History Main / DisturbingStatistic

* ''VideoGame/Splatoon2'': Agent 8 is the 10,008th person to attempt the trials of the underground testing facility. [[spoiler:It eventually turns out that before them, all the 10,007 people who failed either were killed during the trials or blended up to supply the ammunition for Commander Tartar's WaveMotionGun.]]

-->-- ''Webcomic/DriveDaveKellet''

%%* ''Webcomic/DriveDaveKellet'': The page quote comes from a conversation concerning the fact that there is no protection against random debris in space while using the Drive technology.

This trope is when a character mentions a statistic that may have been better off unmentioned. Maybe someone mentioned that they're the [[NumberOfTheBeast 666th]] person to attempt this task, and nobody else succeeded. Perhaps they just heard how many people die in a certain impoverished country every hour. Or perhaps they heard exactly [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking how many liters of other people's farts]] [[{{squick}} we inhale every day.]]

Please be tactful when posting RealLife examples, and ask yourself whether or not they are too [[{{Squick}} squicky]] to add here.

** Of course this is also something of a CriticalResearchFailure. This put herd losses at a very low 0.3% (the numbers are generally considerably higher), and the statistic being used is just the total number of reported missing persons cases, totally ignoring that the vast majority of such cases are resolved quite quickly.

** Han's chances of navigating the asteroid field without being destroyed are 6,720 to 1. He immediately retorts to [[NeverTellMeTheOdds never tell him the odds]].

* ''Film/BridgetJonesDiary'': When Bridget is surrounded by lots of "smug married" couples mocking her singledom, she says "is it one in four marriages which ends in divorce now, or one in three?".

-->-- ''{{Webcomic/Drive}}''

%%* ''{{Webcomic/Drive}}'': The page quote comes from a conversation concerning the fact that there is no protection against random debris in space while using the Drive technology.

* ''{{Webcomic/Drive}}'': The page quote comes from a conversation concerning the fact that there is no protection against random debris in space while using the Drive technology.
* ''{{Webcomic/Subnormality}}'': There was a game show called "Not Worth It" which used this trope in its quiz questions.

This trope is when a character mentions a statistic that may have been better off unmentioned. Maybe someone mentioned that they're the [[NumberOfTheBeast 666th]] person to attempt this task, and nobody else succeeded. Perhaps they just heard how many people die in a certain impoverished country every hour. Or perhaps they heard exactly [[{{Squick}} how many liters of other people's farts we inhale every day.]]

** Of course this is also something of a CriticalResearchFailure, as this put herd losses at a very low 0.3% (the numbers are likely somewhere closer in the low single digit percentages), and it ignores the fact that the overwhelming majority of missing persons cases involve the person being found safely.

* ''{{Literature/Discworld}}'': In ''Discworld/GoingPostal'', [[{{Golem}} Mr. Pump]] tells Moist von Lipwig that he's added up all the damage he's done to people's lives with his cons, and statistically, Moist has killed [[LudicrousPrecision 2.338]] people.

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* ''{{Videogame/Portal}}'':

** ''Videogame/Portal2'':

* ''{{Videogame/Suspended}}'': The game keeps track of how many people have been killed by the malfunctioning systems the player is trying to repair.

* The Shi Emperor in ''Videogame/Fallout2'' notes that the player only has a 15% chance of succeeding.

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** ''Parasuchus''[[labelnote:**]]Misspelled as "'''B'''arasuchus"[[/labelnote]]: '''89'''.[[note]]This, incidentally, is a crocodile-like aquatic predator, and thus ''Velociraptor'' should have been far out of its element.[[/note]]

** ''Dimorphodon''': '''71'''.
** ''Triceratops''': '''52'''.
** ''Stegosaurus''': '''24'''.
** Humans: 23.[[note]]Presumably [=InGen=] hunters… and this is '''before''' things went south for them after the playable T-rex's rampage later on.[[/note]]

** ''Brachiosaurus''[[labelnote:**]]Misspelled as "Brachiosaur".[[/labelnote]]: '''9'''.
** ''Tyrannosaurus rex''[[labelnote:**]]Abbreviated to "T-rex".[[/labelnote]]: '''2'''.
** ''Mollysaurus[[labelnote:**]]A made-up name, presumably one of the many easter eggs in this game.[[/labelnote]]: '''1'''.

* ''Series/{{Merlin}}'': While discussing a tournament Arthur is about to compete in, Merlin keeps talking about how many people died the last time, just on the first day. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwU0b5S8E4U See it here]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Demmo}}'': 121.518549 and 25.040854, seemingly random numbers [[spoiler:found within Deemo's castle by the girl]], is horrifying if you discover that it's the coordinates for a place of possible death and pain, [[spoiler:the National Taiwan University Hospital]]. Considering the game's calm yet eerie atmosphere, this spawns many EpilepticTrees.

-->'''River:''' [[AsymmetricDilemma We'll freeze to death first.]]
--> [''Book stops smiling'']

** ''{{Videogame/Portal 2}}'':

* The Shi Emperor in ''{{Videogame/Fallout 2}}'' notes that the player only has a 15% chance of succeeding.

'''Skitter''': [''slow clap''] Wonderful. Awesome. Let's all thank Fernando for clearin' up the math, there.

* The unflappable nature of Marko Ramius, captain of the ''[[TheHuntForRedOctober Red October]]'', is conveyed when he calmly estimates the odds of their plan at defecting to the United States at 1 chance in 3. [[TheSnackIsMoreInteresting He then offers the horrified officers more tea.]]

* ''VideoGame/AlphaProtocol'' keeps track of how many people you've knocked out and killed without actually tracking the number. Knocked out people are tracked by medical costs, while killed people are tracked by [[WhatTheHellHero how many orphans you've created]]. [[TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything Killing people in poorer countries creates more orphans, while knocking out people in richer countries creates bigger medical bills.]]

* ''{{Foxtrot}}'': Andy tells Roger one in order to keep him up all night, thereby keeping him from snoring.

* ''MetalGearSolid3'': Interesting example; many games keep track of how many enemies you've killed. When you face [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast The Sorrow]], however, you actually face them. Every one. And they still have the injuries you inflicted upon them, too.

-->'''[=GLaDOS=]''': The device is now more valuable than the organs and combined incomes of everyone in [[/folder]]

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