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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Sailing Rigs

Title text: I wanted to make the world's fastest yawl, so I made the aft sail bigger, but apparently that means it's not a yawl anymore! It's a real ketch-22.

Warning: Default sort key "3193" overrides earlier default sort key "3191".

Explanation

This is one of 60 incomplete explanations:
This page was created by the birds flying in my kite. Don't remove this notice too soon. If you can fix this issue, edit the page!

This comic shows the side profiles of a variety of different sailing boat/ship rigs, not all of which are real.

Type	Real?	Description	Explanation
Lateen	Yes	A single triangular sail.	The triangular sail was affixed to a long yard or crossbar, mounted at its middle to the top of the mast and angled to extend aft far above the mast and forward down nearly to the deck. The sail, its free corner secured near the stern, was capable of taking the wind on either side, and, by enabling the vessel to tack into the wind, the lateen immensely increased the potential of the sailing ship. [1]
Bermuda rigged sloop	Yes	A front and rear triangular sail share a mast.	Sloop
Ketch	Yes	A sailboat with two masts, where the main mast is taller than the aft mast, and the aft mast is forward of the rudder post	Similar to a Yawl
Gaff rigged sloop	Yes	A front triangular sail shares mast with rear quadrilateral sail.	A sloop is a sailboat with one mast, typically with two sails mounted on the mast, one ahead and one behind. A Gaff Rig is a sailing rig where one sail is four-sided and controlled by a spar (the gaff) at its top, which is hoisted at an angle to the mast. [2]
Yawl	Yes	Two triangular sails share a front mast, and a much smaller aft mast holds a small aft sail.	A Yawls is sailboat with two masts, where the front mast has two sails (One in front of the mast and one behind, known as fore-and-aft rigging, and the aft mast is mounted aft of the rudder post, leading the aft sail to typically be small. Similar to a Ketch.
Schooner	Yes	A sailboat with two or more masts, where all have fore-and-aft rigging, and where the front mast is typically smaller than the main mast
Ketch-rigged gaff	No	The first fictional rig. Resembles a gaff, with the aft sail reduced and two triangular sails mounted above. The resulting shape resembles a vertical ketch.
Kloop-rigged sketch	No	Four or five sails mounted in a nonsensical configuration, with elements from the schooner, ketch, and gaff	A mixture of the names of ketch and sloop, poking fun at the unfamiliar and odd-sounding names of some rigs. Adding to the absurdity, the kloop-rigged sketch is neither a sloop nor a ketch. However it is technically a sketch, as "sketch" can mean "drawing"
Bunkbed rig	No	A gaff-rigged sloop mounted on top of a second hull.	The name refers to a bunkbed, where a bed is mounted directly above another, and applies this idea to a ship, mounting a hull directly above another. While boats with multiple hulls do exist, these are always mounted side-by-side to guarentee stability. Mounting a hull above another would be a terrible idea, as the upper hull would be ineffective when raised above the water, the lower hull might become submerged and sink, and such a tall boat would be unstable causing it to fall over. The comic is funny due to this absurdity, due to boat's obivously extreme design being so far outside what someone would expect a boat to look like
Flettner rig	Yes, though not typically called a rig	The rectangular outline of a cylinder with motion lines around it, indicating a Flettner rotor	A Flettner rotor is a right circular cylinder with disc end plates which is spun along its long axis. As air passes across it the Magnus effect causes an aerodynamic lift force to be generated in the direction perpendicular to both the long axis and the direction of airflow. In a rotor ship, the rotors stand vertically and lift is generated at right angles to the wind, to drive the ship forwards. Flettner rotors were previously mentioned in 3119
Oops, all spinnakers	No	Three masts each with a sail billowing in front	A spinnaker is a real type of sail, where a boat is propelled by a large sail directly pulled by the wind, similar in principle to a parachute. However, "Oops, all spinnakers" is not real, as spinnakers are only practical for smaller craft, and if multiple spinnakers are mounted in a row the earlier ones may disrupt the airflow to the later ones^{[actual citation needed]}. It does not appear that there are any real boats propelled by more than one spinnaker.^{[actual citation needed]} The name of the rig is a reference to the Cap'n Crunch cereal type that became a meme, Oops! All Berries, which has also been referenced in 2256 and 2719.
Keel rig	No	Three sails in a ketch arrangement, but mounted to the keel, which would typically put the sails underwater.	The book Heaven, by Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen, features an aquatic protagonist who is introduced as sailing a surface-craft with underwater-'sails' (and above-water 'keel'), due to the switched nature of his usual environment.
Kite rig	Kind of	All sails are replaced by two groups of kites, each tied to the mast with their own independent line.	A kite rig is a real thing, where a kite is deployed from a boat or ship to catch the wind and pull the vessel along. This rigging is used in various types of vessel, most commonly kite surfing, but occasionally other vessels too, up to trials with cargo ships [3]. However, the real kite riggings typically use one large kite optimised for catching the wind, rather than many small kites optimised for flying (as depicted) which would likely get tangled and not pull much on the ship.
Longsail rig	No	A bermuda rigged sloop with the aft sail extending ~5 times as far back, well beyond the end of the hull.	While not technically impossible, such a long sail would likely be suceptiple to damage from the wind, as well as potentially making it hard to control the boat.
Deckhand obliterator	No	All sails replaced by an anchor that swings around the mast on a chain, similar to tetherball.	Any deckhands (crew) on the deck could be knocked off or fatally hurt if the anchor passes through their space.
Offset rig	No	Gaff rigged sloop sails are mounted on a mast that is offset (forward) from the hull via an underwater extension of the keel.	The extreme mechanical advantage of the sail, potentially combined with the uneven weight, would make this rigging hard if not impossible to control.
Mastless rig	Kind of	A single sail is directly to the hull of the boat, without any mast holding it in the wind.	As depicted the sail would provide little to no useful propulsion, as it would not be high enough to effective catch the wind. However ships do exist without sails, such as ships not powered by wind^{[citation needed]}, or more rarely inflatable sails (e.g. [4]), which use air rather than a mast for rigidity. While not intentiional, it is concievable that the drawing depicts an inflatable sail in its deflated state.
Unclassifiable chaos rig	Arguably	Includes elements of the schooner, yawl, lateen, and possibly others.	While this specific rig is almost certainly fictional, there are many ways to rig a ship, some of which are difficult to classify.

