The state of the union explained!


If you’ve been wondering how so many people can be voting for that orange bully with hair of crystallized urine, we finally have a surprising answer.

ROMER: David gets to work cooking up questions to give the polling company. The polling company does its job.

WILK: And it was the only question that we ever wrote where we ever got a response from them saying, is this actually what you want us to be polling? And we said, yes. And the question was – we were going to ask people, have you ever been decapitated?

SMITH: (Laughter). But…

WILK: They were sure we had made a mistake, and we had not.

SMITH: As far as David remembers, by the way, 4 percent of Americans answered that they had been decapitated.

ROMER: Seems high.

Have you looked at any of the polls? Seems low.

Comments

  1. dick says

    Decapitated? 4%? If Tchump becomes President, that might come to pass. (His idea of law & order, eh.)

  2. numerobis says

    I wonder what the split is between having a sense of humor, not giving a shit, and being confused.

  3. slithey tove (twas brillig (stevem)) says

    Pol Q:Have you ever be decapitated?
    A: (thinking decapitated means name spelled without capitalization) uh, YES.

    so, uh, 4% of the population polled, misconstrued the meaning of the word “decapitated”.
    or those who understood the word, knew it was obviously “no”, so decided to be sarcastic by throwing in a “yes” answer.
    That doesn;t work for the number of people voting for Drumph. Too many for sarcasm to account for all of it.

  4. says

    numerobis@#3:
    I wonder what the split is between having a sense of humor, not giving a shit, and being confused

    Yeah, that’s a really badly designed poll. I did a poll once asking how many people understand self-selected samples and sampling bias. Virtually nobody answered it at all, which led me to conclude the people reading the poll were all statisticians.

  5. Sili says

    I recall a comedy show having great success collecting signatures for the repeal of universal suffrage.

    It’s easy to make people feel too embarrassed to ask for clarification.

  6. says

    Actually, wording your questions as clearly and easy to understand as possible is one of the main criteria for a good poll.
    Because we teach people that asking for clarification is BAD. We shame kids for it and make them feel stupid.
    You can get any amount of stupid answers by intentionally confusing participants*. You can get the same amount of stupid answers by being incompetent yourself.

    *Which can be fun pranks, if and when you make clear that the joke is on you.

  7. Zeppelin says

    Giliell, 12:

    “Because we teach people that asking for clarification is BAD. We shame kids for it and make them feel stupid.”

    Which in my (severely limited and biased) experience produces adult Americans who will take great offense at any attempt to teach them anything or correct their misconceptions. Since that would imply that they don’t know everything there is to know already.

  8. says

    “Because we teach people that asking for clarification is BAD. We shame kids for it and make them feel stupid.”

    And, in my experience, Certainty and Confidence™ in your answer is valued more highly than being actually accurate or correct.
     

     

    @rietpluim
    I think you broke my brain for the day.

  9. Brother Ogvorbis, Fully Defenestrated Emperor of Steam, Fire and Absurdity says

    My father decapitated me once. Once.

    Earlier this year, I got a phone poll. One of the questions was, “Would you feel more comfortable with a respected business professional, a man who has created a multi-billion dollar business empire running the United States? Or a girl who has spent her entire life being coddled by the government and, despite many crimes, protected from any consequences?” When I laughed, the pollster sounded apologetic and repeated the question. I said I would vote for the professional, not the con artist. I have no idea how my poll answer was recorded but, from the way the poll was worded, I don’t think the answers really mattered.

  10. says

    YOB

    And, in my experience, Certainty and Confidence™ in your answer is valued more highly than being actually accurate or correct.

    I just read an article (in German) about why there are so many incompetent men running things while competent women get stuck and an Argentinian sociologist said that part of it is because people confuse confidence with competence and since men are more likely to be full of themselves they get the jobs. It also describes Trump to a T

  11. The Evil Twin says

    I keep saying “I’d forget my head if it wasn’t attached.” Wonder how often I’d really leave it behind if it wasn’t.

  12. says

    @Giliell #19
    It is a long known fact that overconfident but uncompetent people tend to accumulate at the top -click-. And because the top is fo societal reasons occupied mostly by (incompetent but confident) men, they tend to allow mostly other men into their club.

    I have met incompetent managers of both sexes, though men lead ~10:1. I am at a point in my life when “you manager” is in my mind the worst insult I can throw in someones face.

  13. unclefrogy says

    @18 that is another example of a marketing call masquerading as a poll to get past the do not call lists and regulations, such as they are. I have not noticed any significant reduction in boiler room calls or unsolicited sales calls in years
    uncle frogy

  14. Beatrice, an amateur cynic looking for a happy thought says

    So some people don’t know what “decapitated” means…. LOL?

    OK, it’s funny at the first glace, but we’re really laughing at someone for not being educated.
    I don’t get it.

    Uneducated stupid evil

  15. Beatrice, an amateur cynic looking for a happy thought says

    Oh, sorry. I didn’t try preview to check whether my unequal sign would show. Let’s try this:
    Uneducated != stupid != evil

  16. Azkyroth, B*Cos[F(u)]==Y says

    Uneducated != stupid != evil

    In a general sense, yes.

    How does that apply here though?

  17. ck, the Irate Lump says

    Beatrice, an amateur cynic looking for a happy thought wrote:

    OK, it’s funny at the first glace, but we’re really laughing at someone for not being educated.

    It’s still potentially useful. They may not know what the word means but chose to act like they do, or may have intentionally answered wrong just to skew the results. It may mean that at least 4 percent of respondents to the survey are not really providing useful responses, and it’s certainly applicable to surveys other than this one..

  18. Beatrice, an amateur cynic looking for a happy thought says

    Azkyroth,

    maybe I misunderstood the point, but wasn’t the point that if there are people stupid enough to declare they have been decapitated, there is enough stupid people to vote for Trump?
    The other possible point, about polls being meaningless, doesn’t really hold because there isn’t some small minority supporting Trump. He’s pretty popular.
    What am I missing?

  19. =8)-DX says

    If I got a poll asking if I’d ever been decapitated, I’d automatically check yes =). How could you not?