diff --git a/datascience/tables.py b/datascience/tables.py
index 23b118e8..4a398d47 100644
--- a/datascience/tables.py
+++ b/datascience/tables.py
@@ -12,6 +12,8 @@
 import urllib.parse
 
 import numpy as np
+import matplotlib
+matplotlib.use('agg', warn=False)
 import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
 import pandas
 import IPython
diff --git a/datascience/util.py b/datascience/util.py
index f0d54da3..b0f6b5aa 100644
--- a/datascience/util.py
+++ b/datascience/util.py
@@ -5,6 +5,8 @@
 
 import numpy as np
 import pandas as pd
+import matplotlib
+matplotlib.use('agg', warn=False)
 import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
 from scipy import stats