Subtle Math & Language Humor

[on:]

SUBTLE MATH & LANGUAGE HUMOR

"Mom's Old Fashioned Robot Oil -- It's made with 10% more love than the next leading brand."

How much love do you suppose the next leading brand is made with?  None at all.  10% of nothing is still nothing.  Therefore, Mom's oil is made with exactly the same amount as the next leading brand.  Neither one is made with any love.  Yet it is not false advertising.  It is technically an accurate statement due to this paradoxical property of zero.  See what a crafty businesswoman she is? 

"Amy: This thing can't go faster than 80,000 miles an hour?  Fry: No, it can't." 

In point of fact, the Volkswagon did not even go faster than 80 miles per hour.  Nonetheles, his answer is still true.  If it won't go faster than 80 mph then by definition it also won't go faster than any number higher than that.   

"maneating anteaters"

In the English language you can say that any animal is a maneater if it eats people.  Maneating tiger.  Maneating shark.  Maneating wolves.  Whatever.  It just sounds ridiculous when the name of the animal indicates that it eats something else instead.  It is an oxymoron that is not an oxymoron.  Another paradox.  Also, I don't think anteaters have any teeth in their mouths, which would indicate that the Professor was effectively licked to death in "Anthology of Interest I." 

"I love symposia."

This is one of several instances of pedantically hypercorrect diction in Futurama.  It seems to be a minor recurring theme.  I think it's appreciated most by the pseudo-intellectuals who know they're the ones being skewered by that gag.  This is because they are probably the only ones who actually get it.

[Reply #1 on:]

Chanukah Zombie, you level up this discussion forum. Keep up the good work!

Btw, what is a Chanukah Zombie?

[Reply #2 on:]

Its the Jewish version of Robot Santa Claus, I guess. The monster than torments people during Chanukah.

[Reply #3 on:]

I think your looking to deeply into some things. I read/heard somewere "The cast of Futurama is the dumbest I have ever worked with" so I don't think they intended to to look this deeply into it.

[Reply #4 on:]

actually carb its exactly the opposite, the writers and such of futurama are one of the most over educated staff in "the biz".

2 of them have degrees in advanced mathematics and physcology and stuff, they say themselves its probably a record on the DVD commentaries, ask teral for an exact quote. 

[Reply #5 on:]

I got the quote:

CGEF: What's unique to working on Futurama compared to other animated shows you worked on like The Simpsons and The Critic?

Ken: The type of stories we could do, which was an obvious consequence of the extremely unusual setting. Also, The Simpsons and The Critic had very very intelligent, very very well-educated staffs, but even they would concede, I think, that the Futurama staff was the most overeducated group of men and women ever assembled to write a cartoon (or any TV comedy, I expect).

Thats from the CGEF interview with Ken Keeler
 http://www.gotfuturama.com/Information/Articles/Ken_Keeler_Interview.dhtml

[Reply #6 on:]

wow u proved yourself wrong! that must be a PEEL first
 
J/K ing

[Reply #7 on:]

"I am so smart, I am so smart, S-M-R-T I mean S-M-A-R-T" - Homer Simpson, The Simpsons

...I thought it was uneducated...not overeducated

[Reply #8 on:]

I've said this elsewhere, but I think in fits in here as well

 

Originally posted by Gocad:
Keep in mind, the writers of the show do suffer from overeducation...and can't hide this.   

Only I may quote myself!
 

[Reply #9 on:]

If they have all these qualifications then why the hell are they working on a cartoon?

[Reply #10 on:]

Maybe they are the opposite kind of losers...

[Reply #11 on:]

Maybe they are strong believers in doing what u enjoy?

[Reply #12 on:]

 

Originally posted by Grim:
Maybe they are strong believers in doing what u enjoy?

Yeah, sure...
 

[Reply #13 on:]

I hardly think the word "symposia" is subtle.... especially the way it was said in the show... LOL
Nevertheless, this is a great post - more examples!!

[Reply #14 on:]

Nice, i think it is all true

[Reply #15 on:]

Hm, this isn't actually mentioned on the show itself, but is still relevant:

Show spoiler

Throughout the show, the word "Underpants" is frequently used, over any other term you would care to give them. In the DVD commentaries, the crew frequently refer to this being a policy of Ken Keeler's, that the word Underpants is 20% funnier than the word Underwear.

