Seeing Double

March 23, 2011 3:54 PM

Hey everyone, GO OUTSIDE! Oh wait -- that looks disappointingly familiar...
posted by hermitosis to Etiquette/Policy at 3:54 PM (43 comments total)

I don't see the plagiarism.
posted by These Premises Are Alarmed at 3:58 PM on March 23, 2011

The basic premise of that joke is old as, well, video games. I remember a Userfriendly back in the day (oh man, I haven't thought about that strip in a long time) where somebody mentions going outside and somebody else asks what color depth and resolution "outside" runs at.
posted by kmz at 4:01 PM on March 23, 2011 [5 favorites]

No, you don't get it -- everything stems back to MetaFilter. Everything!!
posted by hermitosis at 4:02 PM on March 23, 2011 [4 favorites]

If you'd gone outside you wouldn't be posting these posts about things marginally connected to Metafilter.
posted by crunchland at 4:03 PM on March 23, 2011 [1 favorite]

[more outside]

(yes, that joke has been made before.)
posted by ALongDecember at 4:05 PM on March 23, 2011 [1 favorite]

If you'd gone outside...

I tried going outside a few hours ago. It hailed on me.
posted by hermitosis at 4:06 PM on March 23, 2011 [4 favorites]

The hail, you say?
posted by Wolfdog at 4:06 PM on March 23, 2011 [10 favorites]

Now I'm a little curious about just how far back the first joking reference to the Big Blue Room goes...
posted by ook at 4:08 PM on March 23, 2011

I've totally discovered this new social media service called Air. It's kinda like Twitter, only the communiques are carried by sound waves instead of fiber optic lines. It does support friending, however it's not as simple as merely following somebody -- in fact, following somebody is a great way to have the mods called on you, who wear funny blue suits and also carry guns. Instead, you spend time in the immediate proximity of other users, and after enough time has elapsed, you'll automatically be added to their friends list. Air supports check-in functionality right out of the box, although the only users who will see those status updates are those currently checked-in to that place. Also, it's a lot more difficult to become a become a mayor in Air; in fact, it costs quite a bit of in-game currency (also called "money") and investment of time.

You should join me on Air! You'll know I'm there when you see me. I'm the tall white guy who doesn't have an afro.
posted by Afroblanco at 4:10 PM on March 23, 2011 [13 favorites]

kmz: The basic premise of that joke is old as, well, video games. I remember a Userfriendly back in the day (oh man, I haven't thought about that strip in a long time) where somebody mentions going outside and somebody else asks what color depth and resolution "outside" runs at.

I'm sure if we searched hard enough we could find which Metafilter comment they stole that particular punchline from.
posted by gman at 4:10 PM on March 23, 2011 [3 favorites]

Did you say, Outside?

I still think they got the reflections and shadows wrong. Very uncanny valley.
posted by txsebastien at 4:10 PM on March 23, 2011 [1 favorite]

That cover art is great, the radiation symbol cherry blossom thing.
posted by fixedgear at 4:17 PM on March 23, 2011

That cover art is great, the radiation symbol cherry blossom thing.

Totally ripped off from MetaFilter.
posted by hermitosis at 4:22 PM on March 23, 2011

It's like when you buy a new car and suddenly you see metafilter eveywhere.
posted by oxford blue at 4:29 PM on March 23, 2011 [2 favorites]

I thought this was meta-commentary on the number of game-related stuff that's been posted today.
posted by hellojed at 4:32 PM on March 23, 2011

Wow that comment is like 40x funnier and better than the New Yorker article. Same joke, way less power and wit. Hail Internet!
posted by Potomac Avenue at 5:09 PM on March 23, 2011

I remember when "outside", in the lexicon of jazz, meant going beyond some the established boundaries (already fairly wide, but boundaries nonetheless) of jazz harmony, form and structure. It was soon shortened to just "out", like, "hey, Eric Dolphy's really taking it out."

Which reminds me, hey, let's listen to some Eric Dolphy!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:09 PM on March 23, 2011 [2 favorites]

Wow that comment is like 40x funnier and better than the New Yorker article.

