Piled Higher and Deeper
Encyclopedia
Piled Higher and Deeper - Life (or the lack thereof) in Academia (also known as PhD Comics), 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 endless 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.
students, though the number of school-specific references and jokes has decreased since.
Professor Brian S. Smith – Mostly intimidating and unsympathetic but sometimes forgetful, Prof. Smith advises Mike Slackenerny and the Nameless Hero in their research, taking credit for any output his lab actually produces. Prof. Smith occasionally tries to "fit in" with his students (nearly all males and one female student, Allison ), to humorous and awkward results. He has a wife and two children, a daughter named Sadie, and a son, "Junior". Prof. Smith was 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
. According to his wife, Smith apparently "used to goof all the time as a grad student" and it has been suggested on occasion that he had been interested in becoming a circus performer rather than a professor. A brilliant academic who disproved all the theories of his advisor Professor Emeritus Zekowsky, Professor Smith is the Arthur C. and Caroline J. McCallister Distinguished Chair Professor and Anderson Faculty Scholar, and the Director of the Center for Computational Research and the National Institute of Dynamical Physics. He is the recipient of the Alexander von Humboldt Prize of the Netherlands, the National Science Foundation
Presidential Investigator Award, the Exceptional Achievement Medal from the International Society of Engineers, the Pi Gamma Tau Industry Excellence Professorship, the National Medal of Engineering, and the Medal of Honor from the Royal Academy of Scientists. He serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Advanced Dynamics, the Journal of Nano-Particle Computation, Physik-Publication and several other journals, and on the advisory boards of many industry consortia
. He holds honorary doctorates from the Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Tsing-Chua Beijing University and the Universidade de São Paulo
, among others.
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
) 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.
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
).
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.
. In fall 2011, the film was released on selected academic campuses. A trailer of the movie is available on the Piled Higher and Deeper website as of June 8, 2011.
Jorge Cham
Jorge Cham is a Chinese Panamanian cartoonist and roboticist best known for his popular newspaper and web comic strip Piled Higher and Deeper . Cham lives in the United States, where he started drawing PhD Comics as a graduate student at Stanford University...
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
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
, the strip deals with issues of life in graduate school
Graduate school
A graduate school is a school that awards advanced academic degrees with the general requirement that students must have earned a previous undergraduate degree...
, including the difficulties of scientific research, the perils of procrastination
Procrastination
In psychology, procrastination refers to the act of replacing high-priority actions with tasks of low-priority, and thus putting off important tasks to a later time...
, the complex student–supervisor relationship and the endless search for free food. Cham continued the strip as an Instructor in mechanical engineering
Mechanical engineering
Mechanical engineering is a discipline of engineering that applies the principles of physics and materials science for analysis, design, manufacturing, and maintenance of mechanical systems. It is the branch of engineering that involves the production and usage of heat and mechanical power for the...
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 UniversityStanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
students, though the number of school-specific references and jokes has decreased since.
Students
- The Nameless Hero – a graduate student in engineering, this bespectacled protagonist has procrastinated through the entire strip without receiving a name. He bears a striking resemblance to the comic strip author, Jorge ChamJorge ChamJorge Cham is a Chinese Panamanian cartoonist and roboticist best known for his popular newspaper and web comic strip Piled Higher and Deeper . Cham lives in the United States, where he started drawing PhD Comics as a graduate student at Stanford University...
(at one point, his younger sister Dee remarks that her brother has dreams of quitting grad school and becoming a cartoonistCartoonistA cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing cartoons. This work is usually humorous, mainly created for entertainment, political commentary or advertising...
). Little is known about the hero's background, although early on Mike Slackenerny states that he knew the hero's older brother (who quit his PhD and went on to work for a "Silicon ValleySilicon ValleySilicon Valley is a term which refers to the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California in the United States. The region is home to many of the world's largest technology corporations...
Company"). As he is seen playing with two children at home during his winter vacation, he probably has younger siblings, nieces and/or nephews, or cousins. He has been increasingly seen with a set group of friends (one is named Mikkel) and seems, at least marginally, to be the most favored graduate student of his advisor, Prof. Smith. At the conclusion of the film, the character states for the first time that his name is Winston, named after Jorge's father.
