Parodies
The title of the comic comes from an old joke about becoming a Ph.D., which explains 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), I, Grad Student (a mixture of the book and movie I, Robot), and Summer days (Summer Nights (Grease song)). In addition, Cham has parodied television programs like The Jerry Springer Show, among others.
Jorge 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 According to the strip these laws of graduation were superseded by Einstein's "Special Theory of Research Inactivity".
Another series of strips takes up the modern debate about the proper use of the term "irony".
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).
Read more about this topic: Piled Higher And Deeper
Famous quotes containing the word parodies:
“The parody is the last refuge of the frustrated writer. Parodies are what you write when you are associate editor of the Harvard Lampoon. The greater the work of literature, the easier the parody. The step up from writing parodies is writing on the wall above the urinal.”
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961)