628: Psychic - Revision history

Lettherebedarklight: /* Trivia */ add Category:Comics with a Spanish translation

2025-12-15T08:58:16Z

‎Trivia: add Category:Comics with a Spanish translation

107.191.79.59: their

2025-09-12T19:14:13Z

their

162.158.174.12: link fix /* Explanation */

2024-08-30T01:57:45Z

link fix ‎Explanation

162.158.18.99: /* Explanation */

2024-01-22T06:18:28Z

‎Explanation

Jacky720: rv

2022-05-04T23:54:38Z

Show changes

Ex Kay Cee Dee at 23:54, 4 May 2022

2022-05-04T23:54:35Z

Show changes

Jacky720: rv

2022-05-04T21:29:30Z

Show changes

Ex Kay Cee Dee at 21:29, 4 May 2022

2022-05-04T21:29:29Z

Show changes

Jacky720: rv

2022-05-04T21:29:24Z

Show changes

Ex Kay Cee Dee at 21:29, 4 May 2022

2022-05-04T21:29:23Z

Show changes

← Older revision		Revision as of 08:58, 15 December 2025
Line 50:		Line 50:
	[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]		[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
	[[Category:Psychology]]		[[Category:Psychology]]
		+	[[Category:Comics with a Spanish translation]]

@@ Line 12: / Line 12: @@
 The four panels are actually a setup to the real joke in this comic: the final sentence spoken by a narrator. It reveals that Cueball has simply played a trick on Megan and that anyone can repeat it. The joke is that, theoretically, a person can guess a random number from 1 to 100 once in one hundred tries, or 1% of the time, according to the {{w|law of large numbers}}. By playing this trick enough times on enough friends, the trickster is statistically likely to get a number right eventually. Assuming the person whose number he guesses is not familiar with the trick, it will appear as if the trickster is actually psychic. Should this happen, the trickster can then play the joke out as he wants, hence the "it's totally worth it" at the end.
-The title text appeals again to statistics. People are poor [http://scienceblogs.com/cognitivedaily/2007/02/05/is-17-the-most-random-number/ random-number generators]—e.g. being less likely to pick numbers at the extremes or exactly in the middle. Knowing this, the 'psychic' could restrict his guesses accordingly, improving his odds of guessing correctly.
+The title text appeals again to statistics. People are poor [http://scienceblogs.com/cognitivedaily/2007/02/05/is-17-the-most-random-number/ random-number generators]—e.g. being less likely to pick numbers at the extremes or exactly in the middle. Knowing this, the 'psychic' could restrict their guesses accordingly, improving their odds of guessing correctly.
 [[Randall]] has made several smaller references to the number 42 as the answer to the ultimate question about the universe from Douglas Adams Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (for instance in [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/1/1c/42_coins.PNG this message] from [[1608: Hoverboard]], and the vision test in [[1213: Combination Vision Test]]. This could be the reason he chose 42+1 as his guess. He both knows Megan, and knows that she knows him. So thinking that he may suspect she would choose 42, she thus adds one, to not choose that exact number... Cueball took a similar reasoning based on his knowledge of Megan and himself, and was lucky this time. Maybe thus increasing his chance to more than 1% as from the title text.

@@ Line 8: / Line 8: @@
 ==Explanation==
-A {{w|psychic}} is a person who is supposedly able to access information that is beyond normal sensory perception through {{w|extrasensory perception.}} This information may vary widely in scope and value, ranging from archaeological to the ability to read minds. [[Cueball]] describes himself as such a person, to which [[Megan]] responds with disbelief because it is a bold and unsupported claim. To prove his abilities, Cueball has Megan think of a random number from 1 to 100, which he then guesses correctly to demonstrate his ability to read minds. Megan is amazed that Cueball was correct, but he simply dismisses her disbelief and wants to go back to pretending to lead a normal life.
+A {{w|psychic}} is a person who is supposedly able to access information that is beyond normal sensory perception through {{w|extrasensory perception}}. This information may vary widely in scope and value, ranging from archaeological to the ability to read minds. [[Cueball]] describes himself as such a person, to which [[Megan]] responds with disbelief because it is a bold and unsupported claim. To prove his abilities, Cueball has Megan think of a random number from 1 to 100, which he then guesses correctly to demonstrate his ability to read minds. Megan is amazed that Cueball was correct, but he simply dismisses her disbelief and wants to go back to pretending to lead a normal life.
 The four panels are actually a setup to the real joke in this comic: the final sentence spoken by a narrator. It reveals that Cueball has simply played a trick on Megan and that anyone can repeat it. The joke is that, theoretically, a person can guess a random number from 1 to 100 once in one hundred tries, or 1% of the time, according to the {{w|law of large numbers}}. By playing this trick enough times on enough friends, the trickster is statistically likely to get a number right eventually. Assuming the person whose number he guesses is not familiar with the trick, it will appear as if the trickster is actually psychic. Should this happen, the trickster can then play the joke out as he wants, hence the "it's totally worth it" at the end.

@@ Line 8: / Line 8: @@
 ==Explanation==
-A {{w|psychic}} is a person who is able to access information that is beyond normal sensory perception through {{w|extrasensory perception.}} This information may vary widely in scope and value, ranging from archaeological to the ability to read minds. [[Cueball]] describes himself as such a person, to which [[Megan]] responds with disbelief because it is a bold and unsupported claim. To prove his abilities, Cueball has Megan think of a random number from 1 to 100, which he then guesses correctly to demonstrate his ability to read minds. Megan is amazed that Cueball was correct, but he simply dismisses her disbelief and wants to go back to pretending to lead a normal life.
+A {{w|psychic}} is a person who is supposedly able to access information that is beyond normal sensory perception through {{w|extrasensory perception.}} This information may vary widely in scope and value, ranging from archaeological to the ability to read minds. [[Cueball]] describes himself as such a person, to which [[Megan]] responds with disbelief because it is a bold and unsupported claim. To prove his abilities, Cueball has Megan think of a random number from 1 to 100, which he then guesses correctly to demonstrate his ability to read minds. Megan is amazed that Cueball was correct, but he simply dismisses her disbelief and wants to go back to pretending to lead a normal life.
 The four panels are actually a setup to the real joke in this comic: the final sentence spoken by a narrator. It reveals that Cueball has simply played a trick on Megan and that anyone can repeat it. The joke is that, theoretically, a person can guess a random number from 1 to 100 once in one hundred tries, or 1% of the time, according to the {{w|law of large numbers}}. By playing this trick enough times on enough friends, the trickster is statistically likely to get a number right eventually. Assuming the person whose number he guesses is not familiar with the trick, it will appear as if the trickster is actually psychic. Should this happen, the trickster can then play the joke out as he wants, hence the "it's totally worth it" at the end.