Title text:
The plural of anecdote may not be data, but the singular of data is anecdote.
Transcript:
Transcript will show once it’s been added to explainxkcd.com
Source: https://xkcd.com/3262/
this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2026
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Cricket stats are getting so stupidly specific it has become a meme can this point.
It basically boils down to something like "Most runs scored by an Indian batsman on a Tuesday while batting first in overcast conditions.
Reminds me of that show Air Crash Investigations, you might know it as Mayday.
They did the episode on the collision of two 747s on Tenerife fairly early in the show's run, so they'd shot the "worst aviation accident in history" wad. And yet the format demanded they quantify the subject's exact place in history. So they start going "It was the worst aviation accident involving an American-manufactured plane flown by a non-American crew in American airspace to occur on a summer Tuesday."
Wait Tenerife is not in american airspace.
Correct.
The episode on Tenerife proclaimed it to be "The worst aviation accident in history."
Later episodes of the show about different, unrelated accidents had to start undershooting that mark, like "The worst aviation accident in American history" or "The worst aviation accident in Swiss history" until they start talking about a rough landing in a Beech 1900 where everyone got hangnails and it's "The worst aviation accident at an uncontrolled field to take place during the daytime over a federal holiday weekend involving one twin-engine propeller plane."
Oh I see. I misunderstood the comment slightly. I thought you meant that they referred to the Tenerife incident with the whole long title.
And I see why, I could have phrased it more clearly.