- Cecilia – an engineering student born around May 1, 1980 Earlier strips have her born in 1973. Cecilia spent years refusing to admit that she was truly a geekGeekThe word geek is a slang term, with different meanings ranging from "a computer expert or enthusiast" to "a carnival performer who performs sensationally morbid or disgusting acts", with a general pejorative meaning of "a peculiar or otherwise dislikable person, esp[ecially] one who is perceived to...
at heart. However, in one strip she finally with hesitation admitted she is indeed a geek. Addicted to chocolate and cookies, she has long since taken enough classes and conducted enough research to graduate, but a mysterious psychological force keeps her in school. She stated in an interview for a project by her friend Tajel that her father was a professor, a "great teacher", something that may or may not be a motivation for her to go above and beyond (also, her choice of words indicates that her father may have died). During class, she deliberately wears 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?" She has had two boyfriends in the course of the strip: David and Scott. Although she broke up with David relatively quickly, she seriously dated Scott, her crush in high school, for numerous strips; they had a long-distance relationshipLong-distance relationshipA long-distance relationship is typically an intimate relationship that takes place when the partners are separated by a considerable distance....
for a while after Scott was promoted and moved to London but broke up amicably in 2007. Cecilia sometimes accompanies Tajel to political rallies and such events. She was asked in 2006 by a professor to interview for a faculty position at a different institution because "it's the only position you're not overqualified for" and "we hired one of their grad students, so, diplomatically, they owe us."
- Michael Slackenerny – endlessly devious, remarkably clever and phenomenally lazy, Mike had been in graduate school for longer than anyone can remember (during one of his interviews it was strongly implied that he started grad school in the 1980s), surviving on ramenRamenis a Japanese noodle dish. It consists of Chinese-style wheat noodles served in a meat- or fish-based broth, often flavored with soy sauce or miso, and uses toppings such as , , kamaboko, green onions, and occasionally corn...
and free food from various events on campus. He views grad school not as a place but as "a state of mind [...] preferably sleeping, which you are interrupting". In the spring of 1998, he drove to Las VegasLas Vegas, NevadaLas Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
with a seemingly foolproof plan to beat the blackjackBlackjackBlackjack, also known as Twenty-one or Vingt-et-un , is the most widely played casino banking game in the world...
tables, thereby winning enough money to solve Stanford's housing crisis. Instead, he returned with a wife, Jen, who remained an unseen characterUnseen characterIn fiction, an unseen character is a character that is never directly observed by the audience but is only described by other characters. They are a common device in drama and have been called "triumphs of theatrical invention". They are continuing characters — characters who are currently in...
for some time. Jen became pregnant with their daughter Sophy and stayed that way for several years, constantly urging Michael to finish his thesis and graduate. Michael finally completed his doctoral defense in 2005 – Jen went into labor just before his presentation began – but did not finish writing his thesis until 2007. After submitting his dissertation, Mike was seen walking home and asking himself, "Now what?" After a period of job-hunting, he was finally hired by Prof. Smith as a postdoc.
- Tajel – an anthropologist and the lone social scientist in the main cast. She was Cecilia's roommate before she got married. She is a dedicated activistActivismActivism consists of intentional efforts to bring about social, political, economic, or environmental change. Activism can take a wide range of forms from writing letters to newspapers or politicians, political campaigning, economic activism such as boycotts or preferentially patronizing...
who frequently attends or organizes rallies. Her frustration with U.S. politics is exacerbated by her not being a United States citizen. She is conversant in Spanish. Her mother is Indian and her father is Caucasian. She married Dr. Khumalo in February 2009.
- Gerard – the strip's newest "official" character, he is a major in Medieval ScandinavianScandinaviansScandinavians are a group of Germanic peoples, inhabiting Scandinavia and to a lesser extent countries associated with Scandinavia, and speaking Scandinavian languages. The group includes Danes, Norwegians and Swedes, and additionally the descendants of Scandinavian settlers such as the Icelandic...
