2015-02-02
Explanation
The Joke
A statistics professor begins a class on the interpretation of averages. A student offers the classic example: "The average person has one testicle and one ovary." The professor then takes this further with an updated observation: "The average statistician right now has 1.2 testicles and 0.3 ovaries," highlighting the male skew in the field. She adds that "that little bit of a testicle has been slowly shrinking for decades now" as more women enter the profession. She then paints an absurd long-term picture: "Meanwhile, the ovary grows ever fuller, ever more whole, until one day the testicle will finally shrink down to a speck of dust and disappear." A male student objects: "This is about how you want more women studying stats, right?" She denies it: "No, I'''m just making the TA uncomfortable." The TA asks to be excused.
The Humor
The comic uses the well-known statistical joke about averages (the average human having one testicle and one ovary) as a launching point for increasingly uncomfortable territory. The professor weaponizes statistical language to create a vivid, almost body-horror narrative about testicles shrinking to dust and ovaries swelling, all while technically just talking about demographic trends in the field of statistics. The punchline reveals she is not making a political point about gender diversity but is simply enjoying making her teaching assistant squirm with the graphic anatomical imagery. The humor lies in the gap between the dry statistical framing and the viscerally uncomfortable imagery it produces.