Editing 493: Actuarial

{{comic
| number    = 493
| date      = October 24, 2008
| title     = Actuarial
| image     = actuarial.png
| titletext = I started to do the tables for more famous people but it got really depressing and morbid and I had to go outside. Hat guy wins again.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] is commenting about how he shouldn't feed the trolls, but sometimes gets provoked to the point where he can't help replying. The term ''{{w|Troll (Internet)|Trolling}}'' is used to describe provocative, destructive, or annoying behavior on the {{w|Internet}}.

[[Black Hat]] agrees and tells that he had an issue yesterday with a guy who had a serious case of the 
[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/first first] urge. Some people have to be the first to make a comment on any given posting (be it a blog post or a YouTube video or some other commentable content) and to obnoxiously point out that they have made the first comment. This often manifests as the poster simply posting the word "First" without contributing any actual content to the discussion.

Once again, Black Hat is thus provoked into online retaliation bordering on the sociopathic, choosing a form of retribution that doesn't necessarily break any written rules but strikes directly at the heart and/or mind of his opponent. In this case, he tells the ''first'' guy when all his childhood heroes are likely to die - this could make anyone miserable. To do this, he is using {{w|Life table|actuarial table}}s or life tables, which show for each age the probability that a certain person will be alive by their next birthday.

Cueball reflects that he doesn't wish to become the target of such ire himself, but (without apparent malice on Black Hat's part...) still suffers from a piece of memetic shrapnel from the original attack — Cueball obviously loves the original ''{{w|Star Wars}}'' movies — and Black Hat would know this!

In the title text, it is said how {{tvtropes|TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou|Black Hat's offensive is so effective that he appears to have caused grief even to his own author and creator}}, [[Randall]], who only managed to check up on the ''Star Wars'' cast before getting too depressed.

So far, six main cast members have died: 
* {{w|Peter Cushing}} ([https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Wilhuff_Tarkin Grand Moff Tarkin]) in 1994
* {{w|Alec Guinness}} ([https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Obi-Wan_Kenobi Obi-Wan Kenobi]) in 2000
* {{w|Kenny Baker (English actor)|Kenny Baker}} ([https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/R2-D2 R2-D2]) in 2016
* {{w|Carrie Fisher}} ([https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Leia_Organa General Leia]) in 2016
* {{w|Peter Mayhew}} ([https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Chewbacca Chewbacca]) in 2019
* {{w|David Prowse}} ([https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Anakin_Skywalker Darth Vader]) in 2020

Randall has used this idea again in [[893: 65 Years]] and published a [http://blog.xkcd.com/2012/07/12/a-morbid-python-script/ 'morbid' program] (the original code has been removed, but an implementation can be found on Github) that uses actuarial tables to calculate the probability that someone will die within a given time. The offense that provoked Black hat was mentioned already in [[269: TCMP]] and then returned to in both [[1019: First Post]] and [[1258: First]].

A similar setting with Cueball and Black Hat also discussing movies appears later in [[1751: Movie Folder]]. But then Black Hat is reading on his smartphone.

It is possible that [[494: Secretary: Part 1]] and the following series are a continuation of this comic, as Black Hat's great power over even Internet trolls via his sociopathic ways would explain why he was chosen as Internet secretary.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball, seated at a computer terminal, facing to the left.]
:Cueball: I know you shouldn't feed the trolls, but sometimes they just provoke me to where I can't help replying.

:[Black Hat, seated in an armchair reading a book, facing to the right]
:Black Hat: Yeah, me too. Yesterday this guy kept spamming "First!", so I got a set of actuarial tables and spent twenty minutes telling him when all his childhood heroes would likely die.

:[Cueball turns around in his chair.]
:Cueball: ...

:[Black Hat, still reading his book.]
:Cueball (off-screen): Remind me never to upset you, ever.
:Black Hat: 2038: Last of the original Star Wars cast dies.
:Cueball (off-screen): Augh!

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Star Wars]]