Cultural Philosophy, who was personally introduced to readers by Tajel, supposedly in response to numerous letters from Humanities majors requesting their own character, and was meant to provide jokes on "obscure manuscripts, dead languages, and being the lowest paid grads on campus. Also, political correctness!" Despite this, Gerard has only been shown twice after his initial introduction, apart from a cameo as a guest at Tajel's wedding, in a joke on the obscurity and uselessness of his field. His first actual storyline within the comic occurs when he is informed that funding has been cut for humanities majors and to leave the strip or find a more useful major, subsequently forcing him to justify why the comic should retain a humanities character.
- Dee – the hero's younger sister. She is an undergraduate student who has been seen taking the GREGraduate Record ExaminationThe Graduate Record Examinations is a standardized test that is an admissions requirement for many graduate schools in the United States, in other English-speaking countries and for English-taught graduate and business programs world-wide...
. She also talks on her cellular telephone, eats quite a bit, and naps during class when she isn't doing something even more inappropriate, such as chatting or eating a full meal during a test. Dee once phones her "sister dearest", so the main character may have more than one sibling. Dee has a good male friend who she often spends time with and at one point hints that he may have romantic feelings for her. Like the main character, he has not yet been named.
- Mariko – a JapanJapanJapan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese 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 affectionUnrequited loveUnrequited love is love that is not openly reciprocated or understood as such, even though reciprocation is usually deeply desired. The beloved may or may not be aware of the admirer's deep affections...
, which he maintains for at least three years. She eventually quits her Ph.D.Ph.D.A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
and starts her own company, at which the hero works briefly. She is still occasionally seen talking with the main character as he works, so her current status is somewhat murky. On a strip dated 28 April 2010, entitled "Lost no more..?", she was seen in an alternate timeline as possibly being the mother of the Nameless Hero's (supposed) baby, with the Nameless Hero asking "WHAT IF I HAD STAYED IN ACADEMIA?"
- Steve aka. Golden Boy – Remarkably clever, sincere and "good boy". Steve has been in graduate school for two years and has already completed his thesis. In the lab heirarchy he is given more considereation than any of the post docs or research associates by Prof. Smith. He is extremely good in getting positive results and is always consulted by Prof. smith for his opinion. His "good boy" image in comparison to the nameless hero is a running joke in the series.
Faculty
- Professor Jones – Cecilia's research advisor; a typical graduate school professor, although seemingly older and kinder than Prof. Smith. He is clueless in giving Cecilia advice on non-research related topics such as her lovelife and future career and will ask for her help with small tasks, such as changing the font size of footnotes, while claiming it is urgent. Apparently the only reason he has time to see his wife is because he married his administrative assistant; before he got his tenure, he had already been divorced three times. He has a daughter in 1st grade named Shelley, who is intelligent enough to fix Mike's work for him.
- Dr. Patrick Khumalo – Tajel's husband and a member of the Anthropology Department's faculty. Tajel mistakes him for a first-year grad student when they first meet, possibly because she is older than he is. They eventually get married.
- Professor Rivera – Tajel's advisor. He apparently takes a laid-back approach to being an advisor, being entirely clueless as to Tajel's research interests, progress, and sometimes even her name. Once he praised a draft of a paper that Tajel had written, three months after Tajel had already submitted the final paper on due date. Additionally, he is extremely elusive when needed, such as when Cecilia needed to find him for documents to allow Tajel to renew her visa, appearing only when Cecilia tried imagining he was the last person she wanted to see. He is married to Professor Stein, the chair of the anthropology department.
Ernst Stavro Blofeld
Ernst Stavro Blofeld is a fictional character and a supervillain from the James Bond series of novels and films, who was created by Ian Fleming and Kevin McClory. An evil genius with aspirations of world domination, he is the archenemy of the British Secret Service agent James Bond and is arguably...
in the early James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
movies or Dr. Claw in Inspector Gadget
Inspector Gadget
Inspector Gadget is an animated television series that revolves around the adventures of a clumsy, simple-witted cyborg detective named Inspector Gadget – a human being with various bionic gadgets built into his body. Gadget's arch-nemesis is Dr...
