# What is your favorite "data analysis" cartoon?

Data analysis cartoons can be useful for many reasons: they help communicate; they show that quantitative people have a sense of humor too; they can instigate good teaching moments; and they can help us remember important principles and lessons.

This is one of my favorites:

As a service to those who value this kind of resource, please share your favorite data analysis cartoon. They probably don't need any explanation (if they do, they're probably not good cartoons!) As always, one entry per answer. (This is in the vein of the Stack Overflow question What’s your favorite “programmer” cartoon?.)

• @sharpie: are jokes out? We obviously don't want the entire site to be humor, but everyone benefits from a little educational humor in small doses. Jul 22 '10 at 5:15
• @Sharpie, feel free to close or reopen according to your feelings! I agree with Shane, a bit is ok, but not too much. For example, this question already included a funny cartoon. The jokes question not really a funny joke.... Jul 22 '10 at 13:58
• 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. Jul 22 '10 at 14:22
• According to the tour, this question should be closed, since it is a question that has "too many possible answers" and since it is "primarily opinion-based". I'm not complaining, just surprised it has stayed open for this long. Dec 9 '14 at 10:29
• Data Science analogy to cartoon in OP. Data Scientist: I went to data science bootcamp and learned how to find correlations in big data. Those insights can be converted into big money. Statistician: But many of those correlations are spurious. Correlation does not imply causation. Data Scientist: Don't give me none of that century old statistics mumbo-jumbo. This is big data. That means the data has everything. So by definition, all relationships in the data are correct. I ring the cash register while you snooze and lose, grandpa. Dec 19 '15 at 22:42

My favorite is Sidney Harris he has many great cartoons

This one might be useful when introducing the concept of experimental and control groups.

Life...

"Hearing something a hundred times isn't better than seeing it once"

"Curve-Fitting Methods and the Messages They Send" by xkcd: https://xkcd.com/2048/

My favorite was created by Emanuel Parzen, appearing in IMA preprint 663, but this illustrates my degenerate sense of humor.

Gorbachev says to Bush: "that's a very nice golfcart, Mr. President. Can it change how statistics is practiced?" etc. hahahah.

Note: this is from SMBC (Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal) by Zach Weiner.

Correlation does not imply causation!

A new one from XKCD, suggesting a preference for a particular plot type:

https://xkcd.com/1967/

hover text: Strictly speaking, 'violin' refers to the internal structure of the data. The external portion visible in the plot is called the 'viola.'

Statisticians aren't easily cowed.

• Shouldn't it be x-variable? Mar 25 '12 at 14:34

More of a math cartoon than a data analysis cartoon, but also one that makes you think a bit.

Source: http://www.gocomics.com/andertoons/2014/06/15#.U54J7iigS8A by Mark Anderson, June 15, 2014.

Overfitting -explanation in a picture (original cartoon)

• Giving a source would be good practice. Pity about the typo (split infinitives are acceptable to me). Nov 18 '15 at 12:31
• I created the cartoon. Got that result, found it amazing and added the text. What is the typo? How would you phrase the titles?
– DaL
Nov 18 '15 at 12:39
• Fine; so you are fully entitled to claim "(original cartoon)". You fixed the typo I saw (allways for always). Nov 18 '15 at 12:54

Gahan Wilson died this week; having presented many a confusing graph myself, I can relate to this:

[New Year] : http://robertgrantstats.co.uk/drawmydata.html

True if $P=NP$

True if $P \ne NP$

This is great one about solving NP-complete problems. They come up a lot on the job, like efficient scheduling or how to select the optimal configuration among a number of various options for which you have to search through them all to find the best one.

Think about it anytime you need to cop out of something difficult at work!

Loose Parts by Dave Blazek 1/10/2018

The cartoon can actually be found here https://thejenkinscomic.wordpress.com/