A quote I once read in a review (which I haven't been able to track down since, to my frustration):

It was funny in that New Yorker "Shouts & Murmurs" kind of way, which is to say rather tedious and not very funny at all.

posted by Lexica at 5:15 PM on March 23, 2011 [2 favorites]

Yeah, this is an old joke. Penny Arcade did a variation on it on April 21, 1999.
posted by jedicus at 5:20 PM on March 23, 2011 [1 favorite]

I think I've read this post before.
posted by cjorgensen at 5:30 PM on March 23, 2011

You may already be a weiner!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:41 PM on March 23, 2011

Damn it, I went outside and tiny peices of ice are falling from the sky, it's not always likethis is it? I had to take a towncar to the next bar.
posted by Ad hominem at 5:51 PM on March 23, 2011

Christ, what…

…Oh? Really? Nevermind then.
posted by klangklangston at 6:10 PM on March 23, 2011

yeah, old joke. bah, outside!
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 6:19 PM on March 23, 2011

The joke has been around since the Jargon File came out, at least.

Big Room, the /n./

The extremely large room with the blue ceiling and intensely bright light (during the day) or black ceiling with lots of tiny night-lights (during the night) found outside all computer installations. "He can't come to the phone right now, he's somewhere out in the Big Room."
posted by A dead Quaker at 6:22 PM on March 23, 2011 [1 favorite]

What if outside... is really just the inside of some inconceivably massive server closet?
posted by Mister_A at 7:07 PM on March 23, 2011 [1 favorite]

And lo he didst venture into the outside, and came unto an old record shoppe, wherein he found a copie of Neil Gaiman's Ghastly Beyond Belief ("Sterilize yourself with fear...") for a fiver, and it was good.
posted by tumid dahlia at 9:03 PM on March 23, 2011

some inconceivably massive server closet?

"Out of the server closets and into the server streets!
Out of the server closets and into the server streets!"
posted by flapjax at midnite at 9:07 PM on March 23, 2011

Makes me sneeze...
posted by pearlybob at 9:09 PM on March 23, 2011

Makes me sneeze...

Gotta be careful. Outside is riddled with viruses.
posted by Rock Steady at 10:08 PM on March 23, 2011 [1 favorite]

I still really, really love the linked comment. I think it was one of my first introductions to MetaFilter. So good.
posted by Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell at 11:22 PM on March 23, 2011

I tried Outside once, but it's full of griefers and admins are less than helpful. On the other hand, it is one of those Free To Play things and I guess beggars can't be choosers.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 4:15 AM on March 24, 2011 [2 favorites]

You're kidding; there's an F2P option? All this time I've been paying huge mortgage fees and having to buy a constant stream of consumables just to keep my avatar from withering away...
posted by ook at 7:43 AM on March 24, 2011 [1 favorite]

Pfft. Whatever. I remember going Outside before the internet made it cool and trendy. Now I avoid it because it's just full of newbs and wannabes who are crowding the place up.

I've discovered this incredibly exclusive new place, it's called Bed. Really, limited guest-list, comfortable ambiance. I can't recommend it enough.
posted by quin at 7:44 AM on March 24, 2011 [3 favorites]

You're kidding; there's an F2P option? All this time I've been paying huge mortgage fees

F2P always involves premium features, otherwise they'd never make any money. Player housing is just one of the subscription-only features. Plus you can grind quests for in-game currency, or sometimes free consumables will spawn behind supermarkets.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 8:14 AM on March 24, 2011 [6 favorites]

It's funny because we're pretending the real world, which is made out of matter, is a video game, because we all really like video games!
posted by Mister_A at 8:47 AM on March 24, 2011

It's almost as if reality... is broken.
posted by running order squabble fest at 8:52 AM on March 24, 2011

All I know is that if doing the dishes caused a progress bar to increment somewhere and occasionally dropped random loot my kitchen would be a lot cleaner than it is.

I am a total sucker for progress bars and random loot.
posted by ook at 9:34 AM on March 24, 2011 [3 favorites]

Somewhat in the same vein is the Real Life entry on TV Tropes.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 10:01 AM on March 24, 2011

I am recursively [I am recursively [I am recursively [I am recursively [I am recursively [I am recursively [I am recursively [I am recursively meta plagiarizing] meta plagiarizing] meta plagiarizing.] meta plagiarizing] meta plagiarizing] meta plagiarizing] meta plagiarizing] meta plagiarizing right now.
posted by Artw at 10:05 AM on March 24, 2011 [2 favorites]

Okay, so I tried to play Outside today, but I'm having trouble saving the game. I made some mistakes and it won't let me retry. Does anyone have a patch/fix for this?
posted by majonesing at 11:08 AM on March 24, 2011

I always liked Emo Philips's take on this idea.
posted by TedW at 7:09 PM on March 24, 2011

Hello, what's this? Another comment from that thread looks quite familiar.
posted by MimeticHaHa at 9:13 PM on March 24, 2011