The title text is a pun on a Catch-22, a no-win situation in which the thing needed to succeed would cause it not to succeed or not to be necessary. For instance, "the only way to qualify for a loan is to prove to the bank that you do not need a loan." Per the main panel, a ketch is similar to a yawl but has a larger aft sail, so increasing the aft sail of a yawl effectively turns the yawl into a ketch. However this is not technically true, as the distinction between a yawl and ketch is based on whether the aft sail is mounted forward or aft of the rudder post, although a yawl with a large aft sail may be difficult to control.^{[actual citation needed]}

Transcript

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This is one of 37 incomplete transcripts:
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[The comic contains views from the side of boats, each with a different sailing rig. All boats are oriented to the left of the comic.]

Lateen [a single triangular sail]
Bermuda rigged sloop [a front and rear triangular sail share a mast]
Ketch [two triangular sails as above, with an additional triangular sail on a second rear mast]
Gaff rigged sloop [front triangular sail shares mast with rear quadrilateral sail]
Yawl [two triangular sails share front mast and a much smaller aft mast holds a small aft]
Schooner [two triangular front sails share foreward mast with quadrilateral center sail. An aft mast supports a quadrilateral aft sail]
Ketch-rigged gaff [Resembles a gaff, with the aft sail reduced and two triangular sails mounted above. The resulting shape resembles a vertical ketch]
Kloop-rigged sketch: [Includes elements of ketch and sloop]
Bunkbed rig [A gaff-rigged sloop is mounted on top of a second hull]
Flettner rig [The rectangular outline of a cylinder with motion lines around it]
Oops, all spinnakers [three masts each with a sail only attached to the top]
Keel rig [three sails in a ketch arrangement, but mounted to the keel]
Kite rig [all sails are replaced by two groups of kites, each tied to the mast with an independent line]
Longsail rig [bermuda rigged sloop with the aft sail extending ~5 times as far back, well beyond the end of the hull]
Deckhand obliterator [all sails replaced by an anchor that swings around the mast on a chain, similar to tetherball]
Offset rig [gaff rigged sloop sails are mounted on a mast that is offset (forward) from the hull via an underwater extension of the keel]
Mastless rig [a single sail is attached where the mast would normally be mounted, flapping around freely]
Unclassifiable chaos rig [includes elements of the schooner, yawl, lateen, and possibly others]

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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

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 60 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

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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!