3184: Funny Numbers

Funny Numbers

|< < Prev #3184 (December 22, 2025)

Title text: 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.

|< < Prev Random Explanation

Explanation

This is one of 58 incomplete explanations: This page was created by the square root of -2. Don't remove this notice too soon. If you can fix this issue, edit the page!

This comic refers to the recent brainrot meme "6 7", often accompanied by moving your hands up and down.

While many people think this is a novel activity of the latest generation of kids, the comic points out that there's a long history of young people finding ways to have fun with certain numbers.

The numbers listed are:

Number	Adopted?	Explanation
23 (skidoo!)	around 1899	The number relates to leaving quickly (a suggestion to go away), for indeterminate reasons. It was a death row prisoner's number in a then-new stage play based on A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. Soon after its coining, it was popularly combined with a term of similar use to become the phrase "23 skidoo".
42	1978	A number made popular by The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy a radio play, and book by Douglas Adams. It is the undisputed answer to the "ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything". Exactly what that question is, however, remains unknown and probably unknowable.
69	1790s?	Refers to a sexual act. Described by the French as "soixante-neuf", i.e. "sixty-nine", at least as far back as the eighteenth century; though the concept itself is far older, and it would be very difficult to say when the mathematicians finally took note of 'young people' referencing it.
420	1971	This number (originally the time "4:20 pm", and later connected to April the 20th) has become slang for smoking marijuana.
1,337	1980s?	"Leet-speak" is a form of textual obfuscation using an alternative orthography (various character substitutions and phonetic shifts) to 'spell' words. "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 calcuator-speak examples – and "7" closely resembles a "T"). This in turn, pronouncing "L" and "EET" separately, is the word "elite" (i.e. the self-description of the in-group who are using this system).
58,008	1970s?	The number "58008" spells "BOOBS" if you show it by seven-segment displays, like on many calculators, and turn the display upside down. This is not the only message you can say using calculators; for example, 0.7734 'spells' "hELL'O"/”hello". The inverted "3"/"E" relationship may have inspired the use of "1337" to represent "LEET".
6 7	2025	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. It was said to have been meaningless, though that hasn't stopped people from trying to assign a meaning to it.

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 the Young being confusing to the Old; with the Young growing up to become the Old and being confused by a new generation of Young.

Other cartoons featuring lists of symbolic numbers include 487: Numerical Sex Positions.

Transcript

[A banner is hanging from the ceiling with a large line of text above a smaller one:]

Mathematical society

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

  Add comment        Create topic (use sparingly)       Refresh 

Discussion

It should be"The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy". 2001:5a8:60da:3300:c94a:564:dc6d:d811 (talk) 05:24, 23 December 2025 (UTC) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

In response to above unsigned post: fixed! You could've edited it too :) PotatoGod (talk) 05:33, 23 December 2025 (UTC)

In response to your response: post marked as unsigned! You could've done that too ;) 82.13.184.33 11:19, 23 December 2025 (UTC)

this is crazy Qwertyuiopfromdefly (talk) 06:08, 23 December 2025 (UTC)

67 in Numberphile... now in xkcd... very sad (maybe they are related? on YouTube, Numberphile released 12 hours ago, which may be too close, but I don't know if they do Patreon or something) R128 (talk) 09:09, 23 December 2025 (UTC)

Ya all are way too sad about something this inconsequential. As xkcd rightly notices the so-called brainrot is just rebranding of equally dumb memes of yesteryear with the main difference being that you grew up with one and not the other. Decently funny strip overall. 206.245.134.17 11:42, 23 December 2025 (UTC)

For one: it is the 19th prime, and 19 is the 8th prime. Also, its digit sum is 13, which is the 6th prime. 2001:4C4E:1C08:BC00:41F9:90A:BF7A:1727 16:27, 23 December 2025 (UTC)

Bad comic, Randall. Put it back. 47.141.37.161 06:43, 23 December 2025 (UTC)

It's called depublishing. 2001:4C4E:1C08:BC00:41F9:90A:BF7A:1727 16:27, 23 December 2025 (UTC)

"If you have to ask, you're not old enough yet," is there like, some kind of comprehensive guide to sex and sexuality I was supposed to receive on my 18th birthday or something? All I got was 18 $1 scratch tickets. 69.5.140.194 08:32, 23 December 2025 (UTC)

For that matter, maybe your sense of humor is finally old enough to not amount to "haha sex funny". Incidentally appropriate IP, by the way. 206.245.134.17 09:02, 23 December 2025 (UTC)

I admit I was trying to be cute, I fully expected someone to "correct" it. It was reminiscent of the analogous question in the Baker House Purity Test (which I'll also admit I didn't get at the time). https://www.mit.edu/~iggy/Amusements/Purity_andnerd_tests/pure.baker.male Barmar (talk) 15:52, 23 December 2025 (UTC)

