Superstition

Title text: It's important to teach yourself to feel responsible for random events, because with great responsibility comes great power. That's what my wise Uncle Ben told me right before he died; he might still be alive today if only I'd said rabbit rabbit that year!

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Types of Board Game

Title text: I can't believe Candles of Vienna caved to commercial pressure and added the Goku expansion.

Warning: Default sort key "3235" overrides earlier default sort key "3191".

Explanation

This is one of 66 incomplete explanations:
This page was created during a particularly boring game of truth or dare. Don't remove this notice too soon. If you can fix this issue, edit the page!

There are a lot of different types of board games in the world. Some are very simple, some are very complicated. This comic illustrates various types, with rather extreme examples.

Boring

This is a very simplistic and boring board game style, where the players simply move around the board at the dictates of chance. The simplest examples (such as Snakes and Ladders, Mouse Trap, and Candy Land) involve no player choices at all, can get frustrating when dice rolls don't want to line up late in the game, and are thus viewed as boring, at least for adults. Pachisi variants (like Ludo) also fall into this structure while still needing some amount of skill and strategy, but it may feel frustratingly difficult to influence the outcome. It is unclear whether the described game has no end condition at all or whether it is so dull that the group involved are unable to complete it without getting bored and giving up.

Abstract

This board game has more abstract tones, involving the arrangement of geometric shapes for reasons that may not be immediately clear, perhaps similar to something like Hive or Tantrix. Some people may find that this kind of game, without a relatable framing they can use as a starting point for understanding it, is quite hard to get to grips with.

Hyperspecific Theme

This board game has a weirdly specific backstory, being centred around a very specific historical event, and a specific task within that. Lengthy backstories that have to be explained before you get to the actual gameplay can feel contrived and be off-putting to some players, but can be an attempt to contextualize gameplay that might otherwise fall into the Abstract category. The Congress of Vienna was a gathering of diplomats from many different countries at the end of the Napoleonic Wars. There exist multiple actual board games about the Congress of Vienna, but none that have to do with lighting candles (yet). The candle might be a reference to Cluedo.

Overcomplicated

Twilight Imperium is widely regarded as being an extremely complex board game (especially the later 3rd and 4th editions). Cones of Dunshire is a joke board game (first shown on the TV show Parks and Recreation), but was eventually turned into a real game where its extreme complexity is key to the joke. Combining them would likely result in a game that is far more complex than either. Category theory is a branch of mathematics famous for its layers of abstractions, and is notoriously difficult to understand. The monad is one concept from category theory, with the famous definition of "A monad is simply a monoid in the category of endofunctors". The cone is another concept from category theory.

Cooperative

Cooperative board games center around players attempting to reach a common goal, winning or losing together. Many feature impediments to communication that make this more challenging; for instance, players may be restricted from saying certain words, or have secret cards they are unable to reveal before playing. The game in this panel appears to forbid all communication between players except for hand gestures. The punchline likens it to a very mundane activity, sorting a junk drawer, made artificially more difficult due to silence, and suggests the game is just as boring. It also raises suspicions that Megan has organised or hijacked this games night to trick her friends into doing chores she can't be bothered with, similarly to the way that Cueball once did for his taxes. The game described in the comic makes it seem like a (rather pointless) extension of Charades, and is also reminiscent of cooperative game The Mind.

Branded

Some board games are published and marketed as tie-ins to other forms of media, using settings, characters, or events from the source to appeal to its fans and get them to buy a game they might otherwise not have done. The theming often has little to nothing to do with the gameplay, as the many branded variants on Monopoly can attest. The game in this panel is themed after the sitcom Friends, with the unlikely addition of Son Goku from Dragon Ball. Dragon Ball's producers seem to be trying to expand into various board games (see the title text below).

