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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16 Part Epoxy

Title text: Some surfaces may seem difficult to glue. But if you research the materials, find tables of what adhesives work on them, and prepare your surfaces carefully, you can fail to glue them in a fun NEW way that fills your house with dangerous vapors.

Warning: Default sort key "3194" overrides earlier default sort key "3191".

Explanation

This is one of 59 incomplete explanations:
This page was created by a bot that likes the taste of salty glue. Don't remove this notice too soon. If you can fix this issue, edit the page!

This comic refers to epoxy, substances used as adhesives, sealants, and coatings. Many types of epoxy are multi-part, where the components, such as resin and a hardener, are stored separately. For ease of use, this can be in parallel syringes (of equal volume, or suitably different where a mixing ratio of 2:1 or 3:2 might be desired) such that the user simultaneously squeezes out the isolated chemicals by depressing both syringes at once. They are then mixed together on the target surface, so that the combined epoxy quickly cures into the desired solid, binding whatever surfaces upon which it is applied and then brought into contact with. This comic presents a fictitious 16-part epoxy, with the same apparent logic of parallel deposition in mind, with many components that are implausible or make fun of common problems people have when using epoxy in real life.

The title text references how not all epoxies and glues work on every material, and that applying them on some can require special techniques or products. Some industrial or industrial-grade adhesives contain solvents (e.g. tetrachloroethylene, which is used in E6000 glue) that release harmful vapors as they cure. If used improperly, this can result in the release of chemical vapors in an enclosed space along other dangerous side-effects, while also not working as a glue as intended.

