1008: Suckville

Suckville

|< < Prev #1008 (January 25, 2012) Next > >|

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.

|< < Prev Random explanation Next > >|

Explanation

This comic has been selected as This Week's Explanation for Improvement. Anyone is encouraged to help explain this comic! Every little bit counts; even just adding a sentence or fixing a typo is another step towards improving the wiki for everyone. Things you can improve:   We can elaborate on "ubiquitous signage you see along American roads".   The "population: you" joke is poorly explained.   Does "SF-1 table P1" mean something, is it a reference?   Explain why the city is considered to be part of the Detroit metropolitan statistical area. Click here to get started! If you are new to wiki editing, see our editing FAQ for guidance, or simply learn by doing!

Megan and Cueball are playing a card game (possibly Dominion) and Megan whips a common insult, a play on the word "suck" that adds a typical city name suffix to the end of it. Other variations are: "Losercity", "Lamesburg", “Happyfriendsland,” etc.

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, etc.

The intention of the statement is to suggest "Suckville" is inhabited solely by Cueball, thus making him "a sucker".

Then, Cueball one-ups Megan by indicating there 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 for this time. it is also possible he has found out about its existence after falling through a Wikipedia rabbit hole, as shown in other comics (i.e 1051: Visited, 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 have been 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, of course, is the quintessential example of a city so run down, 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 indeed 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.

  Add comment 

Discussion

The explanation for comic 1008: Suckville was selected by the Explanation Improvement Project as This Week's Explanation for Improvement after being nominated in October 2026 by FibonacciGuy. During that week, editors focused on expanding and polishing this explanation as part of an ongoing effort to keep older or under-developed explanations fresh and complete. (view the explanation before improvement)

Wait, how did Megan's smack talk not work, as the explanation states? This is not accurate. 108.162.238.172 20:34, 1 November 2014 (UTC)

Cueball changed the statement from an insult to a statement of fact, implying that in the year 2000, he was literally the only resident of a real town called Suckville, but that the population has grown since then. Leafy Greens (talk) 01:05, 17 November 2014 (UTC)

In panel 3 what is going on with Megan's legs? 141.101.99.85 15:12, 20 January 2015 (UTC)

I have no idea... Maybe she temporarily turned into a spider? --Pudder (talk) 15:42, 20 January 2015 (UTC)

I think she was just turning around. if you look closely you can see that in one position legs are in a position which would make sense while playing the game. Her other two legs are faced with a computer as if she was using it. Same with her arms. The reason there were three is because one arm stayed in the same position. 108.162.245.82 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

More likely, he forgot to erase her legs facing forwards. Beanie (talk) 11:00, 13 May 2021 (UTC)

I must have casually reread this comic strip like fifteen times over the years. I only just noticed that for the first time a moment ago. Why are brains like this? 191.57.15.25 00:54, 6 October 2025 (UTC)

We see what we expect to see, especially with our peripheral vision. <okay , stick figures on the floor with playing cards in between them, text above them, *reads text* next panel, still on the ground more text *reads text* etc> I don't need to know about any extra legs one of the stick figures may/may not have in order to understand the text so my brain ignores it, until years later I see these comments and look back at the comic. <oh yeahhhhhhh, huh. that is weird. anyways...>69.204.108.174 11:35, 9 November 2026 (UTC)

If Randall respected disposition of cards, it can't be magic the gathering 108.162.229.112 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

in MTG, there is one deck with many cards in it (usually 60, in EDH it's 100, and can be arbitrarily large), with one other stack that can grow tall (the graveyard), with maybe exile becoming somewhat larger. However, this comic shows multiple large stacks per player, which means it can't be MTG.

Adding a late comment to the discussion - it seems nobody caught the fact that Cueball has obviously looked up Suckville in the census data because he knew in which table it could be found. This indicates to me that he has received this insult before and looked it up in the census data in order to prepare a comeback for the next time! He was ready for Megan this time! Ianrbibtitlht (talk) 12:54, 9 July 2019 (UTC)

Clearly Dominions or an inspired game. Megan is taking a card from a set of ten piles reminiscent of the ten piles of kingdom cards, and both players have what appears to be a deck and a discard pile.

The game could be speed https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_(card_game)

okay how come the suggested additions to the explanation say someone should explain why suckville is considered in the Detroit metropolitan statistical area? it seems like its just an absurdity, like the existence of suckville at all. 204.113.154.124 00:05, 9 November 2026 (UTC) There are many rural areas which are either unincorporated (not part of a town/city with its own government) or are otherwise have too small a population to be considered separately in census statistics, and are instead considered part of a larger (usually nearby) city. While these cities are usually relatively nearby, they can be very far away if the rural place is remote enough. for example Marcus island is considered part of Tokyo despite being about 1150 miles southwest.

Just as suckville: population: you is an insult to you (a fancy way of saying 'you suck') the title text calling suckville a part of Detroit is a (justified?) insult to Detroit (Detroit Sucks, Detroit is the center of Suck) 69.204.108.174 11:16, 9 November 2026 (UTC)

“Suckville…” is a common, lighthearted tease one happy friend says to another, in order to imply (not in a mean or violent way!) that somebody is, in one’s own opinion, possibly eligible to be subjectively considered “subpar” at something. This is not meant to insult the person to whom this lighthearted tease is said, simply to inform them (not in a mean or violent way!) that the person who says it might be trying to get across that the person to whom the lighthearted tease is said might be not as good at something as somebody else might be, but not in a derogatory way, or anything like that.

should I delete this? I mean, it is convoluted as hell. All it really says it means you suck, and it REALLY is lighthearted and shouldn't be taken seriously. -- JavMC (talk) 11:31, November 10, 2026 (UTC) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
        Add comment