that they have to make their own version of everything (generally very bad versions of said shows)?


couple more months til the new Dr. Who series....

They aren't. It's just that BBC America tends to show only (what they consider to be) the best of them. Look up any young British actor at imdb and see all of the TV series they have been on that have never been broadcast here. I am sure that British TV has it share of dogs as well.

Doctor Who? ****sigh****

I think he meant the remakes of BBC shows that will appear on American TV. Really the reason is that the knockoff rarely has the likableness or life of the original. And things are often lost in translation between the two cultures. I think the only show pulled from over the pond that lasted more than half a season was 'the office'. And I think that is because they took the premiss and wrote it fresh for the American audience instead of the script being word for word (with slang translated).

Another of those US-only XKCDs.

It's starting to get a little annoying. I just counted: Among the last 20 XKCDs (not counting the SOPA thing and the "1000" thing), 9 were US-only.

What happened to general nerd-dom?

Downton Abbey is British, and LFMAO is irritatingly pervasive (no. 18 on the British charts, no. 11 in the Australian charts). I'm not sure what about this is uniquely American.

You rather missed the point. It is US only because of the word 'downtown'. It is only used in America, as far as I am aware. I am still not really sure what it means. Courtesy of Billy Joel I spent a couple of decades thinking it meant the poor end of town, only to find more recently that it means the city centre (in which case I can make little sense of the Billy Joel song, since where I come from the city centre is more expensive to live in than the suburbs).

p.s. However, I have no gripe with a comic having narrow US cultural references.

What part of the city is currently affluent varies by decade. The city I am from has Downtown the new part of the city - it is down river from the old part (uptown)... I believe that the new york version uses the park as the center part, but I'm not 100% on that, and I don't know how or who decided which way was up verses down.

[whateveries]

As a totally unrelated aside, why are BBC shows generally so much better than American ones?

Part two of that, why do Americans seem to think that they have to make their own version of everything (generally very bad versions of said shows)?


couple more months til the new Dr. Who series....

They aren't. It's just that BBC America tends to show only (what they consider to be) the best of them. Look up any young British actor at imdb and see all of the TV series they have been on that have never been broadcast here. I am sure that British TV has it share of dogs as well.

Doctor Who? ****sigh****

I think he meant the remakes of BBC shows that will appear on American TV. Really the reason is that the knockoff rarely has the likableness or life of the original. And things are often lost in translation between the two cultures. I think the only show pulled from over the pond that lasted more than half a season was 'the office'. And I think that is because they took the premiss and wrote it fresh for the American audience instead of the script being word for word (with slang translated).

wilfred also, the us version is a lot more polished than the australian sbs stoner fav and for me (ok this might get me deported and i may have to relinquish my ceremonial mullet and southern cross tatt) for me, it is better. (i should have enough time to finish this p os t. be fre. bugger)

[W3ird_N3rd]

I would sigh again. I'm so tired of that song.

What song? I had to read this thread, then Google several keywords only to figure out that "downtown abbey" or "downton abby" is no part of the artist name or song title, eventually finding LMFAO (artist name) and.. Something else which I've already forgotten, for the song title.

And I closed that youtube video within a minute. I don't like it.

/me returns to his isolated world of hardly popular music

[Eternal Density]

I'm another for the "what is this I don't even" category.

[SirMustapha]

In simple terms, you need to be acquainted with some random pop music fad in order to understand the joke; and when you do understand it, it turns out to be yet another comic in the "how to be an asshole in a completely unfunny way" series.

[WyldStallyns]

The whole Downtown Abbey thing (I didn't know what it was until reading this thread) doesnt really matter to the joke in this comic, and the title text is basically the joke going another step, as she sighs at him quoting the song, and he quotes it again.

I thought this was a funny comic tbh, but then again I think 99% of the comics on this site are hilarious. Keep up the good work

[DaedalusZM]

I thought the comic was fantastic. I'm a fan of both. However, I can enjoy things (like LMFAO) because it's *fun*, without having to worry about "mainstream"-ness, or what people would think of my tastes. That stuff's for grade school.

It's strange how many people didn't catch the reference. It's not like pop culture is some sort of unknown, alien world. Some people in this thread seemed to fall over themselves explaining how they didn't get it.

[Tormuse]

Spoiler:

It's perfectly logical! Obviously, gayness and epicness aren't mutually exclusive!

If it helps, "Sexy and I know it" (the referenced LMFAO song) is basically a total spoof of the modern music scene. It's bad on purpose. Y'all can stop hatin' now.

It is?
...
If what you say is true, I just gained a lot of respect for LMFAO.

I just watched the video for the first time tonight, and now, I'm wondering how anyone could *not* realize it's a spoof!