Type	Real?	Explanation
Resin	Yes	A liquid which turns into a polymer when mixed with a hardener.
Hardener	Yes	A thick liquid which is mixed with resin to create a durable polymer which is commonly used as a glue.
Filler	Yes	An optional addition to the hardener and resin which changes the properties of the polymer. Some epoxies are sold as products known as 'fillers', used to repair and cover cracks, holes, and imperfections.
Softener	Yes	A substance which is added to polymer to soften the polymer and increase its impact resistance.
Rosin	Yes	While this looks like a joke entry, this is actually an alternative to resin which is extracted naturally rather than synthesized from other chemicals. Rosin is frequently applied to the bows of string instruments like violins or cellos to improve the sound, as immortalized in the famous song "The Devil Went Down to Georgia".
Stuff that bonds permanently to skin and nothing else	No	One key annoyance with sticky substances is the difficulty of removing them when they bond to skin. In this case, the polymer bonds solely to skin instead of anything else, making it mostly only really useful for a practical joke. Some epoxies are specifically designed for gluing skin, usually for medical purposes, but none are known to bond to skin exclusively.^{[actual citation needed]} The most common kinds are moisture-activated, which means they will not easily bond to fully dried surfaces, where often most non-skin surfaces are dry.^{[actual citation needed]}
Stuff that will crack and turn white over a few days, for decorative appearance	Not effective as epoxy	'Crackle effect' is a real thing for crafters, and can be created by mixing paint and glue, but is not recommended if you want two surfaces to adhere, since most paint is made to be non-adherent in order to be durable^{[actual citation needed]}. Poor finish can be a frustrating problem when applying such mixtures to visible surfaces, especially when the problem only appears some time after you've congratulated yourself on a job well-done.
Placebo	Not in the field of adhesives	The placebo effect happens when somebody is told that something has a certain effect, when in reality there is no effect. This is commonly used in medical studies to determine whether a medication actually does something as opposed to simply having a psychosomatic effect. Using this term to describe a type of polymer suggests it would make someone believe it is gluing things together without actually doing anything, which is highly unlikely. Alternatively, this could refer to a component or filler that claims to serve a specific purpose while having no true benefit, causing the perception of benefit to the consumer (presumably causing better reviews).
Minced duct tape	No	Randall is pretending that having very small pieces of sticky duct tape would make a good adhesive. In fact, cutting duct tape into small pieces would weaken it and make it less effective at sticking things together. In the UK, the word 'minced' can also mean 'made worthless', which would also not augur well for the adhesive.
Acetone fragrance	No	Acetone is a volatile solvent used in a number of glues and paints (incl. nail polish), but it weakens epoxy and can even be used to remove uncured epoxy. It has a strong, distinctive, very unpleasant smell, and is actually toxic, meaning that fragrance is an odd reason for adding it to any product.
Powdered bar magnets	No	This might still work if the pieces could somehow be aligned correctly, as each tiny piece of magnet would still be a magnet in its own right, capable of attracting the other tiny magnets, and thus resisting tension forces. However, it would be much worse than a normal bar magnet, since the magnetic force would be weaker than those that held the original bar together. In any case, it's much more likely that each piece would end up randomly orientated, and therefore as likely to repel as attract each other.
Polyethylvinylesteracetate	Not in epoxy	This appears to be a reference to Poly (ethylene-vinyl acetate), some formulations of which can be used as the adhesive in hot-glue guns. Vinyl acetate is an ester, so the inclusion of that term is redundant. The cadence of the constructed word may also be a reference to the television episode Lucy Does a TV Commercial and its memorable product "Vitameatavegamin". It also resembles the kind of thing often seen in ingredients lists for common household products such as soaps and cleaners, which are fairly meaningless to the average person buying them.
2-Polyethylvinylesteracetate	Unclear	This sounds almost exactly the same as the above item. But a name with a "2-" prefix generally indicates that the initial bit of the name is a functional group attached to the second position along a chemical chain (often being the carbon-carbon 'spine' of a molecule, in large-molecule organic chemistry), rather than attached to its end. Because the molecule name is (deliberately) malformed, it's hard to tell what is supposed to be attached to the second carbon of what subunit.
Salt and pepper to taste	Not for taste, but salt can be useful	Salt and pepper are two incredibly popular condiments which are used to enhance a dish's flavor. But the taste of your epoxy should not be your concern. Do not eat epoxy. But salt or sand or other fine grains are sometimes recommended to add a bit of grit to an adhesive. Generally glues or epoxies need the bonded materials to be firmly held together while the glue cures. But when first pressed together, any excess glue is squeezed out and can cause the surfaces to slip around and need to be re-aligned. Any extra friction in the epoxy can help alleviate that.
Blood sample from the Gorilla Glue gorillas	No	Gorilla Glue is a popular brand of superglue which uses gorillas as its mascot. In this case, the blood of the gorillas would be extracted and placed in the polymer, which would not be any more efficacious than any other gorilla's blood, because they're depicted as regular gorillas that just happen to carry glue everywhere. Extracting and consuming the blood of a creature or person in an attempt to inherit some of the qualities of the 'donor' is a common trope, so this may be suggesting that including this will give the epoxy 'the strength of a gorilla', commonly considered a powerful animal.
Stuff that bonds to every known material except yours	No	Another common annoyance when using an adhesive is that each glue type only forms an adhesive bond with certain materials. In this case, the polymer would bond with every material except for the one you were using, causing great distress and leaving you in a fix.

Transcript

This is one of 37 incomplete transcripts:
Don't remove this notice too soon. If you can fix this issue, edit the page!

Standard 16-Part Epoxy

[An epoxy applicator with a single push bar and sixteen differently-colored chambers, each labeled]

Resin

Hardener

Filler

Softener

Rosin

Stuff that bonds permanently to skin and nothing else

Stuff that will turn white and crack over a few days, for decorative appearance

Placebo

Minced duct tape

Acetone Fragrance

Powdered bar magnets

Polyethylvinylesteracetate

2-Polyethylvinylesteracetate

Salt and pepper to taste

Blood sample from the Gorilla Glue gorillas

Stuff that bonds to every known material except yours

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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)

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)

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Explanation

This is one of 59 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 37 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!