Editing 493: Actuarial

[[Cueball]] is commenting on the fact he shouldn't feed the trolls, but sometimes gets provoked to the point where he can't help replying. The term ''{{w|Troll (Internet)|Trolling}}'' is used to describe provocative, destructive or annoying behavior on the {{w|Internet}}.

[[Black Hat]] agrees and tells he had an issue yesterday with a guy who had a serious case of the  

[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/first first] urge. Some people have to be the first to make a comment on any given posting (be it a blog post or a YouTube video or some other commentable content), and to obnoxiously point out that they have made the first comment. This often manifests as the poster simply posting the word "First" without contributing any actual content to the discussion.

Once again, Black Hat is thus provoked into on-line retaliation bordering on the sociopathic, choosing a form of retribution that doesn't necessarily break any written rules but strikes directly at the heart and/or mind of his opponent. In this case telling the ''first'' guy when all his childhood heroes are likely to die - this could make any one miserable. To do this he is using {{w|Life table|actuarial table}}s or life tables which shows for each age the probability that a certain person will be alive by their next birthday.

Cueball reflects that he doesn't wish to become the target of such ire himself, but (without apparent malice on Black Hat's part...) still suffers from a piece of memetic shrapnel from the original attack - Cueball obviously loves the original {{w|Star Wars}} movies - and Black Hat would know this!

In the title text, it is said how {{tvtropes|InsaneTrollLogic|Black Hat's offensive is so effective that he appears to have caused grief even to his own author and creator}}, [[Randall]], who only managed to check up on the Star Wars cast before getting too depressed.

Randall has used this idea again in [[893: 65 Years]], and published a [http://blog.xkcd.com/2012/07/12/a-morbid-python-script/ 'morbid' program] that uses actuarial tables to calculate the probability that someone will die within a given time. The offence which provoked Black hat was mentioned already in [[269: TCMP]] and then returned to in both [[1019: First Post]] and [[1258: First]].

It is possible that [[494: Secretary: Part 1]] and the following series is a continuation of this comic, as Black Hat's great power over even Internet trolls via his sociopathic ways would explain why he was chosen as Internet secretary.

:[A dialog between Cueball, seated at a computer terminal, and Black Hat, seated in an armchair reading a book. They are facing away from each other.]

:Cueball: Remind me never to upset you, ever.

:Cueball: Augh!