[Azshade]

If it helps, "Sexy and I know it" (the referenced LMFAO song) is basically a total spoof of the modern music scene. It's bad on purpose. Y'all can stop hatin' now.

It is?
...
If what you say is true, I just gained a lot of respect for LMFAO.

I just watched the video for the first time tonight, and now, I'm wondering how anyone could *not* realize it's a spoof!

I agree Tormuse. The first time I watched that I was laughing. There's a lot of parody jokes to many modern music scene; the way they're dressed, the porn stars, the hair / mustaches etc, I'd be incredibly surprised if it was meant seriously.

[bigjeff5]

I'd never heard of that song, so I YouTubed it.
...ow, my eyes.

I love all the trashy/shitty techno-pop, like LMFAO and Ke$ha, and it drives my roommate, a techno DJ, absolutely nuts.

Well, if "techno DJ" is indeed how your roommate refers to himself, then he's got no place to complain. The people who complain about them tend to be elitists, and a true electronic music elitist would never use the word "techno" to describe the genre. (Yes, unfortunately, I know because I am one...)

No, that's what I call him, just to make things easy (since "techno" is what most people think of when they hear electronic, trance, dub-step, etc).

I don't think I've ever called him a techno DJ to his face, he'd probably roll his eyes and sigh or something. He's not an elitist though, just... passionate about music.

[W3ird_N3rd]

I thought the comic was fantastic. I'm a fan of both. However, I can enjoy things (like LMFAO) because it's *fun*, without having to worry about "mainstream"-ness, or what people would think of my tastes. That stuff's for grade school.

If it actually were fun, yes. But nowadays there is so much mainstream bull, I avoid it whenever possible.

Music was better in the olden days. Not perfect, better. And record companies wonder why more and more people no longer want their product.

It's strange how many people didn't catch the reference. It's not like pop culture is some sort of unknown, alien world. Some people in this thread seemed to fall over themselves explaining how they didn't get it.

Maybe the song is more popular in the USA than it is in continental Europe. But even here, I would have no idea what's in the Top 40 today. I don't listen to regular radio channels and generally can't be bothered to tune to MTV (does the programming contain any music anyway? what did the M stand for?).

A couple of years ago, we had a relatively good FM radio station broadcasting some decent electronic music, XFM. It was not perfect, but worth tuning into every now and then. The government decided to take their frequency away (to "increase the diversity in music on the air") and replace it with some crap station that only broadcasts Dutch music. Not just from Dutch artists, but using the Dutch language. Ever since, my radio has gathered dust.

When it comes to music, pop culture is an unknown and alien world to me. And I know I'm not alone, I see a growing number of people who grew tired of mainstream media. Some even completely threw out their TV, or only use it to hook up a console or mediaplayer. I'm not making that up, I know some.

[lsdigit]

...When it comes to music, pop culture is an unknown and alien world to me. And I know I'm not alone, I see a growing number of people who grew tired of mainstream media. Some even completely threw out their TV, or only use it to hook up a console or mediaplayer. I'm not making that up, I know some.

...perhaps we need etymology-man to explain the origins of mainstream, its the riddle wrapped up in the answer.

to me, tired old consumer that I am, I have noticed that throughout the one score and six years since pubic hair sprouted and mating urges kicked in that whatever the most popular option of the largest group is will become the mainstream and someone who used to like whatever the new pop is will find it is now no longer as cool as it used to be and find something else to fill the self important ever-so-twee identity gap with.
or get married and have kids instead, then you can watch as your little biolical offshoots discover cool and try and work out an angle that lets them have the most of it with the least effort. just like daddy used to do.

*Siiiiiiiigh*

there is no new art just new artists marketing oportunities.

[W3ird_N3rd]

In any case, with new flows of information and media (mostly the internet) I believe I see an alternative "mainstream" opening up. Etymologically incorrect, but I think you know what I mean. And I also see a group of the new and young generation who no longer like what is considered "mainstream".

In time I believe we will have to replace "mainstream" with "old media popular". Is Nyan Cat mainstream? Not really. Is he popular? Sure as hell. Not as if MTV is going to show Nyan Cat anytime soon, let alone discover NC, but the group of people that's less aware of "old media popular" and more aware of "new media popular" appears to be a growing group to me.

And with the increasing number of reality shows, one even dumber than the other, you can hardly say mainstream isn't getting dumbed down. But that's exactly the reason I'm staying away from most of it now.

[B-Caff]

Speaking of xkcdsw...

[drakvl]

The local NPR affiliate is receiving support from PBS, and their spots feature a speaker pronouncing the show's title "Downtown Abbey." It made me think of XKCD. Also, get out of the head of the guy who reads promotions for the local NPR affiliate, Randall!