Three statisticians approached St. Peter at the pearly gates to Heaven. St. Pete in a kind and gentle voice instructed them to give their name and state what they had contributed to mankind while on earth.
The first statistician stepped up confidently and said, "I am Karl Pearson and I developed the famous correlation coefficient at the start of the 20th century and it has been used by multitudes of researchers for almost 100 years."
St. Pete nodded and said, "Oh yes, that was a monumental contribution to statistics and the world. You may pass through."
The second statistician planted both feet firmly and said in a cocky fashion, "I am Sir Ronald Fisher and I founded the entire area of experimental design in the 1920's and multitudes of researchers have used these techniques for about 70 years."
St. Pete smiled broadly and said "That indeed was a landmark breakthrough in statistics and contributed to the betterment of mankind. You may also walk through the gates."
The third statistician hesitated but finally walked up slowly to St. Peter. He said timidly, "I am Joe Schmutz and I taught the Vice President who was a very reserved man several dance steps that he used in a well-known political TV commercial."
St. Pete with a puzzled look on his face stared at the man and said, "That is all well and good sir but it has absolutely nothing to do with statistics and I fail to see how your action has helped mankind."
The poor statistician thought for a second. He then quickly retorted, "But St. Peter.... These steps became the famous AL-GORE-RHYTHM that helped win the Presidential election in the year 2000!!....."
*I confess this is one of my originals. It is not intended to be a political joke.
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