Aptly named "Tech Support", this cartoon addresses the nightmare that is calling technical support. The customer is having problems with his modem and knows exactly where the problem is coming from. However, the person helping him has to follow a script. The customer is put on the phone with a very smart woman who immediately solves the problem and gives the customer a secret password that will get him to someone who “knows a minimum of two programming languages”. These are the types of people who are really useful for tech support. However, the customer then wakes up and realizes it was all a dream.
This cartoon was produced in the United States online in the last few years. The cartoon has nine frames that are all sequential. The first eight are part of the dream, while in the last frame the main character wakes up from the dream. The use of multiple frames allows the conflict to be more clearly developed. Many of the xkcd comics deal with current issues. The cartoonist, Randall Munroe, emphasizes the words by making the images extremely basic. Most of Munroe’s comics have a similar format (emphasis on words with basic images). According to his biography, he lives in Massachusetts. He has worked on robots for NASA and also occasisonally writes comics for IBM.
The primary message is that technical support is horridly unhelpful. The people on the other end need to take a minute to listen to the actual problem rather than simply reading their scripts. The dialogue in the cartoon demonstrates this. The cartoon does have a fairly serious tone, as it mainly shows conflict. The use of serious tone makes the comic relatable to everyone who has had to call tech support. The cartoonist relies on empathy to convey the message of the cartoon. This use of empathy means that the cartoon will have the strongest effect on those who have had bad experiences with tech support. However, the general public will appreciate the comic.
The characters are drawn as stick figures; they have generic features. Some stereotypes of people who would be helpful are created, such as the engineer wearing cargo pants, or the girl with the poster. These types of people could be classified as geeks. The customer shows movement between each frame, while the first tech support person is lazily sitting in his chair. Because the customer has an experimental operating system, it can be assumed he is an intelligent person. The female tech support person is sitting upright in her chair, leaning over her computer. These characters are probably entirely fictional, but the cartoon is based on a real event. The computers and desks drawn are very basic, adding emphasis to the dialogue.
Munroe uses empathy, dialogue, and basic imagery to describe the nightmare that is tech support. The fact that the secret word found in the 7th panel only exists in a dream implies that tech support will forever remain a bad experience.
This comic can be found here: http://xkcd.com/806/
This comic can be found here: http://xkcd.com/806/
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