Today I learned something about the infamous "Junk"

[CrackedChair]

So does anybody remember the Boat called the "Junk" in This comic?

I recently learned from looking at wikipedia through a few pages pertaining to Oriental Adventures book that it's an actual boat

I can't believe I caught on sooner. I thought Lord Shojo just called it a Junk, for comedy sake!

Does anybody else know this?

[tomandtish]

Yeah, sorry. I knew about the type of boat called a Junk well before I knew the other meaning. That second meaning seems relatively recent to me (I'm 48).

[Peelee]

I knew a junk was a type of ship, I just didn't know what type. Similar to how I couldn't recognise a flying jib.

[Emanick]

This is the opposite of my experience. I read the comic well before I knew that "junk" was a term for, um, a wiener.

[ti'esar]

If you look in the table of contents (or the print edition), the title of 418 actually is "It's a Type of Boat".

[Gift Jeraff]

Junk can also mean trash.

[Peelee]

Junk can also mean trash.

I believe you mean treasure.

[Random Sanity]

I believe you mean treasure.

Depends on if you're selling or buying.

[Knaight]

This was old news to me, but I've read a decent amount of Chinese literature and made a point of trying to learn Chinese history (as part of trying to patch the gigantic geographical holes in the sad joke that is a "World History" class in the U.S.), and English is my native language - so while I'd guess that it's a pretty obvious pun that most people reading it would get that's from the perspective of someone with enough expertise to make my memory of the default knowledge level fuzzy.

[factotum]

I'm with tomandtish--I knew that a junk was a type of ship. In fact, I didn't even know about the "penis" meaning when I read that strip, so the entire joke went over my head--somebody had to explain it to me in the comments thread.

[Bedinsis]

When I read that strip I didn't know that "junk" was the word for a kind of ship. I also was uncertain of if it could be used to refer to genitalia; I just assumed that was the case from the context. English isn't my native language, so that might be to be expected.

Speaking of language barriers, when reading this strip I didn't know what bumping uglies meant. From context I assumed Miko has interpreted the situation correctly, and thought the gag was that Haley described something proper in a mocking way.

[Finagle]

It's a relic from an earlier age of D&D players that were interested in history. Specifically, historical equipment like swords, fortifications, navies, phalanxes, and that sort of thing. I can remember designing my character's castle with barbicans, portcullises, murder holes, and so on. Kind of like 2D Minecraft with graph paper. Today, history is a gigantic bore and playing D&D is more like interactive improv theater. It's due to the popularity of gaming in the mainstream population, back then it was a small set of nerdy boys.

[2D8HP]

Yeah, sorry. I knew about the type of boat called a Junk well before I knew the other meaning. That second meaning seems relatively recent to me (I'm 48).

Same here, every word.

I also got to sail on a "Junk" (stop that!) as a youth (quit it already!) that was owned by friends of my parents.

[Gift Jeraff]

I believe you mean treasure.

Pirates are commonly associated with treasure, so in a sense all uses of the word involve seamen.

[KorvinStarmast]

It's a relic from an earlier age of D&D players that were interested in history.

Yeah, hence the proliferation of pole arms by E.G.G. in various articles, even though later weapons scholars still scratch their heads at his nomenclature.

Specifically, historical equipment like swords, fortifications, navies, phalanxes, and that sort of thing. I can remember designing my character's castle with barbicans, portcullises, murder holes, and so on.

D&D got me interested in studying medieval history. When I ended up in Europe while in the Navy, it informed my choices of where I'd visit on my liberty time.

Today, history is a gigantic bore and playing D&D is more like interactive improv theater. It's due to the popularity of gaming in the mainstream population, back then it was a small set of nerdy boys.

It was created by a set of nerdy men. The war gamers of the 60's and early 1970's were men, by and large, a few women, and a growing number of teenaged boys. Avalon Hill sold a lot of games to both men and boys. There was also the all-time favorite Diplomacy, Risk, Stragego, a bunch of stuff from SPI (Sniper, Legion, Viking ...), and numerous others.

Tim Kask used to refer to some of the historically obsessed miniatures as "twitchers." I'll find a link to his description if I can, but it usually manifested itself as a behavior at conventions or at game tables where two players would get into intense arguments over values and details of a particular era's weapons and armor ... to the point where they'd start to twitch.