I observe that the explanation leaves 67 off the list of numbers... (it has no real meaning, just a fun thing the kids do to each other and enjoy the adults being confused about) (And now I feel stoopid for not noticing the big link at the very top — but still think it should be in the list.) Dúthomhas (talk) 08:54, 23 December 2025 (UTC)

=-1. 2001:4C4E:1C08:BC00:41F9:90A:BF7A:1727 16:30, 23 December 2025 (UTC)

I daresay no Robert Anton Wilson clone will immortalize "6 7" in 100 years on. Todays memes have a half-life measured in milliseconds. I say that without assessment. Only observing. 2A02:2455:1960:4000:307A:46A3:7D5E:A7C0 10:15, 23 December 2025 (UTC)

69 -- if you have to ask, you're not old enough.

Information technology archeologist in the 31st century, sobbing: "I am 374 years old. How much longer?"109.43.49.174 11:45, 23 December 2025 (UTC)

Apparently, that meme is old enough not to have the several milliseconds of half-life (or if it does, it's dilated well to years, for I sometimes do see things with the "69 is funny" appearing). Unless "not old enough" refers to "born [chronologically] too late (i. e. too far from the Big Bang)". 2001:4C4E:1C08:BC00:41F9:90A:BF7A:1727 16:30, 23 December 2025 (UTC)

While I do accredit the audacity to keep the humor in the explanation of 67, the act feels a little unprofessional. It feels like laziness or lack of knowledge, rather than a play on the popularity of the meme across the youth (I have no idea what the meaning behind six-seven is, and have always considered it pure absurd). Benzaldehyde (talk 14:23, 23 December 2025 (UTC)

Could someone reorganize the order of the number descriptions? I initially read it as left column down, then right column down, which I think is also chronological. CreatorOfWorlds (talk) 14:45, 23 December 2025 (UTC)

I'm sure we could ascribe creation-estimates to them all (first being 23, etc, last being 6 7), but I don't see any obvious chronological layout, either row-by-row or column-by-column. 69 after 42? (Unless we accept the Lewis Carol origin, in which case it should even be before 23.) Calculators (suitable types by at the latest 1957) not until after the necessary hacker/BBS culture (early Internet and/or FIDONet era, with maybe the earliest possible date of 1967<funny-hand-movements>)? 82.132.237.136 15:14, 23 December 2025 (UTC)

On further looking, though I suppose the list (up until the latest addition, being just now tacked on at the end for simplicity) is definitely numerically-sorted by column-first reading order... Depending upon the sorting algorithm, it'd be interesting to see where 6<space>7 gets shuffled to (and, moreover, how it shuffles anything that now comes after it) in a subsequent year's "list of numbers historically adopted by young people". Could be first, or between 42 and 69. Could still be last, but tricky to explain that against 23 (with non-numerical parts) being first this time round. Unless typesetting needs trump alphanumeric ordering, too. 82.132.237.136 15:31, 23 December 2025 (UTC)

...Anyway... I sortably-tabularised it! To the best of my ability. Maybe the date column should be "Discovered?" or something else, but too many unknowns, even after researching. .e.g. the act of 69ing is... well, I bet it's prehistoric (I'm sure bonobos do it... and all kinds of variations!), while the French 'popularisation' of the term is attested to more than 200 years ago, but I'm not going to even hazard a guess when it became a "teens" thing that the mathematicians subsequently decided was new. Brought 58008 into the '70s only because wikipedia suggested that (decadal-displays are older, even seven-segment displays themselves might be 1903ish, but hey!). And defined decade-ranges as their midpoint year, for sorting reasons. You can see where and how to change things, if you disagree and have other/better dates. Or wish to add a further 'fad date' column to differentiate from origin-date. 82.132.237.136 17:34, 23 December 2025 (UTC)

Oh my a completed transcript already i literally just found out about this comic --Utdtutyabthsc (talk) 15:07, 23 December 2025 (UTC)

... You know what's funnier than 24? 2600:4041:5E13:8400:AC92:4546:AC77:BF90 17:10, 23 December 2025 (UTC)

Shouldn't the year for "42" be 1978? The Hitchhiker's Guide first broadcast "42" in Fit the Fourth, 29 March 1978. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hitchhiker%27s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy_Primary_and_Secondary_Phases#Fit_the_Fourth 62.63.216.178 (talk) 17:22, 23 December 2025 (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

You're right. I was juggling dates and must have caught a different one. (Book publication date..? Not sure, without checking, what I may have mixed it up with.) If not already fixed by you/others, will do so myself. 82.132.237.136 17:46, 23 December 2025 (UTC)

This is conclusive proof that Randall watches YouTube Shorts. Explainyourself (talk) 20:14, 23 December 2025 (UTC)
        Add comment