1013: "Wake Up Sheeple"

[Armadillo Al]

Ah! After ten thousand years I'm free! It's time to conquer earth!

I guess the only thing left to do is recruit some teenagers with attitude.

Glad I wasn't the only one who had this immediately spring to mind unbidden.

[eculc]

Ayn Rand would be proud.

[astrosteve]

This is possibly my favorite xkcd ever. I don't know exactly why I like it so much, but I do. I want there to be more comics about the Sheeple.

[the penman]

This sounds like a job for Etymology man.
"Ah, no, great and mighty ovinelord; you see, he said "Wake up, sheeple", whereas you thought he said "Wake up, Sheeple!" Easy mistake to make, especially without having it written down, but the connotations of the capitalisation (or not) are significant in this instance..."

Either that or Black Hat Guy: "Listen. Being stirred by an unwitting invokation then acting vengeful when it wasn't intentional is not cleverness."

[dp2]

I hate the word "sheeple". I feel that it's used in place of a real argument, just an ad hoc insult. "If you disagree with me, it's because you're sheep".

[radtea]

"Judgement" is actually a Briticism which has somehow found its way into American dictionaries/spellchecks. The standardized American version of the word is "judgment."

I think you meant to say 'Judgement' is the correct spelling in the English Language. Americans decided to drop the 'e'.

I think you meant to say "Hey guys, just wanted to make a post here to say that I am an enormous douchenugget, thanks."

This looks like a job for Pedantic Man!

The OP was implying that American English was somehow independent of British English rather than evolved directly from it, so the "e" in judgement was an illegal alien come to interfere with the purity of American's bodily fluids.

The person you were replying to was pointing out that English was there first, so recovering the "e" in "judgement" was not an stealthy incursion from some upstart foreign language but rather an evolutionary fossil left over from the mother tongue.

You were being a jerk (or in "standard American", "jrk"... don't want those alien "e"s getting stuck in placs th'y don't b'long!)

Pedantic Man will now fly off in a cloud of improperly verbed nouns to rescue the rest of the Internets with his awesome powers of over-explanation and linguistic trivia!

[EpicanicusStrikes]

I hate the word "sheeple".

That's okay. That's our word, anyway. We can use that word, but you're not allowed.

Racist bastard.

[OtherRob]

I just wanted to say that "sheeple" is one of my least favorite words ever.

I'm sure you're all feeling much better now that you know that.

[dp2]

I just wanted to say that "sheeple" is one of my least favorite words ever.

I'm sure you're all feeling much better now that you know that.

Alright! A few more of us and we have a movement! We need a rallying cry. How about "Say 'Bah!' to 'Sheeple'!"

Say it with me! "Bah! Bah! Bah!"

[silkox]

Would be even more effective if the sheeple's pupil was anatomically correct in the form of an actual sheep pupil:

[hypersapien]

One thing bugs me, though. There weren't any sheep 10 thousand years ago, were there? There were wild goats that might have been in the process of being domesticated, and would eventually be bred into what we know as sheep today, right?

[MisterCheif]

One thing bugs me, though. There weren't any sheep 10 thousand years ago, were there? There were wild goats that might have been in the process of being domesticated, and would eventually be bred into what we know as sheep today, right?

That's just what they want you to think!

[PolakoVoador]

First thing I tought when reading this strip was: "What the fuck?", but then I remembered I like non-sense stuff and this comic became really funny.

Also: xkcd is the only place I've seen the word sheeple. (obviously english is not my native language).

[dp2]

First thing I tought when reading this strip was: "What the fuck?", but then I remembered I like non-sense stuff and this comic became really funny.

Also: xkcd is the only place I've seen the word sheeple. (obviously english is not my native language).

You must not have Libertarians in your country.

[chrth]

One thing bugs me, though. There weren't any sheep 10 thousand years ago, were there? There were wild goats that might have been in the process of being domesticated, and would eventually be bred into what we know as sheep today, right?

Obviously the memory of the Sheeple that had been subdued and then imprisoned still lingered in the memory of its jailers, and when the time came to name "sheep" it sprung unbidden to mind ...

... or was whispered to them by one who knew its power

[chrth]

You must not have Libertarians in your country.

I've seen the word used by morons of all political persuasions.

[PolakoVoador]

First thing I tought when reading this strip was: "What the fuck?", but then I remembered I like non-sense stuff and this comic became really funny.

Also: xkcd is the only place I've seen the word sheeple. (obviously english is not my native language).

You must not have Libertarians in your country.

Or, as I mentioned, English is not the language of my country (which happens to be Brazil, by the way).

[dp2]

You must not have Libertarians in your country.

I've seen the word used by morons of all political persuasions.

I get the impression that they like it most, though. They take the most pride in thinking "independently". Maybe it's because Ted Nugent is the first one I ever heard use it.

[chrth]

I get the impression that they like it most, though. They take the most pride in thinking "independently". Maybe it's because Ted Nugent is the first one I ever heard use it.

