3184: Funny Numbers
| Funny Numbers |
 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. |
Explanation
|
This is one of 58 incomplete explanations: This page was created recently. 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 other numbers listed:
- 23 originated about 1899, and was later combined with the nonsense word "skidoo" into the phrase "23 skidoo". It relates to leaving quickly.
- 42 refers to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, in which this number is the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything.
- 1,337 is leet-speak for the word "elite".
- 69 -- if you have to ask, you're not old enough.
- 58,008 spells "BOOBS" if you put it into a calculator and turn it upside down.
The title text claims that the media reaction to "23" around the turn of the 20th century was very similar to the current reaction to "67".
Transcript
|
This is one of 31 incomplete transcripts: Don't remove this notice too soon. If you can fix this issue, edit the page! |
- [According to the sign, the comic takes place at the "Mathematical society 2025 meeting." Below, four characters are talking to each other. That is, from left to right, Hairbun, Cueball, Megan, and Ponytail. Ponytail is standing next to a whiteboard, holding a marker. The board contains, in order: 23 (skidoo!), 42, 1,337, 69, 58,008, 420, 6 7. Ponytail has circled "6 7".]
- 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.
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)
Add comment