Party

It can be hard to determine what makes a party game, other than it generally doesn't have the kinds of gameplay and strategy in other kinds of board games. Such games (like Pictionary or 30 Seconds) are often aimed at creating humorous or mildly embarrassing situations. However, party games marketed as "for adults" (such as the well known Cards Against Humanity) do tend to have one thing in common — swearing or references to sex. The content of the game described here (dealing cards and screaming whatever is on them) seems not to require a lot of critical thinking, which may make it appealing in social situations where drinks (or other substances) may have been taken. The countdown was also recently the topic of 3232: Countdown Standard

Social Deduction

Social deduction games, such as variations upon Mafia/Werewolf (like the derived computer game Among Us), revolve around the players attempting to deduce the roles or allegiances of other players, based on both special abilities provided by the game and the players' native abilities to tell which of their fellow players are being dishonest. Commonly, they involve an 'uninformed majority,' who do not know the allegiances of other players, attempting to discover the 'informed minority,' who know the members of their team. The minority is often framed as 'evil,' with the ability to 'kill' other players and remove them from the game; their victory condition often revolves around killing most or all of the 'good' players. In a game such as Cluedo/Clue, all the players are unaware of identity of the guilty party and the exact circumstances of the crime (even if they play that character themselves), but use what they do know (and can deduce from what others apparently know) to try to successfully narrow down the hidden facts of the game before anybody else. The game in this panel revolves around finding a 'secret murderer', as per these kinds of game, but evidently has required clarification that discovering a real murderer does not count, implying that one or more of the previous week's participants, possibly Black Hat, had actually killed someone in real life. Although Black Hat is not shown in this comic's board game night, it stands to reason that after admitting to murder he would not be invited back the following week. This situation might be a reference to the case of Tiernan Darnton who admitted, during a game of Truth or Dare, to killing his step-grandmother.

Title text

"Candles of Vienna" is presumably the game described under "Hyperspecific Theme". An expansion pack is an additional set of playing equipment that can be combined with an existing game to add new gameplay possibilities. It appears that the rights holders for Goku have decided on a strategy of getting the character included in multiple board games. The character would arguably be even more out of place in Napoleonic Vienna than lounging on the sofas at Central Perk.

The setting, with the characters round a table playing games, is rather similar to that in the D&D comics.

Transcript

This is one of 44 incomplete transcripts:
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Types of Board Game

[Under this header text, the comic contains 8 panels. Each of them is labeled at the top with a short description of the board game being played and features (from left to right) Cueball, Ponytail, Megan, and White Hat sitting on chairs around a table trying to play it.]

Boring

Megan: Each turn, roll a die and move your token. Turns proceed clockwise around the table until we get bored and go home.

Abstract

Cueball: Each turn, you can place any number of red triangles or blue squares on a hexagon, or move any hexagon to a...

Hyperspecific Theme

Ponytail: It's October 2, 1814. The Congress of Vienna convenes. You are each in charge of distributing and lighting candles for the opening ball, which was held at these three locations...

Overcomplicated

White Hat: It's a cross between *Twilight Imperium* and *Cones of Dunshire,* but implemented entirely in category theory. Every cone is a monad, and...

Cooperative

Megan: We're working together to sort these decks of cards using only hand gestures. After that, we'll silently organize my junk drawer.

Branded

Cueball: You can play as Phoebe, Chandler, Monica, Rachel, Ross, Joey, or, due to an ill-advised tie-in, Goku.

Party

Ponytail: Each of the cards in your hand has a bad word on it. On the count of three, yell the...

Social Deduction

Megan: Remember, per our *Find the Secret Murderer* house rules from last week, discovering that a player had committed a real-life murder does *not* count.

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Discussion

Does the comic look grainy/low-res to anyone else? 2600:1006:B347:C663:D55A:314:CB4F:43F6

yeah its not just you 2A06:5906:1412:4100:1C9B:B7E4:7419:FD67 20:04, 7 January 2026 (UTC)

not me 2A00:23EE:1878:2422:583A:77B9:1416:97D1

did you say rabbit rabbit? 2A01:E0A:1D1:7CE0:964F:C262:A580:DE9 20:45, 7 January 2026 (UTC)

The mobile version of the comic seams to have lower then usual resolution of the image, the normal version has larger resolution. Maofgf (talk) 21:10, 7 January 2026 (UTC)

Omg it does. I thought it was just a side effect of my new laptop's tiny screen but it's only this comic (other ones appear fine). 2A02:C7C:6D8A:6800:74EC:66A3:2E17:78BC 21:16, 7 January 2026 (UTC)

I actually prefer the 2× version without antialiasing, it prevents the blurry look. But the 1× version has not enough resolution for that font to look good. There are also different antialiasing methods, for example the one used by Windows hurts my eyes, so I put a lot of effort into disabling it on my work laptop, but the one used on my Linux computer is fine (where it would ironically be trivially easy to disable it). Fabian42 (talk) 00:02, 8 January 2026 (UTC)

The image on xkcd looks a lot better than the one here. My guess is that it's been replaced since it was first posted. If someone who knows how could retrigger the image pull, that would likely fix the one here. 206.193.5.5 00:29, 8 January 2026 (UTC)

Seems to be a problem with the wiki. I've re-uploaded the current version from xkcd.com, ~~and it's lost its anti-alising after the upload~~ --Coconut Galaxy (talk) 07:06, 8 January 2026 (UTC)

Addendum: ~~Wiki turns the 8-bit PNG from xkcd.com into a 24-bit PNG, while paradoxically forgetting about shades of gray. --Coconut Galaxy (talk) 07:13, 8 January 2026 (UTC)~~ Nevermind the wiki cache is just being dumb. Should eventually look right. When? Nobody knows. --Coconut Galaxy (talk) 07:20, 8 January 2026 (UTC)

It's updated! --Coconut Galaxy (talk) 13:35, 8 January 2026 (UTC)

I wasn't the first to comment - is that bad luck? 2401:D005:D402:7A00:F107:D318:6C4C:DCA3 21:33, 7 January 2026 (UTC)

I thought the lack of anti-aliasing was just a random event but now I know it's all your fault! 64.201.132.210 22:28, 7 January 2026 (UTC)

The default header image is coming up blank for me. Is this the first comic for it to be so? 206.193.5.5 00:32, 8 January 2026 (UTC)

Uh that is long time ago this happened last! Almost always been some promotion of books the last many years! It is the first time in more than a year that the Header text has been changed. No changes seemes to have occured in 2025. This will be the longest stretch ever. --Kynde (talk) 07:39, 8 January 2026 (UTC)

I found that it changed before this comic came up so I have added a trivia on this on the previous comic and have updated the header text page! Thanks for making this notice. --Kynde (talk) 08:29, 8 January 2026 (UTC)

Is the Rabbits thing common outside the USA? I'm in the UK (London) and have never heard of it. --MarcusRowland (talk) 13:01, 8 January 2026 (UTC)

I'm in the US and never heard of it. We do have rabbits around our house. Eastern cottontail bunnies. But they've never mentioned it to me. 173.188.195.95 14:17, 8 January 2026 (UTC)

Wel, of course not. For one reason or another, they'll only ever say "People people people"... ;) 82.132.238.55 16:59, 8 January 2026 (UTC)

I'm in the UK and have come across the 'white rabbits' variant a few times. I've never heard 'rabbit rabbit [rabbit]'. 82.13.184.33 14:34, 8 January 2026 (UTC)

That's more rabbit than Sainsbury's -- Zaphod Beebledoc (talk) 23:12, 22 February 2026 (UTC) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

I'm in Canada and I've never heard of any rabbit-related superstitions. PDesbeginner (talk) 15:30, 8 January 2026 (UTC)

Anyone from Wonderland care to comment? 82.13.184.33 16:38, 8 January 2026 (UTC)

Anyone using YouTube in 2050 care to comment? 185.36.194.156 09:38, 9 January 2026 (UTC)

Chinese folklore says a rabbit lives on the moon (based on the aggregated shade of moon craters), and he makes herbal medicine all the time. Several cultural traditions (not superstitions but auspiciousness-linked), especially those revolving around the Mid-Autumn festival (which celebrates a full moon), therefore do involve rabbits. An example is the "Rabbit Master" (tù'éryé), which is a clay figurine of a humanoid rabbit. 185.36.194.156 09:38, 9 January 2026 (UTC)

It's something Cockneys tend to say quite a lot. 82.13.184.33 11:12, 9 January 2026 (UTC)

Is it just me, or do some of the {{incomplete}} tags show the 'construction image' (that is fully resolves to https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e1/Ambox_warning_blue_construction.svg/60px-Ambox_warning_blue_construction.svg.png) while some of them show an image-not-there 'redlink' (which is https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Special:Upload&wpDestFile=Ambox_warning_blue_construction.svg). As far as I can tell, both are valid answers to the image=Ambox warning blue construction.svg of the Incomplete template, but only if some pages can ultimately find the target and yet others cannot. But I might have missed some slightly different implementation. (For the record, right this moment, 3191: Superstition redlinks, 3190: Tensegrity has the image, 3189: Conic Sections redlinks, 3188: Anyone Else Here has image, 3187: High Altitude Cooking Instructions has image, so does 3186: Truly Universal Outlet, 3185: Sauropods does not, 3184: Funny Numbers does, 3183: Pole Vault Pole does not, 3182: Telescope Types does, 3181: Jumping Frog Radius does, and 3180: Apples does not have the Incomplete tag, so I'll stop there but there'll be some earlier ones still hanging around. - and removing 'old' Incomplete templates isn't really a solution. whatever your personal thoughts about that in general.) 92.23.2.208 20:54, 8 January 2026 (UTC)