Quite frankly, it was a good era for war gaming and D&D. But there were definitely a strong core of nerds.

PS: history is not a gigantic bore.

I knew about Chinese junks as a kid. We learned about the opium wars in Junior High.

[ORione]

It's also a type of food.

[Riftwolf]

I took a while to get the other junk reference as I'm British and we've other innuendos. But having a junk named 'My Junk' is entirely Shojo's style.

[Jaxzan Proditor]

I knew both meanings when I read it, so I guess I'm in the sweet spot of the younger generation that knows the slang but is also interested in history.

[goodpeople25]

Still no mention of the strips title? But yeah I knew both relevant meanings. Think I read something as a kid with different types of boats in it (not sure what may have been in the collection of encyclopedias that my Grandma had/has) and I think it came up a few times afterword. The slang is just that, picked it up at some point.

[Lord Torath]

Still no mention of the strips title?

Here:

If you look in the table of contents (or the print edition), the title of 418 actually is "It's a Type of Boat".

Ti'esar beat you by about 16 hours.

[goodpeople25]

Here:Ti'esar beat you by about 16 hours.

Thus the question, if I could actually trust my eyes (or wear my glasses more) to search the whole thread perfectly I would of phrased it stronger.

[Rogar Demonblud]

And again my age shows, because I've known what a junk was since I saw Swiss Family Robinson (in the theater, mind you).

[dps]

I find it difficult to imagine the level of ignorance necessary to not know that a junk is a type of ship. It's almost on the level of not knowing that there was a World War II.

[Peelee]

I find it difficult to imagine the level of ignorance necessary to not know that a junk is a type of ship. It's almost on the level of not knowing that there was a World War II.

I, too, equate one of the most significant and well-known events of the 20th century to a type of Chinese ship.

[factotum]

I, too, equate one of the most significant and well-known events of the 20th century to a type of Chinese ship.

Another darned sarcasm detector overloaded--you know how expensive these things are?

[Peelee]

Another darned sarcasm detector overloaded--you know how expensive these things are?

Send me the invoice, I'll take care of it.

[Dr.Zero]

Yeah, sorry. I knew about the type of boat called a Junk well before I knew the other meaning. That second meaning seems relatively recent to me (I'm 48).

Same here. Of course I knew the name in my own language ("giunca") but being them really close phonetically I had no problem to understand it.
Fun fact: I knew the other two meanings as well.
Instead I discovered THAT meaning from this comic, after I remained perplexed for a little while... then, thinking about the shape of the ship... well, let's say that it helped in guessing.

[Onyavar]

I read over the strip in question pretty quickly, ten years ago. I remember sitting there with a on my face, then klicking the next strip. In my language, the famous oriental boat is a 'Dschunke' (read jun-ke), so I missed the double entendres even with Belkar lampshading it.

It's only when I got involved with the translation stuff, years later, that I had to actively search for a joke there.
Edit: In my translation, I added a name to the ship. Re-translated it's now called "best piece", a term used in trash romance novels for... you know, junks.

[Finagle]

A lot of these posters are pointing out something I hadn't considered before: how embarrassingly "America First" OOTS is. We really need to appeal to a more global audience and cut down the references that only native speakers of English will get. Sales will be higher too, who knows how many sales have been lost due to people not getting the references at all.

[Razade]

I believe you mean treasure.

Depends on if you're One Man or Another Man.

It's a relic from an earlier age of D&D players that were interested in history. Specifically, historical equipment like swords, fortifications, navies, phalanxes, and that sort of thing. I can remember designing my character's castle with barbicans, portcullises, murder holes, and so on. Kind of like 2D Minecraft with graph paper. Today, history is a gigantic bore and playing D&D is more like interactive improv theater. It's due to the popularity of gaming in the mainstream population, back then it was a small set of nerdy boys.

Yeah and we had to do our ThAC0 in the snow! Up a hill! Both ways!!!

A lot of these posters are pointing out something I hadn't considered before: how embarrassingly "America First" OOTS is. We really need to appeal to a more global audience and cut down the references that only native speakers of English will get. Sales will be higher too, who knows how many sales have been lost due to people not getting the references at all.

Rich is from the United States. The majority of the reading population is from the United States. Dungeons and Dragons is primarily played in the United States. You'd confuse significantly more people trying to get broader appeal than keeping it the way it is. The internet is a thing and people can Google if they're confused.