Editing 1898: October 2017

{{comic
| number    = 1898
| date      = October 4, 2017
| title     = October 2017
| image     = october_2017.png
| titletext = And yet I have no trouble believing that the start of the 2016 election was several decades ago.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Randall]] [[:Category:Comics to make one feel old|once again makes us feel old]] by referencing an old movie that would feel recent to someone at the time. The movie in question is ''{{w|The Social Network}}'', written by {{w|Aaron Sorkin}} and directed by {{w|David Fincher}}, which was released seven years and three days prior to this comic, on October 1, 2010.

In the comic, Megan introduces her factoid with a typical opener of "Want to feel old?". Cueball points out that this is obviously a rhetorical trick to secure his engagement, as nobody truly ''wants'' to feel old. However, he still succumbs to the trick due to morbid curiosity - while he doesn't want to feel old, his desire to know the factoid is too great.

Megan tells Cueball that, had he broken a mirror when ''The Social Network'' was released, his seven years of bad luck would now be over. This is a reference to an ancient superstition that breaking a mirror causes seven years of bad luck. For the purposes of Megan's comparison, however, it provides a more dramatic way to express "seven years ago", which makes the impact of that length of time land harder than it otherwise would. Cueball thus immediately regrets his curiosity.

A mirror was previously broken by [[Black Hat]] in [[1136: Broken Mirror]]. However, as of October 2017, there were still 2 years of bad luck remaining from that breakage.

The title text alludes to an opposite effect: even though the {{w|United_States_presidential_election,_2016|2016 US presidential election}} was relatively recent (11 months ago) at the time of this comic, Randall/Cueball has somehow convinced himself that the event has been going on for ''decades''. This alludes to the fact that Donald Trump's tumultuous presidency has so far been so stressful and eventful that the election feels like it took place far longer than 11 months ago. In psychology, this effect is called {{w|Telescoping_effect|Backward telescoping}}, which causes people to overestimate the elapsed time since an event.

==Trivia==
* The title of this comic appears to be patterned on the previous "this will make you feel old" comic [[1757: November 2016]], which also used the month-year format.

==Transcript==
:[Megan and Cueball are walking.]
:Megan: Want to feel old?
:Cueball: Why do you always start your factoids that way? Of ''course'' I don't want to feel old. I ''already'' feel old.

:[Beat panel]

:[Frameless panel of Cueball.]
:Cueball: ...Fine, hit me.

:Megan: If you broke a mirror back when the Aaron Sorkin Facebook movie came out, your seven years of bad luck would be over this week.
:Cueball: ''Dammit.''

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics to make one feel old]]
[[Category:Politics]]