XKCD Isn't Funny - #1526 - Placebo Blocker

Ah, placebos. Or as my forth grade self would call them, "placebos" (pronounced 'place boes').

The first two panels have some of the stiffest setup I've ever seen. It reminds me of the first episode of that Fairy Tail anime, where the guy who eats is eating and the totally useless blonde chick monologues uninterrupted for like three minutes about how the show's setting works. At least today's XKCD doesn't have the receiver of the monologue turn out to already know everything that the monologue says.

Come at me, Fairy Tail fans.

Is the idea of how they'd test this really that complex? Maybe my massive brain is just too goddamn smart, but it seems pretty simple to me. Take two groups of cancer patients or whatever, give them both placebos, and then give the control group a second placebo and the other group the real booster. I get that it's supposed to be like, meta and confusing, but it's really not.

Finally, sugar pills don't help headaches, at least not if you call them "sugar pills". Placebos work when the doctor says 'hey this is a new drug', which makes the person think that it's a drug so their mind will alleviate the symptoms somehow. Placebos don't work when someone says 'Hey, take this not-drug that has no medicinal properties'.

[EDIT, one day later]
Welp, as it turns out, placebos work even if you know they're placebos. However, my failure allows me to point out that the alt-text, similarly to #1523, makes a stronger punchline than the one the actual comic gives us.
[/EDIT]

In conclusion, I gif'd my favorite shot from Breaking Bad: