Piled Higher and Deeper

Piled Higher and Deeper
Author(s) Jorge Cham
Website http://www.phdcomics.com
Current status / schedule Three times a week
Launch date October 27, 1997
Genre(s) Academia, doctoral research
A PhD Comics special on the occasion of Open Access Week 2012.

Piled Higher and Deeper (also known as PhD Comics),[1] is a newspaper and web comic strip written and drawn by Jorge Cham that follows the lives of several grad students. First published in the fall of 1997 when Cham was a grad student himself at Stanford University, the strip deals with issues of life in graduate school, including the difficulties of scientific research, the perils of procrastination, the complex student–supervisor relationship and the perpetual search for free food. Cham continued the strip as an Instructor in mechanical engineering at Caltech, and now draws and gives talks about the strip full-time. Originally, the strip was drawn in crude black-and-white, eventually became grayscale, and finally became color in June 2004.

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 University students, though the number of school-specific references and jokes has decreased since.

Students

Faculty


Parodies

Jorge Cham after his "Power of Procrastination" talk at UIUC, March 8, 2007

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),[52] Raiders of the Lost Dissertation (Raiders of the Lost Ark),[53] I, Grad Student (a mixture of the book and movie I, Robot),[54] and Summer days (Summer Nights (Grease song)[55]). 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Newton's laws of motion as Newton's 3 Laws of Graduation.[56] According to the strip these laws of graduation were superseded by Einstein's "Special Theory of Research Inactivity".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".[57]

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"[58] (cf. Indigo Girls) and "Who will grade your work"[59] (Who Will Save Your Soul).

Books

Five PhD comic books have been published so far. The first book, Piled Higher and Deeper: A Graduate Comic Strip Collection (2002), contains production sketches and an afterword by Prof. Smith in addition to the comic strips.

The second volume, Life is Tough and then You Graduate, was published in April 2005. It contains six strips not published online that explain what happened in Mike's thesis defense. It also has a foreword by Karl Marx, behind-the-scenes author notes and a graduate school board game.

The third book, Scooped!, which was released in May 2007, also contains "Tales from the Road", a series of comics that detail Cham's experiences whilst giving his Power of Procrastination tour.

The fourth book, Academic Stimulus Package, was released March 2009. This volume is printed in full color.

The fifth book, Adventures in Thesisland, was released April 2012. This volume is also printed in full color. The introduction is an excerpt from the screenplay of the PHD Movie.

Piled Higher and Deeper: the Movie

In March 2011, Jorge Cham started filming a movie based on the comic series. The film production is a collaboration between Cham and a theater group at the California Institute of Technology. In fall 2011, the film was released on selected academic campuses.[60] A trailer of the movie is available on the Piled Higher and Deeper website as of June 8, 2011.[61] After about a year of various campus screenings around the world, the movie became available for purchase on DVD or streaming on April 15, 2012.[62] A new version is now being shot on the Caltech campus (2015).

