this post was submitted on 03 Jul 2025
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xkcd

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xkcd #3110: Global Ranking

Title text:

Starting a meta-leaderboard for tracking who holds the record for ranking behind the most distinct people on an online leaderboard.

Transcript:

[Cueball is seated at a desk, and uses a laptop. White Hat is standing right behind him.]
Cueball: I'm ranked 7,145,000^th^ globally on this chess platform.
Cueball: It's hard to be ranked that low in any activity.

[Zoom on Cueball talking]
Cueball: Few pastimes even have 7 million rated players. Until the Internet, it wasn't really possible. You could be this bad, but only unofficially.

[Cueball is now facing White Hat]
Cueball: So in a sense, I'm worse at chess than anyone was at anything for most of human history.
White Hat: Why are you still doing it?

[Cueball is back on the laptop]
Cueball: Well, no human has ever had this many friends to play with.
White Hat: That person is calling you some very obscene names.
Cueball: Our friendship is complicated.

Source: https://xkcd.com/3110/

explainxkcd for #3110

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I hear a dead rat is actually pretty good at this game. Way better than I was.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Have you tried playing it with a live rat that you shake and squeeze?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Oh god, is that a RATSHAKER reference?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

That it is!

Is it more obscure than I assumed?