Piled Higher and Deeper
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Piled Higher and Deeper is a webcomic written and drawn by Jorge Cham, now a mechanical engineering instructor at Caltech, which follows the lives of several grad students. First published in the fall of 1997 when Cham was a grad student himself at Stanford, the strip deals with issues like the difficulties of scientific research, the perils of procrastination and the endless search for free food.
Characters
Piled Higher and Deeper introduced its main characters early in its run, and their personalities have remained fairly constant during the strip's several years of publication. In the strip's first few seasons, the characters were clearly Stanford students, though the number of school-specific references and jokes has decreased since.
- The Nameless Hero – a graduate student in one of the hard sciences, this protagonist has gone through the entire strip without receiving a name. His younger sister, Dee, is a perennial undergraduate who is occasionally seen applying to graduate schools, taking the GRE or talking on her cellular telephone during class.
- Michael Slackenerny – endlessly devious, remarkably clever and phenomenally lazy, Michael has been in graduate school for longer than anyone can remember. He views grad school not as a place but as "a state of mind [...] preferably sleeping, which you are now interrupting." In the spring of 1998, he drove to Las Vegas with a seemingly foolproof plan to beat the blackjack tables, thereby winning enough money to solve Stanford's housing crisis. Instead, he returned with a wife, Jen, who remained an unseen character for some time. Jen became pregnant and stayed that way for several years, constantly urging Michael to finish his thesis and graduate. Michael finally defended his thesis in 2005; Jen goes into labor just before his presentation must begin. The six strips which resolve this story are not available online, but can be found in the second book collection.
- Cecilia – also a student of the "hard sciences", Cecilia spent years refusing to admit that she was truly a geek at heart. Addicted to chocolate, she has long since taken enough classes and conducted enough research to graduate, but a mysterious psychological force keeps her in school. During class, she wears deliberately frumpy clothes to discourage male interest, since the vast majority of her classmates are men. This strategy is not always successful — "Excuse me, female, will you marry me?"
- Tajel – Cecilia's roommate, Tajel is the only one of the central cast who is a humanities student. This implies that Tajel is also the only one who has ever gotten to leave the school (or even the laboratory basement) for any academic reason. She is a dedicated activist who frequently attends or organizes rallies. Her frustration with U.S. politics is exacerbated by her not being a United States citizen.
- Professor Smith – originally drawn so that his face was never seen, much like Ernst Stavro Blofeld in the early James Bond movies or Dr. Claw in Inspector Gadget. Sometimes forgetful but often intimidating, Prof. Smith supervises both Michael Slackenerny and the nameless hero in their research.
- Mariko – a Japanese student in the same research field as the hero, she visits Prof. Smith's lab in 1998. Smith assigns her to work with "whoever is lowest in the lab hierarchy", which turns out to be the hero. During her brief stay, she inspires in him a powerful unrequited affection, which he maintains for at least three years. She eventually quits her Ph.D. and starts her own company, at which the hero works for a brief stretch of time.
In addition, the strip is populated with a variety of incidental characters: other professors, assorted anonymous students and so forth.
Parodies
The title itself comes from an old joke about being a Ph.D., where it is explained that if one knows what "B.S." stands for (in this context, "bullshit"), then "M.S." stands for "More of the Same" (or "More Shit"), and "Ph.D." stands for "Piled Higher and Deeper".
One of Cham's recurring themes is to re-cast an item of popular culture in the grad-school milieu. Upon several occasions, the strip has included spoofs of popular movies, like [The Thesis] (The Matrix), [Raiders of the Lost Dissertation] (Raiders of the Lost Ark) and I, Grad Student (a mixture of the book and movie I, Robot). In addition, Cham has parodied television programs like The Jerry Springer Show, among others.
Cham has also parodied Newton's laws of motion as [Newton's 3 Laws of Graduation]. According to the strip these laws of graduation were superseded by Einstein's Special Theory of Research Inactivity.
The strip has also included several adaptations of Shakespeare as well as several propaganda posters. Captions for the latter include "This man does research for you!", "When you procrastinate... Someone is watching!" and "Women in grad school... Support your local female geek."
Cham has also released two song parodies, purportedly sung by Tajel, in MP3 format: [Closer to fine] (cf. Indigo Girls) and [Who will grade your work] (Who Will Save Your Soul).
External links
References
- The following external links were last verified 18 October 2005.
- Piled Higher and Deeper: A graduate comic strip collection (2002), ISBN 0-972-16950-4. The first five years, collected in book form.
- Piled Higher and Deeper: Life is tough and then you graduate (2005), ISBN 0-972-16952-0.
- Paul Smaglik. "You've got to laugh. . ." Nature 436 (August 2005) p. 745. [doi: 10.1038/nj7051-745a].
- Jamie Schuman. "Dawdling and doodling" The Chronicle of Higher Education 12 August 2005. [Available online] with subscription.
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