People who use the term Sheeple are.

[Kanonfutter]

We are blessedly free of libertarians, however this comic had me in stitches after adjusting expectations from 'clever' to 'absurd'.

[Sprocket]

<3

[tayloj]

Would be even more effective if the sheeple's pupil was anatomically correct in the form of an actual sheep pupil [(—)]

I came to the forum to say just that. I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought so.

[belliott4488]

Would be even more effective if the sheeple's pupil was anatomically correct in the form of an actual sheep pupil:

thank you - I read through all the comments to see if anyone else has posted about that.

Ordinarily I wouldn't care, but it's the obscure sort of detail that Randall usually gets right.

[jpers36]

This looks like a job for Pedantic Man!

The OP was implying that American English was somehow independent of British English rather than evolved directly from it, so the "e" in judgement was an illegal alien come to interfere with the purity of American's bodily fluids.

The person you were replying to was pointing out that English was there first, so recovering the "e" in "judgement" was not an stealthy incursion from some upstart foreign language but rather an evolutionary fossil left over from the mother tongue.

You were being a jerk (or in "standard American", "jrk"... don't want those alien "e"s getting stuck in placs th'y don't b'long!)

Pedantic Man will now fly off in a cloud of improperly verbed nouns to rescue the rest of the Internets with his awesome powers of over-explanation and linguistic trivia!

Time for the return of Etymology Man!

Neither American nor English spelling was standardized until well after colonization. "Judgement" was not the standard spelling in England during the period of colonization, primarily because there was no standard. But the AV/KJV Bible, published by King James of England in 1611 and a giant step forward in codifying British English, uses judgment and not judgement.

[SirMustapha]

This would actually be funny if it wasn't for the terrible last panel. THIS is why the comic needs an editor. Someone to go, 'look. do you really need that? do you really need to treat your readers like they're so stupid they haven't understood the first four panels? relax. They'll get it. And it'll be 10,000 times funnier if you don't explain the joke. Have confidence in them.'

Babble, get out of my head! I was TOTALLY going to say that.

Well, actually, that was the second thing I was going to say. The first thing is: Randall drew an EYE. For the first time in, what, five years? RANDALL DREW AN EYE. IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD.

ps anyone who asks 'am I weird' is automatically not weird. sorry. there are thousands of films about eldritch horrors awakening beneath the earth and rising up to destroy humanity.

Thank you.

[chrth]

Regarding the "English" debate:
“It is a damn poor mind that can think of only one way to spell a word.” -- Andrew Jackson

That said, kudos (or is it "kudoes"?) to jpers36 to pointing out the lack of non-standardization of spelling that existed prior to the 19th century.

[SirMustapha]

Oh, God, I can already see Wednesday's comic... Randall unites, in the same comic, Etymology Man and the Sheeple, and all xkcd fans worldwide will have hundreds of simultaneous orgasms until they burst into violent explosions of RANDALL IS SO AWESOME, and suddenly mankind has reached its peak.

[ahammel]

Weird. S + laughter = slaughter. Is that whence the expression, "slaying with laughter?"

According to my dictionary, 'slaughter' comes from the Old Norse 'slatr' (meaning 'butchering' or 'butcher meat') and is related to 'slay'. 'Laugh', on the other hand, is derived from the Proto-Germanic term 'hlihhan', which is apparently an onomatopoeia (Proto-Germans laughed weirdly, I guess). The Old Norse word for 'laugh' is 'hl?ija'. I don't think there are a lot of portmanteau words with origins from before the 19th century.

Etymology-mobile, away!

[EpicanicusStrikes]

...hundreds of simultaneous orgasms until they burst into violent explosions...

C'mon. Be honest. Is there really any BAD reason for something like that to happen?

[project2051]

One thing bugs me, though. There weren't any sheep 10 thousand years ago, were there? There were wild goats that might have been in the process of being domesticated, and would eventually be bred into what we know as sheep today, right?

That's just what they want you to think!

If you believe that your just another goatle, believing what they want you too.

[chenille]

In defense of the last panel, it's not there for explanation, it's there to complete the rhythm. It could have just been the guy staring, maybe, but it needs to be there as part of what makes this comic excellent.
This has been another installment of "deconstructing comics without real justification", brought to you by the internet.

[SHISHKABOB]

"Judgement" is actually a Briticism which has somehow found its way into American dictionaries/spellchecks. The standardized American version of the word is "judgment."

I think you meant to say 'Judgement' is the correct spelling in the English Language. Americans decided to drop the 'e'.

I think you meant to say "Hey guys, just wanted to make a post here to say that I am an enormous douchenugget, thanks."

This looks like a job for Pedantic Man!

The OP was implying that American English was somehow independent of British English rather than evolved directly from it, so the "e" in judgement was an illegal alien come to interfere with the purity of American's bodily fluids.

The person you were replying to was pointing out that English was there first, so recovering the "e" in "judgement" was not an stealthy incursion from some upstart foreign language but rather an evolutionary fossil left over from the mother tongue.

