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science-show

2022-07-13 View on smbc-comics.com → 1 revision
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science-show
Votey panel for science-show
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Explanation

This comic satirizes the gap between how real science works and what audiences expect from science entertainment.

A character announces: "It turned out my hypothesis was not exactly right, and not exactly wrong, but there's a combination of issues, many of which stem from incomplete data."

A cartoon llama (or alpaca) responds: "Sounds like it's time for lit search number seven!"

The caption reads: "So far, no buyers for my realistic science show for kids."

The joke is that real science is nothing like how it's depicted in children's educational programming. Actual scientific research involves ambiguous results, partial answers, incomplete data, and endless literature reviews — none of which make for exciting television. Children's science shows typically feature dramatic "eureka!" moments, clear-cut experiments with definitive results, and simple narratives of discovery. A truly realistic science show would be full of hedging, inconclusive findings, and tedious but necessary processes like literature reviews, which is why "no buyers" are interested.

The llama/alpaca character serves as the children's-show mascot sidekick, gamely trying to make "literature search number seven" sound as exciting as a countdown to a volcano experiment.

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