2014-05-17
Explanation
The Joke
A man plays the classic children"s game "got your nose" with a child, pretending to steal the child"s nose. However, he then explains that the nose is now "contained within an infinitely compactified spacetime manifold." A physicist then says it still technically exists but recovering it would require more energy than the sun has generated in the last century, plus a linear collider running from here to Pluto. In the final panel, the child says "I claim academic priority in this discovery!"
The Humor
The comedy comes from taking the silly children"s game of "got your nose" and treating it with deadly seriousness as a physics problem. The joke escalates absurdly: the nose hasn"t simply been taken -- it"s been trapped in a compactified spacetime manifold (a concept from string theory and higher-dimensional physics). The punchline adds another layer, as the child, rather than crying about their missing nose, immediately pivots to claiming academic credit for the discovery, satirizing the competitive nature of academic priority disputes in science.
References
- Compactified spacetime manifold: In theoretical physics, particularly string theory, extra dimensions of spacetime are often described as "compactified" -- curled up so small they are undetectable. The joke treats the child"s nose as being trapped in such a structure.
- Linear collider: A reference to particle accelerators like the proposed International Linear Collider (ILC), which physicists have argued for as a successor to the Large Hadron Collider.
- Academic priority: The practice in science where being the first to make a discovery is critically important for career advancement and recognition.