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up vote 103 down vote favorite
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This is one of my favorites:

alt text

One entry per answer. This is in the vein of the Stack Overflow question What’s your favorite “programmer” cartoon?.

P.S. Do not hotlink the cartoon without the site's permission please.

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I do have to ask though- how come cartoons are in and jokes are out? – Sharpie Jul 22 '10 at 5:09
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These cartoons are useful too; they can be included in a lecture on a particular topic where you are trying to explain a concept (e.g. correlation/causation above). A little humor can help to keep an audience engaged. – Shane Jul 22 '10 at 14:22
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up vote 65 down vote

Was XKCD, so time for Dilbert:

alt text

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Absolutely love this one. – Sharpie Jul 21 '10 at 15:23
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Did anyone else notice that the tour guide changes colors between the second and third frames? – Max Aug 22 '12 at 20:41
up vote 60 down vote

My favourite Dilbert cartoon:

alt text

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Definitively my favorite cartoon about Data Mining – steffen Dec 1 '10 at 12:24
up vote 59 down vote

One of my favorites from xckd:

Random Number

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RFC 1149.5 specifies 4 as the standard IEEE-vetted random number.

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up vote 59 down vote

Another from XKCD: alt text

Mentioned here and here.

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up vote 55 down vote

One more Dilbert: alt text

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This one reminds me of the recent bailout in the States, where they just made up 700 billion number - they said they just wanted a really large number. :) – Roman Luštrik Aug 12 '10 at 8:53
up vote 45 down vote

I just came across this and loved it:

alt text

(http://xkcd.com/795/).

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up vote 43 down vote

XKCD: significant

'So, uh, we did the green study again and got no link. It was probably a--' 'RESEARCH CONFLICTED ON GREEN JELLY BEAN/ACNE LINK; MORE STUDY RECOMMENDED!'

xkcd: significant

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up vote 43 down vote

Normal Versus Paranormal Distribution

From: A visual comparison of normal and paranormal distributions Matthew Freeman J Epidemiol Community Health 2006;60:6. Lower caption says 'Paranormal Distribution' - no idea why the graphical artifact is occuring.

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up vote 43 down vote

This isn't technically a cartoon, but close enough:

alt text

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That's definitely my favorite. I always have to stop on this and laugh when scrolling over this page. It's just so bad!! – Henrik Sep 9 '10 at 9:02
up vote 39 down vote

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/extrapolating.png

By the third trimester, there will be hundreds of babies inside you.

Also from XKCD

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up vote 31 down vote

And another one from xkcd.

Title: Self-Description

alt text

The mouseover text:

The contents of any one panel are dependent on the contents of every panel including itself. The graph of panel dependencies is complete and bidirectional, and each node has a loop. The mouseover text has two hundred and forty-two characters.

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up vote 23 down vote

More about design and power than analysis, but I like this one

alt text

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up vote 23 down vote

Allright, I think this one is hilarious- but let's see if it passes the Statistical Analysis Miller test.

Fermirotica

I love how Google handles dimensional analysis. Stats are ballpark and vary wildly by time of day and whether your mom is in town.

I love how Google handles dimensional analysis. Stats are ballpark and vary wildly by time of day and whether your mom is in town.

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Statistical voyeurism? And there we were wondering what to call the site... – walkytalky Jul 23 '10 at 15:48
up vote 22 down vote

Another one from xkcd:

Coconuts are so far down to the left they couldn't be fit on the chart. Ever spent half an hour trying to open a coconut with a rock? Down with coconuts.

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Bananas are always tasty. – Anonymous Type Dec 1 '10 at 4:00
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up vote 18 down vote

From xkcd:

You don't use science to show that you are right, you use science to become right.

If some people who really believe that everything should be scientifically tested would actually walk their talk than they this comic might even show an event that actually happens.

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up vote 17 down vote

From xkcd:

enter image description here This is data analysis in the form of a cartoon, and I find it particularly poignant.

The universe is probably littered with the one-planet graves of cultures which made the sensible economic decision that there's no good reason to go into space--each discovered, studied, and remembered by the ones who made the irrational decision.

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up vote 16 down vote

Nice. The importance of variance when thinking about a population.

enter image description here

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

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up vote 14 down vote

Here's a somewhat more technical one.

alt text

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up vote 14 down vote

A classic...

Never discuss multiple testing without it

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up vote 13 down vote

Here is a nice one (the inadequacy about average ratings)
http://xkcd.com/937/

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