2011-12-04
Explanation
This comic imagines what would happen if lottery tickets came with warning labels similar to those on cigarette packages. The caption reads, "We already put warning labels on cigarettes. Why not lottery tickets too?" The lottery ticket displays a "Mathematician General's Warning" (a play on the Surgeon General's Warning found on tobacco products) stating: "The expected value of this piece of paper is -$2.18. Side effects may include losing $2.18."
The joke works on multiple levels. It highlights that from a pure probability standpoint, buying a lottery ticket is a guaranteed losing proposition on average -- you are statistically paying for the privilege of losing money. The "Mathematician General" is a funny concept in itself, suggesting a government official whose job is to warn the public about bad math. The deadpan repetition of "$2.18" in both the warning and the side effects emphasizes just how straightforwardly bad the deal is, stripped of all the exciting marketing that normally surrounds lottery tickets.