. According to his wife, Smith apparently "used to goof all the time as a grad student" and it has been suggested on occasion that he had been interested in becoming a circus performer rather than a professor. A brilliant academic who disproved all the theories of his advisor Professor Emeritus Zekowsky, Professor Smith is the Arthur C. and Caroline J. McCallister Distinguished Chair Professor and Anderson Faculty Scholar, and the Director of the Center for Computational Research and the National Institute of Dynamical Physics. He is the recipient of the Alexander von Humboldt Prize of the Netherlands, the National Science Foundation
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health...
Presidential Investigator Award, the Exceptional Achievement Medal from the International Society of Engineers, the Pi Gamma Tau Industry Excellence Professorship, the National Medal of Engineering, and the Medal of Honor from the Royal Academy of Scientists. He serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Advanced Dynamics, the Journal of Nano-Particle Computation, Physik-Publication and several other journals, and on the advisory boards of many industry consortia
Consortium
A consortium is an association of two or more individuals, companies, organizations or governments with the objective of participating in a common activity or pooling their resources for achieving a common goal....
. He holds honorary doctorates from the Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Tsing-Chua Beijing University and the Universidade de São Paulo
University of São Paulo
Universidade de São Paulo is a public university in the Brazilian state of São Paulo. It is the largest Brazilian university and one of the country's most prestigious...
, among others.
Parodies
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
, which explains that if one knows what "B.S.
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...
" stands for (in this context, "bullshit"), then "M.S.
Master of Science
A Master of Science is a postgraduate academic master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is typically studied for in the sciences including the social sciences.-Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay:...
" 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
Popular culture
Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
in the grad-school milieu. Upon several occasions, the strip has included spoofs of popular movies, like The Thesis (The Matrix
The Matrix
The Matrix is a 1999 science fiction-action film written and directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski, starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, and Hugo Weaving...
), Raiders of the Lost Dissertation (Raiders of the Lost Ark
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Raiders of the Lost Ark is a 1981 American action-adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg, produced by George Lucas, and starring Harrison Ford. It is the first film in the Indiana Jones franchise...
) and I, Grad Student (a mixture of the book
I, Robot
I, Robot is a collection of nine science fiction short stories by Isaac Asimov, first published by Gnome Press in 1950 in an edition of 5,000 copies. The stories originally appeared in the American magazines Super Science Stories and Astounding Science Fiction between 1940 and 1950. The stories are...
and movie I, Robot). In addition, Cham has parodied television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
programs like The Jerry Springer Show
The Jerry Springer Show
The Jerry Springer Show is a syndicated television tabloid talk show hosted by Jerry Springer, a former politician, broadcast in the United States and other countries...
, among others.
Jorge Cham has also parodied Newton's laws of motion
Newton's laws of motion
Newton's laws of motion are three physical laws that form the basis for classical mechanics. They describe the relationship between the forces acting on a body and its motion due to those forces...
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
Irony
Irony is a rhetorical device, literary technique, or situation in which there is a sharp incongruity or discordance that goes beyond the simple and evident intention of words or actions...
".
The strip has also included several adaptations of Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
as well as several propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
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
MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
format: "Closer to fine" (cf. Indigo Girls) and "Who will grade your work" (Who Will Save Your Soul
Who Will Save Your Soul
"Who Will Save Your Soul" is a folk pop song written by Jewel, and was the first song released from her first album Pieces of You.-About the record:Jewel explained her creative process for "Who Will Save Your Soul" in an interview....
).
Books
Four 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 afterwordAfterword
An afterword is a literary device that is often found at the end of a piece of literature. It generally covers the story of how the book came into being, or of how the idea for the book was developed....
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
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
, behind-the-scenes author notes and a graduate school
Graduate school
A graduate school is a school that awards advanced academic degrees with the general requirement that students must have earned a previous undergraduate degree...
board game
Board game
A board game is a game which involves counters or pieces being moved on a pre-marked surface or "board", according to a set of rules. Games may be based on pure strategy, chance or a mixture of the two, and usually have a goal which a player aims to achieve...
.
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.
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 TechnologyCalifornia Institute of Technology
The California Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech has six academic divisions with strong emphases on science and engineering...
. In fall 2011, the film was released on selected academic campuses. A trailer of the movie is available on the Piled Higher and Deeper website as of June 8, 2011.