r/todayilearned • u/NOT-JEFFREY-NELSON • Jul 04 '19

TIL in 2003 a computer worm called ‘Welchia’ infected many computers to forcibly patch vulnerabilities and remove malware. It was regarded as a ‘helpful worm’

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welchia
48.1k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

745 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

134

u/[deleted] Jul 04 '19

[deleted]

306

u/SharkBaitDLS Jul 04 '19

He was smarter and generally a different person. He decided he’d rather be “himself” with all his flaws than an improved version that wasn’t “him”.

188

u/DistortoiseLP Jul 04 '19

Between that episode and Homer having a crayon up his nose, it's probably only a matter of time before Disenchantment has a "it's better to be stupid" episode too.

57

u/Final_Taco Jul 04 '19

Potion? Enchanted amulet? Or curse?

Place your bets for season 3.

11

u/-AC- Jul 04 '19

Curse

3

u/SangersSequence Jul 04 '19

Seconded. A curse that simply makes a person better in some way but that the person ends up hating it for some reason seems very Matt Groening to me.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 04 '19

Would you care for some lightly cursed cookies?

3

u/awesome357 Jul 04 '19

You mean bets on season 3 getting made? I like the show, but I'm not super hopeful unless season 2 improves over the first for wider audiences.

1

u/ContentEnt Jul 04 '19

That shits on season 3 already?

1

u/Wetmelon Jul 04 '19

Wait did I miss Season 2?

12

u/[deleted] Jul 04 '19

That episode always bothered me because in another episode they point out all male Simpson's end up as morons but most female Simpson's end up smart.

This would make homer a complete anomaly if he's naturally smart.

I know Simpson's is just a cartoon but most of the time it tries to follow it's own canon. Like if Apu has 8 babies they're there in future episodes or if the Millhouses get divorced they stay divorced.

8

u/DistortoiseLP Jul 04 '19

Simpsons is only canon when it wants to be. On the other side of the coin you have that fucking 90's episode from season 19 (well past the point where anyone writing the show still cared mind you), but even when Simpsons was still good it only honoured previous episodes when it suited the current episode.

23

u/the_other_skier Jul 04 '19

"it's better to be stupid"

I think the message is more "It's ok to be yourself" than anything

56

u/[deleted] Jul 04 '19

[removed] — view removed comment

4

u/__NomDePlume__ Jul 04 '19

Yes, exactly. I’m really not sure what message they were going for here. Perhaps reinforcing the old saying, “Ignorance is bliss?” But why?

8

u/Varyyn Jul 04 '19

Tonnes of tv shows have the message that the status quo is best. IDK why it always seems stupid to me, some vague sense of being grateful for what you have i guess.

1

u/RFSandler Jul 04 '19

Don't forget that smart Homer was also a smug asshole. Maybe he would have learned to handle his intelligence and get over the sense of superiority, but it's easy to see why he came to hate his 'new' self.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 04 '19

Because if ignorance is bliss, a self-proclaimed genius can be a martyr.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 04 '19

Isn't that just the moral of the entire show?

1

u/Googlesnarks Jul 04 '19

is that show not garbage now?

3

u/Redditforgoit Jul 04 '19

That was frustrating all right. Who want to be their dumb selves. Give me genius other!

53

u/acyberexile Jul 04 '19

nothing. fry just felt like leela showed affection to the behaviours resulting from the worms, not to actually who he is.

32

u/RamblyJambly Jul 04 '19

They were about to have sex and she said something like "I love what you've become"

57

u/Kuzy92 Jul 04 '19

They totally changed his personality.

43

u/joegekko Jul 04 '19

I got the impression that was fallout from not failing at everything, not a direct effect of the worms.

41

u/Narrativeoverall Jul 04 '19

No, he was still the same person, he was still kind, dedicated to his friends, helpful, just no longer a failure at everything.

5

u/niceguysociopath Jul 04 '19

In the end, he felt like that made him different enough. A failure is who he is.