In pop culture, all sorts of people, places, and things can become iconic for a variety of reasons. This even extends to numbers – ordinary things that often become in-jokes or sorrowful reminders, depending on how they were used in media. Here, we’ve gathered arguably the three most famous number sequences from the most ardent fandoms.
4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42: Lost
Famous, or perhaps infamous, for its use of many mysteries heaped on top of one another, Lost also gave a lot of people their preferred lottery number sequence. In season 1, episode 18, aptly titled “Numbers”, we learn that Hurley won the lottery using these mysterious numbers. He later investigates and discovers that they originated from a mysterious distress call and may even be responsible for bad luck.
Ironically, fans took the sequence to heart and started using it themselves. 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, and 42 became one of the most iconic examples of lucky lottery numbers from favourite TV shows and movies, even though they were an unsettling portent in the show. Sure, Hurley won the lottery with them, but the numbers seemed to have the last laugh by pulling him to the island.
The numbers would stick around throughout the show, but their exact nature was never revealed. In fact, it’s just one of many examples of the controversial mystery box writing technique made famous by this show, through J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof. When the time came for answers, fans were left divided when the box was empty – as Jacob said, they were just numbers. Now, almost two decades later, fans are still trying to piece together the unanswerable mysteries of this show.
42: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
According to Lost producer David Fury, that 42 at the end of the Lost lottery numbers was actually a reference to a much older, more prevalent numerical meme. That is, the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything. 42, namely, is the answer that Deep Thought comes to after roughly 7 million years of calculation.
It’s less of an answer and more of a classic Douglas Adams punchline, but that’s why it has stuck in the minds of a lot of fans. Unlike our Lost example, it’s short, snappy, and has broken out of the original fandom. Even if you haven’t read the book or watched any of its adaptations, most sci-fi nerds know that the meaning of life is 42 for some reason. It serves as the perfect pithy response whenever a lofty, existential question is uttered. While some take the joke at its humorous face value, others have used it to comment on other mathematical mysteries surrounding the number 42.
555: Everything
Much more subtle than our last two examples, 555 is inarguably the most widely used and most famous number sequence that you’ve likely never even noticed before. That’s because this is the North American Numbering Plan telephone prefix for fictitious telephone numbers. If there’s a phone number in American media, it probably starts with 555.
This has also led to the numbers being used as plot devices themselves. Love it or hate it, Last Action Hero used the numbers in a meta way, as the character Danny tries to convince Schwarzenegger’s Jack Slater that he’s a fictional character in a movie. That cult film didn’t make much of a cultural splash, but you’ll see 555 numbers everywhere once you’ve learned about them.
