2011-11-23
Explanation
This comic contrasts how a normal person and a statistician react to the same tragic news report. In the top panel, labeled "Normal Person," a TV newscaster announces: "Estimates suggest 428,620 people have perished." The viewer reacts with genuine horror: "Oh my God, WHAT? So horrible..." In the bottom panel, labeled "Statistician," the same news report plays, but the statistician'''s reaction is entirely different: "Oh my God, WHAT? There'''s NO WAY they know that many significant digits!"
The joke is that the statistician is not horrified by the death toll itself but by the false precision of the reported number. A real estimate of casualties in a disaster would never be accurate down to the ones digit -- a responsible report might say "approximately 430,000" or "over 400,000." The number 428,620 implies a level of measurement precision that would be impossible in a chaotic disaster scenario. The statistician'''s moral outrage is directed entirely at the methodological error rather than the human tragedy, a classic example of SMBC'''s humor about how specialized expertise can warp your priorities.
The votey panel shows a person sighing "Heartbreaking..." which works as an ambiguous punchline. It could refer to the tragedy itself, or -- more likely given the setup -- to the statistician'''s heartbreak over the abuse of significant figures. The deadpan delivery leaves it to the reader to decide which interpretation is funnier.