XKCD: It's more than a comic

I'm pretty sure that western is not the only genre lasting longer than the period it's based on.

Reminds me of reading somewhere that M*A*S*H alone lasted longer than the war it's set in.

Not to mention realizing that that era only lasted 40 years or so. You could be born at the start of the wild west era, come to age in it's heyday, and then go on to live well into the modern age. The oldest people during World War II would still be able to remember the wild west.

I also wonder about the population of RDR2 players compared to the population of the Old West...

The population of the US in 1850 was around 23 million. In 1900, it had grown to 76 million.

As of December 31, RDR 2 has sold over 23 million copies. It has grown slightly to 24 million for May 2019.

So yes, there are now as many RDR 2 players as there were people in the US at the start of the Wild West.

For me, that was one of the most interesting parts of Cimarron (the first Western to win Best Picture). It contains several long Time Skips, the last couple of which take it right out of the Wild West era entirely. The same town in which people were gunning each other down in the street earlier in the film becomes a modern city (contemporary with the 1931 release date) with twenty-story-high buildings, propelled into prosperity by the first Oklahoma oil fields. It's strange these days to see a Western that doesn't, well, stay a Western.

Edited by HeraldAlberich on May 20th 2019 at 11:03:22 AM

Maybe it has something to do with the wild west still being a part of the public consciousness around 1930, instead of the romanticised version that emerged later? Part of that genre is a distinct feeling that the wild west did not really have a beginning or end. It feels somewhat divorced from history, because we often don't see how this era grew from the last or evolves into the next.

It's like a fantasy era in the middle of History.

It's not the only one, either. The Victorian age, the middle ages, the Romans, they all have this sort of endless stasis in fiction.

The 1980's seemed to last forever.

Let's not forget WW2. When will it happen that the total length of WW2 movies exceed the total length of the war? If it had not happened yet, of course.

Edited by petersohn on May 20th 2019 at 11:16:23 AM

WWII lasted six years and one day—that's 52,620 hours. Assuming each WWII movie is two hours, that's 26,310 movies. The Other Wiki has a list, though it's not particularly exhaustive. Captain America: The First Avenger isn't on there, for example. Either way, I'm pretty sure that's nowhere near twenty thousand. If we're allowed to include tv series, we might be closer, but not by that much.

Maybe if we included average playtime of video games set in WW2 as well, it would be closer.

Wasn't there a what-if on this subject? It rings a bell to me...

Edit: Spellcheck

Edited by Medinoc on May 22nd 2019 at 3:23:36 PM

There was: https://what-if.xkcd.com/100/

WWII lasted seven times longer than movies about it.

Edited by Galadriel on May 22nd 2019 at 7:32:01 AM

Looking back on this what-if, it should be noted that IMDB now lists a film about the Anglo-Zanzibar war, with a duration of 31mn, giving it a war:film ratio of 1.23:1.

The what-if is dated June 11, 2014 on Explain XKCD^note Which reminds me of my pet peeve of the entire xkcd website lacking publication dates, and the film is dated June 10, 2015.

And the film is user-tagged exactly as Randall says it should be, which means it was likely intentionally made in response to his challenge. Bravo.

#2153: Effects of High Altitude

I don't think some of those are true. Although if you get dizzy from lack of oxygen, they might seem right.

The regular comics have timestamps on it. Look at the alt text on the archive page.

I think the first three are true (don’t use Fahreinheit, so can’t be sure). The rest are obviously false.

Though the “40 is the new 28” one might be onto something - I think I’ve read something about health benefits of living at high elevations over the long term. I know it raises your red blood cell count.

Edited by Galadriel on May 22nd 2019 at 5:40:39 AM

It's like a constant aerobic workout. You'd definitely be more fit living at higher elevations.

I was joking. It's obvious which are true and which aren't.

#2154: Motivation

I know the feeling.

I feel targeted.

It makes perfect sense. Video game playtesting isn't nearly as fun as it sounds. It involves loads and loads of bugfixes, and inbetween those, doing missions, inventory actions, etc, etc, over and over again to find MORE bugs. By the time you are done playtesting that game, you're probably more than sick of it.