I love xkcd.

This cartoon was inspired by the comments I’ve received in the past anytime I’ve ever posted any visual jokes that were remotely math or graph related.

Randall Munroe, the creator of xkcd, has been so successful with graph based humor that it does kind of feel like he’s cornered the market on it in the nerd hive mind. It is kind of like the math lovers equivalent of yelling, “Simpsons did it!”

Of course, graph based humor has been around forever, but I like thinking about the phenomenon of how the casual public’s perceptions of originality, source, and invention are shaped by standout pioneers in a particular creative field.