old_contents: SUPERLIST = "superlist"
  SUBLIST = "sublist"
  EQUAL = "equal"
  UNEQUAL = "unequal"
  
  
  def check_lists(a, b):
      if a == b:
          return EQUAL
      elif is_sublist(a, b):
          return SUBLIST
      elif is_sublist(b, a):
          return SUPERLIST
      else:
          return UNEQUAL
  
  
  def is_sublist(a, b):
      return a in [b[i:i + len(a)] for i in range(len(b) - len(a) + 1)]
  
new_contents: SUPERLIST = "superlist"
  SUBLIST = "sublist"
  EQUAL = "equal"
  UNEQUAL = "unequal"
  
  VERY_UNLIKELY_STRING = "ꗲꅯḪꍙ"
  
  
  def check_lists(a, b):
      if a == b:
          return EQUAL
      _a = VERY_UNLIKELY_STRING.join(map(str, a))
      _b = VERY_UNLIKELY_STRING.join(map(str, b))
      if _a in _b:
          return SUBLIST
      elif _b in _a:
          return SUPERLIST
      else:
          return UNEQUAL
  
subject: Switch back to the substring method - it's faster