3184: Funny Numbers

2026-02-23T14:37:27Z

2A01:E11:303B:100:68C0:BC3B:DBB3:F4F5: Add references to 42

{{comic
| number = 3184
| date = December 22, 2025
| title = Funny Numbers
| image = funny_numbers_2x.png
| imagesize = 360x453px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = In 1899, people were walking around shouting '23' at each other and laughing, and confused reporters were writing articles trying to figure out what it meant.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic refers to the recent meme {{w|6-7 meme|"6-7"}}, which is often accompanied by moving your hands up and down. This meme is often referenced in physical space, primarily among the younger generation, often to the great annoyance of their elders.

Like many youth trends, this habit is often looked down upon by adults, who may see it as anything from an irritating fad to a symptom of social and intellectual decay. This strip takes exactly the opposite tack, depicting a Mathematical Society (apparently composed entirely of adults) noting this trend with no hint of condemnation. Rather, their attitude seems indulgent and nostalgic. The strip references a long history of young people adopting specific numbers as slang, often for quasi-arbitrary reasons, and treats this latest meme as simply a continuation of that history. Seen from that perspective, the trend seems like something that the different generations have in common, with one researcher fondly saying that she's "glad they're still doing that". There's also the implication that the Mathematical Society would likely be full of people who love numbers, and so appreciate the fact that people are taking joy in numbers.

The numbers listed are:
{| class="wikitable sortable"
!Number!!Adopted!!class="unsortable"|Explanation
|-
|data-sort-value="23"|23 (skidoo!)||data-sort-value="1899"|around 1899||The number relates to leaving quickly (a suggestion to go away), for indeterminate reasons.
{{w|23 skidoo|It was a death row prisoner's number}} in a then-new stage play based on ''A Tale of Two Cities'' by Charles Dickens, but it's unclear whether that was the source of the slang. Soon after its coining, it was popularly combined with a term of similar use to become the phrase "{{w|23 skidoo}}".

23 gained some popularity again in the 1970s via the {{w|23 enigma}}, the suggestion that the number appears unusually often in significant contexts. This was first noticed by William S. Burroughs, and spread by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea's book ''The Illuminatus! Trilogy'', and by ''Principia Discordia''.
|-
|42||1978||A number made popular by {{w|The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy}}, a radio play and book by Douglas Adams.
These works include a plot where a supercomputer is designed to answer {{w|Phrases from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy#The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything is 42|"the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything"}} and (after a great deal of calculation) reports that the answer is "forty-two" (the joke being that the answer is useless because we don't understand the question). This number became a reference among fans of the series, and passed into more common usage. This number also appears in older works like King James' Bible[https://www.biblestudy.org/bibleref/meaning-of-numbers-in-bible/42.html] and the Torah[https://quantumtorah.com/forty-two-journeys/], to name a few.
|-
|69||data-sort-value="1795"|1790s?||Refers to {{w|69 (sex position)|the act of mutual oral sex}}, because the two digits (identical but inversely rotated) are reminiscent of two people in that sexual position.
This usage dates back at least as far as the eighteenth century (though the act itself is far older). The earliest known use was in French: "faire soixante-neuf", and it passed into English usage in the 1880s. It's not clear when the number began to be commonly referenced by young people, though it was arguably gained particular popularity due to a reference in {{w|Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure}} (1989).
|-
|420||1971||This number (originally the time "4:20 pm", and later connected to April the 20th) has become {{w|420 (cannabis culture)|slang}} for smoking {{w|marijuana}}.
Randall previously made reference to this number in [[2153: Effects of High Altitude]]. Michigan's 2026 budget assumes the increased tax on marijuana will raise precisely $420 million for road repairs.
|-
|1,337||data-sort-value="1985"|1980s?||"{{w|Leet}}-speak" is a form of textual obfuscation using an alternative orthography (various character substitutions and phonetic shifts) to 'spell' words. This particular type of orthography initially became popular among young computer hackers ("leet" being slang for "elite" — i.e. the self-description of the in-group who are using this system).
"1337" is the usual way to represent the term "LEET" ("1" is commonly a lower-case "L", "3"s are often used as "E"s – see 58,008's calculator-speak examples – and "7" somewhat resembles a "T").
Randall has previously referred to 1337 in the [[:Category:1337|1337]] series and in [[1337: Hack]].
|-
|58,008||data-sort-value="1975"|1970s?||The number "58008" {{w|Calculator spelling|when typed into a seven-segment display and inverted}}, spells "BOOBS". There is also a longer version "5318008" which spells "BOOBIES". When calculators with these displays became common in schools in the 1980s, young people (particularly young men) took delight in this discovery, and in the fact that they could use an apparently inscrutable number as a salacious reference.
|-
|data-sort-value="67"|6 7||2025||{{w|6-7 meme|This meme}} originated from the song "Doot Doot" by Skrilla and quickly became an in-crowd joke, together with hand actions, among many young people.
The meme quickly became sufficiently divorced from its original meaning that even many people referencing it didn't know its origins, leading to many people seeing it as [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/67-meme fundamentally meaningless], though that hasn't stopped people from trying to assign a meaning to it.

{{w|At sixes and sevens}} is a possibly unrelated expression meaning a condition of confusion or disarray.
|}

The title text claims that the media reaction to "23-skiddoo" around the turn of the 20th century (''one'' of the oldest terms, ''possibly'' the first noted by the mathematicians of that day) was very similar to the current media reaction to "6 7". This highlights a perennial historical cycle of youth culture being confusing to the old; with the young generation growing old and, in turn, being confused by a new generation of youth culture.

Other cartoons featuring lists of symbolic numbers include [[487: Numerical Sex Positions]]. The trend of new manifestations of long-running phenomena being treated as signs of social decay is referenced in [[1227: The Pace of Modern Life]].

==Transcript==
:[A banner is hanging from the ceiling with a large line of text above a smaller one:]
:<big>Mathematical society</big>
:2025 meeting

:[Below the banner there are four people, three of them are standing close together to the left with Hairbun leftmost addressing Cueball and Megan who is looking at her. Ponytail is standing to the far right next to a whiteboard, and is using a marker to circle round the last of several items on the board.]
:Hairbun: Any other new developments from the year to cover before we wrap?
:Cueball: Oh, the teens picked a new funny number.
:Megan: Aww, I'm glad to hear they're still doing that.
:Ponytail: I'll add it to the list.

:[The board generally contains two columns of numbers, the first row having text after its number, thus across both columns. The last pair of digits is the new 'number' circled round by Ponytail. From top, in reading order, they are:]
:23 (skidoo!)
:42    1,337
:69    58,008
:420   6 7

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category: Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category: Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category: Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category: Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category: Math]]
[[Category: Language]]

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3184: Funny Numbers