this post was submitted on 23 Dec 2025
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xkcd #3184: 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.

Transcript:

Transcript will show once it’s been added to explainxkcd.com

Source: https://xkcd.com/3184/

explainxkcd for #3184

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[–] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world 13 points 1 month ago (4 children)

What did 23 mean? I thought the post was pointing out it meant nothing? 69 is a position, 420 smoke weed, boobs, 42 was a nonsense joke that meant nothing as well. They just defined it as the meaning of life for no reason from what I know.. so 23, and 67 seem about the same, running closely behind 42

[–] Thaurin@lemmy.world 46 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

42 is from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. They built an enormous computer called Deep Thought that was the most powerful ever built to calculate the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything. The computer, after 75 million years of processing, came up with 42. The confused crowd that gathered to hear the answer did not understand. Turns out, 42 is the correct answer, but what is the question?

So after that, they decide to build another computer, which is planet Earth, to figure out the question.

It was still calculating when it was destroyed by the Vogons to make space for a hyperspace bypass.

[–] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Yeah I remember that, saying 42 is the answer to everything was what I called nonsense, as I could just as easily say 42 meaning everything is is the product you get from, 6 7 (meaning nothing). Poof, now everything is a multiple of nothing, and at the end of the day none of it made any sense or had any meaning

[–] melmi@lemmy.blahaj.zone 16 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Funny enough, there's a point in a later book in the series where they suggest the "ultimate question'" that 42 is an answer to could be "What do you get if you multiply six by nine?"

[–] hoppolito@mander.xyz 20 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Additionally, while technically imbued with 'meaning', even the number 420 itself is somewhat meaningless and was originally used to delineate those who knew from those who don't. It's just that it got famous enough that we now almost all know.

In that sense I would argue it filled more or less the same function as 67.

[–] Hazel@piefed.blahaj.zone 9 points 1 month ago

I'd like to add that that's called a shibboleth :)

[–] Thaurin@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

I’ve heard it said that 420 referred to the time 4:20 pm, when a group would come together to smoke, but that sounds contrived.

420 can also refer to the birth date of Adolf Hitler, which makes 420 a bit darker than just “haha, smoke.”

[–] toynbee@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

23 was before my time, but it is 1/3 of 69, so there's that.

[–] bottleofchips@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] 0x0@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Ni's NaN though and they no longer say it.

Japanese would argue otherwise, 二 is certainly a number.

[–] boonhet@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 month ago (2 children)

23 is from the movie of the guy escaping from the number 23 I think?

[–] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Oh shit I forgot that movie, that was a Jim Carrey movie wasn't it

[–] boonhet@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 month ago