Notes and references

  1. CHOE, JAYWON (22 July 2011). "The Joke Is on the Ph.D.". The New York Times. Retrieved 5 October 2011.
  2. Jorge Cham (September 21, 2001), Lil' sister, Piled Higher and Deeper, retrieved April 23, 2009
  3. Jorge Cham (February 11, 1998), Mike Slackenerny: A PhD student needs not such things, Piled Higher and Deeper, retrieved April 23, 2009
  4. Jorge Cham (December 20, 2006), Taking the laptop with me, retrieved April 23, 2009; Jorge Cham (2008), Scooped!: The Third Piled Higher & Deeper Comic Strip Collection, Los Angeles, Calif.: Piled Higher & Deeper, LLC, p. 110, ISBN 978-0-9721695-3-0
  5. Jorge Cham (November 22, 1997), Dead Week, Piled Higher and Deeper, retrieved April 23, 2009)
  6. Cecilia turned 25 in 2005: Jorge Cham (May), Birthday 2005, Piled Higher and Deeper, retrieved October 28, 2009 Check date values in: |date= (help); Cham, Scooped!, p. 12.
  7. Cecilia went to her 10 year high school reunion in 2001: Jorge Cham (November 14, 2001), High School Reunion, Piled Higher and Deeper, retrieved October 28, 2009; Cham, Scooped!, p. 12.
  8. "Geeks Anonymous". PHD Comics. Retrieved 2010-06-24.
  9. Jorge Cham (November 23, 2000), The grad student of academia, Piled Higher and Deeper, retrieved April 23, 2009
  10. Jorge Cham (June 6, 2005), Dress to repress, Piled Higher and Deeper, retrieved April 23, 2009; Cham, Scooped!, p. 14.
  11. Jorge Cham (May 8, 2006), Friday night, Piled Higher and Deeper, retrieved April 23, 2009; Cham, Scooped!, p. 67.
  12. Jorge Cham (May 18, 2006), Long distance, Piled Higher and Deeper, retrieved April 23, 2009; Cham, Scooped!, p. 69.
  13. Jorge Cham (March 30, 2007), Is this it?, Piled Higher and Deeper, retrieved April 23, 2009; Cham, Scooped!, p. 130.
  14. Jorge Cham (January 31, 2006), Faculty position, Piled Higher and Deeper, retrieved April 23, 2009; Cham, Scooped!, p. 53.
  15. Jorge Cham (February 5, 2006), Faculty position, Piled Higher and Deeper, retrieved April 23, 2009; Cham, Scooped!, p. 53.
  16. Jorge Cham (December 8, 2003), Coming back to grad school, Piled Higher and Deeper, retrieved April 23, 2009
  17. Jorge Cham (May 22, 1998), Slackenerny – going to Vegas, Piled Higher and Deeper, retrieved April 23, 2009
  18. Jorge Cham (January 23, 2006), Paternity leave, Piled Higher and Deeper, retrieved April 23, 2009; Cham, Scooped!, p. 51.
  19. Jorge Cham (April 2, 2007), Now what?, Piled Higher and Deeper, retrieved April 23, 2009; Cham, Scooped!, p. 131.
  20. "Drama!". PHD Comics.
  21. "Tajel got married". PHD Comics.
  22. "Humanities". PHD Comics. Retrieved 2010-06-24.
  23. "Tajel getting married, pt. 5". PHD Comics. Retrieved 2010-06-24.
  24. "Budget cuts". PHD Comics. Retrieved 2010-06-24.
  25. "Choosing grad schools". PHD Comics. Retrieved 2010-07-21.
  26. Jorge Cham (April 28, 2010), PHD Comics: Lost no more...?, Piled Higher and Deeper, retrieved May 15, 2010
  27. "Tech support". PHD Comics. Retrieved 2010-06-24.
  28. Jorge Cham (June 29, 2009), Bridge, Piled Higher and Deeper, retrieved September 27, 2009
  29. "Simpler". PHD Comics. Retrieved 2010-06-24.
  30. Jorge Cham (July 4, 2005), Cingradella, Piled Higher and Deeper, retrieved April 23, 2009; Cham, Scooped!, p. 20.
  31. Jorge Cham (Oct 19, 2001), Kids! (Part 4), Piled Higher and Deeper, retrieved Feb 9, 2011
  32. "Permission". PHD Comics. Retrieved 2010-06-24.
  33. "Tajel got married". PHD Comics.
  34. "Social". PHD Comics. Retrieved 2010-07-21.
  35. Cham, Jorge (27 April 2007), "Terrific Job", Pile Higher and Deeper, retrieved 19 November 2008
  36. "Only when you don't need them". PHD Comics. Retrieved 2010-06-24.
  37. "A very serious matter". PHD Comics. Retrieved 2010-06-24.
  38. The fact that his first name is Brian is reflected in Jorge Cham (June 20, 2001), Lil' sister, Piled Higher and Deeper, retrieved April 23, 2009 and Jorge Cham (December 20, 2005), A Smithmas carol, Piled Higher and Deeper, retrieved April 23, 2009; Cham, Scooped!, p. 45.
  39. "Turf Wars, pt. 3". PHD Comics. Retrieved 2010-06-24.
  40. "Turf Wars, pt. 5". PHD Comics. Retrieved 2010-06-24.
  41. "Turf Wars Epilogue". PHD Comics. Retrieved 2010-06-24.
  42. http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=749
  43. Jorge Cham (August 2, 2006), Conference call, Piled Higher and Deeper, retrieved April 23, 2009; Cham, Scooped!, p. 81.
  44. Jorge Cham (November 24, 2010), Smith Circus, Piled Higher and Deeper, retrieved February 9, 2011
  45. Jorge Cham (November 24, 2010), A Smithmas Carol, Piled Higher and Deeper, retrieved February 9, 2011
  46. Jorge Cham (November 24, 2010), The PhD Movie 2, Piled Higher and Deeper, retrieved February 9, 2011
  47. "Mrs. Smith, pt. 3". PHD Comics. Retrieved 2010-06-24.
  48. Jorge Cham (June 20, 2001), Lil' Sis (Part 5), Piled Higher and Deeper, retrieved February 9, 2011
  49. Jorge Cham (November 24, 2010), Smith Circus, Piled Higher and Deeper, retrieved February 9, 2011
  50. Jorge Cham (December 8, 2005), A Smithmas carol, Piled Higher and Deeper, retrieved April 23, 2009; Cham, Scooped!, p. 43.
  51. Jorge Cham (August 16, 2005), Author biographies, Piled Higher and Deeper, retrieved April 23, 2009; Cham, Scooped!, p. 85.
  52. "What is... The Thesis?". PHD Comics. Retrieved 2010-06-24.
  53. "Raiders of the lost dissertation". PHD Comics. Retrieved 2010-06-24.
  54. "I, Grad Student". PHD Comics. Retrieved 2010-06-24.
  55. "Summer Days". PHD Comics. Retrieved 2012-07-19.
  56. "Newton`s Three Laws of Graduation". PHD Comics. Retrieved 2010-06-24.
  57. "Irony?". PHD Comics. Retrieved 2010-06-24.
  58. "Closer to Fine (Academic Version)". PHD Comics. Retrieved 2010-06-24.
  59. "Who will grade your work?". PHD Comics. Retrieved 2010-06-24.
  60. "A Comic Strip That Skewers Academe Will Become a Live-Action Movie". The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved 2011-04-12.
  61. http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1433
  62. http://www.phdmovie.com/

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