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We all know how monotonous a long day at work can be, and we all know how easy it is to get caught while surfing the Web or doing anything else other than work at the workplace. If you get drained out and find yourself nodding off at the office, try www.xkcd.com for something to perk you up. Just as long you manage not to laugh out aloud.

xkcd.com is a comic webstrip that is updated thrice weekly and usually with one strip per update. It is titled ‘xkcd - a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math and language’ and is written by Randall Munroe. The main page shows the latest strip published and it provides us with navigation buttons. The very useful ‘random’ button is self-explanatory and the one I click on all the time. When you are at work, sneak a peak at one strip here and go back to work. Most of the time, I find the comic strips exceedingly hilarious and it never fails to perk me up from impending slumber.

The unique characteristic about xkcd is that it focuses on, what I like to call, intellectual humour. Most conventional comic strips make use of visual humour, with exaggerated depictions of characters. In contrast, xkcd employs simple stick figures as the characters and instead, relies on text to deliver the punchlines. Drawings are usually simplistic (I say usually, because there are times when comic strips are published in all their visual glory) but ample to draw a laugh out of the reader.

The crux of xkcd is the writing and mostly it does not fail to shine. Personally, I had a good time trawling through the archives and enjoying a good guffaw at work, as I understood most of the references. Mainly, the inspiration comes from American pop-culture, relationships and even mathematical concepts. However, there were some times when xkcd had me scratching my head in front of the monitor. Some references were rather obscure and I failed to understand the joke completely. This may happen quite often to you if you are not as familiar with American culture or computer terminology as Randall Munroe does have quirky ‘geeky’ inclinations. Many references, although obscure, can still be comprehended by the masses.

xkcd.com does not possess any real storyline, although they are recurring characters. This trait makes it a very good site to pass time in office - you can randomly go in to read a strip or two when you feel like it and you would not be missing anything if you missed an update or two. I would recommend this site to you; if you do have time, try browsing through some of the older strips in the archive, some are really hilarious. The cynical humour and sarcasm is a very delightful change from the conventional Baby Blues and Foxtrot.

Click here to visit xkcd.com
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