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Nine Out of Ten Doctors Agree: Difference between revisions
Updated Doctor Who refnote, copyedits
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{{trope}}
[[File:dentists 1674.jpg|frame]]
{{quote|''"Four out of five doctors prefer Camels. The fifth prefers women."''}}
Stock phrase in commercials for non-prescription products with some purported health benefit—especially items which are not actually health care items, such as sugar-free gum.
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For the classic disassembly of these sort of statistics, may we recommend Darrell Huff's ''How to Lie with Statistics''? The 1950s were a lot less naive than you might assume. And indeed, this is a subtrope of [[Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics]].
This trope has nothing to do with [[Doctor Dolittle]], [[Doctor Doom]], [[Doctor Faustus]], [[
{{examples}}
* The original instance of this phrase comes from Trident gum, where "four out of five dentists recommended sugarless gum for their patients who chew gum". They didn't add the qualifier "if their patients ''insisted'' on chewing gum", nor did they tell you that [https://web.archive.org/web/20090106074345/http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_174a.html the fifth dentist recommended that his patients not chew gum at all].
** Years later, Trident would parody this device by having four out of five dentists endorse the gum, with the fifth accidentally denouncing it (being knocked unconscious and landing his face on the "NO" button, [[Squirrels in My Pants|having a squirrel crawl up his leg]] and [[Groin Attack|bite him in the groin]], causing him to yell [[Big No|"Nooooooo!"]] etc.).
** This was parodied on an early episode of ''[[Friends]]'' - someone enters and says "Guess what!" and Chandler immediately quips, "The fifth dentist caved, and now they're all recommending Trident?"
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* Played with [http://chromagic.blogspot.com/2010/12/batrollin-for-your-pleasure.html here]: "Ten out of nine experts recommend it."
* Parodied by [[David Letterman]] on his talk show, when he claimed that "3 out of 4 Americans make up 75% of the population."
* [
* Parodied when ''[[The Goodies]]'' go into the advertising business in "It Might As Well Be String".
{{quote|'''Tim:''' Look at this! Nine out of every ten doctors agree that people who don't eat Sunbeam sliced bread will get squashed by elephants!
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** Another version: "9 out of 10 doctors agree: [[Tom Baker|Four]]'s scarf is too long."
* Colin Mochrie on ''[[Whose Line Is It Anyway?]]?'':
{{quote|"[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v{{=}}oCdkV8MOcDQ Nine out of ten Americans agree that out of ten Americans, one will disagree with the other nine!]"
** Or how about: "Nine out ten doctors agree the tenth one should really chill out."
* On February 15, 2008, a news anchor on ''[[Royal Canadian Air Farce]]'' said, "A survey shows 51% of Canadians believe there is such a thing as love at first sight. The other 49% are men."
* A strip of ''[[9 Chickweed Lane]]'' showed a group of white-coated figures walking away from another whom they'd apparently just hanged (only his legs are shown, dangling from the top of the panel), and an onlooker remarking, "Nine out of ten doctors agreed."
* A humorous variant in ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'':
{{quote|'''Tupari Drinks Machine:''' "Four out of five Tupari drinkers recommend Tupari to their friends. The last one is on my list!"}}
* Played for laughs in ''[[Assassin's Creed:
*
* The joke "9 out of 10 people enjoy gang rape". No prizes for guessing who the 10th person is.
* There are [[Fauxtivational Poster|demotivators]] with "Five out of six people agree: [[Russian Roulette]] is completely safe".
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[[Category:Advertising Tropes]]
[[Category:Nine Out Of Ten Doctors Agree]]
[[Category:Examples Need Sorting]]
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