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| Meteor Fear |
 Title text: Don't worry--even though small and potentially deadly meteors hit the ground all the time, statistically you're actually much more likely to die from a rare large one that destroys your whole area! |
Explanation
In the comic, Cueball seems to have been approached by a child who is afraid of being hit by a meteor. Cueball attempts to reassure the child by telling him that meteors are not likely to hit him, but then spoils this attempt to comfort him by explaining what other disasters are much more likely to kill him. This leads to the child being more afraid, not less, an example of an assurance backfire. The caption elaborates that Cueball, or perhaps Randall himself, does this often and needs to work on his strategies to reassure people. This could be a behavior that Cueball has had before, like in 999: Cougars.
The title text goes further. Rather than a relatively more common small meteor hitting just the child — described in a decidedly non-comforting way as "small and potentially deadly meteors hit the ground all the time" — it explains that it is far more likely for a much rarer but much larger meteor to completely wipe out a larger area of population. Again, this likely fails to make the child feel safer or reassured.
It's true that one is extremely unlikely to be hit by a meteor. Since 1800, there's only one well-documented case of this happening, and since somewhere around 15 billion people have lived since then, a very rough estimate of the odds is 1 in 15 billion. The odds of dying from a meteor(ite) are higher, since these include mass-mortality side effects from large meteor impacts or explosions mentioned in the title text, such as the Tunguska meteor or the meteor that killed off the non-avian dinosaurs. These odds have been estimated from a 1 in 75,000 to a 1 in 1.6 million lifetime chance, with nearly all of the risk coming from large-scale events.
According to research, about 50 small meteorites land on Earth every day. But since these are distributed around the world, which is very big[citation needed] and has lots of uninhabited areas, the chance of any of them hitting a person is nearly negligible. Two years ago, however, one came close: in 2024, a doorbell camera caught a meteorite landing in the front of a house in Canada, just a couple of minutes after the owner had left the house to walk his dogs. He saved the video.
Transcript
- [Cueball is standing to the left of a child with spiky hair.]
- Cueball: You don't need to be scared of meteors!
- Cueball: There are so many natural disasters that are statistically much more likely to kill you.
- Cueball: I mean, just off the top of my head, there's...
- [Caption below panel]:
- I need to work on my strategies for reassuring people.
This Week's Explanation for Improvement
As part of the Explanation Improvement Project, each week the community selects one older, stagnant, or otherwise neglected explanation to expand and polish together. This week's pick is comic 1008: Suckville, you can help us by editing its explanation!
To get involved with the project, you can also nominate an explanation that you think should be improved, or vote on current nominations!
| Suckville |
 Title text: Suckville is considered by the Census Bureau to be part of the Detroit metropolitan statistical area, despite not being located anywhere near Detroit. |
Explanation
|
Welcome to This Week's Explanation for Improvement! Anyone is encouraged to help explain comic 1008: Suckville; click here to get started! If you are new to wiki editing, you can read our editing FAQ for guidance. Here are some suggestions for improving this explanation: .svg){kind=icon} We can elaborate on "ubiquitous signage you see along American roads".
√.svg){kind=icon} The "population: you" joke is poorly explained.
√.svg){kind=icon} Does "SF-1 table P1" mean something, is it a reference?
X.svg){kind=icon} Explain why the city is considered to be part of the Detroit metropolitan statistical area.
√.svg){kind=icon}
√ has been done (or needs a task update) X has not |
Megan and Cueball are playing a card game (possibly Dominion) and Megan uses a play on the common insult 'suck' by adding the typical town name suffix "ville" to the end of it. This turn of phrase was popularized in The Simpsons Season 3 Episode 16, "Bart the Lover," where Homer suggested that the best way to start a breakup letter was "Dear Baby, Welcome to Dumpsville, population you". Since then the general format of the quip has expanded to include other variations such as "Losercity", "Lamesburg" and, in this case, "Sucksville”.
The phrase is originally based on the signage commonly used in the United States that says "Welcome to Town X — Population Y". These signs are usually posted on entry roads to towns, and as the name suggests, welcome visitors to the town, generally mentioning distinctive characteristics as well as information regarding traffic laws, the town's motto, founding date, or other such facts.
Cueball one-ups Megan by indicating there actually is a city by that name. Since Cueball knows where Suckville can be found in the census data, it's likely that he has received this insult in the past (maybe even from Megan) and searched through the census data to prepare a comeback in case anyone used it again. Alternatively, he may have found out about its existence after falling through a Wikipedia rabbit hole, as shown in other comics (such as 1051: Visited, or 214: The Problem with Wikipedia).
In the US Decennial (2010, 2020, etc) Census datasets, SF-1 is the Summary File of a Census Report that contains "the data compiled from the questions asked of all people and about every housing unit", and within that, P1 is the main population table. If "Suckville" did exist in the 2010 Census, Megan would be able to find it in the location Cueball suggests.
The title text informs the reader that Suckville is classified as part of the Detroit area, despite not being located there. Detroit is the quintessential example of a city so run down that it might as well really be named "Suckville", or include a district of that name. In fact, the city only recently (2013) declared itself bankrupt. (Fun fact: looking in the US Census Suckville is 'corrected' to Saukville, Wisconsin, which is not particularly close to Detroit, Michigan. However the population of Saukville in the 2010 census is given as 4451 for the village, and 1755 for the surrounding town municipality.)
Transcript
- [Megan is kneeling on the floor, playing a card game.]
- Megan: Hah!
- Megan: Welcome to Suckville–population: You.
- [In a frame-less panel, Cueball is sitting on the floor opposite her, also playing the game.]
- Cueball: Why are you using 2000 census data?
- Cueball: That's an old figure.
- [Megan turns around from the game to look at her laptop, which is sitting on the floor behind her.]
- Megan: I couldn't find Suckville in the 2010 census.
- Cueball: Huh? It's right there in SF-1 table P1.
- Megan: Oh. So it is.
- [Megan turns back to Cueball, who is looking at his cards.]
- Megan: Well, then.
- Megan: Welcome to Suckville–population: 83.
- Cueball: Much better.
Trivia
In the third panel, Megan appears to have 3 arms and 4 legs. This may indicate a movement between the cards and the laptop or just a drawing error.
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