Addendum: 3191: Superstition doesn't redlink any more and gives the construction image as expected, but 3189: Conic Sections still does. (I already tried purge-refreshing the pages, maybe it only just - partially - kicked in?) Not going to try and relist them all, however. 92.23.2.208 20:58, 8 January 2026 (UTC)

Melissa Joan Hart is among the notable celebrities who have popularized "Rabbit, Rabbit!" for many years now in social media, such as: on Facebook and on Instagram. Elizium23 (talk) 01:13, 10 January 2026 (UTC)

While blaming yourself is never healthy, consider the following two situations. In the first one, your uncle died because you forgot to say 'rabbit rabbit'. It was your mistake, but hopefully you'll be more careful in the future. In the second one, your uncle died because of chaotic forces beyond your control. At any moment in the future, the grim reaper may come for another loving one or even yourself, and there's nothing you or anyone else can do to stop it. In this context, it's evident why some people would prefer the first explanation. 91.186.218.129 06:50, 3 February 2026 (UTC)

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Explanation

This is one of 66 incomplete explanations:
This page was created by people who will edit this wiki or else it is their fault. Don't remove this notice too soon. If you can fix this issue, edit the page!

This comic references the superstition, which is known to have existed as far back as 1909, of saying "rabbit rabbit" on the first day of a month in order to have good luck. There are many superstitions about actions that either cause bad luck (e.g. "step on a crack, break your mother's back", walking under a ladder, breaking a mirror, letting a black cat cross your path) or protect against bad luck (e.g. carrying a rabbit's foot, throwing salt over your shoulder after spilling some, knocking on wood after saying something).

When asked to explain it, Cueball reveals that, rather than being subject to magical thinking, he is fully aware that the act has no real direct power, and thus in his case this isn't really a superstition, but merely a cultural artefact. However, he suggests that acts like these have a psychological effect by making people feel guilty over random unpleasant events over which they have no control by implying that there must have been some unrelated act which could have prevented them.

"Uncle Ben" is a reference to the character of Spider-Man/Peter Parker, who is popularly told by his uncle (Ben Parker) that "With great power comes great responsibility". Ben was not actually aware of Peter Parker's eventually developed super-powered abilities, his aphorism was more an avuncular life-lesson in general, regarding the possibility of far more mundane abilities to improve people's lives, but this still ended up becoming the central guiding tenet for the superhero's philosophy after Uncle Ben died (in most versions of the tale, as a direct consequence of Peter having failed to act against a seemingly trivial threat).

The title text flips this and implies that, by taking on some great responsibility, one can gain power as a direct consequence. Any adherence to superstitions can be a responsibility (by how we act, or refrain to act, on the basis of such superstitions) which therefore 'leads' to the power to control fate. There is then a spurious conclusion that Uncle Ben's death only happened because the "rabbit" superstition was not obeyed.

Transcript

This is one of 44 incomplete transcripts:
Don't remove this notice too soon. If you can fix this issue, edit the page!

[Blondie, Cueball and a child (Hairy) are walking from left to right. The child is turning towards Cueball.]

Cueball: Oops, I forgot to say "rabbit rabbit" on January first!

Hairy: Why do you do that?

Cueball: Just a superstition.

Hairy: What's a superstition?

Cueball: It's a way to train yourself to feel like any bad thing that happens is your fault.

Trivia

On January 7th, 2026, both the 1x and 2x version of this comic had no anti-aliasing applied (1-bit black and white). It was fixed later that day.
Mentioning "rabbits" is also considered bad luck in some traditions.
The header text briefly disappeared when this comic was released.
Coincidentally, the day this comic was released, Minecraft, a video game Randall has played, released new textures and animations for rabbits and baby rabbits. These updates make them look almost as cute as Randall thinks they are!