3262: Sports Commentary

Sports Commentary

|< < Prev #3262 (June 22, 2026)

Title text: The plural of anecdote may not be data, but the singular of data is anecdote.

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Explanation

This is one of 46 incomplete explanations: This page was created at a statistically insignificant time. Don't remove this notice too soon. If you can fix this issue, edit the page!

P-hacking is the academically problematic practice of attempting to come up with a question for which the data offers a significant p-value (probability value), as opposed to correct scientific analysis in which a question is formulated clearly and then answered with data. A common way of doing p-hacking is analyzing subgroups to attempt to find significance when the full dataset does not yield statistically significant results; for instance, restricting the analysis of medical data to male subjects to derive a significant p-value when including female subjects would make the p-value insignificant, when the scientific question is largely gender-independent. Sports commentators do a form of p-hacking in which they cite a fact that's made to sound more significant by restricting the situations it applies to. Randall satirizes this with an example in which the restriction uses very specific criteria largely irrelevant to gameplay patterns in order to narrow down the subgroup sample size to a measly two games. Obviously the 0-2 record reflects random noise much more than any significant insight.

This comic was published 11 days into the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Transcript

This is one of 28 incomplete transcripts: Don't remove this notice too soon. If you can fix this issue, edit the page!

[Cueball and Ponytail are sitting at a table. On the wall behind them is a screen showing a soccer field with some unreadable score information above it.]

Cueball: They could be in trouble. Over the last 36 years, they've gone 0 for 2 when they've scored in the 37th minute to lead 2-1 against a team whose country comes before theirs alphabetically.

[Caption below comic:]

I wish sports commentators hadn't discovered p-hacking.

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Discussion

F1rst p0st! I'll do this explanation. 185.36.194.22 04:32, 23 June 2026 (UTC)

Did this example actually happen? 47.151.65.120 04:33, 23 June 2026 (UTC)
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