Susie Dietter: But what about Panties? How funny are panties?
Matt Groening: Panties are not funny. Panties are AROUSING.

Hehehe.

[Reply #16 on:]

In one of the episodes where the crew goes to a science convention. Farnsworth yells "No fair! You changed the results by looking at them."

This is a joke about Quantum Physics(I think it's the heisenberg uncertainty principle). I really like that one.

[Reply #17 on:]

Farnsworth: "No fair. You changed the outcome by measuring it."

That was at the horse race in the "Luck of the Fryish"
But I think your point remains valid.

[Reply #18 on:]

 

Originally posted by AJ:
LOL Nevertheless, this is a great post - more examples!!

Okay, here are two more:

1) Professor Farnsworth's "What If?" machine is based on the Marvel Comics series of the same name that was popular back in the eighties.  It was especially well-liked among the brainier crowd in comics collecting because it was "speculative fiction stories about sepculative fiction stories" and because there were no limits to what the authors could write because it did not take place in the established continuum of Marvel Comics.  Consequently, the writers destroyed the universe several times in that series.  One time in particular comes to mind.  I forget which one exactly.  It was either "What If Phoenix Had Lived?" or "What If Korvac Had Not Died?"  At any rate, in the final panels of the story, a handful of survivors from the obliterated Marvel Universe are seen floating in a blank, white void.  I'll never forget the day I read that one.  I must have been about ten years old and sitting in the Arthur Treacher's Fish & Chips restaurant, excitedly taking the book from its bag.  As a little kid I was so shocked that they would end a story that way and I wondered what those few survivors would do to occupy themselves over the rest of eternity.  It really left an impression on me for some reason.  I guess I wasn't the only one.  This is the same image that was taken and transplanted verbatim directly to the final scene of "What If Fry Had Not Come To The Future?" in "Anthology of Interest I," which also answered my long-standing question of what the best way is to while away the rest of infinity in a featureles void.  Some people's definition of Heaven is a neverending game of Dungeons & Dragons with Gary Gygax as the Dungeon Master.  Judging by that and other homages, such as the Beholder in the bowels of the Central Beauracracy and the Rust Monster at the veterinarian's offcie, I would say that someone else's childhood was also made much happier by that most extraordinary and thought-provoking game.  Basically, Gore has my vote in the next election just for sitting down in front of that DM's Screen.

2) It should be fairly well-known by now that Kristin Gore, US Vice President Al Gore's daughter, is a writer for Futurama.  I would expect she probably contributed material to all the episodes guest-starring her father.  At least it would explain to a large extent the special connection between Al Gore and Futurama.  For all those who question the education of Futurama writers, Kristin Gore was at the time a 22-year-old Harvard graduate.  Check any reputable search engine for more info.


Come to think of it, neither of these examples really have anything to with subtlety, math, language or humor.  Ehhhh... who cares?  Einstein proved that all things are relative. 

Oh, wait a minute, I did think of one that fits into the topic header:


3) In that same episode, you'll notice that the writers made certain Al Gore would be knocked unconscious before the attempted murder of Fry.  Wonder why?  The Vice President cannot allow himself to be shown as party to a felony -- even in fiction.  Doubtless he had his campaign advisors approve the script and screen it for acceptable content before he would perform it.  I never used to feel strongly about him one way or the other.  Now I love him.  At the same time, I have developed an intense dislike for hanging chads.  Good move on his part to show how cool he can be given the opportunity.  He was once called "stiff" here in America but that's happening less and less lately.

[Reply #19 on:]

Okay, here are four more:

1) In "Less Than Hero" a woman is seen feeding the rats in the park (possibly Central Park).  This apparently alludes to two New York phenomena.  There are some people here who feed the pigeons and some others who are disgusted by them.  The latter group always tries to discourage the former with such refrains as, "Don't feed them!  They're just rats with wings!"  There are also some people here who like to feed the squirrels and others who are disgusted by it.  The latter group always tries to discourage the former with refrains like, "Don't feed them!  They're just rats with bushy tails!"  I guess there must be at least one person on the Futurama writing staff who belongs to the latter groups mentioned and that's what they were trying to show. 

2) In "Where the Buggalo Roam," Zoidberg tells Leo Wong that he took the liberty of "fertilizing" his caviar.  Watch and listen closely to Leo Wong right after he hears that.  He continues chewing the caviar a few more times, very discreetly, indicating that he actually likes the taste of Zoidberg's... uuhhh... well... his... semen.

