2013-05-28
Explanation
A younger man approaches an older professor to discuss the professor's extensive body of written work. He reveals that over the past 50 years, the professor has written 37 books, and the young man wrote a program that scanned all of them for usage of the words "clearly," "obviously," and "of course." He presents a graph showing that the professor's usage of these words has been climbing at an exponential rate over time.
The young man then extrapolates the trend, predicting that six books from now, the professor's writing will consist of nothing but self-righteous assertions with no basis in fact or in any theory created in the last 30 years. The professor asks "So, your question is..." and the young man finishes with "Is it great being an emeritus professor?" The professor confirms with a simple "Clearly."
The joke satirizes a well-known phenomenon in academia: as professors age and gain seniority (especially after achieving emeritus status), they sometimes become increasingly prone to making sweeping, unsupported assertions in their writing, relying on words like "clearly" and "obviously" as substitutes for actual evidence or rigorous argument. The professor's one-word answer of "Clearly" perfectly demonstrates the very trend being criticized.
The votey panel extends the joke with a graph showing "Humility" over "Time," where humility drops precipitously at the moment of receiving tenure, reinforcing the comic's theme that academic job security can lead to intellectual arrogance.