(no subject)

[theweaselking]

Werner Heisenberg, Kurt Gödel, and Noam Chomsky walk into a bar.

Heisenberg says, "It's very odd and improbable that we three are in this bar together. It suggests to me that we're in a joke, but I can't be certain."

Gödel says, "Well, if we were outside the joke we would know, but since we're inside it, there's no way we can make that determination."

And Chomsky says, "Of course this is a joke, but you're telling it wrong!"
-Mike Ford

Comments

[coyotegoth.livejournal.com]

Mike Ford, yes?

[skwidly.livejournal.com]

I was gonna say, no credit to ML (http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/012199.html)?

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

I got it via IM without attribution. I've added a link!

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Googling: Looks like yes!

[panzerwalt.livejournal.com]

>_<

.

[almostwitty]

Obviously this joke seperates the intellectuals from the hoi polloi.

I'll be with the hoi polloi.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Would this be a bad time to point out that "the Hoi Polloi" is like saying "Automatic ATM Machine" or "Personal PIN Number"?

"Hoi" means "the".

[almostwitty]

but then writing "I'll be with hoi polloi" just *reads* wrong.

I'll be with the people watching Oprah and Jersey Shore. It's obviously where I belong. :(

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I have to agree, it really does sound wrong if you leave out "the"

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Also: The joke itself isn't *that* complicated. The only things you need to know are that Heisenberg is famous for the Uncertainty Principle (you don't even need to know what it is, beyond that it deals with probabilities and the physical impossibility of certainty), Godel is a logician who stressed the need for proofs and did a lot of work on proving whether or not a proof was possible, and Chomsky is a bit of an abrasive dick.

[almostwitty]

I knew that about Heisenberg (thank you Star Trek!) but the other two required a Wikipedia search.

Who needs to know anything when you have the Internet?

[dglenn.livejournal.com]

Works a bit better in the form, "I'll be with οι πολλοι". (Or, for that matter, leaving it in Roman characters but using italics to set off the foreign phrase, "I'll be with hoi polloi," or "I'll be with the polloi." (I'm not picky about which redundant 'the' you strike.))

[I can't quite get the rough breathing mark to show up in my browser ... sorry.]

[ambug666.livejournal.com]

Is this the same Mike Ford who was a member of Moxy Fruvous?

[interactiveleaf.livejournal.com]

Nope.