I think I saw that musical. At least the song lyrics are easy to remember.
Funny Pictures Thread. It begins again
- Thread starter CrimsonSoul
- Start date
So what am I seeing here exactly? And where?
That's actually an interesting question... In modern days, it's hard to see; but if your trace the history and squint just right, you could probably make the argument.... I'd have to look up a few things to be sure, and I'm really rusty on Wesleyan sanctification, but, maybe?
So we've gone from "Florida Man" to "Florida Chicken"? Good lord, it's spreading to the animals now!
Nah, that's just chickens being chickens...
figmentPez
Staff member
Electricity is just lazy writing
Quiet! And get back to making waffles and chocolate
South Americans are fine. Anti-American stupidity is a generally European phenomenon.
figmentPez
Staff member
The point of the original tweet is not that "electricity = magic" it's that it's easy for complex systems to come across as inconsistent and arbitrary. Of course electricity has rules, and makes sense. Our world has consistent physical laws. However, it's not always obvious that this is the case, and it took humanity a long time to figure out that the world wasn't inconsistent and arbitrary. If someone didn't know the "deep lore" of science, it would be quite easy to dismiss our modern world as "soft magic" because all the bullshit stuff that electricity does. (Um, actually, the speed of an electron is stated to be as fast as the speed of sound, so it doesn't make any sense for an electric signal to travel at the speed of light. This novel is clearly soft magic, and the plot holes are big enough to drive a Cybertruck through.* Also, it was such plot contrivance that the heroine's phone charger would not work just because she was in another country. Clearly the author wrote themselves into a corner after introducing USB-C as a standard uniting the Electrical World.)
* And if you're going to nit pick and explain how electricity actually works, you've missed the fucking point again. Nerds nit-picking fiction often make up arguments for plot holes that are just as flawed.
Is this about how NASA spent millions to invent the ballpoint pen?
GasBandit
Staff member
Right. And it was a total bullshit fest, because pencils in zero gravity are dangerous AF, as tiny chunks of graphite floating into electronics is bad.
Also ballpoint pens were invented long before America startet to shot any rockets into space.
GasBandit
Staff member
Well, specifically, it was to invent a ballpoint that operates in zero gravity. Cheap/traditional ballpoints are still gravity fed.
The whole story is still just "dumb people making shit up to make them feel smarter than scientists" populism.
"Stroke a cat ridiculously quickly"
...
"Apply ointment and bandages where necessary"
--Patrick
Ah, I remember why people quit this place.
figmentPez
Staff member
No, it's not. Because it's not actually about electricity. It's about how fandoms demand a fucking wall of text explanation for fictional worlds or else they accuse writers of being "soft magic", having plot holes, being inconsistent, or other supposed sins of writing.
People don't nit-pick how ovens work in a rom-com. They don't question how cellphones work in an action movie. They don't call flashlights implausible in a suspense thriller. (At least they didn't before Cinema Sins convinced the internet that good cinematography is a plot hole.)
Being "soft magic" isn't any more of an inherent flaw than being soft Sci-Fi. Star Wars: A New Hope is still a good movie, despite being more fantasy than science fiction. Star Trek: The Next Generation is still an amazing series, despite huge amounts of hand-wavy bullshit. "Hard science fiction" like The Martian is not inherently better just because it more closely adheres to real science. Series A is not better than Series B just because one has a thicker show bible with stricter adherence to fictional rules.
This is not about how well people understand electricity. It's about fandoms expecting an explanation for every damn little thing.
Pez gets worked up, but you know he's (mostly) harmless.
*Pez wall o text while I was posting this*
See? Pez, I love you man, but these are just examples of people adding to the joke. This is the funny thread
I'm with ya, Pez. Happy to see the discussion elsewhere if people want, though.
figmentPez
Staff member
Learn to "Yes, and...". That's one of the fundamental rules of humor. "No, but..." kills the joke.
What kills the joke is telling people how to joke. Cops are bad, don't be a humor cop
Yeah, I know. It's just frustrating to make an add-on joke and get treated rudely because of it.
I'll just say I don't really give a damn how hard or soft my fantasy of scifi is, as long as "a wizard did it" isn't used as a deus ex machina plot solution after the writer screwed themselves. It's bad storytelling, just as much as "and then a rich uncle died and left her a million dollars and all her problems were solved".
figmentPez
Staff member
I legitimately thought your post was a criticism of what I posted. I did not think you were making a joke, I thought you were telling me that what I posted wasn't funny because it wasn't a valid point.
I'm sorry that I jumped to that conclusion. Even though I still can't see why what you posted is a joke, I still should have given you the benefit of the doubt, given the thread we're in.
To anyone who is not an electrical engineer or physicist, the laws look like magic runes. That’s the joke. Even if someone included rules for how electricity works, it still looks like made up bullshit.
that's the first thing I thought, actually.