• kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    “What is up, dog?”

    Side note: the opposite of cat isn’t actually dog. The opposite of cat is goldfish. A goldfish loves water, is not fluffy, doesn’t exterminate every bird for sport, will never knock your favorite coffee mug off your desk, not bipolar, and I’m not allergic to them.

      • GoosLife@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        The absence of a cat implies nothing is there. So the opposite of a cat is nothing (specifically nothing where a cat should have been).

        So, another acceptable answer would be “what is up? Nothing.”

        • Iapar@feddit.org
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          4 months ago

          The absence of a cat implies the absence of a cat. There could be a dog instead or a Gasplanet which has a species of conscious whales wearing silly hats rolling in the mud to communicate the need for a fruity beverage. It could be anything, it could be nothing. It is not possible, from the given facts, to come to any concrete conclusion besides that a cat, is in fact, absent.

            • Iapar@feddit.org
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              4 months ago

              Never read the books but I watched the movie and liked it. Always wanted to get around to it.

              I think I will look for an audiobook and hear it tonight while in bed.

    • NoIWontPickAName@kbin.earth
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      4 months ago

      Depending on circumstances and how much you have pissed off said goldfish it could potentially knock your coffee mug over.

      If it does you should feel ashamed of yourself though

    • ShareMySims@sh.itjust.works
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      4 months ago

      will never knock your favorite coffee mug off your desk,

      I once shared a house with someone who had a fish that would thrash around in its tank so violently it would knock things off the cabinet it was on and get water all over the floor (I had no involvement in the care of the fish, but I think its tank was too small).

      Not a goldfish, but still…

    • suction@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      How do you know you’re not allergic? Have you ever rubbed one over your most delicate parts?

  • hex@programming.dev
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    4 months ago

    If dog is not the opposite of cat, then why did everyone immediately know the answer is dog? Hmm 🤔

    • ...m...@ttrpg.network
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      4 months ago

      …when i was in second grade i wrote a book report on chocolate fever, in which the climax involved the protagonist taking vanilla pills, which were so obviously the opposite of chocolate to my eight-year-old perspective, but which no adults with whom i discussed the book found at all obvious…

    • Bob@feddit.nl
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      4 months ago

      I seem to remember a youtube video from years ago explaining how things can be opposites in different ways, like glue is the opposite of scissors because of the use, red is the opposite of blue because of what they represent, etc.

        • skulblaka@sh.itjust.works
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          4 months ago

          I’ve never thought this hard about this before and I’m finding myself suddenly glad that other people have. This is really neat.

          • tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip
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            4 months ago

            Yeah, like think about opposite words that immediately come to mind for certain categories. If you think of the opposite of sweet, do you think sour, or maybe bitter? But in another context, the opposite of any taste is bland/tasteless. Same with emotions, where the opposite of love is commonly thought of as hate, but you could also say that any feeling has its opposite in indifference. Something can be sweet and sour, or you can have love and hate together, but you can’t have a sweet bland thing, or a loving indifferent emotion.

            Stuff like this interests me because it strikes at the heart of what we all take for granted in day to day thinking, but if you just slightly alter the lens you have something completely different and new.

        • Bob@feddit.nl
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          4 months ago

          Now I think about it, I’d seen it on this comedy version of Dragon’s Den with Andy Hamilton and Reginald D Hunter, but the real-world thing is probably more interesting!

    • stebo@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      4 months ago

      I didn’t. I was like huh there is no opposite of cat, then read the title, then got even more confused… How does anyone think the answer is dog?

      • hex@programming.dev
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        4 months ago

        In no logical way does cat being the opposite of dog make sense. It’s just a typical association because there was always a stronger cat vs dog stereotype in media as I was growing up. I learned that cats and dogs don’t get along, are mortal enemies, etc. This of course isn’t true, but it’s overly portrayed in media that way.

        • stebo@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          4 months ago

          huh, for me it only makes sense in the case of cat people vs dog people because they’re the most popular pets and most people prefer one over the other

      • pyre@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        because it is. that’s why cat people are the opposite of dog people.

  • MrJameGumb@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    What would be the opposite of any mammal? A carrot? A brick? A slime mold?

    Does everything actually have an “opposite”?

    • ZoopZeZoop@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Humans (like most living things) like to put things in boxes to make navigating their environment simpler. Temperatures aren’t really opposites because they’re on a continuum, but we talk about hot and cold as opposites to bring order to environmental navigation. The same with presence and absence of light and bright/dark. So, extending this logic, the opposite of cat is the absence of cat, but that doesn’t really make sense. If you cut a cat in half, are you halfway on a continuum from cat to the opposite of cat? If the cat is whole but has died, is it cat, opposite of cat, something else entirely? I have no idea, and no one else really does either. Brains are weird.

  • frostysauce@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    I would phrase it as, “What is ‘up’ and ‘dog?’” Being extra clear but ruining the joke.

    • Codex@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      There are many answers questions the judges will accept, but only one correct answer question!

      (Also happy cake day!)

  • rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works
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    4 months ago

    tee isn’t exactly the opposite of cat but I can’t remember a command that only redirects screen output to a file.

    What is up, tee?

    edit: what’s the opposite of “cd …”?

  • NutWrench@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    A dog will try to save your life if you’re drowning. A cat will sit on your head to keep from getting wet while you’re drowning.

  • theilleists@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    What is the opposite of a cat, then?

    If your answer is, “it doesn’t have one,” then I nominate dog.

  • Pennomi@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    A better clue might be

    This direction and pet combo became a common “gotcha” in the early 2000s.

  • assassinatedbyCIA@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    What is up and what is png

    each letter in PNG is exactly opposite the corresponding letter in CAT if the letter were equally distributed around a circle in alphabetical order.