Explain SMBC — the wiki for Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

The Joke

In the first panel, a man says: "I don't see what the big deal is on using 'they' as a singular pronoun." A woman responds in the second panel: "Language changes. Even pronouns have changed drastically in the last several centuries."

The man continues in the third panel: "Shakespeare used the singular they! Chaucer did too!" The woman agrees in the fourth panel: "Yeah, I guess the data is pretty clear on that." In the final panel, a third person -- appearing angry and wearing an orange shirt -- interjects: "It's 'the data ARE,' you garbage."

The comic sets up what appears to be a debate about singular "they" as a gender-neutral pronoun, with both characters reaching a reasonable consensus. But the punchline pivots to an entirely different grammar debate: whether "data" is singular or plural. The angry interjector does not care about the pronoun discussion at all -- they are furious about the use of "data is" instead of "data are."

The Humor

The joke operates on a bait-and-switch. The reader expects a heated argument about gender-neutral language, which is a contentious cultural topic. Instead, both characters agree amicably, and the conflict comes from a completely different and far more pedantic grammatical issue. The person who erupts in rage is not upset about progressive language change -- they are a grammar purist who insists "data" is a Latin plural noun requiring a plural verb. The disproportionate fury ("you garbage") over such a minor point, contrasted with the calm resolution of the supposedly bigger debate, is the core of the humor. It also subtly points out that people who claim to care about "proper grammar" often fixate on arbitrary rules while ignoring the much larger and more well-documented patterns of linguistic evolution.

References

The comic references the longstanding English usage of singular "they," which dates back to Geoffrey Chaucer (14th century) and William Shakespeare (16th-17th century). The "data is/are" debate stems from the fact that "data" is technically the Latin plural of "datum," leading prescriptive grammarians to insist on "data are," while common modern usage treats "data" as a mass noun taking a singular verb.