2014-04-09
Explanation
The Joke
A bald, bespectacled man (resembling a philosophy professor) arrives in Hell, where the Devil greets him: "Oh! Another professor of philosophy. Here is your copy of Atlas Shrugged Part 2. It is great! Every time you read a page, it gets two pages longer!"
The Humor
The joke operates on several levels. First, there is the implication that philosophy professors end up in Hell, which is a playful jab at the profession (perhaps because many philosophers are atheists or challenge conventional morality). Second, the specific punishment -- being forced to read "Atlas Shrugged Part 2" that grows longer the more you read -- is a tailored torment for an academic. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand is already notoriously long (over 1,100 pages) and is often criticized by philosophy professors for its heavy-handed prose and simplistic philosophical arguments. A sequel that literally never ends is the perfect Hell for someone who finds Rand's work intellectually painful. The Sisyphean nature of the punishment -- a book that can never be finished because reading it makes it longer -- adds a classic mythological quality appropriate for an afterlife torture.
References
Atlas Shrugged is a 1957 novel by Ayn Rand that presents her philosophy of Objectivism. It is frequently assigned in political philosophy courses and widely criticized in academic philosophy circles for its literary and philosophical quality. The concept of a personalized punishment in Hell echoes Dante's "contrapasso" from the Inferno, where sinners receive punishments fitting their sins.