You were being a jerk (or in "standard American", "jrk"... don't want those alien "e"s getting stuck in placs th'y don't b'long!)

Pedantic Man will now fly off in a cloud of improperly verbed nouns to rescue the rest of the Internets with his awesome powers of over-explanation and linguistic trivia!

if you wanna be THAT pedantic, then perhaps you should make sure to differentiate Modern British English, Modern American English, Early Modern English, Middle English, Early American English, etc. etc. etc.

Modern American English and Modern British English are entirely independent from one another. Modern American English at its roots stems from Early Modern English, which you will find is not the exact same thing as British English, and especially not the same as Modern British English.

"English" is the entire body of languages which grew out of the combination of those relatively ancient Germanic languages and the languages of the peoples native to the British Isles. Thus, Modern American English is every bit as "English" as Modern British English, and to suppose some kind of superiority of one or the other is complete rubbish.

To leave myself on a friendly note, I do find it amusingly ironic that the Brits are the ones who appear to like dropping vowels in their vernacular. Or at least in some specific accents, that is.

and I'm even wrong, they're not "entirely independent from one another" because sheesh, we're in contact with each other all the time. Then you'd also have to say "what's American English? What's British English? Are there standardized forms? Does everyone agree with that form? Hmmmmmm ho hmmmmmm."

I guess you could say the dictionary, but then again, does the dictionary have catsup? Or heigth? Maybe some do, but are those the official ones? Language is a fickle beast, and what I wanted to point out, and I admit I did not do it at all well, was that the guy was coming off as a douche because he was implying that "british english is best english" and that's ridiculous to say. At least, if you're trying to be scientific about it and approach the situation as a linguist.

[SirMustapha]

In defense of the last panel, it's not there for explanation, it's there to complete the rhythm. It could have just been the guy staring, maybe, but it needs to be there as part of what makes this comic excellent.

There must be at least one hundred ways to finish the comic in a better tone -- such as a "panoramic" shot of the Sheeple terrorizing people, or destroying the city. The panel, as it is, is too bland and wordy to "leave things to the imagination", if that was the intention. And, no matter what, a stick figure going "oh god oh god oh god" just CAN'T be funny. It's impossible.

[Fire Brns]

Also @ PolakoVoador.
Would Ovinoas work? (I can sometimes properly mash words in Spanish but Portugese just kills me.)

Ah! After ten thousand years I'm free! It's time to conquer earth!

I guess the only thing left to do is recruit some teenagers with attitude.

(Don Quixote's busy fighting the windmills.)

Don Quixote did actually fight sheep. You would know that if you read the book. He dies though so we wouldn't be able to use him anyway.

Etymology Man!
At the time when Don Qixote was written the X made an Sh sound rather than the Spanish J. This is proven in the book as the alternate spellings of quixote have S's in place of the X. Futhermore the Sh is preserved in other languages such as Portugese and words such as Quixotic.

[EpicanicusStrikes]

Futhermore the Sh is preserved in other languages such as Portugese and words such as Quixotic.

Don't forget the classic video game:




And, dammit, now I'm in the mood for Quix Lorraine.

[TheMaskedGecko]

I just wanted to say that "sheeple" is one of my least favorite words ever.

I'm sure you're all feeling much better now that you know that.

Alright! A few more of us and we have a movement! We need a rallying cry. How about "Say 'Bah!' to 'Sheeple'!"

Say it with me! "Bah! Bah! Bah!"

I might join this anti sheeple revolution but I'll leave it a couple of weeks and see if it gets popular. After all, I wouldn't want to be the only one.

[markfiend]

Would be even more effective if the sheeple's pupil was anatomically correct in the form of an actual sheep pupil:

Yeah but that's a sheep's eye, not a sheeple's eye.

[PolakoVoador]

Also @ PolakoVoador.
Would Ovinoas work? (I can sometimes properly mash words in Spanish but Portugese just kills me.)

Well, sheep in Portuguese is "ovelha", while people is "pessoa", so we could get something like .... ovelhossoa? Nah, this sounds horrible. Sadly, Portuguese is not as good as English for inventing words on the spot.

Here people will just call each other "sheep", without trying to mash words together.

[ricardoRI]

Ola, in Portuguese we could say povelho. Povo is people, ovelha is sheep.

[J Thomas]

....

Modern American English and Modern British English are entirely independent from one another. Modern American English at its roots stems from Early Modern English, which you will find is not the exact same thing as British English, and especially not the same as Modern British English.
....

and I'm even wrong, they're not "entirely independent from one another" because sheesh, we're in contact with each other all the time. Then you'd also have to say "what's American English? What's British English? Are there standardized forms? Does everyone agree with that form? Hmmmmmm ho hmmmmmm."

But here we use Internet English.

Google search:

judgment 35,600,000 hits
judgement 78,900,000 hits

People do it both ways, to the point that Google doesn't suggest one when you enter the other. Both spellings are acceptable for Internet English.