Explain SMBC — the wiki for Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

beep

2022-02-01 View on smbc-comics.com → 1 revision
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beep
Votey panel for beep
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Explanation

This comic features a conversation between a human and a robot. The human is making noises ("BEEEEEEEEEEEE...") that the robot finds irritating, telling them to "stop it!" The human asks why the robot doesn't just say it's annoying, and the robot explains that when two humans make a shared experience that lasts more than a moment, "it's called 'filler words' -- every language has them."

The robot then explains that filler sounds are either going to evolve into fuller words or disappear from use entirely. At the end, the human resumes making the beeping noise, and the robot sarcastically remarks: "Gee, how much less annoying this is."

The comic explores the concept of linguistic filler (um, uh, like, etc.) by flipping it -- imagining a human deliberately making an annoying sustained tone as a "filler." The robot's analysis is a nod to actual linguistics research on how filler words function in conversation. The humor comes from the gap between the intellectual understanding of why fillers exist and the visceral annoyance of experiencing them, especially taken to an absurd extreme with a continuous beep.

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