The joke is that they’ve not been given in ISO8601 format, and also that they’re both ambiguous. For the second one, we can’t even tell which of the ends is the year.
Might be the best xkcd alt text of all time. I knew if from memory, and as soon as I saw the comic I thought “I bet someone quoted the alt text in the top comment”.
Alt text:
But… that’s not the right way. Are you saying the ISO8601 violates ISO8601?
The joke is that they’ve not been given in ISO8601 format, and also that they’re both ambiguous. For the second one, we can’t even tell which of the ends is the year.
Honestly Randall absolutely would put the year in the middle just to fuck with us
Publication 1988-06-05, latest amendment 2004-12-01.
I almost expected the two dates to use different formats, but no, they’re just both “the American way”.
Well you can only cram in so many jokes at once. Would have been funny though
Knowing Americans it’s probably the middle.
You found the joke
Might be the best xkcd alt text of all time. I knew if from memory, and as soon as I saw the comic I thought “I bet someone quoted the alt text in the top comment”.