nehrlich - Abstruse Goose

08:10 am: Abstruse Goose
Somebody on my flist pointed me at the webcomic Abstruse Goose, and the one they linked to was pretty funny so I read through the archives. I eventually got to the first one, which has a panel that says "THERE... ARE... FOUR... LIGHTS!". Therefore, I conclude the author must be somebody I know, because that would only be funny to people who hung out at the MIT Coffee Haus in the vicinity of 1993/1994. I know this, because I occasionally yell "There... are... four... lights!" and other people don't think it's funny.

The comic doesn't have an about page, the domain name was registered privately, so I'm not quite sure who this might be. Any ideas?

Edited: Oh, never mind. Apparently it's a Star Trek reference. I'm just not geeky enough. Pretty rare I get to say that.

Comments

From:	inkandpen
Date:	July 13th, 2008 01:44 pm (UTC)

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Yes. Star Trek. Sweaty screaming Picard. Classic.

If you yelled that in a room, I would find it funny.

My name is Katie, and I am your geeky friend (not the only one).

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From:	nehrlich
Date:	July 13th, 2008 02:01 pm (UTC)

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See, one of the TEPs painted a mural at the CoffeeHaus, and painted four streetlights, and the phrase "There... are... four... lights!" next to them, and that was the only context in which I had known that phrase. It's not nearly as entertaining to me now.

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From:	jforbess
Date:	July 13th, 2008 02:21 pm (UTC)

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isn't the Star Trek reference itself a reference to 1984? In 1984, Winston Smith is asked how many fingers his interrogator is holding up. The correct answer is four, but the interrogator wants Winston to say five if the Party decides that is the right answer. Beatings and drugs are required.

Which yielded the quote on the back of my high school math team t-shirt: "Four, five, six....I really don't know."

Yep, your friends are a bunch of nerds.

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From:	dr_tectonic
Date:	July 13th, 2008 07:49 pm (UTC)

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isn't the Star Trek reference itself a reference to 1984?

It is.

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