2015-01-03
Explanation
The Joke
A female professor presents a paper that claims to disprove the "Boobs Conjecture," which states that for any group of numbers larger than 9, excluding multiples of 3, that is funnier than 9. She defines the set of "boobs numbers" B as numbers of the form 8x(3-B)(10^n)+1, where x is a counting number (examples include 80085 and 8000000008). She shows via a graph that the boobs numbers get monotonically funnier with larger values of x, though the rate of increase declines rapidly, starting around 6.
The punchline reveals that all of this pseudo-rigorous mathematics is published in the "Journal of Puerile Mathematics," with feature articles including "Lowercase Delta: Kind of Looks Like a Wiener" and a bonus special section on "The Imaginary Unit" (the number i).
The Humor
The comedy operates on multiple levels. First, it takes the juvenile calculator trick of typing 80085 (which upside down spells "BOOBS") and elevates it to the language of formal academic mathematics, complete with conjectures, proofs, plots, and peer-reviewed journals. The joke is the absurd contrast between the highbrow presentation style and the utterly lowbrow subject matter. The "Journal of Puerile Mathematics" drives the punchline home -- it is an academic journal entirely devoted to immature mathematical observations. The secondary jokes on the journal cover (lowercase delta looking like a body part, the imaginary unit) continue the theme of finding juvenile humor hidden in mathematical notation.
References
The comic references the well-known calculator trick where entering 58008 and flipping the calculator upside down displays "BOOBS." The Boobs Conjecture is a parody of famous mathematical conjectures like the Goldbach Conjecture. The Journal of Puerile Mathematics parodies real academic math journals. Lowercase delta (the Greek letter) and the imaginary unit i are real mathematical symbols.