The fear of elementary statistics among an oft-innumerate public has often provided fertile ideas for artists and humorists to "abuse" and "misuse" the art and science of representing data meaningfully and creatively.
Among my favorite statistical diagrams are the ones featured by Demetri Martin, a lawyer-turned-comedian, who was a writer with Late Night with Conan O'Brien and a performer on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
If only some mathematicians or math educators suffering from mid-life crisis would switch careers to focus on hilarity instead of mere applied numeracy, they could help reduce the trauma and pain experienced by thousands of [sadistic?] statistics students every year, by humanizing a much-disliked mathematical topic in school.
Below are a sample of the creative use of statistical diagrams to convey both useful and useless information.
In [Creative] Statistics we mistrust! Thou shalt abuse or misuse statistics to tell white lies!
Humorously and Statistically yours
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| A classic in pop math literature |
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| © Demetri Martin |
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| © Demetri Martin |
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| © Demetri Martin |
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| © Richard Benson |
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| © Richard Benson |
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| © Richard Benson |
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| © Richard Benson |
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| © Demetri Martin |
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| © Demetri Martin |
In [Creative] Statistics we mistrust! Thou shalt abuse or misuse statistics to tell white lies!
Humorously and Statistically yours
References
Benson, R. (2012). F in Retakes. West Sussex, UK: Summerdale Publishers Ltd.
Martin, D. (2013). Point your face at this. Penguin Books.
Martin, D. (2011). This is a book by Demetri Martin. New York: Grand Central Publishing.
© Yan Kow Cheong, April 29, 2014.
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