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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Europa Missions

Title text: Before resurfacing, they promise to inspect the ice for any evidence of hockey-playing life.

Warning: Default sort key "3234" overrides earlier default sort key "3191".

Explanation

In recent years, multiple space agencies have sent spacecraft to observe Jupiter’s moon Europa. According to NASA, the moon could be a candidate for life due to the presence of a subsurface ocean and (possibly) hydrothermal vents, so it would make sense that the scientists would send spacecraft to observe it. The first two craft, the Europa Clipper and Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice), respectively, will investigate the ocean, topography and chemistry of the moon, to help in searching for signs of life. Europa's ocean is frozen on the top, the whole surface being solid ice with no exposed liquid, except perhaps at the bottom of any transient deep crevasses, which is why it described as a "subsurface ocean".

A Zamboni is a vehicle that, rather than being a scientific mission or a transport for other scientific missions, is meant to quickly resurface ice rinks that have been worn down. This is where the comic diverges from reality, describing a nonexistent spacecraft known as the Zamboni Voyager, operated by the National Hockey League (NHL). The spacecraft would be carrying a Zamboni because the NHL is trying to 'expand the league'. Normally, expanding a sports league would involve, at the very least, forming a new team in a city which did not have one. In this scenario 'expanding the league' appears to be in a more literal sense, resurfacing Europa to make it viable for hockey-playing. (Although Europa is the smoothest known body in the solar system, it's probably not smooth enough for playing hockey. Yet.) Hockey in reduced gravity — Europa's gravity is less than 1/7 that of Earth — would be an interesting idea. Also note this comic was created at around the time the NHL playoffs started.

The title text talks about finding hockey-playing life on Europa, which would be unlikely, as the life on Europa would exist underwater, where it's difficult to play hockey.^{[citation needed]} In addition, any conceivable culture(s) there would almost certainly be extremely different from Earth's, so even if the lifeforms on Europa do have kinds of entertainment similar to sports, it's unlikely that the sports played have even remotely similar rules or equipment. If, though, there were intelligent non-hockey-playing life on Europa, the NHL may consider them fair game as a virgin market for their product.

On top of that, making a spacecraft to send a Zamboni to Europa would be very difficult, as 14000 m/s of delta v (change in velocity) is needed. With a typical Zamboni weighing 5 tons, a very heavy rocket would be needed. Europa clipper weighs about 6 tons, which is comprable to a heavy Zamboni. The spacecraft will not preform an orbital insertion and only a flyby to save fuel, not even a landing. Even then, it needed a fully expendable Falcon Heavy, the largest commercially available rocket (as of comic publishing), to achieve a flyby. A landing would need much more delta-v. Especially if whoever was talking (presumably NASA) tried to stop them, an SLS launch with more payload capacity would not be possible, Successfully achieving a propulsive landing would be very difficult, as demonstrated by IM-1 and IM-2, which both failed to land on our own Moon. Also, the water in a Zamboni would freeze, a normal zamboni is probably not hardened against Jupiter’s intense radiation environment and, unless adapted for robotic remote control, the life support system for the operator would also greatly increase the total weight of the mission.

Transcript

[Cueball's upper body is shown; he is in front of an image of a spacecraft.]

Cueball: There are now three spacecraft headed to Europa:

Cueball: NASA's Europa Clipper, which investigate Europa's subsurface ocean,

[In a longer shot, Cueball, Ponytail, and Hairy are all shown standing in front of another spacecraft image, with Cueball gesturing at it.]

Cueball: ESA's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, which will study the topography and chemistry of Europa and the other moons,

[Another closeup on Cueball, who is in front of an image of a Zamboni with a firing rocket nozzle on its bottom.]

Cueball: And the NHL's Zamboni Voyager, which plans to resurface Europa.

Voice out of frame: Oh no.

Cueball: We tried to stop them, but the league is set on an expansion.

miscellaneous

The original version of the comic incorrectly referred to the "Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter" rather than "Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer."

Kerbal Space Program is a great way to learn the basics of orbital mechanics.

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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 64 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 42 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!