Dirk the Daring sends this in: “I had to go to the comment because I didn’t understand it, fortunately it seems to be explained there. The old phones I get, look at the date, but the “Ewww” didn’t make much sense.”
Cleats is in reruns; this comic appeared on July 4 some years ago.
Comics I Don't Understand 
Many years ago, was watching a humungous fireworks display at Epcot and saw people recording on their phones, staring at the comparatively low-res image rather than the actual spectacle.
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I don’t get the “Ewwww!’ unless Hinds forgot how to spell “Oooooo!”
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Person 1,3,&4 I believe are the same person based on their phone. It’s not until they realize that they can only take a picture using their stylus that you get the proper reaction. That’s all I got.
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But @hdh15, all the phones are different.
“Ewwww!’ makes no sense to me, either. @Dirk says the comments explain it; I hope he’ll pass along that explanation.
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Could it be that the 4th one has only a monochrome screen? Obviously not clear from the coloration of the comic itself.
Or is the 4th one a cracked screen?
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No explanation here.
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I was at a loss as well, so I described the comic to ChatGPT and this is what it came up with:
“The comic is a satire of early mobile phone culture — mocking how people, even with primitive flip phones, were starting to experience the world through screens rather than directly. People are so busy documenting the moment with their phones that they’re not even reacting genuinely. The mix of “Ahhhh” and “Ewwww” highlights how disconnected and performative their reactions have become — more about going through the motions than feeling anything real.”
Not bad. I’m happy with this as an explanation.
(People fear AI will take their jobs, but look out, it may also take over light-hearted websites like this one too.)
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Oh, well then, if ChatGPT says it, it must be true, right?
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Well, maybe not ‘true’ as such, but it’s better than what I came up with*, that’s for sure.
*which was nothing
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Possibly something about what it looks like on the screen, not unlike AI logos: https://velvetshark.com/ai-company-logos-that-look-like-buttholes (My apologies to those who had not seen this before.)
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beckoningchasm has it… a misspelling. It may or may not be a misspelling of “ooooooo…”, but it almost certainly is trying to capture some expression of awe and just not realizing it spells something completely opposite. The sounds are pretty similar.
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