3) The whole "Amazon Women In The Mood" thing seems to be a parody of John Norman's Gor novels.  Gor was a series of books, about two dozen, popular in the eighties, technically categorized as science fiction, about a world where women were sexually enslaved to men.  This seems to be a satire of that.  If you read the books you might recognize some parallels between the characters and situations found in each of these two stories. 

4) I haven't really been keeping track, but I think the folks at DC Comics finally got the message that Aquaman's powers are lame, as alluded to in "Less Than Hero." The "ability to command the loyalty of sea creatures" just doesn't cut it for today's superhero on the move.  Now they've made him into some kind of water elemental or something.  Whatever it is, it's got to be a vast improvement over being a gussied-up fish trainer.  Come along, Cinnamon! I hope MG had some role in showing DC the folly of their ways.  There's some guy on the internet who has an all-Aquaman fansite.  What a nerd!  Let's all make fun of him!  He's not cool like us Futurama fans. 


Again, not really mathematical or linguistic -- but fairly subtle.  I think there's some room here to be flexible. 

[Reply #20 on:]

 

Originally posted by Carbito:
"I am so smart, I am so smart, S-M-R-T I mean S-M-A-R-T" - Homer Simpson, The Simpsons

You know, I went to a "smart camp" a few years ago. The people I met there, including me, have the least common sense of any people I have ever met. Every time one of us did something stupid, one of the girls would say, "S-M-R-T!!" Yes, that's precisely what overeducated people are.

[Reply #21 on:]

Anti-education prejudice is due to fear and insecurity. I am extremely educated and I have great common sense. To prove the first, let me tell you that "symposia" is the third declension neuter accusative plural of the Latin transliteration/translation of the Greek word sumposion (this is a rough transliteration of the Greek characters, which I can't reproduce here). To prove the second, listen to the great way I came up with to wash my clothes: my washing-machine broke down, so I simply smeared peanut butter all over them and got my dog to lick them clean! How much more common sense could you have? 

[Reply #22 on:]

 

You know, I went to a "smart camp" a few years ago. The people I met there, including me, have the least common sense of any people I have ever met. Every time one of us did something stupid, one of the girls would say, "S-M-R-T!!" Yes, that's precisely what overeducated people are.

Being smart =/= being mature. That's the same experience I got when going to an advanced school.

[Reply #23 on:]

In that light,  being smart =/= being intelligent, but being intelligent = mature, from what Ive experienced.
To validate my post, althought Its not a very good example, heres my submission. In "A Fishfull of Dollars" Fry's apartment has a 20th century TV, which leads to the conversation about Amy's tattoo which couldent have been seen on a 20th century tv. The tattoo is blurry because its being shown on a 20th century tv! I know its an obvious one, but ive been busy. -Tom

[Reply #24 on:]

Oh, yeah, I remembered this
Farnsworth- . . dark matter, each pound of which weighs over ten thousand pounds!

[Reply #25 on:]

Another geek reference. .
The Professor was named after Philo T. Farnsworth, the father of Television and Fusion researcher. Check out Fusor.net if you want to know more.  -Tom

Edit- The professor has mentioned "Gravitons" a few times (RTEW is the only one I can remember) and as it so happens, gravitons do in fact exist. In theory, at least. Particle theorists think that gravitons are the particles that OTHER particles use to interact via gravity. Kind of like how two tennis players interact using a tennis ball.

[Reply #26 on:]

They do a great job a mixing physics properties with humor, gravatron and gravioles, the fact that nibbler poops dark matter,there are probably lots more combos like this, but I an in Computer Architecture right now and my brain is shot.

[Reply #27 on:]

One of my favorite lines is, "That's so plausible, I can't believe it!"  I think this qualifies.

Also I'm sure someone's picked up on the Loews Aleph-null-plex before.

South American Turkish prison is a good one too.

[Reply #28 on:]

 

Originally posted by reverend:
To prove the first, let me tell you that "symposia" is the third declension neuter accusative plural of the Latin transliteration/translation of the Greek word sumposion (this is a rough transliteration of the Greek characters, which I can't reproduce here).

Why do you say accusative and not simply nominative? The nominative is also "symposia", right?