Wow. It seems someone at YouTUBE took this comic seriously and decided to add an “Audio Preview” feature. Now you can hear your comments read aloud to you.
Of course, it’s an optional button using speech synth rather than a mandatory dramatic reading, so it’ll just be used for entertainment by people who haven’t played with a speech synthesizer before:
But then, after a little more browsing around, I see this:
So maybe there’s hope after all.
xkcd 
Wow. This, if something, proves that google is not evil. Or, at least, if they’re evil, they’re hiding it pretty damn well.
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It’s great, but my internal logic circuits can’t handle the idea of an “audio preview”. It should be something like an “audio prehear” or “prelisten”. I don’t care if we have to make words up, at least the different parts of speech will agree with each other!
::implodes in a cloud of frustrated grammar::
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I am amazed that instead of realizing the idiocy of their own post, that poster blamed the audio synth for somehow twisting their Shakespearean greatness into moronic drivel. I’m just…wow.
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Maybe all audio previews should have the same sound
“Ha Ha Ha Ha..You are an idiot!”
That ought to keep them morons away.
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“How girl get pragnent?” – “They need to do way instain mother>”… hilarious 😀
Are there more dramatic readings of this kind?
(Apart from that, it’s of course amazing that the guys at Google show humour.)
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what the hell WHY ??? i mean for gods sake cant a hacker do somthing better ???
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Awwww, yeah. Mathematicians do it irrationally.
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eeny oony wanna
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Wow, that is just awesome. The youtube community needs all the help it can get…
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“Wow the audio preview of my message sounded moronic”
Yep, that’s the idea. Yet he still posted it, so I’d say this doesn’t have the deterrent effect initially predicted…uh oh…
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GAH!!! I just realized that this may lead to more moronic comments!
Pages will be spammed with strange messages ending in “audio preview is awesome!”. People are so stupid! If they want to play with the preview, it shouls STAY AS A PREVIEW. If they’re sandboxing, they should logically NOT POST IT. It’s pointless to post it, because we can’t hear it when it’s posted; only the writer can preview the voice. But, as usual, people will fail to be logical…
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“(The audio preview of my own post sounded moronic!)”
Most funniest thing I’ve read in about a year. Totally epic!
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“(The audio preview of my own post sounded moronic!)”
Funniest thing I’ve read in months! Seriously epic win.
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As a few others have commented before me, the only way this could possibly get any better is if they read the comments in Morgan Freeman’s voice. Youtube, make it happen.
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The only way they could improve it, is to make the same feature but for xkcd commenters, to realize how pretentious they are.
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once again life follows xkcd.
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It’s a bit much to presume that the usual idiot posting on Youtube would even ‘get’ the point of the Audio Preview. Great idea, though. It means that the more intelligent members of the human race can sit back and laugh at the expense of these morons.
I wonder what LOLcatz would sound like…
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So… how long before XKCD’s Blag will get audio preview in this manner?
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lol people are really dumb
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its pretty good too, knows light h4xor, lulz and seem multilingual although i dont know its lingual extent
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Now what you need to do is make a comic:
-What are you doing?
-Making a virus.
-What’s it do?
-Anytime someone posts on Youtube, it takes a dollar from their bank account and wires it to Randall.
*Some time in the near future…..*
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I just saw it today and I immediately thought of xkcd. This is why the internet is awesome.
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That’s amazing. I can’t believe they’d actually do that.
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That is truly amazing and awesome
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I was JUST ABOUT to send you a email about this. I immediately thought of your recent comic!
😛
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If only there was a widget that would read aloud posted comments for later readers…
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“(The audio preview of my own post sounded moronic!)”
–Some people just refuse to grasp that whole cause-effect thing.
this audio preview demands my attention… now if only I could find my speakers.
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hello mister mister!
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Thank you, Mr. Munroe. You have made a major contribution to The Fight To End Internet Stupidity (TFTEIS). You win several internets.
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I’m kinda wondering, do I need Vista for this? Because it doesn’t seem to be working for me when I press the button, and I’m sure I’m not doing that wrong. 😦 (though it might be because my windows is nLited…) …This is still a huge achievement!
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I just noticed this on youtube, I can’t believe it! This is great!
Well, it’s not quite as great as on the comic, but it is a step in the right direction, no?
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When’s this feature coming to the XKCD blag comments?
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You realise what this means, right? You control youtube!
Please abuse your power.
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All the XKCD blog commentors, and the creator of xkcd itself, need this feature.
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Wow, when I saw this I thought is was a cheap photoshop and a joke. But WOW that is amazing
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Apparently it spells out the word “am”. It says the letters “a” “m”. Well done, YouTube. Interestingly, it pronounces “lackadaisical” properly. “superfluously” completely kills it, as does “thunk” (think back to your Borland C++ days and recall dealing with “thunking layers”). It won’t say the “++” in C++, either.
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well done xkcd… i hope it works…..
it got a mention in the melbourne, australia paper the age… not sure if i can post websites but here is the link….
http://www.theage.com.au/news/web/youtubes-moron-detector/2008/10/13/1223749908757.html
Seems youtube are proud of the fact that you have created a moron detector….
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They need a voice changer for it, so you can have different audio previews(Pirate,robot, crazy guy, Mr. T, Star Trek Technobable, and the default, Whiny little kid)
Xkcd comments should have their own audio preview too, if youtube has it why doesn’t this site?
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It plays back way too fast when I try to use it (chipmunk style). I tried switching browsers, got the same result. Any suggestions or explanations?
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Oh my God. This comic comes with PERFECT timing.
I was just a few hours ago fighting with iTunes to get their music compatible for my Sony mp3 player. In the end I used Amazon mp3 download, even though I have a $25 gift card for iTunes which is now useless.
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